Doctor Who Series 10 Episode 9: 7 Big Questions After 'Empress Of Mars'

By Paul Driscoll / June 12, 2017

Empress of Mars may have whisked us away to the red planet, but after the reality questioning, expectations confounding Star Monks trilogy we were very much back on familiar grounds. It was an episode that played to various tried and tested Doctor Who formulas: bug eyed monsters, check; a timey wimey resolution, check; a mashup of different eras and civilisations, check; humans acting as duplicitously as the aliens, check.

Love it, or loathe it, Mark Gatiss’s story will have won a permanent place in the affections of long term fans for a completely unexpected cameo which will give hope to lovers of the Zarbi, the Monoids or even the Kandyman. But the episode itself is a routine and otherwise predictable affair, though no less fun for it.

Undemanding isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it will have provided light relief for those who might have befuddled by recent episodes, particular with the unsettling characterisations of the Doctor and Bill in The Lie of the Land. That’s not to say that Empress of Mars didn’t raise a few questions of its own. Enquiring fans will have been given plenty of morsels to chew over as we gear up for the end of the Twelfth Doctor’s run.

7. Who Is Alpha Centauri?

Doctor Who has never been shy about bringing back some of its oldest aliens. From big hitters like the Daleks and Cybermen to the long forgotten such as the crablike Macra, the show has been regularly mining its own past ever since Russell T Davies brought it back to our screens. But this year has been more of a nostalgia-fest than most. The much heralded return of the Mondasian Cybermen is just around the corner, and we have already been treated to Dalek and Movellan cameos.

Empress of Mars was the first episode of series 10 to give a returning foe star billing in the shape of the Ice Warriors, last seen in Mark Gatiss’ Matt Smith episode Cold War. We all expected the post-episode chat to revolve around Ice Warrior lore and the introduction of the first female of the species, the eponymous Empress, but a surprise cameo by the genderless yet effeminate Alpha Centuari, last seen in 1974’s The Monster of Peladon, has stolen the limelight from the frosty Queen.

Alpha Centauri’s squeaky voice and comical, almost phallic appearance is misleading. Although quite the hypochondriac, the alien was far from being the Jar Jar Binks of the two Pertwee Peladon stories. An Ambassador from the Galactic Federation, on Peladon the pacifistic hexapod displayed courage wisdom and guile and became a trusted friend of the Doctor.

Although The Great Intelligence beats Alpha Centauri to the title of returning character with the biggest gap between appearances (44 years), remarkably Ysanne Churchman (now 92) who played the hexapod in the seventies once again provided that distinctive voice.