#also the different sets make them very different episodes just in setup bc in midnight there's no running from room to room

[goldenkid]

people comparing wild blue yonder to midnight like yeah they're both good scary and unsettling BUT the huge fundamental difference between them is that wild blue yonder is about being trapped in a huge empty space with your friend and this scary thing that wants to kill you and not recognising your friend/your friend not recognising you, whereas midnight is about being trapped in this tiny space with a group of strangers and an unknowable entity and instead of fear of not knowing your friend the fear comes from the doctor not having ANY friends there, from the paranoia and mob mentality. it's a very group-focused story as opposed to wby which is only really commenting on the doctor and donna and their relationship.

there are obvs lots of similarities: twisted reflections, a monster that we never truly see or understand, a 'bottle episode' set in one location, unease and building tension and fear, paranoia, but to me at least wild blue yonder is about friendship and being with your friend but also maybe not with them, and worry that maybe you don't know this person that you love as well as you wanted to think you did...but midnight is very much about not having any friends or allies, and how groups can dissolve into paranoia and blame. wby has no 'one-off' characters whereas in midnight the one-off characters are everything. in wby you're alone in this maze of rooms and corridors...in midnight you're trapped with other people in this tiny little shuttle

tldr midnight is very mob mentality/'little pocket of humanity' focused whereas wby is all about the doctor and donna's relationship, and the different sets - one small and crowded, the other huge and empty - show this off pretty well

#doctor who #this is super incoherent but i had fun rambling about it i hope you get what i was trying to say #also the different sets make them very different episodes just in setup bc in midnight there's no running from room to room #there's no breaks inbetween scenes #no breathers where you see them just walking into a new room or reacting to a new place or running somewhere #in midnight they're just trapped and there's absolutely no respite #no-one gets a breather no-one gets a moment to themselves #no-one gets to do what fourteen did and have a little breakdown and then breathe and carry on #which makes midnight so very tense whereas wby is more traditionally set out with event -> breather/transition/characters reacting to event #whereas midnight no one gets this it just goes and goes and it's so so good because of that #not saying that wby should have done that it works very well the way it's done #just that that difference also makes them very different episodes #i could analyse these eps forever tbh midnight is my all time fave and i was so relieved that at least one of the rtd2 eps is decent #that i enjoyed it even more just by virtue of it not being bad haha