and proceeds with the servitor into the pyramid. However, the Doctor's respiratory bypass system allows him to quickly recover, and, now free of Sutekh's control, he and Sarah Jane follow Scarman through a series of chambers requiring solving logic puzzles to pass. They are unable, however, to stop Scarman from destroying the Eye, and Scarman, having served his purpose, disintegrates. The Doctor then realises that Sutekh will not be released for two minutes due to the time required for the Eye's radio signal to travel from Mars to Earth. The Doctor and Sarah 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 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. Continuity Sarah Jane wears a dress which the Doctor says belonged to Victoria Waterfield. She remarks that the puzzles are similar to those in the Exxilon City in Death to the Daleks (1974), although she personally never entered the City. Production The Universal Pictures film The Mummy (1932) and especially the Hammer horror films The Mummy (1959) and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) influenced the story. As originally written by Lewis Greifer it was considered unworkable. Greifer was unavailable to perform rewrites, so the scripts were completely rewritten by script editor Robert Holmes. The pseudonym used on transmission was Stephen Harris. Pyramids of Mars contributes to the UNIT dating controversy, one of the contradictions in the Doctor Who universe. The exterior scenes were shot on the Stargroves estate in Hampshire, a Victorian mansion noted for its ornate, Gothic revival style of architecture which was owned by Mick Jagger at the time. The same location would be used during the filming of Image of the Fendahl (1977). The new TARDIS console, which debuted in the preceding story Planet of Evil, does not appear again until The Invisible Enemy (1977). Owing to the cost of setting up the TARDIS console room for the filming of only a handful of scenes, a new console set was designed for the following season. Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen improvised a number of moments in this story, most notably a scene in Part Four where the Doctor and Sarah Jane start to walk out of their hiding