Doctor Who Series 4 Episode 10 - Midnight - Review

Starring: David Tennant, Lesley Sharp, Rakie Ayola & David Troughton

Written By: Russell T Davies

Directed By: Alice Troughton

 

Since watching the next time trailer for Midnight, I figured it would be the low-budget episode of the series. Now that isn't a problem, but low-budget episodes have had a mixed history, with some becoming instant classics (e.g. Blink) while others have reached whole new lows (e.g. Love & Monsters). Confined in one space, I had my doubts about Midnight, but it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. Just like with Blink, Midnight is another instant classic.

 

The Doctor and Donna visit the planet Midnight, made entirely of diamonds poisoned by xtonic sunlight. While Donna decides to stay at the leisure palace, the Doctor and a small group of humans take a shuttle trip to visit the sapphire waterfalls. However, mid-way on the journey, the shuttle stops moving, despite the engines operating as normal. Meanwhile, someone or something begins knocking on the shuttle's walls, apparently coming for a woman onboard called Sky Silvestry.

 

While Midnight is absolutely fantastic, it takes a little bit of time to warm up. During the first ten minutes, we mostly just follow the Doctor and the other passengers as they come aboard and get to know each other. That being said, these moments are still fun to watch, particularly as we see the Doctor enduring the racket of the onboard entertainment. While this makes for a fun start, it isn't until the shuttle breaks down that this episode goes from good to something else entirely.

 

Firstly, lets talk about the setting. Here, we’re given the beautiful yet poisoned planet of Midnight. This is probably the most alien planet that Doctor Who has seen in a while, with talk of xtonic radiation, sapphire waterfalls and more. Meanwhile, the planet is entirely barren and devoid of life ... or at least is should be. This greatly helps the feeling of isolation and loneliness the episode tries to make us feel. Whilst we sadly never see the sapphire waterfalls, the purpose of this episode isn't for spectacle at another world, but providing some tense and truly chilling psychological drama. Instead, we spend nearly all of the episode in the shuttle. While this is obviously for budgetary reasons, I have to admire Russell T Davies for tackling the brave, difficult job of keeping the audience engaged for forty-five minutes in just one location. Alice Troughton also helps hugely, managing to position shots in such a way that you feel the limited space of the shuttle.

 

The supporting cast of this episode despite being small, has surprising variety. You have everything from the stereotypical bored-looking adolescent, to the bumbling professor. Everyone does a good job here, in particular Rakie Ayola as the hostess - a character that I will definitely come back to later. However, by far the best character in this story is Sky, or rather the infected Sky. Lesley Sharp does a phenomenal job playing a woman who’s been infected by an unknown and unseen alien. The biggest change noticeable is definitely her eyes, that appear almost savage-like, and Lesley Sharp manages to make a woman who literally just repeats everything scary. David Tennant also does a brilliant job as the Doctor, and his Doctor is arguably umatched when he is faced with a threat he doesn't fully understand. The Doctor is in a situation where he’s losing control, and he’s having to fight off the species he’s tried to protect for so long: Humanity.

 

One thing that has to be mentioned whilst talking about Midnight, is how it utterly nails the psychological horror. Midnight is simply petrifying. We never learn who or what infected Sky, meaning our own imaginations can devise some of the scariest things imaginable. The fact that it can defy Professor Hobbes and survive in xtonic sunlight gives our unseen assailant a sense of power and terror. The scene where our unseen threat knocks on the shuttle's walls in sync with the passengers is incredibly tense. Throughout the episode, we can see that this group of people are utterly terrified. This combines well with Russell T Davies’ brilliant writing of the human characters. I've said it before but one of the many things that Russell T Davies is good at, is writing human characters. Here he manages to explore the survival instincts of humans when they don't know what to do and don't understand what's happening. That’s one way of summing up this episode - a chilling exploration of humanity's survival instincts.

 

(Spoiler Warning!) By the end of the episode, the Hostess is one to realize that the alien inside Sky has stolen the Doctor’s voice, and ends up sacrificing herself to save everyone. This is a noble and incredibly poignant ending for the Hostess. It also becomes incredibly heartbreaking when everyone who survived is one the way back to the leisure palace. At this point, everyone realizes that nobody even knew her name, despite her sacrifice. By this point, anyone is still of the opinion that Doctor Who is just for kids should really watch this episode and they'll be proven wrong.

 

So to finish up, Midnight is not only masterful TV, but also a classic in Doctor Who's history.  This is easily the most psychologically terrifying episode since the show came back. Russell T Davies’ has served up an amazing script with wonderful human quality that is performed stunningly well by all the cast. There's only a single set used here, but as this episode proves that's all you need. By the end of the episode we can see that the Doctor is haunted by his experiences here, and the look on his face really mirrored my own. A phenomenal Doctor Who episode!

 

 

Midnight



10/10