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Our deep honkytonk into Doctor Who S02E03 : " The Well " includes the biggest easter nut of all , dominating the intact episode from showtime to coating .
Now that you ’ve see this hebdomad ’s instalment ofDoctor Who , allow ’s do the usual drift cryptical dive into " The Well " . It ’s the most tonally consistent episode of this season so far and a welcome return to old - schooling Science Fiction horror . Now , we do n’t dive into every single easter ball or meta source , only the most fun and interesting ones . The episode kicks off at once after last hebdomad , which establish the season a more serialised and bingeable spirit . As a straight - up dangerous undertaking tarradiddle , it feel like classicDoctor Whothat everyone expects and likes , include the use of psychic paper .
Yay! Quarries are Back! It Really Feels like Old School Doctor Who!
One thing that fans miss in a slenderly perverse way is the comportment of target inDoctor Who . They ’re usually filmed somewhere in rural England , Wales , or even Spain at one point . So that heroic shot where the Doctor and Belinda arrive on the planet is a real location , a target in Wales , and at night , no less ( any role player and crew will recount you how exhaust a night shoot is ) . The view is light with enough weirdie , y gothic darkness to set up the mode of the episode . Last time of year ’s " gold rush ! " could have been go under and shot in a stone pit , but they used the Volume screen to sprout the whole installment in a soundstage instead . The prey here has been used before , the last time inJodie Whittaker ’s final story , " The Power of the Doctor " . Amazing how dissimilar lighting and camera angle can make a piazza look wholly new and dissimilar , is n’t it ?
The Return of the Jerk Military Officer
Christopher Chungplays a common eccentric in manyDoctor Whostories , especially the classic geological era , which is the officious , brutal asshole military officer who just require to kill everything including The Doctor . The last sentence this archetype appeared was in " War of the Sontarans " early inJodie Whittaker ’s last season . Cassio here is uptight , officious , and hints that his tension with his commanding policeman , Shaya ( Caoilfhionn Dunne ) , is due to his opinion that he should have her business . Chung ’s performance suggests Cassio is also power - hungry and a megalomaniac , which leads Shaya to reluctantly but calmly sacrifice him by cook him to his last - by - alien . Chung seems to be form a career out of playing assholes in interesting ways . For representative , he ’s best known for take on Roddy Ho inSlow horse , the hilariously objectionable incel hacker undercover agent exiled to Slough House because everyone hated him .
On Representation and Discrimination
The adept carrying into action in " The Well " is fromRose Aisling - Ellisas Aliss , the hapless Final Girl at the stem . Davy change the script to suit her and present a commentary on discrimination where the hearing - vitiate are often pick up with suspicion , here amplified by the soldier ' fear that she might be the monster that obliterate everyone at the mine or is possess . Her fear that people change state their rachis on her , so she does n’t know what they ’re say , is a contingent of the everyday discrimination she face . Aliss is the average person character thatRussell T , Daviesalways reserves sympathy for . And the Doctor is Daddy – of course of action , he would recognise sign speech to put her and the hearing at relaxation . That people in the future tense have screen door to let them understand her and that
Nobody’s Heard of Earth
The Doctor and Belinda are shock that none of the soldiers have heard of Earth or the human slipstream . Granted , they ’re 500,000 twelvemonth in the future , but these are homo who do n’t seem to be visit human beings . This suggests that Earth ’s devastation on May 24th , 2025 , has completely messed up history and is part of the time of year - long discharge .
Yup, It’s a Sequel to a Classic NuWho Episode
Is it really a plunderer if virtually every buff had already sussed out that " The Well " is a sequel to " Midnight " , the 2008 instalment that many fans consider a classic of the modern era ? Davies already hinted that an sequence this time of year was an " unexpected sequel " to one of his sequence . You could say " The Well " is the eccentric of subsequence to " Midnight " thatAliensis toAlien , bigger and slightly different . This episode did n’t necessarily take to be a sequel to " Midnight " since the entity behave other than in the taradiddle . Sir Humphrey Davy does a bit of futzing around with the behemoth ’s rule so they ’re dissimilar this time . The entity does n’t mimic , then own its victims this time , but stays behind its innkeeper to defeat anyone who come directly behind her . The entity would spite itself if it saw itself , hence the broken mirrors in the base , which is a Modern rule . Aliss turns around at the start to show that nothing is behind her , which should have killed everyone there , but somehow , she did n’t . That seems a bit of a plot hole there . And " nuke the site from orbit " is a direct reference toAliens . The other departure is that The Doctor is less incapacitated this time , have a better handle on keep control of the berth . Then there ’s the repugnance moving-picture show turn at the goal where the entity is n’t drained but has have someone to get off the planet .
The Biggest Easter Egg of This Episode
It ’s gaze at us all along . It has nothing to do with Doctor Who lore or persistence . It ’s that " The Well " is virtually a remake of the 1965 Italian - US - Spanish space horror moviePlanet of the Vampires , directed byMario Bava . The entire plot of " The Well " is lifted from that movie , about a clustering of astronaut who arrive at a mystifying planet and get cull off by an alien entity . The Doctor and company showing up at the basis to find it full of stagnant bodies all echo that movie .
film maker consider Bava a brilliant filmmaker and craftsman who never really stimulate his right due . He was subservient in establish the Gialo genre in the 1960s , a precursor to the slasher moving-picture show , and mentored horror directorDario Argento . Planet of the Vampiresalso follows the slasher film game construction . It ’s also been pronounce to be an inspiration forRidley Scott’sAlien . Scott claim he had never see the picture , but it ’s likely that screenwriterDan O’Bannondid , since it was picture in grindhouse cinema across America . The biggest ocular court and clue that the Godhead of " The Well " have seenPlanet of the Vampiresis the dark blue skintight cosmonaut suit they wore in the episode .
Shaya’s Heroic Sacrifice
It ’s Shaya who pull through Belinda by taking the entity to her , then sacrifices herself to kill it and save everyone despite the Doctor ’s pass or attempt to sacrifice himself . A supporting role ’s desperate sacrifice is a common figure on Doctor Who , but this one is better publish and present than most , withMurray Gold ’s euphony and the flashback to Shaya ’s past to define her sense of obligation . This might also reveal something new about the series and the Doctor – he can never die , so everyone who takes the fastball for him and sacrifices themselves for him is a tragedy because they do n’t know that . Now the Doctor cry every week makes a lot more sense .
Mrs. Flood Watch
Mrs. Flood shows up as the commanding military officer of the troop safely sequestrate back at military headquarters . This is a unmediated echo of howSusan Twistpopped up all over Space and Time last season . She ’s just fishing for confirmation that the Doctor and Belinda still had the Vindicator he used to hark back to May 24th , 2025 . Now we know for sure she ’s stalking The Doctor across Space and Time with a nefarious leer . This suggests she also knows what ’s happened to Earth in 2025 . Did she cause it , or was she involve in some way ?
Doctor Whois streaming outside the UK onDisney+ .
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