Doctor Who 10x09 Empress of Mars EDITED

There is a whole subtext to this one about Brexit (UK voting to leave the European Union). This episode is a prequal to a classic era serial Curse of Peladon, without going into it too much it had a subtext about the UK joining the forerunner to the EU, the EEC, which was happening when it was written and broadcast in 1972, and it introduced the green one eyed alien Alpha Centauri who appears at the end of this episode. Their (Alpha is a genderless "hermaphrodite hexapod", according to the 3rd Doctor) appearence in the ending of this episode is there to connect the themes, its two ends of the same theme in fact about the UK's relationship with the rest of Europe. Like Curse this episode was also written and broadcast at the height of the debate, this time the Brexit debate. The basic simple theme underlying both stories is that its better to work with others even if you have disagreements and resolve differences through dialogue than to go it alone, in Curse it comes down on the side of better to join, and in this it comes down on the side of better to remain. In this context the British bad guy in this represents the leave side, the black soldier the immigrants who, despite being part of the British side, are scapegoated and sacrificed to the argument of why we should leave, and the coward the remain side who didnt fight very hard to put forward a defence of remaining, the whole Empire attitude is the attitude that we dont need anyone else because, well, we are British! Which is a hang-over from having the worlds biggest ever Empire, which of course is why the soldiers are Empire era, and why it uses the Ice Warriors as they too once had a huge Empire they lost and now have to decide between fading away or swallowing their pride and joining a larger community as just one voice among many members. In the end the Ice Warriors go to Peladon and will in time join the galatic community. Britain in reality of course did not follow this example!

Just thinking of the Matt Smith episode with the Ice Warriors and the Tardis dipped in that one too! Tardis sees an Ice Warrior and is like 'Nah forget that I'm out' lol Michelle Gomez is so good as Missy, her aura is off the charts, she's just in that one scene at the end but it has you hooked. Also love the fact the 12th Doctor hasn't seen films like the terminator or the thing but has seen frozen, which is hilarious lol

I hope you enjoy not knowing what you're going to get in each episode, like the Pope from a few episodes ago, and having Victorian-era British soldiers on the moon would have been a bit of a surprise of a concept as well. This is one of my favourite episodes of the season, with Catchlove (played by Ben Kingsley's son Ferdinand) making for a brilliantly unpleasant villain. and how interesting it was to have both sides eventually learn to get along. The script was written before Nardole was added to the main cast for the season which is why he has such a small role in this one, but it does serve to advance the Missy plot a bit with getting her out of the vault to bring the TARDIS back. That was certainly an interesting and mysterious bit at the end with the Doctor.

Just think...the 12th Doctor is on Mars in 1881, then the 11th Doctor deals with an Ice Warrior in 1983, then the 10th Doctor is back on Mars again in 2059 dealing with the Flood (that the Ice Warriors froze). Time travel at its finest 🤣