The Eye of the Scorpion

The Doctor and Peri arrive in a desert and come to the aid of a young girl on a chariot being pursued by mercenaries. The place is Egypt. The girl's name is Erimem. And she is waiting to be named as Pharoh. The Doctor knows his history well enough to remember that there has never been a female Pharoh in Earth's history, so either there is some disturbance in time or the girl will never be crowned, and the latter seems more likely as Erimem faces challenges to her right of accession and assassination attempts within her own palace. But the mercenary army threatening the city of Thebes is not all it appears to be, and the Doctor soon suspects that there is an alien presence amongst them.

Hmmm. An interesting adventure. Oh the story is very straightforward and well presented with all of the splendour of Egypt, or at least the sounds of that splendour, brought to life through the headphones, although I'm not sure if all the scarab beetles really make a giggling sound when they swarm. And the scorpions, for that matter. This is all minor stuff in the face of the bigger issue: the issue of Erimem.

Erimem never does get crowned as Pharoh. It's pretty obvious to all that she doesn't really want the job anyways as it has made a terrible distance between her and her own mother, her last surviving parent. Erimem is lonely in her position and does not believe she is a "living god", but she can't tell anyone. So why wouldn't she want to leave with the Doctor? And it's not as if the Doctor just readily bundles her into the TARDIS, he does face the dilemma of taking Erimem away before she is crowned and either creating history or damaging it. But in the end, Erimem leaves in the TARDIS and becomes a new companion, bringing the TARDIS crew up to three. There is almost an instant bond between Peri and Erimem, as if they were sisters, which will of course lead to joint efforts at teasing the Doctor, but that's all in the future.

So the real question is, though, is the gap between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani really wide enough to support an extra "season" as it were, including an extra companion who will eventually have to go? Would this have been a good idea to add a companion to the crew with the Doctor and Nyssa while Tegan was absent from the TARDIS crew; it would be more readily acceptable maybe as they were separated for the length of time between two seasons, not just rammed in the gap between two episodes. Somewhere along the line in the future, other Doctors will be meeting other non-televised companions but they will not generate half the comment that Erimem's presence does to this day. Well, maybe one will but that will be more about why he is even part of the cast and the motives of the production team behind hiring him.

I like Erimem. It's good that Peri has someone else in the TARDIS as a friend as she travels with the Doctor, although how there will be such a bond between them and then it never gets mentioned again in the regular series is going to be interesting, and not something that can be readily fixed, even by the retcon fans. Erimem has the distinction of being the first character from a distinct period of Earth history since Victoria Waterfield, although this will change should anyone decide to pen a tale about the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion and Will ... no, I don't think they will. Erimem is also the first non-white companion, even though she is played by Caroline Morris, who is white, and Erimem is never actually seen by the audience.

Can the TARDIS handle a crew of three again? Can the Doctor handle Erimem's evil cat? Interesting.

NEXT EPISODE : THE CHURCH AND THE CROWN