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dbskylerTruthfully, I wasn't looking forward to this episode. I didn't know much about it going in except for vague warnings that it would be dark, and I don't really like dark, depressing, doom-and-gloom type episodes. Also, a "dark" episode as a big blow-out special cooked up by RTD sounded a little too close to "Voyage of the Damned," and I detest that episode (for many, many reasons, not just because it was a little on the dark side).
So, I looked at "Waters of Mars" as something to get through on the way to the regeneration episodes, and I expected I wouldn't enjoy it, and I expected RTD to mess things up.
And I was wrong, on all counts. "Waters of Mars" was, to coin a phrase, brilliant.
This has to have been one of the most unique episodes of "Doctor Who" in its entire history. Despite the so-often-used-it's-become-a-cliche "base under attack from monsters" plot veneer, this wasn't an episode about battling monsters at all; it was an episode about the Doctor himself. In the course of the hour he goes from traveling hero to Time Lord Victorious, and it's a fascinating -- and terrifying -- journey to watch:
-- The Doctor says that his reason for being there is "fun."
-- The Doctor realizes just where and when he is, and says how he should leave (but then doesn't).
-- The Doctor stands there with the space suit in his hands, watching the base personnel working to save themselves while he knows (and so do we) that their work will be in vain, and they are all doomed to die.
-- The Doctor tells Adelaide the truth, and gets her to open the airlock and save him.
-- The Doctor walks away from the base, listening as people die and the rocket explodes, taking the hope of evacuation with it.
-- The Doctor strides back into the base, taking control, determined to change a fixed point in time. And by the way, David Tennant has never been better than in this scene -- it's amazing to watch the way he rockets back and forth from a confident "I'm in charge" attitude to grief ("they all died") to terror (the moment when he hears the knocking) to frenzied desperation ("not beaten yet!"). It's very clear that the Doctor has officially gone off the rails, and I can't recall us ever having seen that before.
-- "The laws of time are mine, and they will obey me!" Just . . . wow. Also, by the time the Doctor said those words, I fully believed in his capacity to say them, which is a pretty amazing feat. Key to Time and Skasis Paradigm notwithstanding, I understood how this time the Doctor had come up against a temptation that was simply too great for him to resist.
-- The Doctor tells Adelaide "tough" and proclaims that there is no longer anything he cannot do. Serious shudders, there.
I honestly don't know where they're going to go from here (and if you do know, don't tell me), but I am well and truly hooked. Not only is the prospect of an off-the-rails Doctor a fascinating one to look forward to, but there's also an underlying poignancy because we know that his time is running out. The stage is set for an amazing finale, and I can't wait!
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 06:48 am (UTC)I don't know either, and until I saw the preview clip for 'The End of Time Part One' on Children In Need, I was quite excited to find out.
Now I've seen that clip, I'm back to "Oh gods, someone shoot me and spare me from Rusty"...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 07:16 am (UTC)(Rusty, in case you're confused, here's the key:
Last of the Time Lords = bad
Voyage of the Damned = bad
Midnight = good
Waters of Mars = good
Please tell me that you finally get it?)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 07:19 am (UTC)What about Planet of the Dead?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 07:32 am (UTC)Thanks : ) But yep, got to see it.
I thought "Planet of the Dead" was average. It did have some good things, and it would've been a perfectly fine regular episode, but as a special I found it disappointing.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 07:36 am (UTC)Good!
It was the "married Queen Elizabeth 1 and shagged her" bit that really annoyed me about that clip - well, that and the idiotic 'joke' of locking the TARDIS like it's a car. The TARDIS is NOT a car, it's way better than a car, and the joke is totally wasted on Ood Sigma - it's what Chris Bidmead calls 'a first draft joke' - should've been dropped after the first draft of the script was finished.
I thought "Planet of the Dead" was average. It did have some good things, and it would've been a perfectly fine regular episode, but as a special I found it disappointing.
I liked the Tritivores, and the flying alien things were fascinating, but Christina bored me, and Malcolm Taylor was too OTT for my tastes...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 08:05 am (UTC)The locking-the-TARDIS-like-a-car didn't bother me, but I also didn't think it was particularly clever. "First draft joke," indeed.
I liked the Tritivores, and the flying alien things were fascinating, but Christina bored me, and Malcolm Taylor was too OTT for my tastes...
Yes, yes, yes and yes. I agree completely. On the plus side, I also liked the reference to "Robot," though. By the way, have you ever since this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZvbMA6xtjQ It's hysterical, and points out all the plot holes in that episode.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 08:14 am (UTC)Well, that's Rusty for you! He obviously doesn't respect women much, or he wouldn't keep writing such one-dimensional women. And he's obviously got no respect for the Royals as people...
By the way, have you ever since this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZvbMA6xtjQ It's hysterical, and points out all the plot holes in that episode.
Yes I have - cried with laughter over that one the first time I saw it...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 08:40 am (UTC)It still makes me cry with laughter. : )
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-23 08:44 am (UTC)