As the Doctor and Sarah attempt to return to UNIT HQ, the TARDIS is thrown off course and materializes in 1911 at an old priory owned by Egyptologist Marcus Scarman. While excavating a tomb, the archaeologist became possessed by the spirit of Sutekh, the last survivor of the godlike Osirans. The Doctor and Sarah witness strange and deadly events as Sutekh, who has lain imprisoned in a pyramid for thousands of years, employs Scarman and a legion of robotic mummies in an elaborate scheme that may bring about the destruction of the world.

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The story is nicely claustrophobic, mostly taking place in and around a mansion, with the marvelous sense of a horror movie. The script is another real gem by Robert Holmes (despite the writer's credit, he wrote almost all of what appeared onscreen), and no actor is off-par.

The only downside about this video is that it was one of the first DW videos released, so the four 25-minute episodes have been truncated into a long 95-minute "movie". Still, in lieu of an unedited video or DVD release, this is a fine purchase and should be in anyone's Doctor Who collection.

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

Doctor Who with an Egyptian motifJan 26, 2004
By Daniel J. Hamlow
Some stories done during Dr. Who producer Phillip Hinchcliff's time has been known as the Gothic era of the show. He commissioned stories based on old horror and sci-fi. Pyramids of Mars is a tribute to Hammer Films' mummy movies, using a lot of Egyptology themes and names.

After being mysteriously drawn off course to 1911 in an old priory where UNIT HQ would be built, the Doctor and Sarah become involved in the attempted return of Sutekh, an Osirian who was imprisoned by his brother Horus in a tomb recently uncovered by archaeologist Marcus Scarman. He returns to the priory, a zombified puppet of Sutekh, who with help of service robots disguised as mummies, create a deflection barrier around the priory and set about constructing a rocket to destroy the pyramids of Mars to free Sutekh.

The Doctor and Sarah rescue Dr. Warlock, a friend of Marcus's who has been shot by an Egyptian, and enlist the aid of Laurence, Marcus's brother. Laurence is an affable fellow, but despite seeing the possessed Marcus, still thinks of Marcus as his brother and not a puppet of Sutekh. Laurence is played by Michael Sheard, a multiple Who alumni and Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back. Bernard Archard (Marcus) is effectively terrifying, his evil-looking eyes, curved down lips, and paled face put to good use.

How evil and how much Sutekh hates life is demonstrated in these lines: "The humans, animals, birds, fish, reptiles. All life is my enemy. All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh the Destroyer." "Your evil is my good. ... Where I tread, I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good!" Gabriel Woolf's sepulchral voice is put to good use here as Sutekh.

Lots of Egyptology comes in, such as Horus's defeat of Sutekh with the help of 740 Osirians. Not so coincidentally, 740 gods were listed on the tomb of Thutmosis III. The answer to that is the wars of the gods (Osirians) entered into Egyptian mythology and the whole of Egyptian culture founded upon the Osirian pattern. The various sarcophagi and artifacts boost the story's theme.

An interesting discussion takes place between Laurence Scarman, Marcus's brother, and the Doctor. He takes Sarah and Laurence to a future Earth, a desolate planet circling a dead sun, which is how Sutekh would leave it. "Every point in time has its alternative. You've looked into alternative time. ...The actions of the present fashion the future." When Laurence asks him if a man can change the course of history, the Doctor says "To a small extent. It takes a being of Sutekh's limitless power to destroy the future." The Doctor is thus a prisoner of moral obligation--until he stops Sutekh, he just can't up and leave.

Funny lines from Tom Baker: "deactivating a generator loop without a correct key is like repairing a watch with a hammer and chisel. One false move and you'll never know the time again." And he panics at Sarah throwing him a box of gelignite, saying, "Sweaty gelignite is highly unstable. One good sneeze could set it off." When he asks the chastised Sarah for detonators or fuses, she can't find any, and mischievously says, "Maybe he sneezed," meaning the owner of the gelignite. We also learn here that he is 750 years old.

A blaring booboo comes when Sarah claims she comes from 1980. UNIT stories generally take place the year the story is filmed. Also, as the Brigadier retired in 1976 (q.v. Mawdryn Undead, this is clearly inaccurate, as a future story in the same season has the Brigadier still working. So Sarah should've said she comes from 1975.

Trivia: at the time of shooting, the property where this was shot belonged to no less a person than Mick Jagger, but before, the house in the story had belonged to Lord Carnarvon, the archaeologist who uncovered King Tut's tomb, so a coincidence there.

Stylish and evenly-paced, with the Egyptology motif a good asset.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

"There are other humans within these walls..."Aug 15, 2005
By Huntsmæñus "Lord of the Wolf Weeds"
Arguably one of THE best Doctor Who serials ever, takes the Doctor and Sarah to 1911 at the home of Professor Marcus Scarman, recently possesed by Sutekh the Destoryer. It looks and sounds fantastic! All extras, including the hilarious "Oh, Mummy", are top notch. Interviews with the cast and crew have never been more entertaining. An absolute must for all Doctor Who fans.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

One of the most chilling Doc Who's comes to DVD!Jun 25, 2005
By Robert Cossaboon "devil doll"
At last, one of the best Tom Baker era stories has been given the proper release on DVD that it deserves. That is, the transfer is very clear and the DVD is chock full of extras. Not to get too much into the story, as you who are reading this are probably already an avid Doctor Who fan like myself, but the main gist is that the Doctor has to go against one of his most powerful enemies, Sutekh-this guy makes the Master seem like the Good Humor man. A special note of consideration: the importance of Gabriel Woolf's vocal portrayal of Sutekh's cold evilness cannot be overstated. I don't think this episode would have come off half as scary without Woolf's participation. As for the extras, bon' appetit! The best of the little spoof about Sutekh and his career post-Pyramids of Mars. There are two very informative interviews/documentaries. The first is specifically about the episode of the Pyramids and how it came to be. The second is an overview of the Hinchcliffe/Baker era of Doctor Who, often considered by many fans to be the golden era of Doctor Who. Other extras include a compare/contrast feature of the Stargrove location (then owned by Rolling Stone Mick Jagger) where parts of the episode were filmed. The easter egg is of some BBC announcements of the Pyramids episode and the Alien Invasion episode that followed. The other feature that is very worth a while to check out is the production note option. This is an informative, and relatively non-obtrusive, behind-the-scenes factoid of the production of the Pyramids of Mars episode.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Pyramids of GreatnessDec 05, 2007
By John Liosatos
Many consider Pyramids of Mars to be all that is good about classic Doctor Who. And many would be very accurate in their evaluation! Pyramids certainly deserves to be ranked at or near the top of the entire Doctor Who run, let alone the Tom Baker era. It features perhaps the most evil villain ever to wreak havoc across the Universe, Sutekh, a representation of a Satan figure. Sutekh is the greatest vocal villain in the history of the program. For a villain who simply sits in a chair, unable to move through most of the program, he ably gets around using his calm but menacing, condescending vocal qualities, as well as a cadavor called "the body formerly known as professor Marcus Scarman". The first exposure to Sutekh voice, the cliffhanger to episode one as he chillingly states that he brings the gift of death to all humanity, brings a tingle down one's spine.

Pyramids is also the story in which the Doctor finally sets aside the UNIT era, telling Sarah that he doesn't consider Earth his home and that he has to find something better to do than to go chasing around after the Brigadier. This qualifies as a vast departure from the Third Doctor, who called Earth his home away from home, and, apart from his first season, willingly acted as UNIT's scientific advisor. For better or for worse, depending on perspective, the Doctor becomes a free agent again at this point.

More subtly, the writers touch upon a controversial topic, capital punishment. When Sarah asks the Doctor if Sutekh was so evil why didn't Horus and the rest of the Osirans simply kill him, the Doctor responds that it was against their code of honor. Killing him would mean they are no better than he was. Again this is a matter perspective, but in this case one perspective is incurably flawed. You can wrongly believe that since the Osirans were an honorable race, killing Sutekh indeed would make them no better that he was, flawed logic considering that Sutekh left a trail of death and destruction across the Universe, and executing him would ensure the survival of millions of souls across the Universe. They would simply be getting rid of a vicious killer. Or you can correctly believe that the Doctor condemned the Osirans for simply imprisoning Sutekh because this left open the possibility of escape to terrorize the Universe once more. In the end, the Doctor corrected the Osiran's mistake, "executing" Sutekh by sending him through the time tunnel far in the future so he aged to death.

All that said, you just gotta love a story in which the villain in episode one is an Egyptian named Ibrahim Namin, portrayed so eloquently by an Englishman named Peter Mayock. I can't see anyone getting away with that in today's politically correct society. Good thing we have stories like Pyramids of Mars to serve as reminders of a once not-so-sensitive world.

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