the waters of mars

Wow, this week is turning into a mini-review spectacular, huh?

I guess the real shame of that is that it's an admission that I'm failing to watch enough stuff that I can do proper reviews of - anime DVDs, for example.

To be fair, autumn/winter is always a tricky thing for me from that point of view. I mean, the nights draw in and it gets cold out, so I'm even more inclined than normal to stay indoors, but all sorts of new shows always get shown during this period and I end up watching plenty.

Just as a random example - a new series of Top Gear started last weekend. It was quite a good episode as it goes, with the boys driving round Romania looking for a road that was supposed to be the best in the world. One of the highlights was James May being involved in two crashes - one of which involved a Lamborghini!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a super-mini-review of the Doctor Who special that was on last weekend, called the Waters of Mars.

It was pretty good.

Wow, that was short, huh?

But seriously, I think it basically worked. One of the things you don't get so much of in new who is really scary stuff. Well, I say that - to some extent, it's difficult for me to judge as the scares are aimed at a younger audience and I'm a long way from young nowadays.

What I really mean is that in the old format where you had longer storylines it would always end on a cliff hanger, which was inevitably quite scary. I remember lots of monsters leering out of the screen, just about to grab The Doctor / the companion or, indeed, you the viewer.

The new format means you don't tend to get those any more, though I'm sure for the kids there's plenty of stuff that sends them scuttling behind the sofa.

Anyway, the point is the monsters were quite a nasty piece of work in this episode and the use of water (that's not a spoiler really - just read the title) was quite clever as it can flow and splash and all sorts.

Although if I'm fair, the monsters looked more horrible than they actually behaved. They behaved creepily and made lots of faces, but they didn't really do anything like kill people or even really hurt them. Indeed, if I'm honest it was entirely clear what they wanted at all. In a way that was unusual, because it's usually fairly clear if people are good guys or bad guys. Here although the general feel was that yes, they were bad, there wasn't a definitive reason or explanation given for that.

It's a relatively minor gripe, but I think it would have helped a little to give it more of a concrete reason.

The ending was interesting.

The general feel was to try to give The Doctor a darker feel. It depicts him on the very precipice of a plunge into evil. In a way it was quite reminiscent of how you can imagine The Master becoming like he did - absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that.

I did actually think that myself, but they also pointed it out in the Doctor Who Confidential thing they do on BBC4 and I think it was pretty deliberate as the trailer for the next two specials due at Christmas will feature the return of The Master.

I'm looking forward to them - The Master's one of the really good villains and John Simm did a really good job with him when he was in it before.