When Russell T. Davies ’ revamp of Doctor Who launched in 2005 , we were prognosticate that the Doctor ’s two Black Maria meant his fondness could be break double as often . With last Nox ’s “ Waters Of Mars , ” we finally see what that entail .
This recap moderate maximal pamperer for last night ’s Doctor Who . If you ’re waiting to watch it on BBC America next month , you should halt interpret now . Or a funny robot will issue forth and enjoin you secret of the future , which you ’re not suppose to know about .
“ Waters Of Mars ” was by no means unadulterated — the scene - chewing was a fleck savage for my mouthful — but it did find like one of the better Doctor Who fib of recent eld . More than that , it felt like a payoff , after all this time , on the promises that Russell T. Davies started pee-pee us back in 2005 . The Doctor ’s loneliness , the burden of being the Last of the Time Lords , the boredom , horror and aura of it all … it finally feel like it was in reality leading somewhere interesting and moving , after a few age of going in circle . Like Davy in reality did have a plan for the Doctor ’s development as a character all along .
frankly , this is the kind of dig into the medico ’s heart that I was hoping for all these years — not so much moping after Rose , but dealing with his tactual sensation about the death of his masses and his resulting deficiency of any external compass . You always know the Rose plot line was never decease to end up anywhere interesting , because it could n’t . These kinds of huge interrogative about the Doctor ’s place in the universe of discourse , though — there ’s so much electric potential in them .
There were really only a few episodes in serial four that hold back up on take over viewings — “ Fires Of Pompeii , ” “ Midnight ” and “ Turn Left ” — and this felt like a mash - up of all three . In a good manner . The Doctor arrives at the scene of a immense historical issue that he absolutely must not change , and feels torn about it . And he ’s alone in a tense , claustrophobic situation with no companion to help smoothe thing over . And then we get a glimpse of how bad thing go when the Doctor is n’t around .
But “ Waters Of Mars ” was more than just a combining of “ Pompeii , ” “ Midnight ” and “ twist Left ” — it was a pretty peachy story in its own right hand , building on the themes of those three stories . In a nutshell , the Doctor arrives on Mars , and it turns out to be the day that the first colonists on Mars all become flat in a horrifying incident involving terrifying water zombi . ( And I really did like the water zombi — they were a great threat . ) The Doctor knows he ca n’t vary what happens there because it ’s an important — until , finally , his compassionateness and egomania both combine to drive him to change it anyway . And we get a glance of how easy it is for the divine Doctor to go off the rails .
It ’s interesting , because we ’re deliberately severalise that a lone Dalek almost killed the captain of the Mars expedition , Adelaide Brooke , when she was a fiddling girl — but spared her life . Because even the Daleks sympathize , on some level , that sure thing are fixed in fourth dimension , like Adelaide ’s decease in 2059 . ( Although presumptively , if the Daleks ’ plan to pass over out the universe of discourse had succeeded , Adelaide would have give out anyway ? )
So “ water Of Mars ” throw us a Doctor who ’s changing an result that even the Daleks are too scrupulous to impact . I ’m remind of the bit in “ Remembrance Of The Daleks ” when he lambast Ace that even the Daleks , “ remorseless though they are , would think doubly before make such a radical amendment to the timeline . ” ( Ace almost accidentally leaves a super - sophisticated boombox behind in 1963 . )
The thing that surprised me most about “ Waters Of Mars ” is that the Doctor really makes a choice all on his own . I figured it would be the standard plotline , where he ’s pin and cut off from his TARDIS , and finally , he ’s pull up stakes with no choice but to intervene , just to save his own life sentence . But rather , the Doctor actually make a clean lam . And then he bar and thinks about leaving those people to die , and marvel why he ca n’t save them even with his immense world power . And then he goes back .
Sadly , it rick out the Doctor really ca n’t save Adelaide , or rather he does such a bad job of it that she weave up hit herself . Of course , you ca n’t help wonder why the Doctor did n’t just take Adelaide forward 100 years so she could see that thing turn out fine in spite of the Doctor deliver her life , and her granddaughter still goes on to be a corking fender . That net scene between the Doctor and Adelaide is frustratingly meta , with the Doctor spouting off about being the “ Time Lord Victorious ” and Adelaide pass on off apothegm about sheer top executive . The thing I was question that nobody brought up was , how would Adelaide and her crewmates excuse the fact that they were back on Earth safe the same twenty-four hour period their base blew up ? Would n’t Adelaide be paint as a renegade instead of a hero ? We never search those questions , which you ’d think Adelaide would be wondering about . I kept expecting the Doctor to drop the three survivor off in the nineteenth century , or the 23rd . , where they could n’t do any damage to the timelines .
Over the top as that final scene was , it was a bewitching glimpse at what happens to the Doctor when he stops play by the rules . This is the Doctor we glimpsed back in time of year one , when he was wholly fine with populating Victorian England with 1000 , maybe millions , of reanimated corpses . Just because it did n’t chance in Rose ’s timeline did n’t think it was n’t meant to happen .
Normally , you think it ’s the fellow traveler who harness the Doctor in and keep him anchored to mankind , but the mention back to the “ Pompeii ” episode prompt us that if Donna had been there , she would have been shrieking for the Doctor to save these people . On the other mitt , can you imagine how Donna would have react if the Doctor had get talking about the “ little people ” in front of her ?
No , the Doctor really need his fellow Time Lords to keep him from proceed too bonkers . Otherwise , he starts feel as though the rules really do n’t apply to him , and he starts playing God for existent . It ’s really fascinating that just as the Doctor comes the closest he ’s ever generate to being like the Master , the renegade Time Lord , he ’s about to have a reunification with the Master in Tennant ’s two - part final tarradiddle , “ The End Of Time . ”
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