'Doctor Who' | 'The Pyramid at the End of the World' S10E06
A mysterious ancient pyramid appears overnight in Turmezistan in the middle of three armies. There’s only one person who can sort this mess out - The President of the World, aka, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi). Bill (Pearl Mackie) is once again yanked out of her date with Penny (Ronke Adekoluejo), this time by the United Nations.
‘The Pyramid at the End of the World’ is the second episode to feature the creepy Monks, and the first in a two-part story. This time, they control threads in their ‘Extremis’ simulation that allow them to see all of human history, and to predict what is likely to happen in the future. In short, they can see calamity approaching, like a very real version of the Doomsday Clock - a metaphorical symbol that indicates the likelihood of a human-induced global catastrophe.
The Monks offer to save the human race from extinction, but the humans must ask for their help and be willing to give consent from love. Any other reason, such as fear or strategy will be met with disintegration, which seems extreme, but these monk guys don’t really seem like the type for warm hugs.
Naturally, the Doctor would rather try to prevent the destruction in the first place, instead of handing his beloved planet over to the Monks for an unknown purpose. He heads to Yorkshire and helps Erica (Rachel Denning), a lab scientist, after her hungover partner, Douglas (Tony Gardner), is contaminated by dangerous bacteria and turned into a pile of steaming goo. Erica and the Doctor try to eradicate the bacteria and prevent it from being released into the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the American, Russian and Chinese armies decide that the situation is too dangerous and that they should ask the monks for their help. When they all fail to give the proper consent to the monks, it’s left to Bill to decide what will happen.
This episode, written by Peter Harness and Steven Moffat, is incredibly tense and frantic all the way through, with the countdown visible on everyone’s devices.
Where are UNIT? There are no obvious extraterrestrial signs on the outside of the pyramid, but if anyone was going to retrieve the Doctor to sort things out, surely it would be UNIT rather than the UN? Fans enjoyed the appearance of the Secretary General (Togo Igawa) in the middle of Bill and Penny’s date (poor Bill!), but it would have been nice to see Kate and perhaps Osgood again.
The Doctor finally revealed that he was blind, but now that the Monks have restored his sight, we are left in the worst kind of clifff hanger, without knowing what Bill’s side of the deal will be and what has become of Nardole.
Tune in next week for the rest of the story in ‘The Lie of the Land’!
Watch ‘Doctor Who’ every Saturday night at 7:20pm on BBC One; 9pm on BBC America; and Sundays at 7:30pm on the ABC and iView in Australia.
