Pyramids Of Mars - Part Three

Pyramids Of Mars - Part Three

Hmm, it's been a while since I've studied probability theory, but it's a little suspicious that both of the 20th century episodes of 'Doctor Who' selected by the random number generator have featured Michael Sheard. We can only think that he's looking down on us, tutting that we're still "living in sin!"...

But Part Three of 'Pyramids Of Mars' it is and we took a keen interest in the deco of his living-room which is decked out with china dogs, a grandfather clock that's stopped at five-to-six and a picture of an old cow.

No explanation is ever given for this odd design choice, so we leave it to your imagination.

'Pyramids' sees a confident production team taking the usual script emergency situation and making a little bit of magic. As a kid, this was just what I wanted from the programme. In fact, I remember being impatient when the 'Basil Brush' show's closing story would continually be interrupted by the vulpine star.

"Get a move on, Basil! You're delaying the start of 'Doctor Who'..." I'd think to myself, not appreciating the finer points of pre-recording and editing.

According to BBC Genome, by the way, Basil was joined that week by Demis Roussos, but even though we think we've tracked down a clip, I can't say that I remember it from the original broadcast. But then I can't remember our Fireworks Party from that year, either!

As one of the very first stories to come out on VHS, this was a very good choice and the DVD release boasts a wide range of interesting extra features, including more information on the life of Sutekh in the form of 'Oh Mummy', which has the distinction of achieving rather more laughs-per-minute than 'Oh, Father!'.

Our natter about Part Three may be found here and we'll come back with another random episode at some point fairly soon.

But if it's 'The Invisible Enemy' Part Four, we really WILL think something strange is going on...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)