Water of Mars review

[manicsfan]

Well far be it for me to be lazy... but I am, so I'll start by copying and pasting my immediate response post on the review thread on the Doctor Who group:



I really hope they're not going to destroy Ten before they kill him. Seriously, I want to love my Doctor as much on his last day and I did on his first. Not hate and fear what he has become.

As the rest of the story... I sorta don't see why Adelaide couldn't have just gone into hiding, and never reveal herself to her family. Then everyone would have assumed she had died on Mars, and history (with regards to her granddaughter anyway) would remain the same. Not an ideal idea, but surely better than shooting yourself. Even by dying there, but on Earth, could still change things.

All in all it was interesting, especially with regards to the Doctor's character, but wasn't great. I do kinda like the idea of having the first fixed point ever set in the future, rather than the past, but I do think it could have been better done.

To add to that:

This so far is just scarily following the same sort of theme as CoE. Putting the drama and angst above all else, and if they destroy Ten and then kill him in the same sort of way they did with Ianto I will be Pissed off! (Note the capital P.) Plus that robot kinda annoyed me with it's "gadget, gadget" thing repeatedly (Wall-E's more annoying brother sprang to mind).

I am still so psyched for the last 2 specials, and the trailer looked awesome. However, I am still very skeptical. RTD has a reputation for writing good build ups, and then completely bollocksing up the endings, making the fans either angry or just going "WTF?!" (Last of the Time Lords/Journey's End/Day 4 and 5 of Children of Earth, anyone?)

Although, anything with the Master in it generally improves my opinion of an episode significantly nonetheless. Master = Fucking win! I just REALLY hope it's not going to be one huge let down. Although with Rusty still at the writing helm of that episode I wont hold my hopes too high.

I think the best I can hope for, and probably will actually happen knowing RTD's fanboy nature, is some nice juicy Doctor/Master slashy subtext to rival the wonderful phone sex call scene in The Sound of Drums.

It was an interesting episode, has some entertaining moments, and had some cool - but not particularly scary - monsters. However, I think they lingered on the angst for too long, and I am fearing what they are doing to the Doctor's character (even though David's acting of crazy!Ten was amazing, as always). Drawing on the parallels of the Master or even the Valyard. I don't want to end up disliking what my Doctor has become :( I really hope he will have been shocked back in to reality after this.

To sum up:

1. The changes with Ten's character were rather disconcerting, but interesting. I will be really interested with how this plays out in the final two. Obviously Donna's message about him needing someone to stop him rings so true here, and I really wish she had been there to give him the kick up the arse he needed!

2. Maybe I was spoiled too much in the previous weeks, because I didn't find the monsters scary. They were cool looking, but not scary.

3. I wasn't disappointed as such, but I also wasn't pleasently surprised either. It just seemed rather mediocre for something we have waited 6 months for. Or maybe that's simply because my expectaions were building up for all those months and were built to high for the episode to possibly fulfill. I really hope the same wont be said of The End of Time and it's subsequesnt episode when the time comes.

Whatever else happens, we can be guaranteed that the final two episodes will be a rollercoaster of emotions and excitement... I just really hope it wone be a let down in the end. Also: MASTER! SQUEE! I can't wait!



ETA: Also, on a less spoilery and more pedantic point of annoyance; What was up with the very deep red they showed Mars being? Anyone who has taken 2 seconds to Google images of Mars - both the planet and the surface of it - can see that it's nowhere near that red. At best it's a dull redish-brown colour. I've never been a fan of the CGI planets on Doctor Who, but that Mars especially bugged me.

Stay Beautiful,

Aissa.

Comments

[tallulahgs]

I agree with a lot of what you said - it was so grim, and it had an odd kind of mix of angst and silly humour. What you say about the similarities with CoE worries me.

[manics-fan.livejournal.com]

It was grim, the Doctor drove someone to suicide with his attitude! Also, the OOCness of Ten pretty much over shadows the entire previous 45 mintues. Most people's coversations and reviews about this episode are more about what the Doctor did, and how OOC it was, ect, than about the monsters, or the people who died.

I'm not saying what Ten did was really OOC. We've always been shown he has a dark side. This just seemed to have mixed that darkness with some (hopefully temporary) pent up insanity from a blend of survivor's guilt and being forced to try and do what was right with Adelaide and her team.

It is just really following the same sort of CoE path. And while - unlike with Ianto - I can cope with the Doctor dying, because we know it's coming, I really don't want to be hating what he has become when he does. It also seems like RTD is wanting to break the Doctor in the same way he did with Jack :/

[tallulahgs]

Yes, definitely - and it really bothered me that the people who died were so peripheral :S

I do see that his actions link up with what he's done before and he was under a lot of stress (and has been before now) but... it's very grim. And I agree, I don't want the Doctor to fall completely either. I don't want him to be totally broken.

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the reaction posts on who_daily - THANK YOU. You're the first person I've seen who's commented on the colour of Mars ;_; It's more a salmon-pink colour than RED... I guess 'The Salmon Pink Planet' doesn't have that nice a ring to it ^_^;;

Also, open flames on the surface. *facepalms a tiny bit*

...Anyway XD Don't mind me, I'm a planetary science nerd XD

[manics-fan.livejournal.com]

Good points. Yes, salmon pink, that's the sort of colour description I was trying to think of. Also, I did think "WTF? Fire?" when I was watching it. The last time I checked no oxygen equals no fire!

I've been getting more interested in planetary stuff and the universe in general since I started watching Doctor Who. So it kinda disappoints me when they can't even get the basic colours of the planets of our solar system right! I guess they were going more for striking imagery, rather than realistic.

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

I think the real Mars is pretty striking ^_^;; But yeah, it's a bit... not-good. Especially as it'd only take a five-second visit to Wikipedia to see the real colour!