It certainly looks as though The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) is going to go out in style. This week's one-off episode - The Waters Of Mars - did a fantastic job of sowing the seeds of his own doom while still working as a creepy, self-contained story.The Doctor arrives on Mars in 2059 and meets up with the first human colonists on the Red Planet, on the day he knows the multi-national group are all fated to die - a fixed point in time that inspired future generations to continue to strive for the stars.
The whole "base under siege" scenario is an old favourite with Doctor Who script writers (and is a good excuse for lots of scenes of people running about), but in all honesty the plot about the alien creatures traveling through water was almost irrelevant to the real story about The Doctor deciding that, as the last of The Time Lords, he could rewrite history and, basically, do what he liked with the passage of time to try and save people.
Seeing our beloved Doctor "lose it" - virtually driven mad with power, for want of a better description - was far more frightening than the dripping zombies, humans infected by the viral lifeform that became known as The Flood.
While the white-eyed, crack-faced infected were quite disturbing, there was no escaping the fact that when they squirted water from out of their sleeves (or mouths), it just looked silly. Which is why it was fortunate that they only used this shtick a couple of times - like the equally daft flame tracks behind the souped-up Gadget robot when it went racing off Road Runner-style.
I also remain unconvinced that the legendary, pioneering Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan) being found dead in the front room of her home on Earth, with her brains blown out when she was supposed to be on Mars, would be as inspirational as her heroic sacrifice (albeit under mysterious circumstances) in the 'original' timeline.
However, that aside, there was no escaping the episode's frenetic pacing and claustrophobic atmosphere and some wonderful pieces of scripting, such as Adelaide's account of her backstory (involving the dalek's "stealing of Earth"), the fan-friendly namecheck for the ice warriors (well, they were on Mars, it would have been crass to ignore them) or The Doctor's emotional recollection of Adelaide's influence on her granddaughter and her role in the future of mankind.
The story may not have come close to the fear factor suggested by the prepublicity (it all helped to drum up viewers, though, so you can't begrudge Russell T Davies for hyping his own show), due to The Flood's incidental nature in the story... unlike, say, The Weeping Angels in Blink, where the story couldn't have worked without them.
However, as I've already said, that wasn't what The Waters Of Mars was all about - it was about the massive cracks appearing in the character of The Doctor and that's where this episode excelled.
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7 persons have something to say about this!:
I must admit I thought the very end "wimped out" a bit though!
It would have been far more interesting to go into the Christmas 2 parter with the Doctor "out of his tree" and verging on Master-like megalomania!
I just watched this last night and your review pretty much covers what I was thinking, Flea. Being (joint) written by RTD it was, of course, filled with plot holes. But that didn't matter because it was still dark and exciting and more about Ten's power-madness.
Excellent stuff. Though part of me hopes that the Christmas special will be a somewhat lighter and more adventuresome affair. I can get enough doom'n'gloom on Christmas day by watching Eastenders.
I thought it was excellent.
On the surface this is the same story we have seen dozens of times on Who (Inferno, The Impossible Planet, to name just two), but that was not the "A" plot, the "A" plot was the Timelord Victorious. We have seen the darker side of The Doctor in The Family of Blood, so taking it one step closer to the Valyard here was no suprise.
Agreed that the genius here was making viewers think this was the type of story we'd all seen before and then upending it to display defining character issues that we and the Doctor know are setting up an already pre-ordained ending. Tennant's performance once again shows just how good he can be when not simply being effortlessly charming.
I think the scariest thing about it was not the monsters, but the bleakness of it all. I thought it very brave of them to have suicide in what is still very much thought of as a kids' show.
(Yes, the suicide makes less and less sense the more you think about it, but still!)
Though I of course plan to write my own review, I'll just chime in and say your thoughts come very close to mine.
I thought it was the strongest of the year's specials to date (of all specials ever, it puts WoM right behind The Christmas Invasion which is tops for me).
Ya know, I actually thought the monsters were one of the creepiest ones out of ALL the episodes. But the water squirting made me laugh.
And (I know this sounds harsh) I'll be glad to see the tenth Doctor go. He's had a good run! I'd like to see if Matt Smith can compete with him. Seriously hope he won't just be a clone of David Tennant...
P.S I've watched nearly EVERY episode (inclunding the original ones) And I loved the reference to the Ice warriors in this episode! :D
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