Classic Doctor Who TV Hour-ish: Pyramids of Mars, or Does Everyone Think Egyptian Gods Were Ancient Aliens?

"Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the Destroyer. Where I tread
I leave nothing but dust & darkness. I find that good."

     While the Doctor is waxing morose over his current involvement with UNIT, something forces the TARDIS out of its flight path & causes Sarah Jane to witness a jackal-faced apparition in the console room. Following its energy source, the Doctor & Sarah Jane find themselves in 1911 England at a former priory occupying the spot where UNIT HQ will one day reside. There they discover that Professor Marcus Scarman, while on an expedition in Egypt, accidentally stumbled upon the imprisoning tomb of Sutekh the Destroyer, the last of an ancient & incredibly powerful alien race known as the "Osirians", better known to humans as the ancient Egyptian gods. A crazed super-being who shunned his brother Horus' view that all species can co-exist together because he feared that one day his own apparent superiority might be challenged, Sutekh became the destroyer of all forms of life across the universes. His entombment by the Eye of Horus took the strength of 740 Osirians, including his own brother, and now all that stands between his evil machinations & long-sought-after freedom is The Doctor & Sarah Jane.
     The third serial of series 13, broadcast in four weekly parts between October 25th & November 15th 1975, Pyramids of Mars is commonly held up as one of the best classic era stories & it's easy to see why with its rather excellent production quality, steady pace of a solid adventure story & a truly chilling villain. In a 2010 io9 article, the cliffhanger in episode 3 was rated among the greatest Doctor Who cliffhangers of all time (new series included).
    Its increasingly more interesting to see earlier regenerations of the Doctor come up against villains who have strong genocidal tendencies considering what actions lie in the Doctor's own future. Its add a new depth to the NuWho series, especially the Steven Moffat era's central focus on the Doctor facing the consequences of the choices he has made in his lives. In The Dark Knight, we hear the statement "Either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Watching thru classic Who is watching the Doctor constantly & progressively more easily break the rules of time put in place by his own people, knowing that the day will come when the Doctor will cross the line far too easily with shocking results.
      I loved Pyramids of Mars, and not just in that casual way one tends to love any aspect of a larger adoration. Sutekh the Destroyer was a deliciously evil one-off TV villain (he appeared later in a couple Magic Bullet Productions audio dramas) of the sort that the new series desperately needs to bring back into circulation, although a return of Sutekh himself seems unlikely. It would be, however, one epic confrontation.