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]

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: 21 April, 2008