Series 4; Episode 10:
--- "Midnight" by Russell T. Davies

There are a few stories that compete for the spot of my number one Doctor Who episode. Human Nature checks every box on what a Doctor Who story should be, Heaven Sent is a beautiful and immaculately crafted character study and Vincent and the Doctor is a heart breaking portrayal of a severely damaged man. However, Midnight is something special and something utterly spectacular.

Trapped in a tourist bus with a group of strangers on a planet where no life can exist outside, the Doctor, alone and afraid, must try and calm his fellow passengers as something from outside tries to get in.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I don't scare easily but Midnight manages to viscerally unnerve from the first knock to the final confrontation. We do not know what the entity is, or what it wants or how it works and I feel Doctor Who can lack in tension when the Doctor knows precisely what the danger is. We know how to fight a dalek and we know how to combat a Weeping Angel but a creature with no reason, an inconceivable system of logic and a nebulous form is impossible to work out. What I love the most about Midnight is its subversion of expectations, just a year prior in the Voyage of the Damned, the Doctor took control of a tough situation in one speech but faced with a problem he can't solve, he quickly loses his grip. It's the performances that carry Midnight, every single passenger and member of the cast is on top form, Tennant truly conveys the Doctor's fear, the Kane family are believably panicked and unreasonable citizens and the possessed Ms. Silvestry gives us one of the most chilling one off performances of the show. Every second counts, every line is a new problem that must be solved, every solution has consequences, the danger in this isn't easily solvable, people are going to die. This episode could've so easily been a boring and misused time slot filler to carry us over until Turn Left but instead Russell decided to serve us the best horror episode of the show and perhaps the greatest bottle episodes ever aired.

For negatives, I can barely find any. I think that sometimes, the lines can be a delivered a little unrealistically. I feel this random group of people, even in this situation, wouldn't immediately be inclined to throw a woman onto the surface of an inhospitable planet.

10/10

Pros:
+ The Midnight Entity is easily my favourite villain of the week from the revival, it commands a presence with only stolen words and knocks on a wall
+ This could be Tennant's best performance on the show, his rising panic and stress is so well crafted, the only competition I can think of is when he played John Smith in Human Nature
+ Every single cast member is brilliant, every single one manages to play their part perfectly and they all feel so realistic and believable
+ The ending stings, this situation couldn't have concluded well and the Hostess' self sacrifice was a bitter moment
+ The montage near the beginning, when Ten is just hanging out with the other passengers is so fun and really cements why this incarnation is so popular
+ Perfect setting, a planet made of diamonds where nothing can survive is a chillingly alien world and the perfect place to tell this story
+ That moment when one of the drivers sees something on the planet where nothing can supposedly live always gives me chills
+ Flips every Doctor Who norm and trope on its head
+ Genuinely terrifying, I don't know why Weeping Angels get the love this creature deserves
+ The tightest RTD script, no other episode of his compares to the sheer brilliance on display here

Cons:
- Some moments and lines feel a little forced
- No Wilf

In one of Russell finest ever efforts we see him wring every ounce of potential out of a simple yet brilliant idea. Copycat teasing turned evil - something kids can copy in the playground. Donna takes a break in the spa whilst The Doctor is left to convince a group of increasingly disgruntled strangers not to kill him. Russell is brilliant at writing conflict, so it’s great to see him let loose and develop a bottle episode which focuses on people and negative social dynamics in high a pressure, claustrophobic environment.

Louise Sharp is magnificent in this as the possessed woman who turns the group against each other. I loved her alongside Alan Davies in RTD’s magnificent Bob & Rose. When she turns on the possession it is spine tingling! David Troughton is spookily like his father in tone and mannerisms in his well acted but small role - a special treat for fans.

A special shout out needs to go to Alice Troughton’s direction for managing to make what is in the most part a single set and a series of very long takes look so interesting over the course of a whole episode. She made magic out of a very small budget.

This story makes me wish RTD had more of a chance to focus on writing one off, disconnected stories rather than focusing on the beginning, ending and connective tissue of each series.

Everything all just came perfectly together.  The writing knows to give out just the right amount of information to make the story engaging but not so much information that it isn't scary or mysterious.  The acting is incredible and truly top-notch.  Speaking in perfect sync like that must have been so hard but the actors make it seem natural and easy.  The effects aren't overwhelmingly good or anything but that just makes Midnight all the more impressive - it's clearly an episode with a limited budget and basically 2 sets, yet production does so much with so little.  Easily one of my favourite stories in all of Doctor Who.

While it’s debatable whether or not this should be the Tenth Doctor’s greatest story, this is easily the best written work of Russell’s career. You may have noticed I’ve not been very kind towards Russel as I’ve taken shots here and there at his writing and show running. It’s not that I don’t like Russell’s works or appreciate what he brought to Doctor Who, I do see the appeal behind his era and the Tenth Doctor era holds a special place in my heart as being my starting point for Doctor Who. But I found that Russell often took a very flawed approach with his writing and show running decisions; his episodes in particular carried a lot of tropes and motifs that quickly became not only repetitive but very grating; the animal-based aliens, the random psychic characters, foreshadowing that’s way too self-aware and an over emphasis on angst. Also, a lot of things he introduced as a showrunner are still plaguing Doctor Who to this day, which I feel is really holding the show back from properly growing. Whether it’s Steven Moffat or Chris Chibnall and especially Russell's return, it always feels like the show’s still trying to hang on to that past glory Russell’s era had when Doctor Who is all about change and moving forward.

Midnight has quite the interesting history, allegedly this was an idea that Russell had written very early on in his tenure, but he kept putting it off because he wasn’t sure it would gel with the audience. Then we finally get it at the tail end of Series 4, by which time Russell had already announced his departure and it was too late to write anything like this ever again. Midnight is very different from anything Russell’s written for Doctor Who before and since and it plays on his greatest strength as a writer, the ability to write characters as believable people in a believable setting. The idea of the monster is simple and not overly ambitious meaning it doesn’t come off as ridiculous and ill-thought like a lot of his previous monsters and it takes a very traditional Doctor Who formula and tweaks it ever so slightly to create one of the most intense, atmospheric and claustrophobic stories the show’s ever put out. The formula being the Doctor’s gift for taking control of a situation the moment things go awry, except this time he tries to take control and he fails! Throughout the episode we see things spiral further and further out of control as the Doctor is backed into a corner and becomes more and more scared, but not by the monster, but by a group of ordinary frightened people who we spent the first half of the episode getting to know as a friendly group but are now being driven further and further into survival by any means necessary, with no companion to help him. This is quite honestly David Tennant’s best performance as the Doctor as we see him put on the usual charm and clever nature the Doctor often exhibits but as the situation gets worse and worse, we see that transition into sheer helplessness and terror. That last scene between him and Donna really nails just how shaken the Doctor is following this event, just that traumatised look on Tennant’s face before the credits roll was pure gold.

The horror in this is spot on thanks to a chilling score from Murray Gold, a terrifying performance from Lesley Sharp and a brilliant concept for the entity that’s never seen or properly understood. The episode is so good at letting your imagination ponder on what this entity might be, from that perfect setup where one of the drivers notices something like a shadow far off in the distance making a ducking movement like it’s running, running towards them, the knocking at the door scene where it almost toys with the passengers as they panic more and more before moving toward Lesley Sharp’s character. Which is then followed by Sharp giving a phenomenal performance that still to this day has me in a stunned silence every time I watch it. The entity in this is never named, seen or properly defined, all we know is that it’s malevolent and can perfectly sync with other people’s voices.

If there’s ever a Doctor Who story that can conceivably be done as a stage play, with its single setting and limited number of characters, Midnight is a deserving candidate. Given Russell’s hesitancy towards going through with this episode only for it be regarded as one of his biggest triumphs, I was hopeful we would get more like this in his second run of the show, where Russel forgoes his usual bag of tricks and focuses on his true strengths as a writer.

New Who Review #52

Midnight

This episode was absolutely amazing. This is in the top 10 episodes of the entire show. It's a really good psychological horror episode that follows a bunch of people on a space truck tour. And when the monster strikes they turn on each other so quickly and this is a scarily perfectly accurate depiction of what humans are like in real life. I bet if you was on that space truck you would have panicked and turned on your fellow passengers because you've only just met them of course they're up to something...right? It's a companion lite story which works so well because it gives the doctor a chance to shine and boy does he shine bright in this. Tennants performance is absolutely amazing this is easily his best performance as the doctor up to now. The fact that we never ever see the creature (the well never happened be quiet!) Makes it 10 times scarier. Overall a perfectly accurate psychological horror that does a good job at depicting our fears and emotions as humans. 10/10