{"id":37103,"date":"2022-12-31T11:04:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T11:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/?p=37103"},"modified":"2022-12-31T11:04:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T11:04:42","slug":"why-i-love-the-waters-of-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2022\/12\/31\/why-i-love-the-waters-of-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Love: The Waters of Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Waters of Mars <\/em>at its heart is traditional Doctor Who<\/em>: primarily it\u2019s Doctor vs monsters, but most notably it\u2019s a \u2018base under siege\u2019 that has been a Doctor Who<\/em> regular throughout the decades. However, there is something about Waters<\/em> that raises its head above the rest and makes it not just my favourite RTD era story, but my favourite Nu-Who <\/em>adventure, by far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monster is a zombie of sorts; the human host is infected by a single drop of water and is turned into a creature that wants to propagate itself into any other available carrier. If that\u2019s not horrifying enough, the basis of the monster is water itself; an element which, like the wind, cannot be beaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sense of foreboding in the Doctor\u2019s monologue — \u201cwater always wins\u201d and the “if only one drop gets back to Earth\u2026” — is fairly unprecedented as most other monsters or threats can somehow be tangibly defeated. The big monsters, especially the Daleks, have now been defeated so often that they\u2019ve become impotent. But here the element of water can only be contained. But even then, did the destruction of Bowie Base One destroy the water or merely turn it to steam, allowing the Doctor to rescue the last few survivors? After all, the Ice Warriors only contained it; vapourised water re-forms as clouds, rain or condensation\u2026 All the Doctor has in his arsenal, on this occasion, is to collect all he can and run away: smash and grab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though there is water, there is no soap; The Waters of Mars <\/em>is a solid action-adventure-horror, told at a break-neck pace and isn\u2019t bogged down by a regular companion asking questions. The Doctor is affectively unshackled which leads to the sucker-punch of the downbeat ending: a Doctor going rogue, leading to Adelaide\u2019s suicide. Her death was a fixed point in time and should not have been saved. This made Waters<\/em> far darker than anything that had come before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it were not for the appearance of an Ood, linking Waters of Mars<\/em> to the following episode, The End of Time<\/em>, this would be a self-contained movie. Nevertheless, it\u2019s still grim, gritty, exciting, and properly scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a theme, Netflix has got some rather good South Korean science fiction dramas. A particularly good one is The Silent Sea<\/em> about a moon-base where a team of stranded astronauts are besieged by intelligent water that infects the host\u2026 I wonder where they got the idea for that?<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As David Tennant returns to Doctor Who, we look back at one of his best stories from 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":37381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"Why I Love: #DoctorWho The Waters of Mars","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[73],"tags":[3168,44,1973,711,12,49,966],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Tenth-David-Tennant-Adelaide-Brooke-Lindsay-Duncan-10th.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12899,"url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2017\/11\/07\/the-waters-of-mars-a-summation-of-what-makes-russell-t-davies-era-great\/","url_meta":{"origin":37103,"position":0},"title":"The Waters of Mars: A Summation of What Makes Russell T Davies' Era Great?","author":"Jonathan Appleton","date":"7 November 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Cast your mind back to 2009. It was an uncertain time, and the only relief we got was in the form of the Specials which punctuated David Tennant's last full year as the Tenth Doctor. But on the whole, they were less than extraordinary. Ah well, except for The Waters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38992,"url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2023\/08\/14\/russell-t-davies-had-to-scale-back-the-scary-elements-in-the-waters-of-mars\/","url_meta":{"origin":37103,"position":1},"title":"Russell T Davies Had to Scale Back the Scary Elements in The Waters of Mars","author":"Philip Bates","date":"14 August 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Target novel of The Waters of Mars is available now.","rel":"","context":"In "Merchandise"","block_context":{"text":"Merchandise","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/category\/news\/doctor-who-merchandise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/The-Waters-of-Mars-Maggie-Cain.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12256,"url":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2017\/10\/03\/what-is-russell-t-davies-favourite-doctor-who-serial-he-wrote\/","url_meta":{"origin":37103,"position":2},"title":"What is Russell T. 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