Midnight

Dear Gary—

What a great little story Midnight is. Strangely, one of the most satisfying elements to me is the fact that Donna gets a day off. I love Donna as the Doctor’s companion, but I also love the fact that she gets to kick back and relax on this jewel of a planet with nothing to do but be pampered. The Doctor is always promising his companions a holiday but adventures always get in the way. I’m glad to see that Donna does not get gypped out of her day at the spa.

Leaving Donna to her well earned rest, the Doctor boards a shuttle bound for a sapphire waterfall on the spectacular planet of Midnight. What is fascinating about this scenario is that the Doctor, who so often plays intergalactic tour guide in his TARDIS, is now the enthusiastic tourist. (And I have to laugh remembering Mel’s experience in Delta and the Bannermen and can’t help but wonder if the Doctor is regretting his decision to bypass the bus in that serial.)

The Doctor throws himself wholeheartedly into this new role, becoming uncharacteristically social with his fellow passengers. For all of his euphoric talk about humanity in the past this is the first time that he goes out of his way to become chummy with individuals without any underlying goal or motivating threat. They are an affable lot, for the confines of a four hour journey. Even Sky Silvestry, who would prefer to be left to her reading, shares a companionable meal with the Doctor.

It is wonderful and it is awful; the Doctor has opened himself up and the payoff is both rewarding and horrific. We get to know Sky and Professor Hobbes and Dee Dee and Val, Biff, and Jethro Crane and the hostess as individuals along with the Doctor through presentations and discussions and laughter and tears. One by one; slowly coalescing as a group.

There is something liberating in giving one’s self up to the whole. I relate it to that exhilarating feeling of a stadium full of like-minded fans at the moment when their team wins the big game. The dark side, however, is always lurking and manifests in mob rule. There are a number of compelling depictions of this; what always comes to my own mind is The Oxbow Incident. Midnight is an excellent example on a more intimate scale.

And it all starts with a single Voice.

It is a terrifying sequence. The bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the cockpit is lost. Run of the mill stuff. Then the pounding starts. I read an AV Club review that referenced 1963’s The Haunting and I couldn’t agree more. I saw that movie ages ago and don’t remember it in detail, but that one scene has haunted me since. It is horror on a personal level. The unknown is closing in; but it is not unknown—it is very true and real to the individual psyche. In Midnight the horror zeroes in on Sky. The rest of the group can stay somewhat detached from the terror; they are scared but don’t know of what. However Sky internalizes the fear and gives it a home. She knows what is knocking on the door and it is coming for her.

The ensuing events are eerie. Most everyone has suffered through the annoyance of the playground echo; Midnight takes this to its most chilling extreme. No special effects are required. Lesley Sharp’s eyes are unsettling enough. The monotone repetition; the robotic movement; the impassive expression. Everything contributes to this most disconcerting atmosphere.

Slowly this one voice infects, creeping into the minds of the passengers, becoming One in its intent.

Only the Doctor remains above. But his curiosity gets the better of him. There is only one way to combat the Playground Echo and that is to ignore it. The Doctor tries, but he can’t resist the retort.

“It repeats; then it synchronizes; then it goes on to the next stage.” It is exactly as the Doctor predicted, and yet he can’t resist falling into its trap.

The Voice does not choose the Doctor because he is the cleverest in the room (and I’ll resist going on a diatribe about how off-putting this assertion is) but rather it chooses him because he is a voice apart; the strongest voice opposing the pull of conformity.

Ultimately this is not the Doctor’s story. This is the story of the hostess. This is the story of Dee Dee. This is the story of the voice of reason. This is the story of the triumph of the individual. This is the story of humanity.

Because his is not the only voice apart.

The Doctor has met seven separate voices (not counting the pilot and mechanic) and while the rule of the mob is forceful, there is always that extra spark of reason that cannot be silenced for long. What I love about this particular fable of the vocal majority is the unpredictability factor. Val and Biff Crane play to type as the de facto leader and loyal follower. Professor Hobbes falls in line as the dithering blowhard who knows the difference between right and wrong but who is unable or unwilling to act accordingly when the tide is against him. Mainstays of the mob. Sky is possessed and a non factor. This leaves three.

I’ll start with Jethro. Jethro is set up early on as the rebellious teen embarrassed by his parents and eager to establish himself as a nonconformist, a voice apart. Enter mob rule. The easy way out would be to make Jethro the one to stand alone against the crowd. I am glad to see that Midnight opts for the more realistic version. Jethro is nothing more than a young Professor Hobbes. People trying so hard to rebel, so hard to be different, are at heart really only following the latest trend and wind up with no solid convictions to call their own. Fodder for the mob.

Next we have Dee Dee. Dee Dee is the put upon assistant to Hobbes. A woman clearly more intelligent and resourceful than her boss or her confidence allows. Again she is a character that would be easy to set up as the underdog hero. Instead the script takes her in unexpected directions. She does not as a matter of course go along with the mob, yet she also does not buck the tidal wave of hysteria. She emerges as a voice to be reckoned with; but her reasoning at first leads her to the side of the multitude, although not as meek follower. “I want her out,” she states with conviction as she provides the necessary information for expelling the possessed Sky from their midst. Dee Dee is not going along with the whim of the pack, she has rationalized her own conclusions and: “I’m sorry, but you said it yourself Doctor. She is growing in strength.” Her reason next leads her to the truth of the situation; she alone understands what has truly happened between the Doctor and Sky. But she is powerless. She can express her observations but nothing more. You cannot debate with a mindless horde.

Finally we have the hostess.  “The hostess—what was her name?” Nameless. Impatient and intolerant. Stickler for the rules. Trying to maintain order. Vocal in her blood lust. The least likely to be a hero. But the most likely to act. Val is the instigator; Biff is the henchman; Hobbes is the ditherer; Jethro is the conformer; Dee Dee is the impotent. The hostess is all of these at one time or another, but in the end she sees with razor like clarity what needs to be done and she does it.

The Doctor’s voice was stolen and he remains silent; vulnerable; helpless. The hostess alone acts.

It is a terrifying tale shifting from the horrors of the mind to the baseness of humanity and it leaves the Doctor shaken to his core. It started out as a fun-filled adventure and took a detour into the darkest aspect of the human condition. How fitting that it ends with the Doctor and Donna, so few words between them yet the scene is full of all of the compassion and understanding that was missing from those confining walls of the broken down shuttle.

Midnight is a sparkling gem of a story and I sit speechless with the Doctor, Gary, as I take it in.