Doctor Who’s The Waters of Mars Turned the Doctor Into the Time Lord Victorious

David Tennant has played scoundrels, police officers, serial killers, a demon and a member of the Conservative Party. His best-known role, the time-traveling alien called the Doctor in the family science-fiction series Doctor Who, brings together much of that range.

The Doctor is usually a peaceful figure, a principle that goes back to the classic series in 1963. During his regeneration in 2017, the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, urged his future self to “never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears! Remember, hate is always foolish, but love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind.”

Yet Tennant’s Tenth Doctor strays far from those principles in the 2009 autumn special “The Waters of Mars.”

The Time Lord Victorious

The Doctor has saved countless people over the centuries, but he has also condemned others. In “The Waters of Mars,” he reaches a moral low point after landing on Mars in 2059, at humanity’s first colony on the planet, Bowie Base One.

Captain Adelaide Brooke, played by Lindsay Duncan, leads a colony that appears to be thriving, with hopes that more people will join them. But the Doctor recognizes Adelaide and realizes he has arrived at a fixed point in history. Everyone at Bowie Base One is supposed to die in an unknown cataclysm that very day.

The cause soon becomes clear. The Flood is a highly intelligent, waterborne alien virus. A single drop can infect a human and turn them into a zombie-like creature driven to spread the infection. The base’s personnel die one by one, though one destroys the ships to prevent the Flood from reaching Earth.

The Doctor struggles to decide whether to intervene. Changing fixed points is generally forbidden, but he and his former companion Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, had saved one family in “The Fires of Pompeii.” Saving Adelaide would carry a greater consequence. Her death is supposed to inspire her granddaughter Susie to become the first human captain to pilot a lightspeed ship to Proxima Centauri.

The Doctor faces the choice while traveling alone and still reeling from the loss of Donna. In earlier episodes, the alien Ood have warned him that his time is running out and regeneration is approaching.

He is furious at how much time and circumstance have taken from him. Despite everyone he has saved, he feels that he keeps losing. He wants to win.

After telling Adelaide about her impending death and her granddaughter’s achievement, the Doctor declares:

“There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws, but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It’s taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me!”

The speech sounds like something the Doctor’s enemy, the fellow Time Lord known as the Master, might say. The Master has always wanted to dominate others, and the Doctor’s rescue of Adelaide in the TARDIS takes on a disturbing cast in light of his declaration.

His victory is short-lived. Back on Earth, Adelaide is shaken by the Doctor’s view of himself as a god over time. She rebukes him for believing he can decide who lives and who dies, then walks away and kills herself, setting history right.

The Doctor’s pride has long been part of his character. He loves exploring the universe and often loves humanity, but he also considers himself better than many others. Characters have repeatedly challenged him for treating people as though they are stupid.

His companions often pull him back from the brink by reminding him of his humanity. “The Waters of Mars” shows what can happen without them: the Doctor risks becoming the kind of monster he so often fights.

Source: Polygon