'Doctor Who' | 'The Empress of Mars' S10E09
A mission to beam hi-res images back from Mars makes a startling discovery, and the Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Bill (Pearl Mackie) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) take a trip back in time to 1881 to find out what’s going on on the Red Planet.
SPOILER ALERT!
While the Doctor is showing Bill and Nardole around, the Ice Warrior tunnels beneath the surface, they stumble on a lone Ice Warrior, who appears to be in league with a group of British soldiers, fresh from the Boer War in South Africa.
What are a group of Victorian-era soldiers doing on Mars? Apparently, they found the Ice Warrior, who they have affectionately (and perhaps, not quite appropriately) named Friday, in his crashed ship on Earth. Friday told them that they would be rewarded with riches, if they agreed to help him repair his ship and return to Mars. So they are mining, without much success so far.
As usual, the Doctor arrives in the nick of time, as they are just about to mine through to a new chamber where an Ice Queen lies in hibernation, looking like an Egyptian mummy. When she is roused, a turf war ensues between the invading British 'forces' and the Ice Warriors, defending their ancient (albeit, dead) homeworld. Who should the Doctor help?
‘Empress of Mars’ was written by Mark Gatiss, not only known for playing Mycroft Holmes on the BBC’s ‘Sherlock’, but also for writing many of the scariest episodes on the new-Who series so far, including ‘Sleep No More’ from Series 9, and the previous Ice Warrior episode from Series 7, ‘Cold War’. Classic Whovians will appreciate that this particular story contains many references to the John Pertwee Ice Warrior story from the 1970s, ‘The Curse of Peladon’.
While the pacing and tension was certainly high, ‘Empress of Mars’ ended up as a rather silly group of Victorian soldiers, stuck on Mars, having grand expositional conversations with ancient Martians. While this was a welcome return to an alien of the week format, the story itself was less than convincing. Nice commentary on British imperialism and values, though.
In next week’s episode, join the Doctor and Bill as they solve a mystery in Roman-age Britain.
