5. The Waters of Mars
Written by Phil Ford and Russell T. Davies The Specials: 3 It was a hard year for Who fans... We had been treated to four excellent years of thirteen part series, each accompanied by an hour-long Christmas Special and suddenly we had to make do with one 'kind-of-OK' episode at Easter and another one at 'date-to-be-confirmed' before Tennant left at Christmas. This might explain why 'The Waters of Mars' is so well-regarded but there are other reasons too. The Waters of Mars gave to us one of the most horrifying Doctor Who monsters to date in The Flood. The humans these water-bound baddies kill and take over are the stuff of nightmares the broken veins combine with the empty eyes to give an original portrayal of pure evil. Guest star Lindsay Duncan is a world-class star and she puts all of her effort into portraying Adelaide Brook with as much authenticity and subtlety as she can. The interplay between Adelaide and the Doctor is probably the best thing about the episode. Their relationship turns from un-trusting on one side and awe-inspired on the other, to trusted but doomed-to-be-parted friends who inspire each other before finally being flipped back on its head and leading to a suicide. The relationship is so central to the episode that it comes at the expense of fully characterising the other inhabitants of 'Bowie-Base One,' though this hardly matters when it is all leading to the heart-breaking yet thrilling end to the episode that displayed so much about Tennant's Tenth Doctor's character while promising so much about what was to come.