Pyramdis of Mars - Episode 4

The final shot of the previous episode wasn’t mentioned in my review and it’s a good shot of Sutekh with his flashing green eyes. It was a good cliffhanger and it’s a good start to the episode. The first scene between the Doctor and Sutekh is a great scene and its been worth waiting until this moment to see him. It’s not a short scene and instead sometime has been given to set Sutekh up as the villain that he was made out to be in the previous episodes. I was surprised that this scene was so long because I would have expected them to just get on with the action in the final episode. There is one shot of Sutekh which saw him stand up and a hand can be seen sliding out and going behind the chair. This is perhaps one of the most famous scenes in the story and even the show. I can only imagine that it was to prompt Gabriel Woolf to stand up. It’s a funny obvious goof and does slightly undermine the good work that was being done on screen.

What happens in the middle of this episode is that the story moves to Mars and there comes a sequence which seems to be borrowed from ‘Death to the Daleks’ where the scenes move through a series of puzzles and tests. This even gets acknowledged by Sarah at one point. There is a nice logic puzzle that the Doctor has to figure out when he has to try and figure which mummy is telling the truth and decide which button will free Sarah and which would kill her.

There is a fair amount of CSO that is used in this episode and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. One moment where it didn’t work was when Scarman was in the final room and the moving background seemed to blend in with his shirt. It’s been a while since I commented on CSO and so its nice to get back to familiar territory in this review and I think that it worked well on the whole.

I quite liked the idea that there is a time delay which allows the Doctor and Sarah to get back to earth before Sutekh gets there. It means we get one final scene between the Doctor and Sutekh which was just as good as the first. This episode didn’t disappoint and it ended with the house going up in flames which is what was mentioned at the beginning of the story. This is the best story of the season so far and everything about it was great to watch and its not hard to see why this is one of the most popular stories in the classic era of Doctor Who. At this moment this story is the second best story that I have rated on with ‘The Ark in Space’ being in the number one spot.

Pyramids of Mars - Episode 3

As I start the second half of the story I am reminded of the stories that Michael Sheard has been in during Doctor Who. His first appearance came during ‘The Ark’ back in 1966 and then in ‘The Mind of Evil’. Whilst the characters were different the performances seemed the same as he spoke in that rather soft style and never seemed to get cross and he gives the best performance in this episode. It seems bad that the Doctor shouts at Laurence Scarman and I think that it seems bad because Laurence seems so nice and was doing what he did for the right reason. It almost seems wrong to be anything other than nice to Michael Sheard.

Sarah asks a question about whether Sutekh is powerful. Did she forget that little journey that the Doctor took her on in the previous episode? The scene where the Doctor and Sarah are searching for the gelignite and it’s a great scene which shows why Baker and Sladen are so good together.  

There is a lovely scene between Marcus and Laurence. It’s a well-acted scene between Bernard Achard and Michael Sheard. Laurence’s death happens off screen and I think that it’s a shame that they have killed off another likeable character. Oh well, at least it wont be too long before we see Sheard back in Doctor Who. I think that at least we still have Bernard Achard who gives a great performance as a possessed Marcus. We don’t see Sutekh until the very end so it remains for Marcus to be the villain of the peace during the episode.

The story moves towards meeting Sutekh and I thought that the stuff that happened in the final episode happens in this episode but obviously not so its going to be great to see how the action works in 25 minutes but it’s a shame that we will only have one episode with Sutekh properly in the story.

The Doctor does his first bit of dressing up since the Pertwee era when he dresses up as a mummy. Sadly the problem with this is that it means that we don’t get to see Tom Baker as it could easily have been someone else in the costume. That minor quibble aside, the one thing that stand out is just how good this episode is. There are some great performances and at no stage during the episode did I find myself bored by things which considering that not a great deal happens it shows how good the writing and directing is that good and I look forward to the final episode.

Pyramids of Mars - Episode 2

Marcus appears for the first time since his brief appearance in the first episode and he’s very different from that first scene. It looks like he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep for quite a while. I think that Marcus is quite an effective interim villain. There’s an interesting effect done when the gamekeeper is running through the woods and its suppose to look like he has bounced off it but it’s due to editing and it looks rather odd because it’s clear that it’s been cut which is a shame. What does work is the effect of Marcus being shot at and the smoke coming from him reverses back into him and he walks towards the window. This is simply done in reverse but it’s still a great effect.

I think that there is an issue with the mummies being used to chase people. The gamekeeper is running away and the mummies are walking at the slowest possible pace to catch up with him. I can’t quite believe that they would really be able to catch him. They try and make this believable by cutting back to the chase several minutes after it started and how the mummies didn’t trip over themselves is a mystery. He doesn’t get killed until the very end when he is squashed by two of them. I couldn’t quite make up my mind about Warlock’s death. Part of me thinks it was quite grim and the other part of me thinks that it was a bit silly and I think that Peter Copley over does it. I think that Michael Sheard gives a nice performance as Marcus’ brother though his best DW performance is yet to come.

The highlight of the episode comes when the Doctor takes the TARDIS back to 1980 (where Sarah is from) and shows her what it would look like if they left Sutekh to his plan. It’s a solemn moment and one of my favourite scenes in the entire story. It’s good that they explain why Sutekh is doing what he’s doing and its explained quickly which is the right thing at this stage of the story. The idea that Sutekh is trying to set up rockets to destroy a beacon on Mars that will free him might seem like it’s a bit convoluted but I think that on this occasion it is what makes the story feel that much more better.

The cliffhanger is quite good but I think that the final shot could have been a bit better. The camera hung onto Sarah’s shocked/scared face a bit too long. Apart from that the episode was a nice solid one. The story is still very strong and the more I watch it the more I am grateful that I have got past ‘Planet of Evil’.

Pyramids of Mars - Episode 1

After the previous story didn’t set the world alight in my opinion so I was reliefed to know that this story was coming up. It’s one of the classics of Doctor Who’s classic era and one of Tom Baker’s fines stories. The story is credited to Stephen Harris but actually it was written by Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer and it seems like another story where Holmes has had to re-write a large part of the story which perhaps shows why the story is as strong as it was. The story sees the Doctor and Sarah still trying to get back to London to meet the Brigadier. It feels like a story arc like what was used in the previous season and its mentioned in this episode just to remind the viewer. The first thing that struck me about this episode is the impressive opening scene. The footage shots of Egypt help create the impression that the first time that we meet Marcus Scarman is in Egypt and not in a studio in London.

The opening scene with the Doctor and Sarah is quite a strange one because it reminds us of Victoria who travelled with the Doctor during the 1967/68 season. It’s a nice if somewhat unexpected reference and I wonder why they chose Victoria of all the companions that the Doctor has travelled with. It’s strange seeing the Doctor as sombre as he was in that scene because he has always been like a six year old after they have had too much sugar. To see him gloomy isn’t a good one but thankfully that doesn’t last too long.

Namin is the first ‘baddie’ that we are introduced to and its fair to say that he has a temper on him. His argument with Doctor Warlock is quite heated and fun to watch. Warlock represents a time of history when he jolly well thinks that he’s in the right because he’s British and that’s just the way it is. Warlock doesn’t last 10 minutes before he is shot by Namin. That shot comes a few minutes after Collins the butler/housekeeper is killed by an unseen force. I quite like Collins (played by Bilton) because he was a genuinely nice character and played well.

The short period where Namin is chasing the Doctor, Sarah and Warlock is quite a great scene largely because it was filmed on location and directed in a certain way but also because of the music. It was very atmospheric and that’s why it’s one of the best scenes in the episode.

I think that the mummies in this episode are very impressive. Ok so they less manoeuvrability that the Daleks but they are visually impressive and the fact they don’t have a face is something that has always made more sinister than perhaps some people would think but I think that they are one of the big selling points of this story.

The build up to the cliffhanger was superb and it was all down to the organ music. It peaks just as the black figure comes out of the time vortex. The effect of him walking on the carpet and smoke coming from under his feet is very good and its equalled by when the figure puts its hand on Namin and smoke comes from under his hands. After being somewhat underwhelmed by the cliffhangers and episodes from the previous story, its good that it feels like the show is getting back to what it does best and that’s action drama. I thought that the action was really strong in this episode with the performances at their best and I am looking forward to the rest of this story.