"But there are laws. There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws, but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It's taken me all these years to realise the laws of time are mine, and they will obey me!"
Episode #207: Waters of Mars.
Companions: The 10th Doctor.
Air Date: 15th November 2009.
Mars, 2059, Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop."
The Doctor arrives on Mars and discovers the first human colony. A colony which according to history was destroyed with the loss of all hands. When an alien force takes control of the colonists the Doctor finds himself torn between wanting to help and letting this fixed point in time take it's natural course. For once he chooses poorly and things don't work out quite as he had hoped.
The villains of this story are a water-borne virus of sorts which has been frozen in a glacier for thousands of years. The Doctor theories that it may have been trapped there by the Ice Warriors, which is the only reference to them in the entire episode. The Flood, as they are called, take over the colonists and seek to escape to Earth where there is more water than on Mars.
Waters of Mars is a very good adventure which covers the science fiction and horror genres. You could even say that it borders on zombie horror once the Flood begin to possess the colonists. It adds a nice sense of urgency to the adventure which is sometimes lacking recently in Doctor Who.
In this story the Doctor returns to the lonely god aspect that we saw before in The Runaway Bride. Once he starts to think that he can change things he reverts to that aspect. This time he is successful up to a point but time has it's means of fixing the situation and when it does so the Doctor is shown that he isn't as all powerful a lord of time as he sometimes thinks he is. We all like the Doctor to win at the end of the day but it is nice again to see the Doctor humbled at times.
I know that I do focus on some negative elements some times but I can say the only downer for me here is simply that as the story is set on Mars I would have liked more than a passing reference to the Ice Warriors. The red planet was their home and until recently (really) it was also the prison for an Osirian. Just the Whovian in me wanting more connectivity between old and new Who.
Waters of Mars continues the "he will knock four times" plot which leads up to the final episode. Only briefly but its enough to set the Doctor fleeing from his eventual fate.
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