Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Waters of Mars”

Anyone else ever wonder if writer Russell T. Davies really likes the character of Doctor Who as much as he claims to? Granted, he deserves much praise for resurrecting the series from near-certain death and making it popular again. But still the way he depicts the Doctor does make me wonder.

For example, in the latest episode, the Doctor is given several opportunities to flee a situation that seems certain to end in tragedy for all concerned. But it's been established that he is too much of a mensch to do that with a clear conscience.

And yet when he accomplishes the impossible and rescues several members of an Earth expedition to Mars from certain death, he is given a rather contrived “mad” scene in which he takes pride in having defied the laws of Time. A scene which scares a mortal human being so much that she seemingly commits suicide just to defy him.

Which begs the question: what kind of point is Davies trying to make with this episode? That the Doctor shouldn't go around trying to rescue anybody because he might scare people? That people are better off going off to their deaths than being rescued by a guy with emotional issues?

Given that Davies devoted a whole episode to the consequences of the Doctor attempting to change history, I also found it odd that this episode seems to make it seem like nothing in that episode ever really happened. Perhaps it's only when Doctor Who crosses his own time line that he gets into trouble. Or perhaps the whole thing is the fault of Davies' co-writer Phil Ford.

Oh, well. I enjoyed the episode more than I expected, considering it was basically little more than a thinly veiled rewrite of Alien combined with the “mad” scene from King Lear. Lindsay Duncan, the woman who played the commander of the Earth expedition, gave a good performance and I especially liked the way the writers tried to humanize the supporting characters. I could have done without the “funny” robot that seemed to be an obvious parody of the title character of WALL·E but even that device had its moments.

If we must have endless Alien remakes, I'd rather see them done Doctor Who style than in any other way. But most of all, I'd rather see an original story for a change. Hopefully I'll get my wish in the near future.