It’s Doctor Who weekend in the United States – when us lowly BBC America chaps get to finally catch up with our brethren across the pond.
Saturday night, The Waters of Mars hits the airwaves – the second of David Tennant’s final four episodes as doctor. The set-up: The year is 2059, the doctor finds himself inside the first human colony on Mars, and things go askew when the Doctor realizes it is Nov. 21 – the precise day this colony is to be destroyed. The crew is preparing to evacuate, and the doctor realizes that if they escape Mars alive, the future will be irrevocably altered.
So with a virus spreading among the members of the Mars base, the doctor decides to inform the crew that they are meant to die here, and now, and that their deaths will have a profound rallying effect for humanity. As the doctor explains this, their life-or-death dilemma also becomes his own, as he must decide whether he can simply abandon people stranded on a distant star.
It’s rather intense stuff – and truly a major story arc worth waiting for. Even better: It snagged some pretty impressive reviews when The Waters of Mars first aired in Britain last month. So we’re in for a treat tomorrow night.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I have found myself thinking a lot this week about Doctor Who. We singled out the TARDIS as one of the “Top Ten Spaceships” ever designed on Wednesday. There’s also been so much buzz raging about the next Doctor, the new logo, and the redesigns to the interior AND exterior of the TARDIS that are about to take effect. And then there’s the last 2-part Christmas special epic starring Tennant, set to hit BBC America on Dec. 26 and Jan. 2. The bad news is we have a ways to go before we can start getting our regular Doctor Who fix this spring, but the good news is that there’s a whole lot of Doctor Who to digest over the next 3 weeks.
So check out the special on Saturday, and then the Christmas special, and let’s confer back here on Monday, Jan. 4. We’ll break down the end of Tennant’s reign.