Rating: 
Summary: Doctor Who with an Egyptian motif
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story
Review: This continues the good stories that are well known in the early Baker years. His companionship with Sarah, one of the best Doctor/Companion pair ups of the entire series. The location and set designs, music and villians are all well done. Sutek makes a chilling villian, and the characters are all well acted. Classic scenes are infact the Tardis' voyage to 1980 earth to show Sarah what would become if Sutek were allowed to go free. Also the Mars pyramids and its many puzzles I found to be intriguing. The only flaw I found in this story is the organ playing in the beginning. Someone should delete this on the DVD release. We all know that is why Sutek sent his servant to kill the egyption in the first place. This is a classic Doctor Who story.
Rating:
Summary: A Grand Outing
Review: This is a superlative adventure. The story is simply fantastic, the villain perfectly chilling (what a great voice Gabriel Woolf has!) and the characters presented totally memorable. Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen are especially worthy of note. The visuals are also quite good with the odd exception, but you can hardly notice - this is just too riveting. An instant classic episode of Doctor Who.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Doctor Who!
Review: This was a great Doctor Who story from a great era.I have the region 2 DVD,and I have watched it alot.I thought the scariest story from The Tom Baker years was The Seeds of Doom,when I first watched that story way back when I was 7,I was afaid to turn the lights out for bed that night.It's not so scary now being a adult but it still makes you wonder "What if that Plant next to my bed wants to kill me while I sleep?" Right now a new Doctor Who series is in the works over in the UK,with Christopher Eccleston of 28 Days Later playing the Doctor,and there goal for the new series is to be scary,they want children to go running behind the soffas again.Cant wait to see it! What channel will it be on in the US?Cant see it being on PBS.The PBS station in Boston stopped showing Doctor Who years ago.It's to bad the Daleks will not be in the new show,well that could change.Well any way,way to go for the BBC to get all the old Doctor Who's out on VHS,and now the DVD's.Now how about Robot and Genesis of the Daleks on DVD?
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