This didn't need to be a Midnight sequel. This creature has it's own rules, its own lore, and is distinct from the Midnight entity - even if the story admits they're one of the same. The Well entity never once mimics anyone, nor does it show any signs of evolving to a further stage.

The episode is great. I do wish we witnessed some of the prior massacre, and, reminiscent of 'Aliens', we got to see a slow, visual reveal, without The Doctor and Belinda saying what we can already see - written as if for an audio. "Shot in the back", "broken mirror", etc...

Aliss and her actress carried this episode. There's something so haunting about a deaf girl, surrounded by bodies, rendered the unwilling occupant of a symbiotic creature. When it utters The Doctor's name, something deeply personal, and intimate, only worthy to be heard by his lovers, this also demonstrates the parasite's breach of privacy, boundaries, and respect. It reflects the hell that Aliss exists in prior to her being found.

The creature design is one I love. A silhouette, igniting primal fears of the darkness and the unknown, yet inviting it's host to turn to look at them with a soft, feminine, almost tranquil whisper. The same, calm voice the entity uses to whisper The Doctor's name, imitating the companions he trusts the most, his lovers, his family....And a whisper which drives those who aren't deaf to insanity. And how it moves without a host, shrouded in voids, crawling, before latching itself into the shadows of humanity.

I can't help but think that RTD saw this script, for a unique, terrifying monster, which would create so much mystery for audiences....and cannibalized it into his own idea. It makes the Whoniverse feel drastically smaller, emptier...

I would rate the episode lower but I genuinely do prefer to imagine this creature as its own being - as (possibly) intended by the original script. A parasitic animal, survival dependant upon not being witnessed by the gaze of carbon-based life-forms. And yet, requiring a host to not be lost to the cold darkness of its home planet.

This creature has it's own mythos, and doesn't have to be one conjoined into the mystery of another to keep audiences engaged. Just as the show doesn't need to reference it's Tennant-era past. This episode could've explored parasites, Lovecraftian insanity, the way some real-world beasts slaughter upon making eye-contact....

And instead, this idea was cannibalized needlessly, for something that happened 17 years ago. A great tragedy...