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| Nikola Tesla (Goran Visnjic) tries to attract investors to his latest project. |
THE PLOT:
The year is 1903, and inventor Nikola Tesla (Goran Visnjic) has failed in his latest attempt to entice new investors for his experiments with wireless transmissions at Wardenclyffe Tower, located on the north shore of Long Island. His assistant, Dorothy Skerritt (Haley McGee) interrupts to tell him there is an emergency - a dead man, killed by an electric shock. Word spreads that Tesla's experiments have turned deadly, and the public - with a push from rival inventor Thomas Edison (Robert Glenister) - turns firmly against him.
The Doctor has followed massive energy readings to Tesla's tower, and arrives in time to save the inventor from a figure armed with a Silurian weapon. Back in New York City, she first investigates Edison. But the actual attackers are the Skithra, a race of scorpion-like scavengers who exist by plundering the technology of other species. The stolen technology on their stolen ship is breaking down, and their queen (Anjli Mohindra) has demanded an engineer be procured to repair it. A job that will require a superior mind - Tesla's mind.
The queen gives her ultimatum: The Doctor will surrender Tesla, or the Skithra will destroy all life on Earth!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Is thrilled to meet Tesla, and it's clear that he's a man she much admires. Which doesn't stop her from immediately calling him out for lying about having found alien technology - which, to his credit, he does show her as soon as he recognizes her as a kindred spirit. Jodie Whittaker gets some lovely scenes opposite Goran Visnjic, particularly one late in the episode when he is ready to give himself to the Skithra only for her to stop him, insisting that his work will change the world. She also gets a pair of strong confrontation moments with the queen, particularly when she tells the alien: "When you die, there will be nothing left behind. Just a trail of blood, and other people's brilliance. No one will even know you existed!"
Graham/Ryan:: Both in the background, though both get enough good bits to not feel entirely wasted. Ryan's dyspraxia is remembered again; he hesitates when a Skithra pursuit requires him to jump between cars on a train, and is only able to make himself jump through Yaz's urging. He also bonds with Dorothy, the script drawing parallels between the two who left ordinary lives to spend time with extraordinary figures. Meanwhile, Graham gets a nice interaction with Edison. Having sized the world famous inventor up, Graham compares him to a former supervisor: "Men like you don't pay a bloke that much attention unless you think there's a payout coming."
Yaz: When the Skithra teleport Tesla to their ship, she grabs hold of his hand, not allowing him out of her sight. She pushes him to defy the queen, and comes very close to paying for that with her life. This is the third story in a row in which Yaz seems genuinely impacted by the perils around them. She once again gets to be afraid, as the queen threatens to kill her as "unimportant." Her compassion is also apparent, as she seems genuinely devastated when the Doctor tells her that Tesla never achieves success during his lifetime.
Thomas Edison: Edison flatly tells Tesla that his way of working "is the best idea either of (them) ever came up with." Tesla is a man of genius and vision; Edison is a man of commerce, smart enough to recognize other people's talents and with the resources to make them reality. To sell for a profit, certainly, but it's hard to argue that in the short term, he was able to make things happen that Tesla was not. It would be easy to dismiss the episode's Edison as the equivalent of a Pertwee-era pompous bureaucrat. But Robert Glenister plays the role with genuine shrewdness and even a hint of warmth. The script even allows him a moment of compassion. Standing over the body of one of his workers, murdered by the Skithra, a shocked Edison remarks that he had dinner with the man and his family the night before, and starts talking about the need to notify the families of the dead - Not exactly the sentiments of mustache-twirling villain.
Nikola Tesla: "Let (people) talk. The present is theirs. I work for the future - And the future is mine!" Goran Visnjic's Tesla dominates this episode, lending humanity to this fast-paced adventure. The episode takes pains to make sure we recognize Tesla's brilliance, but does acknowledge his lack of business sense. Even the Doctor notes that, if the man had possessed any sense of the practical, he would have been a billionaire by the turn of the century. The episode ends with the Doctor filling in her companions, and the audience, about the ending to Tesla's story - with him penniless, the importance of his work unrecognized in his own time. After 50 minutes of Visnjic's superb portrayal, the harsh turns of actual history are far crueler than the fantasy violence of the Skithra.
THOUGHTS:
After the disappointment of Orphan 55, this was just what the Doctor ordered! A fun, well-paced alien invasion romp, given just the right amount of weight through the inclusion of a couple significant historical figures. The episode has action, humor, good character moments, and ends with a strong confrontation between the Doctor and the Monster of the Week. The regulars are on good form, the guest cast are excellent, and Goran Visnjic is outstanding.
Nina Metivier, who script edited some episodes of Series 11, makes her Doctor Who writing debut. Her script is a well-structured gem. It opens with a hint of mystery, which quickly turns into action, which leads to the meeting of the Doctor and Tesla, which leads to more action. Then, having caught our attention, the pace slows down to absorb the period setting, slickly feeding us information about both Tesla and Edison as well as plot-important backstory, before speeding up again with another action scene.
Characters are compared and contrasted throughout the story. The obvious parallels are between the two inventors and two aliens. Tesla and the Doctor are both geniuses, brains constantly exploding with ideas, but both marred by a lack of practicality. Edison and the Skithra Queen both exploit the work of others, claiming ownership over technology they did not actually create - and both attempt to get Tesla to work for them, though Edison's offer at the end is a lot friendlier than the queen's. Edison and Tesla are also contrasted against each other - and though the episode obviously favors Tesla, it does acknowledge that Edison has strengths Tesla does not. Other parallels are drawn between Ryan and Tesla's assistant. This lends the episode a touch of depth that makes an already enjoyable adventure that little bit more memorable.
In the end, Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror is a winning episode: well-scripted, well-made, and just plain fun to watch. Oh, and to reiterate from my Spyfall review: The current TARDIS looks really good in blue.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
Previous Episode: Orphan 55
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