Following the child-friendly colour and noise of Planet of the Dead (complete with flying London bus for sh1ts, giggles and "cool-Britannia brand recognition), I was looking forward to the next specials as they were sold as being a lot darker and more suited to adults than their children. Of course it was still going to be family-friendly but what I knew of the plot going in suggested it would be more than that. The first 15 minutes confirm that the potential is definitely there and indeed it does seem like we are on our way to something particularly good. The monsters have the deadly patience and determination of zombies and visually are well filmed to be unsettling and frightening. The Doctor's knowledge of the fate of the base (and its importance in time) introduces a familiar theme but one that still has legs – his ability to stand back and watch events that have already happened unfold as they have already done – whether they are right or fair.
Does it deliver on this potential? Well, the fair answer is "sort of", because while it never produces something really impressive, it is still pretty good. The fast moving plot benefits from decreasing options and the inevitable nature of the plotting but at the same time it never really nails any one aspect as well as I would have liked. The infected/possessed characters are indeed creepy and feel unstoppable, while the infection of some of the characters do indeed have some emotional impact – as Theo has said already, there is an air of 28 Days Later about it and I think that this is one of the things it did well. The weaknesses come in with the more complex character themes that the show tries to deal with beyond the specific adventure plot. If you wrote these conflicting inner turmoil down in a couple of sentences then you would have developed them as fully as this special does. Mostly it is done by having the Doctor square his jaw and look determined and/or in deep thought. This I have no real problem with but it is not backed up by good dialogue or clever character observations – the final few moments of the special maybe do this but it is just as superficial. Maybe I am being unfair since this is still a Sunday evening piece of family entertainment but it did give the special a tone of "doing the basics", with the "importance" of certain things painted on rather than being engrained into the characters and plot in the way that works best.
The supporting aspects of the special can either shore it up to be stronger or give it a weaker base that doesn't help. In this case the threat of the infected is definitely a shoring factor but everything else doesn't help that much. The Gadget robot put me in mind of Tweaky in Buck Rodgers or that bl00dy dog in the original Battlestar Galactica. It was an unnecessarily silly addition and the impact of two infecting chasing the Doctor and Adelaide was undercut somewhat by having them escape on a "tricked-out" Gadget, complete with flames coming from the exhaust. The supporting cast were solid and I did think that Duncan was good but could really have done with a little bit less running and a bit more time to process her character's actions to produce something more memorable. The computer effects were OK but the use of music was mostly poor – often being obvious and intrusive. Tennant is on typical good form though as he approaches the end of his tenure – he is capable of doing more with the darker character stuff but this special didn't give him the time.
Waters of Mars is certainly a massive improvement on the last special even if it doesn't live up to its potential and fudges some aspects it should have been strong on. One more special remains, containing the Master; I suspect that it will be similar to this special in the mix of running, threats and darker aspects, I would just hope that it can match the impact of the better parts of this special while also doing a better job on the more interesting thematic/character aspects, which I didn't think were that good here (even if they were present).
Does it deliver on this potential? Well, the fair answer is "sort of", because while it never produces something really impressive, it is still pretty good. The fast moving plot benefits from decreasing options and the inevitable nature of the plotting but at the same time it never really nails any one aspect as well as I would have liked. The infected/possessed characters are indeed creepy and feel unstoppable, while the infection of some of the characters do indeed have some emotional impact – as Theo has said already, there is an air of 28 Days Later about it and I think that this is one of the things it did well. The weaknesses come in with the more complex character themes that the show tries to deal with beyond the specific adventure plot. If you wrote these conflicting inner turmoil down in a couple of sentences then you would have developed them as fully as this special does. Mostly it is done by having the Doctor square his jaw and look determined and/or in deep thought. This I have no real problem with but it is not backed up by good dialogue or clever character observations – the final few moments of the special maybe do this but it is just as superficial. Maybe I am being unfair since this is still a Sunday evening piece of family entertainment but it did give the special a tone of "doing the basics", with the "importance" of certain things painted on rather than being engrained into the characters and plot in the way that works best.
The supporting aspects of the special can either shore it up to be stronger or give it a weaker base that doesn't help. In this case the threat of the infected is definitely a shoring factor but everything else doesn't help that much. The Gadget robot put me in mind of Tweaky in Buck Rodgers or that bl00dy dog in the original Battlestar Galactica. It was an unnecessarily silly addition and the impact of two infecting chasing the Doctor and Adelaide was undercut somewhat by having them escape on a "tricked-out" Gadget, complete with flames coming from the exhaust. The supporting cast were solid and I did think that Duncan was good but could really have done with a little bit less running and a bit more time to process her character's actions to produce something more memorable. The computer effects were OK but the use of music was mostly poor – often being obvious and intrusive. Tennant is on typical good form though as he approaches the end of his tenure – he is capable of doing more with the darker character stuff but this special didn't give him the time.
Waters of Mars is certainly a massive improvement on the last special even if it doesn't live up to its potential and fudges some aspects it should have been strong on. One more special remains, containing the Master; I suspect that it will be similar to this special in the mix of running, threats and darker aspects, I would just hope that it can match the impact of the better parts of this special while also doing a better job on the more interesting thematic/character aspects, which I didn't think were that good here (even if they were present).