YMMV / Doctor Who S30E16 "The Waters of Mars"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Mia holding Yuri's hand; a sign of their relationship deleted in the final draft? Or a moment of affection between two friends trying to accept their inevitably soon demise?
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Russian crewmember video-chats with his brother about said brother's husband's spending habits, with the implication that the same-sex marriage is no big deal in Russia. Given the repression of Gay Rights in Russia we've seen in 2013, it makes the episode's overall theme of humanity rising beyond its early 21st century crisis and making it to faraway Mars all the more powerful.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The fact that liquid water was discovered on Mars itself on the 28th September 2015 and again in 2020 makes the whole episode itself funnier.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "The Time Lord Victorious" and "The laws of time are mine and they will obey me!"
  • "I've gone too far".
• Nightmare Fuel: "The laws of time are mine, and will obey me!" In other words, the Doctor comes very close to turning into the Master. Or, perhaps even worse, the Valeyard. If not for Adelaide's suicide...
• Paranoia Fuel: Previous episodes have made you afraid of statues, shadows, and invisible giant time-altering beetles hitching a ride on your back. As for this episode... feeling thirsty?
• Retroactive Recognition: Gemma Chan, the actress playing Mia, would later star in Humans, in which she plays the android Anita, whose real name was... Mia.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Survivors of Bowie Base 1, especially Adelaide. Despite his Drunk with Power attitude, the Doctor just saved their lives, as the Doctor said to Adelaide, while her death inspired her descendant to travel space, she can now inspire her in person. Despite earlier begging for the Doctor's help to escape The Flood, Adelaide becomes a Commander Contrarian the second he returns for her, is disgusted with the Doctor's attitude and seems to commit suicide in spite simply because the Doctor was arrogant about saving her due to her death being a fixed point in time. Yuri and Mia also seemed horrified at the rescue for some reason, despite their death or survival not being as important to the timeline as Adelaide's. Though this could be attributed to the shock of what they just survived and went through, and Yuri never actually says anything negative about the experience, just going after Mia when she runs off. All in all, they come across as ungrateful, which may have been fueling the Doctor's attitude towards them, the only redeeming factor is Adelaide's suicide seems to snap him out of his newfound mindset.

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