Pyramids of Mars

Dear Gary—

It was with some trepidation that I put Pyramids of Mars into the VCR. This and The Brain of Morbius were the very first and for the longest time only Doctor Who serials in my collection. As such, it is one of the stories I have seen the most, and I worried that familiarity would breed contempt. Not to worry. If anything, I appreciate this story so much more than the first twenty or so times I viewed it.

The Pyramids of Mars is jam packed with nothing but good; I’ll start at the beginning with another delightful TARDIS scene.

“Hello Vicki,” a preoccupied Doctor greets Sarah as she emerges in a flowing gown she found in the wardrobe.  “Victoria wore it,” he explains, “she traveled with me for a time.” What a wonderful tiny little tribute to companions past.

Next we have this telling dialogue from the Doctor: “The Earth isn’t my home Sarah. I’m a Time Lord.” And then, “You don’t understand the implications; I’m not a human being; I walk in eternity.” Of all of the Doctors, Tom Baker’s Doctor is the most alien. Time and again since the fourth Doctor began he has reiterated the point, “I’m not a human being.” And if he isn’t stating it, his companions are.  The Doctor is not from Earth; he is not human; he is a Time Lord. He can rhapsodize about the human race, as he does so eloquently in The Ark in Space, but he is not one of them. He can appreciate from a distance, from the perspective of a Time Lord, through the eyes of eternity. Some generations try to humanize the Doctor, but the Tom Baker years embrace his alien being, and no story illustrates this more than Pyramids of Mars.

“It means I’ve lived for something like 750 years,” the Doctor goes on (middle aged for a Time Lord as Sarah points out). “About time I found something better to do than run around after the Brigadier,” he adds.

Something better to do quickly finds him. Sarah sees the apparition of a jackal like face, despite the Doctor’s “Nothing can enter the TARDIS.” This raises the Doctor’s ‘galactic ticket inspector’ Time Lord senses: “Something’s going on contrary to the laws of the universe; I must find out what.”

The TARDIS lands in the 1911 English family home of the Scarman family, a priory built on the site of future UNIT HQ (so the Doctor is not running around after the Brigadier, he is running around before him). A mysterious Egyptian has taken possession of the priory, keeping the owner’s brother, Laurence Scarman out, and shooting at Scarman’s friend Dr Warlock.

Laurence Scarman decides to involve the police but the Doctor contradicts him, “This is much too grave a matter for the police, Mr. Scarman.” This is not an ordinary, human concern. “They’d only hamper my investigation,” the Doctor says, taking charge of the situation. And to drive home the point: “Why do you think I’m here? Something’s interfering with time, Mr. Scarman, and time is my business.”

I find it interesting that the Doctor and Sarah make no pretence with Laurence Scarman. The Doctor is not an undercover alien.

Doctor: “You see, Mr. Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.”

Laurence Scarman: “I see.”

Doctor: “I’m sure you don’t, but it’s very nice of you to try.”

It is very nice of Laurence Scarman to try. He does try. The Doctor and Sarah do not patronize him, they speak plainly and directly. An ancient alien being, a megalomaniac  Osirian named Sutekh who was defeated and trapped by his brother Horus and 740 fellow Osirians, has taken over the 1911 priory with the aid of the mentally controlled Egyptian, some mummy-like service robots, and Laurence’s brother Professor Marcus Scarman. An Egyptian sarcophagus housed at the priory serves as the portal of a space-time tunnel. Sutekh has taken control of Professor Scarman and is building a rocket aimed at Mars to destroy the Eye of Horus which is holding Sutekh entombed. All rather far-fetched for a 1911 English gentleman, but he takes it all in and accepts it, even if he doesn’t quite understand.

“I often think dimensional transcendentalism is preposterous, but it works,” the Doctor tells an awed and somewhat befuddled Laurence Scarman as he enters the TARDIS.

The Doctor is a Time Lord. He is an alien. But to the Doctor, humans are alien. He never talks down to them, though. He deals with them as he has dealt with Laurence Scarman, directly. In the same way he answers Sarah’s plea to simply leave, to run from danger.

“Because if Sutekh isn’t stopped he’ll destroy the world,” the Doctor explains to her.  But Sarah is from 1980, she reasons, and she knows that the world was not destroyed in 1911. So to illustrate, he does leave just as she asks. He takes her to 1980, to her time, but this is a 1980 that has seen Sutekh released, this is a 1980 of desolation.

“Every point in time has its alternative, Sarah,” he tells her. The future is not chosen, he explains to her, but shaped by the actions of the present. After looking into alternative 1980, Sarah agrees, they must go back, they must stop Sutekh.

To the Doctor, the stopping of Sutekh is paramount. “If Sutekh succeeds in freeing himself the consequences will be incalculable,” he states. He sees through the eyes of eternity. All Laurence Scarman sees, however, is his beloved brother Marcus.

“What’s walking about out there is no longer your brother,” the Doctor tells him. “It is simply an animated human cadaver.” There is no time for sentiment. There is no time for grieving. There is no time for condolences. There is no time. A Time Lord can see this; a Time Lord looking through the eyes of eternity. Laurence Scarman cannot. Laurence Scarman, trying to reason with this walking cadaver, trying to reach the brother he once knew, is killed by the animated corpse.

Doctor, upon finding Laurence’s dead body: “His late brother must have called.”

Sarah: “That’s horrible. He was so concerned about his bother.”

Doctor: ‘Well, I told him not to be. I told him it was too late.”

Sarah: “Oh, sometimes you don’t seem . . .”

Doctor: “Human?”

Doctor to himself as he examines a dismantled service robot: “Typical Osirian simplicity . . .”

Sarah: “A man has just been murdered.”

Doctor: “Four men, Sarah. Five if you include Professor Scarman himself, and they may be the first of millions unless Sutekh is stopped. Know thine enemy—admirable advice.”

This one powerful scene sets the Doctor, Tom Baker’s Doctor, apart as an alien. The most alien of the Doctors. I love it.

Sarah, too, realizes the glaring truth; “Oh, sometimes you don’t seem . . . .” But she sees other sides to him as well. She sees the playful, the witty, the intelligent. She sees the childish and the scientific. They have a very easy, relaxed relationship, a bantering, teasing but respectful relationship. She can call him out, as in the scene above, or exchange the following comfortable, companionable dialogue as the Doctor tries deactivating a barrier that has been placed about the wood:

Doctor: “No obvious booby traps. Are you going to help or are you just going to stand there and admire the scenery?”

Sarah: “Your shoes need repairing. And I actually wasn’t admiring the scenery; I was waiting for you to tell me what to do.”

Doctor: “Just hold the base; I don’t want it to fall.”

Sarah: “Dangerous?”

Doctor: “Very dangerous. Deactivating a generator loop without the correct key is like repairing a watch with a hammer and chisel. One false move and you’ll never know the time again.”

Sarah:  “Any more comforting thoughts?”

Doctor: Yes. Just let me know if it starts to get warm.”

Sarah: “Don’t worry; you’ll hear me breaking the sound barrier.”

Pyramids of Mars is chock full of dialogue triumphs such as this. I could almost just set out the entire transcript, or better yet, just watch it; I could just post the video. No wonder I have been able to view this one story for twenty or more times and still not be sick of it.

And I haven’t even started on Sutekh yet. Sutekh is one of those effectively sinister Doctro Who villains, right up there with Davros and Omega. Sitting immobile, trapped by the Eye of Horus, his voice alone can send chills down my spine. Add to this: “I bring Sutekh’s gift of death to all humans.” And: “All life is my enemy; all life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh the Destroyer.” And: “Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the Destroyer, where I tread I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good.”

No wonder the Doctor declares: “I curse you, Sutekh, in the name of all nature. You are a twisted abhorrence.” No wonder it took no less than 740 Osirians plus Horus to entrap him.

Even the Doctor cannot withstand the power of Sutekh’s mind. “In my presence you are an ant, a termite,” Sutekh tells him, “abase yourself you groveling insect.” With the mind controlled Doctor, the TARDIS key, and Sarah along as insurance (the Doctor might be a Time Lord, he might see through the eyes of eternity, but he does have his weak spot and Sutekh has discovered it), Professor Scarman travels to Mars to break the Eye of Horus under the direction of the still entombed Sutekh.

Once on Mars Sutekh’s hold on the Doctor is relaxed and the Doctor and Sarah race after Scarman, first having to navigate a series of puzzles and traps, reminiscent of the Exxilon City in Death to the Daleks (which Sarah comments on even though she never entered that city, although she had studied the strange markings on the outside of the city walls that may account for her comment). However they are too late. Scarman has already destroyed the Eye. Sutekh is free.

But no, the Doctor grabs Sarah and races for the TARDIS. The Doctor has not forgotten the time factor. The Doctor can reach the sarcophagus space-time tunnel in the 1911 English priory before Sutekh reaches the end and can emerge. The Doctor hooks up the TARDIS time control to the tunnel and moves the threshold into the far future. Sutekh never survives the trip. “He lived about seven thousand years,” the Doctor proclaims. And now, as Sarah says, “Sutekh is dead.”

There is so much more I could say about Pyramids of Mars, Gary. I haven’t even mentioned the poacher who has barely a line and yet is so brilliantly acted. Or Sarah blithely tossing a box of gelignite down to the Doctor (“One good sneeze could set it off.” “Sorry.” “No sign of any detonators or fuses?” “No, no, nothing else. Perhaps he sneezed?”).  Or the Doctor having to answer a sort of Knights and Knaves logic puzzle to save Sarah while on Mars. Or the Doctor dressed as a mummy service robot and Sarah having to shoot the gelignite due to a lack of detonators or fuses (“Perhaps he sneezed?”).  Or the Doctor’s off-hand mention of Marie Antoinette. Or the Doctor’s noting of the anachronistic priest hole in a “Victorian gothic folly” (“You’re so pedantic at a time like this.”). Or the Doctor’s claim that the TARDIS controls are isomorphic. Or the Doctor’s respiratory bypass system (“useful in a tight squeeze”). Or the Doctor burning down the priory and running off not wanting the blame (“I had enough of that in 1666.”). Or . . . .

So much, and so much more I could say, Gary. But maybe I’ll just pop it in the VCR and watch it again instead. Pyramids of Mars is worth a second, third, twentieth viewing and more. I would say that Pyramid of Mars is probably one of the best stories of Doctor Who, both Classic and Modern eras. It is easily in the top 10.

I hope, Gary, that you enjoyed Pyramids of Mars as much as I, and are still enjoying it somewhere out there . . .