History Recap / DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld

* LongTitle: Eight words, making it the longest ''Doctor Who'' title, beating the [[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe previous]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTARDIS record]] of seven words.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The scientists working in the bio lab are shown drinking coffee and eating lunch in the lab... a lab that requires one of them to wear a bunny suit. Even a lab that studies fruit fly DNA wouldn't allow food, let alone one that works with potentially world-ending materials.
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The American colonel is wearing the four stars of a general, sometimes upside down. It's a bit odd to have a colonel in charge in such a high-stakes situation in any case, a general would be more appropriate.

** So, President of Earth: Is it better for humanity -- '''all of it''' -- to die free, or to ask for rescue and live as slaves of {{Humanoid Abomination}}s? As you once asked, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied Do babies die with honor?]]"

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Averted -- the Doctor is immune to the killer bacteria because he's not from Earth. Nardole ''is'' affected, but only because, since the Doctor rebuilt him, he now counts as "human enough". (The next episode reveals he fully recovers, but it takes a few weeks and his access to the TARDIS probably helps.)

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Nardole gets back in the TARDIS to move it out of the contaminated area -- and then he ''coughs'', shortly after the Doctor told him he was human enough to be affected because the Doctor had "got [his] lungs cheap". The next time we see him, he's lying unresponsive on the floor of the TARDIS and can't help the Doctor escape the about-to-be-destroyed lab. (The next episode, however, reveals he does not actually die; in fact he completely recovers over the next few weeks. Being in the TARDIS probably helped.)

* MoralDilemma:
** So, President of Earth: Is it better for humanity -- '''all of it''' -- to die free, or to ask for rescue and live as slaves of {{Humanoid Abomination}}s? As you once asked, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied Do babies die with honor?]]"
** In the end, Bill is faced with either letting the Doctor die or giving up humanity to the Monks. She chooses the latter even though the Doctor wants her to choose the former. She believes he can still find a way to stop the Monks and, having learned from her experiences with him, she knows can't let him die if there's still a chance he can be saved no matter how risky it is.

* ILied: The Doctor says this by way of revealing he's blind to Bill.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: When Penny suggests that the [[ParentalSubstitute Doctor]] is trying to keep Bill "on the straight and narrow", [[ClosetKey Bill asks Penny how she feels on that subject]].

Written by Peter Harness & Creator/StevenMoffat and directed by Daniel Nettheim, this is the second part of the "Monks Trilogy" that began in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]].

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Monks. They stated that they took that form so they would be more understandable to humans. When Bill points out they look like corpses, they reply "you are corpses". What their true form looks like is unknown, but it is known they are [[RealityWarper Reality Warpers]].

* BlindWithoutEm: A significantly downplayed example, but Erica, the female scientist, uses reading glasses, and the fact that she can't do close-up work without them is a major factor in the plot. Also, the Doctor is quite literally totally blind without his sonic sunglasses.

** Once again, as in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E7TheZygonInvasion "The Zygon Invasion"]], the Doctor must assume his duties as the President of Earth to stop an alien threat.

** This isn't the first time a pyramid has been central to a ''Doctor Who'' adventure; the classic series had [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan "The Daleks' Master Plan"]] -- which happened to involve ''The'' Monk, a time-travelling villain -- and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars "Pyramids of Mars"]] while the contemporary series had a Giza pyramid serving as the home of Area 52 in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong "The Wedding of River Song"]]. For bonus points, "Pyramids of Mars" was from the same season (Season 13) as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion "The Android Invasion"]], a serial that received a nod (the premise of an alien race creating an Earth simulation to figure out how best to invade the planet) in the episode prior to this one, "Extremis".

** While playing his guitar onboard the TARDIS, the Doctor talks about life and death, á la [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]].

** Lead characters taking insane risks to save someone they love from the grave are nothing new to ''Who''. River Song's refusal to kill the Eleventh Doctor caused all of history to happen at once in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong "The Wedding of River Song"]]. Clara Oswald tried to betray the Doctor to convince him to undo the death of Danny Pink in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater "Dark Water"]], the Doctor stopping her but also learning via hypnosis that she would have stranded them in a volcano after locking both of them out of the TARDIS and destroying all of its keys if he'd refused to do so. The Twelfth Doctor chose to violate a fixed point in time to try and save Clara Oswald from her death in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]].

* FailsafeFailure / NoOSHACompliance: The safety procedures at the lab are a joke. Their airlock system allows both doors to be open at once, even though at least one should remained sealed to prevent exactly the situation which allows this contamination to take place. Two technicians are allowed to run dangerous experiments without any other supervision and while both are suffering from a problem (one is missing her reading glasses, the other is extremely hungover). There's no sterilization procedure between the dangerous bacteria lab and the monitoring area, so the dangerous bacteria could have been carried out on the Doctor's clothing or Erica's biohazard suit. Finally, when the scientists in the lab realise they have a lethal biohazard on their hands, they order a lockdown to prevent the bacteria escaping -- but there's no way to turn off the system which automatically vents the air to the atmosphere every 30 minutes.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Monks claim that they chose their form specifically for humans. When Colonel Brabbit in response says they look like corpses, the Monks state that to them, humans ''are'' corpses.

** So, President of Earth: Is it better for humanity -- '''all of it''' -- to die free, or to ask for rescue and live as slaves of {{Humanoid Abomination}}s? As you once asked, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied "Do babies die with honor?"]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The Doctor, realizing that Bill gave humanity up to the Monks to save his sight and from there his life, has this look in his newly-sighted eyes as the Monks tell him he will now see ''their'' world.

* PhlebotinumBreakdown: The Doctor tries to use his sonic screwdriver on the combination lock that will open the airlock door in the climax, but it fails.

* {{Qurac}}: The impending war -- and the pyramid -- are in Turmezistan, the fictitious Central Asian country that previously appeared in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E7TheZygonInvasion "The Zygon Invasion"]].
* RaceAgainstTheClock: Every clock in the world is counting down (or rather up) to TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ala the DoomsdayClock, and the Doctor and his friends have to find a way to stop it.
* RealityWarper: The Monks have this power -- they can save the world from a plague or just restore the Doctor's eyesight immediately and remotely. The catch is that those who ask their help must be willing to make a DealWithTheDevil, giving the Monks consent to conquer them out of pure love.
** Their RealityWarper powers function in an unusual way and are limited. It uses ThePowerOfLove to form a link with one individual, which is then amplified by the individual's entire race via a psychic link. They seem to be able to then do anything that is wished for by that person. If the person has not offered consent out of love, the attempt will disintegrate them. After the link is established, their powers seem to be limited to Brainwashing and creating illusions.

** The Monks have a lot of similarities to the Trickster of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. Both are [[RealityWarper Reality Warpers]], but need consent in order to use those powers thus requiring them to trick others.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see the RadioTimes magazine poster for this episode:]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thepyramidattheendoftheworld.jpg ''"Funny thing, fear, isn't it? Once it rules you, you're even afraid to admit what's scaring you."'']][[/labelnote]]

-->''The Doctor:''' Bill, what have you done?

* DrivingQuestion: Several:
** Who are the Monks exactly, where do they come from, what are they capable of doing, and why do they want to TakeOverTheWorld so badly that they've been researching and planning how to do so for a long, long time? They are revealed to be {{Reality Warper}}s who apparently want to be adored by those they enslave, but their origins and ultimate goals are still murky.
** Is there '''anything''' the Doctor, or anyone else, can do that the Monks have '''not''' seen coming (and thus have no plan to deal with) in all of their simulations -- something that might be the key to their undoing down the line? In the short term, it seems the answer is yes -- the Doctor figures out where the ''real'' crisis is that would have forced the world leaders to turn to the Monks, and solves it himself. Unfortunately, when he faces death as a result of stopping it, Bill asks the Monks for help -- which may have been the Monks' plan all along.

The one where the Doctor gets his eyesight back, with a price attached.

The Doctor knew that the Monks were coming. He didn't know when or where, but it would be at the most perfect time for them to conquer the Earth, for they saw all, knew all about the planet and its people... and him. Today is the day. In a war zone in Turmezistan, a pyramid appeared overnight, between the forces of the United States, Russia, and China. The U.N. calls upon him to once again take up his duties as President of Earth and investigate, and he (against his will), Bill, and Nardole are soon there. The Monks are in the pyramid, and reveal their intentions: They are going to claim Earth and its people for themselves when they are asked to. Because they will be asked to. Because unless they are asked to save and enslave them, today is the day humanity is destroyed by its own hand.

** "Villains" who aren't actually evil: The deadly bacterial plague that could destroy all life on Earth.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Monks. They stated that they took that form so they would be more understandable to humans. When Bill points out they look like corpses, they reply "you are corpses". What their true form looks like is unknown, but it is known they are [[RealityWarpers Reality Warpers]].

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Monks. They stated that they took that form so they would be more understandable to humans. When Bill points out they look like corpses, they reply "you are corpses". What their true form looks like is unknown, but it is known they are RealityWarpers.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Monks. They stated that they took that form so they would be more understandable to humans. When Bill points out they look like corpses, they reply "you are corpses".

The Doctor knew that the Monks were coming. He didn't know when or where, but it would be at the most perfect time for them to conquer the Earth, for they saw all, knew all about the planet and its people... and him. Today is the day. In a war zone in Turmezistan, a pyramid appeared overnight, between the forces of the United States, Russia, and China. The U.N. calls upon him to once again take up his duties as President of Earth and investigate, and he (against his will), Bill, and Nardole are soon there. The Monks are in the pyramid, and reveal their intentions: They are going to claim Earth and its people for themselves when they are asked to. Because they will be asked to. Because today is the day humanity is destroyed by its own hand.

Soon the Doctor, his friends and the U.N. and military leaders are shown a vision of a ravaged, lifeless world. All this can be stopped if the Monks are given pure consent, not out of fear or strategy, but out of love. The humans are anxious, but the Doctor will not let this stand. He is going to stop whatever this catastrophe is. As every clock in the area ticks towards doomsday, he realizes that the cause of it is not here, among the armies. It is somewhere else, a place where many ordinary choices, accidents, and mistakes are converging to create the end of life on Earth.

The Doctor pinpoints the location -- a lab in the U.K. where a strain of bacteria has accidentally been created that will ravage humanity if it cannot be contained. He is Earth's last hope to stop it. But in his determination, his hubris, he makes mistakes too. Those he has left behind in Turmezistan make mistakes of their own. Mistakes that will leave the fate of humanity in a most unexpected pair of hands...

* GodzillaThreshold: Bill lets the Monks take Earth when it becomes clear the Doctor will die if she doesn't.

** Second, the Doctor manages to set a bomb to destroy the bacteria before they can be vented, thus saving the world without needing to give in to the Monks, but when he can't escape the lab due to his blindness and tells Bill that he must make a HeroicSacrifice, she asks the Monks to save him even though it means Earth will be theirs.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Nardole gets back in the TARDIS to move it out of the contaminated area -- and then he ''coughs'', shortly after the Doctor told him he was human enough to be affected because the Doctor had "got [his] lungs cheap". The next time we see him, he's lying unresponsive on the floor of the TARDIS and can't help the Doctor escape the about-to-be-destroyed lab.

* MagicCountdown: The Doctor sets a two-minute timer on his bomb. It takes four-and-a-half minutes to reach zero.

** In the end, Bill is faced with either letting the Doctor die or giving up humanity to the Monks. She chooses the latter even though the Doctor wants her to choose the former, both because she believes he can still find a way to stop the Monks and because, having learned from her experiences with him, she can't let him die if there's still a chance he can be saved, no matter how risky it is.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers all made it seem as if the threat of WorldWarIII was what the Monks were going to use to conquer the Earth. It's actually misdirection on their part -- the actual threat is the accidental release of deadly bacteria. While there ''is'' tension between the three armies, they don't seem on the verge of lobbing missiles at each other, and it's not even revealed what they were disputing.
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Averted -- the Doctor is immune to the killer bacteria because he's not from Earth. Nardole ''is'' affected, but only because, since the Doctor rebuilt him, he now counts as "human enough".
* OhCrap: The Doctor's face, as he watches the laboratory explode to kill the bacteria with his regained eyesight. This is due to the fact that if he can see again, it means that Bill has essentially handed over Earth to the Monks.

* OutsideContextVillain: World War III appears imminent -- then a pyramid containing aliens plotting to conquer the Earth appears.

* PreviouslyOn: A different take in which the montage of last episode's clips are intercut with Bill explaining the situation to Penny.

* RedHerring: The Monks are trying to give the impression that World War III is imminent. The real cause of the world's end will be a mistaken release of deadly bacteria. In the end, what actually gives them their leverage isn't either -- it's the Doctor's blindness at a crucial moment.

* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Penny's reaction to having armed soldiers and the Secretary of the United Nations interrupt her date to ask Bill to help them contact the President of Earth.

* ShadowArchetype: The Doctor is an alien that humanity willingly asks to rule the world in a moment of crisis in order to save it. Also like the Monks, he desires love from those he saves.
* ShoutOut: The episode title is reminiscent of ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', one of Creator/DouglasAdams' works. The episode aired a day after his birthday, and one of the characters is named Douglas.

** The Monks have a lot of similarities to the Trickster. Both are [[RealityWarper Reality Warpers]], but need consent in order to use those powers thus requiring them to trick others.
** The UN Secretary-General and the trio of colonels fill roles usually filled by Kate Stewart and UNIT.

* FailsafeFailure: The safety procedures at the lab are a joke. Their airlock system allows both doors to be open at once, even though at least one should remained sealed to prevent exactly the situation which allows this contamination to take place. Two technicians are allowed to run dangerous experiments without any other supervision and while both are suffering from a problem (one is missing her reading glasses, the other is extremely hungover). There's no sterilization procedure between the dangerous bacteria lab and the monitoring area, so the dangerous bacteria could have been carried out on the Doctor's clothing or Erica's biohazard suit. Finally, when the scientists in the lab realise they have a lethal biohazard on their hands, they order a lockdown to prevent the bacteria escaping -- but there's no way to turn off the system which automatically vents the air to the atmosphere every 30 minutes.

* BlindWithoutEm: A significantly downplayed example, but Erica, the female scientist, uses reading glasses, and the fact that she can't do close-up work without them is a major factor in the plot.

* EyeMotifs: The Doctor's blindness and his not telling Bill about it sooner than he does is pivotal to the {{Cliffhanger}}, and beyond that Erica and Douglas both have their vision impaired (her reading glasses are broken, he's hungover), which leads to the accidental creation of a plague bacterium. The Monks can ''see'' every point in Earth's history and allow the visitors to the pyramid to see their dreadful potential fate. Finally, the Doctor is told that with his sight restored by the Monks, he will now see their world.

** Erica's hungover coworker Douglas removes his biohazard helmet in an area which requires the suits to prevent contamination, just because he doesn't want to throw up in it. Then, when the bacteria liquefies the plants, he just jams his hands into the slop for a sample and runs through both airlocks to get it to a microscope, not only contaminating himself but risking ''the entire planet''.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Fear is inefficient. We must be loved."'']]

-->'''The Doctor:''' It could have chosen anywhere on this planet. It chose to sit on the strategic intersection of the [[HumansAreWarriors three most powerful armies on Earth]]. So what it's doing, Colonel, is sending us a message.\\

-->''"Bill, what have you done?"''

-->'''Penny:''' Is it okay if I get an Über?

** The Doctor refuses to go to Turmezistan. He exits the Tardis to find it's already loaded on an airplane flying there.

* ToMakeALongStoryShort: The Doctor materializes the Tardis around the Russian commander, who finds himself inside with his American and Chinese counterparts.

* WhoAreYou: Or "Who the hell are you?" as Erica puts it when the Doctor and Nardole dematerialise in the middle of a laboratory on LockDown.

* YouCantThwartStageOne: Sorry Doctor, this is Part Two of Three -- you and your friends won't stop this invasion. In the end, Bill allows Earth to be given to the Monks to save the Doctor's life, hoping he can stop them.

->''[[TheBadGuyWins "Enjoy your sight, Doctor. Now, see our world."]]''

** The deadly bacteria are created because Erica, one of the scientists at the biofuel lab, had her reading glasses accidentally broken on her way to work, and the other scientist, Douglas, was hungover, causing him to misplace a decimal sign. The hangover also leads to Douglas' death, leaving Erica alone until the Doctor shows up -- because he feels sick and doesn't want to throw up inside his protective helmet, he takes it off (to be fair, it wasn't until shortly after that he had reason to suspect there might be bacteria loose in the air that would kill him).