Re: red herrings, it occurs to me in writing this that the five thousand year old aspect of the pyramid isn't actually relevant to the plot other than providing a starting point. It could be a brand new pyramid for all the difference it makes. And the next episode implies it's a five thousand year old stone spaceship, which could be nicely alien (cf the stone spaceship in Ghost Light) but doesn't seem to have been deliberately thought through.

Re: presidents, I suppose given that I've finally grudgingly accepted the psychic paper and the all-powerful sonic, I might one day accept this, but at the risk of channelling my inner Verity Lambert, I still think he ought to be an anti-authority figure.