Stories Television Doctor Who 2009 Specials The Waters of Mars 1 image Overview Characters How to Watch Reviews 14 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 5 Transcript + Script Overview First aired Sunday, November 15, 2009 Production Code 4.16 Written by Phil Ford, Russell T Davies Directed by Graeme Harper Runtime 62 minutes Story Type Special Time Travel Future Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Base Under Siege, Consequences, Environmental Message, Fixed point in time, It's bigger on the inside, Mind Control, Robots, Self-destruct, Time Travel Pivotal Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!) Time Lord Victorious, He will Knock Four Times Inventory (Potential Spoilers!) Sanctuary Base 6 space suit Location (Potential Spoilers!) Earth, Mars UK Viewers 10.32 million Appreciation Index 88 Synopsis Mars, 2059, Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop." Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters Tenth Doctor David Tennant Ood Sigma First Appearance The Flood First Appearance Adelaide Brooke Show All Characters (4) How to watch The Waters of Mars: Watch on iPlayer Doctor Who Confidential Blu-Ray Time Lord Victorious: Road to the Dark Times Blu-Ray The Complete Specials [Steelbook] Blu-Ray The Complete Specials DVD The Complete Specials DVD The Waters of Mars & The End of Time Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 14 reviews 4 June 2025 · 25 words Review by aubrey_drake_graham Wow, amazing. This inspired me to write my hit album "Views". I assure you The Waters of Mars is the best story of them all. aubrey_drake_graham View profile Like Liked 0 28 May 2025 · 129 words Review by Jann New Who Review #58 The Waters of Mars 💧 This story was amazing. This is the doctor who I love. I loved the story of this woman called Captain Adelaide Brooke being a fixed point in time and the doctor knows he can't save her and her crew and that her death creates the future and inspires her granddaughter. This is also the origin of one of my most loved storyline's the Timelord Victorious. The doctor has gone to far and travelled alone for too long his dark side is showing. I love dark doctor episodes and story's. The flood were so creepy to watch the way their eyes move and the cracked mouth. It was genuinely creepy. Overall amazing story that is a brilliant way to start tennants final story. 10/10 Jann View profile Like Liked 0 26 May 2025 · 86 words Review by gia0203 This is one of the best Doctor Who stories ever. The whole episode is written so perfectly and is so satisfying. The Doctor having to confront a tragedy that’s a fixed point in time and not do anything about it? Which is already foreshadowed in Pompeii? Plus, Ten’s entire arc leading up to the Time Lord Victorious in a way that feels earned? Doctor Who doesn’t get darker or more interesting than this. This is a 60 minute special but not one minute is wasted. Just perfection. gia0203 View profile Like Liked 0 11 May 2025 · 18 words Review by GodofRealEstate Complete masterpiece, the best the show has ever been. Incredible progression of the Doctor. THIS IS IT FOLKS!! GodofRealEstate View profile Like Liked 0 9 May 2025 · 532 words Review by DanDunn Spoilers This review contains spoilers! We now come to the tail end of the Tenth Doctor’s life with his penultimate episode The Waters of Mars. Of course, you all know why this story’s famous; the Doctor is pushed to his breaking point where in the face of letting a base full of the first humans on Mars die in order to preserve the timelines, the Doctor takes the laws of time into his own hands. But is it right to change history on such a scale? How far could the Doctor go with such power? Really the main strength of this story lies in its second half, the first half is an effective base under siege horror story with the Mars base crew under attack by a living organism that hides in the water and possesses all who touch a single drop of it. The Flood is a great and chilling monster that’s mostly left unexplained which adds to the horror element, not to mention some freaky transformation scenes. But the second half is where things really start to pick up with the Doctor being faced with the moral dilemma of letting the first humans on Mars die in order to inspire the captain’s granddaughter to take the people of Earth out into the stars. It’s not often that Doctor Who tackles a fixed point in time that takes place in the future, but it does allow for more creativity and some powerful drama, the scenes between the Doctor and Captain Adelaide Brook are so excellent, from the scene at the glacier where the Doctor hints at what the future holds for Brooke’s family to the scene where he comes clean about how he can’t save her or her crew. Coupled together with Murray Gold’s beautiful score makes it one of my favourite scenes in the show. This then leads into the Doctor being pushed over the edge as he decides that as the last of the Time Lords, that makes him in control of the laws of time. So, he goes out of his way to rescue all the survivors including Adelaide who realises to her horror that not only does her survival have the potential to change history for the worse, but the Doctor has decided he has the power to choose who he feels is worth saving whether he should or shouldn’t. The ending and how Adelaide snaps the Doctor out of his brief god complex is a powerful gut punch resolution. The only downside to this is that it comes so near the end of the Tenth Doctor’s life and the fact that it’s so poorly followed up on in The End of Time, which makes me wonder if the ending may have been more down to Phil Ford’s writing. The idea of the Doctor losing control and becoming “the Time Lord Victorious” could’ve been the beginning of an entire set of stories and a unique new direction to take the Doctor (and I don’t mean that unfocused, over complicated mess we got in 2020), or at the very least it should’ve been the focus of his regeneration story instead of whatever the hell Russell was smoking when he wrote The End of Time. DanDunn View profile Like Liked 0 Show All Reviews (14) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating962 members 4.44 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 1872 Favourited 369 Reviewed 14 Saved 8 Skipped 1 Related Stories Video Games LEGO Dimensions Rating: 4.18 Story Skipped Video Game Reviews(3) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Video Games Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor The Wolves of Winter Rating: 3.32 Story Skipped Comic Reviews(2) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: The Twelfth Doctor – Titan Comics Set of Stories: Titan Comics Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved IDW Comics Final Sacrifice Rating: 3.64 Story Skipped Comic Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: IDW Comics Set of Stories: Tenth Doctor – IDW Comics Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other adaptations of this story: We define an adaptation as a recreation of a similar story but on a different medium or with different characters. Target Collection Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars Rating: 4.27 Story Skipped Book Reviews(3) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Target Collection Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: I'm the winner. That's who I am. The Time Lord Victorious! — The Waters of Mars Show All Quotes (5) Open in new window Transcript + Script Needs checking [Central dome] (An image of a young woman holding a baby on her lap comes up through the static.) EMILY [on monitor]: Hello, Mum. Susie says hello, don't you, sweetheart? That's it. Give a little wave. Er, oh, what was I going to say? Uncle Soon called in, he says hello. He keeps saying, you must be missing her. I said, she's been gone for over two years now, I'm getting used to it. (Static.) EMILY [on monitor]: Oh, no, it's breaking up. It must be the solar flares.ADELAIDE: Talk faster.EMILY [on monitor]: About the deposit on the house. Oh, er, I've spoken to the bank Show Full Transcript Open in new window View Script (PDF)