★★★★★ 0/5

The Waters of Mars: Reviews

9.1m Brits tuned in to one of David Tennant's final performances as the Doctor. And by all accounts, they loved what they saw.

18
Leave a comment

womThere were 9.1m Brits who tuned in to see Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars yesterday.

And by all accounts it was a big hit.

Here’s a selection of early reviews.

Digital Spy said:
David Tennant delivered one of his most affecting portrayals of a man yet to come to terms with survivor guilt and the burden and helplessness of having all these lives resting on his shoulders……To paraphrase the great man Russell T Davies, good drama is good drama whether it’s set in 1759 or 2059. ‘The Waters Of Mars’ aptly demonstrated this, shocking us into submission with the no-win dilemma that The Doctor had to deal with and plunging us into a claustrophobic and imaginatively visualized Martian environment. Forget going out to buy Christmas presents, start stocking up on the tissues instead. It looks like an emotional time lies ahead for Number Ten…

Metro said:
The Waters Of Mars was an episode which overflowed with ambition….Best of all was Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide, a woman with ‘starlight in her soul’ – the script was unapologetically poetic – who ultimately stole the moral high ground from the wavering Doctor. Star turns are often mere sidekicks or ciphers in Doctor Who world but Duncan came close to stealing the show. The trailer did that, though: ‘Coming soon: the end of time itself!’ Get your head around that one.

Monsters and Geeks said:
The Waters of Mars, the latest episode of Doctor Who and the first of David Tennant’s last three episodes as the tenth Doctor, was an extremely satisfying, compelling and emotional episode. There had been so much hype regarding Tennant’s final episodes, so that it seemed like nothing the Doctor Who production team could come up with would be good enough to live up to the hype. But so far, with The Waters of Mars, that was not the case….All in all, this was the first special that actually felt, well, “special”. While “Planet of the Dead” was fun, it really wasn’t more than an ordinary Doctor Who episode with more expensive production values.

And fans on Twitter said:

“Now THAT’s what I’m talking about. More of it. Intelligent, brave and fun. Much better than Monster Of The Week crap” – mrmarkreed

“I loved it! It was a brilliant episode and I love that they’ve shown what the Doctor is like without a companion to stop him” – TheBaron

“Waters Of Mars was AMAZING! David Tennant is perfect, he should be the Doctor forever” – Claire_Louize

“One DARK ep of Dr Who tonight. Bodes well for the Christmas specials will miss Tennant best doctor ever methinks alongside Baker” – Kemocs

” Waters of Mars was good but the final 10 minutes was stunning. End of Time can’t come soon enough. Tennant was fantastic!” – hardluck_hotel

It airs in Australia on December 6th.

18 Responses

  1. Pretty ordinary I thought (but much better than Planet of the Dead). Whatever chance the program had to be atmospheric was destroyed by some of the worst music yet (and that’s saying something for the ‘new’ series). Have to agree with the other so-so reviews – if it wasn’t Tennant no-one would watch the last three specials at all – I’m a fan and I count every minute!.

    One plus – trying to get small children into the bath should be a lot harder from now on (and usually only Moffat does that sort ot thing)

  2. Largely agree with RoD’s perspective. It was OK-to-
    Standard, & left a slightly empty feeling as regards a story.
    Expected a little bit more substance, but it was passable.
    I half expected The Doctor to shout “I am the Lonely God!”
    towards the end… it had that pantomime-like element. 🙂

  3. @Craig: ABC didn’t broadcast the last special, Planet of the Dead in HD even though it was HD in the UK. ABC-HD’s quality is dependant on its source material, i.e. whether its a HD or SD copy of the program.

    I don’t know their reasons, but their 24 May 09 post on the ABC forum simply said: “The ABC does not have Doctor Who: Planet Of The Dead in HD.”

  5. Scarily enough Jack!, ‘Utopia’ aired 2 years ago!!! How time flies! It’s been a long 7 month wait for this special, and thankfully the next wait is minor.

  7. I was expecting another ‘monster of the week’ episode, but the new darker tone was intriguing and hints at the direction that the final shows may take.

    I enjoyed it much more than the 2 previous specials.

    It’d be nice if ABC broadcasts it in HD format but I doubt they will.

  8. After seeing yet another dull story I just can’t wait for the keys to be handed over next year, the only thing that has worked in any of the stories this year is that Tennant is in them, if the Doctor had regenerated at the end of season 4 and a new actor had to attempt to carry this bad writing the show would be sunk!

  9. It was big and action packed … the effects and computer generated exteriors were amazing … the story was typical old Who but the set up for the final two episodes at Christmas was very dramatic and very edgy … reminds me a lot ot the purpose of last years “Utopia” episode …
    Jack!

  10. how the hell can anybody replace Tennant is what I want to know! His performance was spectacular, heartbreaking, and terrifying All At The Same Time! Can’t wait for Xmas and New Year episodes!

  13. I found the main story to be uninspired and standard stuff. But the story arc that marks the beginning of the end was very interesting and well played. They ought to have taken it further, but perhaps that’s what the big double finale will cover.

  14. I must have been watching a different Waters of Mars.
    The one I saw had shallow characterisations, gawd-awful music, a robot of Speilbergean awfulness, a monster of the week with no explanation, the usual Tennant histrionics and… the running! The endless running down corridors to fill in time.
    Bring on the new guy.
    NYE ’09= “Change my dear, and not a moment too soon!”

Leave a Reply