The great thing about Doctor Who – among all the other great things – is that it has such a long history that there are bound to be stories that you’ve seen before at the age of 10 or something but never since. I know I have seen this before but it was definitely on VHS and definitely before I went to university so it must have been about 20 years ago. Why have I not watched it since? No idea. I’m a busy man. There’s a lot of ale and pork scratchings out there that want supping and eating. However it does mean I get to watch this with a fairly open mind and I’ve been looking forward to it for ages.
The story opens in Egypt – well, not Egypt itself, obviously, this is 1970s BBC. We get some stock footage of Egypt and then a pretty decent tomb interior – and the mythology theme of the story is set from the off. I like this aspect of Doctor Who, it’s like it’s trying to return to its educational roots but still being based around science fiction storytelling.
The Doctor is a bit grumpy early doors but Sarah-Jane taking the piss out of him is a lot of fun. Once again, she is fantastic throughout this.
And so to the plot – Nasty Egyptian God trapped by his brother in a prison. Control for said prison is on Mars and Trapped God’s minions are working with him to set him free. The minions are pretty cool robotic mummies and the story is very visually impressive.
For a story with a pretty basic storyline it is, nonetheless, pretty well made out. It never drags and the Doctor’s foreshadowing of the really rather nasty God Sutekh is pretty ominous throughout.
The scene towards the end with The Doctor and Sutekh is incredibly intense. The Doctor gets completely dominated and ends up doing Sutekh’s will. I can imagine this was actually pretty frightening for the kiddies first time out and it’s pretty sinister watching it now.
While production values don’t really bother me, this story does contain me new all time favourite blooper. I’ve tried finding a video clip of it but got bored – Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. If nothing else the Clara meme that was doing the rounds on the interweb last year has now clicked…
The story opens in Egypt – well, not Egypt itself, obviously, this is 1970s BBC. We get some stock footage of Egypt and then a pretty decent tomb interior – and the mythology theme of the story is set from the off. I like this aspect of Doctor Who, it’s like it’s trying to return to its educational roots but still being based around science fiction storytelling.
The Doctor is a bit grumpy early doors but Sarah-Jane taking the piss out of him is a lot of fun. Once again, she is fantastic throughout this.
And so to the plot – Nasty Egyptian God trapped by his brother in a prison. Control for said prison is on Mars and Trapped God’s minions are working with him to set him free. The minions are pretty cool robotic mummies and the story is very visually impressive.
For a story with a pretty basic storyline it is, nonetheless, pretty well made out. It never drags and the Doctor’s foreshadowing of the really rather nasty God Sutekh is pretty ominous throughout.
The scene towards the end with The Doctor and Sutekh is incredibly intense. The Doctor gets completely dominated and ends up doing Sutekh’s will. I can imagine this was actually pretty frightening for the kiddies first time out and it’s pretty sinister watching it now.
While production values don’t really bother me, this story does contain me new all time favourite blooper. I’ve tried finding a video clip of it but got bored – Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. If nothing else the Clara meme that was doing the rounds on the interweb last year has now clicked…
The ending is pretty swift (and not explained very well) but the gist is that The Doctor uses the time delay between a signal being sent to Mars from Earth to pop back to Earth and screw over Sutekh while he’s in the sparkly time tunnel. This could have been fleshed out a bit better but it’s a pretty decent ending nonetheless.
This is a great story and one in which the scenery helps give some real atmosphere.
Points only lost for the swift ending and a cock-up that suuuuurely could have been seen and edited out… 8/10
This is a great story and one in which the scenery helps give some real atmosphere.
Points only lost for the swift ending and a cock-up that suuuuurely could have been seen and edited out… 8/10