Logline
Far in the future, on a tough, brutal planet, a devastated mining colony has only one survivor. To discover the truth, the Doctor and Belinda must face absolute terror.
Written by: Russell T Davies & Sharma Angel Walfall
Directed by: Amanda Brotchie
I really enjoyed that. Going into it blind, it was very fun to watch. Not quite as good as Midnight, but then sequels rarely are. But I think it was a good choice to revisit it - if the humans have vanished, then the doctor wouldn’t have been able to go to midnight and play a part in defeating the monster first time around, so it would still be there. The final ending scene was a bit cliched though, the episode would have been better to just end with the Tardis dematerialising.
The inclusion of a deaf character was done well, and the use of live subtitlers is a really great “future gadget” to invent and then explore in a sci-fi context, from how it can offer help, and how it can be used to exclude people easily.
The idea that civil servants that interact with the public must know a sign language makes sense to me - it might indicate that something about the Lombardy population has a high population of deaf people. Maybe a side effect of the war. That would also explain why they were all equipped with subtitlers available as a backup for everyone else. SLs are not universal though, so I guess the translation matrix can help “translate” gestures as appropriate to the local context just as it does text and speech (and BSL to us watching). A side effect of this is it would have been illegible to any American signers watching.
Exploring the wider plot about how humanity is gone makes me think we’re facing a planet out of time situation, as we saw in season 4 (another callback?). Though if the lombardy are that similar to humans, they must be related in some way. I guess whatever that link is would have to come pre-2025, because we’re not out in space yet, and we won’t have any time to do so afterwards.
I really enjoyed this episode, this season is going very well.
I really liked this one, too. I was pretty cool on series 1/14 outside of Gatwa being excellent, but so far series 2/15 has been more enjoyable. The signing was very cool to see; I don’t know any BSL so I have no idea how Gatwa did but it looked natural.
The subtitle tech does raise some interesting questions around what has led to it becoming so ubiquitous. I suppose it could also serve as a live translation tool, so it may not be exclusively to support deaf people and instead sort of a low-tech version of the translation matrix. That said, signing being mandated for all medical staff does seem to indicate that accommodations for deafness are strongly favored in Lombardic society.
The final ending scene was a bit cliched though, the episode would have been better to just end with the Tardis dematerialising.
Yeah, how I feel about that part will probably depend on whether it actually gets revisited sometime soon. If it’s just for the sake of a sting ending with no concrete intention to do anything with it, then it’s just doing the thing because it’s a horror story and that’s what they do.
EDIT: One thing the ending did leave me wondering was whether the monster simply jumped off Shaya to Mo, or if there are more than one of them. If Shaya’s sacrifice meant nothing at all, that’s pretty disappointing to me. But if she took it from two escapees to one, that at least gives her death some meaning.
Judging from last week’s preview we’re in for a good old, tense horror story on a deserted planet. Also, seems there has been an embargo in advance reviews unlike the first couple episodes of this season, so I’m expecting some good scares the powers that be didn’t want spoiled.
What I’m saying is, I’m not watching this until it’s dark out, and then I’m probably watching it twice. Will leave an actual response when I have 🧑🚀
So, that was pretty effectively scary! I do enjoy when Doctor Who goes for those collective elements of dread, like in “Listen” or with the Silents. It’s something the show has done so well post 2005, and this was no exception.
I don’t get the “sequel to “Midnight”” thing, though. There was nothing conceptual tying this to the older story (which I had to rewatch immediately after). The entities’ MO are completely different, the only connective tissue was clearly extraneous and added exactly to force the connection.
If RTD had told us it was a “Listen” sequel I might’ve bought it, but here we are. And it was very much the Aliens school of sequels with a bunch of meatheaded marines as secondary threat. Without the strained callback I feel I would have liked this episode a lot more.
Loved all the guest stars, and the relationship establishing between the Doctor and Belinda. And the Mrs Flood appearance threw me. Is this her true identity, or just an act like last episode?
So another strong link in the season arc of the elusive May 25 and Earth disappearing. Just… less of the forced legacy connections, please.
I don’t get the “sequel to “Midnight”” thing, though.
I haven’t finished it yet, but the YT video I just shared to the community is shedding some light on how it came about.
TL;DW, they were having trouble getting their original idea (involving actual Nigerian gods) to work, scrapped it, noticed the similarities between what they had left and “Midnight”, and leaned into it.
I don’t really have a big issue with the entity’s shifting motivation - and they did handwave it a bit by saying it was “leaning” during that first episode - but I think it’s incredibly risky to do a sequel to an episode that’s basically perfect.
Nowhere to go but down, even if you name something that’s very good.
Okay, I was aware of the rumours that this was going to be a sequel to “Midnight”, and sure enough…
Unfortunately, I’m not sure it was worth it. “Midnight” is so perfect as self-contained story about an inexplicable, unexplainable evil, and this episode didn’t really bring much new to the table.
That said, it was engaging, and I enjoyed watching it. I guess my biggest complaint is that when you lose the abject terror of “Midnight”, it’s easier to get distracted trying to figure out the “rules” of the entity, and how it works. The performances were all excellent, and it’s always good to have a horror story of this nature, but I don’t think it’s going to end up on my list of all-time great episodes.
I thought the reuse of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” was a little puzzling - I guess the connection is that it was the last song heard in the history of Earth in “The End of the World”, which gives it some weight now that the Earth is gone?
I’ll definitely have to rewatch with the knowledge that it being a, uh, “sequel” to Midnight has no impact outside the emotional manipulation.
What I did like a lot was the BSL representation and the Tardis letting her humans make an effort to understand for once.
Is it realistic at all to require medical personnel to learn (at least some basic vocab in) the local sign language? You’d probably need bigger budgets which is an issue everywhere so anyone know what Lombardians are doing differently with their health care?
In today’s society, probably not - in “Unleashed”, Rose Ayling-Ellis says it takes the average person about seven years to become fluent. But it’s a good dream to have, and if people started learning early enough in life, and valued it enough…
As for the Lombardians, maybe they have some improved sci-fi educational techniques. But at the same time, they clearly don’t have the same expectations of their soldiers…
Maybe those subtitle projector thingies are considered a better solution but they’re expensive and so they reserve them for the military? And everybody else learns sign language because it’s cheaper? That doesn’t sound right - always a good idea to go deep into speculative territory about society in soft science fiction 😅
Oh yeah, Unleashed, thanks for the reminder :D
I almost always prefer frock to gun and this episode was not for me, but I am a base-under-siege Grinch and know my limitations. This is my second-least-favorite RTD2 episode after Empire of Death, though I am thoroughly enjoying this series, even more than the last.