Continuing his series of articles examining the Oxford Doctor Who Society’s thoughts on Series 15, Adam Kendrick collates our members’ responses to The Well.

The Well, in which the Doctor and Belinda explore an abandoned mining colony where a malicious entity has massacred all but one of the crew, received critical acclaim from our society, with all ten responses awarding at least seven out of ten and two separate members hailing it as “the best in the series”. In short, members found this episode to be “scary”, “claustrophobic” and a “tense, well-crafted thriller”. One member suggested that The Well was drawing from “an imagined folk memory” of Russell T Davies’ previous “space horror” episodes, with The Satan Pit and Midnight merged together, while noting how it felt “curiously downbeat” for the current era: Belinda getting shot was described as “brutal” and Shaya’s vain sacrifice was “despairing”, although a different member celebrated this moment as “one of many misdirections that still stand up on second watch”. The scene in which several characters were rapidly dispatched and sent flying through the air was specifically praised for being “exceptionally well directed, horrific and intense while still staying just about on the right side of the family-friendly line”. Meanwhile, Rose Ayling-Ellis was applauded for her “excellent” performance as survivor Aliss Fenly, who remained “believably vulnerable but… with a doubt about her intentions”. 

The reveal that The Well was in fact a stealth sequel to Midnight was an unexpected surprise for most of our members, but it was considered to be a successful follow-up that proved any doubts wrong: the writing was praised for how it “managed to advance the story of the original while doing something new”. One member described The Well as “the Aliens (1986) to Midnight‘s Alien (1979)”, and the fact it was a sequel meant that it “helps to sell the seriousness of the threat”. Although one member thought it was “too obviously an attempt to replicate the success of Midnight… even before the callback to make it all explicit”, the episode was generally seen as capable of “standing up beautifully in its own right”, especially since it didn’t simply repeat the same gimmicks as Midnight or clearly show the monster’s true form. “If all Doctor Who were like this,” added one member who explained that they prefer their Doctor Who darker, more uncertain, and more alien, “I’d be a very happy viewer.”

Out of 10 responses, The Well scored 7.90 for its average rating. Would Lucky Day reach the same heights?