The Water of Mars is the one special that I have been
looking forward to and to save any suspense, I really like this story. If only
the other specials before this had been this good then I would be over the
moon. When this episode was transmitted on November 15, 2009, David Tennant had
ben Doctor for 1,421 days making him the third longest serving Doctor ever. He
has now been the Doctor longer than William Hartnell.
Lindsey Duncan is a proper actress and so she plays Adelaide
Brooke. I think that the character is good because she comes across as harsh
and not likeable at all but it was clear that she was hiding something and in a
nice scene with the Doctor the moment is revealed because she saw a Dalek and
the Dalek saw her but didn’t exterminate her. This happened during the Stolen
Earth/Journeys End story and this was a totally unexpected moment in this story
and I liked it.
There is one thing that doesn’t quite work and that is the
Gadget robot think which after Wall-E looks like a bit of a cheat.
One of the things that I love about this special is that
things go badly wrong very quickly. When Andy becomes the first infected its
done in the background of Maggie talking and its very grim. Another thing about
this story is that it’s a base under siege and if you have been following this
blog since the very beginning you know I love a base under siege story. The
Doctor realises quite quickly that he has to leave quickly because the crew of
Bowie Base One die and for some reason he can’t change things like he normally
would. This presents a great personal struggle for the Doctor because for most
of the episode he says he cant and then changes his mind. This causes him to
crack and decides that because he is the only timelord that he can decide who
lives and who dies. This is the first time that Tennants Doctor has shown such
anger.
He changes history and helps three of them (including
Adelaide) survive. What I like when this happens is that Adelaide knows that
this is the wrong thing and kills herself. This shows that the Doctor has gone
too far and shouldn’t be taking matters into his own hands. The scene where
Adelaide takes the Doctor to task over this its an unexpected scene at the end
of what has been a grim and dark story. When she dies its like a slap in the
face to the Doctor and the build up to his end starts.
The story uses such a simple thing as water and uses it in a
wonderful way. Just one drop is enough to infect someone and this means that
the body count is quite high.
The effect of the cracked lips and the water dripping from
their mouth is impressive. The sight of them pretty much vomiting water is one
of the best sights from this story. I don’t know who it was that came up with
this aspect of the story but its one of the best monsters that the show has
created since the weeping angels.
On a final note, this episode was dedicated to Barry Letts
who had passed and I think that this was a perfect tribute to him. This is the
sort of story that he would do and it’s the first time since Human Nature and The
Family of Blood that I have felt that the story has been this good. After being
slightly disappointed with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, it was nice
that the good form has returned. There are now just two episodes left of the
Tennant era and its weird to think that there isn’t much time left before the
Matt Smith era.
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