Mars (Doctor Who) space programme sent a series of manned missions to Mars. Mars Probes 6 and 7 made contact with a group of radioactive aliens orbiting the planet on a peaceful survey mission. On 31 October 2006, the Guinevere One probe was launched for an intended landing on Christmas Day, but was intercepted by the alien Sycorax before it could do so. The first human colonists arrived on Mars in 2058 and established Bowie Base One, a massive bio-dome where frozen Martian water deposits were used to grow vegetation. On 21 November 2059, the colony was destroyed when mission commander Captain Adelaide
The Message to the Planet is a great novel, a merely interesting one, or an unclassifiable pandemonium". Another reviewer remarked that anyone "seeking an untroubled read and pat answers should seek them elsewhere". In his study of Iris Murdoch's fiction, Peter Conradi wrote that "The Message to the Planet" was a "lesser" novel, inferior to its predecessor "The Philosopher's Pupil", but with some memorable scenes. On the other hand, Suguna Ramanathan calls it "an extraordinary achievement" and "of all her 24 novels, the largest in scope and most powerful in thrust". The Message to the Planet The Message to the Planet is a novel by