DOCTOR WHO fans are doubtlessly famiiar with this episode, from the Tenth Doctor era. I’ll summarize quickly:
The Doctor and Donna are taking a break between adventures on a planet called Midnight–a resort world where one dare not expose oneself the star’s radition, whichis quickly lethal. The Doctor decides to go on a bus tour to see a crystal waterfall or some such; Donna opts to lounge at the pool.
There are fewer than a dozen people on the bus, and none of them realze who or what the Doctor is. The bus breaks down; the crew calls for help, which will take a couple of hours to arrive. A mysterious force kills the drver and mechanic. A possibly-related force takes over the mind of one of hte passengers, Skye, a woman the Doctor had befriended. This causes everyone but the Doctor to freak out.
Tthe Doctor is both fascinated and determined to free Skye. He does so but at the cost of apparently being possessed by the same force, rendering him unable to communicate. The other passengers, already suspicious of him, grow increasingly paranoid and decide to throw him off the bus, which will kill even a Time Lord.
The last surviving member of the crew, the hostess, is the only one who keeps her head. Intuitng that, contrary to superficial experiences, the mysterious force is till possessing Skye and manipulating them all, the hostess grabs Skye and pulls them both through the airlock, killing them but freeing the Doctor and presmably saving everyone. The Doctor realizes that he never knew teh hostesse’s name. He never discovers what the fuck was going on. At the end he talks to Donna, clearly very disturbed by the experience.
What’s notable about this episode is the absence of Donna from most of it. This is necessary from a thematic point of view, as the episode is exploring what the Doctor seems like to people who don’t know him, how he fares when deprived of his usual support (he doesn’t have the Tardis, the soic screwdriver is almost useless, the psychic paper only makes things worse). Thus it was clearly necessary for Donna to miss most of hte action.
Nonetheless I’d like to discuss how things might have gone differently if she HAD gone on the bus tour. For bonus points we can talk about how Rose, Rose & MIckey, Martha, or Jack would have affected things.