Broken Mirrors

Story: The Well
Written By: Russell T. Davies & Sharma Angel-Walfall
Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2025

The TARDIS lands in the middle of a space mission, and because this Doctor is all about getting drezzed for the occasion, The Doctor and Belinda are in proper space gear.  They head down to some dark planet and discover everyone in the mining operation has been killed and all the mirrors are broken, They find one soul survivor, a deaf cook.  As the mystery unravels, the Doctor discovers to his horror that they are actually on the planet Midnight, the same diamond planet in which the Tenth Doctor faced a mysterious foe who attached itself to someone on his tour bus and nearly got everyone killed. "Midnight" is genuinely one of my favorite all-time episodes, and ranks high amongst my favorite RTD-penned episodes.  So it is fun to revisit it and get a variation on the story.  

In fact, one of the things I like about this episode is that it does something different with the same mysterious monster, but still never really shows it and keeps a ton of mystery about it.  I'd have hated more explanation or actually seeing whatever it is...because that would suck all of the fantastic energy out of what makes this such a great doctor Who monster.  

So this is a definite win of an episode for me, and I would also say it gives us one of Gatwa's best performances as the Doctor.  Can I just say though, I absolutely despise this Doctor's penchant for calling everyone "honey" or "babes"?  Personally, if anyone ever calls me any cutesy nickname and they are not my wife...I genuinely despise that, so I was sort of rooting for the guy who called him out on it in this episode. What a shame that guy turned out to be such a dick and got killed for his own idiotic behavior. Apparently I am supposed to be on the Doctor's side for that awful character trait he has in this regeneration?  Guess what I am not. 

This episode also furthers the season's mystery box, with Earth being missing from history apparently.  Also as with all episodes this season, Mrs. Flood keeps showing up hidden in each adventure. Hmm...who is she?  

 Anywho...I liked this episode quite a bit, and would love to have more of THIS version of RTD, please.  

NEXT TIME: Return of Ruby