Doctor Who The Pyramid at the End of the World Review

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Bill Potts, Daniel Nettheim, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Monk Trilogy, Doctor Who Monks, Doctor Who Series 10, Doctor Who The Pyramid at the End of the World, Doctor Who The Pyramid at the End of the World review, Matt Lucas, Nardole, Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Peter Harness, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor

Doctor Who The Pyramid at the End of the World

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole confront an alien invasion in The Pyramid at the End of the World, but its not like any the Time Lord has ever seen before. There’s a 500 year old pyramid in the middle of a war zone, the Chinese, Russian, and American armies are poised to strike, but the pyramid wasn’t there yesterday… Intrigued by the mystery, the Doctor and his companions must do everything they can to avert the impending disaster, but bizarrely for the conquest of Earth to begin these aliens need the consent of the human race first!

As the seventh episode of series ten, The Pyramid at the End of the World certainly has one of the most intriguing episode titles so far in this new series of Doctor Who, and it reunites the co-writing partnership of Peter Harness and Steven Moffat that brought us The Zygon Inversion! Peter Harness, the writer of Kill The Moon (2014), The Zygon Invasion, and The Zygon Inversion co written with Steven Moffat (2015), now returns with his third story for Doctor Who, The Pyramid at the End of the World, which is also just happens to be directed by The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion director Daniel Nettheim.

Following the startling revelations in Extremis the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole are now forewarned of the Monks elaborate strategic planning and must stand ready to face their invasion in The Pyramid at the End of the World. As the second part of the “Monk Trilogy” gets underway Bill’s love-life suffers another VIP gatecrasher and the blind Doctor takes to strumming lonesome tunes on his electric guitar in the TARDIS, but when an ancient pyramid suddenly appears in Turmezistan causing an international incident between the Chinese, Russian, and American forces, the UN calls on the Doctor (still hiding the weakness of his blindness from Bill) to act in his capacity as the President of Earth and help them confront the menace of the alien Monks.

When every clock in the world suddenly jumps towards a countdown to doomsday, the Monks offer a terrifying proposition to save humanity from disaster (caused by a deadly biohazard that‘s been unwittingly created by scientists at Agrofuel Research Operations, a bacteria so lethal it will wipe out all like on Earth), but in order to avert Armageddon the human race must willingly consent to become slaves to their would-be alien saviours!

The Pyramid at the End of the World shows Peter Capaldi at his best as the 12^th incarnation of the Time Lord, with Capaldi turning in a terrific performance as the Doctor gradually becomes increasingly desperate in his attempts to stop the invasion of the Monks. The scenes as the Doctor confronts the Monk outside the pyramid crackles with menace, but the visually impaired Time Lord is unaccustomedly hampered by his aliment, and this time the odds seem impossibly stacked against him as he attempts to save the day. Pearl Mackie also excels as Bill Pott’s, who quickly notices something is wrong with the Doctor in this episode when the Time Lord urges the military leaders to coordinate their attacks on the pyramid. Bill gets to see a darker, more war-like side to the Doctor in The Pyramid at the End of the World, and this really shakes up the dynamic between them. Matt Lucas did seem a little sidelined as Nardole in this episode, but his character does lighten the tone a bit during the bleaker moments as the Earth faces impending doom.

The corpse-like red-robed Monks have chosen this exact moment and place to begin their campaign to invade Earth. Having made their debut in Extremis, where it emerged they’d been using advanced virtual reality projections to study the Earth and assess its vulnerabilities, the Monks quickly evolve into a palpable threat to humanity in The Pyramid at the End of the World. They know of the Doctor, yet even though the Time Lord makes it clear that he is the line in the sand they will face, they nevertheless intend to take this world and its people, but like Vampires they will do so only when invited, and they say they will talk to the Doctor again: “At the end of the Earth.”

Jamie Hill reprises his role as the Monk from Extremis for this episode – he also played the Foretold in Mummy on the Orient Express (2014) and appeared as a Silence in series six – and the eerie rasping voice of the Monks is provided by Tim Bentinck. In this episode we discover the Monks chose their undead form to look like us because this is how they perceive humanity. The Monks must also be invited to save the world, stating: “We must be loved,” because “To rule through fear is inefficient.” – which seems to indicate a somewhat unusual conflict of emotion and logic… These mysterious blue skinned creatures are chillingly realized. With their cadaverous bodies and the sinister way they speak with their mouths agape, they cast an extremely powerful presence whenever they appear, and are easily one of the creepiest monsters that we’ve seen so far in series ten.

Along with the strong performances of the three leads, The Pyramid at the End of the World features an impressive supporting cast, which includes Togo Igawa (Secretary General of the UN), Nigel Hastings (The Commander), Eben Young (Colonel Don Barbbit), Rachel Denning (Erica), Daphine Cheung (Captain Xiaolian), Tony Gardner (Dogulas), Andrew Bryon (llya), and Ronke Adekoluejo (Penny). Filming for parts of this story also took place in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, a location previously used to represent the Moon (Kill The Moon), Skaro (The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar), and Gallifrey (Hell Bent).

The Pyramid at the End of the World sees the Doctor taking charge as the President of Earth, a role which he originally earned in Death in Heaven (2014), giving him special powers to control Earth’s military forces during an alien invasion, a duty he upheld again during The Zygon Inasion / The Zygon Inversion (2015). The Doctor is working alongside the UN in The Pyramid at the End of the World, but UNIT is mentioned fleetingly when he’s trying to locate the research laboratory the Monks are secretly monitoring. The fictional country of Turkmenistan in this episode also featured in The Zygon Inasion / The Zygon Inversion. The doomsday clock is a real concept designed to represent the increments of cataclysmic man-made disasters, the original setting for the clock in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight – midnight being the point of catastrophe. Pyramids have featured regularly in Doctor Who over the years, but perhaps most notably in this instance when the 1^st Doctor (William Hartnell) visited the Great Pyramid of Giza in Part Nine of The Daleks’ Master Plan (1966), where he was also pitted against an adversary known as The Monk (Peter Butterworth)

Having nullified the militaries attacks with ease, the Monks invite the military leaders into they pyramid and use their bizarre future modelling technology to demonstrate Earth’s fate. Needing someone of extreme power to give them formal “consent” and provide the link to invite them to take over the world, the Monks power is revealed when first the UN Secretary General, followed by the three colonels, all fail to offer “pure” consent, and are disintegrated.

While Bill remains at the Pyramid, the Doctor and Nardole use the TARDIS to reach Agrofuel Research Operations, where the Doctor is helped by the scientist Erica (superbly played by Rachel Denning) to contain and destroy the biohazard. A nail biting countdown ensues when the Doctor gets trapped in part of the building that’s about to explode – and with Nardole in the TARDIS suddenly overwhelmed by the affects of the airborne contagion – the Time Lord is forced to confess to Bill that he’s been blind since the events on Chasm Forge. Desperate to save the Doctor at any cost, Bill offers her pure consent to the Monks, pure as she is acting out of love. The Monks restore the Doctor’s sight, enabling him to escape from the room in the laboratory before it explodes, but in return the Monks will now rule the Earth… forever!

Just as they did with The Zygon Inversion, the writing team of Peter Harness and Steven Moffat have crafted an exceptionally good Earth invasion story with The Pyramid at the End of the World. Though the pace of the story is a tad slower than expected, strong themes drive the narrative, and there are distinct hints of Torchwood Children of Earth and the 2016 film Arrival about the episode as well. Peter Capaldi also delivers a great monologue near the start, and later Bill has to make the most important decision since she began her adventures with the Doctor. Daniel Nettheim’s assured direction offers a powerful depiction of the epic scale of events, and delivers some particularly striking visuals featuring the episodes mysterious Pyramid.

One thing’s for sure, the fallout from Bill “executive decision” looks set to cause a major upheaval, especially if that exciting Next Time trailer featuring Missy, Monks, and mass mind control is anything to go by! The Pyramid at the End of the World provides an enthralling and challenging middle segment to the “Monk Trilogy”. The Doctor’s valiant battle to save planet Earth from the fate that’s been so chillingly orchestrated for it by the Monks makes for a tense, edge-of-your-seat adventure, and it skilfully sets everything up for the thrilling conclusion of the trilogy in The Lie of the Land.

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Doctor Who Extremis Review

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Bill Potts, Daniel Nettheim, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Extremis, Doctor Who Extremis review, Doctor Who Monk Trilogy, Doctor Who Monks, Doctor Who Series 10, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, Missy, Nardole, Pearl Mackie, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, TARDIS, The Doctor

Doctor Who Extremis

Review by Paul Bowler

[Contains Spoilers]

The Doctor must investigate an ancient mystery in Extremis. Within a secret library of the Vatican, there is a book of dangerous power – The Veritas. History accounts how anybody foolhardy enough to read it has subsequently taken their own life. After a new translation appears online, The Vatican asks the Doctor for help. But will the Time Lord read The Veritas, and can even the Doctor endure the terrible truth it holds?

Extremis is a dark, brooding tale, written by Steven Moffat, and directed by Daniel Nettheim – who also helmed The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion (2015). This sixth episode of series ten also features the return of the 12^th Doctor’s arch nemesis, Missy (the female incarnation of the Master), played by Michelle Gomez. Last time we saw Missy she was surrounded by Daleks in their crumbling city on Skaro in The Witch’s Familiar (2015), but now she’s back and this time it seems like her luck might be about to run out…

Following Oxygen’s shock cliff-hanger, where the Doctor secretly confided in Nardole that he was still blind, the Time Lord doesn’t want his enemies to learn of his sight loss, and he’s adamant that Bill shouldn’t know either. Extremis is also something of a major turning point in series ten as it forms the first episode in a linked trilogy of stories were the world comes under threat by an emaciated corpse-like order of sinister Monks.

When Bill’s date night with Penny gets embarrassingly gate crashed, she’s soon off on her next adventure in the TARDIS with the Doctor and Nardole, and this time it concerns the Pope and an ancient text called The Veritas held in a secret Vatican library: the Haereticum. The Veritas is older than even the church itself, with its language and translations seemingly lost after a sect’s bizarre mass suicide. Now the Veritas has been translated again, however, everyone that worked on the translation online has mysteriously killed themselves. At the behest of the Pope himself, the Doctor has been called upon to solve the dangerous mystery surrounding the Veritas, but in doing so he must also grapple with his own hidden agonies.

Essentially two stories in one, Extremis, with its secret libraries, mysterious portals, and international conspiracies, is one of Steven Moffat’s most ambitious episodes to date. Taking in Rome, CERN, Washington, and a visit to a distant planet, Moffat infuses Extremis with elements of The Ring, The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and The Name of the Rose, effortlessly splicing them with the core underlying themes of series 10, and the end result is an assured adventure that make for a remarkably compelling and thought provoking episode.

An ominous sense of impending dread gradually builds throughout Extremis. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor – sporting his trusty enhanced sonic specs – must draw on every ounce of his resolve to deal with the enigma of the Veritas. Once inside the Vatican’s secret library of blasphemy, the Haereticm, where strange portals are forming, they discover a priest has emailed a copy of the Verita’s translation to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) before killing himself. After sending Bill and Nardole to investigate, the Doctor borrows from his own future to temporarily restore his sight to enable him to read the Veritas, and soon finds himself in deadly danger as undead-looking Monks close in to seize the Veritas for themselves!

Bill and Nardole discover another portal that leads to a collective hub of portals controlled by an unknown form of alien technology. Following a brief sojourn to CERN, where a chilling game of random numbers with scientists about to blow themselves up ensues, but after fleeing back to the hub Bill is horrified when Nardole realizes the portals are actually computer projections and watches him slowly fade away – a fate she also shares when she finally catches up with the Doctor inside another projection that simulates the Oval Office inside the White House. Pearl Mackie continues to impress as Bill, and she constantly brings a refreshing sense of vitality and compassion to the role of the Doctor’s companion. Matt Lucas gets to play a tougher side of Nardole as well in Extremis, his character really steps up, especially when he’s teamed with Bill, and his reasons for being with the Doctor also start to become more apparent as Extremis unfolds.

Along with Joseph Long as the Pope (Long previously appeared in the 2008 Doctor Who episode Turn Left as the Italian newsagent, Roco Colasanto), the guest cast in Extremis also includes Corrado Invernizzi as the Pope’s trusted aid Cardinal Angelo who turns up at the university looking for the Doctor, Ivanno Jeremiah as Rafando, Laurent Maurel as Nicholas Rorke Adekoluejo as Penny, and Jennifer Hennessy as Billd’s foster mum, Moria.

The main foes in Extremis are the Monks. These withered, burgundy robed creatures, with their clawed hands and menacing presence are hell bent on taking over the Earth, and it seems it’s something they’ve been planning for a long time. Seeking the Veritas for their own ends, they are a marvellously creepy and effective adversary in this episode. These super-intelligent beings have used their technology to craft this huge VR simulation, where even the Doctor and his friends are just simulations in something akin to a highly sophisticated video game which the Monks have been using to assess Earth’s capabilities and weaknesses before launching a perfectly calculated invasion. The Monk the Doctor faces in Extremis is played by Jamie Hill, he also appeared as the Foretold in 2014’s Mummy on the Orient Express (as well as one of the Silence creatures in series six), and the chilling voice of the Monks is provided by Tim Bentinck. Bizarrely, it’s interesting how the Monks are slightly reminiscent of the Silence, with their long fingers and ingenious invasion plans, yet they speak with their mouths agape in a way that’s also similar to the original Mondasian Cybermen.

After all the build up, hints, and speculation, Extremis is the episode of series ten where we finally discover who is inside the Vault that the Doctor and Nardole have been guarding at the university on Earth, and it turns out to be – Missy! Yes, even though we’d probably already half-guessed this big reveal, it doesn’t diminish it to finally have it conformed in Extremis. This all ties in with the numerous flashbacks that permeate every aspect of the episode, where Missy is a prisoner on Carnathon awaiting her execution which will be instigated by non other than the Doctor himself, and her body then subsequently placed inside a waiting Quantum Fold Chamber which the Doctor has solemnly vowed to watch over for a thousand years.

Michelle Gomez makes a welcome return as rogue Time Lady and self styled Queen of Evil, Missy in Extremis, with a surprisingly restrained and vulnerable performance, and her characters impromptu return to the series really heightens the drama in this episode. Extremis also presents Missy in a completely different light, she even begs the Doctor to help her change her ways at one point, and Gomez is excellent throughout as ever. However, the full extent of Missy’s role and her fate remains somewhat unclear, at least for now…

There are a number of references that pertain to River Song in Extremis, most notably when Missy mentions she’s heard rumours amongst the Daleks of the Doctor’s retirement and “Domestic bliss on Darillium” (a planet first mentioned in 2008’s Forest of the Dead), where the Doctor and River went to see the Singing Towers in the 2015 Christmas Special: The Husbands of River Song after defeating King Hydroflax. Missy also offers the Doctor her condolences on River’s passing. Nardole also turns up as a Cleric at Missy’s execution in Extremis to meet the Doctor, having been given special permission by the Doctor‘s late wife, and he also has River’s distinctive TARDIS styled diary (first seen in 2008’s Silence in the Library) which she used to keep track of her out-of-sequence adventures with the Doctor and their haphazard timelines. The Doctor also mentions as he is part of the Prydonian Chapter, first mentioned in the Deadly Assassin (1976).

Extremis concludes with some truly powerful scenes, when the Doctor is confronted by a Monk in the simulation of the Oval Office. The Time Lord reveals he is fully aware that he is also a simulation, but warns the creature that the Earth will be ready for them as he’s been secretly recording everything via his sonic sunglasses and has just emailed the file to his real-world self guarding the Vault. This all entwines with how the Doctor outwits Missy’s captors and death sentence to spare her life, explaining why he’s been overseeing her incarceration in the Vault. It all collectively builds towards the episodes thrilling cliff-hanger, where the real-world Doctor gets the email sent from his digital self and asks for Missy’s help through the doors to fend off the invasion.

Although in retrospect Extremis is actually just a set up for the “Monk Trilogy” of stories, there’s still a wealth of exciting developments in this episode, with terrific performances from Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, and Matt Lucas as the new TARDIS team faces their greatest challenge so far. Steven Moffat’s scrip is audaciously epic in scope and scale, presenting just as many questions as it does answers, and director Daniel Nettheim offsets the striking visuals with a darkly atmospheric edge – especially during the library scenes. Extremis is a great episode; it places the world in dire peril, and sets everything up for the next stage in this intriguing saga!

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