Midnight (Doctor Who)

"Midnight" is the tenth episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 June 2008. The episode placed emphasis on the Tenth Doctor, with his companion, Donna Noble playing a minimal role. As a result, this episode has been described as being "companion-lite",^[1] in contrast to the usual "Doctor-lite" episodes.

The episode is largely set on board a small touring vehicle that stops in the middle of a tour on the hostile surface of the planet Midnight and has its cockpit destroyed with its driver and mechanic still inside by an unseen entity. The entity is depicted only through sound effects and by its possession of one of the vehicle's passengers, Sky Silvestry, who repeats the words of the other passengers on board.

"Midnight" was watched by 8.05 million viewers. It received positive reviews from critics, who particularly liked the psychological horror of the unseen creature, as well as the tense claustrophobic atmosphere of the episode. The performances of Sharp and Tennant were widely praised.

The Tenth Doctor and Donna visit the resort planet Midnight, which is bathed in lethal radiation from its star. The Doctor takes a shuttle tour to visit a waterfall made of sapphires. He goes alone, unable to convince Donna to leave the comfort of the local spa. Mid-route, the shuttle unexpectedly stops; the Doctor joins Driver Joe and Mechanic Claude in the cockpit, with all systems appearing operational, but the shuttle still not moving. The Doctor asks Joe to open the cockpit radiation shielding to see what may be causing the problem, and before they are closed again, Claude claims to have seen something moving outside. Joe calls in for a rescue shuttle.

The Doctor returns to the cabin, and everyone hears knocking on the sides of the shuttle. The knocking seems to follow their movements, but soon only comes from the side of the shuttle where one passenger, Sky, is cowering. The shuttle rocks violently, and the hostess finds that the cockpit has been ripped from the shuttle. The Doctor and other passengers see Sky behaving oddly, repeating what they are saying; frightened, the passengers think she has become possessed by whatever was outside. Sky begins talking simultaneously with the passengers, increasing the paranoia among the group. They begin to debate throwing Sky out onto the surface of the planet, and after the Doctor objects, they threaten to throw him out as well. Sky then begins only repeating what the Doctor says.

As the Doctor tries to reason with Sky, he suddenly appears unable to move. Sky starts saying things before the Doctor repeats them, making the other passengers believe the entity has moved on to possess the Doctor. Unable to communicate with the Doctor, the passengers soon become paranoid. Sky attempts to convince the passengers that she is back to normal, and that they must throw the Doctor off the shuttle.

While most of the other passengers start to pull the Doctor towards the shuttle door, the hostess, hearing Sky use some of the Doctor's unusual phrases, realises Sky is still possessed. The hostess pulls herself and Sky out of the cabin and into the radiation. The Doctor is freed and the shuttle passengers are rescued and returned to the resort. The Doctor intends to have the resort removed from the planet, still feeling haunted.

"Midnight" was filmed at the same time as "Turn Left"; Donna has a minor role in the episode (appearing in only the pre-credits sequence and the final scene), while the Doctor has a minor role in "Turn Left".^[2][3][4] For this reason Stephen James Walker has described this episode in his book Monsters Within as being "companion-lite".^[1] Russell T Davies has stated that "Midnight" was inspired by the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok".^[5]

Davies wrote the story to replace a previously planned story (replaced due to similarity with a just-filmed script) by Tom Macrae. He said the episode was his response to "Voyage of the Damned", which "had demonstrated the best in human nature." He decided to focus on the dark side of humanity, and "the way people turn on each other."^[3] He later stated that he "fancied a little run of dark episodes" to match the feel of Moffat's library two-parter, getting an idea that was "like an itch" and "wouldn't go away".^[6] Davies realised that an act of imitation "could be mocking, irritating and unnerving", stating "when somebody keeps doing it, it drives you mad."^[3] He wrote the threat to the Doctor to have two aspects: the possession and the human paranoia. Davies said "It's very rare to see the Doctor out of control, but he cannot control people."^[7]

The script of the episode ran for sixty pages, with the bulk of it consisting of just one scene — Scene 9, which ran for forty-four pages. The scene featured the conversation and rising paranoia of the passengers on the shuttle.^[7]

David Troughton was a late replacement for Sam Kelly as Professor Hobbes, who broke his leg and had to withdraw from the production.^[8] He joined the rest of the cast in Cardiff with just two days notice.^[8] He is the son of Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor. David has had a long association with the series since the 1960s, appearing as an uncredited extra in The Enemy of the World, and as a guest character in The War Games, and in The Curse of Peladon. He has also appeared in some Doctor Who audio dramas.^[7]

The main guest star for the episode was Lesley Sharp as Sky Silvestry, who had worked with Davies twice before. Davies himself suggested her for the role, stating "I actually wrote it thinking of her." Sharp herself was keen for the role, saying she "admired the way the new Doctor Who had gone", calling it "wonderfully written and executed."^[7] Daniel Ryan, who had also worked with Davies before, had announced in a 2006 interview that he was going to ask Russell T Davies for a role in Doctor Who, as he wanted his children to see him acting on television in a programme that was not inaccessible.^[9] It was the second TV role for Colin Morgan, who stated he had much to "learn from David Tennant."^[7]

Filming for the episode took two weeks, from 27 November to 11 December 2007. The majority of the filming took place in Studio 6 at Upper Boat Studios, with the exception of the opening and closing scenes. These scenes were shot on the last day, as they included Tate, who was busy on the set of the Doctor-lite episode "Turn Left". The scenes were filmed in a spa resort in Newport.^[3] Murray Gold completed the score for the episode in April, with re-dubbing of a few scenes and post-production also finishing that month.^[10]

During filming, Scene 9 was broken into several sub-scenes, with each focusing on part of the growing paranoia. The production team noted that due to the scene's real-time nature, it was almost possible to film the entire scene in one go.^[7] For the overlapping dialogue scenes, Alice Troughton had the cast performing the shot several times. The scene was first shot normally, and then several times with all but one character miming. This ensured that each line could be recorded for the final sound mix.^[11]

The episode was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 June 2008, and ran against ITV1's coverage of Euro 2008. The episode was also shown on the Gloucester Guildhall's cinema screen, due to an arrangement made by the BBC, similar to the one for the previous series' "Blink". A corresponding Doctor Who Confidential episode was broadcast afterwards on BBC Three.^[6]

"Midnight" was watched by 8.05 million viewers, a 38% share of the total television audience, making it the fifth most-watched programme of the week, and the top rated show of the day. This made it one of the highest-rated episode in the show's history. The episode received an Appreciation Index score of 86 (considered Excellent).^[12][6]

Many reviewers found the episode to have a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere, finding that it made for a great horror episode.^[13][14][15] The performances of Lesley Sharp and David Tennant were praised,^[15][16][17] along with the contrast in the characteristics of the passengers.^[17][18] The creepiness of the unseen creature was also praised by reviewers.^{[13][15][16][18]}

The Guardian's Sam Wollaston found the episode great, stating that "it gnaws away at you." He also praised the fact that the episode is "psychological drama rather than full-blown horror; creepy-unknown scary, not special-effect-monster scary."^[13] Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the episode, stating that "psychological thrills abound", and characterising it as "containing psychodrama", which tested the talents of Tennant and Sharp. He also said the technical challenge of speaking simultaneously was well met by Sharp and Tennant.^[19] William Gallagher, in a blog for Radio Times was generally positive about the episode, but said that though he doesn't understand what is missing, he would have "liked just a beat more, just a tiny further step before the resolution". However, he did find the contrast with the typical Doctor Who episode startling.^[20]

IGN's Travis Fickett rated the episode 8.6 out of 10, commenting that it was "a nice change of pace" from the more complex and emotional two-parter that preceded it.^[18] The Times's Andrew Billen noted that Davies had chosen to forgo special effects and chases in favour of dialogue, but that it "felt too much of a writing exercise to be really scary" and was an example of how the 2008 series "fails as often as it succeeds".^[14] Keith Phipps of A.V. Club, gave it an 'A' and called the episode the best of the season. He found the story to be tragic, placing the Doctor in a situation where "he does everything right" but still finds himself "overwhelmed by forces he can't control".^[17]

In 2010, IGN's listed "Midnight" as the second-best Tennant episode of the show, calling it "a taught, genuinely unsettling journey into the human condition", the show at "its very bleakest and best."^[21] In 2013, Digital Spy listed the episode as the fifth-best. It was emphasised that the episode was in contrast to his era's "supposed staples": dark and terrifying, instead of camp and boisterous.^[16] In 2021, GamesRadar+ listed the episode as the second best Davies-written story, characterising it as "a bottle episode that could be taught in film school" and "the stuff of Doctor Who legend". The episode was said to have importance, showing that "without a human companion at his side, strangers don't tend to trust the Doctor".^[15]

The episode has been adapted three times for the stage: by students from Salford University's BA Performing Arts and Media Performance courses in March 2011, at the Lass O'Gowrie pub theatre in Manchester in January 2012, and by Sporadic Productions as part of the Adelaide Fringe in 2016.^[22]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Tenth Doctor.

• Midnight (TV story) on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "Midnight" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "Midnight" at IMDb
• Shooting Script for "Midnight"