TVSquad

(S04E10) Russell T. Davies proves me wrong...and right. I have said since the first season of Doctor Who's relaunch that the man can't write science fiction. I still believe that. But I never said he couldn't write. Actually, he's a very good writer in terms of writing about emotions and relationships (which is why we're introduced to each companion's family in the new series). Fortunately, this episode's writing plays more upon his strengths.



The Doctor and Donna are visiting the planet Midnight, a crystalline planet which is located so close to its sun that exposure to the Xtonic radiation from it would vaporize any living thing in seconds. This is an example of Davies' inability to write sci-fi. Couldn't he have used a bit more of a basis in fact for Xtonic radiation rather than making something up? There are many radiations out there that can kill people. In a move that is very different than he has done in years past, the Doctor decides to travel alone (with a tour group, of course) to visit the Sapphire Waterfall while Donna chills out in the hotel (making the episode virtually Donna-less).

While going on its three-hour tour (okay, it was four hours. I just wanted to use a Gilligan's Island theme), the ground shuttle is attacked by some sort of creature which rips open the front part, vaporizing the drivers, and seemingly possesses one of the passengers named Sky Silvestry (played by Lesley Sharp). While the remaining passengers wait for help to arrive, cabin fever sets in and they get a bit snarky with each other. Why does a creature than can rip open doors need to possess people?

A brilliant maneuver plot-wise by Davies is having the monster in this episode be invisible, untouchable and having unknown goals, making it very dangerous. It only presents itself within Sky by first repeating the words of other passengers like a child's game, then saying them at the same time, then saying them in advance of the other person (apparently, this causes the particular person the creature focuses on to lose their individuality for whatever nefarious purpose it had in mind).

Having the majority of the action take place in the shuttle must have also saved on the budget, much like last season's "Gridlock" (which took place in ships that looked remarkably similar to each other). This seemed more of a filler episode while Davies and company prepared the final trilogy of the season.

Davies get us sympathetic with the few shuttle passengers by introducing us to all of them through the Doctor, making us feel for them more. It amplifies the tragedy of the passengers having to throw Sky outside the ship and let her die to save the Doctor.

Random thoughts:

• Rose makes a quick appearance on a video screen silently shouting for the Doctor. More foreshadowing
• The character of Professor Hobbes is played by David Troughton, who is the son of the second actor to play the main character in Doctor Who, the late Patrick Troughton, This is not the first Doctor Who episode he has appeared in, having been in a few of his father's episodes and a few from the era of the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. There is definitely a family resemblance. I wonder if they could have him back playing his father's role in some sort of multiple Doctor story? What with Georgia Moffett (daughter of fifth Doctor Peter Davison) appearing in "The Doctor's Daughter", this has been the season for seeing the Doctor's children.
  
• When I saw this episode, I thought of that old Twilight Zone episode in which William Shatner saw the creature on the wing of the plane while he was in flight. Same fundamental concept.
• This is the first time in the new series that the Doctor has been companion-less through the episode (the previous time before this was the Tom Baker episode "The Deadly Assassin").

Science fiction has always been about asking the question "what if?", and there are those writers who can ask or answer the question better than others. Russell T. Davies is not one of the better ones, but he can certainly write about people and this episode shows it.