I love Rose Noble but why does she work for UNIT? She is 15. Does she remember the meta-crises and that gives her a unique perspective?
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The bit about the anagram at the end kind of bugs me. It is just so laboured, and requires both removing a letter and replacing one - not really how an anagram works is it?
- Susan Triad Technology
- Sue Tech
- Sutekh
Should I make allowances for storytelling purposes? 
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I wondered that as well, her main skillset as presented to us is to make cuddly toys 
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Interesting little tidbit from the wiki.
Possible Spoilers for The Box of Terrors (The 60th Anniversary Audio Novel)
At Jon Culshawâs suggestion, The Box of Terrors was originally to feature Sutekh, alongside Omega, as a cataclysmic villain for the Doctors to face. However, Sutekh did not make it into the story, with Culshaw citing rights issues. And Iâm assuming that those ârights issuesâ are actually because âweâre using this character for TV so we donât want to overshadow thatâ.
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Yeah and Sue Tech â Sutekh is not an anagram!
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I just file it under binary/non-binaryâŚ
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s15 better be the Chumblies
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We know theyâre a software company from The Giggle (though not much more than that)
The Giggle was also in November 2023 and theyâd probably been using it for a while by then, and the rebrand to Susan TRIAD technology was only a couple months ago
Presumably theyâd been keeping an eye, but didnât think it was anything super out of the ordinary or anything like that (at least would be my guess)
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Yeahhhh, itâs an acronym (ish) but not an anagram
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Just finished listening to the audiobook version of âDoctor Who and the
Pyramids of Mars,â read by Tom Baker. First off, Tom Baker is an excellent audiobook narrator. My memory of the TV episode is somewhat muddy, but I think I enjoyed the audiobook version of the story more than the televised version.
Regarding Sutekh: Initially, I thought he was not in the same league as the Toymaker. Why was he so afraid of him? The introduction of the Osirians at the beginning of the book seemed more like an equivalent to the Time Lords. However, by the end, that perception changed drastically. Sutekh is definitely at the Eternal-Level and thereby god-tier, not to mention completely mad and terrifying.
So, my original thought of Sutekh being retconned for the episode dissipated. Itâs possible that he is an entity even other god-tier beings like the Toymaker are afraid of.
The book ends with him being tossed into a time trap he could not escape, supposedly dying after 7000 years. That trap would fit with him escaping via the âmessed upâ point in time that surrounded Ruby being left on the steps of the church as a baby.
By the way, the use of the time trap shows why it is not a good idea to mess with the Time Lords, even if one is a much more powerful being. Their mastery of time can compensate for a lot of power differential.
I will probably watch the TV episode as well. Iâm curious to see if my memory of the TV version being much less dynamic than what I just listened to proves to be true.
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Itâs been right under our noses all along!
We just have to apply the âRTD rules for how to make an anagramâ!
Fifteenâs first solo story was
- The Church on Ruby Road
- Remove: The rch o R Road
- Change the n to an m, the u to an l and the y to an ie
- Make it a plural
- Smush it together
Chumblies!
Yes I am being deliberately silly here
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Sue Tech and Sutekh sound the same. Itâs not an anagram, itâs a homophone. It still works, itâs just a shame they didnât call it what it is.
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I enjoyed the episode a lot while watching it. There were a lot of fantastic performances. Bonnie was 
Mel and I loved her telling the Doctor off. Itâs always nice to see Lenny Rush, although I felt he didnât get much characterisation to work with. The TARDIS arrival would have been great if it had taken place during a high stress part of the episode, but was just silly, coming at the very start as it did. Apart from that, the tension built up nicely to the reveal. Iâm looking forward to how this is all resolved next week.
I have some reservations about the plot and a whole bunch of dangling threads that I doubt will get tied up in any satisfying way, but I may be wrong about that and we are only half way through the story, so itâs unfair to comment on them until Iâve seen if and how it all falls into place next week.
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Iâve been waiting for the Mara to make a return since 2005. I always felt it was something that Moffat might use but this never came to pass. Delighted that the Mara has now, finally, been name-dropped. Surely this means a likely return in the near future? Thereâs such scope for this entity to be used to great effect with modern Who.
And, surely, the threefold God has to be the Gods of Ragnarok, yes?
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Along a similar line, I was somewhat wondering why Rose was even in the episode, since she didnât actually do anything. I like her, but, you know, throw her in an episode where she has more to do?
As far as being 15, that still doesnât make her the youngest one in the room, given Morris.
Of course, if I was in charge of the episode, I would have taken both out and added Shirley Bingham instead. I kinda want her to fire some missiles at SutekhâŚ
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Iâd love to have Tegan show up as a guest, and immediately get possessed by the Mara. 
And I hope so, since I want to see them back, too.
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My own take on this episode? I plan to write a full review when I get chance (and the mood takes me) but for nowâŚ
âŚI flippinâ LOVED it!
I certainly take on board the reservations and quibbles raised by a number of you. None of them mattered enough, however, for me to lessen my enjoyment of something that encapsulated so many things that I adore about this wonderful show.
The slow build. The sense of initial unease that built, during the episode, to a crescendo of wrongness. Genuinely chilling as we headed into that final sequence. Something to give the children that thrill that only Doctor Who can.
I know the time window scene has its critics but I wouldnât have it any other way. I didnât need exposition as to how and why UNIT have this technology. Theyâve clearly been magpies for alien-tech over the decades. itâs a new device that allows for a different storytelling frame⌠and it worked delightfully. The sense of stepping into a glitchy low res VHS world was typically Who and also leaned into horror tropes, whilst still maintaining a family friendly facade. The patient and gradual way they developed that scene, the reveal of the Sutekh entity surrounding the TARDIS, the growing loss of control.
And Iâve always had a soft spot for bodies that crumble to dust.
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Oh, that would be delightful. 
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I personally had no trouble believing that UNIT had built a time window. Theyâve run into all sorts of alien shenanigans including time travel in the past, and theyâve clearly kept and fixed up a fair amount of devices theyâve run into in the past. If it hadnât been blown up, I mightâve thought they salvaged something from âDay of the Daleksâ. But, naturally, they had pieces of a non working TARDIS hanging around for most of the 3rd Doctorâs runâŚ
I thought the behind the scenes on how they did the time window effect was pretty interesting, tooâŚ
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I know itâs a common viewpoint, but Iâm just delighted that Bonnie finally gets a chance to play Mel as intelligent and capable in a way that she just never did in the 1980s. Mel came at that time in my life where I was going through the âdifficultâ teens, still loving Doctor Who but also very aware that it wasnât seen as âcoolâ. I wanted my DW to be more âgrown upâ (oh what a deluded boy I was) and was deeply embarrassed by Mel. Of course, it was never her fault. The concept for the character as computer programmer was fine (though never utilised) and my own immaturity at the time prevented me from just relaxing and going with it. That said, she WAS poorly used first time around. Not so today. Hooray!
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