Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Doctor Who S13 E3 "Pyramids of Mars"

Go To

  • Ass Pull: The Doctor's previously unmentioned 'respiratory bypass system' which saves him from strangulation. At least it was established for the next dozen times it saved the day.
  • Complete Monster: Sutekh the Destroyer is a sadistic monster who desires nothing less than the extermination of all that lives so that nothing could challenge him. Once the security chief of the Osirian race, Sutekh grew so paranoid he even had his own loyal people slaughtered by his monster followers, climaxing in him destroying his home planet and the majority of his species, which forced the remaining 740 Osirians to band together and seal him away. Several thousands of years later, when archaeologist Marcus Scarman opened his tomb, Sutekh murdered Scarman and took control of his body in an attempt to free himself. He also had a devoted servant cooked to death as he didn't need him; was responsible for several innocent bystanders being strangled or crushed at the hand of his robotic servants; and finally personally tortured the Doctor before taking control of him. Upon release, Sutekh planned to use his immense powers to exterminate all that lived, declaring "all life is my enemy", knowing that nothing, not even the Time Lords, could challenge him.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Sutekh is one of the most popular villains in the series, despite only appearing in this one serial. His fate ensures that he won't be coming back any time soon, but he did get a Suspiciously Similar Substitute in the form of the Beast, played by the same actor.
  • Escapist Character: When the Doctor shows Lawrence Scarman into the TARDIS, watch how Michael Sheard (who plays Scarman) chooses to play it - his otherwise adult character suddenly starts acting like an excited child. Sheard said that he hadn't known how to perform the scene, but then decided that his job was to 'live the dream of the children in the audience'.
  • Evil Is Cool: Sutekh has an awesome design, voice and manages to be highly intimidating because of it.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The Doctor implies that he was blamed for starting the Great Fire of London. Well...
    • When the author wanted his name taken off the project, Robert Holmes pulled the name "Stephen Harris" out of thin air. A little over a month after the final episode aired, a real Stephen Harris would found a heavy metal band whose interests include science fiction, Egyptology, and putting the TARDIS on album covers.
    • Lawrence compares the TARDIS to H. G. Wells. The Doctor later meets a young Wells in "Timelash".
  • Narm: Sutekh's Big "NO!", which sounds like a high-pitched squeak.
    "Release meeee... OR I'LL DESTROY THE COSMOS!"
  • Padding: The final episode features ten minutes of the Doctor and Sarah running around solving puzzles to get to Sutekh's chamber in the Pyramid. This was self-admitted padding, as Robert Holmes had run out of plot after Sutekh's successful possession of the Doctor.
  • Signature Scene: The Doctor taking Sarah-Jane back to 1980, only to discover that it has become a wasteland.
  • Special Effect Failure: When Sutekh stands up for the first time in millennia, a hand can be seen holding his throne in position. This got to the point where this was parodied in Oh, Mummy.
  • Tear Dryer: Sutekh has the robot mummy strangle the Doctor to death. Sarah Jane weeps over his body...until he wakes up and complains that she's soaking his shirt. He reveals that his respiratory bypass system saved him.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The story has smoking footsteps and strangulations, and Scarman's reverse-playback bullet-wound healing - there was no reverse-playback on videotape in those days, so the producers had to borrow a video disc machine from The BBC's sports department, and Bernard Archard filmed the entire scene in reverse.
    • Sutekh's mask and costume are also really impressive looking.
  • The Woobie: Poor Lawrence, he just wants his brother back...

Top