Summary
Doctor Who’s latest episode, “The Well,” reintroduces a nameless, faceless monster that first terrified audiences way back in 2008. In Series 4, Episode 10, “Midnight,” the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) encounters a mysterious entity that works by sowing paranoia and fear. The episode ends with questions still lingering. Thirteen years later, that entity has finally made another appearance — with potentially significant implications for the show’s future.
Since his debut episodewhere he bigenerated from the Fourteenth Doctor, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has been encountering members of the Pantheon of Discord, also known as the Gods of Chaos. It began with the Toymaker, the god of games, and has continued with the gods of music, death, and light. The Midnight entity’s domain remains unknown, but details dropped throughout “The Well” hint that it is part of this pantheon.
What Happens In “Midnight”?
In “Midnight,” the precursor to “The Well,” the Tenth Doctor andDonna Noble (Catherine Tate)are visiting a resort planet called Midnight. Nothing lives here because of the sun’s galvanic radiation, but with its surface made of diamonds, the planet’s beauty makes it a popular vacation destination. Donna relaxes at the resort spa, while the Doctor heads off on an excursion to see the sights.
On the way, though, the shuttle carrying the tourists suffers a mysterious failure. They hear knocking, and one passenger sees something moving outside — which should be impossible. One of the passengers, a woman named Sky, exhibits strange behavior, repeating the others' words while she is unable to move. The Doctor tries to assess the situation as the rest of the passengers become increasingly paranoid, wanting to throw Sky outside into the radiation, and suggesting the Doctor join her when he protests.
The Doctor then suddenly freezes, while Sky returns to normal. It appears at first that they have switched roles, and the Doctor is now possessed by whatever force held Sky. But when Sky uses some of the Doctor’s trademark phrases, such as “Allons-y,” the shuttle hostess realizes that Sky is still possessed. Forcing open the door, she tackles Sky out of the shuttle, sacrificing them both to the radiation in order to save the others. It’sone of the show’s scariest episodes, and will haunt viewers long after it is over.
“The Well” Expands On The Entity’s Terror
In “The Well,” the Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda (Varada Sethu) arrive on an unknown planet and join a platoon of soldiers investigating a mining base. There, they discover almost everyone dead: half shot, the other half with broken necks. The only survivor is Aliss Fenley, a deaf woman who served as the base’s cook.
While Belinda and several of the soldiers treat and monitor Aliss, the Doctor joins troop leader Shaya Costallion (Caoilfhionn Dunne) in investigating the base. He begins to put the pieces together — the galvanic radiation, the presence of a diamond mine — to realize that this planet is in fact Midnight, four hundred thousand years after his last visit. At the same time that Aliss admits,“There is something behind me,“the Doctor realizes just what that “something” is.
I’ve been here before.
The entity from “Midnight” is back, but it’s different this time. In the four hundred thousand years since it was last seen, it has evolved and learned. Anyone who steps directly behind the entity’s host is violently thrown, snapping their neck and crushing their bones. Yet despite its newfound power, it still works by sowing fear and suspicion. The workers at the mining base shot each other in an attempt to stop the entity’s destruction, but all in vain, as the thing only passes to whoever killed its last host.
Is The Midnight Entity A God?
As tensions rise, Aliss describes how the thing revealed itself to the people at the mining base:
“It came out of the well, and they said it was laughing.”
Since “The Giggle,” the gods have always announced themselves with a distinctive, telltale laugh. Aliss couldn’t hear it herself, but what she reports from the others is enough to suggest the presence of that chilling soundwe last heard in “Lux.“And when the Doctor describes the behavior of the thing he first encountered in “Midnight,” it suddenly sounds eerily familiar:
It had fun. Oh…it played games. I think it was learning.
Every god we have seen so far has had a penchant for toying with mortals. The Toymaker, Maestro, Lux Imperator,and even Sutekhall seemed to derive a kind of twisted joy from sowing fear and chaos. In “Midnight,” that was exactly what the entity did, turning the shuttle passengers against each other. The Doctor’s speculation that it was learning makes sense because, in “The Well,” its power has grown. Now, it can attack. Its whispers seem to compel its host to destroy according to its desire — smashing mirrors, crushing those who try to overpower it. Faced with this terrible threat, the members of the base grew terrified, suspicious, and desperate to protect themselves. As Aliss says, they killed each other to try and stop it. Aliss survived not just because she was the only one left, but because she could not hear the entity’s whispers.
Also like the other gods, the Midnight entity is both clever and tenacious. The Doctor and the others have to out-think it not once, but twice, before they are freed from its power. The Doctor frees Alice by forcing the thing to see its own reflection, blasting it with the same power that killed anyone who stepped behind it. But before everyone can make it out,it attaches itself to Belinda. Shaya, as a last resort, uses her skills as a crack shot to wound Belinda just short of fatally, forcing the entity to jump to her. She then throws herself down the mining shaft the entity came out of in the first place, sacrificing herself — much like the unnamed hostess did in “Midnight.”
Yet, the entity’s power seems to linger, just as the other gods' have. Even though Shaya drags it back under five miles of solid rock, one of the soldiers, Mo, seems to hear its whispers still. One of her fellow soldiers fixates on a point behind her, seeming to see something there. It’s possible that the entity escaped after all, but if it is indeed a god, it’s worth remembering that the presences of other gods have also lingered after their defeat. In “The Giggle,” the Doctor usedthe last of the Toymaker’s powerto duplicate his TARDIS. In “The Devil’s Chord,” he and Ruby throw a huge musical number and play the keyboard on the crosswalk of Abbey Road, thanks to the traces of power that Maestro left behind. The Midnight entity’s whispers may have left a mark in the same way — and there could still be consequences.
The Pantheon of Discord’s Future In Doctor Who
By suggesting the Midnight entity to be one of the Gods of Chaos,Doctor Whohas opened the door not just for new villains, but for revelations regarding past ones. There’s now room to speculate that it’s not just the Fifteenth Doctor who has been facing down these malevolent deities, but many of his past incarnations.
That doesn’t mean it’s necessary, or even advisable, to bring back a whole slew of enemies from the Doctor’s past. In “Empire of Death,” it was haunting enough to reveal that Sutekh had been traveling with the Doctor ever since their last meeting. Similarly, “The Well” hints that the Doctor may have been dealing with the godsfor far longer, and far more frequently, than he had imagined. It’s a reminder that these gods could be anywhere and everywhere, can return even when they were thought to be defeated, and have powers that nobody can predict. It’s a reminder that the Doctor isn’t done with them yet.
