Doctor Who Recap: Sign of the Times

Sequels can be risky because they don’t have to be boring or actively horrible to disappoint. Even when a follow-up is actually pretty good, it can still just remind people that the predecessor was pretty great. This week, Doctor Who gave us a sequel to the deeply unsettling 2008 episode “Midnight,” which is a fan-favorite for a reason. “The Well” tries to recapture that magic, and while it didn’t quite haunt me in the same way that “Midnight” did, it had enough of the same elements to be an enjoyable watch. It goes beyond the fact that plot-wise, the Doctor is facing a familiar foe (as familiar as an entity with no name and visible form can be, anyway); the episode is also interested in exploring some of the same thematic ideas.

As a refresher, in “Midnight,” the nameless entity boarded a bus and began scaring passengers — first by repeating others, then by speaking simultaneously, and finally by getting the Doctor to repeat it. But the people on board were arguably the true antagonists of the story. The entity may have weaponized their emotions, but they were the ones who almost threw the Doctor to his death. From a monster to sign language, when people are faced with something they don’t comprehend, they sometimes react with fear and suspicion and attempt to eliminate or overpower this perceived threat. Doctor Who, however, generally wants viewers to root for those who tend to react to the unknown with a desire to communicate, understand, and help.

But let’s back up and situate ourselves in the plot. The TARDIS still isn’t able to bring Belinda home, and she’s worried her parents and the planet are not safe. (I laughed when she suggested that a giant moth could be to blame, but then I remembered that a giant dog almost took the universe down last season, so who knows.) But the Doctor promises more than once that he will meet her mom and dad.

The TARDIS then bounces 500,000 years into the future for another vindicator reading. This time, the Doctor and Belinda are dropping in (heh) on a mission. After plummeting onto the surface of a desolate planet, they turn around to see an entire platoon pointing their guns at them. With the help of psychic paper, the Doctor convinces platoon leader Shaya Costallion and her troops that he’s a higher-up who has been sent with Belinda on something of a mystery shopping trip. This conveniently allows them to ask a lot of questions under the guise of testing the crew, whom they’ll be stuck with for at least five hours, because it turns out that the planet’s atmosphere is charged with galvanic radiation that requires the ship to make a slow descent. We learn that 15 days ago, all contact was lost with a mining colony on the planet. Upon investigation, half of the colonists have broken necks, and half of them have been killed by laser fire. Also, all of the mirrors have been broken. Hmm … if reflective surfaces are somehow important, are we dealing with Medusa? A basilisk? Someone like my younger self who’s just kind of insecure about her face? Alright, I’ll let the Doctor and Belinda do the inspecting.

The lone survivor is Aliss Fenly, a cook who is anxious to get back home to her two-year-old daughter. Aliss is deaf, and it’s cool to see that accessibility via closed-captioning is built into the troop’s suits. (Belinda later also learns that it’s illegal for nurses not to know sign language.) Aliss admits that she killed Sal, who is on the ground next to her, but insists that it was in self-defense. When the Doctor and Aliss start to sign to each other without speaking or using captions, Shaya tells them not to have private conversations. “It doesn’t matter the year,” the Doctor says. “Signing still makes some people paranoid.”

Aliss explains that everyone went crazy and began attacking each other, but side-steps a couple of questions — there’s something she’s not telling us. Meanwhile, there’s a bit of tension brewing between Shaya and Cassio, the guy who took offense when Fifteen called him “babes” and “hon.” Cassio is very suspicious of Aliss and believes that hope is “irrelevant.”

Before the Doctor accompanies Cassio and Shaya to the control area, he turns his captions off and tells Belinda to be careful of Aliss (she lip-reads this, but doesn’t take offense). Cassio, meanwhile, makes sure his captions are on when he instructs the troopers who are staying behind to guard Aliss to shoot to kill at any sign of trouble.

Belinda is having a pleasant chat with Aliss and a trooper named Mo when it happens. She sees a flicker behind Aliss, and a truly jarring music cue lets us know that we should be very scared. But immediately afterward, Belinda convinces herself that she’s just being paranoid. But she later sees it again, and then a couple other people in the room do, too. Aliss says this is how she ended up killing Sal, and insists that there’s nothing behind her, but a trooper named Hanno begins slowly walking in a circle to check.

Over in the control area, which houses the well where drilling for this mining colony first began, the Doctor, Shaya, and Cassio have been busy giving us details that are about to become very important to the plot: (1) Shaya is a great shot and has been fighting from a very young age as a citizen of Lombardo. (2) No one seems to know what Earth or the human race is. (3) According to Doctor-restored security camera footage, whatever caused all this chaos came out of the well. (4) This planet used to be made of diamonds and was called … Midnight.

I wonder how this moment lands with newer fans who haven’t had the time or space to watch past seasons. My stomach dropped when the Doctor said, “Midnight,” but I imagine that I would just feel confused by that dramatic reveal if I didn’t know the planet or what happened on it the last time the Doctor was there. “The Well” honestly doesn’t fill in too many gaps on that front. We get a wordless flashback of Ten’s terrified face, and Fifteen later quickly and broadly outlines his experience with this returning entity. “Midnight” is too popular to rehash too much, it seems.

When Hanno gets behind Aliss, she’s flung up into the air and dies before the Doctor sprints back, followed by Shaya and Cassio. A very-stressed Aliss finally switches up and confesses that there is something behind her that can’t be seen or stopped. “Now, please, help me,” she says. Belinda is the first to realize that you’ll be killed if you stand directly behind whatever is behind Aliss. “If it was a clock face, you die at midnight,” the Doctor muses. Aliss explains that killing transfers the entity, and that she’s just the last host left after everyone killed each other to get rid of it. (That explains the casualties caused by laser fire.)

Cassio believes that Shaya listening to the Doctor is grounds to initiate a protocol declaring her incompetent to lead. He threatens to shoot the Doctor if he keeps talking and then asks another trooper to test Belinda’s theory. When that trooper dies, Cassio doesn’t stop moving, which leads to a chain of people being flung to their deaths. Eventually, Shaya tells Aliss to turn in the direction that kills Cassio. “I had to. He was out of control,” Shaya says. The Doctor replies, “This is what it turns us into.”

Shaya wants to leave without the “contaminated” Aliss, but Belinda and the Doctor want to save her. When the Doctor comes up close for a conversation with his “old friend,” the whispering entity that Aliss can’t hear brings him to tears. It knows his name. We don’t know what else it is saying — maybe his name is just that long — but eventually, the Doctor addresses what’s behind the thing behind Aliss, which is his way of setting up his plan to get the entity’s reflection directly behind itself. After well-aimed shots at the pipes from Shaya, a waterfall (or do I call it a mercuryfall, since it’s not water?) starts pouring down.

The entity apparently can’t force Aliss to move because she just stands there as the mirror slowly forms. Then, it finally releases her with a blast. The Doctor fails to catch a glimpse of the host-less entity before everyone sprints back to the airlock. It can only hold six people at a time, and there are seven of them. Aliss goes to safety in the first group, signing her gratitude. The Doctor is left waiting with Belinda, Shaya, and Mo to be the second group.

But a blast knocks everyone down — the entity has followed them. It latches onto Belinda, who is in tears. (What are the whispers saying to her? I’m nosy.) The Doctor tells the entity to instead walk the universe on his back. It’s a wild offer because that would put way more people at risk, but his promise to Belinda from the beginning of the episode is weighing heavily on him.

Instead, Shaya’s the one who makes the sacrifice because she feels that it’s her duty to do so. After verifying that she “basically” has the same anatomy as a human, Shaya takes a strategic shot at a spot in Belinda’s heart that can mean death or “the narrowest of survival.” As Mo works to revive Belinda, Shaya heads back to the control area. She recalls running from “monsters” as a child before growing up and running across the galaxy to try and bring hope. When the Doctor catches up, it’s only in time to watch her choose to fall backward into the well.

Belinda survives and makes it back to the TARDIS with the Doctor, where they ponder what could’ve happened to Earth. And then it’s time for the Mrs. Flood cameo of the week. It’s so Susan Twist of her to be popping up everywhere, isn’t it? This time, she’s Squadron Leader Chinchappa. Mo recommends that posthumous recognition be given to Shaya (for “bravery in the face of impossible odds”) and Cassio (“he tried his best”) and passes on the Doctor’s suggestion that Midnight be nuked. Mrs. Flood/Chinchappa is pleased to hear that the Doctor has a vindicator. In the closing scene, a fellow trooper appears to have seen something behind Mo, and we cut to black as we hear whispers…

Cut for Time (Lord)

• We got a Britney Spears needle drop during the outfit change this week — of course Disney has the money for “Toxic.” Maybe that song choice is meant to reflect the Doctor and Belinda’s relationship a bit? Obviously not in a romantic sense, but she does seem to be warming up slightly to someone who comes with a great deal of danger. A guy like him should wear a warning and all that.

• At one point, Aliss said, “I’m all clean,” and spun around to try to prove it. A full 360 would’ve put everyone behind her at some point, but no one died. Was she standing too close for the entity to be in between? And how far does this power extend, anyway — what if somebody was a planet away, but technically behind the entity? I’m just trying to gauge the threat in case it somehow did survive. (I’m hoping not.)

• Also, do we think this entity has anything to do with any gods? In the credits, it’s simply identified as It Has No Name. Aliss said it was laughing when it came out of the well (which could be The Giggle), and the Doctor highlighted that the entity “had fun” and “played games” the last time they met. But I’m not sure what the harbinger would be, and the entity was not quite as eager to monologue about itself as the gods we’ve seen.

• Ruby has a boyfriend in next week’s preview. I’m happy for her, but the loved one in her life that I’m most hopeful we’ll see is Cherry Sunday. She deserves another cup of tea.

• If you have also finished this episode and are itching to watch/rewatch “Midnight,” it’s available to stream on Max in the U.S. Season four, episode 10. Enjoy!