Sutekh forces the Doctor to transport Scarman and a mummy to Mars, where the Doctor and Sarah try to stop them destroying the Eye of Horus.Sutekh forces the Doctor to transport Scarman and a mummy to Mars, where the Doctor and Sarah try to stop them destroying the Eye of Horus.Sutekh forces the Doctor to transport Scarman and a mummy to Mars, where the Doctor and Sarah try to stop them destroying the Eye of Horus.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe scene where the Doctor and Sarah start to walk out of their hiding place and then when they see a mummy, quickly dart back into it was an ad-lib by Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. Baker based the scene on a The Marx Brothers routine.
- GoofsThe Doctor mentions that radio waves take two minutes to travel between Mars and Earth. In fact the delay varies between 3 and 22 minutes, depending on the two planets' orbital positions.
- Quotes
The Doctor: Serve you, Sutekh? Your name is abominated in every civilised world, whether that name be Set, Satan, Sadok...
Sutekh: Serve me, Doctor!
The Doctor: Never!
Sutekh: [turning his torture beams on the Doctor, laughingly] You pit your puny will against mine? Kneel!
The Doctor: No!
Sutekh: [laughingly] Kneel before the might of Sutekh!
[Forces the Doctor to his knees]
Sutekh: In my presence, you are an ant, a termite. Abase yourself, you grovelling insect.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Lively Arts: Whose Dr. Who (1977)
The limited location means that the serial does build a good sense of tension, with the lumbering mummies providing the standard slow moving monster to be an immediate and creepy threat, but yet at the same time the bigger picture plays out. The threat to the world is contained by choice here, so the serial doesn't feel like it is doing world destruction on the cheap simply by playing it out in this one place (more or less). The bigger themes and villains work well, whether it is the changing of timelines, the idea of the Doctor perhaps struggling against a much stronger force (rather than doing a comedy bit and defeating him with ease, as has been the modern way at times). There was certainly enough to keep me interested, while the standard horror/chase stuff worked too.
The cast are solid. Baker of course is very good; playing a sense of nervousness and obligation well as part of his usual turn. Sladen continues to be well-used as a companion, and she does well as a result. The supporting cast is generally pretty good; with some nice twists and turns in their playing, and generally good presence from the villains (Woolf, Archard). The production budget is not particularly stretched, and the mummies are not the most imposing design even if they are a solid device in a lumbering way; but generally it looks good enough and uses the places well. Generally speaking, a good serial which does the standards well enough, but offers a bit more to engage with if you want it.
- bob the moo
- Dec 18, 2015
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