Empress of Mars

273 – "Empress of Mars"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional image for the episode
Cast
Doctor Peter Capaldi (Twelfth Doctor)
Companions Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts) Matt Lucas (Nardole)
Others Michelle Gomez – Missy Anthony Calf – Godsacre Ferdinand Kingsley – Catchlove Richard Ashton – Friday Adele Lynch – Iraxxa Glenn Speers – Sergeant Major Peach Ian Beattie – Jackdaw Bayo Gbadamosi – Vincey Ian Hughes – Knibbs Lesley Ewen – Coolidge Ysanne Churchman – Voice of Alpha Centauri
Production
Directed by	Wayne Yip
Written by	Mark Gatiss
Produced by	Nikki Wilson
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Brian Minchin
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Series	Series 10
Length	44 minutes
Originally broadcast	10 June 2017
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "The Lie of the Land" "The Eaters of Light"
List of Doctor Who serials

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)	100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score)	7.1
The A.V. Club	B-
Entertainment Weekly	B+
SFX Magazine
TV Fanatic
IGN	8.2
New York Magazine
Radio Times
Daily Mirror

"Empress of Mars" is the ninth episode of the tenth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and was broadcast on 10 June 2017 on BBC One. "Empress of Mars" received generally favorable reviews from television critics.

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Nardole (Matt Lucas), and Bill (Pearl Mackie) travel to Mars, but upon arrival, they find themselves in the middle of a conflict between the Ice Warriors and Victorian soldiers. The episode marks the return of the Ice Warriors, last seen in "Cold War", an episode of the seventh series that was also written by Gatiss.

In the present, NASA finds the words "God save the Queen" made of rocks buried under the Mars ice cap. Witnessing this, the Doctor, Bill and Nardole venture to Mars in 1881 to investigate and discover that the planet is occupied by human soldiers from Victorian Britain. Nardole goes back into the TARDIS, but it departs for unexplained reasons, returning to the university in present day. Nardole asks Missy for help getting back.

The humans have befriended an Ice Warrior they have named Friday. Captain Catchlove says they rescued Friday from his crashed spaceship while on patrol in Africa. In exchange, Friday allowed the soldiers to use his species' technology to travel to Mars, establish a small breathable atmosphere within a cavern, and mine the planet. The Doctor surmises that Friday is using them to access his hive. They soon unearth the tomb of the Ice Empress. Despite Colonel Godsacre's order to not approach it, one guard inadvertently revives the Ice Empress, Iraxxa.