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This article contains spoilers for the \u201cDoctor Who\u201d episode \u201cThe Well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The latest episode of \u201cDoctor Who\u201d conjures a feeling of dread that has been missing from the show recently. Called \u201cThe Well\u201d and written by the showrunner Russell T Davies, along with Sharma Angel-Walfall, it is gripping and eerie, featuring a monster even the Doctor struggles to understand \u2014 despite the fact that he has faced it before.<\/p>\n Set half a million years in the future on an inhospitable planet called 6-7-6-7, \u201cThe Well\u201d sees the Doctor join a squadron of soldiers investigating a mining operation that has lost contact with base.<\/p>\n The operation\u2019s only survivor is a cook, Aliss (Rose Ayling-Ellis). But it\u2019s strange: People keep thinking they see something move behind her, though clearly nothing is there. The thing behind Aliss has no face, no physical form, not even a name. It\u2019s more the idea of a monster \u2014 and only once before has such an unseen villain featured on \u201cDoctor Who.\u201d<\/p>\n At the episode\u2019s climax, the reveal comes that some 400,000 years earlier, Planet 6-7-6-7 was called Midnight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That name alone will be enough to delight \u201cDoctor Who\u201d fans. \u201cMidnight\u201d is a 2008 episode, created by Davies and starring David Tennant. Seventeen years later, fans still regard it as one of the show\u2019s best \u2014 and most frightening \u2014 episodes.<\/p>\n But just what makes \u201cMidnight\u201d so terrifying? Here\u2019s everything you need to know.<\/p>\n In \u201cMidnight,\u201d the Doctor heads out on a bus tour across the deadly but beautiful diamond-covered planet of the same name, where intense radiation means nothing can survive. But then a loud noise bangs on the outside of the vehicle, sending the ragtag group of tourists on board into a panic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n An unseen entity seems to enter the bus, where it possesses a passenger, Sky (Lesley Sharp), and makes her repeat the words of the other travelers. Learning as it repeats, the thing inside Sky soon begins to speak in unison with the people it is mimicking, terrifying the other passengers.<\/p>\n They want Sky thrown off the bus so that the radiation outside will vaporize her, but then the Doctor seems to come under the control of the same strange force. It is only when Sky has convinced the tour group that they should dispose of the Doctor instead of her that the tour group\u2019s leader (Rakie Ayola) realizes that Sky has stolen the Doctor\u2019s voice and that she is controlling him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The tour leader sacrifices herself by dragging Sky outside, where they both die. But whatever has possessed her endured the radiation on Midnight before \u2014 so it is probably still at large.<\/p>\n Fans have been speculating about the monster from \u201cMidnight\u201d for years on Reddit and other message boards, where it became known as \u201cthe Midnight Entity.\u201d<\/p>\n Very little is known about it. In fact, the only proof we have that the monster exists at all comes from a \u201cDoctor Who\u201d spinoff web series called \u201cCaptain Jack\u2019s Monster Files,\u201d which ran from 2008 to 2010.<\/p>\n In that series, the monster is described by Captain Jack, a character played by John Barrowman, as a creature with a physical form \u201cthat can eat its way into the brain and take over the speech of its host.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems to have learned a lesson from \u201cMidnight.\u201d The monster in \u201cThe Well\u201d no longer regurgitates words, but stands directly behind the person it has latched onto, so that others can feel its presence but only rarely catch a glimpse. It whispers in the ears of those it possesses, causing them to violently turn on each other, just as they did on \u201cMidnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDoctor Who\u201d fans can get bogged down in complex lore \u2014 but the appeal of \u201cMidnight\u201d is its simplicity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The episode was created to inexpensively fill a gap in the 2008 season with a story largely set in one place \u2014 a device that TV executives call \u201ca bottle episode.\u201d Davies has said that he struggled with the script. \u201cIf you\u2019re not devoted, hooked, and scared, and passionate, it just reads like a bunch of boring people stuck in a box,\u201d he explained in his book \u201cThe Writer\u2019s Tale: The Final Chapter.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Davies has said that he wrote the script for \u201cMidnight\u201d in just three days, yet its elevation of a seemingly basic conceit \u2014 a monster that nobody can see \u2014 makes it electrifying. It\u2019s also an acting master class. Sharp displays remarkable dexterity as Sky, and when she speaks in unison with the other cast members, it is fast-paced and technically perfect.<\/p>\n But it is Tennant\u2019s performance \u2014 one of his best \u2014 that really made the episode so beloved. The Doctor is a known smart aleck, though here he is on the back foot. His lack of control and fear of the monster make the episode and the monster utterly horrifying.<\/p>\n \u201cMidnight\u201d ends as an unsolved mystery, whereas \u201cDoctor Who\u201d episodes usually tie everything up in a bow at the 45-minute mark. The monster, we must presume, is still out there. \u201cThe Well\u201d ends like this, too, when it seems that there is something lurking over a soldier\u2019s shoulder. The final shot of her petrified colleague\u2019s face, seeing but not knowing what she\u2019s seeing, leaves open the possibility that this sinister villain will return again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat happened in \u2019Midnight?\u2019<\/h2>\n
What is the monster from \u2018Midnight?\u2019<\/h2>\n
Why do fans love \u2018Midnight\u2019 so much?<\/h2>\n