Inspirations: The Waters of Mars

As we mentioned last time, initially there were only going to be two further Specials to follow The Next Doctor - the last of which would be the swansong for David Tennant, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, who were all departing together to leave the field clear for a whole new production team led by Steven Moffat.

The placing of this and the middle Special in the TV schedules were very much up for grabs. The first might not have been shown until Christmas 2009, with the final one possibly being held back until Spring 2010 to help launch Moffat's Series 5.

It had initially been hoped that another Special might have been produced, but there were worries about the time and money for this, bearing in mind that Tennant was appearing with the RSC, with limited availability.

Once the fourth Special was confirmed, the transmission placing could be rejigged. 

For a time, The Waters of Mars was to be the 2009 Christmas Special. This can still be seen in the finished programme, with the wintery setting of the final scenes back on Earth.

RTD wanted to have as the one-off companion an older female actor, hoping to get theatrical Dames Helen Mirren or Judi Dench involved. (Mirren had been sought since 2005). This would provide a different relationship dynamic from the usual young woman. The character they played would be a grandmother, staying in an old but luxurious hotel with their family at Christmas. Annoyed with the noise, they had wished everyone to disappear - only for it to actually happen. The pre-credit sequence would culminate with them knocking on the door of the newly arrived TARDIS, with the big guest artist revealed as the Doctor opens the door to them. Venturing outside they discovered that the whole of London had been deserted. It would transpire that those responsible were centaur-like aliens who wanted to use the Earth to stage a one day carnival uninterrupted by the locals. Were they to be witnessed, the missing people would remain lost forever and the aliens would gain the planet. 

The ending would see a lone Ood appear, summoning the Doctor back to the Ood-Sphere and tying in with the Tenth Doctor's final story.

Of course, in the end, only this last element was retained, whilst Moffat and Toby Whithouse later utilised certain elements for The God Complex.

The next idea was tentatively titled "Christmas on Mars", and this was discussed with Phil Ford as its co-writer. Ford had contributed to The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, as well as popular dramas such as Footballers' Wives and The Bill. After writing The Next Doctor, RTD needed to concentrate his attention on his final story for the series, and had already co-opted Gareth Roberts to help with Planet of the Dead.

Ford (and Julie Gardner) preferred the hotel plot, but RTD felt it would not make a good Christmas story. With the new Special now likely to be shown around Hallowe'en, it might suit that time slot instead.

Ford's first efforts were not what RTD wanted, being too much like "Sword & Sorcery" with alien princesses in its mix.

News from NASA that the Phoenix Mars Lander had discovered evidence of water on the seemingly dead planet finally put paid to the hotel plot, and the Martian base was settled on - as well as providing the inspiration for the story's threat.

The Mars setting caused RTD to mention the Ice Warriors even though they were not to feature, as he wanted the new story to fit with established stories about the reptilian Martians. This was their planet of origin, but they no longer lived here. A near future setting was agreed upon, as RTD wanted the technology to be recognisable to the audience.

The older female companion figure was to be the commander of the Mars base, and possibly Russian. This led to another draft title of "Red Christmas" - a play on the popular festive song / movie classic White Christmas.

Ford developed all the crew characters and came up with naming the base after pop icon David Bowie, after his song Life on Mars. However, he had made the base very high-tech, and the humans had already terraformed the Red Planet. RTD wanted it more primitive and therefore a more dangerous setting.

Ford also came up with the idea of the Doctor saving everyone at the end by summoning the TARDIS by remote control. This was something the show-runner had always frowned upon as it was an easy way out.

It was permitted here as RTD wanted to show that the Doctor was beginning to break his own rules.

This all tied in with the notion of the "Time Lord Victorious". The Doctor had basically begun to push things too far - and he was about to get his fingers burnt for doing so. This all tied in with the plans for the final Special. The idea of Fixed Points in Time had been established in stories like The Fires of Pompeii. Up until now the Doctor would never have dreamed of challenging these, but now he would. The base crew were destined to perish in one of these Fixed Point events, but he would arrogantly ignore this. The commander - initially called Valentina Kerenski - would have become a famous space pioneer, whose fate was fixed.

This would be reinforced by the sequence involving the Dalek, set during the events of The Stolen Earth. The Daleks were not going to be featuring in any of the 2009 Specials, so a cameo was one way of including them. RTD had checked with Moffat who had confirmed that he planned on using them in a significant way in his first series, so RTD agreed to give them a rest.

The inclusion of the robot Gadget allowed for the Doctor to remote control the TARDIS in a more interesting manner, and having a silly robot would go down well with the kids. It also allowed the Doctor to make a reference to K-9.

The design of Gadget was based on Wall-E, from the 2008 Pixar animated movie of the same name.

Initially, the alien threat was to be CGI water-based creatures, akin to those seen in the 1989 film The Abyss. The Mill were getting geared up for this when the decision was made to have them made-up actors.

Some of the money for this Special was coming from a deal between the BBC and the Woolworths chain, but the latter went into administration round this time - leading to economies having to be made. Out went the CGI aliens.

Crewman Andy, the first victim of the Flood, was played by Alan Ruscoe - an opportunity for the monster performer (since 2005) to be seen in the flesh.

Chook Sibtain (Tarak) had featured in The Warriors of Kudlak in SJA's first season.

The initial make-up was deemed too scary and had to be toned down.

One of the final decisions centred around the end of the episode. At first Adelaide, as the commander had been renamed, was to have been left upset at the Doctor's meddling with future history, but this was then strengthened to her committing suicide - just to ram home the consequences of the Doctor's arrogance in challenging Time. The BBC had strict guidelines around depicting suicide in family drama, so an obviously futuristic weapon was used, and the actual event took place off screen.

With a Hallowe'en broadcast finally agreed, all the Christmas trappings were removed - such as the opening where Yuri builds a Christmas tree outside the base. This became him setting up a humorous sign instead. 

Lindsay Duncan, who was cast as Adelaide, had a tentative connection with Doctor Who, having featured in the drama serial GBH, which had featured a sequence set in a hotel during a Doctor Who convention.

Next time: it's the End of Time itself... And of the Tenth Doctor. We also thought it was going to be the End of RTD, of David Tennant and of Julie Gardner with regards the programme. 

How wrong could we be...?