Pyramids of Mars

"All the humans... birds, fish, reptiles, plants... all life is my enemy. All life shall perish under the reign of Sutekh the Destroyer!"

Writer: Terrance Dicks

Format: Novel

Released: December 1956

Series: Target 50

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah 

Synopsis 

'Egyptian mummies building a rocket? That's really crazy, Doctor!' 

Returning to UNIT HQ, the Doctor and Sarah are thrown into turmoil when the TARDIS is caught up by a mysterious force. Sutekh, the last of the Osirians, has been released from his pyramid prison by Egyptologist Marcus Scarman, and now plans to avenge his imprisonment by destroying all life in the cosmos. 

Professor Scarman, possessed by the spirit of Sutekh, builds a rocket and flies to Mars, for it is here that the mystical eye of Horus lies - the key to Sutekh's prison. Can the Doctor stop the evil Egyptian's path of destruction?  

Verdict 

Pyramids of Mars was a very good novelisation of the much credited TV story! Despite my liking of the novel, apparent from the positive rating I have awarded, it didn't quite seem to capture the allure that made the TV story an instant classic. The TV version of this story was so very close to getting full marks and was only trumped during season thirteen of the Classic run by the outstanding The Brain of Morbius, the story of which I recently picked up the Target novelisation off a stall in Cardiff for a mere £2.50. Now that's what I call a bargain. Now back to point and usually Terrance Dicks manages to capture the feel of the TV story so well, just as he did in Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken which may just be my favourite Target novelisation, but I felt the wonder from the TV serial wasn't quite captured here and I'm not sure why. Now I'll admit I was reading this slightly tiredly on a pretty packed train but that's been the case for many gems before like Earthshock not too long so maybe it was my fault (I doubt it though). The story itself is obviously a good one but here I found myself comparing Sutekh to just being a kind of cheap knock off to Omega which was something that definitely was not the case in the TV version! I loved Sutekh in that, and he was still great here but he just seemed a bit too much of an egomaniac. The presentation of the Fourth Doctor and Sarah was beautiful though and that's a pairing that I really do love. They're just absolutely perfect together. I found the subtle reference to the Doctor not wanting to talk too much about adventures he experience in a past incarnation mightily intriguing and I also loved the numerous past story references. I loved the little tribute to Victoria as companion with Sarah wearing a coat that previously belonged to her. It was nice knowing that the Doctor hadn't forgot her and was still find of his former companion. The Fury from the Deep reference was nearly placed. I also liked how we were given a footnote telling us that the description of the Zygon invasion that obviously occurred in Terror of the Zygons could be found in Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, a novel I do own and look forward to reading because I felt the Zygons worked really well in print with Sting of the Zygons. I also liked the mentions of Death to the Daleks and Planet of the Spiders. The amount of death in this story is quite surprising with pretty much every guest character ending up deceased! Marcus Scarman was a good character and I liked how he'd fallen under the influence of Sutekh. The prologue gave us a nice history of Sutekh and his race and why he ended up trapped in a pyramid on Earth that was controlled from Mars. His brother Laurence was equally as good and although the Doctor had told him that what he saw in his brother was just an animated slave of Sutekh, he couldn't kill the image of his brother. Like Sarah, I sympathised with him a great deal on that. I liked the character of Ibrahim and the commitment of him and his family to Sutekh over the years was wonderfully rewarded - with death. Doctor Warlock and Ernie Clements were great characters too. The plot was well placed the style was unmistakably that of Dicks. I should know because I've read loads of his work over the past year! The climax of the story was done greatly and overall this was a decent novel! 

Rating: 8/10