Pyramids of Mars Part Four

The one where Sutekh places his mind inside the Doctor's...

Sutekh's emerald eye rays seem extremely powerful and painful, judging by the way the Doctor writhes in abject agony. Tom Baker was always very good at playing pain and agony, he always seemed so convincing. Sutekh's powers genuinely appear to be absolute, and some of the things he says are, as Melanie Bush might say, utterly evil. He says that, if he wishes, he can keep the Doctor alive for centuries, racked by the most excruciating pain, or he may choose to shred his nervous system into a million fibres.

The confrontation between the Doctor and Sutekh is well written and performed, with some juicy dialogue for both by the hands of Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer. Sutekh refers to the Doctor as a "plaything", and justifies his destructive tendencies quite admirably: "Your evil is my good... Where I tread I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good." The subsequent abasement of the Doctor before him is quite upsetting for younger viewers. It must be one of the very few times we witness the Fourth Doctor in such a pathetic, helpless state before his adversary.

Sutekh places his mind inside the Doctor's so that he can return to England and pilot the TARDIS to Mars so that Scarman can deactivate the Eye of Horus. It's all very round-the-houses, but worth it to see how Tom depicts mind control: waxy-skinned, eyes lifted to the heavens in unblinking subservience to Sutekh. Brrrr...

Sutekh instructs the Doctor to go to the "pyramid of Mars", which suggests there's only one of them, despite the plural in the title. It would have been nice to actually see the pyramid on Mars' surface, as it would look so wonderfully incongruous. A brief model shot would not have been beyond the means of the production crew, who do such sterling work with the model Priory in this story. The Doctor also mentions that the TARDIS has isomorphic controls, meaning they only respond to his touch. Try telling that to the numerous companions (and non-companions!) who have successfully operated the TARDIS before and after this story! Unless the Doctor is lying, in which case Sutekh is very gullible.

As soon as the action transfers to Mars, the story takes a sorry dip in quality. After three episodes of Edwardian gothic and Egyptology, we get a drab runaround in which Scarman and his mummy, and then the Doctor and Sarah, solve a series of successive logic puzzles in order to reach the Eye of Horus. It's exactly the same set-up as part 4 of Death to the Daleks, and it's so similar that it's even commented upon by Sarah ("Reminds me of the city of the Exxilons!"). The successive challenges - or "childish stratagems" as Sutekh calls them - aren't the most taxing, and seem particularly weak when you know they've been set by the Osirians, "with all their guile and ingenuity", and their spiral staircase cerebrums!

Still, it's amusing to see the Doctor solve one challenge using the stitches on his scarf, but equally as puzzling to see him go through the same challenge twice (the one with the hidden bulkhead release button - he goes through that door twice!). It's also a little frustrating not to see Scarman and his mummy friend solve the decadron crucible, rather like we never get to see the Daleks overcome the two mental assaults they face in the Exxilon city. The Perspex crucible looks very flimsy to me anyway, so I doubt it would take a mummy very long to thump his way out of it!

Once all of the tedious games are over, Scarman manages to smash the egg-like Eye of Horus, thus releasing Sutekh from his eternal paralysis. When Sutekh stands from his perpetual throne, we glimpse a hand quickly hide after holding down Sutekh's cushion. The Hand of Sutekh has become quite an in-joke in Doctor Who fandom, as has the Cushion of Sutekh (it's lovely that Horus left his brother with a comfortable cushion to sit on and a telly to watch during his eternal imprisonment!).

Then we see Sutekh's real face, which seems to be slightly different to the one we saw projected into the TARDIS in episode 1. People often presume Sutekh - or the Egyptian deity Set - had the face of a jackal, but in actual fact it was unknown, referred to by Egyptologists as the "Set animal". The beast resembled no known creature, but had aspects of an aardvark, donkey, jackal or sand fox, and in Ancient Egypt's later period, Set was depicted as having the head of a donkey. I'm not sure what Doctor Who's designers were going for with Sutekh, but the mask looks weirdly same-but-different between parts 1 and 4 (maybe it's in the lighting and angle?). It's also a pity Sutekh can't be a bit more animated, as he just looks like a mannequin when he's zipping down the time tunnel.

Once Sutekh is free (or "freeeeeeeeeeeeee!" as he prefers), surely he's immediately all-powerful, so why does he feel he has to travel along the time tunnel to Scarman's house in England as his next move? From his Egyptian tomb, surely he can transport himself to any place in any time? Ultimately, it's this mysterious need to see inside Scarman's house that is his downfall, as the Doctor uses the TARDIS's time control unit to extend the parameters of the time tunnel several thousand years, effectively aging him to death. So after all of the calamitous declarations of Sutekh's invincibility, with the Doctor stating that even the Time Lords couldn't stop him, and that it took 740 Osirian gods to trap him last time, all it really takes is one errant Time Lord and his plucky human assistant. Hmmm, not really the apocalyptic finale I was expecting.

The Doctor's saving grace in all this is his claim that there's a time delay between the moment the Eye of Horus is destroyed on Mars, and the final radio signal reaching Earth. He says it's two minutes, whereas modern science says it can be anything up to 21 minutes, depending on the distance between the two planets at the time. Either way, isn't it a bit weak that the enormously advanced race of Osirians would use silly little radio waves to control the Eye of Horus? Did they not have sufficiently more advanced technology than radio waves to use to entomb Sutekh?

The story ends with the time tunnel exploding, setting fire to the Priory and thus making future history by burning down the building in readiness for the coming of UNIT HQ. The Doctor cursorily refers to having been around for the Great Fire of London in 1666 (but it's implied Sarah wasn't there), which means when the Fifth Doctor sets fire to London in The Visitation, there's another incarnation running around somewhere at the same time!

And so the TARDIS dematerialises, leaving Scarman's Priory to burn, and all of the priceless Egyptian relics from Saccara with it. With the exception of the Doctor, Sarah and Ahmed, every credited character in this story is dead. The Doctor may have saved the cosmos from Sutekh's devastation, but the deaths of Collins, Namin, the Scarmans, Ernie Clements and Dr Warlock still smart for me. The combustion of the beautiful house and the Egyptian relics is an additional loss. Sometimes it's the smaller things that matter most.

Pyramids of Mars is a masterpiece in Doctor Who's canon, with Tom and Lis at the height of their game, some stunning writing from Robert Holmes, wonderfully atmospheric direction from Paddy Russell, and gorgeous music from Dudley Simpson. The entire cast are faultless, and it's only the weakly padded final episode that lets the side down slightly. It's one of my favourite stories ever.

First broadcast: November 15th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Gabriel Woolf's silky-smooth diction makes Sutekh thoroughly evil.
The Bad: The succession of logic puzzles is rather tedious, and so soon (20 months) after the same conceit in Death to the Daleks.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 9.25 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: The Android Invasion...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/pyramids-of-mars.html

Pyramids of Mars is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Pyramids-Mars-DVD/dp/B000198ADY