Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 3: The Well

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Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 3: The Well

Morning! I’m continuing to take advantage of watching DW on iPLayer (from 8am, UK). I was a little later to the screen today, mainly due to picking some sort of ‘cold-but-not-Covid’ earlier this week (from goodness knows where). I’m only really now coming out the other side, although I’m still feeling a tad lethargic – and coughing like I smoke 50-a-day! 😮‍💨🤯😩😤

As usual, I won’t post this until after tonight’s episode at 8.05pm, to avoid any spoilers. 🙂

Trailer

I’ve really enjoyed both episodes so far in this series, especially last week’s – “Lux” and wonder if this week’s (the third of eight) will maintain the quality?

• 
  Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 4: Lucky DaySaturday, 3rd May, 2025 @ 7:58 pm
• 
  Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 3: The WellSaturday, 26th April, 2025 @ 8:06 pm
• 
  Doctor Who – Series 2, Episode 2: LuxSaturday, 19th April, 2025 @ 8:00 pm

Here we go, it’s 10.30 on Saturday morning, and I’m going in! 👍😉

Synopsis

“5000 years into 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”.

Any Good?

This was a creepy one with the ‘tensometer’ registering 11.5 (and in this house, it only goes up to 10!). A few faces will immediately look familiar – Rose Ayling-Ellis (EastEnders & Strictly) and Christopher Chung (Slow Horses) play key roles in tonight’s tale.

There’s no doubt that the pairing of the Doctor and his new companion, Belinda shows chemistry. Both are intelligent, both confident, but occasionally plagued by self-doubt, and it’ll be interesting to see how they integrate the previous companion, Ruby Sunday, back into the narrative in next week’s episode.

The story hangs together well, there’s a genuine sense of dread where no-one is really sure who (and where) this week’s foe is located (literally). Elsewhere, our hero surely gets this year’s award for the ‘longest stare’ in one scene – and very emotional it is too!

Within 30 minutes, the majority of the assembled supporting cast are ‘no more’, rapidly turning this one into something akin to a John Wick homage! 😉. Perhaps the ‘big bad’ could have found a more imaginative way to dispatch the cast other than throwing them around the room? 🤔. The climax comes quickly, maybe too quickly, whilst the ending is somewhat predictable.

Overall, the storytelling keeps you guessing helped along with some very powerful scenes, with just about the right amount of talking and running about! The acting remains top-notch with a special mention for Rose Ayling-Ellis as Aliss, who was clearly wasted in EastEnders and has proved herself here to be a VERY expressive performer.

How Dark?

Those who know me know that I like my DW stories on the darker side. This one heads in the right direction.

And so…

With all these positives, I expected to come out the other end feeling that this one HAD continued the quality of this latest series. However, it wasn’t to be! The more I thought about what I’d just seen, the more I felt that it was a bit formulaic. In fact, I’m pretty sure if you’d changed the two lead characters, it could have been any creepy sci-fi short story. In short, despite the excellent performances, scripting, sfx and soundtrack, it all felt a bit, well, ‘ho-hum’. Would I watch this episode again? Nope, unlikely! 🙁

So, imagine my surprise that some are quoting this one as ‘one of the best episodes’. Did I miss something? Probably! 😲. This story is being strongly linked to an episode called ‘Midnight‘ (from the David Tennant era – Episode 10, series 4. I don’t recall that one, but maybe I would have been more generous with my stars, if I had. I think I ought to rewatch that episode Luckily, these days, it’s on iPlayer, and then this one again. 🤔

PS. last week’s episode – “Lux” – has apparently hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Although I gave it four stars, there is clearly not enough of us around! The episode saw overnight ratings of a rather pathetic 1.58m. I think it’s the lowest figure Doctor Who has ever had. Slightly more positively, it was BBC One’s fourth most-watched programme of the day and the seventh most-watched title of the day across all channels. OK ‘overnight ratings’ aren’t the major measure these days as a lot of fans (he said, optimistically) watch on catch-up or repeat, but I do get a sense that there are hushed whispers at BBC Towers

EDIT: Sunday, 27th April – Well, that’s a first! I took some of my own advice! Having seen more and more online comments today about the connection of this episode with the older episode Series 4, Episode 10 ‘Midnight’, I fired up iPlayer and watched David Tennant playing our hero from Saturday, 14 June 2008. Then I watched yesterday’s again.

What a difference NOW in my perception of last night’s Who tale! I can see now why many are saying ‘it’s the best episode yet’ and it’s the new ‘Blink’ (generally considered by most fans as being the best Who episode of all time!).

So, what does that all mean?

For a start, they should have made ‘Midnight’ essential pre-watching as it would have put this one in context. Next, I missed the direct reference to Midnight in yesterday’s story first time around (in my defence, it was only a second or two long!) – and that would have piqued my interest. ON reflection, I re-rate ‘The Well’ as ⭐⭐⭐⭐

For me then, not quite as captivating as ‘Blink’ (watch the whole episode HERE), but it was close. Like many, that’s still my fave! 👍

Next Episode?

Next week’s episode is entitled: Lucky Day where we see the return of previous companion Ruby Sunday.

See you then! 🙂✍️