Director: Amanda Brotchie
Writers: Russell T. Davies, Sharma Angel-Walfall
Main Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Bethany Antonia, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Luke Rhodri
Streaming Service: Disney+, iPlayer
“Don’t turn your back on me. Please, don’t turn your back on me.” – Aliss (Rose Ayling-Ellis)
Where the Well meets Hell
As his continued attempts to take Belinda (Varada Sethu) home fail, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his wayward companion next find themselves on Mining Planet 6767, hundreds of thousands of years in the future. After joining a rescue operation to save any survivors of the mining colony on the planet, the colony recently went inactive and no one had been heard from, the two find themselves coming face-to-face with a mysterious entity from the Doctor’s past.
The rescue party finds Aliss (Rose Ayling-Ellis), a lone survivor who harbors a dark secret that’s hidden just out of sight, behind her. This creature turns out to be the same monster the Doctor went up against in the season four Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) era episode “Midnight,” which is widely regarded as one of the best episodes of not only Russell T. Davies’ original run, but of modern Doctor Who. What made that episode special wasn’t only the tension and the character work from the cast, but also how mysterious the creature of Midnight remained. And we don’t really get an answer for what it is here, thankfully, but we get little glimpses at its true shape.
“The Well” is definitely an incredibly tense episode and does the thing this show tends to do well in general: lean hard into the monster horror aspects of the story. The story is written by RTD and Sharma Angel-Walfall (Dreamland, Hollyoaks). Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with the latter’s work enough to really parse out what in this episode belongs to Angel-Walfall and what belongs to Davies. It is a really good episode though and easily the best of the season so far, It’s also nice to see new writers getting their shot at DW and making their mark.
I don’t know if this episode will become known as modern classic like “Midnight” will, in fact much of it’s story as I write I realize is pretty similar to “The Waters of Mars,” another RTD era story that features a mysterious dangerous entity seeping up the surface of a planet from its bowels and terrorizing the colony on the surface. Only a few survive to tell the tale. I think ultimately, it will just be known as the pretty good sequel to Midnight and something you put on when you want to re-watch the first and then watch the second afterwards. Why not?
It’s all in the execution
Did we need a sequel to “Midnight”? No, but as a singular episode, I did quite like it. I like a lot of the character dynamics between the rescue party; some are pretty standard, but I don’t think anyone gives a bad performance. I especially liked Rose Ayling-Ellis’ portrayal of Aliss. A scared mother who just wants to return to home and see her child, but is cursed with this thing that kills anyone who seeks to harm it. Casting a deaf actor as a deaf character, too, was a great call, and making that part of her being detrimental to the story was also a very smart call.
I love Gatwa’s continued compassion as the Doctor, and any time Belinda jumps into nurse mode, I get excited because it’s a really good character beat. Sethu is so good in this role. There’s also a really good bit of foreshadowing at the beginning and ending of this episode that hints at how many characters will make it out of the story alive. And the ending where we get hints that the creature may have survived after all, or split into a separate creature that allowed a version of it to survive (I attribute this idea to @TARDISTime2 and @MistressofNull on Twitter), I don’t know if that’s going anywhere, but I liked it a lot.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this episode is as strong as its predecessor. While it doesn’t take away a lot of the mystery surrounding the creature, it also just places it in a setting and overall style of story that is more common in Doctor Who – the base under siege – rather than what the original did where it was just a confined space of normal people traveling in a luxury train. And though it has been a long time since I’ve seen that episode of DW, I also distinctly remember the creature acting differently. I remember it jumping hosts at will, and when it talked through people, it stole the words and was able to mimic the person it was talking to so perfectly that it became like a mirror of the other person.
I don’t know if it lost those abilities after hundreds of years or what, or if it’s currently working off of some survival instinct that it wasn’t working with before now that it doesn’t necessarily have the upper hand. Either way, an interesting way to change it up, but not as strong. Reduced the creature into a more bog-standard Who monster.
Regardless, “The Well” was unnecessary, but at least it was good. Not quite a modern classic, but it’s the best of this season so far and a good, scary story. Next week, Ruby returns!
