History Recap / DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars

The one where the Doctor goes too far.

People go missing. One by the name of Andy is already dead. Another, Maggie, is found conked on the head and taken off to the medical dome. The Doctor should leave now. But he lets himself be roped into the investigation by Adelaide, into the bio-dome, joined by [[RedShirt Expendable Crewman]] Tarak. Within a good few minutes, Tarak is separated from the Doctor and finds what appears to be Andy... water flowing off of Andy like he's a theme park ride. Andy's face is distorted, cracked and gushing water.

[[caption-width-right:350:The Timelord Victorious]]

-->'''The Doctor:''' There are laws, laws of time. And once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws, but they ''died!''. All of them died! And do you know who that leaves? ''ME!'' It's taken all these years to realise it, but the laws of time are ''mine'' and they ''will OBEY ME!''

* BodyHorror: The people infected by the Flood become water-bloated, ruptured-skin-sporting, dead-eye-having monstrosities.

* BorrowedCatchphrase: The Doctor in the midst of his HeelFaceTurn uses the Master's "You will obey me", but applies it to the laws of time.

* InvincibleBoogeymen: While Flood hosts can be slowed down, nothing in the long run can stop them - as the Doctor puts it, "water always wins". One by one the crew of "Bowie Base One" on Mars become infected, as only one drop of water is all that takes to convert someone.

-->-- '''The Doctor'''

* BelligerentSexualTension: It's heavily implied that something may have gone on between Adelaide and Ed that ended very badly, hence why their relationship is extremely tense.

* BorrowedCatchphrase: The Doctor in the midst of his HeelFaceTurn uses the Master's "You ''will'' obey me", but applies it to the laws of time.

** To "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii The Fires of Pompeii]]", the last time fixed points in time were mentioned. He also used the TARDIS to save a couple of people at the last minute in that episode, although this time it is ''not'' shown as a good thing. He rehashes the argument he had with Donna Noble in that episode, then says everything he does to try to help just makes it happen, when trying to convince Adelaide to let him leave.

* DwindlingParty: Captain Brooke's crew succumbs to the virus until only three are left.

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* FaceHeelTurn: The Doctor's shift in morality almost turns him into the Master Mk. II.

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** During his AGodAmI stage, the Doctor starts acting like the Time Lords who appear two episodes later (same ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem personality). He also uses some of the Master's quotes. Guess who also shows up in the next episode?
** When Adelaide heads into her house we see her draw her pistol. Had the Doctor been paying attention to her instead of ranting to himself, he might have stopped her from killing herself. Then again, if he had been paying attention to her ''at all'' he would have realised how distraught she was and possibly got the idea that going AGodAmI on her was a bad idea.

* FreezeFrameBonus: The Doctor makes a big deal out of the fact that Mia is "only 27 years old." However, if you look at all the articles shown about the other members of the crew, Yuri is also 27 and Roman is 25. For Roman's, it's pointed out in the article that he is the youngest member of the crew.

* DetrimentalDetermination: The story picks apart the Doctor's relentless drive to save as many people as he can by showing what happens when that desire runs into conflict with laws of time that prevent altering fixed points -- in this case, the death of an entire scientist colony when their base on Mars mysteriously explodes. Without a companion to provide a MoralityChain, the Doctor, having grown tired of the constant death and destruction he's seen throughout his life, declares himself the [[AGodAmI "Time Lord Victorious"]] and gets the crew off the base and back onto Earth. However, all of them are terrified by him in the end, and Adelaide shoots herself out of disgust towards the Doctor, ensuring that the aftermath of the explosion will happen as time dictates, just under modified circumstances. The Doctor immediately has an immense MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and flees in both fear and anguish.

* WaterSourceTampering: Turned UpToEleven with the aliens ''in'' the water and spreading via contamination of the base's supply.

** Although it is played with in that weapons are never used against them, so we don't know if they are invincible or not for certain. Fire and flamethrowers likely could have worked well against the water based creatures. The Ice Warriors at least showed how effective freezing them was.

This episode is considered one of the best in the Tenth Doctor's era, and played a key part in the story of ''[[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Time Lord Victorious]]'', a [[CrossThrough multi-platform event]] spanning the books, comics, a web series, the [[Radio/BigFinishDoctorWho audios]] and interactive experiences. For the Tenth Doctor this event takes place immediately after this episode and shows him continuing down the dark path he started while his Eigth and Ninth incarnations try to stop him.

The Doctor thinks that the cutesy robot is rubbish (although robot ''dogs'' are cool, of course), but otherwise loves the base. It doesn't take long for the Doctor to realise exactly where he is, and ''when'': November 21[-[[superscript:st]]-], 2059. Captain Brooke and her crew are the first human colony on Mars. The Doctor is a huge fan of their trip, and as he rambles through their history while madly {{squee}}ing, we see flashbacks to a series of articles with obituaries. [[KillEmAll The crew will die here today.]] The Doctor knows it — and knows that he shouldn't interfere, because this is a tremendously important fixed point in time. He'll never know what kind of monster attacked them, but that's fine, and he'll just leave now.

* KillEmAll: Everyone human in the base will die; it's a Fixed Point in Time and thus a ForegoneConclusion. Except this trope is defied when the Doctor saves three of them! Yes, Adelaide kills herself, but Yuri and Mia are still alive at the end.

* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Laws of Time? The only such laws are those that Time Lord Victorious decrees! ...Keep in mind that he believes this only because he's the last of the Time Lords.

* NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: The whole of the episode, the Doctor struggles with the taboo of changing Fixed Points in history, how his attempts to save them might doom then instead, and how he's only ''one'' Time Lord because the others are all gone. Then he realizes that, as the last Time Lord, he is Time Lord Victorious, so if he wants to save these people then he's going to and no one's going to stop him!

* OutOfCharacterMoment: During the final scene, the Tenth Doctor shows a very selfish side unlike his usual compassionate attitude. He argues with Adelaide that he gets to decide who's important and who's not, who gets to live and die, and calls himself a winner in a tone similar to how the famous Charlie Sheen calls himself a winner. When Adelaide calls him out saying he's wrong, he simply replies, "That's for me to decide." This is portrayed as what the Doctor is like if he's both wracked with guilt and loneliness for a long time and left without a companion to regulate him. By the end he's given a sharp wake up call about just how OOC he's being and it's the start of him realizing that he needs to regenerate because he's becoming dangerously prideful from being 10 for so long. Made even more alarming when you realize that, at the time of his regeneration, 10 lived less than a decade. As the Eleventh Doctor would later put it, he had "vanity issues" which caused him an abnormal amount of attachment to a specific incarnation and fear of regenerating.

** The first human base on Mars is called Bowie Base One. There's a Music/DavidBowie song called [[Music/HunkyDory "Life on Mars"]].
** It's the wrong song, but the line "Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do" from "Music/SpaceOddity" seem significantly reflected in this episode (not to mention the event of someone dying in space for reasons never known back on Earth).

** The first human base on Mars is called Bowie Base One. There's a Music/DavidBowie song called "Life on Mars".
** It's the wrong song, but the line "Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do" from "Space Oddity" seem significantly reflected in this episode (not to mention the event of someone dying in space for reasons never known back on Earth).

** This isn't the first time this Doctor has met a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion "funny robot"...]] Is it at all possible that was a slam against Kamelion?

* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: PlayingWithATrope. At first the Doctor is all "I shouldn't be here; I should leave" because he can't change the rules. Then he decides that, as the last of the Time Lords, yes, he ''can'' change the rules. So he meddles and then he realizes that while he can change the rules if he wants, it will cause seven kinds of hell to break loose. Upon this realization, he states "I've gone too far."

* ExtyYearsFromNow: The story takes place on 21 November 2059. RTD gambled on the episode airing on 21 November 2009 and lost (it aired six days earlier, on a Sunday rather than in the show's usual Saturday slot), but it's close enough.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capture_4603.PNG]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Waters_of_Mars1_3234.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Would you like some water? [[WaterSourceTampering It's fresh.]]]]

** In the original timeline, Adelaide Brooke detonates the Mars base to save Earth from the Flood. In the altered timeline, she kills herself in an attempt to keep history on track, to save Earth from the Time Lord Victorious, or both.

* HeroicSuicide: In the end, Adelaide does it as a defiant gesture of resistance against the Doctor's increasingly deranged toying with the idea of shedding responsibilities and changing history in whatever way it pleases him. Her suicide acts as proving a point that he can't just rewrite certain events as it suits him, even if it would result in ''averting'' the deaths of others. Though she is something of a hypocrite for having begged for his intervention in the first place, and suddenly being displeased with the consequences when he complies.

All looks grim for Adelaide, Yuri and Mia... until the Doctor walks into the storage room, shouting out orders like a maniac and trying to save those people he'd declared dead. Adelaide begins to panic, wondering why the Doctor is throwing his previous worries out the window. Almost foaming at the mouth, the Doctor launches into a speech about how there are laws of time, but he can warp them. He's safe, he knows it's not his time yet, because he'll be killed when someone knocks four times. So today, he's decided that as many people as people are going to be safe too! The laws of time that were once enforced by a group of people — a group long since dead:

* NotSoDifferent: Many an IronicEcho abounds when the Doctor starts to snap and unknowingly begins to channel the Master.