The TARDIS suddenly stops and The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara must face their fears and figure out what's happened.
A tense, psychological thriller and some terrifically high-concept sci-fi, this is RTD’s Reservoir Dogs in space
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We’re finally treated to a bottle episode when companion Donna Noble decides to get a tan and Tenant’s Tenth Doctor embarks on an eight-hour school trip across the deadly, diamond landscape of Planet Midnight.
When the school bus breaks down, however, and an alien force seemingly possesses one of the passengers, one by one, they begin to turn on each other.
It’s tense, high-concept and delightfully Donna-light. Download our review now to hear us discuss:
- Indicators of societal progress or oppression
- Arguably forced religious symbolism
- Whether this story was repurposed for Doctor Who
- Vajazzling
- And much, much more…
Tracey here. I’m on a break from digging out of this blizzard and I’ll be doing this one from memory.
This is a bottle episode. Everyone is stuck in a room and it’s all about the characters. I feel a bit strange about the direction the Doc takes immediately; he breaks all the media to force them to get to know one another. I mean, I know he loves company, but couldn’t he just turn on the charm, flash those teeth and shmooze instead of breakin’ things?
Eventually, shit goes down. There’s pounding on the walls and one of them, Sky Silvestry, is inexplicably repeating, then synchronizing, then preceding their words. And she’s fixated on the Doctor. Soon they are all yelling and freaking out and the Doctor goes quiet as a strange force holds him silent and still. And look at Tennant go, he’s basically acting from his eyes only.
I see this episode as the least Doctor-Who-like of any I can remember. It’s full of such concentrated psychological terror. None of the usual slowly solving an unraveling mystery. None of the Doctor’s cheeky winning flair. None of his brazen bluffing and talking the enemy into confusion. His voice is literally stolen and we can see what that does to him.
In the end we don’t even get an answer as to who or what the enemy was. But that’s not the point this time. A unique episode to be sure.
Rating: Breathless
So quick thought, [SPOILER] so the ‘creature’ gets blasted back on the planet midnight right? Why wouldn’t it just come back in and inhabit a new passenger? Like what stops it?