There are, effectively, two set-up episodes before the wrap up episode. The first episode is The Android Invasion, but without an eye patch. Just The Pope, some Cardinals, a book that drives people to suicide, and some ‘Zombie Monks’. The ‘Zombie Monks’ are the villains of the piece. And we discover that they’ve built some epic holographic simulation of the Earth in order to work out how to invade. As I said it is The Android Invasion with a bigger budget.
The
book, ‘Veritas’, explains the Holographic Simulation and the rebellion is
suicide. Getting people out of the programme. It is pretty dark.
The Doctor is still blind. And he isn’t telling anyone. Theoretically because he doesn’t want his enemies to know but why he still can’t bring himself to tell Bill is beyond me. But then we wouldn’t need Bill to do something drastic at the end of The Pyramid at the End of the World because the Doctor’s blindness puts his life at risk.
Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas keep up their stonkingly excellent jobs throughout. Pearl Mackie in particular gets to do some solid work. The scene where she confronts the Doctor is really strong.
Capaldi continues to be his excellent self. At this point he’s my favourite Doctor Who from the post-2005 era. He’s not quite Tom Baker, but he’s not far off.
We don’t know much about the Zombie Monks. They’re just invaders. I like the fact that they need consent to invade. That someone with power must give pure consent. I’m not sure how pure any consent would be in a situation like that. You’re always going to be polluted by hope of eventually ridding yourself on the Zombie Monks.
I like though that there’s a double thread of risk in The Pyramid at the End of the World. The Zombie Monks want us to consent to their invasion and they know we’ll have to be in a terrible place to do so. Everyone thinks it is World War Three, which is why the Pyramid has dropped in at a place where the three largest militaries in the world are having a stand-off. But actually somewhere else a man with a hangover is about to create a biological catastrophe that will end everything.
It is by trying to solve that problem when blind that the Doctor forces Bill to give her consent.
By this point several people have been dusted and it is clear that the Monks are up to no good. It is the Lie of the Land that shows us the aftermath of the invasion.
The Monks have interfered with everyone’s memories. They have now always been here. Our historical memories have been interfered with. And The Doctor is working for the Monks. Broadcasting happy messages on their behalf like a Scottish Big Brother. Six months have passed since Bill gave her consent to the Monks and there are now statues to the Monks everywhere and Memory Police tracking down those who don’t believe the new history.
This is where Missy comes in. Or at least comes in again. Extremis has flashbacks to the Doctor taking Missy from a potential death penalty to imprisonment. She’s going cold turkey on being evil. By the time we get to the final episode of three The Doctor is desperate and will need her help. But only after Bill and Nardole rescue him.
It is a rescue with complications. In that Bill has to believe the Doctor has genuinely changed sides to the extent that she is angry enough to shoot him. This is apparently a test, but a psychologically damaging one I would imagine. I’m never sure that goading someone into shooting you is the wisest of ideas, but what do I know?
Except for a rather beautiful coda between the Doctor and Missy. Michelle Gomez is so good as Missy, especially in that final scene.
Now I mostly enjoyed this but I have quibbles. At the end the Doctor shows that the exit of the Monks is being forgotten by people. They’ve been erased. But there are vehicles with Memory Police written on them, Memory Police uniforms, people who worked for and were paid by The Memory Police. People have been killed, including three senior officers in the Russian, American, and Chinese armies. People have been sent to camps and there’s a lot of chunky bases of broken statues across the world. I mean how does all that get explained away?
And I have begun to pull at the threads of the story, which will end up making it more disappointing in the long run.
I like the ideas in the story that play on the zeitgeist: the holographic simulation, the idea of ‘fake news’ and how history is written – this is the ‘history is written by the victors’ par excellence. There’s elements of 1984 here too: “He who controls the past, controls the future.”
Not
bad. But a tad too long and a tad too easily tied up at the end.