I have always held this one up as one of the best and upon rewatching it, I somehow think I was STILL UNDERESTIMATING IT! Really quite enamored with the set design and art direction here. It feels so classically sci-fi. Like right out of a battered paperback. The villains design is simple yet truly terrifying in its execution. Kind of like the 456 in Torchwood, their attack is so simple but the cinematography and the score never let the budget restraints show too much.

It's been awhile since Tennant had a decent scene partner and his work with Lindsey Duncan is SO GOOD!!!! I can't describe how devastating Tennant's turn is. Everything in the sequence of him walking away pays off in such a beautiful subversion of our established hero's trademark. It's terrifying. It's fantastic. I want to kiss it to death.

This gets more intense as time goes on. The fact that Captain Adelaide is only supposed to be five years older than me, and now that robots are advancing far past Gadget Gadget 25 years before this episode is set, the whole viewing experience is quite surreal.

The Waters of Mars is a very good story. It makes clever use of foreshadowing to tell an interesting story with strong characters. The ending is very nice.

📝10/10 = FAVOURITE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: when water drives you crazy!

The Water of Mars is, and will always remain, one of the finest episodes in the 60+ years of Doctor Who. It’s a delightful mix of great production values, a capable cast, a compelling story, a creepy monster, and memorable moments.

The TARDIS takes Ten to Mars and research base Bowie Base One, right before the base and its personnel are terrorised by a terrible water-based alien life form. The Doctor soon realises that he has the power to alter the course of history and avoid the entire crew from being killed by the aliens, which unleashes his Time Lord Victorious complex. The Waters of Mars is a brilliant showcase of how to make a compelling base under siege with deer meaning—that of a Time Lord’s burden and responsibility—and how even the Doctor can go too far.

The episode sets up the setting, the crew, and the monster within the first five minutes. Then it uses the rest of the runtime to flesh everything further out, while effectively building tension and providing plenty of excitement by turning the ongoing situation worse by the minute. The tight direction and frat soundtrack also help in building the atmosphere. There’s enough time to build a satisfying story with beautiful character moments while keeping things going at a good pace.

David Tennant is at his absolute best here—a Doctor weighed down by his believed status as the Last of the Time Lords and the immense burden of responsibility that comes with it and finally snaps him. The way he just stands around in a corner, listening to the crew panicking and watching the catastrophic events of the base go down, unable and unwilling to do anything, is genuinely gut-wrenching. And then he suddenly fights back and defies every rule and principle with full force in a way that is both satisfying and scary, and only Tennant could pull it off.

All guest characters are great, even the ones we barely get to know. Captain Adelaide Brooke is a no-nonsense leader who doesn’t allow the Doctor to control her or attempt to change the course of history. Gadget is one of the more memorable robots in the show, but sadly underused.

The makeup work on the infected is one of the best seen on the show, and the design of Bowie Base One and its different rooms is effective as well. 

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• It’s funny how I’m technically older than any of the Bowie Base One personnel seen here. The oldest, Captain Brooke, was born in 1999, and most of the others in the 2020s or 2030s.
• I love that the Ice Warriors get a mention and that they bear a fleeting relation to the aliens we meet here.
• The Time Lord Victorious multimedia event builds off the ending of this story, and there’s truly a compelling base for a wider exploration of a “victorious” Time Lord laid here.

I have a lot to say about this episode but I don't know how to be coherent so all I'll put is that I think this should have been 10's regeneration story and this may just be the best doctor who special of all time. David Tennant you will always be famous.