Classic Villains: Sutekh, Last of the Osirans

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright BBC                  

“Your evil is my good! I am Sutekh the Destroyer. Where I tread I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good.”

Doctor Who has always danced the line between pure horror and fantasy and in the 1975 adventure The Pyramids of Mars, Doctor Who delivered a perfect dose of horror and Egyptian mythology which is one of the most solid and memorable stories of the run. It is evocative of the Hammer movies with its a lost Egyptian tomb being opened against the native’s protests. Once opened, Marcus Scarman is killed by something in the tomb.

It introduced Sutekh who was able to psychically invade the Tardis scaring the hell out of Sarah Jane Smith. The Doctor claims this is impossible so we get our first indication of an enemy so powerful the Doctor cannot even conceive of it. The fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive at the site of UNIT headquarters. This is the Priory which burned down. It isn’t long before they discover the house filled with Egyptian artifacts brought from their home country by one Ibrahim Namin who claims he is acting on orders of the house owner Marcus Scarman.

Namin is part of a cult that worships Sutekh and is paving the way for his lord’s return. To ensure this happens, he will do anything including murder. The story adapts artifacts with a sci-fi twist. One of the sarcophagus is a time tunnel leading to the tomb where Sutekh has been imprisoned by his fellow Osirans whose personal code did not allow them to kill another of their own. Paralysed in his prison, Sutekh is helpless, relying on his followers to put together his escape.

He is able to send things down the tunnel for first Namin then Scarman to use. We have the robot mummys controlled by a ring. I like many kids couldn’t figure out how this was a man dressed up because of the strange shape of the chest. The image of them stalking their prey and crushing a poacher between their chests remain images that burned into our minds. When the Doctor and Sarah remove the bandages from one, the kid me was unnerved to see there was no man but a wire frame.

But as we see Nanim is but a disposable pawn when Sutekh sends a horrifying figure down the tunnel. It is totally black with a domed like head. It steps forward and places its hands on Namin’s shoulders. They immediately burn as Namin is scalded alive. Aand we get the classic line that stayed with us and rang terrifying in our ears at the climax of The Legend of Ruby Sunday; as Namin screams in agony it says “I bring Sutekh’s gift of death to all humans.”

It is said with such reverence which makes it all the more frightening. The harbinger the turns into Marcus Scarman who now serves Sutekh in all things. Sutekh may be paralysed in his chair but he is controlling everything. Giving Scarman Osirian technology, Sutekh seals the Priory off from the rest of the world under a force field. He gets his mummies to build a rocket that will destroy the lock keeping him trapped. On the surface of mars is a pyramid housing the Eye of Horus, the power source keeping Sutekh where he is. Scarman is every inch the classic Hammer horror villain. He is pure white, the pall of death around him. The man that was is just a puppet, a walking cadaver as seen when he meets Warlock, his old friend.

The memories are still there but come out forced as if it is a foreign word to him. He calls his brother, the human whom he is seeking. He is destroying every last human under the force field. They are now mere humans to be killed by the mummies. His appearance and devoid manners are the classic behaviour of the possessed of a superior force.

But the horror is escalated when a poacher, Clements, having witnessed Scarman and his mummies murdering Warlock. He shoots him in the back but the power of Sutekh manages to reverse the gunshot and keep his puppet alive. It is Sutekh’s will that is controlling everything but even that can be jammed by throwing a signal back at him to break his control. The Doctor says that if Sutekh frees himself Earth will be the first to fall. Everywhere there is life in the universe, Sutekh will destroy. We would see come to pass in The Empire of Death.

The Doctor knows Sutekh from mythology and explains to Sarah who he is and how dangerous he is.

Sutekh destroyed his home world of Osiris. Horus and his surviving Osirans hunted him until the battle of the gods in Egypt. That battle became an integral part of Egyptian mythology leading to a cult that worshipped him. Every part of Egyptian society is based on the Osirian pattern. Over the centuries Sutekh has gone by many names; the Typhonian Beast, Set, Seth, Sutekh the Destroyer; everything our society associates with evil. Not even the Time Lords could stand against him.

I do have to say that part of the terror of Sutekh is his voice. It is gentle and soothing in a manner you wouldn’t expect. That is perfect for the character as it is a voice that pulls us in because it is alluring. That is down to actor Gabriel Woolf. He returned for the two part finale The Legend of Ruby Sunday and The empire Death.

He has influenced humans from his prison planning every step of his escape. It shows just how patient and cunning he is. Companions have so many adventures that they come to be immune to the possibility that they may not win every time. This time the fourth Doctor shows Sarah her future Earth if Sutekh wins; a planet that has been razed to a wasteland of howling winds and lightning storms. This we would see when the fifteenth Doctor watches the Earth fall to dust beneath the dust of death spread by Sutekh’s acolytes, Susan Triad and Harriet Harbinger.

The Doctor and Sarah mange to blow up the rocket aimed at Mars but the sheer will of Sutekh keeps the explosion from happening. Scarman is ordered to remove it forcing the Doctor to travel to face the god alone. He distracts him long enough to break his concentration and destroying the contained explosion.

The Doctor is on a suicide mission when he enters Sutekh’s tomb to face him down. He is thrown back by Sutekh’s mental powers as seen by his eyes turn green. The Doctor is no match as Sutekh takes control of his mind effortlessly and forces him to pilot the Tardis to Mars carrying Scarman and some mummies to destroy the Eye of Horus. Scarman achieves this and freed from the Eye, Scarman dissolves to dust and Sutekh rises from his prison. The only thing that saves them is the two minute gap it takes for a signal to travel between Earth and Mars.

This allows the Doctor to change the time tunnel settings and fling Sutekh to the far future where he dies around 7,000 years later.

We also have to look at the design of Sutekh. His cobra like mask with tunics evoke an Egyptian taste. Beneath the mask is the long alien face of an Osiran. He is a physical humanoid form which raises the question of his return.

As per The Legend of Ruby Sunday and The Empire of Death we learn Sutekh latched on to the Tardis when the fourth Doctor flung him down the time tunnel. He fused himself with the Tardis and evolved into the dog/anubis form (some have said Scooby Doo) we see wrapped round the Tardis. Now the fourth Doctor does say Sutekh’s mental powers make him capable of anything. Could it be he was able to melt himself at a molecular level and fuse into the Tardis so he could recover and realise his plans for destruction? Jack Harkness had to hold on for dear life in the vortex when he grabbed the exterior of the Tardis in Utopia so it does stretch believability that Sutekh simply clung to the outside while in flight.

The fourth Doctor warned us that he would destroy all worlds which is what Sutekh does with his dust of death. He has been part of the Tardis since The Pyramids of Mars so has left his imprint on every world with every Tardis landing. He has marked them all for death as he leaves a form of Susan Triad behind every time, ready for when he is ready to attack. Everything and everyone dies as the dust clouds of death consume everyone bar the fifteenth Doctor, Mel and Ruby.

With only his skull face acolytes remaining, Sutekh is at last supreme but bogged down by the mystery of whom Ruby’s mother is. He is eventually killed when the Doctor drags him into the vortex to restore all the worlds lost, cutting him loose to die in the sheer forces of time itself. There is no denying that the reveal of Sutekh’s return was brilliantly done and a shocker but the demise left a lot to be desired.

That’s the problem with bringing back someone as all powerful as Sutekh; it is a great idea but how do resolve it in a believable and logical fashion? A great reveal but a reminder that sometimes it is better to leave the all time greats in the past. Savour perfection and don’t sour it.