TV Review Dr Who The Pyramid At The End Of The World

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Spoiler alerts I hated this episode. It rendered the previous episode utterly pointless. Had the Doctor only been aware of the aliens coming from the discovery of the pyramid it wouldn't have made any difference. The whole simulation programme never pointed to reactions to what was actually going on. Had the simulator ever showed how we might react if a giant pyramid and ultimatum are sprung on us it might have made sense. Why did the aliens need the decoy WW3 scenario to cover up the bio-hazard escape and why did the lab staff not actually raise some kind of alarm to the authorities when things went pear shaped anyway? We had one quite likeable character trying to sort all that out on her own. The touchscreen healing of the computers was very odd, as with the notion that the aliens would switch on only the one CCTV they needed - they could have reactivated the lot simultaneously. They seem to be playing a new quiz show with Bill, Who's in the box this week - last week the Pope, this week the head of the UN - who's popping out of nowhere in Bill's flat for a chat next week? The repeat imagery of broken glass was annoying - just to foreshadow the disaster looming at the lab too. The countdown settings were meaningless, like kids threatening to hit one another in 5, 4, 3, 2 and a half, two and a quarter ... etc. and never intent on hitting the final zero. Why were the aliens willing to land the fighter jets and submarines to let the crews live while still willing to reduce anyone to dust if they didn't offer the deal with sincere desperation? Why do they even need the consent anyway? The monks read the future through fibre-optics like the Fates controlling threads of destiny - why didn't the Doctor try destroying the fibre-optic gizmo or is that being saved for next week? Arthur Chappell