One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The name triggers the imagination that Mars will almost be a tropical paradise with trees, rivers and lakes. It's still a dry, dusty planet but the somewhat adequate (and thrown together feeling) of the story barely tickles the humour although the ending was quite good as the Doctor thinks he can change the future but learns the hard way.The cast of the episode were quite good and played their roles convincingly.The set was also what you would expect of a Mars habitat.The episode overall was not one of the best "specials" but still worth a watch when nothing else is on TV.

"The Waters of Mars" is the third episode of what most call 'series 4.5' and is definitely the most interesting of the 4 episodes (or 5 if you count the End of Time Part Two as a separate episode, which some do). Its plot is, well, passable, although nothing brilliant. The Doctor lands on the red planet on November 21st in the year 2059, which happens to be precisely the date of a very important event in history of what would eventually lead to human kind entering the realm of space travel. No inclination is given as to why The Doctor showed up at such dashing timing, but what can you say; it is Doctor Who. Anyway, so the Doctor stumbles across a station on mars not far from where he landed and, due to him being the Doctor, has to check it out. Of course, some shenanigans ensue and we have our hour long special. Now something quite surprising happened with this special, and with series 4.5 it was a quite singular thing for this one story (atleast for this reviewer); I never once felt the time. As I said, the special is an hour long and it kept me interested the whole time, moving at a brisk pace, whilst not sacrificing the time it needs to get acquainted with the episodes central characters, and managed not to overly annoy me too much with anything. (Well, there was this one scene when the Doctor was recognizing the crew of the station, and this rather annoying file on a computer kept showing up and presenting a small bio on each character, and would zoom in on a specific part of each file for ALL of the members, which was totally overused and annoying--after awhile I was like "We get it!") Now, and this may be a bit of a !!SPOILER!! but it turns out this base is under siege, as members of the crew are infected, and taken over by wa…water? A bit odd, yet quite effective choice that for the most part works quite well, and at times even presents us with a rather frightening villain. The story pits The Doctor, and the uninfected crew, against the water and its desire to get to Earth. Doesn't sound like much of a plot, and it really isn't, but its The Doctor's dilemma in the story that makes it work..When it comes to the series 4.5, this episode was pretty darned alright, especially when compared to an episode like The Next Doctor, oh then it was sodding brilliant, but I don't know, I just didn't feel it the way I should have. There was some good action and suspense, and I liked how the Doctor kept telling himself he should go but, being that he is Doctor, kept staying. That was entertaining, and I enjoyed seeing him fight between his time lordy don't break the rules type attitude, and Doctory not being able to just leave the people to die. Also liked the little 'Ice Warriors' reference in there. But I don't know, it just felt kind of bland. Kind of how '42' felt bland too, even though it was a good episode and really shouldn't have. Perhaps it's poor directing. The ending was interesting and a bit frightening, as he was leaving the stations the Doctor takes an interesting character turn (you who've seen it know what I mean), I liked the look on Tennants face, butI really didn't enjoy the little collection of thoughts, though. Again, seemed a bit overkill where it was endlessly saying things about time-lords. Just a bit over the top to the extent when I was just like "I get it, mate, that's enough" (just like with the computer thing earlier on). I liked Adelaide, as well. Nothing much to say there, though. I also liked that they brought the Ood back, there in the end, although I wasn't fond of how the Doctor behaved seconds before that. I respect the angle they were going for, it's a just a personal opinion of me not liking to see The Doctor like that. It made me think of Matt Smith's comment to Rory in series five ("I need you beside me"). It really marks the under current that flowed through series four of how much the Doctor needed someone (i.e. Donna) to keep him on the straight and narrow, and now that he's alone, he's gone far from where the Doctor should be. Had this (kind of) series been stronger this could have been a very interesting topic to explore, but the specials, apart from this serial, didn't really do enough with it, and when they tried too it seemed a little too much, and without enough buildup.All in all, better then both of its predecessors, and definitely better then it's successor(s). But compared to most episodes it was not something to write home about, and again a disappointment. ~6 of 10~ A bit below par for the series, but more than par for the specials.

A special Doctor Who episode set on Mars in 2059 sounded like a great way to finally discover the show. However I was worried that it would be as disappointing as Torchwood, its spin-off. Now that I have seen it all I can say is that my opinion is mixed. Some elements were interesting but overall it felt like a waste of time. In fact beside the story it's also Lindsay Duncan who convinced me to watch the episode as she plays Adelaide Brooke, the new companion. I really liked her character in Rome and her performance was quite good. As expected her talent and charisma shined and without her The Waters of Mars would have been dead dry. I can't even believe she's almost 60 years old because her natural beauty was easy on the eyes. Moreover her character was fierce and strong-minded so she made a believable commander of the first human mission on Mars. However she shadowed the other cast members and revealed the seams of a questionable ensemble cast. I hope the performers were hired for their talent, not the color of their skin.As terraforming is a recurring and fascinating topic in the scientific news I was expecting something smart and controversial. But the story was predictable and written around sci-fi clichés and questionable ideas. Only after a few minutes I already wanted to switch off my TV because I thought things could only get worse. I should have because most of the time I was bored and only continued to watch the episode because of the Doctor intriguing attitude and Lindsay Duncan. I can accept they had to produce a family friendly episode but I wasn't expecting some scary scenes to be nearly as ridiculous as in Scream and other teen movies. But the worst idea was probably to include the most annoying robot I have ever seen. It even reminded me of Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars. It's like if the writers had found, dusted and followed an ancient book on Disney worst recipes and black creativity.Otherwise beside Duncan a few elements saved this episode from reaching the deep sea, where plastic bottles find a second life. First even if the story wasn't frightening I have to admit that it succeeded in questioning the morality of terraforming other planets, to feed our desire of conquest and urge to survive our own mistakes. There were also some deep and sad moments between Adelaide and the Doctor. In fact I think some scenes could be relatively disturbing for young viewers. Last but not least watching the Doctor so tortured was surprising because at first he seemed funny and joyful. However when watching him fight his inner demons should have been fascinating it wasn't because the action was sloppy and they waited for the last minutes to make the scenes more dynamic, but the execution only led to chaotic ones. The actor's performance was also over the top. Otherwise the ending was intriguing enough and made me curious about the Doctor. Because with a better story and without the junk following his adventures could be both entertaining and interesting.

invisibleskidmark, you obviously did not watch the "Stolen Earth" or "Journey's End" closely because the Daleks in the Medusa Cascade were NOT part of the Time War.At the end of the "Evolution of the Daleks" (series 3) the last of the Cult of Skaro (Dalek Caan) did an emergency temporal shift which SENT HIM BACK INTO THE TIME WAR where he consequently rescued Davros, creator of the Daleks, and lost his mind (went mad) in the ensuing ability to see all of time and space. The Time War was timelocked and Caan somehow broke through it. The incident at the Medusa Cascade happened and lost planets returned to their appropriate places and times. It became a FIXED point in time/space.There was no continuity problem regarding the Medusa Cascade incident as we saw that the whole of Earth was celebrating the return of Earth to the Solar system in "Journey's End" I suggest before commenting on continuity that you remove the finger off the fast forward button....