Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (2009)

I am a huge David Tennant fan, and am the kind of viewer who will forgive a lot of a beloved actor when he/she is handed a difficult assignment.This was the kind of script where I had to do a lot of forgiving. The sets were very pretty, and I kept wondering how they did the water special effect for the monsters, and most of the acting ranged from good to brilliant. But. The script was clumsy at best.There's a bit toward the beginning, when the Doctor's meeting the crew of the station, where we see a file on a computer screen about them, underlining over and over that all these people are going to die. That was interesting the first time it was used, but I very quickly started rolling my eyes and going "Really? There wasn't a better way to introduce everyone?" A joke about bicycles was a little overused, but paid off in the end.What hurt my soul the most was the Doctor's hubris toward the end. He has shown time and again that he won't change the important points in history. As William Hartnell, the Doctor scolded Barbara for trying to change history, telling her "You can't rewrite history. Not one line!" Having the Doctor proclaim himself as a rogue who answers to no one...that smacks of becoming like the Master or the Time Meddler or anyone else he's run into who tries to bend history out of shape. That's not the Doctor, and never has been. Maybe if there had been a more logical progression toward this change, I could have accepted it, but it came out of the blue after "The Next Doctor" and "Dead Planet".I love Tennant very much, and wanted to love this episode because it's one of my last chances to enjoy him as the Doctor. And I hated this episode. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

"The Waters of Mars" is the third episode of what most call 'series 4.5' and is definitely the most interesting of the 4 episodes (or 5 if you count the End of Time Part Two as a separate episode, which some do). Its plot is, well, passable, although nothing brilliant. The Doctor lands on the red planet on November 21st in the year 2059, which happens to be precisely the date of a very important event in history of what would eventually lead to human kind entering the realm of space travel. No inclination is given as to why The Doctor showed up at such dashing timing, but what can you say; it is Doctor Who. Anyway, so the Doctor stumbles across a station on mars not far from where he landed and, due to him being the Doctor, has to check it out. Of course, some shenanigans ensue and we have our hour long special. Now something quite surprising happened with this special, and with series 4.5 it was a quite singular thing for this one story (atleast for this reviewer); I never once felt the time. As I said, the special is an hour long and it kept me interested the whole time, moving at a brisk pace, whilst not sacrificing the time it needs to get acquainted with the episodes central characters, and managed not to overly annoy me too much with anything. (Well, there was this one scene when the Doctor was recognizing the crew of the station, and this rather annoying file on a computer kept showing up and presenting a small bio on each character, and would zoom in on a specific part of each file for ALL of the members, which was totally overused and annoying--after awhile I was like "We get it!") Now, and this may be a bit of a !!SPOILER!! but it turns out this base is under siege, as members of the crew are infected, and taken over by wa…water? A bit odd, yet quite effective choice that for the most part works quite well, and at times even presents us with a rather frightening villain. The story pits The Doctor, and the uninfected crew, against the water and its desire to get to Earth. Doesn't sound like much of a plot, and it really isn't, but its The Doctor's dilemma in the story that makes it work..When it comes to the series 4.5, this episode was pretty darned alright, especially when compared to an episode like The Next Doctor, oh then it was sodding brilliant, but I don't know, I just didn't feel it the way I should have. There was some good action and suspense, and I liked how the Doctor kept telling himself he should go but, being that he is Doctor, kept staying. That was entertaining, and I enjoyed seeing him fight between his time lordy don't break the rules type attitude, and Doctory not being able to just leave the people to die. Also liked the little 'Ice Warriors' reference in there. But I don't know, it just felt kind of bland. Kind of how '42' felt bland too, even though it was a good episode and really shouldn't have. Perhaps it's poor directing. The ending was interesting and a bit frightening, as he was leaving the stations the Doctor takes an interesting character turn (you who've seen it know what I mean), I liked the look on Tennants face, butI really didn't enjoy the little collection of thoughts, though. Again, seemed a bit overkill where it was endlessly saying things about time-lords. Just a bit over the top to the extent when I was just like "I get it, mate, that's enough" (just like with the computer thing earlier on). I liked Adelaide, as well. Nothing much to say there, though. I also liked that they brought the Ood back, there in the end, although I wasn't fond of how the Doctor behaved seconds before that. I respect the angle they were going for, it's a just a personal opinion of me not liking to see The Doctor like that. It made me think of Matt Smith's comment to Rory in series five ("I need you beside me"). It really marks the under current that flowed through series four of how much the Doctor needed someone (i.e. Donna) to keep him on the straight and narrow, and now that he's alone, he's gone far from where the Doctor should be. Had this (kind of) series been stronger this could have been a very interesting topic to explore, but the specials, apart from this serial, didn't really do enough with it, and when they tried too it seemed a little too much, and without enough buildup.All in all, better then both of its predecessors, and definitely better then it's successor(s). But compared to most episodes it was not something to write home about, and again a disappointment. ~6 of 10~ A bit below par for the series, but more than par for the specials.

Well, after a seven month wait that seemed longer than the nine years between the TVM and 'Rose', we have the most ambitious and expensive looking DW episode ever. And was it an improvement on Planet Of The Dead, the last special? Well, yes, because...almost anything would have been better than Planet Of The Dead. But let's get down to specifics. What we have here is a solid, exciting, genuinely disturbing first half hour of classic Dr Who that shares with the instant-classic episode "Blink" a monster that would actually scare young children. To date, Russell Davies' creatures have usually been more laughable than frightening, and it is as of he's trying to make up for lost opportunities and mistakes like the Slitheen. I say 'first half hour' because things go a bit pear-shaped in the second half. The tension and claustrophobia of the story gets largely thrown out in favour of 'cosmic angst', lengthy flashbacks, and incredibly clumsy foreshadowing. Yes, we all know that there is one thing Russell D can't manage, and that is subtlety. The story's sets are phenomenal, as are the simple but effective CG-treated Mars surface shots. I do wonder about the scale and the engineering wisdom of the base in the CG shots, however - the dialogue states that the designers scrimped on every kilo, yet decided to make pointlessly long and ludicrously huge dome connector tunnels made of very heavy steel that don't seem to serve any function other than being long metal box-tubes. But that's nitpicking. As for the plot, it's not exactly original. John Carpenter's late 80s horror movie Prince Of Darkness is, in effect, stolen wholesale here, and the director's later film Ghosts Of Mars is also mined. Throw in obvious pinches from 28 Days/Weeks Later, and you don't have a great deal of new stuff here. It's only when the Infected plot basically slams to a halt and we get the 15 minutes of angsting that we see any new material. And what new material! We have a galaxy-weary Doctor more or less becoming the Master here, with his self-imposed rules about not messing with 'fixed' Time being thrown out. Davies and Ford do not give Tennant enough of a chance to do more than yell a lot in this, so the chilling implications of a rogue Doctor are undermined somewhat. But the writing for those scenes is very good, and Tennant himself is never anything less than superb. The acting in general in 'Waters' is good, with "that guy from Neighbours" (as I think we all greeted him when he appeared) being the obvious standout for me.Amazing sets and CG, a threat that's actually scary, a handful of the most poignant scenes in the show (the German crew-woman playing the video of her daughter and sobbing as she awaits her doom is, hands down, the best acted and shot scene in the entirety of DW)...there's a lot to like here. Some to not like, though - Murray Gold's music is typically overblown, intrusive and mixed FAR too loud on the soundtrack - but that's quibbling. A good special, all in all. Gripping telly!OBVIOUS CONTINUITY ERROR The first humans on Mars? Er, sorry, that honour would go to the crews of Mars Probes 6 and 7 eighty years before Bowie Base even existed, as seen in Season 7 of the old show. :)

While "Doctor Who" has always had its share of fun, there have been times that it's taken a darker tone. "The Waters of Mars," the second of four specials that mark the end of David Tennant's time as the Tenth Doctor, is such an episode. It's a thrilling, funny, and downright creepy episode. And dare I say it, but I thought it was the darkest episode of the show's history. But not because of the creatures, which the Flood is a downright terrifying monster for the Doctor to face. And it's not the fact that the Doctor has landed at a fixed point in time where historical events must take place, meaning everybody on Mars' Bowie Base One will die. What makes this the darkest episode of all time is none other than the Doctor himself. After having witnessed so much death and destruction, including the death of his own people, the Time Lords, he takes a turn for the dark, believing that he has a right to change historical events, because he is the last of the Time Lords, and decides to take on time itself. He begins by rescuing the three humans not infected by the martian water, including Adelaide Brooke, the base's commander, and a hero. Through some truly ingenious work, he gets them back to Earth on the same day as their death. But now, the Doctor has taken on a dark and malicious arrogance, and believes that there is nothing he cannot do. But Brooke decides to make sure the time line stays right for her, and commits suicide. When she does this, the Doctor realizes that he has gone too far, and believes that his death is at hand. "The Waters of Mars" is definitely the best special created so far: an exciting, character-driven, dark adventure that takes on a more grim storyline that is more suited for "Torchwood," but works here. If there is a complaint I have, it's this, which is more an observation: This episode, with it's dark ending, is definitely not one for young children. But still, it's a terrific episode, and bodes well for the final two episodes of the David Tennant/Russell T. Davies era of "Doctor Who." Grade: A+