Warning! Spoilers for Doctor Who’s second 60th-anniversary special, “Wild Blue Yonder,” are ahead.
Doctor Who has had quite a few scary episodes over the years, but season 4, episode 10, “Midnight,” has universally been acknowledged as the crowning jewel of sci-fi horror — now the second 60th-anniversary special, “Wild Blue Yonder,” is able to compete for the title as well. The former episode is unique in its premise and execution, and it is Doctor Who‘s Midnight entity that makes the story so blood-curdling simply because the Doctor has never encountered anything like it before. The latter episode takes the best aspects of “Midnight” and raises the stakes for the Doctor and Donna higher than ever.
While the Daleks and the Cybermen are frightening in their own right, the Midnight entity and the copycat creatures are easily among Doctor Who‘s scariest aliens for entirely different reasons. The fear of the unknown combined with the daunting atmosphere of something being subtly wrong make both episodes positively ghastly. In “Midnight,” David Tennant shined in a new, more dramatic light, but “Wild Blue Yonder” took it up a notch and allowed both Tennant and Catherine Tate to showcase their acting talent to the fullest — they did a great job of portraying such drastically different characters within a single episode.
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8 Wild Blue Yonder: Speed Was Everything
The Doctor & Donna ran for their lives
In comparison with Doctor Who’s first anniversary special, “The Star Beast,” “Wild Blue Yonder” was a lot more fast-paced, and that upped the danger levels within the story. Speed mattered a great deal in the episode, as the Doctor and Donna had to act fast if they wanted to survive. They had to rush out of the TARDIS, which started going haywire after Donna had spilled coffee on the console, and then outrun the copycat entities who were chasing them. The episode’s final moments with the countdown and the Doctor having to make an impossible decision in a matter of seconds were truly terrifying.
7 Midnight: The Limited Space Added To The Eerie Vibe
There was no escape from the shuttle
In contrast, Doctor Who‘s “Midnight” wasn’t about the lack of time — it was the lack of space that was scary. The Doctor, Sky, and the rest of the passengers were stuck in a broken shuttle with no means of escape, and the wait was excruciating. When Sky became possessed by the alien, everyone was frightened, but they couldn’t run or hide from her since there was just one “room” in the shuttle. The scene when the entity passed from Sky to the Doctor, and the Time Lord tried to hold on to the chairs, as the passengers dragged them across the cabin, was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.
6 Wild Blue Yonder: The Doctor & Donna’s Friendship Was Put To A Test
The Doctor & Donna had to trust each other
“Wild Blue Yonder” featured a perfect mix of comedy and horror, especially in the way it tested Donna and the Doctor’s friendship. When the Doctor and Donna learned that the copycat entities looked like them and had their thoughts, they needed to get creative to find out who was the real person and who wasn’t. The sequences where the Doctor and Donna, as well as the creatures, tried to convince each other that they were the original were especially chilling. The duo had nothing but their instincts to rely on, and they couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Doctor Who has never been scarier.
5 Midnight: The People Were The Real Monsters
The shuttle passengers couldn’t take the pressure
“Midnight” was one of the best Doctor Who stories by Russell T. Davies because it flipped the roles. The alien might have been a villain, but it was the people who became the real monsters. The show’s episodes tend to feature an alien who wishes to harm innocent people because of their own agenda, but “Midnight” was different. While there was a malevolent creature on board the shuttle, the humans were hardly innocent. The way the passengers acted in “Midnight” was a horrifying example of what fear can do to the human psyche and how fast people can break under pressure.
4 Wild Blue Yonder: The Aliens Knew Everything
The creatures uncovered the Doctor & Donna’s secrets
Doctor Who‘s “Wild Blue Yonder” introduced new aliens as beings from outside the known universe. The Doctor had no idea who they were or what they were capable of. The creatures’ physical abilities were creepy, but the fact that they could get inside anyone’s head was worse. All they needed the person to do was think, and then their thoughts were magically available to the entities. Even the Doctor couldn’t do much about it, and their breakdown after a conversation with the fake Donna was hard to watch. It was the first time Doctor Who gave the Flux event real consequences.
3 Midnight: The Alien’s Identity Was Left A Mystery
Even the Doctor couldn’t figure the alien out
Similarly, in Doctor Who‘s “Midnight,” the creature’s backstory was never revealed. The Doctor didn’t know anything about it, not even its name or planet of origin. The entity could survive in an atmosphere filled with radiation when no living being should have been able to. In addition to possessing other creatures, the alien might have had any number of sinister abilities that would theoretically allow it to conquer the world or even the universe, should it reach a habitable environment. The unknown as a concept is always terrifying, so it was the right move to leave the Midnight creature’s identity an enigma.
2 Wild Blue Yonder: Donna Was On The Brink Of Death
The Doctor might not have saved Donna in time
Doctor Who season 4 finale, “Journey’s End,” left Donna’s fate ambiguous since everyone, including the Time Lord, was convinced that Donna would die if she ever remembered the Doctor. “The Star Beast” may have solved the metacrisis problem and set Donna free, but there is still a possibility that Donna might not survive her second adventure with the Doctor. “Wild Blue Yonder” reinforced that feeling with its spine-chilling ending. When the Doctor mistook the creature for Donna, and the real Donna was left standing on the exploding spaceship, no one really knew if the Time Lord could realize their error in time.
1 Midnight: The Doctor Didn’t Have Control Of Their Body
The Doctor was at the mercy of the passengers
“Midnight” featured one of David Tennant’s best Doctor Who performances as the Doctor. When the creature outsmarted the Doctor and hijacked their body, the Time Lord looked defeated. They couldn’t control their own body or speech, but they could hear and see what the passengers were saying and doing. Seeing the Doctor tear up as the people discussed throwing them out of the shuttle because they believed that the entity passed to the Time Lord was too much to handle. The Doctor appeared completely defenseless and overtaken with emotion — Tennant delivered a stellar performance in this episode, opening up his character’s vulnerable side.
