Doctor Who - Pyramids Of Mars (DVD)

PYRAMIDS OF MARS is the 8th 'Doctor Who' story starring Tom Baker, and was first broadcast in October / November 1975. The story also stars Elisabeth Sladen as his companion Sarah Jane Smith, who recently appeared in her own Children's BBC series, THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES. The story is told over 4 episodes. The plot has The Doctor and Sarah Jane materialising in the TARDIS in 1911 where they find an Egyptologist known as Marcus Scarman, who has been possessed by the last survivor of the Osirans, Sutekh. Sutekh has been imprisoned inside a pyramid in Egypt and has got Scarman to construct robots, who in turn are to create a missile to destroy the pyramid. The ...  Read the complete review

Originally screened from October to November 1975, Robert Holmes’ ‘Pyramids of Mars,’ based on an earlier draft by Lewis Griefer, is often regarded as one of the finest episodes in the entire long-running series. Featuring just about everything that made Doctor Who so enjoyable, with the exception of the humour, which is necessarily absent in this dark tale, this four-parter is easily the most action-packed and finely plotted that I’ve seen, intelligently crafting a link between Egyptian mythology and ancient extraterrestrials years before shows such as Stargate popularised the wacky theory, and thus allowing for great sets, ancient riddles, unstoppable robot mummies and ...  Read the complete review

When the decision was made to create Doctor Who, it was felt that the programme should combine entertainment with historical information, that not only should the Doctor battle against and help various inhabitants of other planets, but that there should also be an element of genuine education. Consequently the Doctors' first two human assistants were two schoolteachers, who were thus able to question and expand on other's questions when the TARDIS set down at the time of the Crusades, or Ancient Rome. As the series progressed it appeared that there was a general shifting away from the historical stories towards those of a more SCi Fi or "monster based" nature. ...  Read the complete review

Ever since Egyptology became popular in the nineteenth century people have used its sinister mysticism and death cult as a tool in horror stories, the famous universal film ‘The Mummy’ in the 1930 is a good example, the connection between ancient Egypt and Science fiction is more recent but fans of Stargate take note Doctor Who got there first! ‘The Pyramids of Mars’ is a Doctor Who story originally aired in 1975, starring Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor) and Elizabeth Sladen as his assistant the plucky journalist Sarah Jane Smith. The Tom Baker period of the Doctor Who series was the longest of any actor and his character complete with floppy hat, long coat and ...  Read the complete review