Doctor Who: Every Tom Baker/Hinchcliffe Era Story Ranked From Worst To Best

3. Pyramids Of Mars

While the Doctor is desperately aggressive in the Seeds of Doom when faced with the vast Krynoid threat, here he€™s withdrawn but much more detached, as though he almost feels a little defeated when faced with Sutekh, one of the more powerful (corporeal) villains in the show€™s history. The Doctor seems to accept the minor destruction in this story on the small scale much more against the large scale in Seeds, as though he knows that it's simply the snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. The Fourth Doctor has a very utilitarian view during this era. This is to the point where the Doctor essentially submits himself to an eternity of torture for the good of trhe universe. He says in episode two that not even the Time Lord could hold back Sutekh so it's as though he knows that he€™d die anyway but isn€™t scared to submit himself to an eternity of torture along the way. This is, as a result, one of the most pessimistic serials in Doctor Who history. While a regeneration story like The Caves of Androzani is nihilistic, you both expect it and the Doctor survives in a new and exciting form at the end. Here, everybody dies and the only outcome is that evil is staved off. Even in a bleak story like Genesis of the Daleks you can be invested and enjoy seeing the origins of the Daleks revealed. Here, there is no such enjoyment. While many say that the final sequence in the pyramid solving puzzles is unsatisfying, it would be except for the moment where the Doctor and Sarah Jane catch up to Scarman and his mummy henchman solving puzzles ahead of them and have to turn back. At that point, you know they can€™t win because they can€™t overtake them. Take that into account and the following scenes take on a whole new light, one that serves as a perfect fitting to such a bleak and atmospheric episode.