‘Doctor Who 10×07: The Pyramid at the End of the World’ Review
Last week’s Doctor Who set up a new big bad for season 10, but left The Doctor knowing that they would be coming to Earth soon. In this week’s episode, the sudden appearance of a pyramid made it clear that they had arrived, and were ready to put their plans into action.
When a 5,000-year-old pyramid suddenly appears on earth, The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is called on to deal with it. When the occupiers of the pyramid turn out to the be monks from who have simulated how to take over Earth, can the The Doctor stop them?
I’ll admit I was worried about this episode, as I didn’t see how it could follow on from last week’s impressive set-up. Thankfully, what we have with The Pyramid at the End of the World is a Doctor Who episode that is anything but formulaic and dull.
While the monks don’t really seem that impressive as a bad guy, looks can be deceiving. The rotting look they have does actually have a reason, and that is revealed in this episode. What is interesting though is the way they take action. It isn’t about sudden violence or domination, but acts of passiveness and the promise to fix a problem that is going to happen in the near future. Literally making an offer that we can’t refuse.
What is impressive is that this form of takeover is powerful, even when it seems to lack aggression. Of course, The Doctor sees right through this, but it is the humans that tend to fall for this trap. This means that Bill (Pearl Mackie) once again acts as the heart of The Doctor’s little group and has to make choices, even if it goes against what The Doctor may want.
This is one of the reasons I like Bill as a character, the fact that Pearl Mackie can put so much emotion into the actions she takes, but doesn’t do it in a way that feels alike an arrogant choice. While some past companions in Doctor Who have been a little overbearing in this, Bill does what she believes to be good, in the hope that The Doctor can fix it in the end.
This action that is taken pushes the story into another episode which will come next week, and it looks interesting. A consequence of the actions taken this week it looks like we’ll get to see exactly what the monks are going to do with the planet. The teaser also shows a few things that really hype up the escalation (and yes, this includes the vault).
There are a few cliff-hangers in this episode that will hopefully be answered next week. One of these includes the fate of Nardole (Matt Lucas) I won’t spoil much, but he’s not looking good this week. I’ve grown to like Lucas’ character, so fingers crossed everything goes okay.
What The Pyramid at the End of the World does is keep an impressive story going, and works to build up the second half of season 10 to be very interesting indeed. Now to hope that the next episode will live up to the setup we had this week.
****½ 4.5/5
Doctor Who airs in the UK the BBC every Saturday.
