Written by Russell T. Davies & Phil Ford
Directed by Graeme Harper
“For a long time now I thought I was just a survivor, but I’m not. I’m the winner. That’s who I am. The Time Lord victorious.”
The setting is irrelevant.
Mars is gorgeously created out of CGI, a quarry, and the consumate skill of director Graeme Harper — a man who uses light the way Da Vinci used paint. But it’s a (decidedly beautiful) backdrop that merely exists as a means to an end.
The characters are irrelevant.
They’re archetypal, clean-cut, first-class heroic cliches , but they’re all brilliantly cast…and fronted by Lindsay Duncan, whose magnificent performance as Adelaide Brooke sets the standard by which all Doctor Who guest stars, past and future, should be judged. But they’re all exist to serve a singular purpose.
The monsters are irrevelant.
Simple, silent (screaming, ice-cracking moments excepted), and by turns incredibly strange and repulsive and creepy…especially Sharon Duncan Brewster…stuck behind the medlab screen, with the most disturbing look of evil delight on her face. They get no major explanation, no revealed origin…only enough background to establish the Flood as a threat, without resorting to time-wasting theories and mind-numbing technobabble. But, in the end, they’re simply window dressing.
This is all about the Doctor.
This is the story of a man put into a position we’ve all been dreading. He’s re-living the guilt of his past, through the tortured voices of the dying crew of Bowie Base One. He’s without a friend, willing to stop him from going too far…and he finally, completely, and totally…
…well, I don’t know WHAT to call it. Snapped? Embraced by the dark side? Become the Master?
Actually, it’s worse than that…he’s become the Valeyard. For long term fans, this prospect is worse than becoming evil, or going insane. The Valeyard was a version of the Doctor without conscience, without remorse, and without pity…a possible, horrific future possibility. A man who believed in what needed to be done, no questions asked. No hand-wringing, no self-flagellation. A man who sees an order to the universe, and is willing to do everything it takes to bend creation to his will.
The Doctor takes the step towards such a dark future on Mars. He shoves his worries, his conscience, and his ethics into a strong steel box, and locks it away. He lets his heart(s) override his head, and he embraces the awesome, terrifying power he is able to wield as the last of the Time Lords. Watching him engage in single-combat with time itself left less of a pit in my stomach…and more of a yawning chasm. It was ugly AND compelling…in every way the embodiment of the Oncoming Storm that the Daleks fear so intensely. The Time Lord victorious indeed.
But it’s not enough to leave us dumbfounded. The Waters of Mars proceeds to teach the Doctor a harsh lesson in humility…and it’s delivered by a single, heroic human being. Adelaide Brooke knows that a Time Lord victorious is wrong, and shows us - the Doctor and the audience - exactly why. There are first-class operas that can’t compete with the epic scale of tragedy on display in this episode’s final fifteen minutes. The Cloister Bell tolling its doom-laden siren call simply caps it all off.
In a sense, The Waters of Mars isn’t just a counter-point to last season’s The Fires of Pompeii…it’s also a counter-point to Graeme Harper’s 25 year old masterpiece, The Caves of Androzani. In that tragic 5th Doctor finale, our Time Lord hero couldn’t care less about the future of the Androzani system and its cast of despicable characters. His only care is the life of his friend, and he’s willing to sacrifice his own in the process. Pure, selfless altruism. But Waters of Mars offers us the opposite end of the spectrum: a Doctor consumed with hubris, unconcerned about the consequences of his actions. The Androzani Doctor survives a chain reaction, unconcerned with the consequences to himself. The Waters of Mars Doctor unleashes a chain reaction, and damn the consequences to everyone else.
This was majestic and gripping beyond words. For the first time ever…the Doctor frightened the living hell out of me.
10
