Midnight

The usual Doctor Who episode contains tons of monsters, special effects and a lot of action. This one is a pleasant change of pace. The focus has shifted from all the scary costumes and onto the actors themselves. While some may find this episode boring, others may treasure how well all the actors were handling their parts - the strange lonely lady, the common family with a rebellious son, the professor who thinks he knows it all and his bright, but overlooked assistant - these are all characters acted out with the utmost conviction. I am happy that the suspense in this episode does not come from another blatant alien attack on Earth and from the weird-looking aliens themselves, but from the build-up of strange occurrences, which leave room for the viewer's own imagination. As for Catherine Tate missing, well, that made the episode just more cohesive, because she would have ruined the atmosfear ;)

Seriously. Just. Wow.

"Midnight", I can safely say, is a Doctor Who experience unlike any other. In a series that had previously left me quite underwhelmed, this completely blew my mind.

This is bar none Russell T. Davies' greatest work. He tosses aside all of the DW typicality: the companion, the hideous monsters, the running... Even the Tardis takes a leave of absence. In their places, he gives us a claustrophobic,motionless, and tense 45 minutes of sheer paranoia - and boy is it amazing!

Here we find The Doctor leaving Donna behind at a spa while he boards a tour bus on its way around Midnight, or 'the diamond planet'. He gets acquainted and rather chummy with the other passengers to pass the time, until suddenly the bus stops unexpectedly in a place where no person has ever gone, and they realize that they are no longer the only passenger on board . . .

As we all know, Steven Moffat is the master in creating a disturbing, chilling, and very cerebral atmosphere. Remember "Blink"? He created a monster that was genuinely terrifying without being aggressive or loaded with prosthetic. Well, Davies does him one better here. This time, we don't even know what the monster is, or what it looks like. It's more of an essence, like a demon possession. It grabs hold of its victim and corrupts it. How? We don't know. Why? Don't know. And that's what makes it so horrific.

This seems to be The Doctor's strongest adversary to date. He can't use words to talk sense into it, or use his screwdriver to find out more about it, and as paranoia strikes everyone on bored, he can't even win their trust. There's nothing for him to fight, and he is left in the mercy of scared innocents that think of him as a risk to their own safety. In fact, this is the only time we've seen the 10th rendered completely helpless - and David Tennant plays to that beautifully! In fact, everyone in this episode did a magnificent job! It's just a gripping study in character and emotion from start to finish.

All in all, this was my favorite episode to date, and by the end of it, my heart was racing so fast, I just had to watch it again.

With minimal set and a small group of actors, this is a fantastically claustrophobic and effective episode. Unusually for one penned by Russell T. Davies, this episode is removed from the story arc of the series, and as Blink, would stand alone as a short sci-fi horror.

A strange choice to follow the atmospheric Forest of the Dead, as three such strong episodes in a row could make the overall arc of the series uneven - but it's an episode worth watching purely for itself, regardless of the rest of the series. Interesting and frightening, with a marvellous performance from Lesley Sharpe, and an unusually restrained turn from David Tennant. Magic.

Seriously, ignore carrotjuicer3000's review. This is one of the best episodes of season 4, maybe of the whole series. It's suspenseful, its well written, its just....eerie. Just because its a standalone episode doesn't mean its not just as good as others. And not every episode needs comic relief, specially not one like this. So Tate is not missed. She gets the next few episodes focused on her anyways.

Lesley Sharp is fantastic in her role, marvellously creepy... Tennant is brilliant as always. The supporting cast is fantastic too, which includes Colin Morgan(Merlin).

Once you start watching this episode, you literally can't stop. Every time I've seen it repeated on BBC3, and skipped over the channel, at any point during the episode, I'd have to continue watching. Who'd a thunk an episode set in one room would be so brilliant? It's simply....molto bene.

There's a bus on a planet called midnight, there's a bus on a planet called midnight, whose passengers got quite a big fright, whose passengers got quite a big fright, when some were possessed, when some were possessed, they all got distressed, they all got distressed, and a couple danced into the moonlight, and a couple danced into the moonlight.

A sparkling, effervescent and diamond jewelled classic, if only all filler episodes could be this imaginative, possibly a very close second to Blink on the all time New Who Best of, and stands alone as a glittering piece of science fiction writing and performance in its own right (unlike the next not so good episode).