One of the most powerful beings faced by the Doctor in Doctor Who was the all-powerful Sutekh. Sutekh the Destroyer was a god-like creature and was the last of the Osirans. He was imprisoned by his brother Horus beneath a pyramid in Ancient Egypt and he had been trying to escape for centuries. Sutekh is evil and his release would bring chaos and destruction upon the cosmos.

Pyramids of Mars

★★★★★

TX: 25/10/1975 – 15/11/1975

Written by Stephen Harris    Directed by Paddy Russell

The Fourth Doctor and Sarah-Jane Smith arrive at a country manor in England, 1911. The explorer and Egyptologist Marcus Scarman has returned from Egypt a changed man – he has fallen under the influence of a powerful being called Sutekh. Sutekh is the last of the Osirans, a race with god-like powers that imprisoned Sutekh beneath a pyramid in Ancient Egypt. Marcus Scarman and a group of robot Mummies are assembling a rocket outside the priory. Their intention is to use the rocket to destroy a pyramid on Mars which is controlling Sutekh’s prison in Egypt. The rocket is being protected by devices contained inside Ancient Egyptian canopic jars. The pyramid on Mars is later glimpsed again in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Vault of Secrets. The possessed Marcus Scarman kills his own brother Lawrence Scarman. The Doctor confronts Sutekh, calling him a twisted abhorrence. Sutekh orders Marcus and the Mummies to kill the captured Sarah-Jane, but Sutekh stops when he realises that the Doctor can now be blackmailed into doing his bidding. The possessed Doctor takes Sarah-Jane, Marcus and the Mummies to the pyramid on Mars in the TARDIS. The pyramid is riddled with booby traps and Ancient Egyptian puzzles that remind Sarah-Jane of the City of the Exxilons (Death to the Daleks). The Doctor and Sarah-Jane navigate their way through the maze within the pyramid. However, they arrive too late to stop Marcus Scarman from releasing Sutekh. The Doctor realises they have less than two minutes to return to Earth and prevent Sutekh from returning through the portal to the sarcophagus in the priory. This is due to the time required for the Eye’s radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth. The Doctor and Sarah-Jane return to the priory and use a module from the TARDIS to extend the terminus of the time tunnel into the far future, resulting in the jackal-headed Sutekh dying of old age before reaching the end. However, the portal then overloads, and he and Sarah Jane flee into the TARDIS as the priory is consumed in flames.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death

★★★★☆

TX: 15/06/2024 – 22/06/2024

Written by Russell T Davies    Directed by Jamie Donoughue

The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday return to U.N.I.T HQ on Earth where they are reunited with Kate Stewart, Melanie Bush, the Vlinx and Rose Noble. The Doctor wants to get to the bottom of the mystery of the woman who he and Ruby keep seeing throughout their adventures. Kate reveals that the woman is Kate Triad, an entrepreneur who is about to launch her revolutionary Triad Technology around the world. S. Triad is an anagram of TARDIS and Susan’s first name prompts the Doctor to theorise that she may be his granddaughter. The Doctor decides that the answers may lie at Ruby Sunday’s birth on Christmas Eve 2004. Ruby goes home and fetches a VHS tape of the CCTV of the Church on Ruby Road on the night of her birth. At U.N.I.T HQ, everyone gathers round a time window which helps to recreate the night of Ruby’s birth using the VHS. Once again, the Doctor and Ruby witness the mysterious cloaked woman. However, an elemental force engulfs the TARDIS in the video before vanishing. An ominous voice speaks from beyond, which chills the Doctor and his companions to the bone. The Doctor and Mel confront Susan Triad, who has dreams of herself in the Doctor’s adventures. As the TARDIS in the present day becomes engulfed in the same matter as back in 2004, it becomes clear that this a trap. The Doctor is horrified to discover that his old enemy Sutekh has returned and is about to wreak destruction and death upon the world… the one who waits, waits no more!

Sutekh and his servants release his dust of death which consumes the Earth and ultimately destroys all life in the universe. Sutekh abhors life and he tells the Doctor, Ruby and Mel that the destruction of all life in the universe satisfies him. Sutekh reveals that he survived the Doctor’s banishment of him at the end of Pyramids of Mars by clinging to the TARDIS in disguise and accompanying him on his adventures ever since. The Doctor vows to stop Sutekh before he, Ruby and Mel escape in a Remembered TARDIS. The Doctor is given a spoon by a kind woman on a distant planet before she disintegrates too. The Doctor realises that the key to saving the universe is to find the identity of Ruby’s biological mother. The Doctor, Ruby and Mel return to Earth so that the Doctor can perform a DNA test on Ruby and find her mother. The scan completes and the name is revealed to Ruby. Mel is revealed to be a dead servant of Sutekh and she brings the Doctor, Ruby and Ruby’s secret to Sutekh, who is in the form of a jackal. Ruby is about to reveal the secret of her mother to Sutekh, but the Doctor and Ruby spring a trap on the ageless god. The Doctor and Ruby tie Sutekh to the TARDIS and drag him through the time vortex, restoring life to the universe in the process. The Doctor cuts the chord and Sutekh disintegrates in the time vortex. Back on Earth, U.N.I.T identify Ruby’s biological mother from her DNA: a nurse named Louise Miller, who abandoned Ruby at the Church on Ruby Road when she was a teenager. Ruby and her biological mother are reunited in a cafe in an emotional scene. With her family restored, Ruby apparently bids goodbye to the Doctor… but one question still remains, who is Mrs Flood? When I met Anita Dobson last year, I handed her the Doctor Who Season 1 DVD for her to sign and I said “Happy Christmas Ange” to her in a cockney accent, which she loved!