The Pyramid at the End of the World Quiz

Answer: Secretary General of the United Nations

The Secretary General of the UN showed up with several UN peace keepers. He was Asian, which the previous Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, was. The current UN Secretary General is Antonio Gutteres, former Prime Minister of Portugal.

Togo Igawa played the Secretary General. He is the first Japanese actor to become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Igawa became an actor fairly late in life, starting in British television when he was 40. Igawa has played a monk on several occasions. He has also done a great deal of voice-over work, especially in the "Thomas the Tank Engine" series.

Bill probably would not have paid much attention if President Trump had shown up, because as she notes "He's orange." No mention of the WTO or Australia in the episode.

Answer: Turmezistan

Turmezistan is vaguely similar to Turkmenistan, an actual country in Central Asia. Given the description by the Secretary General, Turmezistan is somewhere in Central Asia, and is a place of strategic importance to both China and Russia. Turmezistan made its first appearance in "Doctor Who" during "The Zygon Invasion" (2015).

Durka-Durkastan was a fictional country in "Team America: World Police" (2004). Parmistan was the setting for the Kurt Thomas martial arts film "Gymkata" (1985). Tazbekistan is where the BBC2 comedy series "Ambassadors" (2013) was set.

Answer: 3

The Doomsday Clock was established by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1947. As the Doctor explained, it measures how close the world is to destruction. The monks were using it as a warning, an indication that the world soon faced a catastrophic event that they alone were capable of preventing.

Answer: Love

The monks insisted that "power must consent" and that the consent must be founded in love. The Secretary General consented based on fear, and was turned into ashes. The generals attempted to consent based on strategy, and were also turned into ashes. In the end, Bill consented in order to save the Doctor, and the monks accepted.

Actor Jamie Hill played the monk character, as he did in "Extremis" (2017). Hill was also the mummy in "Mummy on the Orient Express" (2014).

Answer: Douglas

Douglas made one of the biggest typos of all time, misplacing a decimal point that created a bacterial monster capable of wiping out all life on Earth. When he was exposed to the virus, he disintegrated into dust - lots of disintegrating people in this episode.

Douglas was played by Tony Gardner, who has been active in British television since 1994. He is probably best known as Brian Johnson from "My Parents are Aliens" (1999-2006). Gardner has worked with Peter Capaldi, as Dan Miller in several episodes of "The Thick of It" (2012).

Darrius was a scientist who worked with plants in the First Doctor adventure "The Keys of Marinus" (1964). Deedrix was a scientist in the Fourth Doctor adventure "Meglos" (1980), an episode in which the Doctor turned into a plant. Eldrad was the seriously crazy scientist in the Fourth Doctor story "The Hand of Fear" (1976).

Answer: Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a county located in northern England. Historically, it is one of the oldest sections of England, occupied as early as 8000 BCE. It contains the cities of Leeds, Sheffield and naturally York. It is the largest of the historic counties, and is divided into three sections.

The Doctor discovers the location of the laboratory by shutting off every closed circuit camera focused on 428 different secret labs, and then waiting for the Monks to turn them back on at the location they had targeted.

Shropshire is in western England, on the border with Wales. Cornwall is at the southwest tip of England. Sussex is on the southern coast of England.

Answer: Burning it in an explosion

The bacteria creates ethanol, which is highly volatile and flammable. The Doctor set off an explosion and let the gas do the rest. The formula for ethanol is C2-H6-O. It is best known as alcohol, and is the world's most common intoxicant.

Liquid nitrogen did play an important role in the Seventh Doctor episode "Dragonfire" (1987). Extonic radiation was central to the plot of the Tenth Doctor episode "Midnight" (2008). The Doctor has done lots of teleporting over the years, but not this time.

Answer: Erica

Her name was Erica, and she wanted to be a scientist from the age of 8. Erica was played by Rachel Denning, who has appeared in several British TV shows, including "Call the Midwife" (2017). Denning worked with Warwick Davis [Porridge from "Nightmare in Silver" (2013)] in the Reduced Height Theater Company.

Sarah Lasky was a scientist in the Sixth Doctor adventure "Terror of the Vervoids" (1986). She was played by legendary Bond Girl Honor Blackman.

Kate Stewart is the Chief Scientific Officer for UNIT, and is played by Jemma Redgrave. Osgood is a scientist who works for UNIT, and is played by Ingrid Oliver. Both can be seen in the episodes "The Day of the Doctor" (2013), "Death in Heaven" (2014) and "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion" (2015).

Answer: 3614

The combination was 3614. While it has little mathematical significance, Cher had an album called "3614 Jackson Highway" (1969). The Doctor could not read the numbers, as he was still blind. Bill struck a deal with the monks to restore the Doctor's sight in exchange for her giving up control of the Earth. The results of this bargain left a huge cliffhanger at the end of "The Pyramid at the End of the World".

1123 are the first digits of the Fibonacci sequence. 1618 are the first digits of the golden ratio, which has fascinated mathematicians since ancient Greece. 6174 is Kaprekar's Constant, named after the Indian mathematician.

Answer: Peter Harness

This is the fourth time Peter Harness has written for "Doctor Who" and the second time he has teamed up with Moffat. They wrote "The Zygon Inversion" in 2015. That episode and "Zygon Invasion" were directed by Daniel Nettheim. Harness wrote "Kill the Moon" (2014) and "The Zygon Invasion" (2015) solo.

Daniel Nettheim directed the episode, as well as "Extremis" (2017).

Jamie Mathieson teamed up with Moffat on "The Girl Who Died" (2015). He also wrote "Mummy on the Orient Express" (2014), "Flatline" (2014) and "Oxygen" (2017).

Gareth Roberts co-wrote "The Caretaker" (2014) with Moffat. Roberts also wrote "The Shakespeare Code" (2007), "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (2008), "The Lodger" (2010) and "Closing Time" (2011).