Doctor Who - Audio Details

Egypt is in mourning.  Pharaoh, the great God-King, is dead.  The future of the Two Kingdoms of Egypt is shrouded in uncertainty as the Council of Priests debates the claim to the throne of Pharaoh's only heir.

Out in the deserts around Thebes, Egypt's capital, a warlord chief is assembling an army of mercenaries, waiting for just the right moment to strike at Egypt's heart.

But not all of Egypt's enemies are outside the city.  What is the secret of the strange box discovered in the desert?

When the TARDIS arrives nearby, it has apparently been hi-jacked... by the Doctor?

I have always loved historicals in Doctor Who.  Actually, let me correct that.  I've always loved history in Doctor Who.  It doesn't really matter whether it's a purely historical story or a pseudo-historical, I've always adored the idea that as Earth has been pottering along, the Doctor has been nipping in from time to time making sure that history stays on track.  He's helped Marco Polo finds his way to China, been involved with the signing of the Magna Carta and then of course he managed to make sure that the Daleks were removed from the final version of the Bayeux Tapestry - but that's another story altogether.

But amazingly (to me at least) there had never been a Doctor Who story set during Egypt's pomp - at least not on television.  Despite the pyramids and the mummies, even Pyramids of Mars only had a few scenes actually in Egypt and even then that story was set in 1911.  So, we really are overdue a Doctor Who story set in ancient Egypt - the Egypt of the Pharaohs, the pyramids of the Sphinx.  An Egypt of political back-biting, vicious warlords and plucky princesses.

An Egypt just waiting for the Doctor to put things right...

Iain McLaughlin, July 2001