Doctor Who has now been on television for more than 60 years if you add together the entire runs of what are deemed the ‘classic’ and ‘new’ eras of the programme. Naturally, between the longevity of the series and the fact that one of the key aspects of the show is time travel, you’re going to get tons of references to the past.
Some are special celebration events like The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, and The Day of the Doctor, which each marked a huge anniversary and were full of nods to the series’ past as well as multiple Doctors being together at one time.
Others are very subtle, like the use of the Macra in Gridlock during the Tenth Doctor’s run in 2007. Although the Macra were by no means the main focus of that adventure, it was a nice call back to The Macra Terror, first broadcast in 1967.
It is always better when the past is brought up only in relevant ways, and the more cleverly weaved into the narrative it is, the more it seems to hold weight in Doctor Who‘s fictional universe.
The Well certainly showcases an example of a call back done right — even a shining example of how to bring a past adversary back in exemplary fashion.
If you brought up what recurring villain may return this season to Doctor Who, I’d never have guessed less entity from the Tenth Doctor fan favourite episode, Midnight.
On its second outing, the planet once made of diamonds once again brings tension and terror along with an almost Twilight Zone vibe, as the faceless beast possesses (or at least stands behind) Aliss (Rose Ayling-Ellis), a cook who ended up being the survivor of a doomed mining expedition.
The horror tropes are all there on this one but it doesn’t matter as it does them brilliantly and is one of the scariest Doctor Who episodes in quite a while.
I know the last two ‘eras’ of Who have got a lot of flack and I hate to add to it but the only part of The Well that had me whining was the Doctor’s own propensity for tears. Now I understand the idea is that after the bi-generation the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is supposed to be free from the demons of his past and was able to heal, leaving behind a Doctor not afraid to show his feelings and able to cry when they feel sad rather than bottling it all up, but it is done way too frequently.
At this point, it’s leaning toward parody in a sense as we know this scene is coming and is repeated week after week, so it seems cheap to a degree, at least in its execution..
It is always minor complaint about a series which is much improved over last year and even though it is still early days for this year’s crop of episodes, it may be the best full season of Doctor Who for me personally since Peter Capaldi was still in the TARDIS.
Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) is a much better fit for a companion so far as well, compared to Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Hopefully Belinda does not eventually fall into the same ‘person of immense importance’ trap that seems to have plagued many companions since the show’s revival 20 years ago.
We will see next week when Ruby returns but I find myself not feeling her absence at all.
However, episodes like we’ve had the last two weeks make me hopeful that this year, we will get a really good season of Doctor Who… But will it be the last one for a while?
[Editor’s note: I don’t normally do this, but Thomas, a DWC contributor who’s been with us since the early days of Kasterborous, is living rough right now through no fault of his own. Though there’s hope on the horizon, he’s struggling to get by day-to-day. He’s set up a GoFundMe page, and any donations, however big or small, would be hugely appreciated. Thomas also has a YouTube channel and the more watches and subscribers he gets, the closer to earning via the social media platform, so if you can’t afford to help out, please at least subscribe and check out his videos. Thank you very much, DWC community!]
