PLOTLINE  

For many thousands of years the Suthekh had waited...trapped in the heart of an Egyptian Pyramid. Now at last the time had come - the moment of release, when all the force of his pent-up evil and malice would be unleashed upon the world.

The TARDIS lands on the site of Unit headquarters in the year 1911, and the Doctor and Sarah emerge to fight a terrifying and deadly battle...against Egyptian Mummies, half possessed humans - and the overwhelming evil power of Sutekh!

COMMENT

There is little criticise and much to praise for the 1976 true classic, THE PYRAMIDS OF MARS . Perfect television.

And it is very much the same for BBC AUDIO's 2008 re-imagineering of the Robert Holmes scripted story & Terrance Dicks penned novel. In this CD release, notwithstanding its 32 year pedigree, it seems like a new & fresh production.

With this unabridged recording, fans are treated to not only the fleshing-out (if yet a little embalmed) of the background to Sutekh's imprisonment but of the lives of fleeting incidental characters. Indeed, the Prologue itself is as gripping as a limpet perpetually assailed by the power of the sea.

The gentile yet all-assuming narration by the legendary Tom Baker will come to not surprise to aficionados of the excellent unabridged DOCTOR WHO releases from BBC AUIDO.

Baker's repertoire of "stock voices" is stunning creative; from Tom's own creation of the garrulous Fourth Doctor to the North African Ibrahim Namin, to the prepossessing Edwardian Laurence Scarman to the unofficial "game-keeper" Ernie Clements. With this ensemble, Baker eclipses both spoken word stalwarts Stephen Fry and Martin Jarvis as the most reassuring audio talents that the UK has to offer (supported by the incredibly atmospheric music score and chilling special effects by Meon Productions).

The story, of course, is apocryphal and affectionately known as - using the FRIENDS sitcom notation format - "The one with the mummies". The recently released DVD has not only endeared a new set of fans to the story in addition to reaffirming to "older" fans that it DOCTOR WHO sometimes (even when compared to Russell T Davies' NEW SERIES) does not get any better. However, with the novelisation reading, THE PYRAMIDS OF MARS pars down the visual incongruities of 1970's TV drama production to deliver a new classic. The Egyptian archaeological dig is no longer "stock footage" from the BBC Telecine library and is now, with thanks to the listener' imagination, a breath-taking endless visual of shimmering sand, discordant bad-tempered spitting dromedaries and "High Tea" at 4 o'clock. And the visceral damnation of the consumed Earth no longer a 20 second visual effect but a truly heart-wrenching sickening vision of Sutekh's wrath.

Undoubtedly, DOCTOR WHO AND THE PYRAMIDS OF MARS is timeless and for all DOCTOR WHO fans it should be their first "Desert Island CD" of choice.