A reptilian queen from 1881 tries to impose her will on the masses
without mandate…how topical.
This episode is a welcome surprise. It’s far better than it’s
trailer made out, largely because it’s trailer neglected the B story (which is
incidentally more significant than the a story).
The A story sees the Doctor and Bill stranded on Mars in 1881, with
a battalion of British troops, who have declared Mars part of the Empire and an
Ice Warrior who claims to be the last of his kind. Right from the off you can
pretty much see where it’s going, but it still remains fun to watch.
The B story focuses on Nardole as the TARDIS decides to reverse to
the Doctor’s study and park there refusing to move.
Nardole is eventually forced to go to Missy for help in getting it
working again. Like I said, the strength of this story is that it was left out
of trailer. It works to kill two birds, but removing the Doctor’s easy escape
route and building on the suspicion surrounding Missy. She has the know-how to remotely control the
TARDIS, but also pilots it back to save the Doctor and seems concerned about
him. The downside to this, is that it’s completely out of character for Nardole
to go to Missy for help. He’s berated the Doctor for leaving Missy’s cell
unguarded for a matter of hours; it’s difficult to see him releasing her for
any reason regardless of the stakes. It would have made more sense for Bill to
have been the one to let her out as she’s the least cautious around Missy. On
that point, aside from a female empowerment moment, Bill is slightly wasted in
the A plot; she really doesn’t have anything to do besides exist.
The titular Empress of Mars is good as both a character and villain.
Once again, the writers make it slightly political by having a female ruler
who’s (literally) disconnected from the age in which she’s operating and in
desperate need of figuring out how to get along with others.
Overall, this is a fun (politically satirical) episode, but the B
story comes across as far more significant than the A.
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