"Doctor Who" The Waters of Mars (2009)

Director:

Graeme Harper

Writers:

Russell T. Davies (written by) and
Phil Ford (written by) ...

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (2005)

Original Air Date:

15 November 2009

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

In a Mars base the inhabitants are being infected by a mysterious water creature which takes over its victims. The Doctor is thrust into the middle of this catastrophe knowing a larger one is waiting around the corner. |

Plot Keywords:

Mars | Robot | Self Destruct | Change History | Altruism

Cast

David Tennant	...	The Doctor
Lindsay Duncan	...	Adelaide Brooke
Peter O'Brien	...	Ed Gold
Aleksander Mikic	...	Yuri Kerenski
Gemma Chan	...	Mia Bennett
Sharon Duncan-Brewster	...	Maggie Cain
Chook Sibtain	...	Tarak Ital
Alan Ruscoe	...	Andy Stone
Cosima Shaw	...	Steffi Ehrlich
Michael Goldsmith	...	Roman Groom
Lily Bevan	...	Emily
Max Bollinger	...	Mikhail
Charles De'Ath	...	Adelaide's father (as Charlie De'Ath)
Rachel Fewell	...	Young Adelaide
Anouska Strahnz	...	Ulrika Ehrlich

Runtime:

62 min

Certification:

UK:12 (DVD rating) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:PG (TV rating)

Company:

BBC Wales

Trivia:

The name of the Mars colony, Bowie Base One, is presumably a reference to musician David Bowie and his song "Life on Mars."

Goofs:

Factual errors: Mars is shown in glowing sunlight and a red-orange sky. In reality Mars has a "butterscotch" (yellow-brown) sky during the day and a pink sky at sunset and sunrise due to high levels of dust in the atmosphere.

Quotes:

Gadget: Gadget-gadget!
The Doctor: I hate robots. Did I say?
Roman Groom: Yeah, and he's not too fond of you. What's wrong with robots?
The Doctor: It's not the robots, it's the people. Dressing them up and giving them silly voices. You're reducing them.
Roman Groom: Yeah. Friend of mine, she made her domestic robot look like a dog.
The Doctor: Ah, well, dogs. That's different.

Highly unbalanced

It was like an average Doctor Who episode, if you ask me, but it was so uneven that it oscillated between very good and very bad moments, probably because this special has a double purpose: one is to tell a story and remind Dr.Who fans that the show still goes on, the other is to prepare for the coming of the new doctor.

What will probably upset most fans is that in this special The Doctor is changing personality, going more towards "the dark side". I find this development marvelous and intriguing, giving new life to the otherwise pretty used up idea of a perpetually good and balanced doctor.

Bottom line: scary monsters and super freaks, but not very believable. A design of a Moon base that makes no sense. Some useless jokes. A lot of tension and it certainly makes me want to watch the Christmas episode... but it could have been better. The Gadget-Gadget bot really was out of place and, if I think about it, the best part of the entire show was the last 20 minutes.

I tell you this: if Billie Piper doesn't play in the Christmas special, I will be very very disappointed! Her character is what could change the tide, so to speak...