Doctor Who: Midnight (2008) - Written Review

Midnight has earned its place as one the most popular and fan-acclaimed Doctor Who stories of all time (and space). Its in many fans' Top 10 lists and even Classic Who die-hards love this story. So, what is it about Midnight that makes it so beloved?
The story follows The Doctor and companion Donna Noble relaxing on the planet Midnight. The Doctor wants to go on a bus to see the planet's sapphire waterfalls, but Donna isn't interested, so The Doctor goes on the tour by himself, meeting and getting to know all of the passengers, the two drivers and the hostess along the way. However, the journey has some unexpected turbulence when a creature is seen by one of the drivers, only for a few minutes later have the driver's cockpit completely dismantled from the bus (leaving everyone stranded). As the passengers become more and more panicked and paranoid, one of them - Skye Silvestri - is possessed by the creature outside, and when she begins to copy what everyone else is saying, matters begin to get out of hand.
I've mentioned before that Russell T Davies made a brilliant, almost perfect first season of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston, but when he came back to make the second with David Tennant, the writing quality dropped quite suddenly. Series 2 is at the moment the worst season of Doctor Who's 21st Century run, with the stories ranging from the worst episode of Who I have ever watched to good. When Rose Tyler left the series, the writing picked up with series 3, and series 4 showed the series at its peak of popularity.
Series 4 is an all-round fantastic season of Who, even if the finale was pretty terrible, but Midnight is the episode that almost everyone loves.
RTD is a fantastic writer, but he got far too in love with the Rose and Tenth Doctor "romance" (urgh...) that he focused on that instead of telling good stories. Midnight, however, puts Tennant's very human, very friendly Doctor into the worst situation imaginable. The Doctor has no power and no control in Midnight. He is out of his depth, locked with humans ready to kill him at any moment and an unidentified creature. It gets even worse when the creature possesses him, and the humans try to kill him. This is a fantastic concept, and Tennant's excellent acting really brings it all to life brilliantly. This is the most interesting story you could possibly do with the Tenth Doctor, and Tennant is clearly loving every second of it.
The supporting cast is also very good and naturalistic, and the way they switch from being BFF's which each other to being ready to kill one another just to stay alive is a true credit to both the actors and director. Russell T Davies writes normal human dialogue and characters incredibly well, and while this sometimes lead Doctor Who to becoming like a soap opera, Davies' skills are perfect for this sort of story. He clearly has a much better understanding of writing normal people than many other writers in Doctor Who. Also, he writes characters in a much more realistic way than in soaps.
Regrettably, this episode was a budget-saving one, and thus it does look a bit cheap for the most part. The bus looks far too big and I never really caught the illusion it was actually moving at any point in the episode. The sparingly-used CGI looks very good though, and the lighting is very effective. The director, cinematography and editing work brilliantly, and Murray Gold's score is sublime.
Probably the most effective part about the episode is its ending though - The Doctor failed. He didn't save the day. He didn't get the answers he wanted. He couldn't even save himself. This really affects the Time Lord in a way few adventures do, and in many ways its a shame he's back to his old self in the following episode Turn Left. The fact that no one even knew the Hostess' name also plagues his mind, and while its good that this is acknowledged in Journey's End, its a shame that it was such an on-the-nose moment that it didn't capture the same effect that the ending of Midnight was able to achieve so well with just silence.
The episode never felt too short, it never dragged but it held on to particular moments to make them all the more unsettling. The pacing works very well in the episode's favour, even if I think the beginning doesn't quite work tonally or structurally.
Overall, Midnight is almost a perfect summary of Doctor Who, with a chilling threat under a small budget, only this time with The Doctor left completely useless in the situation. Aside from a rocky start, the story is absolutely brilliant, and thoroughly deserves a 9/10.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Movie Review

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor (2022) - Review

Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (1985) - BFI Event Review