| MIDNIGHT by Russell T Davies |
| Story 41 Synopsis: Leaving Donna to relax by the pool, the Doctor takes a cruise across Midnight to see a fabulous sapphire waterfall. But the craft takes a detour, and stops. A strange noise outside suggests someone trying to get in - but nothing can live on the surface. A passenger, Sky Silvestry, seems affected, copying language spoken by the Doctor and other passengers. They decide they want to throw her off. He objects, so they say they'll throw him, too. The Doctor is then singled out, and falls under the same spell as Sky, seeming to become normal again. As the passengers prepare to throw the Doctor to his death, the hostess realises Sky is not cured at all, and forcibly ejects her, at the cost of her own life. The Doctor immediately recovers, and returns to Donna. |
| Review:- So, on the day that RTD was awarded an OBE for "services to drama", comes the latest "cheapo" episode, and an attempt at scariness. Now, having himself branded Steven Moffat as the chief scary writer, this is a tall order. And it doesn't quite make it. The story feels as if two worlds are pulling against each other, rather than presumably working together. The idea of a small, isolated group of people being affected by someone or something unknown is old as the hills, but still can be effective. But against that is the usual RTD touches that distract the viewer from being properly scared. Having painlessly left Donna lounging by the pool, the Doctor is alone on his trip across the planet, and he rather selfishly turns off the in-flight entertainment so he can chat to people. Strangely, he seems unhappy even when doing this, but the detour that leads to disaster doesn't lighten him up, either. The knocking from outside allows Professor Hobbes to remind the viewers that nobody could be alive on the surface, though after umpteen mentions of "X-tonic radiation", the viewer might well just take it with a pinch of salt. Then again, repetition is at the core of the script, when dumped Sky Silvestry is taken over by forces unknown, and begins repeating everyone's speech, before then synchronising speech. At this point, the Doctor suggests things will get worse, and that's when the trouble starts. With help apparently on the way, he gets the other passengers to keep out of Sky's way. However, he has no proof to back up his claims of superiority, and that leaves him isolated and vulnerable. And his pleas for protection are over-ruled, with a mob mentality taking over, and the option of dumping Sky and the Doctor takes hold. Now, for me, this is shaky territory at the best of times, and this story certainly ain't that. The idea of people being afraid of something "other" is a familiar theme, but usually that "other" has weaponry and plans of subjugation. Here, it's seemingly quite harmless, if irritating, and the only weapons are fists, and the threat of banishment - expulsion from the happy club. There's subtle ideas at work here, but sadly, from a series which makes its human-centric views quite plain, and especially from a writer whose owns views on "otherness" seem frankly limited, the effect is far less effective than it should be. Even though the Doctor's suffering as he realises he's alone and defenceless against the mob, and then taken over by whatever possessed Sky, the frantic performance of the mob at work is unnecessarily undercut by the idea that the only two people who see through Sky are the student and the Hostess - both played by non-Caucasian actresses. Box-ticking-a-go-go. Once again, the Doctor is powerless to save people, relying on having already done enough to ensure someone else makes the decision. Once the threat is removed, and the mob settles down, there's no more to say. Of course, the Doctor's question if anyone knows the Hostess' name would mean more if perhaps anyone had shown interest earlier. Any script would have made sure the name was mentioned, even if everyone then forgot it. But it's hard to care when the writer has made sure the viewer can't. Overall, there are promising signs here, and certainly very effective drama. Sadly, there's also some quite inane social politicking going on, from someone who cannot see how bad they are at it. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |