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Date	Episode	Title
04-26	2x03	"The Well"
05-03	2x04	"Lucky Day"
05-10	2x05	"The Story and the Engine"
05-17	2x06	"The Interstellar Song Contest"
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ValueSubtracted@startrek.website

Episode Discussion | Doctor Who | 2x03 "The Well" (startrek.website)

submitted 14 hours ago by ValueSubtracted@startrek.website to c/doctorwho@startrek.website

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Logline

Far in the future, on a tough, brutal planet, a devastated mining colony has only one survivor. To discover the truth, the Doctor and Belinda must face absolute terror.

Written by: Russell T Davies & Sharma Angel Walfall

Directed by: Amanda Brotchie

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[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'll definitely have to rewatch with the knowledge that it being a, uh, "sequel" to Midnight has no impact outside the emotional manipulation.

What I did like a lot was the BSL representation and the Tardis letting her humans make an effort to understand for once.

Is it realistic at all to require medical personnel to learn (at least some basic vocab in) the local sign language? You'd probably need bigger budgets which is an issue everywhere so anyone know what Lombardians are doing differently with their health care?

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

In today's society, probably not - in "Unleashed", Rose Ayling-Ellis says it takes the average person about seven years to become fluent. But it's a good dream to have, and if people started learning early enough in life, and valued it enough...

As for the Lombardians, maybe they have some improved sci-fi educational techniques. But at the same time, they clearly don't have the same expectations of their soldiers...

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago

Maybe those subtitle projector thingies are considered a better solution but they're expensive and so they reserve them for the military? And everybody else learns sign language because it's cheaper? That doesn't sound right - always a good idea to go deep into speculative territory about society in soft science fiction 😅

Oh yeah, Unleashed, thanks for the reminder :D

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 2 points 6 hours ago

Flood Watch 2025

So, Mrs. Flood may not be human, but rather Lombardic, a conveniently human-like species that apparently rose to prominence after Earth was destroyed on May 24, 2025.

And it's possible that she's not so much interested in the Doctor, but rather the Vindicator, which is capable of triangulating and locking on to a particular date, and "reeling it in" in order to travel to it.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 3 points 7 hours ago

Okay, I was aware of the rumours that this was going to be a sequel to "Midnight", and sure enough...

Unfortunately, I'm not sure it was worth it. "Midnight" is so perfect as self-contained story about an inexplicable, unexplainable evil, and this episode didn't really bring much new to the table.

That said, it was engaging, and I enjoyed watching it. I guess my biggest complaint is that when you lose the abject terror of "Midnight", it's easier to get distracted trying to figure out the "rules" of the entity, and how it works. The performances were all excellent, and it's always good to have a horror story of this nature, but I don't think it's going to end up on my list of all-time great episodes.

I thought the reuse of Britney Spears' "Toxic" was a little puzzling - I guess the connection is that it was the last song heard in the history of Earth in "The End of the World", which gives it some weight now that the Earth is gone?

[–] haverholm@kbin.earth 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Judging from last week's preview we're in for a good old, tense horror story on a deserted planet. Also, seems there has been an embargo in advance reviews unlike the first couple episodes of this season, so I'm expecting some good scares the powers that be didn't want spoiled.

What I'm saying is, I'm not watching this until it's dark out, and then I'm probably watching it twice. Will leave an actual response when I have 🧑‍🚀

[–] haverholm@kbin.earth 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

So, that was pretty effectively scary! I do enjoy when Doctor Who goes for those collective elements of dread, like in "Listen" or with the Silents. It's something the show has done so well post 2005, and this was no exception.

I don't get the "sequel to "Midnight"" thing, though. There was nothing conceptual tying this to the older story (which I had to rewatch immediately after). The entities' MO are completely different, the only connective tissue was clearly extraneous and added exactly to force the connection.

If RTD had told us it was a "Listen" sequel I might've bought it, but here we are. And it was very much the Aliens school of sequels with a bunch of meatheaded marines as secondary threat. Without the strained callback I feel I would have liked this episode a lot more.

Loved all the guest stars, and the relationship establishing between the Doctor and Belinda. And the Mrs Flood appearance threw me. Is this her true identity, or just an act like last episode?

So another strong link in the season arc of the elusive May 25 and Earth disappearing. Just... less of the forced legacy connections, please.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 1 points 1 hour ago

I don’t get the “sequel to “Midnight”” thing, though.

I haven't finished it yet, but the YT video I just shared to the community is shedding some light on how it came about.

TL;DW, they were having trouble getting their original idea (involving actual Nigerian gods) to work, scrapped it, noticed the similarities between what they had left and "Midnight", and leaned into it.

I don't really have a big issue with the entity's shifting motivation - and they did handwave it a bit by saying it was "leaning" during that first episode - but I think it's incredibly risky to do a sequel to an episode that's basically perfect.

Nowhere to go but down, even if you name something that's very good.