This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Dark Husband

This one's an odd one. There's some really great performances and general vibes but the actual writing choices are bizarre. Howard Carter is quite a nothing character here and he's oddly comfortable about time travel and TARDISes. At one point in this story the outside heats up really hot and Ace somehow deduces from that that they've been transported forwards in time, even when there was no real indication of that. Hex is asked to "examines" a body and somehow figures out that it's centuries old, even though I'm pretty sure his medical training wouldn't cover dating skeletons.

All those weird moments are made up for by one particular line delivery by Sylvester McCoy. It's the first time I've really heard him go to that level and it's frankly impressive. It really gets across how the Doctor feels in that particular moment. I also like the way the story ties into Egyptian mythology even if I think it's stealing the thunder a bit from Sutekh and the Osirans if a Time Lord student can be worshipped as an Egyptian god.

I find it quite funny that Benedict Cumberbatch auditioned for Sherlock during his lunch break while doing this story.

Next Story: Order of Simplicity