The Waters of Mars

[chopper]

"I've gone too far"

Indeed.

A dark episode, taking a standard "And Then There Were None"-style scenario into (ahem) turbulent waters.

More thoughts soon.

 

[Harry Kilmer]

Another meh episode. There's very few of the new series that I feel the need to watch again, which is a shame because when its good its brilliant.

And I can't see the Doctor changing such a significant event in Earths history to save one person, after all the things he's done (or refused to do) previously.

 

[The Ace]

I liked the idea, the Doctor decides he has absolute power, and is pulled up short by something bigger than he is.

 

[chopper]

And I can't see the Doctor changing such a significant event in Earths history to save one person, after all the things he's done (or refused to do) previously.

well, mainly because he believed he couldn't and shouldn't. this one read in the same way as (say) a student who leaves home and authority for the first time and realises that they have the authoritah.

but just because you do, doesn't mean you can. the doctor has had his Napoleon moment, and now has to face a reckoning for it. hubris, hubris. hear the cloister bell at the end?

 

[Tillane]

Avast, me hearties! There be spoilers in this here post!

Ahem. Sorry, it must have been all that water. It does funny things to me (so it does).

well, mainly because he believed he couldn't and shouldn't. this one read in the same way as (say) a student who leaves home and authority for the first time and realises that they have the authoritah.

Not only that, but I'd have thought that - for someone like The Doctor - the simple fact of not being able to save people all the time must become one heck of a burden. Surely it'd be surprising if he didn't crack and say "to hell with the rules" at some point. However, I did think it was interesting that they referenced Pompeii when the Doc was explaining about fixed points in time: after all, he actually did save people from there, albeit only four.

All in all, I thought it was an okay episode. A bit bleaker than the norm (which we were promised), and obviously portentous. Duncan was dependable as always, even if she had some very indifferent lines to read. I even kind of liked the "funny robot" stuff. Kind of.

If I have one gripe, it's that the end was pointing one way (particularly after the Doc's triumphalist bit at the end) and then they went and backed off. I had hopes...but they were dashed. Probably. Have to wait till Christmas to be sure, I guess.

 

[PTeppic]

It's all a bit "why now?" though, surely. He's spent much of his 900 years on the boundaries of the rules, often the Time Lords' own ones. He's been through the Time War and what that all meant. So why now, should a few deaths change his mind? Keeping time moving is what he is.

Or... is it a self-fulfilling prophecy: that prediction/knowledge of his own forthcoming death has triggered his fall over the precipice?

 

[Tillane]

Or... is it a self-fulfilling prophecy: that prediction/knowledge of his own forthcoming death has triggered his fall over the precipice?

More than likely - plus he's had a bit of a rough time of it recently, what with losing all his recent companions in one way or another and facing off against pretty much all his nemeses in rapid succession. Might push a chap over the edge, certainly. Although I have to admit that his demeanour in the previous two specials don't really fit that explanation.

Ah, I don't know. It's for RTD to explain - assuming he's in an explaining mood.

 

[Harry Kilmer]

He didn't seem like he was about to go over the edge in the last episode. And he's lost companions before - infact, as he pointed out to Rose in "School Reunion", he loses all of them eventually - one way or another.

And in that same episode, he was given a chance of gaining ultimate power of the universe, and turned it down. He's also already shown a willingness to kill in someone in cold blood, whilst other times he doesn't. He's lived with who and what he is for a long time now, it just seems strange for him to get power happy now.

 

[Lenny]

I think all of this can be put down to RTD wanting things to go out with a bang... exactly like how he ended last series. And the series before. And the series before that. And the next two specials...

I must admit that for a moment I was hoping that the Doctor would stay on his power trip - it would be a wonderful start for the next Doctor. But no...

As for the episode, I thought it was decent. I liked the design of the station (although at least one of the sets looked like it was reused - the view of the glacier was so similar to the giant whatever-it-was in the episodes on the planet of the Ood), and I liked the return of his spacesuit (from the two Satan Pit episodes). Oh, and I feel like I must comment on how his sonic screwdriver was very nearly just a screwdriver (albeit a sonic one, and one that can somehow add rockets to the back of robots...).

The bits that let it down, for me, were the speeding robot, and when the Doctor came striding back in all triumphant-like, and decided that he wasn't going to die because he's suddenly bound by a prophecy.

Saying all that, it was head and shoulders above the terribleness of the Easter special.

I can't wait for everything to be handed over to Moffat. Sure, I'll sit through the spectacle that the Christmas specials are guaranteed to be, clap my hands in the right places, and enjoy the eye-candy, but I'm getting tired of RTD's vision of the Doctor, and how it's being tailored to the younger audience who like flashy explosions, happy endings (though I must admit that tonight's suicide was a bit adult - brings back memories of Torchwood. Oh how long ago that seems ), people being turned into little goblins by laser screwdrivers, goblins being turned into super-beings when their name is chanted, and people flying away in bloody buses...

/rant

As is often used to describe Goodkind, I'll use the old MacDonald analogy - tonight's episode was satisfying in the way that a MacDonald's is satisfying. It fills that hole, but in a greasy, cardboardy way.

 

[Tillane]

As is often used to describe Goodkind, I'll use the old MacDonald analogy - tonight's episode was satisfying in the way that a MacDonald's is satisfying. It fills that hole, but in a greasy, cardboardy way.

And you find yourself hungry again twenty minutes later.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Well what a load of drivel. For a start the old future visions of headlines that change. What was that all about. The one thing that Who has always managed to avoid was the time paradox problem. However, here we are changing history and then having memories of those changed events in front of his eyes. So if the program is going to go down these lines we have to ask what bringing an immortal Capt Jack would do to the time lines. Come on all those aliens the Torchy boys have defeated. Aliens that would have prevented the flight to mars and all the rest of it.

It would have been much better to have him leave them to their fate.

Then there's the 150 PSI water jets coming out of the sleeves. Good grief, what's the physics behind that. (talk about antiperspirant)

Final verdict. Poor script, port effects, poor plot line, poor outcome.

 

[Harry Kilmer]

The Doctor coming to terms with his eventual demise is an interesting idea. For me though, the scene in Dalek where Ecclestone sees a Cybermans head being displayed as an exhibit and comments "I'm getting old" portrayed the concept much better in 10 seconds then this whole episode managed.

 

[Casshern]

And he's lost companions before

quite literally.. in teh 70's 2 died on screen coz he was such a noob and let them die..

this special was horrible to the point of never going to watched again. EVER.

it was like watching a bad 70's cop show that never made it big..

the script was crud, the actors wooden and the Doctor going all Holier than Thou before she tops herself was a bit OTT. ye you're a Time Lord.. ye its been 6-7 years since the time war was time-locked, and only now he's grows a pair? i just wanted to slap him. RTD and Moffat has a lot to answer for.

if The End of Time goes the way this does, it will be truly the end for DW for me.. im already miffed Matt "i look liked a prick* Smith is taking over, if Tennant goes out with a fizzle, i may just break down and cry.

i've watch DW since i was 4.. and watched as many of the reruns as possible to have a good time.. but this special was just gimped beyond all measure.

There my two cents.

what an entrance to Chrons aint it xD

 

[dustinzgirl]

It's all a bit "why now?" though, surely. He's spent much of his 900 years on the boundaries of the rules, often the Time Lords' own ones. He's been through the Time War and what that all meant. So why now, should a few deaths change his mind? Keeping time moving is what he is.

Or... is it a self-fulfilling prophecy: that prediction/knowledge of his own forthcoming death has triggered his fall over the precipice?

Because he is tired and burnt out with death and destruction and the constant struggle. Many of the earlier epis have hinted at his loneliness, and his sadness, and I don't think that's a hole easily filled.

 

[Casshern]

I think all of this can be put down to RTD wanting things to go out with a bang...

sorry to burst ya bubble but this was a full on Moffat episode.. and RTD wasnt told what happened in this episode at all..

i know as my g/f's cousin's father is best friends with RTD.. so *sings* IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL*/sings*

 

[PTeppic]

sorry to burst ya bubble but this was a full on Moffat episode.. and RTD wasnt told what happened in this episode at all..

i know as my g/f's cousin's father is best friends with RTD.. so *sings* IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL*/sings*

Which is weird, because it was credited to RTD and Phil Ford.

 

[Casshern]

oddities exist..

meh.. who trust cousins of people anyway xD

 

[thaddeus6th]

Disliked this.

The freaky-looking people were quite cool, I thought. However, the Doctor was rubbish. First of all he can't won't help them, and then he does even though he knows he shouldn't, and starts shouting about how important he is. It was childish, I thought.

Given the look ahead to Christmas (I won't spoil it in case anyone didn't see it or doesn't want to know) I suspect it'll be yet another RTD finale, with a non-sensical plot perhaps with the odd moment of unwitting humour (Dobby the House Doctor, for example) because apparently an ending can only be good if it's massive, with lots of explosions and the future of the whole universe in peril.

Bah. Bah, I tell you!

It's particularly irritating because sometimes there have been excellent episodes, like The Impossible Planet, the "Are you my mummy?" two-parter and Blink.

/humbug

 

[Perpetual Man]

For me I was really looking forward to it - it had been very well received in the papers, and their previews made it sound like a lot of fun; not only that there had been the promise of a darker story....

Okay I was a bit distracted while watching it, but I think it is fair to say that I was a little let down by the episode. Talk of it being the scariest episode ever, just seemed over hyped, and it seemed, if anything to be average.

It was only in the last five minutes that I really perked up. Suddenly I felt as though it might be going somewhere, a grittier Doctor, a doctor prepared to break the rules even more than he had done before.

It seemed an ideal way to lead into the grand finale of Tennant's Doc, suddenly he was the one that needed to be stopped, after all interfering with who lives and survives because he feels like it is just as bad as anything the Master has tried (perhaps)...

But it seems like the reset button has been set...

(Or has it, a little niggle in the back of my mind says wasn't the Doctor destined to go bad, as the Valyard laid out in the Trial of A Time Lord?)

 

[Tillane]

(Or has it, a little niggle in the back of my mind says wasn't the Doctor destined to go bad, as the Valyard laid out in the Trial of A Time Lord?)

Yep, supposedly before his last regeneration. I was hoping that they might be heading for this, but I agree that they seem to have (maybe) backed off. A darker Doctor with Moffat writing the scripts could be really good (Doctor as Master?). Doubt it'll happen, though.