Empress of Mars

Rise my warriors! Sleep no more!

Empress of Mars is this season's contribution by Mark Gatiss. Gatiss has a hit or miss track record as far as most fans are concerned. He does horror well and he is very good at the fan service. But he also can be frothy and his stories will show a lack of depth often so if there isn't a strong hook, they will fall off quickly. He wrote the last Ice Warriors story, Cold War, so I'm actually looking forward to see what he can do in a more expanded setting.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Bill and Nardole show up at NASA as a probe lands on Mars and prepares to take pictures from under the ice cap. All are shocked to find piles of stones spelling out "God Save the Queen" in English.

The trio heads to Mars in the late 19th century to try and solve the mystery. They are further surprised when the land in an underground cavern to discover oxygen and a camp fire. Bill, exploring a bit further, has the floor collapse beneath her and falls into another section of the cave. The Doctor sends Nardole back to the TARDIS for rope but upon entering, something triggers in the TARDIS and it flies back to Earth, locking Nardole out of the controls.

In her tunnel, Bill meets Captain Catchlove while the Doctor is confronted by an Ice Warrior and Colonel Godsacre. They are both taken back to camp where they learn that the Ice Warrior, nicknamed Friday, crashed on Earth and was encountered by a squad of British soldiers. They helped the Ice Warrior repair his ship and came back with him in exchange for a promise of mineral wealth. The Ice Warrior converted one of the weapons on his ship into a drill that the rest of the soldiers have been using, though no mineral wealth has been found yet.

Shortly after this, the soldiers drill into a cavern where an Ice Queen seems to be laying in state. Captain Catchlove and most of the men want to start plundering but the Doctor strongly insists on examining, fearing that this might be a hibernation chamber. Colonel Godsacre agrees and pulls back, posting a guard instead.

One of the guards, Jackdaw, drugs his superior and starts to take gems off the side of the bier. His actions trigger the reanimation process and the Queen rises and kills him. The yells attract the attention of the soldiers and another fires at her. She kills him as well before the whole group can enter, including Friday. Friday returns to her side and the Doctor pleads for mercy as the soldiers were ignorant of what they were doing. Friday also advocates for the humans, informing her of the decayed state of Mars and how they have been in hibernation longer than anticipated.

The queen listens but another soldier's weapon misfires, striking the queen's helmet. She then orders the death of all soldiers and begins to awake the soldiers. The humans retreat and collapse the entrance using the mining drill. Catchlove then reveals that Godsacre was nearly executed for desertion years ago but survived the noose. He takes command from him and has Godsacre, the Doctor and Bill locked in the brig. He sets up pickets and prepares to fight if attacked.

Three Ice Warriors tunnel under and emerge behind the soldiers where they attack them from the rear. Catchlove, seeing his men falter, runs away to get his exterior suit and head back to the ship. Friday meanwhile, also tunnels under but emerges in the brig and frees the prisoners, insisting that they help negotiate for peace. They distract the queen and her warriors while the Doctor aims the drill at the surface, threatening to cave in the whole system, killing them all. In the confusion, Godsacre also runs away.

The queen prepares to listen given the standoff but Catchlove grabs her from the rear and holds a knife to her throat. He backs towards the elevator, threatening to kill her if anyone moves. The doors open but Godsacre is there, having come back down. He kills Catchlove and then offers his life to the queen in exchange for the lives of his men. The queen, impressed by this act of honor, spares his life and inducts him into her service, ordering her men to let the others live.

The Doctor repairs the communicator and sends out a signal asking for help for the Ice Warriors as they cannot reanimate themselves and live on Mars in it's current state. Their message is received by Alpha Centauri who offers aid. To help Alpha Centauri find the landing location, the Doctor, Bill and Godsacre spell out the message in rocks that were seen by the satellite under the ice.

Shortly after, the TARDIS reappears and Nardole shows them that in order to rescue them, he had to unlock Missy and get her to fly it. The Doctor tells her that she'll have to go back in the vault and she agrees, though she does ask the Doctor if he is feeling alright.

Analysis

I rather enjoyed this story. It has a few flaws but overall it's pretty enjoyable. The one caveat to throw in though is whether my expectations are a bit lowered because it's a Mark Gatiss story. Not that I think he's bad (unlike some fans) but it is a near guarantee that he will write a pretty shallow story that has almost no bearing on the overall arc of the series. That does set the mind in a different way because you put aside higher expectations and just try to appreciate the story as is.

One other thing about Mark Gatiss is that he is a fan and puts a lot of fan service in his stories. This one had it in spades but it was not so overt as to distract from the story. But putting those in also means that he will adapt the story style to something other than his normal mode of writing. I heard one reviewer point out that you could have ripped off Gatiss' name and slapped on Malcolm Hulke's name and you would have bought it easily. I can see that and it certainly affected how the characters behaved.

The Doctor was quite enjoyable in this but he also was a bit different than the normal Twelfth Doctor. Here he was very much in line with the Third Doctor, constantly pleading with the two parties to not fight, admitting that the humans would be wiped out easily. His only real action comes in creating a brief détente by threatening to create a cave in. From there the humans resolve things without him. It's probably one of the most passive roles the Twelfth Doctor has ever taken outside of Kill the Moon.

Bill also suffers from the adoption of the Hulke style. She is still fine, but nearly all traces of her proactive nature are lost. She becomes a "sit back and wait" style of companion. It is only when asked, first by the Empress and then by the Doctor, that she even truly engages with the Ice Warriors, despite her privileged female status. Not that any of this is bad, but it's a passiveness that we've not really seen before in Bill and it does stand out a bit.

Nardole is effectively written out which makes me think that this story was written prior to it being announced that he would be in for the whole series. I don't mind him being absent, but I would have liked something resembling an explanation as to why the TARDIS bugged out and then refused to let him take control again. One would guess that it had something to do with Missy but from this story's stand alone perspective, that's one of those little plot conveniences.

I liked the Ice Warriors in this, especially Friday. He reminded me a lot of Izlyr from The Curse of Peladon, where he is thoughtful and articulate. It's the more interesting side of the Ice Warriors than the typical villain. The Empress had these moments too, although she did get swept up in the shout-y leader. I saw some people compare her to the Empress Racnoss and her tone of voice was similar, but I thought she had a bit more depth than that. Between her and General Skaldak in Cold War, I feel like the Ice Warriors have taken a more Japanese turn, similar to the Klingons in Star Trek. Not that I have a problem with that as it adds layers not previously seen in the old serials.

The humans were ok, although a bit bland. In many ways, they were typical UNIT soldiers, just there to be cannon fodder with only the faintest hint at a personality for a couple. Most of the time was given to Colonel Godsacre and Captain Catchlove. Godsacre was alright, though again, not much depth until the hasty botched execution backstory. But it was Catchlove that annoyed me.

If there is a flaw in a lot of Third Doctor stories it is that there is often a person in the military or ministry who is just a jerk for the convenience of the plot. Catchlove is this character. It turns him into the overall villain but it still feels a bit empty. He's a smarmy prick just because. Why do the men follow him? Why is he so pompous to think that they can take down the Ice Warriors despite seeing the Queen be shot at point blank range with no effect? Gatiss then goes a step further by making him both a coward and a betrayer of his own men. It's just too one dimensional for me to enjoy properly. He's a cutout villain that you could swap with just about any other.

The direction in this story was excellent. There were a number of sweeping shots that heavily added to the atmosphere while also not forcing excessive amounts of CGI that would have overblown the budget and probably looked less good. The direction added a great deal of atmosphere to this story and gave it an extra edge that added something beyond what the regular writing did.

The one thing that bugs me slightly about this story beyond little acting or storyline nits is how this plays in overall Ice Warrior continuity. Most of the other Ice Warrior stories can be fit in with this but you can tell that it was the Peladon stories that were foremost in Mark Gatiss' mind. I think the one that I have the most curiosity about is The Seeds of Death. That is the one story where you don't have a rogue group trapped on Earth and acting in a reactionary way. Instead, it's an active invasion force and set a number of years in the future. I suppose you could tie it to the rise of a more militaristic leader who chooses to go to war rather than be a more passive race as shown in The Curse of Peladon but that is a bit of a mystery.

I'd also like to know why hibernation technology is so difficult. Here the Ice Warriors oversleep for 5,000 years much like the Silurians and the Sea Devils so in those stories. Oversleeping seems to be an easy plot device to get creatures of advanced technology involved without giving too in depth of a backstory. I can understand it, but I think I would have liked something with a touch more originality.

Overall, it was a good watch. It's simple and as long as you don't expect too much from it, it will entertain you. Certainly the minor nits are just that, minor and easily ignorable.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5