Midnight
Story 196, Episode 748, Series 4 Episode 10
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Donna Noble
In one of the best stories of all time, the Doctor is alone.
The Review
I watched Midnight for the first time in 2013, and don’t remember thinking much of it. Over the years I have seen its praises sung effusively and never went back to rewatch it. Now I have. Heaven Sent is #1, but boy this might be #2. What makes both stories so incredible, is that they could take place in any format. They could be audio dramas, books, theater productions, the story is universal but something only Doctor Who could produce. Midnight is a simple story, Donna stays behind to relax while the Doctor goes out on an excursion on the planet Midnight. It is a planet composed of diamonds bathed in Xtonic radiation from its sun, beautiful, but impossible ever to be touched, only glimpsed behind fifteen-foot thick glass. The Doctor is on this excursion with the driver, mechanic, hostess, a middle-aged couple and their emo son, a professor and his lab assistant and an older woman, Sky. The trip takes a detour due to a rockfall and then…the engines stop cold for no apparent reason. The Doctor visits the cabin, and the mechanic swears he sees a dark shadow, shifting in the diamonds. Nothing can be alive out there and survive Xtonic radiation, right? Then the banging begins on the cabin hull, circles in on Sky, and with a loud explosion the power cuts. Sky won’t look at everyone else.
This story is about group psychology and group fear, and it is terrifying. More than that, it is about the Doctor. The Doctor can always get out of situations, speak a bunch of clever words and make the problem go away with his companion aiding the explanations. This time, he’s trapped, there’s no way out, there’s no escape. Sky starts talking, repeating what everyone says causing mass panic, then she starts saying words the same time they do. As the paranoia increases, everyone turns on the Doctor: he showed up out of the blue, won’t tell them their real name, implies he isn’t human, why should everyone trust him? He’s the only one who talked to Sky before, they’re probably doing this together! Then, Sky starts only repeating the Doctor, then, she jumps ahead of him, and stands as the Doctor freezes, immobilized, repeating Sky’s words. Sky assures the passengers she has been freed, the entity is in the Doctor now, and it is save to cast him onto the planet’s surface and vaporize him. Some passengers hold reservations, others prepare to throw out the Doctor. Never has the Doctor come as close to death as he has right here, it is absolutely terrifying. Only when Sky says ‘molto bene’ and ‘allons-y’ does the hostess realize the evil is still in her and sacrifices herself to destroy it. No one even knew the hostess’ name.
What makes Midnight so incredible is how it functions as a deconstruction of the Doctor and how he usually solves problems, especially the Tenth Doctor. The Tenth Doctor is always clever, often too clever for his own good, and acts with a swagger and a ‘smarter than thou’ energy. Here, it is weaponized against him with devastating effect. Sure the entity is evil and the story’s villain, but it is hysteria and paranoia of ordinary people than almost get the Doctor killed. He is only saved because of his eccentricity, his usage of Italian and French tip off the hostesses that Sky was still evil. In essence, the Doctor got lucky. Armies of Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans, no problem. A couple of scared humans locked in a room? The Doctor barely escapes with his life. The story also shows how important the companions are to the Doctor, with Donna there she would have been able to translate some of the Doctor’s Doctor-speak and maybe saved the day. In the end, she isn’t there, and the Doctor is left at the mercy of people, ordinary people, who show how horrible people can be. At the end, the mother insists she did say the Doctor wasn’t possessed, and he stares blankly at her, as we all know: she was a liar. Midnight is a powerful, dark story and one of the greats.
Let them build somewhere else the Doctor says. Midnight should keep turning around an Xtonic star, a world of diamonds no one can ever touch…forever.
10/10 RTD does character drama like no one else. Only he could’ve written this absolute classic.
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