17 Years Ago, the Longest Running Sci-Fi Show Flipped Its Core Concept On Its Head

Nov 15, 2026 - 23:09

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17 Years Ago, the Longest Running Sci-Fi Show Flipped Its Core Concept On Its Head

Published Nov 15, 2026, 3:00 PM EST

Godhood is not a victory

David Tennant has long been recognized as one of the greatest actors alive. He’s played scoundrels, cops, serial killers, and even a demon — an actual one, not a member of the Conservative Party, though he’s played one of those too.

If there’s one thing you can’t say about Tennant, it’s that he lacks range. He can play a lover, a fighter, or the scummiest person you know. But his most iconic role as the time-traveling alien known as the Doctor in the sci-fi family show Doctor Who brings all three together.

That might be a shocking statement to process. One of the Doctor’s core moral philosophies, articulated as early as Classic Who in 1963, is that the Time Lord is ultimately a peaceful person. During the Twelfth Doctor’s (Peter Capaldi) regeneration in 2017, one of his very last statements was that the future Doctor should “never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears! Remember, hate is always foolish, but love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind.”

And yet, Tennant’s Tenth Doctor was the opposite of all those things during the 2009 autumnal Doctor Who special, "The Waters of Mars."

The Time Lord Victorious

There have always been moments when the Doctor has shown that, for every person he has saved over the centuries, there have been just as many whom he has condemned.

However, the most memorable episode in which Whovians see the Doctor at his lowest point morally comes when the Time Lord lands on Mars in 2059 and encounters humanity’s first colony there: Bowie Base One. Led by Captain Adelaide Brooke (Lindsay Duncan), the colonists seem to be doing quite well for themselves, and there is hope that more of humanity will be able to join them in the future. Unfortunately, once the Doctor realizes who they are, another realization follows: it’s a fixed point in history in which everyone on Bowie Base One will die in an unknown cataclysm. Worse, it’s set to happen on the day the Doctor arrives.

The reason is revealed with the arrival of the Flood — an incredibly intelligent, waterborne alien virus. A single drop of the virus infects humans, turning them into zombie-like creatures with one sole aim: to keep spreading. One by one, the personnel of Bowie Base One perish, though one member cleverly destroys all the ships so the Flood cannot spread to Earth.

Throughout it all, the Doctor is racked with indecision. Messing with fixed points in history is usually seen as a big no-no, but he had done so before with his previous companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) when they saved a single family during “The Fires of Pompeii.” However, if he saves Adelaide, her granddaughter Susie won’t be inspired to become the first human captain to pilot a lightspeed ship to Proxima Centauri, a major historical event.

It’s a conundrum that arises while the Doctor is traveling alone, still reeling from the loss of his companion, Donna. In several previous episodes, the alien race known as the Ood has also warned him that his time is running out — regeneration is on the way.

This knowledge leaves the Doctor furious. No matter how many he saves, it seems all he does lately is lose. Now that he’s on his own, the fact that time and circumstance take so much away has driven him to the brink. He’s tired of losing; he wants to win.

After revealing to Adelaide her impending doom and her granddaughter’s achievement, the Doctor, in a moment of profound, unbridled hubris, delivers a speech that must be read in full to appreciate just how villainous it sounds:

“There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws, but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It's taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me!”

It’s a quote that feels exactly like it would come from the Doctor’s worst enemy, fellow Time Lord, The Master. Unlike the Doctor, the Master has always wanted to dominate others, making the Doctor’s subsequent rescue of Adelaide in the TARDIS feel even worse.

Unfortunately for the Doctor, his victory in giving time itself a big ‘F U’ is short-lived. Back on Earth, Adelaide is shaken by the Doctor’s self-perception as a god over time and berates the Time Lord for thinking he gets to live and choose who lives and who dies. She walks away and kills herself, righting history once more.

The Doctor's overwhelming pride has always been part of him. As much as he loves exploring the universe and often falls in love with humanity, he undoubtedly thinks himself better than most. There have been too many episodes to count in which a character has called the Doctor out for thinking others are stupid.

The Time Lord’s arrogance often leaves it to his companions to reel him back from the brink of destruction by reminding him of his humanity. In “The Waters of Mars,” it is easy to see why: If they don’t, the Doctor can easily become the very monster he so often fights.

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Sci-Fi•Quizzes•Film & TV

Departures21:47

The Federation2370s01On Time

Los Angeles204902Delayed

Arrakeen10191 AG03Boarding

Ceres Station2350s04On Time

The Outer RimLong Ago05Final Call

Polygon QuizWhich Sci-Fi Future
Should You Live In?8 Questions • 5 FuturesNot visit. Live in. Anybody can enjoy a sci-fi setting for two hours, but the real question is what an ordinary Tuesday costs you there: what you eat, where you live, who is on the other side of your wall. Eight questions about the boring parts will tell you which future you really want.On The Board

Star Trek

Blade Runner

Dune

The Expanse

Star Wars

Pick Your Gate

Question 01THE COMMUTE

01How do you want to get to work in the morning?Before anything else happens, you have to get across town.

AInstantly. If I could skip the trip entirely, I would.BIn traffic, alone, with music on. I don't mind the time.COn foot, early, before it gets busy.DThe same train every day, with the same faces on it.EMy own vehicle. Old, loud, and mine.

← BackPick one, then Next

Next Question

Stop 02 of 0812% Complete

Question 02THE APARTMENT

02Describe the place you want to come home to.Picture the front door and what is behind it.

ABright, clean, everything works, and a view worth looking at.BSmall, high up, in the middle of a city that never shuts off.CSomewhere old that has been in the family, built for the weather.DTight on space, but everyone in the building is my kind of people.EA bit of a wreck, but it is mine and I can fix it myself.

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Next Question

Stop 03 of 0825% Complete

Question 03DINNER

03It's eight at night. What are you eating?Every place feeds you differently.

AWhatever I feel like. No shopping, no cooking, no bill.BTakeout from the place on the corner, eaten standing up.CSomething slow-cooked, at a table, with family.DCheap and filling, the same as most nights, with the same crew.EWhatever the bar is serving. I'm not there for the food.

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Next Question

Stop 04 of 0838% Complete

Question 04THE JOB

04What do you want to do for a living?Work is most of your week no matter where you move.

ASomething I love, because I would not need the money.BA desk job with a decent title that I don't bring up at parties.CThe work that keeps my family going, the same work they have always done.DA hard shift with a crew I trust and a union behind me.EA bit of everything. Odd jobs, side work, nothing steady.

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Stop 05 of 0850% Complete

Question 05THE NEIGHBORS

05Who do you want living around you?You will see these people more than you see anyone else.

APeople from everywhere, all of them nothing like me.BNobody. I want to be left alone in the middle of a crowd.CFamily. Several generations of it, all within walking distance.DThe same few people every day, the ones who would cover for me.EStrangers passing through, a new set every month.

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Stop 06 of 0862% Complete

Question 06OUT THE DOOR

06You step outside. What do you want to find?Thirty seconds of weather tells you if you could do this daily.

AClean air, open green space, and a view that stops you.BRain, neon, noise, and somewhere to eat at two in the morning.CHeat, open sky, quiet, and nothing for miles.DNo outside at all. Everything I need is inside the building.EDust, a busy street market, and someone shouting a price at me.

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Stop 07 of 0875% Complete

Question 07THE RULES

07How do you feel about whoever is in charge?Every place has someone running it. This is your relationship with them.

AThey seem fine. I would probably apply for a job with them.BI keep my head down and I try not to get noticed.CI know exactly who they are and exactly where I stand.DI would organize against them with everyone else in my building.EI avoid them completely, and I always have.

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Stop 08 of 0888% Complete

Question 08A NIGHT OFF

08Free evening, no work tomorrow. What's the plan?This is the one that decides it.

ASomething new, with friends, that I will be bad at.BA long walk across the city, on my own, for hours.CDinner at home with people I have known my whole life.DThe same bar, the same crowd, the same argument as last week.ESomewhere loud, with music and a card game I am losing.

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Print My Ticket

Final CallYou Belong In

These are the five on the board tonight. Your answers point at one of them more than the other four, and it is not always the one people expect.

2370s / Gate 01Star TrekThe FederationYou want the future to have worked out.

You picked the one where the material problems got solved, and the interesting question became what people do with themselves afterward. You would still want a job. That is the whole tell.Why You Would Last There

Star Trek is one of the few sci-fi settings built on the idea that scarcity ended, which changes what every ordinary day is even for.
Nobody here works in order to eat, and you would work anyway, at something you chose, probably badly at first.
Your neighbors are from four planets and that is the part you are most looking forward to rather than the part you are bracing for.
You would be terrible on the holodeck in front of other people and you would book it every week.

Post-ScarcityJoins ThingsWorks Anyway

2049 / Gate 02Blade RunnerLos AngelesYou like a city that never explains itself.

Permanently wet, permanently lit, permanently uninterested in you. Some people read that as bleak. You read it as room to breathe, and the food on the corner is excellent.Why You Would Last There

The Los Angeles of Blade Runner is a city of millions where nobody is keeping track of you, and that is the appeal rather than the warning.
You never meet your neighbors. You hear them through the wall. That is the arrangement and it suits you.
Your apartment is small, the rent is the main event, and the view out the window is somebody else's advertising.
A night off is walking for hours in the rain looking at a city that does not care you are in it.

AnonymousWalks At NightLikes The Rain

10191 AG / Gate 03DuneArrakeenYou would count every drop and never complain.

Arrakis turns water into the unit of everything: wealth, manners, grief. You chose the setting with the strictest daily rules in the list, and you chose it on purpose.Why You Would Last There

On Arrakis nothing is casual. The way you handle water is the way you show people who you are, every single day.
You went on foot, early, before the heat made it a bad idea, and you did not think of that as hardship.
Your household runs several generations deep and everybody in it knows exactly whose water is whose.
You say less than you are thinking, which means people pay attention on the rare occasion you speak.

DisciplinedFamily FirstSays Little

2350s / Gate 04The ExpanseCeres StationYou pay for air and you show up anyway.

On Ceres the air and the water belong to somebody, which makes an ordinary day quietly political. You picked the hardest commute and the best company on the board.Why You Would Last There

The Expanse is the setting where the infrastructure is the plot. Who owns the water is not background detail, it is the whole day.
Three households share a space built for one and you worked it out between you, because that is what people there do.
You check which flag is on the shoulder before you say anything, and you are right to.
A night off is the same bar, the same six people and an argument you have had before and will have again.

Union CardLow GravityChecks The Flag

A Long Time Ago / Gate 05Star WarsThe Outer RimYou want a used future with somewhere to be.

Not the throne rooms. The spaceport. Scrap, barter, two suns and a landing fee, and a vehicle that starts on the third try and gets you there anyway.Why You Would Last There

The Outer Rim is the lived-in corner of Star Wars, and the lived-in part is the part you want: nothing new, everything repaired.
Everything you own is held together by parts you traded for, and you can tell the story behind each one.
You do not answer the door. Nothing good has ever come through it and you are not about to break that record.
A night off is the cantina, a game you are losing, and a band that has been playing the same set for thirty years.

BartersUsed FutureOwes Somebody

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