#Adelaide Brook

[nobleriver]

DOCTOR WHO | The Waters of Mars

[doctorwhogirlie]

Reblog/Like if The Waters of Mars is your favourite story

[denimbex1986]

'Doctor Who writer Phil Ford opens up about "The Waters of Mars" fourteen years later and reveals why David Tennant's penultimate Tenth Doctor story remains one of the show's scariest episodes to date. The 2009 special starred Tennant as the Doctor, alongside Eternals' Gemma Chan, Dune's Shanon Duncan-Brewster, and Andor's Joplin Sibtain as member of the crew on the first Human colony on Mars. In "The Waters of Mars," the Doctor arrives at the doomed Bowie Base One, forcing him to question what he can do as a time traveler.

While Tennant's return is imminent for Doctor Who's 60th-anniversary specials, Ford sat down with RadioTimes.com to reflect on his contribution to the actor's initial run and why it features one of the Tenth Doctor's most terrifying moments. When discussing what makes the show scary for audiences young and old, the writer stated that many viewers had spoken to him about their appreciation for "The Waters of Mars" before citing it as a personal favorite and explaining how showrunner Russell T Davies aided him in achieving a perfect level of terror for young audiences. Check out Ford's full explanation below:

"I'm not so sure that it's moved away from that so much, I have no doubt that there will be another Doctor Who story coming down the road that will be every bit as scary, if not more than The Waters of Mars. I think scaring kids is what I've always enjoyed doing! Whether it's in Doctor Who or Sarah Jane [Adventures]... I think Russell put it to me a long time ago that it's OK to scare kids, what you don't want to do is terrify them and scar them!

I've met at conventions an awful lot of kids that admitted they were scared by The Waters of Mars, but not so much to traumatise them! They loved it because it's scary.

The Waters of Mars, from my point of view, was always going to be scary because that's what I like to do. I think the team around Doctor Who then and now is just so good at what it does, I think we all have confidence in each other in knowing just how far we can go.

And certainly, whenever I went too far, I knew Russell was going to pull me up on something... my memory of Russell is not so much hauling me back on The Waters of Mars, but on other episodes, him pushing me harder to make things even scarier and even bleaker in some cases! Which is just wonderful, because he has this amazing opinion – and talent to back it up – that really there is no story you can't tell for kids. It's just a question of how you tell that story."

What Makes "The Waters of Mars" David Tennant's Most Scary Doctor Who Story

Tennant's initial Doctor Who tenure had no shortage of standout terrifying episodes that still rank high among the franchise's darkest moments. These episodes range from the Weeping Angels' terrifying debut in "Blink," the unstoppable mimicking menace of "Midnight"'s still an unseen entity, and the gradually worsening bleak what-if scenarios of Donna's alternate timeline in "Turn Left". Despite these story moments, "The Waters of Mars" stands out as the already-overpowering Flood virus is superseded in scariness towards the end by the Tenth Doctor himself, as the show's main hero loses himself.

After grappling with his role in the universe, the Tenth Doctor casts aside every lesson he learned and changes history by saving them, declaring himself as the sole being who could change the Laws of Time. Left with the knowledge that these events should have never happened and would impact her loved ones' fates, Bowie Base One's captain, Adelaide Brook (Duncan), sacrifices herself despite the Doctor rescuing her, leaving him emotionally shattered. "The Water of Mars" isn't just a scary Doctor Who story because of its monsters, but for how far the Doctor falls, as well as showing the negative impact his actions can have on the universe should he ever give in to his darker sides.

While the following adventure, "The End of Time," may overshadow Tennant's other 2009 Doctor Who specials, "The Waters of Mars" stands out for how far it pushes the show's leading character. Rather than relying on monsters, the Tenth Doctor going too far leaves a greater impact by breaking the hero and twisting him into a barely recognizable figure. As such, it is understandable why Ford and viewers continue to rate the Tenth Doctor's penultimate adventure as one of the character's darkest stories.'

[ghost-bison]

what actually rocks my shit with the moment ten finally hears the four knocks and realizes he's going to die anyway isn't just the look in his eyes - because bro, that was some damn good acting. no, it's also, mostly the fact that it's not just because he's going to die that he feels so sick. it's also because he realizes he has been on his guard, and paranoid for so long, and that in the end, nobody was out there to kill him. he's been paranoid over nothing. it made him act out of fear and do terrible stuff just to convince himself he could do anything including surviving, and that look in his eyes when he solves his case is one that says "it's always been you or them. it will always be you or them":

nine had to sacrifice his life to save rose's and then ten his happiness for hers.

donna begged him to let her stay but he couldn't bear to watch her die so he did something selfish and erased her memories against her will - not really just to protect her, but to protect himself from the pain and grief of losing her.

not that that's how he sees it. in his mind he probably thinks he did it for her.

then in waters of mars he comes back and saves three people who were supposed to die and someone knocks three times and he probably likes to think he's the one who averted a fourth one - because it would entail that he can do it: save himself and save them.

then it all comes crashing down that he can't when adelaide brooke offs herself - it's either him or them and it will always be them.

there he goes, last two episodes, resigned to his fate: he will confront the master and the drumming and die to save everyone.

but he survives.

and for a moment, everything shifts. maybe he can be happy. maybe he can find a way to bring donna's memories back without killing her. maybe he will see rose again.

finally, wilfred knocks, and it's the cruelest reminder - it will always be you or them. it will always be them.

[a-bit-of-a-queer-one]

Shoutout to Lindsay Duncan for her tendency of showing up in the middle of a DT character's arc to tell him just how much of a dumbass he's being

[dwgif]

Doctor Who The Waters of Mars | 2009

[aq2003]

Is that the end of it? The Time War?

[ohmerricat]

thinking about water symbolism, the meaning of the titular water in the waters on mars. time is referred to by many as a river (a brook), as a powerful current, flowing forever unstoppable. he says it to adelaide when the infected come: water is patient, water waits and water always wins. you can shock it with electricity and block it out with steel, but in the end the trickle always catches up with you.

imagine you’re the only person left that knows how to swim. everybody around you is drowning, while you — you can flail about in the rapids forever. but you can’t carry all of them out of the stream on your back. in the end, all you can do is watch. all you can do is float

you believe yourself a god of the waves, just for a second, because you alone remember swimming. but that doesn’t make you poseidon. you can’t wrench the tides out from under the moon’s grasp just because the water never fills your lungs

[catabasis]

many people have sacrificed themselves in the name of the Doctor, after being inspired or given strength by the Doctor, but nothing has ever been or will ever be as devastating as the Doctor committing an atrocity against the laws of time of such magnitude, that it drives someone to commit suicide so that they can undo the Doctor's actions and ensure that history isn't changed and the future of humanity is safe.

because this is what happens when the Doctor is on their own for too long, without someone to stop them and a hand to hold. this is what happens when the Doctor is overcome by their despair, grief and sorrow.

i will never stop praising The Waters of Mars and the Time Lord Victorious arc for the masterpieces that they are.

[doctormastertardis]

I'm willing myself to rewatch Ten's run in random episodes, and does anyone else get chills when Adelaide Brooke took her own life to prove to the Doctor that even he doesn't have control over her own life.

I feel like Ten and Twelve's run are some of the darkest episodes of DW history. I know that Eleven was really good at all the dramatic and bubbly stuff, but writing-wise, I feel like Ten and Twelve's runs were the darkest parts of Doctor's life.

[go-to-the-mirror]

Do you ever think about how fucking brave Captain Adelaide Brooke was? How she begged the Doctor to save them, and then she actively tried to stop him, how he was on his power trip and she said "the Time Lord Victorious is wrong." How she killed herself to save the future of humanity, to save time herself. She was so brave. She braver than the Doctor ever was, she is so brave.

[cdyssey]

I think that “The Waters of Mars” and “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” are soooooo interesting to view in parallel to each other because they have a lot of complementary beats. (CW: Suicide Reference for “Waters of Mars”)

The Doctor arrives at ‘x’ place—a cold, dark Library, a doomed base on Mars—and meets an extremely accomplished leader of a good crew in Adelaide and River. Both women are necessarily hardened by their experiences and responsibilities in some ways but clearly care for their loved ones and their colleagues all the same.

The Doctor knows almost everything there is to know about Adelaide from an impersonal standpoint—her history, her death, her cosmic place in the wider universe. He initially looks at the Bowie crew and is visibly stricken by the inevitable tragedy of them all. River knows almost everything there is to know about the Doctor from a personal standpoint—he’s her husband, but god, he’s so young, and he doesn’t even know it. Know her. She has years upon wonderful and complicated years of history with this man, and he looks right through her. (She thinks it might kill her.)

As the respective episodes wear on, the Doctor has a clear connection with both River and Adelaide, both of whom can boss him around like people rarely do skskdjnsns. They’re smart and driven and won’t suffer any fools, but they’re remarkably human when it matters most. River speaks softly to Miss Evangelista as her ghost fades from the neural relay. Adelaide doesn’t shoot the infected Andy even though she could have.

But he’s also increasingly frustrated and upset by his helplessness when it comes to them. It scares and unnerves him that River is clearly someone extremely important from his future; he’s always been insecure about not knowing what’s in store, and River is a walking reminder of his lack of personal perspective, his inability to totally have control. He’s drawn to her. She’s so clever and brave and good. He fears what she represents all the same. He snaps at her, clearly distrusts her. River calls him out on being emotional. The Doctor knows that he should leave Bowie Base One. There’s nothing he can do for these wonderful people. What happens on Mars has to stay on Mars; a fixed point is just that—an immutable event in time. But as he gets to know Adelaide—who is also so clever and brave and good—that responsibility becomes muddied by his increasing care and admiration for the captain. He grows taciturn as he watches the mission all fall to pieces. He’s emotional.

But why is he emotional? What’s another central tension that these episodes share? Both “Waters” and “Forest” either directly or intertextually deal with the Doctor simply reeling over the loss of Donna. The wrenching grief of having failed yet another someone that he loves drives the Doctor’s anger and affects his ability to think objectively. River tells him to focus on the present, on the five people who are still alive in the room. (“Dear God, you’re hard work young.”) And the last scene of “Waters” is in stunning and raw conversation with “The Runaway Bride.” Ten alone and grieving is a recipe for disaster. Donna is the first person who’s explicitly told him that he needs someone to stop him. Because if he isn’t stopped, he becomes his own waking nightmare. He becomes the Time Lord Victorious.

The climaxes of both “Forest” and “Waters” are about the Doctor wanting to change history. “Time can be rewritten,” he pleads. And River, angrier and more desperate than we have ever seen her before, pleads back, “Not those times. Not one line. Don’t you dare.” By making him watch her sacrifice, she implicitly shows him that this moment in time is inevitable, and he’ll one day do the same to her in a lake in Florida. (It’s horrible and it’s awful, but, god, if it isn’t an act of unspeakable love and forgiveness too.) But Ten in “Waters” doesn’t have anyone to stop him—not Donna, not River, not even initially Adelaide, even though she desperately tries by blowing up the base. The laws of time will obey the Doctor. He’s a Time Lord, and he makes the rules. This revelation elevates all of his worst impulses—his arrogance, his vanity, and his pride—and for a moment, as we watch him gleefully preen to a horror-struck Adelaide, Yuri, and Mia, we understand that he’s become the villain in someone else’s story. Someone has to stop him, and that Adelaide does. She understands that there are too many things at stake for the future—her granddaughters’ life, the lives of so many others—in the same way that River wasn’t willing to relinquish one fragment of hers and the Doctor’s history. The Doctor realizes the magnitude of what the captain did—what he forced her to do—immediately. He went too damn far.

“Forest” and “Waters” both end with the Doctor running. Running to River, trying to save this person who will clearly mean so much to him one day. Running away from his fate in “Waters,” unwilling to accept the death that soon awaits him. (“Oh, I’m good!” He exclaims jubilantly when he realizes that his future self has saved the professor. / “Oh, I’m good!” He grins at Mia, Yuri, and Adelaide, so pleased that he’s saved them, that he’s single-handedly changed a fixed point.) But the shared impact of these stories is that both River and Adelaide teach the Doctor a lesson about the inevitability of time—its forward march, no matter how much he wishes otherwise. They give him perspective, these remarkable women—and to a being such as the Doctor who is sensitive to the whole breadth of the universe—that’s often the most important gift that he ever receives.

[hitchell-mope]

My own personal ranking of the nuwho companions.

Be warned: There will be clusters and unpopular opinions. Plus. I’m only including the ones who were credited in the opening sequence of at least one episode. So sorry to Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. But you’re not on this list.

Martha, Donna, Jack, Sarah Jane, Clara, River, Wilfred, Ryan, Dan and Graham.

Amy and Rory.

Rose, Bill, Yasmin and Ruby.

Christina and Jackson

Adelaide

Nardole

[doctorwhoisadhd]

ok wait i said "rtd is NOT beating the can i get 5 more of these little blonde bitches allegations" but like. how many is that now.

[sallysellsseashellssundays]

The Waters of Mars Rewatch

I've already ranted about this to @witchofthemidlands but just need to write down my thoughts after rewatching The Waters of Mars yesterday

When you write this episode, Rose, The Parting of the Ways/Bad Wolf, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Smith and Jones, Partners in Crime, Midnight, the entire S4 ending, THE END OF TIME you can have as many Slitheen fart jokes as you'd like Mr. RTD *bravo*

Also, I'm losing my mind as to why Ten went to Mars specifically, could it have been b/c Jackie and Donna always said he was from Mars?? And he really was making an effort to leave initially and not affect history...it's fascinating to see his final response as more and more people die compared to, for example, Voyage of the Damned. He's really at a point in his life where he's been broken down enough that he loses it completely

This SHOULD have been a two-parter episode there is so much to explore with the Mars crew and I even see parallels between them and the crew from the Impossible Planet two-parter it would have been wild to see the end of this episode paralleled with that storyline. Roman is like Toby, Yuri and Mia maybe like Danny, Ed definitely like Jefferson, Scheffi is like Scooti?, Adelaide like Zach etc. idk but I see a lot of parallels

My absolute favorite tiny detail is Ten expressing dislike for the robot but as soon as Roman talks about robot dogs he goes "actually hold up a moment" lol he will be loyal to K9

Adelaide is a badass I love her so much and I find the contrast between her and Lady Christina just one episode prior to be fascinating, I think Adelaide is exactly the type of person that Ten needed in his life at that exact moment

The Doctor speaking Martian...it's crazy how easily it could have turned into a Midnight 2.0 situation for him, I think Adelaide is the difference here she exudes so much authority

The fact that they took the time to focus the camera on Mia and Yuri holding hands, like 1 second only, but I go insane for that recurring theme in RTD's era especially considering how much that relates to timepetals and how distraught Ten is after losing Rose again and Donna

Speaking of Donna I love the Pompeii reference I could write essays about that as well as the mention of the Journey's End storyline with Adelaide as a child, RTD isn't hitting you over the head with it but you can definitely see all these links between what Ten lost in that episode and the Pompeii situation and his mental state in this episode aaahhhh what a masterpiece!!!

DT's acting in the final scene gives me CHILLS, he literally feels like an entirely different character as soon as he steps off the TARDIS, I feel the hairs on my body stand with the look in his eye. I am not a huge fan of Joan in the Human Nature two-parter but I think that was an interesting set of episodes and I also think it works solely b/c DT can very convincingly make you feel that John Smith is different from the Doctor even though there are some remnants there, same here in this episode. It's the Doctor but there's something there that is very un-Doctor.

[witchofthemidlands]

DOCTOR WHO || The Waters Of Mars