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| "Aliens have invaded, things are tense between the US and Russia, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." |
Coming off of last week's
reality-bending Gothic nightmare, Extremis,
The Pyramid at the End of the World is
both a sequel of sorts and something totally different. While that
episode was a grim, horror-tinged mood piece that took a turn towards
Black Mirror-ish
surrealness, this follow-up is still pretty tense, but as a tightly
confined political thriller. While obviously an otherworldly threat
is the catalyst (this is Doctor Who,
after all), the plot essentially boils down to a tense round of
political negotiations between American, Chinese, and Russian
military leaders, with The Doctor attempting to moderate and an
invasion – or possibly global war – hanging in the balance. The
results are quite strong and compelling, not to mention rather
frighteningly relevant.
Last
season's The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
was a pretty clear political commentary on current military tensions
in the Middle East, and the ways in which military violence only
fuels the fires of extremism, but it masked this reflection of our
current political strife behind an alien plot. This time, though, the
negotiations aren't between humans and aliens, but between real-life
world powers whose current political relationships are rocky at best.
Yes, the scenario uses invasion for a “what if,” but unlike that
Zygon double-feature,
this episode doesn't even attempt to hide its story in allegory; it
is directly commenting on the state of the world right now. What
makes this so unnerving (and frighteningly effective) is that it
plays out almost exactly like a pre-1990s Cold War scenario,
underscoring the fact that our precarious geopolitical situation is
very close to turning back into another Cold War right now. The
threat is not so much from the aliens, but from ourselves, and that
thought is as scary as it is plausible. The episode also gets in a
dig or two at Donald Trump, and unashamedy shows what a negative view
the UK has of us politically, but that should be no real surprise;
it's not like we haven't earned that scorn, and it is probably good
for us to see what a laughing stock we are in other countries'
pop-culture.
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| "Twizzler Pull N Peel, Doctor?" |
This sort of very direct, based-on-real-life political tension is not something that Doctor Who does very often, but it does it quite well here. It roots the suspense of the episode in just how easy it would be for an invading force to turn us against ourselves and let us do the hard work of our own destruction. What also makes this episode so unusual is that this premise is handled in an almost strictly character-based way, dealing with the crisis through conversations in tightly confined environments, rather than action set-pieces. The result isn't the most well-done claustrophobic character-based tension that the show has ever pulled off – that would probably have to be series four's Midnight – but it is still a very interesting experiment, and the narrative relevance of the plot goes a long way to give it some added punch. It certainly helps that the alien invasion plot is quite excellent too. The mystery of their plan works quite well, and they make a very creepy threat, both in concept and in art design. This and Extremis clearly add up to parts of a larger arc taking shape in the background of this season, and I am very excited to see where it might go from here: they certainly are formidable foes for Peter Capaldi's final year on the show.
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| "Hey, these aren't Twizzlers at all - they're Sour Punch Straws! I knew these aliens couldn't be trusted..." |
The Pyramid at the End of the World
isn't without its flaws. The
suspense and plotting isn't always as tight as it should be, and its
political commentary (while very good, and very admirable, in
concept) could have been a bit more fleshed-out. But it is at the
very least a very good episode, and it is always great to see the
show do something a bit different, such as stepping back from
allegory and addressing political and social issues head-on. Plus, it
absolutely elaborates on last week's Extremis
in a very compelling way, and seems to be setting up some fantastic
things for later this season. It's quite good, but seems like it's
going to end up being part of something much better.
Score:
-
Christopher S. Jordan
Better
share this review quick, before the aliens invade.