WARNING: SPOILERS, sweetie.
It figures that in an episode featuring Game of Thrones’ Meryn Traunt, everything winds up being his fault
in some way.
In “Empress of Mars”, NASA has discovered a strange message
on the red planet: “God Save the Queen.” The Doctor takes the TARDIS to the
planet in the year 1881 – when the message apparently originated – to discover
an army of Victorian soldiers, who are mining the planet after apparently
striking up a deal with an Ice Warrior. But the selfishness of humanity leads
to the awakening of the titular Empress of Mars and her army of dormant Ice
Warriors, and war is on the horizon. Separated from Nardole and the TARDIS, the
Doctor and Bill must play peacekeeper.
This season has been filled with really intriguing concepts
for episodes, and this one continues that trend. It’s not often than humans are
the alien invaders of an episode, and it was a nice touch having this episode
after an entire trilogy based around a more traditional (but really not all
that traditional) alien invasion.
I also like the morally conflicting situation this puts the
Doctor in. The Ice Warriors have had their home planet invaded and exploited
for mining opportunities, with one of their soldiers essentially forced into
servitude. They’re definitely in the wrong here, but the Doctor can’t
completely advocate for their side, as the Ice Warriors have much more advanced
artillery than the humans’ Victorian-era firearms and would completely
annihilate their invaders. Both sides can be seen in a sympathetic or
antagonistic light, with neither side being fully in the right or wrong.
It’s nice to see the return of the Ice Warriors, a
seldom-seen species in Doctor Who
that I find oddly fascinating. In the classic series, they were much more
plentiful, and have only made a few scant appearances in the revival. They’ve
always been frightening simply by how much power and ferocity they possess.
Those suits aren’t just big turtle shells; they’re high-tech armor casings that
basically make the Ice Warriors big, lumbering, indestructible tanks. And those
weapons they have that can somehow contort humans into fatal cubes…lordy.
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| "Make my monsters grow!!" |
Iraxxa – the Empress of Mars – is a fresh sight, as giving
the Ice Warriors a singular monarch was never a concept before. And I dig her
design, with her Predator-like dreadlocks giving her a more distinct appearance
than her underlings. Although, I wish there were more aspects like this that
set her apart from the other Ice Warriors. I was kind of hoping that for a
warrior race like this, their queen would show off far more tactical prowess
than her soldiers. For example, maybe she could be a more agile combatant in
her suit than other Ice Warriors, showing that in this society, might is what
makes a monarch. Or maybe I just got caught up too much in her Predator-esque
appearance and expected too much.
Regardless, on the Moffat
Monster Scare-o-meter™, Iraxxa and the Ice Warriors score 3 Moffs out of 5.
The episode also has a decently satisfying character arc involving the commanding officer of the Victorian soldiers, who
survived being hanged for desertion and redeems himself at the end by killing
his traitorous and bloodthirsty second-in-command and making peace with the Ice
Warriors. Though, I’m not quite sure how I feel about him swearing complete
allegiance to Iraxxa to make peace. Wouldn’t that mean that his surviving
soldiers would be pledging their allegiance to Mars instead of England
(assuming that the rest of them stayed on the planet with him)? I don’t really
think this is something a dedicated soldier would do – with my conception being
that they would rather die for their country than surrender to a new master –
but maybe the colonel’s cowardice has something to do with this decision.
So after the mystery of the Vault has been
solved, a new enigma has popped up: The TARDIS apparently transports itself off
of Mars and back into the Doctor’s office on Earth. Nardole is apparently
unable to pilot it – despite previously being shown able to – and requires
Missy’s help to get it back to 1881 Mars. Could this be the TARDIS itself
trying to keep the Doctor’s promise for him? Or is there another force at work
trying to screw with the Time Lord? Nevertheless, Missy is now free of the
Vault, though she doesn’t show any resistance towards having to go back. Is she
actually reforming, or is this all a long-game Master plot?
Oh, and that cameo at the end with Alpha
Centauri – a character from the classic series – being voiced by the original
actress from over forty years ago was a nice touch.
I feel that whenever Mark Gatiss (co-creator of
Sherlock, who also plays Mycroft on
that show) writes an episode for Doctor
Who, it’s very middle-of-the-road; nothing spectacular, but nothing
particularly awful. Just a fine episode. The past two episodes he wrote for the
Twelfth Doctor – “Robot of Sherwood” and “Sleep No More” – were mostly
enjoyable, though the latter episode was definitely the weakest of Series 9.
“Empress of Mars” is another fine Gatiss episode, though I feel that the
morally conflicting themes and supporting character arc are what save it from
just being another middle-of-the-road episode.
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| The Mummy: In theaters June 9. |
Final verdict: 8/10.
NEXT WEEK: A centuries-old mystery is finally
solved: What really happened to the missing Ninth Legion of Rome?
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