The Waters of Mars

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Now this, for me, is an absolute cracker. This could have been a movie. In fact, it’s better than most movies. It’s full of great ideas, dilemmas and character development. I could probably have done without Gadget the robot, but you can’t have everything, and I think Gadget’s probably a shout out to Huey, Dewey and Louis from Silent Running (another sci-fi with bio-domes in space – if you haven’t seen it, check it out) so I’m not too bothered really.

First broadcast on 15 November 2009, it’s dedicated to the great Barry Letts who died in October 2009. I can’t think of a better tribute to him.

The Doctor lands on Mars and encounters the first human colony there, Bowie Base One, commanded by Captain Adelaide Brooke. The base comes under attack from sentient, dangerous waters and the Doctor finds he must make some difficult decisions.

[Arbutus @arbutus]

While I believe this to be the best of the Tennant specials, beautifully written, acted, and produced, this is only the second time I’ve watched it. I actually find it just so horrific, so difficult to watch on an emotional level. But it is a crucial piece in the Tenth Doctor’s evolution.

The setting is beautifully realized and the tension is ramped up perfectly, as one by one, people are taken over by the body-snatching alien life form. And along with this tension is the tension we feel from the Doctor, as he realizes where and when he is, and is prevented from leaving when he could still bring himself to do so. When he is finally free to go, it is heartbreaking to watch him slowly walk away, leaving these people he so admires to their doom, the sounds of their destruction in his ears. Really, really heartbreaking. And we watch him slowly go mad.

When he bursts back in to help them, we feel that familiar triumph– the Doctor is here, he will save them! But that typically Tenth Doctor energy he brings doesn’t ring quite right in this; it feels not triumphant but desperate. Because what he’s doing is wrong. And the whole final scene with Adelaide is brilliantly done, right up to the look on his face as he realizes that she has stolen back her destiny, that he is not after all victorious over time.

I didn’t mind the robot, because in addition to being clearly referential, it also fulfills a purpose in fetching the TARDIS. However, the magical disappearing Ood feels artificial, and accomplishes nothing, since the Doctor is still in rebellion when he enters the TARDIS. We are left with the cloister bell ringing ominously in our ears as the episode ends.

[The 10th Forever @ryan1888mclaughlin]

Honestly my favourite new who episode. The acting is of a phenomenal level and the enemy is actually scary in comparison to most enemies. The fixed moment in time episodes I always seem to enjoy but this one tops the lot. Although this isn’t an accurate historic event for us, as the episode progresses you can feel and relate to this as a crucial moment in the history of earth and why it always must stand. Overall, the dark side to the doctor I enjoyed rather than the energetic and happy one purely for the fact it had never been done before in new who. The acting of tennant when he realises where he is and at what time is phenomenal and this is a true tear jerker with the music in the background adding to the feels. Furthermore, the actor who plays Adelaide Brooke stole the show for me and her surprise decision at the end really made me go “Wow”!

Overall a 10/10. One for the memories!

[Rewvian @rewvian]

The Doctor gets to reuse his space suit from earlier space adventures, and winds up on Mars during the first Earth colony’s time.  It doesn’t take long for him to realize when he is, and to recall the fates of every crew member aboard.  The mission ends with all colonists dying, and a self-destruct measure to boot.

The villain in this episode was a being living in or under ancient sheets of ice.  It snuck through unfiltered water and began possessing crewmates who consumed it, or even touched one drop of it.  The infected take on a zombie-like appearance, with cracked lips and dilated pupils, and they also become eternally drenched in water.  The possessed crew mates also create water, enabling them to shoot water like a hose or apply great amounts of pressure.

For most of the episode the Doctor is trying to leave, aware that something bad goes down in history on that night, but he is kept at arm’s length with the commander, Captain Brooke.  Brooke gradually grows suspicious of the Doctor’s knowledge and wants answers from him.  Eventually she lets him go, but not before finding out what is supposed to happen to the Mars colony.

The Doctor leaves while the infected continue picking off crew mates, heading back to the TARDIS and remembering all the times he’d said he is the last of the Time Lords, and the Time Lords went away.  This results in an aha moment for the Doctor, since he realizes that without the Time Lords in control, the power to change events falls squarely on his own shoulders.  I have to wonder why the Doctor didn’t get in his TARDIS and try to move it close to the survivors at this point, but he probably didn’t want the evil space water to get on it.

This revelation sees the Doctor sealing up the damaged base that is losing air, and taking control of the Gadget robot to send to the TARDIS and teleport back over to the crew.  The Doctor succeeds and brings the Captain and two of her crew members home to Earth safely.  He declares himself “Time Lord Victorious”, and believes he can change those static points in time after all.  Captain Brooke isn’t so happy about it, however, and thinks the Doctor has too much power to decide who lives and dies.  Brooke steps inside of her home and commits suicide immediately upon entering.

The Doctor realizes that he didn’t really change events, except for the Captain was now found dead on Earth, and the other two crew mates may have survived but never exactly thanked him for it.  Ood Sigma appears before the Doctor, and he wonders if he has gone too far and is now going to be facing his next death.  He flies off in the TARDIS, intent on staying alive.

I thought this was a pretty good episode.  The monsters were frightening, and so was how easily people could become them.  The best part was probably how the Doctor questioned if he can actually change those fixed moments in time, being the last of the Time Lords and being the highest authority those decisions could come through.

I don’t know if I would go so far as to say this is the best of the 2008-2010 specials, especially because there is the fantastic The End of Time yet to come, but it is certainly somewhere towards the top of the heap.

[VickyMallard @vickymallard]

What an episode… but let’s start at the beginning.

I’m confused. The Doctor decides to take a trip to Mars, we see the return of the red spacesuit (and I was halfway expecting Donna to follow him out of the Tardis until I remembered she’s no longer there), but why does he land the Tardis in the middle of nowhere and takes a hike over to the base? Why not land right then and there? Would make escaping considerably easier if things go south (which of course never happens to the Doctor, I know). Or is he trying to sneak in unnoticed? If yes, why? In any case, I guess being arrested for trespassing was not on his list!

I love that first scene in the Marsian base. The captain takes no nonsense and keeps pointing a gun at the Doctor’s head. The Doctor, in turn, is almost bored and does his usual charming spiel until he realises where he is. And when. And what will happen. Which in a way makes me wonder how he ended up there in the first place. Did he just randomly land on Mars to take a stroll?! But back to Bowie Base and its crew. And the Doctor’s dilemma that he cannot tell anyone, and knows he should leave but can’t… And of course, none of the crew is stupid, especially not the captain, and they KNOW he’s not telling them all he knows.

This is such a brilliant episode, it has it all – creepy monsters, water as the ultimate enemy (nice reminders of what water can do), a tad claustrophobia, action scenes, emotional turmoil… and then there’s of course the Doctor. Pompeii all over again, but this time, there is no Donna, neither for moral guidance nor support. Instead, there’s the captain, who was incredibly good. It was so great how she tried to stay in control at all times – even locking the Doctor in the airlock until she gets him to confess.

The water monsters were fantastic, too, such a brilliant idea. And so creepy. They don’t kill you right away. There’s no screaming, no fireworks. Just jets of water. Everywhere. And water always wins. I loved that. The one thing that confused me, though, was how the crew was planning to survive the way home without water. Did they have some secret stash that they could be sure wasn’t contaminated? Especially when the captain said “We need those protein bars, we don’t have enough yet” or something like that, I thought: they are not going to get you home if you don’t have any water to drink…

For what follows, I think @arbutus said it all:

“When he is finally free to go, it is heartbreaking to watch him slowly walk away, leaving these people he so admires to their doom, the sounds of their destruction in his ears. Really, really heartbreaking. And we watch him slowly go mad.

When he bursts back in to help them, we feel that familiar triumph– the Doctor is here, he will save them! But that typically Tenth Doctor energy he brings doesn’t ring quite right in this; it feels not triumphant but desperate. Because what he’s doing is wrong. And the whole final scene with Adelaide is brilliantly done, right up to the look on his face as he realizes that she has stolen back her destiny, that he is not after all victorious over time.”

There was one thing I wondered about concerning the Doctor’s decision to save whom he could. It felt to me as if he had sort of learned a lesson at the end of Pompeii, as if Donna – or at least the whole experience there – had indeed changed him. He can’t bear listening to their despair. But I wondered: once he DOES decide to save them, fixed point in time or not, wouldn’t the best way be to head back to the Tardis and set the coordinates to a few days earlier? Maybe just early enough to make sure the tap with the broken was taken offline, or even to Earth before the Mars mission leaves and make sure they have proper replacement filters that fit? Then none of it would have happened and they would have lived on Mars happily ever after. Of course, then we wouldn’t have had this wonderful episode either, but still… Oh well, I guess plot necessities beat effectiveness 😉 (Or maybe it’s so against the fundamental rules of time travel that the Tardis would refuse to cooperate or something…)

The ending was heartbreaking. The Doctor turns into an almost arrogant Timelord Victorious with absolute power. That was rather chilling. And then there is the captain – in a way, she is happy to have been saved, but she knows she cannot stand in the way of what her granddaughter will achieve. So she does the only thing possible for her. Consequent to the bone. What a character. I really liked her!

We finish off with the harbingers of doom… Ood Sigma appearing and the Doctor – suddenly not victorious at all any more – wonders if his time has come. He can feel it coming and so can we. It’s time for him to rest. (Yes, I know, it will take another 15 years until he can properly do that… but maybe a new body and personality will help at least a little bit 😉 )

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