Midnight

"The history is fascinating, because there is no history..."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 14th June 2008

Series: 4.10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis 

The Tenth Doctor and Donna go to the leisure planet of Midnight for a simple, relaxing holiday. However, life with the Doctor can never be that simple, and things go horribly wrong for the Doctor when he decides to go off on a bus trip to see the Sapphire Waterfall, starting with the bus shutting down. When a mysterious entity infiltrates the shuttle bus, no one is to be trusted. Not even the Doctor himself... 

Verdict 

Midnight was a very good episode of Doctor Who and continued along the fourth series very nicely. Following on from the outstanding Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, this episode had quite a lot to live up to but with the showrunner at the helm penning the episode, it certainly didn't disappoint. My original plan was not to watch this story following on from the aforementioned two-parter but after finding myself really enjoying watching the Tenth Doctor on television again, I thought I may as well finish the DVD and that meant watching this episode today. Just like the two-parter, and any story that isn't yet blogged and was broadcast before the second half of Series 7, it has been around four years now since I watched this but I think having a break that long between watching, whilst doing countless other Doctor Who stories across numerous formats, is certainly beneficial and I found myself appreciating the episode a lot more. The idea was very good and I liked how it followed its previous story in having a monster that we didn't see, but whereas we have a perception of what the Vashta Nerada look like we have no idea what the entity's appearance was like, or if it even had one. The mystery surrounding it was excellent and it was definitely the right call not to reveal anything further about what appeared to be a brand new and unexplored life form. The Doctor's fascination in the brand new was clearly visible here and it was something I absolutely loved to see. The Doctor is always doing things for others whether it's showing his companion the universe or saving it, he very rarely does things where, by this time in his life, he gets excited and also gets to see something brand new. He was like a big child and in times like this I think that's exactly how the Doctor should be. David Tennant was excellent in showing that side of the Doctor and as a whole his performance was superb here once again. Sky was a great character and once the entity took over her consciousness, things got really interesting. I must admit that this episode took a little while to get going with the Doctor's last attempt to persuade Donna to join him on the trip to the Sapphire Waterfall, the shuttle occupants getting to know each other and the initial entertainment introduction. But once the detour inevitably went wrong and the shuttle stopped, the episode got really good. The captain and mechanic, as well as the front of the shuttle itself, were reduced to ash and dust and whatever this entity was, the threat it provided was clear. What it wanted seemed to be knowledge and the speed at which it acquired speech was frighteningly quick! First, through Sky, it repeated what everybody was saying and then it soon grew to somehow say exactly what everyone was saying as they were saying it! That's a scary prospect and it worked so very well. The actors did an excellent job in selling the threat and I imagine this must've taken some time in filming due to the precise timing that was needed. I thought Dee Dee and Professor Hobbes were great characters and Jethro was pretty good as well as he understood what was going on, but Val and Biff were poor characters in my opinion and you could tell they were just very unintelligent. They had no clue what was going on and would allow their fear and pride to take over. The hostess was good too and her realisation at the end that the entity had stolen the Doctor's voice was excellent. She sacrificed herself and nobody even knew her name. It was an emotional ending to a very character-based episode. A good plot, superb acting and even a nice reference to Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, a brief appearance of Rose and a foreshadowing of The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. Very good!

Rating: 8/10