Four episode in , and so far thisseason of Doctor Whofeels like a major pitch back to its past . Old look , more monsters , stark messages . It ’s all good and proper Doctor Who . But a commitment to impart back thevibe of Doctor Whoalso brings with it a intimate problem : episodes that feel like something you ’ve determine a million clip before .
“ Nikola Tesla ’s Night of Terror , ” right down the b - moving-picture show - esque title , feels cut from a cloth doc Who has practically rip up to pieces since its early days : a pseudohistorical romp that leans to a great extent on the “ imposter ” part of that term . Not take root in trying to weave around the mechanics and logistics of sail real account , it is an instalment that frequently chucks the circumstance of Time Travel out the window because , well , it ’s 1903 and skittering scorpion scavengers from another reality are attempt to eat Nikola Tesla ( played to magic pleasure by Goran Visnjic)and Thomas Edisonalive .
So why waste fourth dimension considering what you ’re doing when you shove two meretricious age inventors inside a dimensionally transcendental police box seat other than require them to help you save the day from alien scorpions ?
“Oh! I’ve seen this one before.”Image: BBC
It is an essence that pervades the episode . Every time the potential drop for a particularly meaty or interesting idea is raised , it ’s cursorily dispose for a piece of monster action or throw away aside because stopping the pace of it all to even think about something just would n’t be fun at all . There are ideas provoke here in the broad strokes — the demarcation the episode makes between the ideation of Tesla and the businessmanlike approach to invention that made Edison not just his greatest competition , but infinitely more successful , or call for the head of what it means when the Doctor lift the mask of her Earth of clip and space , of monsters and unknown , to people of story , only to choose not to pass over their mind of it . But that is all they are : diagonal , brushed broadly on the tapestry of shapeshifting junker aliens who black market about swiping things , the great unwashed , and even ideas off of other worlds for keep their waning civilization going . If it was made in the Steven Moffat era of the show , it almost absolutelywouldhavebeenwrittenby Mark Gatiss .
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Which have in mind to say that really , it ’s just sort of … fine . There ’s nothing really bad about “ Night of Terror ” but nothing specially outstanding about it either , quickly blend into the surroundings of monster - driven historical episode that Doctor Who has build so much of its back catalog on the consequence it sneak your intellect after watching . This sort of enjoyable , if conversant , romp , is something that this latest era of the show , which has been on an arc of self - reflection and reinvention of sorts , has attempted to put its own stamp on before , to varying grade of success . In the “ eh ” camp there’s“Arachnids in the UK”and“The Tsuranga Conundrum,”episodes that had nothing to say other than “ look , we can do that Doctor Who thing , still ! ”
Thomas Edison, scared of alternating current but largely unfazed by a phone booth that travels space and time.Image: BBC
“ Night of Terror ” carry off to annul joining these anterior attempts , gratefully , and more gracefully slot itself in alongside the like of last season ’s “ Kerblam!”—which mostly manage to do a good job of balance modern - sidereal day allegory with sci - fi shenanigans , until the very oddment — and “ The Witchfinders , ” which add to its familiar pseudohistory premiseby actually engagingwith the fact that the personification of the Doctor that tackle it was distaff . Of these two better attempts , this most recent episode perhaps slots itself firmly between . It does n’t completely whiff the landing quite like “ Kerblam ! , ” but it does n’t really quite supply much of its own matter to the proceedings like “ The Witchfinders . ”
What it does add , however follow quickly and only near the final stage — and in the context of this current season ’s lallygag threads , makes for a fascinating flight for the 13th Doctor to continue on . As the episode builds to a climax that sees the Doctor , her friend , Tesla and his assistant Dorothy , and a wary Edison hunker down at Tesla ’s underfunded Wardenclyffe project , hoping to lure the Skithra Queen and her ship close enough to atomise it with electricity and scare the scorpid scavengers off . When things go awry ( as they ’re wo nt to do , it is Doctor Who of path ) the Doctor is drawn into an in - person confrontation with the Queen , and make out the ultimatum that the Skithra still have a probability to leave Earth unharmed , even as she needle her as a king of rag and patches . Incensed , the Skithra Queen promptly steps her infantry in it — well , she is a scorpion gentlewoman , one of her feet — and threatens the Doctor of the Church : does she know what it ’s like to see a world she love , dead ?
Oh , bug - lady . You pickedthe wrong timeto inquire this Time Lord that .
Thomas Edison, scared of alternating current but largely unfazed by a phone booth that travels space and time.Image: BBC
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What follows is a subtle moment from Whittaker ’s Doctor , but wield incredibly — the masquerade party of co - operation with the Skithra settle , and the Dr. , sting from the recent re - expiration of her own home and the disaster she check there , immediately steels herself . She no longer wants to offer a chance to the Skithra , but shoot down them entirely . Not admonish them , but punish them for crossing her . The time for 2nd chances is far from over , and this physician no longer feels like the sort of charactereven remotely willingto be reticent about that .
“ Nikola Tesla ’s Night of Terror ” does n’t really engage with this here and now with the Doctor longer than it needs to . The Doctor tricks the poof into returning to her ready - to - be - zapped ship , the day is salve . And , kind of depressingly , the Time Lord order her friends that it ’s basically all right that Nikola Tesla has been inside the TARDIS and confront off aliens from another world because while he ’s convey respectable idea and that ’s prissy , he ’s going to die penniless and with his genius mostly ignore or left in the vestige of other inventors .
The Doctor and Tesla get off on the wrong foot. Well, wrong stolen ray gun.Image: BBC
But the fact that it does engage , if even for a consequence — building on the arcestablished in the premiere , repeat on this darker , less - lenient way the 13th Doctor is being promote down — elevates it from its otherwise median finery . It took most of the runtime to get there , but finally , and appropriately for an episode about Tesla , we got a spark of vigour that was greatly appreciated .
Assorted Musings
Fun fact for you : the Skithra Queen was roleplay by none other than Anjli Mohindra , who ’s rather familiar with the world of Doctor Who already give thanks to her sentence asRani Chandraon The Sarah Jane Adventures . From economise the Earth to want to destroy it !
Bradly Walsh ’s consistently jaunty - angle bowler hat . That ’s it . That ’s the musing .
Between the Master in the time of year premiere and theJudoon on the waynext week , there ’s already been a lot of onetime Who love going on this season to the point that I honestly ask the Silurian blaster that kicked off the medico ’s involution in Tesla ’s business at the starting line of the sequence to go to an actual Silurian . While it ’s nice to see Chibnall ’s geological era of Who , having cut itself off almost entirely from preceding references last time of year , zestfulness in that rich chronicle , it ’s nicer to have baffle a “ Modern ” menace rather of an old one .
“No second chances. I’m that sort of a Time Lord.Err, again.”Image: BBC
I know the Wardenclyffe task was an actual matter , among this installment ’s pseudohistory — Tesla never could rightfully batten down financing , it eventually got shut down in 1906 , and there are current efforts to turn the web site into a museum observe his work — but the avid Destiny 2 player in me could n’t aid misthink at first and leap tothe Wardcliff Coil , a Tesla - invigorate mad scientist rocket launcher that deals electricity harm in a barrage of savage missiles . If only the Doctor and her team had one of those handy !
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Rani’s looking a bit different…Image: BBC
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