{"id":7325,"date":"2019-06-17T13:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7325"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:58:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T21:58:54","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s10e09-empress-of-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/06\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s10e09-empress-of-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S10E09 – Empress of Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who<\/i>, the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole travel to Mars when NASA finds a strange message left on the surface. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For talk of imperialism<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a long time since we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen an Ice Warrior (series 7, I think?), but even then, it was a lone Ice Warrior. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any experience with them outside of the newer series, so I wonder if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stuff I missed that was of importance in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Empress of Mars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Like, I admit that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really understand the Alpha Centauri thing? Who is that?)<\/p>\n

That being said, I did enjoy this episode. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not perfect by any means, as I found that there were some strange holes left in it. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still an interesting critique of imperialism nestled in the script, and Catchlove is the kind of villain that you can despise so fully that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun? Seriously, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AWFUL, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel bad about his death at all. I have a little more sympathy for Godsacre, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more depth to his character here than I would have expected. But my main problem with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Empress of Mars\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is that while the plot itself is pretty cool, the characterization across the board felt lacking. Everyone seemed to be only granted a surface-level examination of who they were. And while that worked splendidly for Catchlove, I found myself wanting so much more from everyone else. Despite that she was on screen often, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say all that much about what Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role was here. She has a couple of decent scenes with the Ice Warrior queen, but what do they tell us about Bill? Or about what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feeling? Or how this experience has impacted her? If you remove Bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scenes, is this episode any different? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not entirely sure.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to analyze this, too, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear the Doctor has a longstanding history with the Ice Warriors. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re told about their emotional and violent culture, and Capaldi does a fine job communication just how deeply upset he is at the idea of the Ice Warriors coming back. But the weight of this history sits over the whole script, and that made it a little challenging on my end to feel a connection to anything. At least Godsacre had another layer to him, and his journey from cowardice to brave dedication was fascinating. He believed so fully in this idea of himself as a coward that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even fight back when Catchlove revealed what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little hard to sympathize with much of this because these are all imperial soldiers. Gatiss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script addresses this in part through Catchlove; he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an easy villain to hate because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfect scapegoat for the violent nature of imperialism. Catchlove truly believed that as soon as he and the others claimed Mars in the name of the queen, Mars was theirs<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a telling line of his where he dismisses the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notion that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t belong on the planet. His response? This all belongs to the Queen, so of course<\/i> they belong. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an absurd, violent idea, but it fits so well with what that character believes. But what of the others? Godsacre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformation relies on him becoming a warrior for someone else. Is there much criticism of what he was doing there in the first place? And what of the motivation of the Ice Warriors? I understand that their slumber, once over, compelled them to re-awaken and reclaim their place on Mars. They are<\/i> the indigenous species. But what is the next step supposed to be? Are the Ice Warriors alive and well in the future? (Does this provide the explanation for the end of that episode in series 7?) What about NASA discovering the message built by the Doctor, Bill, and Godsacre? The Doctor helped it happen, so what now<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Truthfully, as short as it is, my favorite part of this episode was seeing Missy in the TARDIS. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still confused as to why<\/i> the TARDIS took Nardole back to the Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office. Did the TARDIS want<\/i> Nardole to let Missy out? Why does Missy think the Doctor isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t well? Oh, gods, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more here than meets the eye, right? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Empress of Mars\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"