Note: This post contains spoilers for series 15/season 2/season 41 episode 3 "The Well." You have been warned.
Series 4 is one of my favorite Doctor Who series in the modern era. I very much enjoy the dynamic that David Tennant and Catherine Tate create between the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble (later to be revived with the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble after she has a kid) with the latter actor coming from a comedy background and the former one of drama (side note: I do still need to watch the production of Much Ado About Nothing starring Tennant and Tate as the two leads). Even moreso, one of my favorite one-off episodes of that series is "Midnight." Now this post assumes you've seen that episode as well as the one mentioned in the title, but a brief synopsis for those who have forgotten after over 15 years between "The Well" and "Midnight."
The Doctor and Donna are vacationing on a planet called Midnight, a planet with an extonic sun and radiation high enough to vaporize someone instantly. The planet itself is made of diamonds, so the Doctor decides to venture out and take a tour of the diamond wasteland where no life can sustain itself, right? The Doctor then find himself stuck as the shuttle experiences problems and is then attacked by some creature. The creature then eventually somehow makes its way into the shuttle and attaches itself to one Sky Sylvestry. The creature begins to parrot everything everyone on the shuttle says. Eventually, the creature starts only parroting the Doctor, and then they match up in sync, and then the creature starts overtaking the Doctor and it appears that the Doctor is repeating what the creature says. The flight attendant on the shuttle eventually notices that the creature is attempting to steal the Doctor's voice as it says one of the Doctor's catchphrases, "Molto bene," and in a last ditch attempt, grabs Sky/the creature and leaps out onto the planet's surface to be vaporized.
It's such a good episode because it interrogates mob mentalilty, in-groups and out-groups, and what a group of people can be pushed to do when hysteria is in the room.
And that's why I'd like to say that the God of Hysteria, Midnight is--no, I couldn't even continue that, although all due respect to the current Doctor Who writing team and them bringing in the Pantheon; I just think it shouldn't be used often.
Anyway, my thoughts on "The Well:" The Midnight Monster is one of my favorite monsters of Doctor Who, and I feel like this episode iterates on that idea without compromising what made the original appearance work. The audience never sees the monster truly, keeping it at its bogeyman-like status. And going back to Midnight is an interesting idea, especially since I believe at the end of the episode Midnight the Doctor recommended they close the resort that Donna was at during the events of the episode. And I really love the ending where it's implied that maybe they got it wrong, that maybe the Midnight monster escaped and is out there. I feel like this episode did what "Sleep No More" was trying to do but failed because it was caught up in trying to be a found footage episode (which to be fair I did like but it's kind of meh at the end of the day), and did what "Blink" was trying to do originally with its ending of "any statue could be a violent killer alien known as the Weeping Angels," but instead this time is "the killer Midnight monster could be hiding behind anyone's back.
9/10
