Peter Harness’ previous Doctor Who stories were about the triumph of optimism and discovery over cynicism. Toward the end, a character would be required to make a decision, and that decision would ultimately be beneficial to the human race. Kill the Moon ended with Clara choosing not to destroy the Moon and it was soon replaced by a new one causing humanity to re-engage with space travel. Harness’ next story, The Zygon Inversion concluded with the Zygon criminal, Bonnie being forgiven by the Doctor and in turn, she attempts to redeem herself by becoming a defender of the Earth as the new Osgood.
The Pyramid at the End of the World is a marked contrast in that the decision made near the end of the episode will have negative consequences for humanity. Bill makes the decision to surrender control of Earth to the Monks if they restore the Doctor’s eyesight so he can save himself from a biological disaster. The Monks do so, and although the world is still around, humanity has to adapt to a new set of masters. Ultimately there was never any chance of a good ending.
The story adopts the tone of a political thriller as the Doctor resumes his mantle of the President of the World and teams up with the UN Secretary General and soldiers from the three major powers in orer to investigate a Pyramid which has materialised in the fictional nation of Turmezistan. As with many a thriller we get a reference to air strikes and submarine missile launches which makes the episode feel like a callback to The Zygon Invasion. It’s a shame that this time around, none of the soldiers or politicians are given any kind of a personality. They are there simply to be killed and demonstrate how the concession to the monks must be done with honesty. It did seem strange that UNIT weren't involved in this scenario, but perhaps Moffat and Harness wanted to avoid Kate or Osgood being killed off by the Monks.
The Monks have used their simulation technology to predict what will end the world but they will only help if the humans consent. The Doctor is determined to work out the threat and eliminate it. The problem is are so many possibilities that it would be hard to pinpoint one. The threat could be a nuclear attack, islamic terrorism, or climate change, the list could go on.
While all of this is going on we get the developing story of the biological laboratory. We, as viewers, can easily guess that this is going to be the cause of the world’s destruction. The two lab scientists are the characters here. Erica is a good character. Douglas is well played by Tony Gardner but he is pretty much written as an idiot, hungover and carelessly allowing biological material to break out of the lab and kill him. Erica was great, and well played by Rachel Denning. In her very first scene we see that she is absent minded and also has a partner. That’s more than we learn about the soldier ciphers. She proves to be useful to the Doctor when she shuts down the lab. The Doctor even wanted her to become a companion. I suspect she won’t be back next episode but I certainly wouldn’t have minded her becoming a genuine companion.
The Monks are interesting opponents even if their backstory is a little nebulous. Their corpse-like appearance is based on how they see humans, which is an interesting and creepy concept. They have a vast range of powers, with the technology to pluck weapons out of the air and teleport in the place of their enemies.
The notion that they need consent for control is interesting. Love is consent which is true in relationships. Now that they have conquered the world it will be fascinating to see what their notion of the world will be. Who will benefit from this new society and who will not.
The Doctor in a position of weakness for most of this story. His eyesight gone he is choosing rash action for attacking the pyramid. His selfish and illogical decision to not tell Bill about his blindness really pays off here as he is now trapped. Peter Capaldi continues to be brilliant.
Nardole gets to show off a wider range of skills and emotions. He is the one who chooses the peaceful solution that the Doctor would normally go for and helping the Doctor to work out what the source of the world’s destruction might be. Matt Lucas is proving to be adept at these more dramatic moments although it is still unclear what Nardole actually is. The Doctor claims to have bought him lungs so is he a cyborg or an android? This is something I really wish would get cleared up unless there is a good reason for keeping this a secret from the audience.
Bill is on the side-lines for much of the episode. Her character was a little out of place in a political thriller, but she does at least get to be the one who makes the major decision to consent to the monks’ control. Now that the writers established Bill as a decent companion, they can give her more nuances by having her make a wrong decision or argue openly with the Doctor. It is her compassion and love for the Doctor that ultimately leads to her consent. It will be interesting to how whether this affects her relationship with the Doctor. It was nice to see her go on another date with Penny but this is put on hold again with the invasion of the UN Secretary General. Hopefully this series will conclude with her and Penny getting together for real.
Daniel Nettheim’s direction in this episode was good. I also have to complement Murray Gold for music was well implemented in the episode. The James Bond style theme from Extremis was reused here but it felt more suited to this global thriller notion than the Dan Brown conspiracy thriller.
Both Pyramid and Extremis stretched a fairly short plot across forty five minutes and yet Pyramid was more satisfying to watch. This is because its events were actually having an impact on our lead characters. The story was very talky, but this suited the idea of slow and building tension, that Harness was going for. In the end this was a solid story and hopefully the next episode, The Lie of the Land, will build on these ideas in a satisfactory way.
8/10
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