Midnight

Chapter the 260th, Ecouter et répéter: Allons-y! Molto bene!

Plot:

The Doctor and Donna visit a tourist resort in the far future that, like all futuristic resorts in Doctor Who, see The Leisure Hive and Orphan 55, is a shielded bubble on a planet with a lethal atmosphere outside. He leaves Donna to go off with a touring party in a "space truck" for a day trip to a local beauty spot. The craft breaks down, having had to take a detour onto a path never travelled before. Something in this supposedly uninhabitable terrain knocks on the outside of the vehicle trying to find a weak point, then attacks destroying the front cabin and killing the pilots. It gets in and takes over one of the passengers, Sky. She starts to repeat what everyone says. Some of the other passengers want to throw Sky out through a pressurised exit door, and the Doctor doesn't have much luck persuading them to stop, as they are a panicky, accusatory and aggressive bunch under pressure. Sky's repeating starts to get closer and closer to the others' voices until she is saying the same words simultaneously. Then, having realised that he's the smartest, the creature inhabiting Sky stops copying anyone but the Doctor and then overtakes him: she's speaking first, and he's copying. The others argue about whether this means that the creature has passed into the Doctor or just stolen his voice. A majority think the former, and start to drag the Doctor to the door. As the possessed Sky eggs them on, she lets slip a couple of the Doctor's pet phrases "Allons-y" and "Molto bene". Realising the truth, the last remaining member of the crew, the Hostess, grabs Sky, and opens the exit door. They are both sucked out of the craft, and the door slams behind them. The survivors realise that they didn't even know the Hostess's name.

Context:

Watched from the DVD (part of the Complete Fourth Series box set) on a Sunday in late March 2023. It was a rare occurrence for an old Doctor Who (and I have to accept that Midnight is now an old Doctor Who - see First Time Round section below) in that all the family - the Better Half and three children (boys of 16 and 13, girl of 10) - were in attendance. This full house may be because the children have never seen the episode before. They were too young / not born when it first went out. Then, when they became interested in Doctor Who around the later Matt Smith / early Peter Capaldi years, and I started to share some older stories with them, the Better Half and I always thought this one was too scary. Once they'd watched it, they scoffed at the very idea that the story could be in any way scary when nobody got mutilated and there was no gore, and it was "just zombie possession". Kids today, what are you gonna do?! Before those comments, the main fixation was Colin Morgan featuring as the character Jethro, a role he got before playing Merlin for the BBC for many years. "Is this the one with Merlin in?" asked the BH at the start, followed by such comments from the children as "Ooh, look it's Emo Merlin" and "Emo Merlin is rude to his parents" and "Whose side is Emo Merlin on?".

First Time Round:

Watched on or near to its original BBC1 transmission on 14th June 2008 with the Better Half (we may have time-shifted it slightly to put our eldest - then only - child to bed). I did a calculation of one of those timey-wimey phenomena, as it's sometimes hard to believe that a story like Midnight that still feels recent to me was broadcast almost a lifetime ago. But my son has indisputably turned from a toddler to a lanky teenager in that time. Take the number of days between the 14th June 2008 and the present day at time of writing, and go back in time that many days from the 14th June 2008: one arrives in early September 1993. Doctor Who on TV had been cancelled, but old stories were coming out on VHS. Fans were gearing up for the 30th anniversary of the show, and to commemorate this a couple of Dalek stories were released in a celebratory tin. A two-part mini-story would be broadcast later in the year featuring all the still surviving Doctors, including Tom Baker donning the scarf once again. The equivalent classic series gap, if one should take a trip the same number of days back in time from there, would lead to late November 1978, when Tom Baker was the current Doctor. From 1978 to 1993, or from 2008 to 2023, is a length of time enough for the charismatic incumbent of the title role to bow out and be followed by three more Doctors' eras, then find himself back recording scenes in character as the Doctor again for special episodes to be shown in November to celebrate a big series anniversary. Wheel turns, civilisations rise, wheel turns, civilisations fall...

Reaction:

I think Midnight is one of the best new series stories, but I wasn't in any hurry to watch it this time. The reason is that I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat where horror is concerned, and Midnight is an effective little shocker. It uses many of the same techniques as low budget sci-fi horror films like Cube or Circle or Exam, and no doubt many others - even the short one-word title is in keeping. A small group of people in a single location are each put under pressure by a strange situation, and their characters and inter-personal reactions in that situation push the narrative to its grim conclusion. The Doctor Who production team hadn't run out of money or anything, it was just that head writer Russell T. Davies had to create a script from scratch fast to replace another that they decided not to progress, and he was keeping it simple. He had to work with some restrictions like not being able to feature the companion Donna in the main action, as Catherine Tate was off shooting the next 'double-banked' story, Turn Left. He turns this to his advantage, though, as the Doctor has nobody to vouch for him and so is distrusted by the others. Midnight doesn't have everyone getting killed off one by one as some of those films do, but this somehow makes it even more grim for me. At the end, everyone still living is a little bit diminished by the awful events that have taken place, even the Doctor. It's a particularly sad moment where they all realise that they didn't even know the name of the person that saved them from becoming murderers, and let's face it probably saved them from fates worse than that (if the creature inside Sky had got back to civilisation, it wouldn't be just seeking to learn more French or Italian, I'm guessing).

The psychological horror in the story is created with minimalist staging. There is barely any significant visual effects work in the story, some CG establishing shots of the twinkly planet and that's it. Everything else appears to my eyes at least to be practical and lighting effects. It's also only right and proper to give kudos to sound recording and design to allow for the many stages of Sky's repeating dialogue: the virtuoso moment where the Doctor and Sky are talking simultaneously and then she starts to overtake him is both technically brilliant and hair-raising. The creation of conflict and menace, though ably supported by those departments, is mostly the responsibility of the actors, and they all meet the challenge. To facilitate this, the most old school techniques were put in to practice in Doctor Who again: the cast had much more extensive rehearsal that would be normal for this period, and they shot in story order. Essentially, they were creating a TV play, just like the people working in front of and behind the cameras on Doctor Who in the 1960s, and its heartening as a long term fan to know that those approaches can still have their uses. The result is an ensemble cast that are all delivering the goods. To pick out an individual for special praise, though, Lesley Sharp is phenomenal in this. After her possession, there's a moment where she turns and has become a different person before one's eyes, and a scary one to boot (no doubt there are some imperceptible changes in hair and make-up to help that transformation along, but it is 90% acting). I also like the lizard-like darting head movements as she takes in the people around her. Tennant's work in the story shouldn't overlooked; he evokes the frozen fear of someone trapped in their own body to remarkable and once again scary effect.

The story isn't overburdened with elements from series arcs. One of the characters researching the lost moon of Poosh (part of the plotline where the Daleks are stealing planetary bodies to power some big destructive gizmo) slots nicely in. Rose appears briefly on a monitor trying to break in from her parallel universe, which looked jarring to me, but the children - who'd never seen this story before and presumably have forgotten the wider context - took it in their stride. More interesting is the script utilising some of the tics and idiosyncrasies of the Doctor as a plot point; not just the "Allons-y"s and "Molto bene"s, but also the habit he sometimes has of admonishing his companions with a "No, don't do that". This is deployed to Donna at the end when she starts copying what he says, but it's no longer a joke. The script is wonderful in its economy. There's no TARDIS, interior or exterior (it's only mentioned in passing as part of the stream of consciousness when the Doctor is testing Sky's ability to copy anything he says) just straight into the new situation. The structure is a simple but devastating succession of story beats to ratchet up the tension, as the possessed Sky starts to copy everyone, then just the Doctor, then syncs, then overtakes. If it was a treatment document just listing those out it wouldn't seem like much, but it's written and played with conviction. It might just be Davies's best script for the show, though he makes it seem effortless as next up is Turn Left, and that also might just be Davies's best script for the show.

Great as they are, these stories aren't exactly laugh riots. If I have one criticism of Midnight it's that it's a bit too bleak. Turn Left is similarly a tale of the worst traits of humankind and grim things happening, but it's bleak specifically because the Doctor's not there. In Midnight, the Doctor is present but still can't help matters. This, plus - something very rare for Doctor Who - the lack of any explanation for what the monster was, makes it very dark. The creature was only stopped because of a fluke, and it assimilated the essence of the smartest person in the room (maybe even the smartest person in the universe) within a few minutes, while nobody else including the audience captured even the tiniest fact about it. Shivers! It's not so dark as to break out of the acceptable shape of a Doctor Who story (unlike Sleep No More, at least in my view), but the Doctor is supposed to be the hero. To have him powerless to help isn't a trick that can be pulled off too many times.

Connectivity:

In both Midnight and The Highlanders, there's a performance by one of the Troughton family, and in both stories the Doctor finds himself trapped inside a craft surrounded by hostile people.

Deeper Thoughts:

Made it through the wilderness: a book report on The Long Game by Paul Hayes. It felt like a while since I'd bought any Doctor Who product, and then a few things all arrived through the letterbox around the same time. First was the Blu-ray box set of Season 9 (Jon Pertwee's third year as the Doctor), which I will cover in more detail in a future blog post; alongside it was the latest Doctor Who Magazine special on all the 'Showrunners' of the series to date. The latter was an interesting read, though the team putting it together have had to stretch the definitions somewhat to be able to cover both classic and new series Doctor Who together (they count the 20th century producers including the TV Movie's Philip Segal as showrunners, when for most of those years the script editors had a lot of influence too, then cover lead writers / executive producers Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall for the 21st century). In the section on Davies, The Long Game by Paul Hayes, which tells "The inside story of how the BBC brought back Doctor Who" was quoted. This reminded me that I had meant to buy the book and read it when it came out recently. Somehow, in what felt like the blink of an eye, 'recently' has turned into about 18 months ago - the book was published in late 2021. How time passes. Anyway, it is still available to purchase online, so I got a copy delivered and dove straight into it after the Showrunners special. I thoroughly recommend it as the definitive guide to the second stage of the so called "wilderness years" of Doctor Who, from 1996 to September 2003.

The narrative starts after the US broadcast of the Paul McGann TV Movie. Even before it was shown in the UK, it had become obvious that the programme hadn't done the numbers stateside to kick-off a series there. Universal TV's option was extended a year to the end of 1997, but it was clear to everyone - both in the BBC and in fandom - that it wouldn't lead to anything more on the telly. There then follows a good summary of everything that happened from that point to the long awaited announcement of Doctor Who's return in the September of 2003, as a series that would subsequently grab everyone's attention and would star Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper and David Tennant, and eventually have last minute script scrambles and experimental episodes like Midnight (which coincidentally shares a title with The Long Game's final chapter). In the background was the activity of many a burgeoning "cottage industry" (each covered in its own chapter) of Doctor Who books, magazines, audios and the programme's online content like the Scream of the Shalka animation. Meanwhile, people were joining the BBC who would be instrumental in bringing the programme back: Peter Salmon, Mal Young, Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner, Lorraine Heggessey. The BBC, and particularly BBC One drama, was gradually pulled out of the doldrums of the late 1990s by the new intake, and by changes made to its structures and processes. Just like in many a big organisation, there were lots of different fiefdoms that sometimes pulled in opposing directions.

In this period, two areas both saw Doctor Who as a property that could serve their requirements. BBC Films with BBC Worldwide wanted to make a Doctor Who movie; BBC Drama and Programming wanted to create an ongoing series on BBC One Saturday nights. Conflict between these two caused a false start chronicled in the book. From 1999 to 2000, Russell T. Davies, having established himself as big name with Queer as Folk, made it clear he would work at the BBC but only on Doctor Who, and was in discussions with contacts there who wanted him to do it. Ongoing negotiations related to the movie stymied this, but then those negotiations came to nothing anyway. It's unfortunate that but for this the return of Doctor Who might have been a few years earlier. Maybe it wasn't the time, though. Two years later - with the movie no closer to being a reality - the critical mass appeared to be forming. Four or five different groups were all pitching - at varying stages of conversation with the BBC - to return the show to TV. There was a "bid" from Dan Freedman, who had previously got a radio pilot made, which was then retooled to become the first online Doctor Who story Death Comes to Time. There was a bid from the trio of Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman, partially as a reaction against what they feared Freedman would do with the show. Matthew Graham had his hat in the ring, too, and maybe others who have now been forgotten. From reading the book, though, Davies was the only contender who had a chance at the prize. Still nothing progressed, though, because of "rights issues".

It's always interesting to read the inside story of history one witnessed from the outside. In the First Time Round section of The Vampires of Venice blog post last year, I talked briefly about the barren feeling of those first few years of the new millennium for a Doctor Who fan. In the book, my thoughts are somewhat echoed by Stephen Cole and Gary Gillatt (BBC Worldwide Doctor Who range editor and Doctor Who Magazine editor of the time, respectively). They felt, after all the disappointments and raised hopes of the past, that it might have been a relief if Doctor Who was just left alone. During that period, part of the misery was hearing often about those "rights issues" as a stubborn stumbling block. It turned out, though, that they didn't exist. There was a perception, held in good faith by many people within the BBC, that the rights issues for bringing back the show were intractable; but, once there was someone in a position to research it (from the BBC Cult website team, ensuring they were fine to produce Scream of the Shalka, and also to be able to answer the frequently asked questions on this topic from fans), it boiled down to just contention with BBC Worldwide, who still wanted to make that movie. By 2003, senior people in the BBC believed they'd had enough of a chance, and Davies et al finally got the go ahead. Paul Hayes structures all this history into an engaging page turner, talking to most of the main players in new interviews, and using extensive archive material too. As we approach the beginning of Russell T. Davies's second stint of running the show, it is a timely read to find out what happened to make the first one a reality. I urge everyone to get a copy, if they haven't already: it even has a happy ending.

 

In Summary:

Sparkly but dark.