11/23/2023 0 Comments Alien squeed alpha![]() His affinity for the humans that rescued him adds an intriguing wrinkle to the central face-off of the episode. Friday, the servant/loyal soldier, is a surprisingly compelling character to track as his discomfort with the extremism of his race grows. The two Ice Warriors that do receive characterisation are some of the episode’s more interesting figures, because they’re far less archetypal than the humans. That’s a slight disappointment given how nuanced their portrayal was in ‘Cold War’. ![]() For the most part, though, they’re cannon fodder, and for a time in the second act of the episode, they feel decidedly interchangeable. It’s certainly a lot of fun to see them stomping about in that self-consciously clunky way and rising in their legion from a catacomb like every classic Doctor Who monster must at some point. Like ‘Blink’ to ‘The Time of Angels’, the Ice Warriors’ second turn at bat in the new series introduces an army of the creatures. The return of the Ice Warriors in ‘Cold War’ was a high watermark for Gatiss, both in emphasising their potential for benevolence and murderousness in equal measure, and by creating one of the more arresting updates of a classic series villain. On the other, there’s some familiar foes: the upright crocodiles themselves. We’re a messy, flawed species, but one that’s capable of doing just as much good as any other race in the galaxy. ![]() His character arc is decidedly familiar, as he turns from weasel to hero, but he acts as a good case study for the complexities of humanity as ‘Empress of Mars’ presents them. An unashamed coward with good intentions that he’s initially terrified of translating into action, because sticking to old patterns is easier. Godsacre, the designated sympathetic soldier, is a case study in this. The humans, it suggests, act out of a lack of understanding as opposed to calculated malice using the same tactics they use on Earth in an unfamiliar world where they’re hopelessly out of their depth, because it’s the only thing they know how to do. They’re aggressive, jingoistic, and some of them are ludicrously greedy, but ‘Empress of Mars’ takes a more nuanced view than that in many respects. There are no good guys and bad guys at all. Instead, the dramatic drive of the episode comes from the way in which the story is told. It’s not necessarily a fresh enough idea to fuel the episode on its own. ![]() That’s not unusual Doctor Who has been full of pig-headed military figures more willing to shoot than talk since its inception. The cheerfully surreal sight of red-coated Victorian soldiers colonising Mars for Queen and country part of a conceit that sees the humans as the bad guys. The core of the episode is a sci-fi staple: the colonialist metaphor. It slots comfortably into a season built upon simple, if derivative stories that are well-told and relatively crowd-pleasing.” A colonialist metaphor – with aliens Series 10 has just come off the experimental Monk trilogy that dabbled with tone and structure in ways that put off some and delighted others, so ‘Empress of Mars’ was well-placed to return to the classic flavour of Doctor Who. It proceeds from a simple premise, overlays a familiar dramatic dilemma, and tells the story as you would broadly expect. Unusually, for a writer whose scripts have been unashamedly strange in some way, Gatiss’ latest is bread-and-butter Doctor Who. ‘Empress of Mars’, then, feels like a significant deviation from the formula. Personally, I found it to be both – which felt right. Just look at ‘Sleep No More’, which is either considered an innovative masterwork or a laughable mess. His unusual, tongue-in-cheek style has never managed to win the whole of fandom over. There are plenty of writers on Doctor Who whose work has split opinion enormously – just look at almost everything Steven Moffat writes! No-one, however, does it quite like Mark Gatiss. There are plenty of spoilers here, so if you want the non-spoilery version click here. Here’s our Doctor Who series 10, episode 9 Empress of Mars review.
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