In which the Doctor is called upon once again to take on responsibility as President of Earth. The reason for this is that a seemingly ancient pyramid has just appeared in a disputed region of Turmezistan, at a point where the influence of three super-powers meet - China, Russia and the US. The Doctor becomes involved when the Secretary General of the United Nations comes looking for him, disrupting Bill's latest date with Penny. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole travel to see the building.
They discover that it contains some of the mysterious Monks, one of whom states that they will soon be invited to take over the planet. The Doctor has realised that the location of the pyramid is a deliberate provocation to all three super-powers.
Meanwhile, at a laboratory in the north of England - Agrofuel Research Operations - two scientists are having a bad day. Erica had broken her glasses on leaving her house that morning, and colleague Douglas is seriously hungover. He accidentally administers a much higher dosage of a chemical to some test plants.
The Doctor uses the TARDIS to abduct the military commanders of the three powers, in order that they act together rather than be driven to compete and fight each other.
An American bomber is sent to attack the pyramid, but the Monks are able to disable it and cause it to land nearby. They also pluck a Russian submarine from the ocean and deposit it near the pyramid.
The Monks then invite a delegation inside for talks. The Doctor and his companions are accompanied by the UN Secretary General and the three commanders.
Inside they come to a chamber in which the Monks are operating the machine which generates their simulations. It appears as a mass of glowing threads, each representing a possible outcome.
They show the Doctor's party images of the Earth as it will be in one year's time. It is a lifeless wasteland. The Monks state that they will avert this disaster if they are asked to take over.
When the Secretary General agrees to this and gives consent, he is reduced to dust. He had given consent out of fear.
At the lab, Erica and Douglas see that his accident has created a bacteria which destroys the plants totally. It infects him and he is killed within seconds.
The Doctor deduces that the pyramid is a diversion, to make people assume that the conflict will begin there. He works out that it will commence somewhere else - probably some virus or bacteria in a laboratory, to act so quickly. He has all the research laboratory CCTV cameras disabled, then watches to see which one the Monks switch back on again first - Agrofuel's.
The Doctor and Nardole travel there by TARDIS. As the Doctor meets Erica and decides to incinerate the bacteria by blowing up the lab, Nardole goes back to the TARDIS and suddenly collapses.
Bill is still at the pyramid. The three commanders now give consent for the Monks to take over, but they are also reduced to dust. They had consented through strategy.
The Doctor finds himself trapped in the laboratory as the air filtration system is about to pump the bacteria into the outside world. Nardole cannot help him - and he cannot see the door entry code Erica has given him due to his blindness.
Seeing this on the CCTV at the pyramid, Bill decides to give consent if the Doctor can be given his sight back. Unlike the others her action is accepted, as she has given consent out of love.
The Doctor can see again and he gets out of the laboratory seconds before it explodes.
The Monks now rule the Earth...
The Pyramid at the End of the World was written by Peter Harness, and was first broadcast on Saturday 27th May, 2017.
Harness had last written the Zygon two-parter for the previous series. That had been inspired by current world affairs - namely the radicalisation of young people and proliferation of extremist terrorist organisations. The inspiration this time was political as well - the concerns being raised about the rise of right wing populist leaders, such as Donald Trump. The starting point was: how far would someone go to avert a global disaster - and what if that action turned out to be even worse for the planet in the long run?
The main threat would be a race who appeared to act benign, but had a sinister motive. Having seen mummified bodies discovered in bog land, he decided on a corpse-like species, but coupled this with the imagery of Buddhist monks, synonymous with peace and benevolence, but who could also exhibit martial arts skills.
Steven Moffat liked the idea of these creatures, and decided to devise a whole trilogy of episodes involving them - the first of which was Extremis. Whilst Harness tackled the middle episode, in which the Monks took over the Earth, another writer would take on the final episode in which the threat was defeated.
Needing a unique modus operandi, Harness decided that the Monks would study victim planets and target potential conflict points which they could exploit - arriving as supposed saviours. They would offer their help but really be operating like gangsters with a protection racket.
The writer noticed that there had been a number of "near misses" in history, when a war had almost been triggered by accident - such as a missile going off course, or a computer glitch in a weapons system. The Monks would look for these sorts of occurrences. The threat to Earth would be an obvious one, but the Monks would actually be secretly engineering a different one elsewhere.
Harness restructured his ending when he was told that the Doctor was to be blind going into this episode - providing a handy reason for Bill to accept the Monks' help.
Playing Erica is Rachel Denning (Ghosts), whilst her colleague Douglas is Tony Gardner (Last Tango in Halifax and The Thick Of It - the latter of which also starred Peter Capaldi).
The UN Secretary General is played by Togo Igawa. He had earlier portrayed Dr. Tanizaki in the Torchwood episode Cyberwoman.
The trio of military commanders are: Eben Young (US Colonel Brabbit); Andrew Byron (Russian General Ilya Svyatoslavovich); and Daphne Cheung (Chinese General Xiaolian).
Jamie Hill once again plays the lead Monk, voiced by Tim Bentinck.
Ronke Adekoluejo returns as Penny.
Overall, an impressive-looking story with some fine performances, in which the Monks from last week's episode actually make their move. Their mode of invasion is an interesting one, building on the events of Extremis. Quite why they wish to take over isn't explained. Hopefully that will become clearer in the next instalment. (Clue: it isn't).
Things you might like to know:
- Word wise, this story has the longest ever Doctor Who title to date. It was inspired by Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
- It was originally intended that this would be a UNIT story.
- Harness reuses his fictional central Asian republic of Turmezistan, which had featured in his earlier Zygon story.
- A line of dialogue about terrorism was cut just before broadcast, in consideration of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing which had taken place only a few days before.
- The cliff-hanger was to have been Bill apparently reduced to dust as well - though it would be revealed in the next episode that the Monks had transported her away.
- The research company was going to be Global Chemicals, as seen in The Green Death.
- The plant enzyme which mutated was to have been DN8 - after the insecticide DN6 which had featured in Planet of Giants.
- Bill's date with Penny goes wrong for the second time, as it is interrupted by the UN Secretary General. In Extremis, it had been the Pope - though that had been in a computer simulation.
- The Doctor's sonic sunglasses reveal Nardole to be 237 years old.
- This episode marks the final time we get to see Capaldi play his electric guitar.
- The Monks use the Doomsday Clock to harass the humans into accepting their rule. Set up by nuclear scientists in 1947, this was designed to show the public how close we were coming to destruction should atomic technology not be properly regulated. Climate change has become a bigger element in recent years. There was a display about this at the recent "Science Fiction Exhibition" at London's Science Museum:
No comments:
Post a Comment