Sutekh (Doctor Who)



Sutekh, a member of an alien race called the Osirans, was encountered by the Fourth Doctor in the "Doctor Who" story "Pyramids of Mars" The Osirans were an ancient and incredibly powerful but now extinct race. The renegade Sutekh was a crazed super-being who feared all forms of life might one day challenge his hegemony and so became Sutekh the Destroyer, the destroyer of all living things. This included his home planet Phaester Osiris and ancient Mars.

Sutekh's brother Horus and the remaining 740 Osirans tracked Sutekh down to Ancient Egypt and used their powers to restrain and imprison him in a prison on the planet Earth. He was placed in a remote location with the Eye of Horus beaming a signal from Mars to suppress Sutekh's powers and hold him an immovable prisoner. The tales of the Osirans were remembered in Egyptian mythology – Sutekh as the god Set, brother of Horus; and in the designations Sadok and Satan.

In the year 1911, the archaeologist Professor Marcus Scarman broke into the inner chamber of the Pyramid of Horus on Earth, discovering Sutekh and allowing him a chance of escape. Scarman's cadaver was used to construct Osiran service robots and a rocket aimed at the controlling Eye of Horus on Mars. The Doctor was successful in destroying the rocket, but then taken over by Sutekh and made to take Scarman and the Robots to Mars, where they succeeded in destroying the Eye and freeing Sutekh. The Doctor was eventually able to defeat the freed Sutekh by trapping him in a time tunnel for thousands of years – longer even than the extended life span of an Osiran.