'Doctor Who' Recap: 'The Pyramid at the End of the World'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

For weeks now, Doctor Who has been quite the fascinating character study when it comes to the Twelfth Doctor. Series Ten has demonstrated the good within his soul by way of his decision to spare Missy's life and by allowing us to watch him do what he does best, save lives and entire worlds. Yet at the same time the show has not let us forget that the Doctor has a dark side and if necessary he will throw down and do what must be done when lives are at stake and while it's been nice to revisit these important attributes that are central to the character, the one thing that Series Ten has continued to explore that manages to fascinate me every single time that I tune in, is the fact that the Doctor has limitations. 

Yes the man that can travel through all of space and time and save the universe with a snap of his fingers has finally discovered that he can only do so much in one sitting, and that there is a price for his humility and decency, in a bittersweet and beautiful way of course, and these revelations came about in stunning fashion during last night's episode, 'The Pyramid at the End of the World', which brought the mysterious Monks to Earth at last, and they were a decidedly different kind of villain since they caused no trouble, and threatened no lives, they simply sat back and waited for mankind to come to them and beg them for salvation because a horrible and devastating threat was about to be unleashed upon our world and without their help, our species would surely perish in horrible fashion.

What that threat was exactly, was the Doctor's first challenge and the first example of how his limitations have come to fruition. Because by focusing on answering the call of the galaxy and saving Missy's sour soul, the Doctor has lost sight of many of the little details and clues the universe sends his way to prevent these disasters well in advance and because of his distraction, a dangerous and powerful bacteria was created in a lab underneath his nose, and while he and the United Nations were trying to figure out how to deal with the Monks, it was unleashed, forcing him to head to the lab in question to rectify the problem and while he was able to do just that and save the day, the second challenge of the night dropped into his lap, in regards to the price for his humility and his decency, because in order to survive his solution to saving mankind, the matter with his sight had to be resolved and thanks to Bill, he has his sight back, but at an incredible cost. 

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Because in order to get it back, Bill made a deal with the Monks. Give the Doctor his vision, they get Planet Earth and they were more than happy to make that trade and well...it was simply incredible to see in that moment how much the Doctor has inspired and changed Bill for the better. She has finally come to understand the notion of sacrifice for the greater good just as he does, and while it seems at first that her gift to the Doctor is selfish and silly, let's ponder on it a little further for the moment, because her decision is based upon the fact that she saw a no win scenario in front of her if she let the Doctor die. 

After all, if the Doctor was gone, it would be all that much easier for the Monks to be able to come up with a new plan to get mankind to acquiesce to their wishes. So Bill's sacrifice truly makes sense. Sure, the planet will now be under the thumb of a malevolent species, but the Doctor lives and he can figure out a plan to save them all. But while seeing Bill put that kind of faith in the Doctor and his abilities was downright beautiful, when one considers how this season has gone for the man, she may have just inadvertantly forced the Doctor to finally face and resolve his internal issues. Because whether we like it or not, Series Ten has featured a broken Doctor, one that has wallowed within the mistakes of his past while trying desperately to make them right and his focus on all of that has brought forth a painful price, the loss of the planet he loves, and now in order to redeem himself he must pull it together and make internal peace with his mistakes so he can save the planet he calls home. 

In the end however, this turned out to be quite the amazing episode to say the least. Once again, Peter Capaldi turned in another incredible performance, one where the audience was able to feel The Doctor's pain as he struggled to keep it together during this crisis since his lack of knowledge terrified him to the core, but he full well knew he had to project an air of confidence to keep the whole situation from falling to pieces. I also loved the fact that the show found a simple and endearing way for the Doctor to face his pain so he can get back to being his old self, and the series could not have set up a bigger challenge for him to deal with, because now he has to figure out how exactly to get mankind to resist, when they willingly handed over their world to the Monks, and it should be interesting to see how the Doctor pulls this particular miracle off come next week. Until then. 

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