#shaya died for nothing. and 15 died for...?)

[synthient]

The "Midnight entity" is just a mirror

The first shot of Midnight is an establishing shot of the diamond planet. The second shot is Donna, reflected in the pool.

This pool becomes our bookends, with the episode concluding with the Doctor and Donna's poolside conversation. And the pool also gets this shoutout:

This is what we in the "watched revolutionary girl utena at a formative age" business call a Big Flashing Hand That Points At Symbolism.

That pool/water symbolism only becomes more prominent in the sequel episode, The Well: where the water is now part of the title itself, and where the plot hinges on a waterfall becoming a mirror.

It's not a real pool. It's a concept. What does the pool represent? It's a mirror.

What does the "Midnight entity" - or It Has No Name, as it's credited in The Well - do? It reflects you. If you knock three times, it answers with three knocks. The Doctor immediately puts this to the test by knocking four times. As in, He Will Knock Four Times.

Key to understanding this episode is that - according to Tennant and RTD in the dvd commentary - Sky boarded this bus with the intention of killing herself when they reached the waterfall. Another key is that the Doctor is also suicidal. It's been a major focus of series 4. In the episodes immediately preceding Midnight, the Doctor has tried to kill himself twice, only for someone else to kill themself in his place - first Luke Rattigan, then River.

Why does the entity target the Doctor and Sky? (I'm using "target" with a big grain of salt - I'm not actually convinced the entity is sentient, or that it wants to hurt anyone if it is). Because they're the two people on that bus with the most fraught relationship with the Self.

And that's all the Midnight entity is. It's the shadow self.

It's "self-induced hysteria."

It speaks with your voice. Not because it's trying to "steal" your voice (not because it strictly "wants" anything), but because it is your voice. No more, no less.

....well, except for the part where something throws the bus around a little and rips out some of the seats. That's the one straightforward, physically supernatural thing that happens in the whole episode. And it makes a return in the sequel, as the "kinetic force" that kills people who go behind Aliss's back. There, the kinetic force seems to be tied to Aliss's emotions. Here, it's tied to Sky's. But Sky's poltergeist-powers never actually hurt anyone.

But didn't it kill the driver and the mechanic? Well, no. The implication is that they got so paranoid about the mysterious shadow, that they kept the window open trying to get a good look at it, until the solar radiation killed them.

The Doctor encouraged them to open that window, because he wanted to learn more about this exciting new planet. The Doctor broke the entertainment system, because he wanted to talk to everyone and learn about their lives.

The Doctor looks into a mirror, and projects a meaning onto it: it must be "learning." Because that's what the Doctor does.

First, the mirror repeats people's words and actions with a slight delay. Then it starts speaking in sync with them, like a true reflection.

(^ Minor conspiracy sidenote: I'd like to link that one to 15, "Petrol," and "blimey, your face is gorgeous.")

And then the Doctor realizes it can keep reciting the alphabet after he stops speaking. Because it's echoing his thoughts, a beat before he voices them.

Meanwhile, everyone else sees someone behaving strangely, but harmlessly - a weird look in her eyes, a weird compulsive speech pattern - and projects evil and sinister intent. With no evidence. The (in-)group decides to respond to the "threat" of her strangeness with violence: throwing her out of the bus, out of society.

There's a reason that The Well is explicitly about ableism.

And then their suspicion turns on the Doctor. For reasons partly under his control - the way he talks down to people and tries to position himself as an authority figure; the "glee" they notice him taking in a life-threatening situation - and partly out of his control. He's an "immigrant." He's weird too.

The Doctor is the same as Sky. If she's a mirror, then what she's reflecting here is the terrifying reality of how quick society is to turn on the Doctor, if he steps even a little out of line.

And the second this realization hits, Sky stops mimicking anyone else. She only reflects the Doctor.

Will they boo and throw tomatoes if I say this is a timeless child thing? I've said before that I think the concept of "the Doctor turned the Master back into a baby" goes back at least as far as Boom Town, and "the Doctor granted the Master immortality" at least as far back as Utopia. The timeless child learned to mimic the Shobogans, and the baby-Master in particular (Sky - the messy suicidal lesbian divorcée - is, of course, a Master mirror). The adult Doctor learns from and mimics his companions. This is the Doctor projecting one of his worst fears: that he can only get life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, by stealing it and hurting people.

This is the point where the entity "gets ahead of" the Doctor, and seems to take the stage as a full-fledged, conscious villain.

But I think this is actually no different than the entity continuing to recite the alphabet. "What's happening, Doctor?" The Doctor has theories, and his mirror recites those theories for him, before he actually speaks them.

But if she's still just reflecting the Doctor's thoughts, then why does she start encouraging the group to throw him out?

Because the Doctor is suicidal.

The Doctor's curiosity killed the driver and the mechanic. His fatal flaw. So the best way to save everyone else, must be to remove him from the picture. Right?

...is it wrong to say some of Tennant's line reads here are a little orgasmic?

I don't think the Doctor's consciously in control here. But I do think there's a sort of mingled horror and euphoria/relief, at everyone treating you the way you always feared they would. The way you always sort of thought you deserved.

But at the last second, the mob doesn't help the Doctor carry out his suicide.

They help Sky carry out hers.

That's the thing about having a mirror that reflects everything the world hates about you. Everything you hate about yourself. You watch the mob beat her to death, and you sit there, in the aftermath. Knowing just how easily it could have been you.