If you ask any classic Whovian about the moment they realized Doctor Who wasn't just a show about a man in a police box, they’ll probably point to a specific Tuesday in 1975. Specifically, the night Pyramids of Mars first aired. It’s weird. It’s claustrophobic. It basically feels like a Hammer Horror film that accidentally stumbled into a sci-fi set, and honestly, that’s why it works so well. Tom Baker was in his prime, the gothic atmosphere was thick enough to choke on, and we got a villain that makes the Daleks look like polite dustbins.
Sutekh the Destroyer wasn’t just a guy in a mask. He was a god. Or at least, an alien so powerful he might as well have been one.
The Gothic Peak of the Hinchcliffe Era
The mid-seventies were a wild time for the show. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes were obsessed with bringing a darker, more literary edge to the series. They were pulling from Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and in this case, the Egyptology craze that never really seems to die. Pyramids of Mars is the crown jewel of this "Gothic Horror" period. It’s set in 1911, in a Victorian priory built over an ancient Egyptian tomb. It sounds like a cliché, but the execution is terrifying.
You’ve got mummies that aren't actually rotting corpses—they're robotic servitors with incredible strength. They don't shuffle; they crush. There is a specific scene where a mummy slowly crushes a man to death between its hands, and even with the 1970s effects, it’s brutal. The sound design alone—that rhythmic, mechanical breathing—is enough to give anyone a nightmare.
Most people don't realize how much the show risked with this tone. Mary Whitehouse, the famous "moral guardian" of the era, absolutely hated it. She thought it was too scary for kids. She was probably right, but that's exactly why we loved it. The stakes felt real because the Doctor himself looked genuinely afraid. Tom Baker usually played the Fourth Doctor with a grin and a pocket full of jelly babies, but here? He’s cold. He’s urgent. He knows that if Sutekh gets out, the universe doesn't just change—it ends.
What Most People Get Wrong About Sutekh
There’s a common misconception that Sutekh is just another "monster of the week." That is a massive understatement. In the lore of Pyramids of Mars, Sutekh is the last of the Osirans. He’s a being of pure entropy. Most villains want to conquer the world or steal resources. Sutekh just wants silence. He wants everything dead.
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"I walk in the gardens of many worlds, and they wither at my touch."
Gabriel Woolf provided the voice for Sutekh, and his performance is legendary. He didn't shout. He didn't scream like a Cyberman. He spoke in a low, cultured, almost bored whisper. It’s the voice of someone who has already won. When he forces the Doctor to do his bidding using mental torture, you see the Doctor—a Time Lord—reduced to a screaming wreck. It’s one of the few times in the history of the show where the power gap between the hero and the villain feels insurmountable.
Interestingly, the production was a bit of a nightmare. The director, Paddy Russell, was one of the first women to direct for the show and she had to deal with a lot. The script was originally written by Lewis Greifer, but it was reportedly unusable. Robert Holmes had to rewrite the whole thing under the pseudonym Stephen Harris. If you look closely at the "Mars" sets, you can tell they were working with a shoestring budget, but the lighting does the heavy lifting. Shadow is a character in this serial.
The Time Travel Logic That Actually Makes Sense
One of the best scenes in Pyramids of Mars addresses a question fans always ask: "Why can't the Doctor just leave and let it happen?"
Sarah Jane Smith, played by the incomparable Elisabeth Sladen, suggests they just hop in the TARDIS and go back to her time, the 1970s. She figures the world didn't end then, so they must win, right? The Doctor takes her to a devastated, scorched version of 1980. He shows her that the future isn't fixed. It’s a "fluid" state. If they don't stop Sutekh in 1911, the 1970s she knows will never exist.
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It’s a brilliant bit of writing that raises the stakes without needing a massive CGI explosion. It grounds the sci-fi in a terrifying reality. It also highlights the Doctor’s role not just as a traveler, but as a protector of causality itself.
Why the Ending Still Sparks Debate
The climax of the story involves the Doctor using a piece of the TARDIS to trap Sutekh in a time corridor. It’s a bit "technobabble," sure. But the visual of Sutekh aging thousands of years in seconds—becoming a skeleton before he can reach the end of the tunnel—is iconic.
Some fans argue the Doctor was too ruthless here. He essentially sentenced a sentient being to a slow, agonizing death by time dilation. But when you’re dealing with a guy who murdered his entire race and wants to snuff out every star in the sky, you sort of have to play for keeps. There’s no "sending him to prison" for Sutekh. He’s too dangerous to exist.
Notable Production Facts:
- The Mummies: The costumes were so heavy and hot that the actors inside could only stay in them for short bursts.
- The Location: Highbridge House in Hillingdon served as the priory. It was actually due for demolition, which allowed the crew to do things they normally couldn't, like blowing parts of it up.
- The Voice: Gabriel Woolf returned to voice the Beast in the 2006 episode "The Impossible Planet," a nod to his chilling performance as Sutekh.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
If you're looking to revisit this classic or dive in for the first time, don't just settle for a grainy YouTube clip. The way you consume this story changes the experience.
1. Track down the Blu-ray "Season 13" Collection. The restoration work done on Pyramids of Mars is staggering. They’ve cleaned up the film grain and improved the color grading, making the Egyptian iconography pop. More importantly, it includes the "Omnibus" version and the original episodic format. Watch the episodes one by one. The cliffhangers are designed to build tension, and watching it all at once can actually dull the impact.
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2. Listen to the Sound Design.
If you have a decent pair of headphones, use them. The Radiophonic Workshop (specifically Dudley Simpson’s score) is doing incredible work here. The low-frequency hums used when Sutekh is using his psychic powers were designed to make viewers feel physically uneasy. It’s a trick used in modern horror movies, but Doctor Who was doing it in '75.
3. Explore the "Sutekh Prequels."
While the TV show doesn't go deep into Osiran history, the Big Finish audio dramas and the Virgin New Adventures novels do. If you want to know how Sutekh became a monster, look for the audio story The True Saviour of the Universe. It adds a layer of tragedy to the character that makes the TV show even more interesting.
4. Visit the filming locations. While the main house is gone, many of the exterior wooded areas used for the "mummy chase" scenes are still accessible in the UK. Just maybe don't go at night if you're prone to jumping at shadows.
Pyramids of Mars represents the moment Doctor Who grew up. It proved the show could handle high-concept cosmic horror and philosophical questions about destiny without losing its sense of adventure. It remains the gold standard for how to write a villain who is genuinely, bone-chillingly superior to the hero. If you want to understand why the show is still running fifty years later, start here.
To fully appreciate the impact of this era, compare the pacing of Pyramids of Mars with the following serial, The Android Invasion. You'll notice how Hinchcliffe uses silence as a tool in the former to build dread, whereas later stories rely more on action. Studying these transitions helps you see the deliberate craft behind the "cheap" sets of the seventies. Check out the 2024 "Tales of the TARDIS" episode featuring this story for updated reflections from the original cast.