History Recap / DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars

* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The Osirans.

Written by Lewis Greifer and Creator/RobertHolmes ([[AlanSmithee under the pseudonym Stephen Harris]]). This serial first aired October 25-November 15, 1975.

* AdamWesting: Gabriel Woolf reprises his role as Sutekh in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1xnU2BNryo&feature=kp mockumentary]] on the DVD release titled ''[[{{Pun}} Oh, Mummy]]''. Hordes of well-deserved NightmareRetardant ensues; e.g. Sutekh shows us he's just a nice guy who likes raising rabbits.

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Laurence Scarman tries to do this for Marcus when he shows up at his house. [[AvertedTrope It doesn't work]], and [[TearJerker he ends up paying the ultimate price for it]].

* ShownTheirWork: The story is based around the myth of Set/Sutekh from Myth/EgyptianMythology, but in the broadest possible strokes (for the sake of fitting it into a ''Doctor Who'' plot), incorporating plenty of influence from Christian {{Satan}} mythology and CosmicHorror. However, Creator/RobertHolmes was a keen researcher and snuck in several GeniusBonus references to the original myth. For instance, Set in mythology was the god of 'deserts and storms', and when the Doctor takes Sarah to Sutekh's version of 1980, the planet is a stormy desert. Later, Sutekh growls that his brother Horus condemned him to 'a life of darkness and impotence', when in the original myth Set was believed to be impotent, and Horus had ripped off one of Sutekh's testicles.

The Doctor is having a bit of a midlife crisis, which isn't helped much when Sarah decides to raid the TARDIS wardrobe and show up in one of previous companion Victoria's old dresses. She also suddenly sees a demonic goat head floating around in the TARDIS. ... [[ItMakesSenseInContext What?]]

!!Tropes

* ChangedMyJumper[=/=]ContrivedCoincidence: Sarah just happens to change into Vicky's dress before walking around in the 1910's.

* CreepyMonotone: Sutekh's servant at the end of part 1.

* ScrewDestiny: The Doctor and Sarah encounter the wrathful god Sutekh in the 1910s. Sarah argues that they don't have to stop him since they already know the world wasn't destroyed back then. The Doctor takes her into the future and shows the world has been utterly obliterated, proving time is in flux and they're the only ones who can stop Sutekh.

* WaybackTrip: Sarah-Jane argues that she ''knows'' the Earth wasn't destroyed in 1915, given she's from 1980. The Doctor responds by taking her to 1980, which is now a wasteland. Unless they stop Sutekh, the 1980 Sarah knows will never have existed.

* StableTimeLoop: The TARDIS materializes in Scarman's house in 1911 because it is at the same location that UNIT Headquarters will be in the future (since the Doctor was aiming for Unit HQ but was pulled off course by several decades). The Doctor then gets involved in events that culminate in the Scarman house burning down, which we were earlier told is what enabled UNIT Headquarters to be constructed at that location in the first place.

* AlternateHistory: Sarah Jane asks why they don't just leave to avoid getting killed since they know Sutekh didn't destroy earth in the 19th century since she is from 20th century Earth. The Doctor explains that now that they are involved in events alternate histories are inevitable and her Earth may never exist if they don't stop him. He even takes her to her "present" and shows her a blasted wasteland that will result if they don't go back and fix things.

* BadFuture / TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Sarah Jane asks the Doctor if they can simply leave and return to 1981 without fighting Sutekh, since she's from a future that wasn't destroyed then Sutekh must have failed, after all. The Doctor complies and takes her to 1981. He shows her the desolate lifeless wasteland orbiting a dead sun that the Earth will become if they don't stop Sutekh from freeing himself. An {{homage}} to this scene was planned for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead "The Unquiet Dead"]], surviving several early drafts before it became clear that it wouldn't flow.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane destroy the rocket, but the Doctor is soon forced to admit that Sutekh literally has god-like powers when he falls under Sutekh's control himself. After a CurbStompBattle in Sutekh's favour, some thorough MindRape, the Doctor is made to transport Scarman to Mars in the TARDIS to disconnect the signal trapping Sutekh.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane destroy the rocket, but the Doctor is soon forced to admit that Sutekh literally has god-like powers when he falls under Sutekh's control himself. After a KerbStompBattle in Sutekh's favour, some thorough MindRape, the Doctor is made to transport Scarman to Mars in the TARDIS to disconnect the signal trapping Sutekh.

* ChangedMyJumper / ContrivedCoincidence: Sarah just happens to change into Vicky's dress before walking around in the 1910's.

** The Doctor is so concerned with the threat Sutekh posesses that he throws niceties out the window, bluntly telling Laurence Scarman that his brother is dead and not even offering any comforting words. He's so cross at him for screwing up his plan to jam Sutekh's signal that he tells him that he doesn't deserve to be alright. Sarah Jane even calls him out on his callous attitude following his death, to which the Doctor responds that the deaths in this story will be the first of many if they fail.

* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: The first episode starts with the Doctor thinking about giving up his job as the Brigadier's scientific advisor, reminising about his younger companions, and griping about how he's reached the big 750. Sarah promptly lampshades this trope.

** When the Eye of Horus is destroyed the re-animated Marcus Scarman is released, collapses like a puppet with its strings cut and disintgrates.

* EverybodysDeadDave: Only the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith survive among the characters with lines. (There are a couple of non-speaking servants with Marcus when he enters the tomb at the start who might have got away alive.)

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GoodIsDumb: The only reason Sutekh is still alive in 1911 is because Horus thought killing [[OmnicidalManiac him]] would make him just as horrible as Sutekh, a serious false equivalence.

* KillEmAll: Outside the Doctor and Sarah, no-one else makes it out of the serial alive. Except a bit-part and he only survives because he's in ''Egypt'' while the action takes place in England (however the novelisation has Scarman's servants being killed as well by Namin).

* AdamWesting: Gabriel Woolf reprises his role as Sutekh in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1xnU2BNryo&feature=kp mockumentary]] on the DVD release titled ''[[{{Pun}} Oh, Mummy]]''. Hordes of well-deserved NightmareRetardant ensues.
** Sutekh shows us he's just a nice guy who likes raising rabbits.

* KillEmAll: Outside the Doctor and Sarah, no-one else makes it out of the serial alive. Except a bit-part and he only survives because he's in ''Egypt'' while the action takes place in England.

* LastOfHisKind: Sutekh, last of the Osirans. He blew up his home planet, leaving a few hundred survivors who chased him down and imprisoned him. What happened to the rest isn't clear, but by the eighteen-hundreds they're lone gone. And then Sutekh gets sent to the end of time.

* GoodIsNotNice: A subtle example. Although Horus imprisoned Sutekh rather than kill him for fear becoming [[HeWhoFightsMonsters just as bad as him]], his [[MechaMooks Mecha-Mook]] mummies guarding the Martian pyramid are programmed to kill intruders if they guess the riddle incorrectly. However, considering [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt what's at stake]] if [[OmnicidalManiac Sutekh]] gets free, one could argue Horus was justified.

* KnightOfCerebus: Sutekh is bad enough to make the Fourth Doctor scared.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane destroy the rocket, but the Doctor is soon forced to admit that Sutekh literally has god-like powers when he falls under Sutekh's control himself. After a CurbStompBattle in Sutekh's favour, some thorough MindRape, the Doctor is made to transport Scarman to Mars in the TARDIS to disconnect the signal trapping Sutekh.

* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: The episode starts with the Doctor thinking about giving up his job as the Brigadier's scientific advisor, reminising about his younger companions, and griping about how he's reached the big 750. Sarah promptly lampshades this trope.

* NightmareFuel: Sutekh's ability to possess seemingly anyone, so long as they have been physically near him. Now factor in his portal and existing thrall...

* SeriesContinuityError: The plot hinges on the idea that the TARDIS' controls are "isomorphic" and can only be manipulated by the Doctor, despite characters like Susan, Jo and Harry having piloted it in previous stories. Robert Holmes later offered the explanation that it was because the Doctor was lying, though Sutekh's ability to read the Doctor's mind makes this unpopular.

* KnightsAndKnaves: This is one of several puzzles the Doctor had to solve to enter the titular structure. This incident is an example of solution #2, asking the one guard about what the other guard would have said. Why an ancient Martian pyramid imprisoning a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien was protected only by logic puzzles is unknown. The Doctor, being the clever bastard that he is, figures it out in about 15 seconds. According to the DVD production notes subtitles, Phillip Hinchcliffe got it from Creator/FranzKafka's ''Literature/TheCastle'', although this cannot be confirmed.

-->'''The Doctor:''' A desolate planet [[StarKiller circling a dead sun]].

* ApocalypseHow: In the serial, Sutekh is threatening a Class 6 (Planetary-scale Total Extinction of all life of any kind. The planet is left as a lifeless husk.) to Earth if he gets loose.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Sutekh comments that he has endured an eternity of "darkness and impotence". This is innocent enough, until you remember that one of Sutekh's tortures at the hands of Horus in the original myth was to have his testicles ripped off.

-->'''Servant''': Die. I bring Sutekh's gift of death to the world.

* AlanSmithee: Lewis Greifer was so unhappy with Creator/RobertHolmes' re-writes that he took his name off the story. Hence Stephen Harris.