Trivia / Doctor Who S30E16 "The Waters of Mars"

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• Actor-Shared Background: Like his character, Ed Gold, Peter O'Brien was born in Adelaide, South Australia.
• Completely Different Title: The French title is "La Conquête de Mars" (The Conquest of Mars).
• Deleted Scene: There was a scene where the Doctor theorized that the Ice Warriors had fled from their home planet to escape the Flood, explaining their absence.
• In Memoriam: To long-time Who alum Barry Letts.
• Orphaned Reference: This story was initially envisaged as a Christmas Special, but plans changed when the number of special episodes increased from three to four, allowing the Tenth Doctor's final adventure to become a two-part story. Several festive references remain, such as the crew on Mars preparing for Christmas dinner, and the snowing when the Doctor arrives back on Earth as he exclaims how he likes snow.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The original plan for the Flood was that their hosts would erupt water from the top of their heads, which was scrapped due to the difficulties of getting that practical effect to work. The solution was to have water pour out of the host's mouth instead, which the special effects team agreed both looks more plausible and is creepier as a result.
• What Could Have Been:
  • One early idea was a story inspired by an incident wherein Russell T Davies had exited his hotel room to find the corridors empty. This was later recycled in "The Empty Planet".
  • Phil Ford thought of having Mars in the story be terraformed, with the Bowie base personnel traveling far to different units. Russell T Davies wanted him to go more low-tech in his direction, instead having Bowie Base as the scrappy first outpost on the untouched planet.
  • Adelaide was originally a Russian named Valentina Kerenski, with Helen Mirren written in mind. Davies however worried that this was too similar to Mirren's turn as Tanya Kirbuk in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. She was renamed Grace, then Adelaide.
  • The original draft of the script had Adelaide surviving, with the Doctor realising upon seeing Ood Sigma (who arrived straight after he'd declared himself the "Time Lord Victorious") that he had gone too far.
  • Yuri's relationship with Mia is mostly removed in the final draft, except for a single moment when they hold hands.
• Working Title: "Christmas on Mars", "Red Christmas".

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