Pyramids of Mars is the third serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer under the pseudonym of "Stephen Harris" and directed by Paddy Russell, the serial was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 October to 15 November 1975.
The serial is set in the year 1911 in England, Egypt, and Mars. In the serial, the burial chamber of the alien Sutekh, the inspiration for the Egyptian god Set, is unearthed by the archaeology professor Marcus Scarman. Alive but immobilised, Sutekh seeks his freedom by using Professor Scarman as his servant to destroy the jewel in a pyramid on Mars which is keeping him prisoner.
Influenced by the gothic horror genre and films such as The Mummy, the serial was met with widespread critical acclaim, being praised for its atmosphere and production. It marks the first appearance of Sutekh (voiced by Gabriel Woolf), who returned to the series 49 years later in the two-part story "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" / "Empire of Death" (2024), with Woolf reprising his role.
Casting
Bernard Archard, who had previously appeared in The Power of the Daleks (1966), was cast as Marcus Scarman, due to his work on the 1970 horror film The Horror of Frankenstein. Michael Sheard, who had also previously featured in two Doctor Who serials, was cast as Laurence Scarman; production assistant Peter Grimwade had recommended him for the role because of his recent performance in the BBC2 show Lord Peter Wimsey.
Gabriel Woolf, a prominent BBC actor, was cast in the role of the villain Sutekh. Woolf would go on to reprise his role in audio dramas by Magic Bullet Productions and Big Finish Productions in 2015; and on television in the two-part series 14 finale "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" / "Empire of Death" in 2024, in which Sutekh appeared as the main villain. He also provided the voice of Sutekh for the comedy sketch Oh Mummy: Sutekh's Story, included on the 2004 DVD release of Pyramids of Mars. Woolf would also go on to provide the voice of "The Beast" in the 2006 episodes "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit". Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a positive review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), praising the "chilling" adversary and some of the conversations. In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker described the first episode as "an excellent scene-setter" and the story as "near-flawless". They wrote that Pyramids of Mars gave the "fullest expression" of the Gothic horror era and had high production values and a good guest cast. Charlie Jane Anders of Gizmodo described Pyramids of Mars as "just a lovely, solid adventure story", highlighting the way the Doctor seemed outmatched, the pace, and Sarah Jane. In a 2010 article, Anders also listed the cliffhanger to the third episode — in which the Doctor is forced to confront Sutekh — as one of the greatest Doctor Who cliffhangers ever. In a 2014 Doctor Who Magazine poll to determine the best Doctor Who stories of all time, readers voted Pyramids of Mars to eighth place. In 2018, The Daily Telegraph ranked Pyramids of Mars at number 18 in "the 56 greatest stories and episodes", stating that "although the mummies are excellent, it is the organic characters who take centre stage, with Baker cementing the increasing alienness of his portrayal of the hero". They concluded that it was "pure gold".
thumb|266x266px|The statue described by John J Johnston, vice-chair of the [[Egypt Exploration Society, as being an inspiration for Sutekh's design.]]
In A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television, John Kenneth Muir queried the Egyptian mythology conceit that is woven through the whole story; he also questioned a number of apparently illogical story elements, such as why the robots that guard the priory were disguised as Egyptian mummies, and why the Osiran rocket was shaped as a pyramid. In his assessment, the use of ancient Egyptian objects and symbols by the Osiran race was inadequately explained in the script, and he contrasted Pyramids of Mars unfavourably with Stargate, a 1994 television series which relied heavily on the concept of ancient astronauts visiting Earth. Muir traced parallels with earlier Doctor Who serials such as The Dæmons (1971) and Terror of the Zygons (1975) which had also drawn on the idea of ancient Earth mythologies having extraterrestrial origins. Like The Dæmons and The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), Pyramids of Mars exploited many familiar conventions of classic mummy films, but less successfully in Muir's view.
John J Johnston, vice-chair of the Egypt Exploration Society, explored the influences on Pyramids of Mars in the Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture. He observed that the story drew heavily on a number of classic horror films such as Universal's The Mummy (1932) and Hammer's The Mummy (1959), in both its setting and the performance of the actors. Johnston also noted the influences of archaeology on the production design. According to Johnston, the robot mummies designed by the BBC's Barbara Kidd were inspired by an ancient rock painting of a mysterious domed-headed figure that had been discovered by Henri Lhote in the Sahara Desert in the 1950s, and which Lhote had nicknamed "the Great Martian God". Similarly, he considered Sutekh's mask to have been modelled on a statue of a bearded man dating from c.3500 BCE that had been excavated at Gebelein by Louis Lortet in 1908.
Commercial releases
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1976. The novelisation contains a substantial prologue giving the history of Sutekh and the Osirans and features an epilogue in which a future Sarah researches the destruction of the Priory and how it was explained. An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actor Tom Baker was released on CD in August 2008. Pyramids of Mars was reprinted in the second volume of The Essential Terrance Dicks, published on 26 August 2021 by BBC books.
A prequel/sequel to this story, called The Sands of Time, written by Justin Richards, was released in 1996. Published by Virgin Books, it starred the Fifth Doctor.
Home media
The story first came out on VHS and Betamax in an omnibus format in February 1985, one of the first serials to do so. It was subsequently released in episodic format in February 1994. It was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2004, containing commentary and behind the scenes footage. It was also released on 31 October 2011 as an extra on The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 DVD and Blu-ray boxset.
In 2013 it was released on DVD again in the US as part of the "Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 1–4" box set, alongside The Aztecs, The Tomb of the Cybermen and Spearhead from Space. Alongside a documentary on the Fourth Doctor, the disc features the serial put together as a single feature in widescreen format with an introduction from show runner at the time Steven Moffat, as well as its original version.
Tales of the TARDIS
A 75 minute condensed version with updated special effects aired on BBC iPlayer on 20 June 2024, as part of the spin-off series Tales of the TARDIS.