Pyramids of Mars
082 – Pyramids of Mars | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Season 13 | ||
Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 25 October 1975 | ||
Last broadcast | 15 November 1975 | ||
Chronology | |||
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Pyramids of Mars is the third serial of the
The serial is set in England and Egypt and on Mars in 1911. In the serial, the burial chamber of the alien Osiran Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), inspired by the Egyptian god Set, is unearthed by the archaeology professor Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard). Alive but immobilised, Sutekh seeks his freedom by using Professor Scarman as his servant to destroy the jewel in a pyramid on Mars which is keeping him prisoner. Influenced by the gothic horror genre and films such as The Mummy, the serial was met with widespread critical acclaim, being praised for its atmosphere and production.
Plot
In 1911 Egypt, archaeology professor Marcus Scarman excavates a
Namin and the mummies greet the arrival, via a spacetime tunnel portal disguised as a sarcophagus, of Sutekh's servant, who kills Namin, now superfluous. The servant is revealed to be Marcus Scarman, now a corpse animated by Sutekh's will. Scarman and the servicer robots secure the estate's perimeter with a forcefield, and begin to hunt down the humans still inside the barrier. Scarman finds and kills Warlock, but is then ordered by Sutekh to prioritize the construction of an Osirian war missile aimed at Mars. Meanwhile, the Doctor disrupts the tunnel using the TARDIS key before retrieving Namin's ring from his corpse. After Sarah suggests they should just leave in the TARDIS, the Doctor takes her and Laurence to 1980 and the devastated Earth Sutekh will leave behind if allowed to escape. There is no choice—they must return to 1911 and stop Sutekh.
Once back in 1911, the Doctor makes a jamming unit with Namin's ring to break Sutekh's hold over Scarman and the servicer robots. Laurence, believing this will kill his brother, attempts to stop the Doctor from activating the device, but Sarah Jane stops him. A pair of robots kill a local poacher outside before attacking the hunting lodge. The marconiscope is destroyed in the struggle, the feedback disabling one of the robots. Sarah Jane uses Namin's ring to send the other back to Scarman. The Doctor decides to blow up the partially assembled rocket, and Laurence suggests using the blasting
Upon arrival on Mars, Scarman has the Doctor strangled, and proceeds with the servicer robot into the pyramid. However, the Doctor's respiratory bypass system allows him to quickly recover, and, now free of Sutekh's control, he and Sarah Jane follow Scarman through a series of chambers requiring solving logic puzzles to pass. They are unable, however, to stop Scarman from destroying the Eye, and Scarman, having served his purpose, disintegrates. The Doctor then realises that Sutekh will not be released for two minutes due to the time required for the Eye's radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth. The Doctor and Sarah return to the Priory and use a module from the TARDIS to extend the terminus of the time tunnel into the far future, resulting in Sutekh dying of old age before reaching the end. However, the portal then overloads, and he and Sarah Jane flee into the TARDIS as the priory is consumed in flames.
Continuity
Sarah Jane wears a dress which the Doctor says belonged to Victoria Waterfield.[1] She remarks that the puzzles are similar to those in the Exxilon City in Death to the Daleks (1974), although she personally never entered the City.[1]
Production
The Universal Pictures film The Mummy (1932) and especially the Hammer horror films The Mummy (1959) and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) influenced the story.[2] As originally written by Lewis Greifer it was considered unworkable. Greifer was unavailable to perform rewrites, so the scripts were completely rewritten by script editor Robert Holmes. The pseudonym used on transmission was Stephen Harris.[3] Pyramids of Mars contributes to the UNIT dating controversy, one of the contradictions in the Doctor Who universe.
The exterior scenes were shot on the
Several scenes were deleted from the final broadcast. A model shot of the TARDIS landing in the landscape of a barren, alternative 1980 Earth was to be used in Part Two, but director Paddy Russell decided viewers would feel more impact if the first scene of the new Earth was Sarah's reaction as the TARDIS doors opened. Three scenes of effects such as doors opening and the Doctor materializing from the sarcophagus were removed from the final edit of Part Four because Russell felt the mixes were not good enough. These scenes were included on the DVD, along with an alternate version of the poacher being hunted down in Part Two, and a full version of the Osiran rocket explosion.
Although the name of Sutekh's race is pronounced "Osiran" throughout the serial, the scripts and publicity material spell it as "Osirian" in some places and as "Osiran" in others.[5]
Cast notes
The story features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard, who was cast by director
Gabriel Woolf reprised his role as Sutekh in the
Broadcast and reception
Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [6] |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Part One" | 25:22 | 25 October 1975 | 10.5 |
2 | "Part Two" | 23:53 | 1 November 1975 | 11.3 |
3 | "Part Three" | 24:32 | 8 November 1975 | 9.4 |
4 | "Part Four" | 24:52 | 15 November 1975 | 11.7 |
The story was edited and condensed into a single, one-hour omnibus episode, broadcast on BBC1 at 5:50 pm on 27 November 1976,[7] reaching 13.7 million viewers,[8] the highest audience achieved by Doctor Who in its entire history at that time. The figure was not bettered until the broadcast of City of Death in 1979. BBC2 broadcast the four episodes on consecutive Sundays from 6–27 March 1994 at noon, reaching 1.1, 1.1, 0.9 & 1.0 million viewers respectively.[9]
In 1985,
In A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television,
John J Johnston, vice-chair of the
Commercial releases
In print
ISBN 0-426-11666-6 | |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1976. The novelisation contains a substantial prologue giving the history of Sutekh and the Osirans and features an epilogue in which a future Sarah researches the destruction of the Priory and how it was explained. An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actor Tom Baker was released on CD in August 2008 by BBC Audiobooks. Pyramids of Mars was reprinted in the second volume of The Essential Terrance Dicks, published on 26 August 2021 by BBC books.
Home media
The story first came out on VHS and Betamax in an omnibus format in February 1985. It was subsequently released in episodic format in April 1994. It was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2004. It was also released on 31 October 2011 as an extra on The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 DVD and Blu-ray boxset as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen, who had died earlier in the year.[18]
In 2013 it was released on DVD again as part of the "Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 1–4" box set, alongside The Aztecs, The Tomb of the Cybermen and Spearhead from Space. Alongside a documentary on the Fourth Doctor, the disc features the serial put together as a single feature in widescreen format with an introduction from show runner at the time Steven Moffat, as well as its original version.
References
- ^ ISBN 0-426-20442-5.
- ^ "Pyramids of Mars". BBC. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
- ^ "Pyramids of Mars ★★★★★".
- ^ Historic England. "Stargrove (1339802)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
- ^ ISBN 1-903889-51-0.
- ^ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ "Dr Who: Pyramids of Mars". The Radio Times (2768): 19. 25 November 1976 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for Pyramids of Mars".
- ^ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for Pyramids of Mars".
- Imagine(review) (25). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd.: 47.
- ^ Mulkern, Patrick (14 July 2010). "Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars". Radio Times. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (30 August 2012). "Old-School Doctor Who Episodes That Everyone Should Watch". io9. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (31 August 2010). "Greatest Doctor Who Cliffhangers Of All Time!". io9. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ^ "The Top 10 Doctor Who stories of all time". Doctor Who Magazine. 21 June 2014. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ "Doctor Who: the 56 greatest stories and episodes, ranked". The Daily Telegraph. 3 June 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ISBN 9781476604541.
- ISBN 9781610694209. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
- ^ Martin, Will (20 September 2011). "The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 4 DVD artwork revealed". Cult Box. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
External links
Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database