In "Doctor Who" season 2 episode 3, aka "The Well", the Doctor's quest to return Belinda Chandra to Earth on May 24, 2025, takes a detour to a dead world hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
This monster story is a massive gear shift from the retro automatons of "The Robot Revolution" and the Roger Rabbit vibes of "Lux", and proof that variety remains one of the long-running sci-fi show's biggest assets. But this "Aliens"-esque rescue mission also calls back to a classic episode from the David Tennant era. Here's how…
Reverse the polarity of the spoiler flow! Proceed with caution if you're yet to watch new "Doctor Who" episode "The Well"
What happens on Planet 6767 in "The Well"?
The Doctor and Belinda tag along with a team of soldiers on a mission to find out what happened to 35 colonists living in a mercury mine. Fifteen days after losing contact, most of the residents are deceased, killed either by laser fire or severe trauma.
The base's cook, Aliss Fenly (Rose Ayling-Ellis), is the sole survivor, and anyone who walks behind her tends to end up dead.
Why is Planet 6767 familiar to the Doctor?
Because he's been there before. He doesn't realise it right away, of course, but the galvanic radiation, a now-extinct Xtonic sun, and the fact that the planet's surface was once covered in diamonds all point him in the right direction.
Then Platoon Leader Shaya Costallion (Caoilfhionn Dunne) confirms what he's already worked out: 400,000 years ago, this dead world was known as Midnight.
When did the Doctor previously stop off at Midnight?
The Doctor first visited the planet in 2008 episode "Midnight", during David Tennant's first stint as the Time Lord. With a landscape made of diamonds, the planet's spectacular views made it a popular tourist destination — even though the Xtonic rays (a form of galvanic radiation) emitted by the nearby sun made it totally inhospitable to life.
During the episode, the Doctor takes a coach tour to see the planet's famous sapphire waterfall, while companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) stays back at the resort for some R&R. This turns out to be a wise move, as the Doctor's traditional knack for finding trouble turns a routine trip into a nightmare for the passengers on board.
Related: Doctor Who Doctors, ranked worst to best
First, the tour vehicle comes to an unexpected halt en route to the waterfall. Then, there's some mysterious banging outside which sounds like some kind of creature — despite assurances from scientist Professor Hobbes (played by David Troughton, real-life son of Second Doctor Patrick) that no life can survive on Midnight's surface. But the real kicker comes when one of the passengers, Sky Silvestry (Lesley Sharp), starts to behave in an extremely odd manner, possessed by an unseen alien entity.
She initially repeats everything the passengers say word for word. Things get even more disconcerting when she mimics them in real-time, before changing tack and turning her attentions solely to the Doctor. She then pretends that the creature has passed into the Time Lord, as he — now unable to move — starts to repeat her every word.
Most of the passengers are fooled and are about to cast the Doctor onto the planet's surface when the unnamed cabin attendant (Rakie Ayola) realises it's all a trick. She sacrifices herself to throw the possessed Sky out of the airlock.
And rest assured that our summary really doesn't do the episode justice. "Midnight" is one of "Doctor Who"'s creepiest episodes, making ingenious use of a single set and an alien threat you never actually see.
Is the creature in "The Well" the same one who terrorised the Doctor and co in "Midnight"?
"The Well" may be set hundreds of millennia after "Midnight", but this appears to be the very same entity the Doctor met all those years ago — it even seems to remember that previous encounter when, the Time Lord admits, "I had never been so scared in my life".
Its modus operandi has changed over the subsequent centuries, however, with a box of tricks that stretches far beyond possessing an unfortunate victim. Now it lurks unseen behind a host, physically attacking anyone who crosses its path, while whispering poisonous words into the host's ears — this is why Aliss, who is deaf, is comparatively unaffected. It's also afraid of its own reflection. (While you never get a good view of the creature in "The Well", it's interesting to note that regular "Who" monster actor Paul Kasey is credited as "it has no name".)
It seems reasonable to assume that the monster has spent the last 400,000 years learning from its previous encounter with the Doctor, plotting ways to escape the planet and — quite possibly — seeking revenge for the mining operations that trashed its glittering planet's surface.
Does the creature survive?
Characters have sacrificed themselves to eliminate the entity during both of the Doctor's encounters on Midnight. Unfortunately, this fearsome Doctor Who villain has established a habit of transferring itself to a new host when the current one dies, so it looks like Costallion's decision to throw herself down the titular well was in vain.
In classic "Who" tradition, the episode's final scene strongly hints that surviving soldier Mo Gilliben (Bethany Antonia) has taken an unwanted guest back to her ship. Maybe the Doctor's "Aliens"-inspired instruction to "Nuke the site from orbit, never to return" won't be enough after all…
New episodes of "Doctor Who" stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ in the US every Saturday. "Midnight" is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Max in the US.
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