Rate & Discuss: Empress of Mars
June 10th, 2017
Warning! This article and its comments may contain spoilers...
‘God save the Queen’ has been scrawled on the surface of Mars. What are Victorians doing on the home of the Ice Warriors? And what will they find beneath the Martian soil?
I did enjoy this episode. The new female Ice Warrior worked very well for me and I really liked the Victorian soldiers running around on Mars! Quite crazy but enjoyable non the less, I guess it had a kind of Jules Verne feel to it? Particularly liked the ode to Queen Victoria as seen in Tooth and Claw and also the appearance of Alpha Centuri at the end
I did enjoy this episode. The new female Ice Warrior worked very well for me and I really liked the Victorian soldiers running around on Mars! Quite crazy but enjoyable non the less, I guess it had a kind of Jules Verne feel to it? Particularly liked the ode to Queen Victoria as seen in Tooth and Claw and also the appearance of Alpha Centuri at the end (Loved the 3rd Doctor story The Curse Of Peladon so this was a great site to behold) All in all = very enjoyable
I have to admit that Mark Gattis is amongst my least favourite Doctor Who writers for reasons including the introduction of the teletubby Daleks (that we’ve thankfully seen little of since, even on Skaro) to the idea that the stuff in your eyes after you’ve slept would make a good threat (twice, if he’d written the sequel he wanted). He also seems to have no problems at all with self-esteem and confidence in his own opinion. Having said all that, I don’t mind admitting also that I actually enjoyed his episode of Doctor Who tonight. First of all, I really liked that the Victorian soldiers had a picture of Queen Victoria with them and that it was the actress who portrayed her in Series 2’s “Tooth and Claw”. I also liked the character of the Colonel who, despite being deemed a coward by Victorian standards, eventually came good in the end. I spent most of the episode trying to think where I knew him from and have found that he was the boss on New Tricks. It’s fair to say that the soldiers were stereotypical in a lot of ways, but I think they were meant to be. I also liked the character of the Empress of Mars, although her voice did kind of remind me of the Empress of the Racnoss. I have to admit to overall preferring the Skaldak portrayal of the Ice Warriors as opposed to these. He just had more of a presence and sense of power. The soldier-cubing weapons didn’t help with that. Although I enjoyed the story overall, it did remind me quite a bit of the ‘The Hungry Earth’ two-parter. Reptile-like beings wake after a long period of time to find humans claiming their planet and the Doctor having to mediate. Pretty cut and paste. As for Missy’s displays of remorse, I’d trust her as far as I could throw her, unless that jolt during execution miraculously fixed something. I don’t think so.
Very enjoyable episode.
We finally got our horde of Ice Warriors and even Alphi Centauri!
Overall I quite enjoyed this episode. I don’t normally like Gatis episodes, they have no imagination but this was a step in the right direction. The story flowed and the nod to the third Doctor via Alpha was brilliant. The Ice Warriors themselves are very imposing. I had hoped to see an Ice Lord however!
What let this down was the Ice Warrior voices. They are to harsh and have lost the great retile lisp developed by Bernard Bresslaw and used in both the Classic and Big Finish series.
I am a little concerned about the up coming Cybermen story now. :(
Did anyone else notice that for a couple of the doctors reactions he channeled the second doctors accent instead of his usual Scottish one? It was subtle but definitely there.
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I really enjoyed this episode. It had a classic feel to it, and I think Bill came across as a fully fledged, competent companion.
Totally irrelevant to the story, but I liked Peter Capaldi’s hair in this one, and I loved the form fitting space suits, they looked much less cumbersome than the ones used in Oxygen. I really like the Ice Warriors, and I hope we see them again in Series 11 and beyond. The hair stood up on the back of my neck at the end of the story, when we heard the voice of Alpha Centauri. I guess the next event in the Ice Warrior calendar will be diplomatic mission to Peladon. Great stuff!