Wow. Doctor Who does a mindfuck episode.
It's a popular passtime among some members of the Doctor Who fan community to slag off Russell T Davies, despite the fact that he has successfully resurrected the television series which we desperately love and has turned it into the the biggest success on television in England today (with the possible exception of Britain's Got Talent). How they cheered when it was announced that Steven Moffat would be replacing him, but Moffat knows deep down (being a Doctor Who fan) that as soon as he takes the job the fans will descend on him like a pack of rabid herbivores.
Davies, of course, is a great writer. He is particularly good at writing the interation between people (be they gay or otherwise) and so if people like horror, they automatically dismiss Davies, regardless of what he writes. And whilst it is true that he is prone to relying on a deus ex machina to end his episodes, the lead up to that point is usually always superb. Midnight, however, shows that Davies can do something quite, quite brilliant that brooks nearly no criticism.
Midnight is pretty much a psychological drama. There is a monster. There is the standard "base under seige" fare that Doctor Who became famous for in the sixties and is, in some ways, still defined by. But more than that, there is people interaction. Davies has decided to write a horror/base-under-seige Doctor Who story that works in the way that he works best, and that is by centering it around the human beings involved. And, of course, having pretty fantastic casting does the programme no evils either.
Before we get into the cast, I'd like to make mention of the superb work done by the Mill, those gentle people who create the CGI for the programme. There have been a lot of complaints about the Doctor not travelling to alien worlds, and so when the idea of a diamond planet comes along most people are ripe for it, but of course you have to remember the "mad fan" aspect which spits on the idea that travelling to alien worlds is a producer's nightmare due to cost, but at the same time shits all over an alien planet when it is realised. The Doctor Who production office are on a path to a hiding no matter what they do. However, the planet Midnight looked absolutely beautiful. Gorgeously designed and wonderfully realised, the views we get of the planet are simply breathtaking and the Mill deserves the highest praise for their work.
Onto the cast. There were a fair few brilliant performances in the episode - son of former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton, David, played the professor and he did it wonderfully, although his physical resemblance and audial resemblance to his father are a little off putting. RTD favourite Lesley Sharpe finally gets to appear in the series playing the terrifying Sky and she really is quite, quite disturbing in her repeating scenes. The rest of the cast hold themselves well, but one other mention I'd like to make is for Colin Morgan who plays the young Jethro Cane. He makes quite a wonderful character, and I was actually hoping (depsite knowing full well it wasn't going to happen) that he might join the Doctor on his travels - the byplay between him and Tennant were very well handled.
It is, however, David Tennant himself who steals the show. This year the production schedule was handled slightly differently so that instead of having an episode which hardly featured the Doctor and his companion, we had an episode that hardly featured the companion, and the subsequent one which hardly features the Doctor. As a result we get to see Tennant shine in a position that, really, only Tom Baker ever got to shine in before. And Tennant grabs that baton and runs with it. He is at his absolute best in this episode, confident, self-assured and arrogant before becoming helpless and determined. Tennant keeps the focus on him through the entire episode and you never ever feel the urge to see the Doctor lose - but you know he is going to win. It is a bravura performance.
With RTD looking towards something new as he moves on from Doctor Who, how wonderful to think it is that one of his final episodes is easily the best episode he has ever written, and to date the best episode of this series of Doctor Who. Encore!
"A+"
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