Go watch “The Waters of Mars” and then come back here so we can have spoiler-filled comments about all how bleak and scary and crazy it all was, and how excited we all are that John Simm is coming back again. (I am very very excited. I would even go so far as to say very very very excited. I love me some John Simm.)
You may think that you have seen David Tennant put on some crazy eyes previously, but in fact you have never seen David Tennant do crazy eyes until you have seen “The Waters of Mars”. I recommend you get on that as soon as possible. Russell Davies does his best work when he’s not afraid to get dark with it (see also Midnight). Although the premise of humans exploring space nobly, causing the Doctor to want to hug them and bury them in a cairn of compliments has been done before on this show, it’s never been done this well. The monsters are scary and the Doctor is – well, he’s the Doctor, as he gets when there’s nobody around to stop him.
On my scaryometer, I would rate this probably on a level with “Silence in the Library“, which is to say, a bit less scary than “The Empty Child“, less scary than “Midnight” by a comfortable margin, and nearly half as scary as “Blink“, Scariest Single Episode of TV Ever™.
David Tennant, presently my favorite actor of all the actors, is starring in an NBC pilot about a lawyer with anxiety problems. As anxiety problems of various kinds hold synchronized swimming competitions in my family’s gene pool, I am pleased about this whole idea. IF they can write a therapist that’s any good, which is something I’ve noticed films and TV shows struggle to do. Is it because all screenwriters have crappy therapists themselves? Is it because they need the therapists to be idiots in order to allow the characters to carry on being dysfunctional? Is it because the media hates social workers? I DO NOT KNOW, but I yearn for David Tennant to come make his crazy eyes on American network television.
Plus, this. My mum introduced us to Shakespeare with the films of Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing; and that seems to have worked, because I love Shakespeare like I love my family, and I have renewed my long-abandoned Shakespeare reading project. Previously I have disliked Hamlet A LOT, but I feel like, come December of this year, all that could change.