Is your consent pure?
Spoilers follow for this episode of Doctor Who.
The second part of Season 10’s loose trilogy that started with Extremis last week, “The Pyramid at the End of the World” feels a little saggy even as it tells a tale of world-spanning danger. And yet, the terrific trio of Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas keep the hour entertaining and intriguing all the same.
The monk aliens from the previous episode have arrived, and are hanging out in the inexplicably ancient structure of the title, which has suddenly appeared in a global hotspot where the American, Russian, and Chinese armies are all poised and ready for battle. Of course, what can mere humans do against the vastly superior and vastly creepier forces of the monks? Not much, sure, but the Doctor is a different story… or is he?
Scripted by Peter Harness and executive producer Steven Moffat, “The Pyramid at the End of the World” is reminiscent of the pair’s collaboration on last year’s Earth invasion two-parter "The Zygon Invasion" (written by Harness) and "The Zygon Inversion” (Harness/Moffat). As in those episodes, the question at the heart of “Pyramid” is what drives a people to go to war, and how can you avoid said war even when it seems inevitable.
The United Nations has one idea about that, and it’s to bring the Doctor back as President of the World. And it’s interesting that while the Doctor comes this close to defeating the monks here, in the end it’s his own weakness that allows them to win. If he had just been straight with Bill about his blindness, rather than hiding it to spare her feelings -- and his vanity -- he could’ve avoided the near miss that he has in that lab that’s about to go kaboom. But instead, it comes down to Bill having to make a deal with the devil -- well, devil monks -- to save the Doctor even while dooming the Earth’s inhabitants to servitude in the process.
Perhaps one of the issues in this episode once again is the supporting cast of human characters, something which has been a bit of a problem all season. I couldn’t be bothered to care about the American, Chinese or Russian commander, and seeing them all get turned to dust had more of a “oh man, cool!” effect than an “oh man, everyone’s screwed now!” effect for me. That said, the idea of them turning against the Doctor and pointing out that this is their planet, not his, was pretty interesting and something that might’ve benefited from being further explored.
And where was Missy in all of this? Last week’s episode ended with the Doctor asking her for help from inside the vault. I figured she wouldn’t be a big part of this week’s segment since she wasn’t in the trailer for it, but unless I missed something the Doctor didn’t even allude to her here. Will she be the one who saves everyone next week?
Either way, the preview for next week’s finale to this trilogy, "The Lie of the Land," looks pretty fun as Bill’s deal with the monks has seemingly changed history. The monks have always been the caretakers of Earth, just like Jack Torrance! Tune in next week…
Some notes:
- Bill has some thoughts about orange presidents…
- Where’s UNIT?
- So that’s it for the Doctor’s blindness then?
- The opening minutes of the episode are fun, as we get “previously” footage from last week’s show mixed with new “now” scenes.
- Speaking of which, Bill just can’t win whenever her and Penny try to go out on a date. (Oh, and I guess Bill’s totally fine talking to Penny about all her crazy adventures…)
- Rachel Denning as Erica kind of has companion written all over her, eh?
The Verdict
“The Pyramid at the End of the World” offers up some interesting moments as the Doctor and the gang confront a looming apocalypse, but the pieces don’t fall into place as well as they could have. Still, it’s another enjoyable outing for Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat’s final season, and one that looks to have set up a pretty cool premise for next week’s finale.
New episodes of Doctor Who air on Saturdays on BBC One at 7:25pm and on BBC America at 9pm/8pm Central.
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