I was sadder for Rory's death in Amy's Choice and that was with the assumed knowledge he'd wake up because it was the dream. This time I was just ANGRY lol. "NO, YOU DO NOT GET TO KILL OFF MY FAVOURITE PART OF THIS SEASON AND THEN ERASE HIM FROM TIME IN AN EPISODE I DON'T EVEN LIKE. RAAAGE." I had spent so long defending s5 against a lot of people who weren't enjoying it as much as s1-s4, and Amy's Choice was BRILLIANT, and then... this. Chris Chibnall is my least favourite Whoniverse writer and I was dreading him having a two-parter, but this was like all my nightmares come to life lol.

Basically my feelings in a gif:

Agreed. I could literally go on and on and on and on about everything I dislike about this two-parter but I feel bad being the voice of extreme negativity. (But not bad enough to prevent myself from commenting at all, apparently, lol.) I just... ugh, Rory's death should have been sad because he was my favourite of the three, but I was too busy being pissed off that he was killed in an episode that was so terrible. Plus he'd just died in Amy's Choice and we didn't have any time to a) adjust to a post-Amy's Choice Team TARDIS or b) see any difference in how Amy and Rory interacted based on Amy's Choice. And the "erased from time" thing is what really sent it over the edge for me -- it doesn't make sense (how did they get to that exact point if Rory has never existed? Why is it easier for Amy to forget her fiance but not the random clerics? WHY CAN ELEVEN STICK HIS HAND IN AND BE FINE BUT RORY'S CORPSE GOES BYE-BYE?) and it felt like such an easy way to sidestep emotional impact. "Oh, well, Amy's fiance just died, but she doesn't remember him so we can get back to the fun stuff."

UGH so many feelings. The bland secondary characters didn't help at all either. Chris Chibnall please go back to Law & Order and stay there forever ty.

Yeah, the fact that he is so flawed but I can see where all those flaws come from makes me very fond of him. I don't need characters to react to situations the way I would, but I do need to understand why they're acting the way they're acting, and I always feel like I know where Ten's coming from. IDK, everything about his arc/characterization just kind of clicked for me -- even when I wasn't expecting something (like I wasn't expecting the last 20 minutes of WOM), once I had seen it I was always like "right, that makes complete sense".

I have the special companion...book... magazine thing RadioTimes did this year, and flipping through it and reading quotes from a lot of the Classic Who actresses was really depressing. Many of them said they left the show because the role was so limited, because all they were asked to do was stand around screaming and looking hot. Even Mary Tamm had a quote about how Romana was designed to be an equal to the Doctor, but ultimately wasn't because the plot demanded that someone ask questions. I can't say I'm surprised by any of that, given the time period especially, but it is sort of disheartening. It's nice to know there was a sort of progression as the show went on (and as time went on), and by New Who I think they've basically resolved that issue.

OF COURSE! Waters of Mars stanning is my bat signal.

I think it does get downplayed, and I get really irritated with the implication that the companion is or should be a replaceable part because the text says the exact opposite and if that was true I wouldn't like the show. I like that as much as the Doctor needs someone along because he's lonely and he's already listened to his Snow Patrol DVDs over and over, he needs someone on a more practical level so he doesn't FUCK SHIT UP. I have other things to say but I think they might veer into spoiler territory so I'll stop. But yes I absolutely love that he really needs people, he doesn't just like having someone along.

LOL IKR? No wonder Donna rejects him in Runaway Bride, he was acting like a crazy person.

If I remember correctly her complaint was that the kid just wasn't very good, like she may have been pronouncing things correctly but the prosody and the emotion and stuff was off and she sounded really stiff/not natural.

But I don't speak a word of German so I can't say either way, lol.

Totally. Sadly I am not an untouchable Time Lord, so I cannot relate to a character who acts like one. But Ten's humanity in spite of himself was great to watch.

I flounced so hard from Secret Diary tbh, I haven't watched in like 3 weeks. WHATEVER. WHERE IS BAMBI. Omg in the first episode when Belle was all BEN YOU'RE MY ONLY FRIEND I was like AIFJLSJDOETO EXCEPT FOR HBIC BAMBI WHY HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN HER SHE SHOT DOWN A DOOR FOR YOUUUU. I think part of me was hoping Belle and Bambi would run away together.

I love love love the role of companion in New Who. I can't really comment on its role in Classic Who because I haven't seen enough, but I looove what they do with it in New Who. I think it's also in part why I'm not super psyched by the idea of the Doctor hypothetically regenerating into a woman. Among other things, I just think it's not really necessary because the companions are so awesome anyway. The Doctor is the smartest character in the room, but that doesn't automatically make him the strongest. Rose, Martha, Donna et al bring something to the table that is absolutely crucial and in their own right they are just as important to the narrative. I remember being pretty disappointed when we learned that David Tennant's last episodes would be without a proper companion, and I do think it influenced my enjoyment of TND and POTD, but it was basically worth it in my eyes for this episode

THE WOMAN WITH ~STARLIGHT IN HER SOUL~ I love Adelaide. I'm doing a companion picspam and I almost included the one-offs just for an excuse to include Adelaide. But lol idgaf about Christina or Astrid.

I LOVE THIS COMMENT TOO

ugh this episode is so perfect/stunning/flawless

I also like what you said abut Ten being human because I love that too. I often see it used as a complaint or an explanation why he's the ~worst Doctor~ or whatever but idgaf that is precisely why I like him best.



I don't think I'd be nearly so invested in this show if the Doctor just kind of shrugged and moved on every time awful things happen. Especially since awful things happen ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. And I like that there is no rock bottom of grief, and that each additional loss hits him harder and harder rather than everything being reduced to the same two-second :( face before the story skips along. Nothing annoys me more than a show failing to acknowledge when characters/actors leave (SECRET DIARY WHAT HAVE YOU DONE) and in a show like Doctor Who, with a perpetually rotating cast, this is absolutely key for me. As the audience, I don't forget those characters, so I don't want the Doctor to do that, either.

I am not sure I'm even talking about WOM anymore BUT YES WHATEVER BEST EPISODE.

And Steffi's death is so great... except my German friend told me the kid's German in the video is totally, totally awful and now I can't not think about it when I listen rofl

Oh god Waters of Mars, favourite episode of ALL THE EPISODES??? I THINK SO

Ugh I just love everything this episode chooses to be. I think it's actually pretty divisive in fandom, in my experience people either LOVE it or HATE it, but I absolutely love it and think it deserves all the props forever and ever. When the specials were airing, "Waters of Mars" was the one no one really paid any attention to, and I remember making jokes about how "LOL MAYBE WATERS OF MARS WILL BE UNEXPECTEDLY AMAZING". And then it was. Omg.

What makes it so brilliant for me is that this has been being set up since the very first time we saw Ten, back in that Children in Need clip; he gleefully tells Rose "I can't stop myself!" and then again in Christmas Invasion itself, "I don't know when to stop!" And then throughout the last three seasons we've seen that reinforced again and again -- that the Doctor, or Ten at least, travels with people not just for fun but because he needs them there, just like Donna says back in Runaway Bride. He needs someone to stop him and reign him in, and when they don't he ends up drowning himself like in "Turn Left" or calling himself ~The Time Lord Victorious~. I LOVE that the role of companion is given this much importance. If they're just there to ask "what is it, Doctor?" they're not filling the role properly. They have to complement him somehow, and for Ten at least, that means telling him when to stop. But even though he knows that, he can't bring himself to travel with anyone because it always turns to shit, so THIS HAPPENS. Oh Ten, your life is an endless tragedy.

Plus, I love how this episode bookends "Fires of Pompeii". (EVEN IN THE TITLES har har we c wut u did thar) That moment where he and Adelaide talk through that screen and he mentions Pompeii is just so powerful. In Pompeii we see Donna and the Doctor struggle to do the right thing even though it is very, very difficult. In "Waters of Mars", on his own, without Donna's tempering force, he can't manage it -- so he winds up doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. And I think that is brilliant, too; we get to see the Doctor dark and unhinged and totally unabalanced, but he's still motivated by the same things as always -- he's still trying to save lives. But the acting/directing/writing/whatever is great, and so that moment when the Doctor comes back to save them, even though we've seen that last-minute rescue scene dozens of times before, it feels wrong right away.

Also, props forever to Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide Brooke. By the time WOM was airing, I was tired of the one-off companions -- I found Jackson dull and Lady Christina annoying, and wasn't particularly impressed with Michelle Ryan as an actress. But Lindsay Duncan brings it, and Adelaide is a great character. Her interaction with Ten is great, and Lindsay Duncan and David Tennant play off each other so well -- I LOVE the bit where they talk to each other over the intercomm. I like that for once she's a one-off character who isn't impressed by the Doctor and at no point is there the question of "gee, how will they write her out so that she doesn't get to travel with him?" Adelaide has her own thing going on, she's the first woman on Mars, she's not interested in the weird guy who just trespassed on her Mars base, tyvm. She questions him in a way that feels organic rather than forced for conflict and she holds her own and is willing to make sacrifices for the ~greater good. Plus her parents got killed by Daleks and that inspired her to go out into space but not for revenge, Adelaide you are the best.

I could probably go on tbh but I will stop myself. Basically PROPS TO THIS EPISODE FOREVER. I did not expect the show to ever go "there", but it did, and I am so glad it did because it feels honest to the character. Bad things happen a lot in RTD's Who, but what I love about the show is that those things are never swept under the rug. I love that the Doctor can't just brush off thing after thing after thing, and that we see him grieve and bend and crack under the pressure, because that makes him believable and relatable to me. I can accept that not everyone wants that from their television, but for me it is basically everything I didn't realize I wanted. A+ with a crown and a wand.

Also -- LOL "Bowie Base One".