WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t seen the episode or you are waiting until it airs on BBC America December 19th – then I suggest you stop reading.
The Waters of Mars was simply fantastic. It is by far the best of the David Tennant specials so far this year. Certainly much better than “The Next Doctor” – last year’s Christmas special.
This special follows the Doctor showing up on Mars on a very critical day in history and like with most Doctor Who stories – it’s not entirely clear how or why he’s ended up there (later on he simply says ‘fun’).
The setting is man’s first colony on Mars. The colony itself is very cool – if a bit impractical as the Doctor keeps wondering why they didn’t have bikes to get around. The CGI scenery of Mars is very cool and the whole setting taps into our collective imagination as to what a Mars colony would be like.
Just don’t drink the water!
Showrunner Russell T. Davies claimed that the episode would be the scariest yet. I didn’t find it that particularly scary – but it was a little intense. It wasn’t scary because you knew the ‘monster’ only existed to make a point – that there are events even the Doctor can’t change. Or can he?
What follows is a non-stop journey that shows the Doctor doing something he almost never does – getting away from the trouble unscathed.
Then he has a revelation. I don’t want to go too much into it as I’m sure you’d like some element of surprises – but the Doctor is sick of being pushed around by the laws of time and space set out by the Time Lords – people that don’t even exist anymore.
This episode was an excellent stepping stone on the way to the finale but it was slightly sad to watch as it’s proof that the Tennant years are almost over. After the episode there is an intense trailer for last special The End Of Time – that confirmed what we’ve all pretty much known for a while – that the Master is coming back (click here to watch the End of Time Trailer).
One thing Waters of Mars leave lingering out there is if the Master will recognize who the Doctor has become.
5 out of 5 Union Jacks for being totally awesome.
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.