Love the commitment to changing outfits regularly, especially since episode 2 and 3 have distinctly different atmospheres

I love industrial space crew episodes, grungy or sleek, and they throw us straight into the action with this one, and then create a really cool sense of dread and atmosphere. It's also great that in the trailer for this series, they don't show the 'monster' for this episode. The establishing shot of the mining centre enveloped in darkness far off in the distance oozes suspense. It's really cool to see Ncuti's Doctor interacting with an environment that aesthetically comes off as a Capaldi episode. The score adds to the sense of foreboding. I feel like they should have had either Belinda or the Doctor find out that the crew don't know anything about Earth instead of the scenes being back to back, so that there is a dramatic irony for one of them, it would probably be better if it was Belinda that found out first because she has more of a stake in the Earth ending, and it could be mildly shrugged off until she mentions it to the Doctor at the end of the episode in the TARDIS, for example, so that it's an idea that is briefly mentioned and seen as slightly weird, but comes into more context when the Doctor learns about it.

Splitting the companion from the Doctor in a horror episode is always a good way to go in terms of exposing how the companions act when vulnerable, especially since this is the first time Belinda's been seperated from the Doctor since she met him. It worked really well to solidify companions in Turn Left, Family of Blood/Human Nature etc. in the first RTD era, and even pretty decently for Ruby in 73 Yards before it became convoluted by the whole evil Prime Minister thing. It's really interesting that she tries to keep her cool, even denying what she can see with her own eyes, at the risk of inconveniencing/misleading the others. This could link to the idea that every time she asks to go home and the Doctor says they can't, that she is repressing her feelings so as to not make him think that she is as worried as she is, and maybe this could lead to a point where it builds up to a point where she can't bottle up her emotions anymore to please him. It's a good way for her to react because it is not only in keeping with how she has been up to this point, but it also helps to develop our understanding of her reactions and motives from her primary point of view.

The sound effect when the thing slinks behind Aliss is genuinely terrifying. Okay so I'm watching this as I'm typing but they said extonic radiation, and then mentioned that the planet surface was diamonds: is this Midnight?????? Are we going to see the Midnight monster?!!?!?! woaoaoaoaooah yes it is!!!! Don't know how I feel about reintroducing the Midnight monster because it was so good as a bottle episode, and to reference what is in my opinion one of the best episodes ever is so risky, because it will always be inherently linked to Midnight, and the episodes are incredibly different in most aspects.

I did unfortunately think that the scene where the characters were being thrown into the air was quite goofy, and I'm not sure that they meant for it to be. It's good to see the Doctor put his foot down about not allowing the creature to leave the planet even when it isn't attached to somebody who for all intents and purposes is dead already. And the implied twist at the end is pretty neat.