David Tennant’s second of four final Doctor Who appearances sees him arrive on the planet Mars without a companion. As he explores the planet, he is captured by a robot and taken to a base inhabited by a team from Earth. The Doctor learns that the date is 21st November 2059, and that this is in fact Bowie Base One, the first human outpost on Mars.
As the story progresses, it becomes apparent to the Doctor that he is witness to a fixed point in time. He cannot interfere with the events that are unfolding around him. Without giving anything away, The Waters of Mars improves on the previous specials Planet of the Dead and The Next Doctor considerably. That’s not to say that it is a perfect episode. To start with, there’s the running, lot’s of it – from one end of the base to the other. The script writers even make a joke out of it. It was only needed the once to set up another scene later on. Then there’s the robot, GADGET which goes around saying “gadget, gadget” all the time. Annoyingly. I’m sure without GADGET, a lot of children could have found this special very frightening, which leads me on to the good points…
It’s scary, well for family viewing it is. Some of the humans on the base become infected after coming into contact with the waters of Mars, and the result is very creepy. The Doctor is no longer the fun adventurer or confident hero. He’s reduced to indecision, confusion and inaction as he tries to leave the crew to their fate. Though unable or unwilling to interfere with the fixed point in time we see the Doctor wrestle with his curiosity and conscience. And with all of this turmoil within the Doctor, we see the darker side of him (think The Runaway Bride as the vengeful Doctor destroys the Racnoss). Arrogant, unbound, the “Time Lord victorious”.
Unfortunately for the script writers that last line, the “Time Lord Victorious” made me cringe and I don’t think I was the only one who felt that (judging by the mixed reviews). The Waters of Mars is an improvement and certainly sets the story up for the last two part specials.
