Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars - The Beginning of the End

WARNING. SPOILERS!

Well it was exciting, but not quite what I expected. Too much exposure to fan speculation and trailers led me to think that the "four times" knocking would happen during this episode and for a moment it looked like that would happen when the Doctor and survivors of Bowie Base One were trapped.

But, as we almost expected, there was more to this story than water monsters and being trapped with no way out, this was about the Doctor and his approaching end. For me the most unnerving moments were not about being contaminated by water, it was where the Doctor decided that enough was enough and that, as the last of the Time Lords, he could decide the laws of time and who lived and died. We saw a new and terrible Doctor, an arrogant Doctor, more Valeyard than the Doctor of old. A glimmer of the old self breaking through at the end when he sees Ood Sigma and realises what a terrible deed he has done in saving people from a fixed point in history and that this may mean the end of him!

It looks like the Christmas special is going to have a few interesting twists as a result