Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 7 - The Pyramid At The End Of The World - Review

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas & Rachel Denning

Written By: Peter Harness & Steven Moffat

Directed By: Daniel Nettheim 

 

From Extremis to The Pyramid At The End Of The World, we come to the second instalment in The Monk trilogy. While Steven Moffat's name is still attached to this episode as the story develops, this week he's co-writing once again with Peter Harness. It's Peter Harness's third time writing for the show, and though I've come to expect plenty of political subtext in his work, I'm also wary that this can either be a hit, such as The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion, or a miss like Kill The Moon. So with that said, was The Pyramid At The End Of The World a hit or a miss?

 

A 5000 year-old pyramid appears overnight in Turmezistan, right at the centre of a disputed area between American, Chinese and Russian forces. The UN Secretary-General enlists the Doctor, in his role as President of Earth, to help. The Doctor, still without his sight, investigates the pyramid and discovers the Monks inside. Any military action taken on the pyramid is easily stopped by the Monks, forcing the military leaders to enter the pyramid and negotiate with the Monks. The Monks' simulations of Earth foretell of an approaching disaster that will wipe out all life. They offer to help, but only in return for humanity's consent...

 

Just like last week, The Pyramid At The End Of The World starts off well with an interesting setup and an entertaining pre-titles sequence. You can't help but smile and feel sorry for Bill as her date with Penny is interrupted yet again, this time by the UN Secretary-General. Then once we're introduced to the newly-arrived pyramid, we're given a simple yet brilliant premise and it all makes for a great opening. It wobbles a little following the titles, with the Doctor playing the guitar in the TARDIS and making another pretentious monologue (it's Series 9 again!), but it picks up the pieces soon after. While obviously it was going to be the Monks responsible for the pyramid, placing it in the middle of such conflict is, as the Doctor says, one of the best ways to get yourself noticed. I also really liked, how soon after it's arrival, the episode factors in the Doomsday Clock, with the Monks making it appear on every watch and screen in the world. Given the relevancy of the real-life Doomsday Clock currently being at the closest it's ever been to midnight, since the start of Trump's presidency, to address it in an episode of Doctor Who is something I really welcome.

 

But unfortunately, despite this great start and some neat ideas, it's hard to escape the feeling that this episode is retreading familiar ground. Last week, I finished my review of Extremis by describing it as an episode dedicated to setting up the Monks' invasion, and for some reason, The Pyramid At The End Of The World tries to do the exact same thing again. For the second week running, we have an episode that is yet more setup, and I just don't understand why. The main purpose of Extremis was to establish and introduce the Monks, with their simulation of Earth showing the preparation for their invasion. So why does this week's episode insist on doing the same thing and establishing the invasion that will now happen in next week's episode? It just feels like forty-five minutes of dragging our feet and hanging around until we get to the more interesting stuff. You could condense this episode's contents into about twenty minutes and factor it into Extremis, rather than taking up two whole episodes. What's even more worrying is that despite the overly-long time The Pyramid At The End Of The World has to play with, the Monks still feel really underdeveloped. While knowing very little about them last week worked in Extremis' favour, this week really needed to develop them a bit more. They don't even feel as powerful this week. They once came across as all-powerful and all-knowing, but now they can't actually invade the real Earth as they “need to be loved”. As far as the ability to threaten and intimidate goes, this is a dramatic step down.

 

Several people have commented that this episode lacks action and relies too much on dialogue, and I completely agree. While this episode is pretty good at the start and the end, the thirty minutes or so in the middle are slow-paced and sag tremendously. For quite some time, we keep shifting away from the pyramid to a research laboratory in Britain, but it's very oddly introduced to the story. I remember getting a text from a friend early on when this episode was first broadcast, asking me what was the point of that research laboratory, and his guess was as good as mine. Director Daniel Nettheim tries to associate the pyramid and the lab together with the repeated images of breaking glass, but it's not a clear enough link. The development of these scenes in the lab is also incredibly contrived. From small things like Erica (who incidentally is the best supporting character here) breaking her glasses in quite a weirdly staged scene, to the terrible scientist she works with having a hangover, you can almost feel the crowbar trying to force the narrative along. These scenes in the lab also have a bad enough understanding of science to rival Kill The Moon (yes, really). Not only does the lab apparently not sterilize its outgoing air, but we see scientists removing their biohazard suits without proper decontamination, and one laughably bad moment of one taking toxic material past an airlock in a simple cup.

 

This inept understanding of basic scientific procedure is matched only by its understanding of politics. Firstly, we're yet again relying on the idea of the Doctor being President of Earth, which is still just as ridiculous and unbelievable as ever – can we just stop? Then when we're in the pyramid, the Monks kill the UN Secretary-General ... and barely anyone bats an eyelid and there's no immediate or international reaction to that?! Later, the three leaders of the American, Chinese and Russian armies are sat around a table and agree to work together, and even though no-one else outside that room heard that conversation, they immediately expect there to be world peace and for the Doomsday Clock to reset – seriously?! These same three people then agree to hand over the world to the Monks so they can be protected – seriously?! Have they not even stopped to consider that the Monks could be lying?! The Pyramid At The End Of The World has such a juvenile and simplistic understanding of the military, political and scientific that it's painful.

 

But for all its errors, I will give credit to something, and that's the subversion of the military warnings in favour of the scientific ones. When a Doctor Who story revolves around a pyramid suddenly appearing in the middle of a potential war-zone, you'd figure it's going to have something to say about war and conflict. But the reveal that is in fact an error of science that threatens Earth's future, was a much-appreciated surprise. With the current state of the world, it's easy to think that war and political disputes will lead to the end of humanity, but the advances made in science, with their heightened potential for mistakes and severe consequences remains just as important. Yes, the scenes in the lab are incredibly contrived , but I still welcome what they're attempting to say. That isn't to say the military message couldn't have worked as well, but Peter Harness has covered it before in the last series with the Zygons, so this subversion at least makes The Pyramid At The End Of The World feel a bit fresher.

 

The episode does also redeem itself a little in its last few moments, and delivers a satisfying ending. In fact, the ending is probably the biggest positive to take away from the episode. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph now to avoid spoilers!) The pace picks itself back up, and with the Doctor trapped in the lab that's about blow up, unable to see the numbers to enter the combination for the door, the only inevitable way out becomes clear. It comes as a proper gut-punch when the Doctor finally has to reveal to Bill that he's blind, and Pearl Mackie in particular really sells the emotion of the scene. Bill then giving her consent to the Monks so that the Doctor can see again, is an understandable knee-jerk reaction, and it shoots down my theory that the Doctor would use regeneration energy to restore his sight. With the final line from the Monks - “Enjoy your sight, Doctor. Now see our world” - as well as the fantastic Next Time trailer for The Lie Of The Land – it has me looking forward to next week's episode.

 

The Pyramid At The End Of The World is ultimately one of those episodes that has good intentions and a couple of well-realized moments, but ultimately feels very 'meh'. All that was really needed from this episode was its start and its end, and there's very little between them that works well. There simply isn't enough decent content to justify The Pyramid At The End Of The World getting its own episode, and it really should've been put together with Extremis. As much as I'm looking forward to it, it worries me how much The Lie Of The Land still has left to do because of what this episode simply doesn't cover. It's not bad, but it certainly comes across as a let-down.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World

 

5/10