By Philip Purser-Hallard

Obverse Books

Obverse Books’ ongoing series of monographs focusing on a Doctor Who serial or story hits 2008’s Series 5 episode Midnight.

One of Black Archives’ series editors Philip Purser-Hallard tackles Russell T Davies’ lean, self-contained ‘bus under siege’ story, pulling out some interesting themes and observations.

Davies wrote the script over five days when a previous script proved unusable, and Purser-Hallard references other times on the show when episodes were hastily written under duress to plug gaps in production.

Attention is placed on the different characters populating the Crusader bus, these occupants from different backgrounds representing a microstate. Fairytale connections are discussed and I particularly enjoyed the discussion about how the story might have played differently if Donna had been on the bus with the Doctor.

The recognition of the absence of a visible monster in the story leads into a wider treatise on the definition of a monster, and there’s a detailed look at how this episode deconstructs the 10th Doctor. The study concludes by talking to the creatives behind the three subsequent stagings of the story as a live play.

Verdict: A solid ‘drains-up’ on a popular story, summarising some of what you might have already deduced, while also adding fresh ideas to your interpretation. 8/10

Nick Joy

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