Doctor Who: Series 10 Episode 7 - The Pyramid at the End of the World
In the second instalment of the mid series three parter, Earth is set on a countdown of destruction, an alien race offers a deal to save humanity. But will the Doctor accept their help?
After last week's episode I was left feeling very confused and disconnected to what was going on. I think I could understand bits of it but then the concentration just seemed to fade away and I lost interest in the plot, but essentially this alien race have begun an invasion and they have gained an understanding of earth's defences by copying a version of earth through computer simulation which will enable them to gain the wealth of knowledge which they can therefore use to their advantage.
When this episode starts, it goes back and forth between Bill and what happened last week, and then suddenly the army bursts in and calls Bill away to where the Doctor is, and there is a huge Pyramid which no one knows how it got there or why its there and that's this weeks starting point and I have to say this episode starts off very well. That's one thing that it has to it's merit for me was a strong introduction.
The Pyramid at the End of the World, probably the longest Doctor Who story title since The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. My only question to that is "What is Moffat's obsession with Pyramids?" does he just like Pryamids or does he have a spiritual connection with them? because there was a Pyramid in the Series Six finale. My guess is Moffat likes to use a Pyramid, just not on Mars.
Peter Harness is back, in collaboration with Steven Moffatt again, together they wrote the Zygon political thriller in Series 9, and now we have another one of those political edge of your seat kind of thing when the world is under threat and it's up to the Doctor to find out what's going so he can bring the world leaders of Earth to an understanding, the only problem is human's can be stubborn and repulsive to reason sometimes, you know the Doctor is right, but they end up going against it anyway as a result of their foolishness, they get killed by the monster.
I really liked the mode of structure to this episode, it works well from where last week left off and the monks show a sinister and uncomfortable presence to the atmosphere of this story. Essentially the structure of this goes back and forth between what is happening in a science lab and what's happening with the world leaders and the Pyramid, both are inextricably linked and work very part and parcel. Everything is significant, it all makes sense is what I'm trying to say, nothing in this is misconstrued or confusing in anyway.
I kind of thought again in this that Bill and Nardole didn't really do much, there is a lot of standing around and people talking. Basically the monks make earth an offer and the Doctor is like, no, you don't know what their offer is, you can't trust them and the people in the right of making a decision on behalf of the planet neglect the doctor's warning. In the meantime there is something even bigger going on which the Doctor has yet to discover, but for a lot of this it's just a lot of people standing around a table thinking about what do, very talky, lots of dialogue and the action comes later.
Just basic things to point out with this one which stood out for me. I thought the Doctor was good in this, I thought the monks were good we got the opportunity to find out more about them this week but crucially, not very much at all. We know they can restore the sight of a Timelord, but still no word on any motive or plan. That’s probably academic – they’ve got us now , I thought all the stuff in the lab at end was good, the cliffhanger was excellent because it left a question mark hanging on the whole thing where you don't know where the story is going to go next week. Which is something that last week's didn't have, I wasn't left wondering what might happen in the next episode, probably because there wasn't much opportunity for my mind to wonder or ask, again this comes back to my lack of understanding of last week's episode.
This I enjoyed much more. I think it deals with the whole 'counter terror' situation adequately, it's very self deprecating and relevant to what is happening in the world today. Harness is very good at getting those points across and you can see the mixture of both Harness and Moffat's collaboration together in this.
I think I'll give this 7.5/10.
Next week: The conclusion to this three part drama. Can't wait to see how it all ends up, hopefully well, because this episode has really raised the standards for next week, I've got high expectations for "The Lie of the Land".
