Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars...

[fajrdrako]

Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars. Time to say something about it - besides that I loved it.

1. I particularly liked Lindsay Duncan as Captain Adelaide Brooke. Nice to see an authoritative woman with character.
   
   
2. I very much liked Peter O'Brien as Ed Gold. I thought the other members of Adelaide Brooke's Mars team - with the exception of Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Maggie Cain - lacked something. They didn't seem like the experts they ought to be, to be the first people working and living on a Mars colony.
   
   
3. Loved the jokes relating to the robot, especially the K-9 joke.
   
   
4. My favourite scene: when Adelaide has the Doctor trapped in the airlock, to force him to tell her 'the truth' about what is happening on Mars. Best part:
   
   Captain Adelaide Brooke: What's going to save you?
   Doctor: Captain Adelaide Brooke
   
   
5. I was a little disappointed not to see more of the TARDIS, which got short shift. But at least it wasn't lost or damaged, as in some episodes.
   
   
6. Loved the notion that water could be frightening, that the powers of water are so formidable. Though it seems to me that water is vulnerable to cold and heat - but then, it takes time to apply both, and the colonists didn't have time.
   
   
7. Loved the way they used the museum information to show the Doctor's knowledge of future events and give the background of the characters.
   
   
8. Loved the multi-ethnic nature of the group.
   
   
9. Loved it when the Doctor told Adelaide he loved her for not shooting Andy Stone.
   
   
10. Loved the near-future setting of a space colony, the SF style of the background.
    
    
11. Was it Yuri and Mia who were a couple?
    
    
12. Loved the casual nature by which Yuri talked about his brother's husband.
    
    
13. Liked the references to the Ice Warriors. And the mention of Pompeii. And the references to "The Stolen Earth".
    
    
14. Where did the Doctor get the foam sealant to fix the ceiling?
    
    
15. Why did the Doctor go to Mars in the first place? Just for a random stroll? Why didn't he know what day it was? Was it the TARDIS who decided he ought to be there?
    
    
16. For a minute there I thought the Doctor was turning into the Master.
    
    
17. Loved the whole technique of the Doctor walking away from the station while listening to the panic and destruction within the station.
    
    
18. Loved the moment when Roman got one drop on his face. One drop!
    
    
19. I loved the whole time paradox conundrum: if some points in history are 'fixed', and the Doctor can't meddle with them, why should that be so? The theme of the story seems to be that the reason events in time can't be changed (except in tiny ways, perhaps) is because that was a law of the Time Lords of Gallifrey, and the Doctor chooses (with hubris in full force) to defy and break those laws, and he succeeds. And because of his belief in himself as greater than those laws, because of his ego, fate turns around and the person he had wanted to save ends up dead, and he realizes he went too far.
    
    But did he? She had only his word for it that the future would happen in a certain way, and she acted on her faith in what he said. Her choice. It looked as if she made that choice primarily because she disapproved of his sense of triumph and his judgement in decreeing some people as less important than others. But the same events could have been portrayed as a success so very easily - slightly different mannerisms, a few words of dialogue changed or omitted.
    
    I don't believe in predestination or preordained fates, regardless of what mechanism we imagine for them. I think that the Doctor was right to break the laws of the now-mostly-extinct Time Lords and it's interesting that the story portrayed him as being wrong. If he had done it with a sense of humility, would that have changed the ethics? I'd call it two issues: he did the right thing, but went too far in his crowing.
    
    
20. People really do make too many promises in these shows, which they cannot keep. Whenever someone says "I promise" you know disaster will come.
    
    
21. Loved the Doctor using an ancient Northern Martian language.
    
    
22. When I first watched this, I had my water fountain running in my living room, so we watched to the sound of running water. Creepy.
    
    
23. Great sense of urgency.
    
    
24. Why did Ed say Adelaide never forgave him? Just as he was dying? What plot point did I miss there?
    
    
25. Captain Adelaide Brooke: What's that?
    Doctor: A screwdriver.
    Captain Adelaide Brooke: Are you a Doctor or a Janitor?
    Doctor: I don't know; sounds like me. Maintenance man of the universe.
    
    
26. Loved the back view of the Doctor's coat as he went into the TARDIS.
    
    
27. Loved the use of the robot to save the day by getting the TARDIS.
    
    
28. Loved the way the Doctor didn't want to leave, but kept saying he should.
    
    
29. Where did Adelaide Brooke and the other really think he had come from? Adelaide truly seemed to believe he was from the future - or did she? She never said. Maybe she thought he was a Druid or teleporter. Did the others just accept that he was with a Spanish of Philippine mission? No, presumably not: that was Maggie's theory, but she didn't discuss it with the others. None of them seemed to consider the possibility that there were other people on Mars - that he might not have come to Mars alone. Not even to want to help or rescue them.