Midnight (Doctor Who)

196 – "Midnight"
Doctor Who episode
The planet Midnight
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
Others Billie Piper – Rose Tyler Lesley Sharp – Sky Silvestry Rakie Ayola – Hostess David Troughton – Professor Hobbes Ayesha Antoine – Dee Dee Blasco Lindsey Coulson – Val Cane Daniel Ryan – Biff Cane Colin Morgan – Jethro Cane Tony Bluto – Driver Joe Duane Henry – Mechanic Claude
Production
Directed by	Alice Troughton
Written by	Russell T Davies
Script editor	Helen Raynor
Produced by	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Incidental music composer	Murray Gold
Production code	4.8
Series	Series 4
Length	45 minutes
Originally broadcast	14 June 2008
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Forest of the Dead" "Turn Left"

"Midnight" is the tenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 June 2008. The episode placed much more emphasis on the role of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor than in the rest of the fourth series, with the Doctor's companion, Donna Noble (played by Catherine Tate) playing only a minimal role. For this reason Stephen James Walker has described this episode in his book Monsters Within as being "companion-lite" (in his analysis of this episode's successor, the "Doctor-lite" episode "Turn Left").

The Doctor and Donna visit the resort planet Midnight, the surface of which is bathed in lethal galvanic radiation from its xtonic star. The Doctor plans to take a shuttle to visit a waterfall made of sapphires, but is unable to convince Donna to leave the comfort of the local spa. He decides to take the trip by himself and sets off. Upon departure of the shuttle, the hostess starts a cacophony of on board entertainment which the Doctor disables with his sonic screwdriver. This forces the other passengers to engage each other in conversation as they travel.

The shuttle stops unexpectedly mid-route, and the pilot reassures everyone that they are fine. The Doctor uses his psychic paper to get himself into the cockpit, where the driver and mechanic report that the engines seem to be operating normally but they are not moving. The Doctor encourages them to open the cockpit shields to see out, and before the radiation forces them to close the shields the mechanic swears that he saw something moving towards them. The driver sends out a distress call and a rescue shuttle is dispatched but will take some time to arrive. Soon, a rhythmic knocking starts on the hull of the shuttle. The knocking seems to be mimicking the sounds the passengers make on the walls. The knocking moves around the hull to where a passenger named Sky is cowering, then the shuttle is rocked and the lights fail. The hostess opens the cockpit doors only to find the cockpit has been torn off the shuttle.