Doctor Who – THE PYRAMID AT THE END OF THE WORLD (S10E7) Review

The ‘Monks trilogy’ continues in solid, if underwhelming, fashion

We’re now already into the second half of Series 10, which means the show is really getting into the thick of things. TWPATEOTW kicks off this half and also makes for the second part of the ‘monks trilogy’ and it’s…alright. Following last week’s excellent episode ‘Extremis’, it was inevitable that the follow-up would pale in comparison and TPATEOTW does occasionally undermine some of its own tension. Still, it’s odd enough to still make for a pretty good episode, with a stellar ending that sets the stage nicely for next week.

This week’s story: an ancient pyramid – one that didn’t exist the day previously - has appeared in Turmezistan. It sits strategically positioned to incur the interest of the American, Russian and Chinese armies and, on every device with a counter; a doomsday clock counts down from three minutes to midnight. The Monks (the ones from last week) inside the pyramid tell the Doctor that they can only invade the planet once they have been given permission to. Cue much fretting and worrying.

INSERT SPOILER WARNING HERE

Pyramid’s biggest strength lies in the unpredictability of its core premise. An alien spacecraft disguised as an enormous pyramid, wherein the aliens inside can only conquer the Earth with permission isn’t a storyline we see a lot of on Doctor Who and there’s an inherent excitement in wondering just what on earth is going to happen next. It doesn’t hurt that Extremis provides an excellent foundation to work off of. We know that the Monks’ ambitions must be pretty sky-high if they are willing to simulate Earth’s history in order to make sure they don’t screw up, so when they stick a giant pyramid in Turmezistan and tease the world’s three largest militaries into considering all-out conflict, you get the sense that they mean business. It’s this that keeps the episode going for much of its first half. It’s the second half where things get a little boggy.

Once the Monks’ request is established, the episode slows right down to have the Doctor and co. sort out why the Doomsday clock is counting closer to midnight. This means we get a lot of scenes of people standing around and sorting stuff out in a not very interesting manner. What it is that people talk about in these scenes is interesting, but it kind of feels a bit inert.

We’re also two-thirds into this Monks trilogy and yet we don’t know exactly what it is that the Monks really plan to do. If it weren’t for the Next Time trailer and episode synposis, we’d be left a bit clueless as to what exactly Bill’s decision actually means. Maybe that’s the point – to keep us in suspense – but I wonder whether Pyramid undermines its own tension by holding back this kind of information from us. Whilst the Monks themselves still rank as one of the most interesting new creatures in recent Series’, seeing them just sort of walking around in broad daylight and meandering around a spaceship doesn’t seem to be taking full advantage of their creepiness.

And yet, despite this, Pyramid’s ending is still a cracking one. The Doctor’s big mistake coming down to his own inability to communicate his weakness is a fantastic payoff to the recent story arc of the Doctor’s blindness.

In all honesty, Pyramid is the kind of episode that’s a bit hard to talk about. Despite the odd subject matter, it’s definitely more straightforward than Extremis and the first half is solid and propulsive without really giving me much to single out and get excited about. It also feels like the kind of episode that would be easier to really gauge after the storyline comes to a close, with lots of threads still unexplained or left up in the air.

After Pyramid, I’m not really sure if Peter Harness is the sort of writer that I particularly gel with. Whilst others find his approach of social commentary to be really interesting (I’m not denying that it isn’t), I tend to find his episodes are, by and large, a bit unexciting (even the Zygon ones – though I think that’s largely down to me not thinking that the Zygons translate very well to Nu-Who). In spite of this, though, I didn’t mind Pyramid, which just manages to rise above these issues for the most part with a grand setting and a good setup for next week’s crazy-looking climax to the ‘Monks Trilogy’.

Verdict:

★★★ ½

I don’t know how rewatchable it will be, but Pyramid makes for a decent second installment of what looks like one of Nu-Who’s strangest multi-part stories.

Next Time:

THE LIE OF THE LAND

Yep, this one looks pretty crazy. This will be Toby Whithouse’s seventh episode for Doctor Who and looks to be quite different from his other offerings. His strong suit judging from past work seems to be writing for the companion, so it’ll be interesting to see if that shines through, given the episode’s apparently significant focus on Bill.

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