Day 208 — July 27th 2021
Pyramids of Mars Parts One and Two
Pyramids of Mars — Part One
I spent so long being sad that Harry was leaving that I failed to appreciate just how brilliant Doctor Who and Sarah would be when on their own. All my moaning about the pair not being given any time together throughout Season Twelve has been paid back here massively, because the real joy of this episode is watching Tom Baker and Lis Sladen having a laugh together. It’s the perfect depiction of two best friends larking around in time and space together, and I genuinely love it.
The beauty of their friendship is there right from the beginning. Baker is praised relatively often for his performance in this one, but I think the whole scene is made by Sladen’s interjections — taking the mick out of Doctor Who and puncturing his pomposity with ease;
Sarah: ‘What’s the matter? You should be glad to be going home.’
Doctor Who: ‘The Earth isn’t my home, Sarah. I’m a Time Lord.’
Sarah: ‘Oh, I know you’re a Time Lord.’
Doctor Who: ‘You don’t understand the implications. I’m not a human being.
I walk in eternity.’
Sarah: ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
I think this might be the most genuine friendship we’ve ever seen between Time Lord and companion — certainly it’s the most natural since Troughton and Hines were on screen together. I could watch them hanging out together forever.
Everyone talks about the moment later in the story where the pair of them walk into a room, see a monster, and double back on themselves. But I think there’s an even better moment in this opening episode, when Doctor Who ducks down to creep below a window, and Sarah notices just a second too late and had to throw herself to the ground. The timing is so perfect, and it got a genuine laugh out of me. The last few stories have had some humour in them, but they’ve felt perhaps more serious than usual, so it’s lovely to have some moments like this of pure comedy.
Although credited to Stephen Harris, this story was written almost entirely by Robert Holmes, and I think you can tell. My notes for the episode are basically a string of dialogue, and it’s all sparkling. It seems so strange to me now that I used to complain at length about Robert Holmes’ work on the series for being full of great ideas but not being quite crafted enough, because since he took over as Script Editor, his work has been fantastic. I’m especially keen on Doctor Who’s discussion of time travel;
Laurence: ‘How could you possibly know that?’
Doctor Who: ‘Well, you see, Mister Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.’
Laurence: ‘I see.’
Doctor Who: ‘I’m sure you don’t, but it’s very nice of you to try.’
Of course, though, the same scene is also the cause of one of the biggest issues in the UNIT Dating Controversy;
Sarah: ‘We travel in time, Mister Scarman. I’m really from 1980.’
Laurence: ‘That is utterly preposterous, Miss Smith.’
I think I’ve established pretty well that I think the UNIT stories are set broadly at the time of broadcast, and I think there’s far more evidence to support that theory than to disprove it. So although it’s a bit of a thorny issue to make Sarah Jane’s comment here fit in, I’m perfectly happy to simply ignore it. I don’t need to twist myself in knots saying that she’s rounding up, or that she’s been travelling with Doctor Who for six years, I just pretend she never said it. Tell you what, though, they missed a trick on the DVD release by not having Lis Sladen re-record the line as ‘I’m from 1975'…!
Of course it’s not just down to our regulars that this one is so effective — as has been the case with all the stories this season so far there’s loads of atmosphere, and it feels like they’re trying to do something genuinely different with the series again. We open with lots of stock footage of Egypt, and it feels both out of place for the series (we’ve not been anywhere so exotic since the Hartnell years) and also so right for this phase in the programme’s history. It integrates far more than you’d expect it to, and when we cut to studio and the inside of a forgotten tomb the atmosphere really takes off.
I worry a little about how the rest of the story will hold up, because I thought Namin was a key part of my enjoyment in this episode. He’s one of those genuinely nasty Doctor Who villains; he’s not knowingly in league with aliens, and he’s not afraid to carry through his threats. There’s none of the ‘I shall kill you all now, but first I have more important tasks to perform…’ business with Namin, he’ll quite happily whip out a gun and start firing. His death in the cliff hanger is incredibly effective (and genuinely nasty) but it makes me sad to think that he’s not going to be around for the next three quarters of the tale.
It’s an 8/10 for this one, continuing Season Thirteen’s incredibly strong run so far. Nine episodes in and the lowest score any episode has achieved is an eight. I’ve never understood all the fuss about Pyramids of Mars, so it makes me happy to see that I’m enjoying it so far this time around.
Pyramids of Mars — Part Two
I never used to be a fan of the design of the mummies in this story. When the action figures came out about 15 years ago I bought one to complete the set, but I used to look at it on the shelf and think it looked a bit rubbish. I think it was just that they didn’t look like the kind of mummy designs you’d get in the old Universal Horror Films — which I was once obsessed with — or like the ones you’d get in Hammer Horrors, or even in history textbooks. They’re very much their own unique thing, and I wasn’t ever keen.
Watching this story now, though, I’m realising that they look brilliant because they’re such a unique design, and I can only conclude that younger me was a bit of an idiot because I think they look fantastic here. The unusual shape to them, with the big angular chests, makes they suitably iconic and striking, and they actually look far more like a real mummy than I ever gave them credit for.
I’m fairly sure that I also used to complain about them being seen in this setting — stomping around country houses and woodland instead of an Egyptian desert. But actually, I think they look great in the woods here while stalking around after the poacher, and it’s no wonder that they became such a well-loved image for fans who saw this story at the time. There’s a couple of photographs taken during production where they’re absolutely dwarfed by the woodland, and that makes them look even better. It’s that age-old Doctor Who technique of transposing two things which shouldn’t go together, but it working as a result of the clash.
And it has to be said that when they do catch up with the poacher and crush him to death between their chests, it might be one of the nastiest deaths the programme has ever given us. There’s just something so horrible about it. I’m not usually one for too much blood and gore, but I think it’s a shame you don’t get a bit more blood in the aftermath of that sequence. When the nurse has a bloodied arm in Terror of the Zygons it really helps to sell the horror, and I can’t help thinking that they’ve missed a trick here.
There’s plenty of other violence in this one and I think it’s all quite effective. When Scarman is shot in the back and we watch the smoke being sucked back into the wound it’s such an unusual sight that it’s incredibly effective. Again, it’s no wonder that it’s become such a well-remembered image from this story.
This episode is filled with iconic imagery, actually, because it also includes the trip to 1980 to see the havoc Sutekh would wreak on the Earth if Doctor Who is unable to stop him. It’s surprising it’s taken the programme until 1975 to do a scene like this, although I suppose it’s taken this long for the TARDIS to be reliable enough to do it. It’s surprising to me that Sarah Jane is suddenly so willing to abandon people to their fate, though. She suggested buggering off and leaving them in the last story, too. Where’s your desire to help people gone?!
The fact that Doctor Who actively takes her to 1980 makes it a little trickier to ignore her comment on the dating from Part One, but I’ve decided that she said the wrong year by mistake and that Doctor Who is deliberately taking the piss out of her for it here. After all, their friendship and banter in the last episode would fit with this explanation perfectly.
Overall… Oh, I’m sorry. I think I may have jinxed myself by saying how strong Season Thirteen has been, because in spite of some great atmosphere and ideas, this one just isn’t grabbing me. I’ve never been a massive fan of Pyramids of Mars — I’ve always found the amount of love it gets surprising — but having enjoyed Part One so much I was hoping that I’d found an appreciation for the tale. This one has left me a bit cold, though, and it’s down to our first 6/10 of the season.
