Midnight [TV/2008.6.14]

★★★★★

  I still believe Midnight to be one of the most ambitious attempts ever made in the new series. A Doctor without a companion, a monster without an appearance, and a primarily single-set TV episode where everyone caves in to their own fears and doubts and opts to show their worst human traits -- it's the sort of story that only a seasoned television show would've pulled off. A show in its infancy -- in terms of the new series's advent in 2005, Series 1 would fit this description -- probably wouldn't have dared to do this sort of thing because it needed time for the audience to warm to its regulars. Russell T Davies has crafted himself the perfect opportunity to tell this story (the new series under RTD's wing being quite a different beast from the classic series and having few tangible ties to it), and thus Midnight was born. Full of quiet contempt and disappointment, this is an episode fueled by a writer's willingness to explore how horrible humanity can be, and how powerless our Time Lord hero can be. It's an electrifying slice of television, directed with the utmost passion and precision, and brought to life by a team of talented actors. You will never think of a small tour bus the same way ever again.

  My love for Midnight comes in various forms. First, whenever anyone asks me to name a Dr. Who adventure that really scares the adult that you are and the child that resides within you, I show them this episode. The scares don't come from creepy prosthetic designs or an extended number of casualties and murders, they come from an unknown entity among a group of trapped people in an enclosed space eating away at their sense of safety and trust. Second, whenever the topic of the Tenth Doctor's hubris is brought up, I'm reminded of this episode first and foremost. Sure, the entire Time Lord Victorious thing from The Waters of Mars counts as well, but this challenge of everything Ten stands for was more shocking on broadcast because of how left-field it was. Every quip and mechanism the Doctor employs in his adventures fails and blows up in his face; instead of trusting the Doctor, everybody gets paranoid and opts to throw him out into deep space. Instead of stopping with the questions when he raises his voice to get attention, they double down and ask even more questions, revelant or otherwise. When he tries to appeal to their humanity, that bare humanity rears its ugly teeth at him. Midnight is an episode without remorse, without any ego or delusions of grandeur; one could even make the case that it is one of Dr. Who's most objective stories, plainly showing how dependent the Doctor can be on other people. Without a companion to back him up, this wizened old Time Lord is nigh powerless. Finally, this is the episode that inspired one of my personal favourite Who fan theories, that the Midnight Entity is a TARDIS. Who doesn't like not-totally-implausible fan theories every now and then?

  A certain degree of restraint is needed in a reviewer, otherwise they'd be writing entire papers on their favourite episodes. I could go on and talk about every single aspect of Midnight, but I think in this case, I've said all that I really wanted to say from my chest. Fact of the matter is, in my head, this is still one of the defining moments of the new series. It proves to me that even on his final days as showrunner (his first term, at least), RTD wanted to push the boundaries of what made Dr. Who. No TARDIS, no companion, no one trusting the Doctor, it's one of those stories that would never have been made in the classic era. Innovative, scary, unsettling, brilliant.