PLEASE NOTE: These caches were originally all letterboxes, with stamps that I personally painstakingly made. Unfortunately, they have proven quite popular, and with that comes muggling. Apparently a number of the stamps have gone missing, and as some have complained about this, and I haven't the time to go and check all 100+ of them on a regular basis, I will be converting them to Traditional caches as needed.
It pains me to make this decision, but it must be done. I recognize that with a powertrail, caches are bound to go missing (that is the nature of the beast), and I appreciate that many of you have helped out by bringing along spares. However, your average cacher does NOT carry around spare stamps, and even if you did, it wouldn't be the one that I originally and personally made for the cache.
So, I am asking for your help: please let me know in your logs which ones are indeed missing their stamps, and I will be changing them to Traditionals (the alternative is archival, unfortunately). Thanks for your assistance in this endeavor, and thanks for supporting this series. I am glad that I spent the many hours needed to create these. However, I cannot justify consistently having to make and then replace all the stamps, due to time constraints.
Sincerely, the CO, josephaw
9/27/15
First off, let me thank you for finding this geocache! I hope you enjoyed the experience of finding it as much as I enjoyed creating and hiding all of these letterbox caches.
This is just one of many such caches in my Dr Who Letterbox Series, made with the help and inspiration of friends. As a Letterbox cache, please leave the stamp for others to see and use, thanks! Each cache has a unique stamp, so bring an inkpad and collect them all! Have fun, and be safe!
"The Waters of Mars" is the third episode of the 2008-2010 specials of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 15 November 2009.[3][4] It aired on BBC America on 19 December 2009 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 11 January 2010[5] and in the US on 2 February 2010.[6] The story is set on Mars in the year 2059[7]
where the Doctor encounters the first human colony, Bowie Base One. This is commanded by Captain Adelaide Brooke who turns out to be a pivotal character in the history of humanity.[7] The Doctor must decide whether to use his knowledge of her fate to change history. According to Doctor Who writer and producer Russell T Davies, the special is closely linked to the next two episodes but is not the first part of a three-part story.[9] The special was dedicated to Barry Letts, the former writer and producer of Doctor Who who died in October 2009.[10][11] The episode won the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
Plot
The Doctor lands his TARDIS on Mars in 2059; while wandering the landscape, he comes across "Bowie Base One", named after David Bowie and the first human colony on the planet. He is detained by its crew, led by Captain Adelaide Brooke. The Doctor learns the current date, and sorrowfully recalls that on this date, the base was destroyed by a nuclear blast with no survivors; the event would cause humanity, including Adelaide's descendants, to further explore the universe and meet interstellar lifeforms, and thus is considered an event "fixed in time". He reluctantly becomes involved in the base's problems when Adelaide cannot communicate with crew members in the remote bio-dome.
In the bio-dome, they find the two crew members: they have become infected by a water-borne virus that causes their bodies to generate copious amounts of water and become zombie-like in movement. The virus is intelligent; it attempts to infect the others through the already-affected crew. One of the infected people is put into quarantine; Adelaide and the Doctor return to central control and the base is sealed. Studying the infected crewmember, the Doctor and Adelaide learn that the virus desires to go to the water-rich Earth, an event they must not allow to happen. While inspecting the glacier that is the source of the base's water, the Doctor surmises that the virus was trapped there aeons ago by the Ice Warriors. Adelaide discovers that one of the filters was not properly fitted, which allowed the virus to enter the bio-dome's water supply. Adelaide realises that the rest of the crew has yet to be exposed to the tainted water, and orders them to prepare to return to Earth via rocket. The Doctor puts on his spacesuit and leaves for the TARDIS, but Adelaide stops him and demands he reveal what he knows; the Doctor sadly explains the fate of the base and its crew.
The infected Andy and Tarak are on the roof of bio dome where they flood the spaceship with water which attacks the rest of crew. As the Doctor walks back towards the TARDIS, he hears over his headset the crew are being attacked by the water which kills Steffi and Roman. The infected beings breach central control; others, including their pilot Ed, become infected. Ed destroys the rocket to strand the virus on Mars. As Adelaide and her last two remaining crew, Yuri and Mia, become trapped by the water, the Doctor returns to the base, delays the advance of the infected crew, and, as Adelaide initiates the base's auto-destruct sequence, uses the exploration robot GADGET to bring the TARDIS to the base in time to evacuate it before self-destruct.
The TARDIS materialises on Earth outside Adelaide's home. Yuri tends to an emotionally distraught Mia while Adelaide asks the Doctor why he saved them. He explains that before, such actions were prohibited by the Time Lords, but now as the last Time Lord, he can use his power to ensure the survival of pivotal figures such as Adelaide in addition to the "little people" he has rescued previously. Adelaide becomes resentful, and questions the Doctor's authority to make such decisions; the Doctor asserts that as the only survivor of the Time War, he is "the Time Lord Victorious". Adelaide turns and enters her home, soon thereafter killing herself with her own weapon.
The Doctor recoils in shock as he realises that Adelaide has ensured that history is unchanged, save for Yuri and Mia as witnesses to the fate of Bowie Base One. The Doctor is overcome with emotion as Adelaide's words - "I don't care who you are - the Time Lord Victorious is wrong" - echo in his mind. Ood Sigma appears in the street. Visibly shaken, the Doctor sees this as a message and says, "I've gone too far." He then asks whether it is time for him to die. Unresponsive, Sigma vanishes, and the Doctor staggers back into the TARDIS to the ominous sound of the cloister bell. With a defiant "No!" he begins to operate the controls.
Continuity
The Doctor's spacesuit is the same one that he wore in "The Satan Pit."
The Ice Warriors are classic series aliens that originated on Mars long before the events depicted here. In the series' original run, they appeared in The Ice Warriors, The Seeds of Death, The Curse of Peladon, and The Monster of Peladon; in the revived series, the creatures make their return appearance in "Cold War". In "The Waters of Mars", the Doctor speculates that it may have been the Ice Warriors who froze the aquatic infection to stop it spreading.
The Doctor refers to the events of "The Fires of Pompeii", saying both events are fixed points in time.
Adelaide is shown in a flashback of her experiences as a young girl during the events of "The Stolen Earth", where her father put her in an attic to keep her safe from the Dalek invasion. Though a Dalek observed her through the attic window, it did not attack her; the Doctor presumes that the Dalek spared Adelaide because it realised that her death was a fixed point in time.
Ood Sigma (who is seen at the end of the episode when the Doctor realises the severity of what he has done) previously appeared in "Planet of the Ood", where he likewise predicted not only the events of "Journey's End", but the Tenth Doctor's death.
The Doctor remembers several previous declarations he's made about the Time Lords as he decides to help the survivors. These audio clips were taken from several episodes, including "Rise of the Cybermen", "Doomsday", "Gridlock", and "Utopia".
The Doctor makes reference to Carmen's prophecy that "he will knock four times", made at the end of the previous story. Leading up to the final destruction of Bowie Base One, the infected Andy Stone pounds three times on a secure door in a bid to gain entry to the control centre. The Doctor electrifies the door to prevent Andy striking the door a fourth time.
The Doctor refers to humanity's first venture outside the Solar System as taking place in the time of Captain Adelaide Brooke's granddaughter. In the classic series episode The Invisible Enemy, the Fourth Doctor states that this milestone occurred in the 51st century. However, this contradicted a number of previous episodes where the First and Third Doctors visited human explorers and colonies in other star systems as early as the 25th century, and has been contradicted by many episodes since.