Doctor Who Review: Empress of Mars (Season 10 Episode 9)

Doctor Who misses the mark on Season 10 Episode 9, “Empress of Mars.”

There’s no way around it: there’s nothing much to “Empress of Mars.” Much like “Night Terrors” and “The Crimson Horror,” “Empress” feels less like a standalone story and more like a filler episode used to pass time until the big finale.

The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole kick off the episode with some fun banter at a NASA facility, which sadly turns out to be the only truly enjoyable scene of the episode.

Having said that, it’s nice to see Bill so in her element — she’s a real time traveller now, and has the bubbly attitude to match it.

Past Bill’s acclimation into the Doctor’s world, I still remain floored that Matt Lucas is being wasted in such a manner. Nardole hasn’t contributed much of anything to the plot of this season. In fact, when he disappeared a quarter of the way into the episode, I breathed a sigh of relief. Matt Lucas is brilliant, but the relationship we as the audience care about is between the Doctor and Bill. Nardole just tends to get in the way.

Unfortunately, we don’t get much of the Doctor and Bill. The episode instead piles on absurdity after absurdity, starting with the trio landing on Mars in the 1800s and ending with a ceasefire between Victorian soldiers and the newly-resurrected Ice Warriors. In between the nostalgia-bait of the Ice Warriors returning, more time is given to the moustache-twirling nature of the soldiers than to our heroes.

At this point in the season, it’s nothing short of annoying to not get the time we need with the Doctor and Bill. This is Peter Capaldi’s final season, and thus the Twelfth Doctor’s last ride. Every moment he spends with Bill is precious. With that knowledge, it puzzles me that Gatiss chose to create his own in-episode hero and have him save the day.

Even working inside the parameters Gatiss set out, it further puzzles me that his hero was a grizzled white man. The episode’s only man of colour was killed after ingratiating the audience to him via stories of his family back on Earth.

Gatiss publicly stated that he was against casting a black man for the role of that soldier — not because it perpetuates the continual trend of killing black men on television, but because he believes that there were no black men serving in the army at that time.

Not only is that factually inaccurate (as pointed out on twitter by @AlishaRai) , but it is absurd — in an episode where Victorian soldiers march on Mars, the least believable thing is not that a black man served in the army. It’s really the fact that Mark Gatiss has been able to skate along on performative pseudo-feminism and wokeness for as long as he has.

All in all, though certainly far from terrible, “Empress of Mars” is entirely empty of any emotional stakes. 

STRAY THOUGHTS:

• #stopwastingmissy2k17
• When I die, please make me a gilded gold coffin exactly like the Ice Queen’s. That thing was amazing.
• Can we talk about Bill’s ponytail? Can we talk about how amazing it is? She is so cool that it is almost intimidating, but it’s tempered nicely by the fact that she’s a huge dork.

What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

Doctor Who airs Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC/BBC America.

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!