Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars (1975)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 25 October 1975 - 15 November 1975
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Production: Philip Hinchcliffe
Production Unit Manager: George Gallaccio

SCRIPT
Script: Script: Stephen Harris (real names: Robert Holmes, Lewis Griefer)
Story Editors: Robert Holmes

DIRECTION
Director: Paddy Russell

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Ron Koplick
Film Camera: John McGlashan

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: M.A.C. Adams

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: Brian Hiles
Special Sound: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jean Steward
Costumes: Barbara Kidd

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Ian Scoones
Title Sequence: Bernard Lodge

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Christine Ruscoe

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Peter Grimwade
Assistant Floor Manager: Paul Braithwaite

CAST
Tom Baker (The Doctor)
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Bernard Archard (Professor Marcus Scarman)
Nick Burnell, Melvyn Bedford, Kevin Selway (mummies)
Michael Sheard (Laurence Scarman)
Peter Copley (Dr Warlock)
Peter Maycock (Ibrahim Namin)
Vik Tablian (Ahmed)
Michael Bilton (Collins)
George Tovey (Ernie Clements)
Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh)
Tony Alless, Oscar Charles (Egyptian labourers - uncredited)
Gabriel Woolf (voice of Horus - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

In 1911 Egyptologist Marcus Scarman worships Sutekh a god held prisoner in a pyramid in Egypt. Using robots that look like Mummies Sutekh through Scarman wants to construct a missle to destroy his prison.The Doctor must stop them.

Borrowing from The Mummy legend with just a dash of H.G. Wells thrown in, this comes up with a better story than its antecedants. Though there are monsters here, The Fourth Doctor's best stories feature him combating a single villain, often human and - here for the first time and too become a regular motif over the next two seasons - in the thrall of an awesome overlord. Bernard Archard continues the run of great actors to square up to Tom Baker.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1975
October
25: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)

November
1: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
8: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
15: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.292-294
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009