The Waters of Mars (TV story)

The Waters of Mars
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Adelaide Brooke
Main enemy:	The Flood
Main setting:	Bowie Base One Mars 21st November 2059
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies Phil Ford
Director:	Graeme Harper
Producer:	Nikki Wilson
Release details
Story number:	201
Release number:	2009 Specials
Premiere broadcast:	15th November 2009
Format:	1x 60 minute television special
Production code:	4.16

The Waters of Mars is the second of the 2009 Specials leading up to the end of the David Tennant era. Tennant himself has announced that the special will air on 15th November 2009 on BBC One.

Synopsis

Mars. 2059. Bowie Base One. Last recorded message: "Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop."

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
• Adelaide Brooke - Lindsay Duncan
• Ed Gold - Peter O'Brien
• Tarak Ital - Chook Sibtain
• Andy Stone - Alan Ruscoe
• Maggie Cain - Sharon Duncan-Brewster
• Mia Bennett - Gemma Chan
• Yuri Kerenski - Aleksander Mikic
• Steffie Ehrlich - Cosima Shaw
• Roman Groom - Michael Goldsmith
• Ood Sigma - Paul Kasey
• Yound Adelaide - Rachel Fewell

Crew

to be added

References

• 'Bowie Base One' is a reference to the David Bowie song 'Life on Mars'

Story Notes

• As Lindsay Duncan has been cast as a companion, she is the oldest actor to play a companion since the beginning of the series, although this title will be taken away from her in the next episode when Bernard Cribbins becomes the Doctor's companion.
• Russell T Davies has said in Doctor Who Magazine that this will be a very scary episode of Doctor Who, as he described it "nightmarish".
• Julie Gardner said on the Easter Doctor Who Confidential that another Your Song is Ending style reference will be made in this episode as well as playing a massive part last 2 specials.
• Filming for the special began on 23rd February 2009. In late February, David Tennant, Duncan and other actors were seen filming in Victoria Place, Newport.[10] The filming took place on a city street, which the production team covered with artificial snow.[10] Also present during filming were a small robot inscribed with the word "GADGET" and Ood Sigma, from the 2008 episode Planet of the Ood.
• On 28th July 2009, a new trailer was shown at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, soon after it was posted on the BBC website.
• The trailer showed the Doctor talking about how "certain points in time are fixed... Everything else is in flux, anything can happen, but those certain points, they have to stand... This base on Mars... what happens here must always happen." Adelaide warns "Don't drink the water... don't even touch it, not one drop". Finally, the Doctor says to Adelaide: "They said I was going to die, they said he will knock four times, and I think I know what that means, and it doesn't mean right here, right now 'cause I don't hear anyone knocking, do you?" Four knocks then ring out as the tagline appears: "The Waters of Mars: Coming Soon".
• The BBC has confirmed that the special will be dedicated to 1970s-era producer Barry Letts, who died a month before its broadcast.[1]
• Chook Sibtain previously played Mark Grantham in SJA: Warriors of Kudlak.
• A new trailer released by the BBC on the 4th November depicts, among other things, the Doctor walking towards the base in his space suit previously seen in DW: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. The Doctor also says, when Adelaide asks why won't he help them, that "You die. On Mars. You die today".
• An Australian airdate has been confirmed, 6th December, three weeks after the UK premiere

Ratings

to be added

Filming Locations

• Victoria Place, Newport
• National Botanic Gardens of Wales, Carmarthenshire

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• If no Human had ever heard of the Ice Warriors then how can the invasion of London by the Ice Warriors in 1997 have happened? The novels may not be canon; also, that event may have been in flux, like how no one had heard of the Daleks in Dalek despite the Earth being moved years before.

• After the explosion of the shuttle, several fires are burning all around the site. Now taking into account the initial explosion was fueled by the base's oxygen, and given that Mars has no appreciable atmosphere, how can these smaller fires burn in the vacuum?

Continuity

• There are two references to the Ice Warriors in this episode.
• There are references to The Fires of Pompeii.
• There is a flashback to the events of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and a Dalek cameo.

International broadcasts

• ABC1 (Australia): 3rd December 2009
• BBC America: 19th December 2009
• Space (Canada): 19th December 2009[2]

DVD release

• It has been announced that the four specials plus The Next Doctor will be released in North America on both DVD and Blu-Ray in a box set on 2nd February 2010.[3]
• It will also be released with The End of Time but the first part of the x-mas specails.

External links

[4]

Footnotes

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