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The Well was the third episode of Series 15 (also marketed, globally, as Season 2) of Doctor Who. It premiered on 26 April 2025. It was the first episode of Series 15 to feature a new writer, Sharma Angel-Walfall, who co-wrote the script together with Russell T Davies. The story features the second appearance and return of the Midnight entity, first seen 17 years prior in the 2008, thus serving as a sequel to Midnight [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008). from Series 4.
Continuing directly after their encounter with Lux Imperator in the previous story, The Well continues one of Series 15's main story arcs of the Doctor being unable to get the TARDIS to return Belinda to the 24th May 2025, and with the two discovering that, by the 5020th century, something has caused Earth to cease existing entirely.
Mrs Flood also briefly appears at the end of the story: this time, she is seen in a videocall as a superior official to the mining crew. Her appearance here continues the enigmatic nature of the character that has been hinted and shown since her first appearance in The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., and continues the story arc of Mrs Flood somehow appearing in different eras of time that was first seen in the previous story, Lux.
Synopsis[]
Far in the future, on a tough, brutal planet, a devastated mining colony has only one survivor. To discover the truth, the Doctor and Belinda must face absolute terror...
Plot[]
The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda Chandra are in the TARDIS as it lands, preparing to take a new reading on their Vortex Indicator in order to trace a path towards earth. The pair steps out, 500,000 years in the future, and find themselves on a dropship as the crew is leaping down to the surface of a planet. As the group lands, the Doctor uses the psychic paper to convince the crew, made up of Commander Shaya Costallion, and Troopers Cassio Palin-Paleen and Mo Gilliben among others, that he outranks all of them and was sent as a test. Despite the Vindicator reading has already been taken, the dropship can't land for five hours due to the galvanic radiation coming from the sun, so the Doctor and Belinda are marooned on this planet, so accompany the crew to a nearby diamond mining facility that has gone dark.
As the group enters the mining facility they quickly come across a dead body, every bone in his body broken. They come across another soon after, shot by a laser. They continue to find corpses, half shot, half shattered. And in every room they enter they notice that reflective surfaces have been damaged. On instruments they pick up a single heartbeat in an isolated room, entering to find Aliss Fenly sitting by herself next to a corpse. Aliss signs out to them, that, yes, she shot the woman next to her, but that woman was about to kill her. She expresses frustration and fear that everyone around her all of a sudden went mad. The Crew activates their text-to-speech filters, as the Doctor signs to Aliss. The crew leaves some of their team behind to guard her, and Belinda stays to tend to her wounds, but the Doctor and the rest head towards the central control room.
The Doctor stands at the edge of the Well.
In the central control room the Doctor and the crew work to recover the video logs, him coming to learn that nobody in the party has heard of the planet earth or of humans before. Back in the other room Belinda chats with another member of the crew, Mo Gilliben, and also notes that nobody has heard of humans. As she tends to Aliss, she sees something behind Aliss a few times, flickering out of sight just as soon as it appears. But then the others start to see things as well, always behind Aliss. As the crew gets more and more paranoid, Aliss explains that this is how it happened before, how things started as the mine spiraled out of control. The troop fans out, guns drawn, and one of them walks behind Aliss to see her back from every angle. As she positions herself directly behind Aliss, she's flung across the room, and killed instantly.
In the control room the Doctor pulls up the last video log filed, crew ranting about something that came out of the drilling well, how they don't know what it is. The Doctor remembers something from his past, and, intrigued, asks Shaya about the galvanic radiation on the planet. Shaya said it used to be X-tonic, but that was hundreds of thousands of years ago (the star had since collapsed). She later said all of the carbon was stripped from the planet during numerous wars. The Doctor asks what sort of carbon, and Shaya then said it was diamonds, and that the planet used to be covered in diamonds. Horrified by a possibility, the Doctor asks what the planet's historic name was and the reply confirms what he feared - it is called Midnight, which the Doctor had previously been to and met a mysterious enemy. The Doctor rushes from the room, dashing to where Aliss, Belinda, and the rest of the crew are, finding the standoff they've placed themselves into.
As everyone else enters, Aliss denies killing the trooper and eventually explains that there's something behind her that can't be seen, she doesn't know what it is, nobody does, and that it came out of the well, laughing as it did so. She adds that the creature only came after her since she was the last one left, since everyone else had either been killed by the entity or killed each other to contain it (hence why Aliss’ friend tried to kill her). When Cassio reasons the creature will be defeated if he kills Aliss, she retorts back that if you shoot someone to try and get rid of it, it goes behind you instead. The Doctor then explains what happened when he first met this creature, back when the planet was made of diamonds and Belinda shows how the entity is operating.
"If it was a clock-face, you die at midnight."
Frustrated with this line of reasoning, that the Doctor is getting in the way (and that Shaya is refusing to stop him), Cassio stages a mutiny and usurps Shaya as commander. He threatens to shoot the Doctor if he is not quiet, and commands another trooper to engage with Aliss. He is shortly killed by the entity, and a scene ensues in which Aliss in panic rapidly turns around. being threatened by Cassio, killing 4 other troopers before Shaya projects onto Cassio’s text filter, telling her to turn around so Cassio is facing her back, and he is soon killed by the entity as well.
After Shaya states the next step is to withdraw, leaving Aliss behind, The Doctor decides to talk to the thing behind Aliss, hearing its whispers, hearing his name, and coming to an epiphany. He has Shaya shoot the pipeline the mine uses to transport mercury, creating a reflective surface, an rush of force, and Aliss falling towards them, freed from the clutches of whatever was behind her. The group runs towards the airlock, Aliss and some troopers head through, the room lurches. Whatever was behind Aliss has caught up to them. Mo Gilliben and Shaya both say it's not them. The Doctor doesn't think it's on him. But Belinda can hear it whispering, it has to be on her. Shaya decides to bear the burden, shooting Belinda through the chest, above the heart, keeping her alive but just barely, determined to take the entity. She then runs back through the mine to the well and casts herself down. The Doctor, Belinda and Mo make it back to the ship.
The Doctor and Belinda take off in the TARDIS, with Belinda hooked up to a some recovery devices, and are worried about the earth and how no one knows about it in the future. Mo gives her report to her superior, who turns out to be Mrs Flood, who's delighted to hear that the Doctor is using a Vindicator. As Mo returns to the rest of her crew, crew member Val Vivo ominously seems to notice something behind her, before insisting that it's nothing (indicating the creature may now be hiding behind Mo), and Mo worriedly asks what’s wrong…
Cast[]
- The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
- Belinda Chandra - Varada Sethu
- Aliss Fenly - Rose Ayling-Ellis
- Shaya Costallion - Caoilfhionn Dunne
- Cassio Palin-Paleen - Christopher Chung
- Mo Gilliben - Bethany Antonia
- Hanno Yeft - Annabel Brook
- Callo Rence - Luke Rhodri
- Kai Sabba - Gaz Choudry
- Albie Bethick - Gary Pillai
- Sal Van Hyten - Frankie Lipman
- Ulric Dazen - Jermaine Dominique
- Mrs Flood - Anita Dobson
- Val Vivo - Amy Tyger
- Trooper 5 - Meg Abernathy Hope
- Trooper 6 - Beyagy Demba
- Trooper 7 - Sophie Cull
- Trooper 9 - Paul Skudder
- Trooper 10 - Umit Cozuacik
- It Has No Name - Paul Kasey
Uncredited[]
- The Doctor - David Tennant (archive footage)
- Sky Silvestry - Lesley Sharp (archive footage)
Crew[]
To be added...
| Executive Producers [[executive producer::Russell T Davies|Russell T Davies]], [[executive producer::Julie Gardner|Julie Gardner]] and [[executive producer::Jane Tranter|Jane Tranter]] with [[executive producer::Joel Collins|Joel Collins]] and [[executive producer::Phil Collinson|Phil Collinson]] |
| Written by [[writer::Russell T Davies|Russell T Davies]] & Sharma Angel Walfall |
Produced by [[producer::Chris May|Chris May]] |
Directed by [[director::Amanda Brotchie|Amanda Brotchie]] |
Production Designer [[production designer::Phil Sims|Phil Sims]] | |||||||
| Make-up Designer Julie Kendrick
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Casting Director [[casting director::Andy Pryor CDG|Andy Pryor CDG]]
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Music [[music::Murray Gold|Murray Gold]]
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Costume Designer [[costume designer::Pam Downe|Pam Downe]] |
Edited by Ulrike Münch | ||||||
| General production staff Script department Camera and lighting department |
Art department Costume department |
Make-up and prosthetics
General post-production staff Special and visual effects Sound |
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| Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources. |
Worldbuilding[]
- The planet Midnight has been renamed as "planet 6-7-6-7".
- By the 5020th century, Earth and Lombardo are supposed to be a part of a joint foundation.
- 500.000 years into the future, nobody on planet 6-7-6-7 has heard about or knows what the human race is.
- Mrs. Flood returns. She has predicted and is pleased that the Doctor is using his Vindicator device.
Music[]
- Britney Spears' "Toxic" plays once again. (TV: The End of the World [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)
Notes[]
- The episode had the working title of The Thirteen.
- The cast and crew went on a deaf awareness course in support of Rose Ayling-Ellis. (DCOM: The Well)
- The guest cast playing the troopers went on a military bootcamp course in preparation for their respective roles. (DCOM: The Well)
- The episode wasn't originally intended to be a sequel to Midnight. Ncuti Gatwa had been interested in bringing the Orisha into the series, so Russell T Davies took a crack at tying them into the ongoing Pantheon of Discord storyline. But for multiple reasons (such as Davies' concerns about being disrespectful towards a real-life religion), the original concept was ultimately jettisoned late in pre-production. However, by this point, Davies realized the unintended parallels between this episode and Midnight, so he decided it could be reworked as a follow-up.
- The episode formed Block Three of Series 15 alongside Lux.
Comparison between BBC and Disney+ versions[]
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Myths[]
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Filming Locations[]
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Ratings[]
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Production errors[]
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Continuity[]
- The Doctor and Belinda run to change clothes in the same way they did on their previous adventure, (TV: Lux) which the Doctor had also previously done with Ruby Sunday. (TV: The Devil's Chord)
- The atmosphere of Planet 6-7-6-7 is still charged with raw galvanic radiation. (TV: Midnight)
- The Doctor uses sign language, a form of communication his twelfth incarnation claimed to know until he realised it had been "erased" to make room for semaphore, (TV: Under the Lake [+]Toby Whithouse, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) though he eventually learnt how to sign properly again. (TV: Merry Christmas from See Hear [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
- Belinda recognises simolin. (TV: The Robot Revolution)
- Shaya grew up in the Wildlands. (TV: Utopia)
- The Doctor remembers his last visit to Midnight during his tenth incarnation when Xion, the X-tonic star Midnight has a a sun, is mentioned. (TV: Midnight)
Home video releases[]
DVD and Blu-ray[]
to be added
Footnotes[]
