Review - The Waters of Mars (How brilliant was that?)
I should definitely wait a few hours before I start writing a review of The Waters of Mars; but I've just watched it (at last!) and my mind's still reeling with all the new developments and what it teaches us on the Doctor. I'll try to be coherent anyway. *g*
Generally speaking, I found the episode more "adult" than a lot of DW eps, grasping at concepts like the inevitability of those crew members' death, for example. Kind of like The Fires of Pompeii had done, but with more realistic monsters this time (don't get me wrong, I loved TFoP). Yes, there were still the fun bits, like the Doctor replying to all of Adelaide's questions ("The Doctor. Doctor. Fun.") in one sentence, or the Doctor insisting that they should get bikes to ride on those very long corridors. Yes, there was the "hide behind the couch" factor with the monsters and what they could do. It kept me guessing, made me wonder if they could actually run out, escape and cheat that fixed point in time.
I think the big cleverness of it all here was that Ten was just a watcher at first. He kept meaning to run away as soon as he figured out where he'd landed, because the temptation to change history was so strong, but he was just pulled back to them like a magnet, helping them along even though he knew what was going to happen. I wonder, though, why he made the link with Pompeii and accused himself of being responsible for what happened. Unless I've missed it, there's technically no way to know if things would've happened differently (until the big turning point in the episode, that is) if the Doctor hadn't been there.
Anyway, the story itself moved me. Yes, there was the link back to Journey's End, which was a nice touch, but what really made it for me was that the Doctor was watching the whole crew go frantic in their determination to escape before it was too late. Then he was listening through the comm as they got contaminated, one by one. And despairing because he felt so useless. Their panic moved me to tears, because as a watcher, I felt useless, too. Nothing to do to save them.
I understand why it suddenly snaps in the Doctor's mind, though. He's seen so many people die or suffer without being able to save them, and many times he's felt responsible for their suffering. Remember his anguish in Pompeii. Yes, he had Donna then, who shared the burden, who begged him to save someone, who kept him grounded. Donna wasn't here this time, and throughout I kept remembering her words when she first met him: "Find someone. I think that sometimes, you need someone to stop you."
He was on his own and there was no-one to stop him. No-one to tell him that no, him being the last of the Time Lords doesn't mean he's the "Time Lord victorious", that no, he can't bend the rules of Time according to what he thinks is right. I was also reminded of what he said to Jack about Rose taking the Time Vortex into her head: "With that kind of power, a Time Lord would become a vengeful God." The Doctor didn't need the Time Vortex to become that sort of God, who suddenly puts himself above the laws of Time and History, chooses who lives and who dies, decides who's important and who's "little." Adelaide was right to be angry with him for saving her. And now I understand what David Tennant was saying in his interviews this week, about the Doctor bending the rules now that he feels the end is close.
Back in S3, I had issues with the way Ten was getting darker (especially in Human Nature / The Family of Blood, but then again the fact that he was John Smith and not really himself made it difficult to figure out where the characterisation was right and where it was going wild). This time, though, Ten's darkness makes sense to me, and follows in from everything that's happened to him lately. He's lost everyone he cared about, last of all Donna. He's about to lose someone else - not a close friend, sure, but someone he deeply admires, and he just can't let it happen. No-one's gonna stop him. No-one's gonna argue and tell him that what he's doing is wrong.
You know the funny thing, too? Last week, while writing a draft of chapter 10 in my current WIP, here's a line I wrote:
“It did, though. And it’s not just in the past. It’s in the future. It’s in the life we lead on the TARDIS. It’s not just the danger I put you in, too. It’s me. It’s who I am. I’ve got the potential to become exactly like the Master. One day, I might be like him. You heard what Davros said.”
That's also why his reactions at the end of The Waters of Mars struck a chord with me. He's always had the potential to become very dark, in a way that's different from the Master's darkness, sure, because his point was to save people, but in the end... the result is the same.
And then... then there was the Doctor's panic as he realised that Time had healed itself by making sure Adelaide died on that day anyway. The vision of Ood Sygma chilled me, as did the Doctor's anguish, his terror at both what he's just done and what's gonna happen to him and he can't avoid. His death is a fixed point in time, too. He's gonna die. He's really gonna die and I'm so going to miss him. Big time.
And I'm so going to rewatch this episode, because there's so many layers to it and so much to see and understand.
Side comment #1: BLUE suit? Confirms what I thought: he's got several spares in the TARDIS wardrobe. *grins*
Side comment #2: That orange spacesuit brings back bittersweet memories of a blissful time... ;)
Generally speaking, I found the episode more "adult" than a lot of DW eps, grasping at concepts like the inevitability of those crew members' death, for example. Kind of like The Fires of Pompeii had done, but with more realistic monsters this time (don't get me wrong, I loved TFoP). Yes, there were still the fun bits, like the Doctor replying to all of Adelaide's questions ("The Doctor. Doctor. Fun.") in one sentence, or the Doctor insisting that they should get bikes to ride on those very long corridors. Yes, there was the "hide behind the couch" factor with the monsters and what they could do. It kept me guessing, made me wonder if they could actually run out, escape and cheat that fixed point in time.
I think the big cleverness of it all here was that Ten was just a watcher at first. He kept meaning to run away as soon as he figured out where he'd landed, because the temptation to change history was so strong, but he was just pulled back to them like a magnet, helping them along even though he knew what was going to happen. I wonder, though, why he made the link with Pompeii and accused himself of being responsible for what happened. Unless I've missed it, there's technically no way to know if things would've happened differently (until the big turning point in the episode, that is) if the Doctor hadn't been there.
Anyway, the story itself moved me. Yes, there was the link back to Journey's End, which was a nice touch, but what really made it for me was that the Doctor was watching the whole crew go frantic in their determination to escape before it was too late. Then he was listening through the comm as they got contaminated, one by one. And despairing because he felt so useless. Their panic moved me to tears, because as a watcher, I felt useless, too. Nothing to do to save them.
I understand why it suddenly snaps in the Doctor's mind, though. He's seen so many people die or suffer without being able to save them, and many times he's felt responsible for their suffering. Remember his anguish in Pompeii. Yes, he had Donna then, who shared the burden, who begged him to save someone, who kept him grounded. Donna wasn't here this time, and throughout I kept remembering her words when she first met him: "Find someone. I think that sometimes, you need someone to stop you."
He was on his own and there was no-one to stop him. No-one to tell him that no, him being the last of the Time Lords doesn't mean he's the "Time Lord victorious", that no, he can't bend the rules of Time according to what he thinks is right. I was also reminded of what he said to Jack about Rose taking the Time Vortex into her head: "With that kind of power, a Time Lord would become a vengeful God." The Doctor didn't need the Time Vortex to become that sort of God, who suddenly puts himself above the laws of Time and History, chooses who lives and who dies, decides who's important and who's "little." Adelaide was right to be angry with him for saving her. And now I understand what David Tennant was saying in his interviews this week, about the Doctor bending the rules now that he feels the end is close.
Back in S3, I had issues with the way Ten was getting darker (especially in Human Nature / The Family of Blood, but then again the fact that he was John Smith and not really himself made it difficult to figure out where the characterisation was right and where it was going wild). This time, though, Ten's darkness makes sense to me, and follows in from everything that's happened to him lately. He's lost everyone he cared about, last of all Donna. He's about to lose someone else - not a close friend, sure, but someone he deeply admires, and he just can't let it happen. No-one's gonna stop him. No-one's gonna argue and tell him that what he's doing is wrong.
You know the funny thing, too? Last week, while writing a draft of chapter 10 in my current WIP, here's a line I wrote:
“It did, though. And it’s not just in the past. It’s in the future. It’s in the life we lead on the TARDIS. It’s not just the danger I put you in, too. It’s me. It’s who I am. I’ve got the potential to become exactly like the Master. One day, I might be like him. You heard what Davros said.”
That's also why his reactions at the end of The Waters of Mars struck a chord with me. He's always had the potential to become very dark, in a way that's different from the Master's darkness, sure, because his point was to save people, but in the end... the result is the same.
And then... then there was the Doctor's panic as he realised that Time had healed itself by making sure Adelaide died on that day anyway. The vision of Ood Sygma chilled me, as did the Doctor's anguish, his terror at both what he's just done and what's gonna happen to him and he can't avoid. His death is a fixed point in time, too. He's gonna die. He's really gonna die and I'm so going to miss him. Big time.
And I'm so going to rewatch this episode, because there's so many layers to it and so much to see and understand.
Side comment #1: BLUE suit? Confirms what I thought: he's got several spares in the TARDIS wardrobe. *grins*
Side comment #2: That orange spacesuit brings back bittersweet memories of a blissful time... ;)