‘Doctor Who And The Pyramids Of Mars’ – Terrance Dicks (Target Books)

 


Page Count: 125 Pages

Look at who’s all proud of himself :o) I managed to get through a whole week, looking after the cats, without calling the emergency vet out through my own forgetfulness. Long story, lets just say that the eldest cat will only look at me if I have food. Anyway… :o)

How did I celebrate? Well, I didn’t exactly celebrate as the kitten and I got on just fine and I miss her. What I did do though, when I got back to my place, was sit in the comfy chair and read ‘Doctor Who And The Pyramids Of Mars’ because I’m very much on holiday now and I needed something fairly easy going to round off the day. Before I talk about the book though I really need to say something about the cover… I love the old ‘Doctor Who’ cover art but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cover artist manage to make Sarah Jane Smith look so unlike herself yet unmistakably her, all at the same time. A part of me is slightly in awe of that achievement, especially how hung-over she looks…

Anyway, lets get back on topic, shall we?

For many thousands of years Sutekh had waited… trapped in the heart of an Eygptian pyramid. Now at last the time had come – the moment of release, when all the force of his pent-up evil and malice would be unleashed upon the world…

The TARDIS lands on the site of UNIT headquarters in the year 1911, and the Doctor and Sarah emerge to fight a terrifying and deadly battle… Against Egyptian Mummies, half-possessed humans – and the overwhelming evil of Sutekh!

Sometimes (and especially when it’s a Bank Holiday Weekend), all I want from a book is ‘Good Vs. Evil’ done as straightforward as possible. I’m very happy with a few cliffhangers but plot-twists? No thank you :o) Give me an evil villain and a hero to stand in his way, that’s all I’m after ;o)

So, enter ‘Doctor Who And The Pyramids Of Mars’, a book that delivered just what I was looking for.

And that’s kind of funny because looking back at when I posted about watching the TV serial, I didn’t enjoy it much at the time. I rounded off my post by saying, 'Pyramids of Mars' has enough going for it to be a solid watchable 'Doctor Who' story but felt, to me, like it needed an injection of adrenaline to really push it to the next level.’

Well, this time round, ‘Pyramids of Mars’ had the adrenaline and urgency that I didn’t feel when watching the show. There is all the same running about, jumping through windows and so on; the difference is that it’s all part of the build-up and makes sense in that context. It’s not like the TV show where it all felt like the players were stuck in a holding pattern in the forest. Dicks also captures the Fourth Doctor pretty much perfectly, whether it’s his little idiosyncrasies or his willingness to take time out, from a ‘fate of the planet’ scenario, to teach Sarah-Jane a valuable lesson. Which is in fact, very idiosyncratic of the Doctor… ;o)

And then you’ve got the ‘Doctor vs. Sutekh’, a villain who may not have the ‘sleight of hand’ of the Doctor but is so powerful that it really doesn’t matter. That’s the kind of match-up that I wanted and Terrance Dicks really drives it home what the Doctor is up against and what the consequences are if he fails. The stakes are high and there is a real feeling that things could easily go either way, even though I knew how the story ended. Having said that, I kept turning the pages anyway, that says it all really.

Was I in the wrong frame of mind to appreciate watching ‘Pyramids Of Mars’ then, or did the book come across my path at the exactly the right time? I don’t know to be honest, I suspect I may well give the TV serial another go in the near future and see if my mind changes. What I can say though is that Servicer Robots are just as cool in the book as they were on the screen, chilling in fact.

A nice little read then for the Bank Holiday Weekend :o)

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