The Doctor Who Review | S10 E07 | The Pyramid at the End of the World

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WARNING! SPOILER ALERT! Welcome back to the Doctor Who Review, where I recap the week’s episode and give some thoughts and opinions on it. Please do not read if you have not seen this week’s episode. There are major spoilers ahead. You have been warned. Check out the rest of the Doctor Who Reviews here.

Title: The Pyramid at the End of the World

Written by: Peter Harness and Steven Moffat

The end of your life is already begun. There is a last place you will ever go, a last door you will ever walk through, a last sight you will ever see. And every step you ever take is moving you closer. The end of the world is a billion, billion tiny moments. And somewhere, unnoticed, in silence or in darkness, it has already begun.

It’s the little things, like a pair of glasses smashing, that can change the course of history. Or a blind Time Lord who can’t get out of a toxic room because he can’t see the keypad. It’s things like that that make a Doctor Who episode super detailed, but which all lead up to the end point.

Secretary General of the United Nations interrupts Bill’s date (much like last week’s episode, Extremis, though that date technically never happened), and asks her to get in touch with the President of the World. Aka The Doctor.

The Doctor is needed because there’s a 5,000 year old pyramid which has seemingly sprouted from the ground overnight. As it turns out, the monks from last week are back, and they’re wanting pure consent from the World’s people so they can protect and look after them. The world is ending, the Doomsday clock is counting down, and the monks will help out, but not without permission from those pure enough to ask for it.

The Doc doesn’t want to give them permission – first he wants to find out why the world is ending. Those glasses smashing? They belonged to genius scientist who unfortunately couldn’t see properly and now there’s a leaked biochemical in the lab. If the Doctor doesn’t stop it in time, the whole world will melt, essentially.

But then Twelve gets stuck after pushing the ‘go’ button on a bomb that will end the toxin, in a room where the only exist is a keypad he can’t see. Panicking, Bill, on the other end of the phone, asks the monks if they’ll make the Doctor see again. They will, she asks them for help, Twelve sees, gets out, toxin is destroyed…but now the world is in the hands of these zombie-like monks which can’t be a good thing.

My Thoughts on The Pyramid at the End of the World

I quite enjoyed this episode. I’ve mentioned before that I quite like history-based ones (hello, ancient Egypt and pyramids) and that I enjoy episodes set on Earth. Boom. The Pyramid at the End of the World.

It’s funny how actually the premise of the ‘world’s ending’ part of this episode was actually very simple, and something that could actually happen – a biochemical getting out a lab and destroying the world. Plausible. But it takes aliens disguised as corpse monks to bring it to light when they land a pyramid in the middle of nowhere. A Who episode a it’s finest, perhaps.

I love how Nardole was again present in this episode. He definitely brings something a little quirky to the team. It’ll be interesting to see how the Doctor gets the Earth back from the so-called ‘protection’ of the monks. As Bill says to Twelve: “you better get my planet back.”

Overall thoughts on The Pyramid at the End of the World

Overall, not a favourite episode, but I did enjoy it. The Pyramid at the End of the World is actually the second in a three-part mini series within season 10, this story line concluding in next week’s The Lie of the Land. I don’t really like double and triple episodes, but I think I’m okay with this one. We’ll see, I supposed, after next weeks.

What did you think of The Pyramid at the End of the World?