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January 19th, 2020 29 comments

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What Did You Think of Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror?

Now that the Forth episode of series 12 has aired what did you think? Was it everything you had hoped for or not what you expected.

1903. Who or what is sabotaging Nikola Tesla’s generator plant at Niagara Falls? And has this maverick inventor really received a message from Mars?





Single constructive comments on the article in question only.


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29 comments

  • Tim M

    January 20th, 2020 - 10:22am

    Overnight ratings are in for this episode. 4.04 million. A steady further drop, and the fifth most watched show of the day.

  • Brian the Time Lord

    January 20th, 2020 - 10:09am

    Anyone who seriously thinks Jodie gives a strong performance as The Doctor needs to wake up. She’s somehow simultaneously wooden, big headed, annoying and most importantly, unbelieve. She feels very much like she’s acting and not very well at it. The scene with her and Tesla talking about being an inventor was a good scene for the character of Tesla but feel totally flat on her segments. Lazy writing is again another issue. They seem to have her or someone spurt out a couple of facts about the famous face their meeting as though the writer literally just Googled it and added it in. Mrs Scorpion Queen Lady was unconvincing and not very menacing, clearly just a woman in a mask to the casual audience I think. The resolution to the episode was rushed, cheap and predictable. Also, special mention for the increasingly annoying exaggerated use of the sonic (why wave her arm about in such dramatic fashion half the time?). Series 12 is definitely an improvement on the last but the imbedded problems remain, poor writing, rushed conclusions and weak characterisations.

  • R1ch1e

    January 20th, 2020 - 9:00am

    Very good episode. I hate the title and it did take a while to get going but when it did it was outstanding. Jodie is getting better and better. 8/10 Looking forward to the Judoon next week

  • Doctor Mysterio

    January 20th, 2020 - 3:54am

    Much much improved on that terrible episode last week.
    After the frenetic start to the series, this has probably been the best of the four so far, and certainly the most coherent. It was enjoyable and showed the potential of the current production team. I’d be interested in seeing more stories from this writer.
    There have been some production issues again this series that I’d like to see addressed going forward, better editing, a firmer hand on the script, a little polish maybe from anyone who knows the history of the show, but it would be lazy to say any of this was the fault of Jodie, and to be honest the constant critism of her is getting a little dull now, especially considering this fun little story. She has repeatedly worked well with what she’s been given and, rather than being a weak link, has proved time and again that there are probably too many regulars in the TARDIS these days.
    I’d be happy for the kids to get dropped off and for her and Graham to go it alone to be honest. And maybe leave the sonic behind too.

  • The Moffat Paradox

    January 20th, 2020 - 12:18am

    Tesla was effectively turned into Howard/Tony Stark but without the business success and money.

  • Gordon

    January 20th, 2020 - 12:02am

    I’d give it a solid 8 out of 10. Thought the performances and story was very solid. Little rushed at the end though

  • RORY DOCTOR RIVER POND

    January 20th, 2020 - 12:02am

    I really enjoyed that one! Maybe my favourite of Whittaker’s so far, feel like it’s up there with Kerblam for me. Well placed, not too many characters, even all the companions managed to have a moment. Supporting characters were well realised and had time to breathe. I thought the twist with the queen being on Earth was good, and the resolution was quite clever. Simple story, not too overstuffed like the last three weeks, felt quite RTD. I really liked Whittaker in it too.

  • The Prydonian

    January 19th, 2020 - 11:15pm

    Haven’t watched it yet. Really have no drive to see it when it transmits anymore. Sounds like the aliens were sub Racnoss. I’ll wait until tomorrow. Pats86 is always on the nail in my opinion. JW is god awful in every way. The sonic is overused for sure and has been for a long time, however the way she point exaggerates the pointing of it is just a joke. Theatrical and naff. Future show runners really should think about giving it a back seat. Not keen on it giving readings and almost everything else it can do to help out the writers. These eps are like SJA ( which was great for CBBC) but nit prime time family drama. I simply am flabbergasted as to what people are watching when they rave about JW. Can you not see how poor she is ? Its cringe inducing. How the big chiefs at the Beeb are allowing this to continue in this way is staggering. The Doctor has been ruined as a character. No question. I have loved this show all my life and frankly feel betrayed that something so dear to my heart has gone so far down the plug hole.

  • The Living Shadow

    January 19th, 2020 - 10:43pm

    Very good! I liked the idea behind the aliens and how it kind of mirrored Edison. Tesla I found to be very likeable and that’s crucial so I’m glad about that haha! Yaz finally had stuff to do, but Ryan took the backseat, so I still think there are too many companions. Overall I certainly have more hope for the rest of this series, especially after last week’s train-wreck of an episode!

    Little nitpick: Didn’t like the alien queen’s voice. Just let the actor do some voice work! It feels weird for an organic creature to have such an obviously modulated voice!

  • Doctor Stu

    January 19th, 2020 - 10:37pm

    A lot better than last week, probably enjoyed it slightly less than episode 1, maybe around the same as episode 2. Again, plot conveniences and poor acting from all the main cast, Yaz is the only saving grace for me personally. Tesla was good and the monster was really nicely designed and voiced by Anjili but meh, it’s never going to beat the quality of what’s come before. Series 4 is light years above in quality than this but it’s not gonna change so…

  • Anonymous

    January 19th, 2020 - 10:07pm

    Makes me laugh when fans try to pull the new series episodes apart. You do realise you can do that to anything? Any classic series story can be ripped apart. It’s easy. The radio signal in pyramids of Mars, how does it function when Mars is in opposition? Why doesn’t kane in dragon fire buy a new smaller ship, refrigerate it and just leave? How after a 1000 years of war can the one remaining city of each race be within easy travelling distance of each other? The doctor and harry travel by foot several times and davros manages to get there without any problems. In the faceless ones the entire chameleon race gives up because of 22 individuals on a ship filled with other chameleons who had their new bodies and had actually won, all they had to do was fly away. See what I mean. It’s all nonsense. And I love it all!

  • Anonymous

    January 19th, 2020 - 9:31pm

    See the usual suspects are whinging again…

  • Time Maker

    January 19th, 2020 - 9:24pm

    My Top 5 favourite Parts of Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

    * Absolutely Brilliant Acting for Nikola Tesla, Dorothy Skerritt and Thomas Edison. All three felt true to the time period and perfectly mirrored the real life events that affected their characters.

    * Great to see several different yet strong sides to the Doctor such as her geeking out with Nikola due to their passion for inventing amazing devices that could benefit humanity, and seeing the Doctor standing up to the Skithra Queen by not tolerating villains that waste their chances.

    * An astounding and authentic set up to the 1900 American era, especially to the recreation of the wardenclyffe tower, costumes and props for Nikola’s inventions felt truly believable.

    * The Skithra being a scavenger race is a rare find in the Doctor Who universe so I am glad to see aliens living and conquering through different means, their appearances and behaviour both in their human disguises and true scorpion forms was wonderfully unsettling and the design of their queen was in my opinion one of the best villain designs in this series so far.

    * Seeing the main crystals of the Tardis console room glowing a beautiful ice blue makes a nice change from the usual golden honey glow so I hope to see this new colour used again.

    The only downsides I could find with this episode is that I felt the companions needed more to do and the Skithra Queen was a little too all talk no brains for me to take that seriously but other than that I felt this story was a step in the right direction for the current Doctor’s Adventures.

  • The Temporal Jelly Baby

    January 19th, 2020 - 9:04pm

    That was a big improvement on last week! That was proper Doctor Who, and it very much felt like it too.

    First of all, Goran Višnjić did a great job as a Nikola Tesla. I didn’t expect anything less, since he also excelled as Garcia Flynn in Timeless. Also, the Skithra look fantastic – both the scorpion creatures and the Queen. They’re hardly going to go into the Doctor Who hall of fame of monsters, but they were pretty effective for a one-off episode.

    The pacing was mostly decent too, which cannot be said for quite a number of other episodes so far in the Chibnall era. And, most of all, I really rather enjoyed watching it. As someone else has already said, it’s good escapism!

    On the negative side, there were a couple of minor plot conveniences that were skipped over a little bit such as The Doctor getting onto the Skithra’s ship. Maybe it could’ve done with being 5 to 10 minutes longer.

    Overall, a really solid episode with a good supporting cast, good monsters and, importantly, a good script! I’d be happy to see Nina Métivier return to do another story. It’s one of those good old Doctor Who historical staples like ‘The Unquiet Dead’ and ‘Thin Ice’.

    Spyfall: 7.75/10
    Orphan 55: 4.7/10
    Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror: 7.25/10

  • Pats86

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:51pm

    Excellent opening 4 minutes and then Jodie turned up and ruined it.

    GOOD POINTS
    Graham, Tesla and Edison.
    First 4 minutes.
    Historic background element.

    BAD POINTS
    Jodie’s gurning, sonic screwdriver depending Imposter Doctor (no longer expect anything else now)
    Poor villan.
    Ryan and Yaz.
    One thing that was absurd was the speed of the scorpion creatures, when chasing Edison and whoever else was with him the scorpions were practically on top of them, in the next shot they much further behind? This happened two or three times? It looked very amateurish as does a lot of Chibnall’s showruning.

    The only way to rectify this deterioration of a once great show is a new showrunner and Doctor, I can’t help but feel that with a good actor as the Doctor we would see a Doctor with a real presence which Jodie has none whatsoever.

    This season is an improvement on last season but that is not hard is it?

  • me

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:46pm

    i think that it was the best 13 doctor story i have seen but i know that is not saynig much

  • Trenzalore

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:39pm

    An average episode for me though its still in the better half of Whittaker’s run, it just cant compete with storytelling I can expect from other shows or past DW stories. The soundtrack for me is usually forgetful, like elevator music but was slightly more memorable this episode with the Scorpion queen’s music, though it did border on camp near the end. I enjoyed the TARDIS getting a bit more of a starring role, lately I wouldn’t have been surprised if she went back to calling it ‘the ship’ so I’m glad we spent more time there. The format gets a bit old in places; not an episode goes by where the doctor doesn’t send Ryan and Yaz or Graham and Ryan or Yaz and Graham off to do something, its becoming as cliché as ‘lets split up and look for clues’, I think Chibnall could try to edit all the scripts a little more so things don’t get repetitive and so the series flows a little better, however the side characters were good this episode, I like the Tesla-Edison relationship and while the dialogue was like 85% discussing the plot its lower than usual. Definitely better than last week but still average which has been the norm for the last few series.

  • Tim M

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:35pm

    Are all the stories in series 12 set on Earth? Can’t the Doctor and friends land on an alien planet. Something like the one seen in Tom Baker classic ‘Planet of Evil’ for a change.

  • Corsair’92

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:22pm

    Was hoping for much better than that!

    Whomever put Anjli Mohindra into those prosthetics needs to be trained on how to do it properly as you could clearly tell it was an actor underneath it all, especially when you can see the persons eyebrows. That voice distorter that was used for Queen Skithra’s voice was doing my head in as well.

    And hopefully when the Doctor lands on Earth in next week’s episode, please let her leave Ryan and possibly Yaz behind as Tosin Cole doesn’t seem to be able to act and Yaz just comes across as bratty and arrogant.

    Can understand now why a lot of people are complaining about the Doctor’s use of her sonic screwdriver.

    Spyfall Part 1 9.5/10
    Spyfall Part 2 7.5/10
    Orphan 55 8.5/10
    Nicola Tesla’s Night of Terror 4/10

    Please let the return of the Judoon be a good episode

  • Savo79

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:20pm

    Best episode so far this season or last but that isn’t saying much. On the plus side Tesla and Edison were briliant, historical setting was good and pacing was better. Now the bad. Poorly realised, derivative and weak villain again. Poor script again, plot holes and exposition abound. Lack of understanding of the Doctor’s character or previously established in universe facts like tardis power being near infinite. The worst thing is that the episode was best without the Doctor, it dipped with her arrival, I kept thinking that with any previous incarnation and any other companions this would’ve been a better episode. So far I’ve thought this doctor might work with better stories but I’m afraid not. Not that the actor can’t change they’re take on the role in post. Sylvester McCoy went from clown to dark manipulator. Jodie could still be good if they lost the sonic and the CBeebies vibe.

  • Thamwet

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:17pm

    I really enjoyed that one.

  • Jawamaster

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:11pm

    Best episode so far, however Silurian…alien???? umm I applaud the step up in story telling, but if you are going to reference the past, please get it right!

  • Tim M

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:10pm

    Very good episode. Certainly one of the better episodes of Jodie Whitaker’s run, and possibly her best story yet. Great acting all round and good script, along with very good direction also.

  • Andy R

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:08pm

    Excellent episode. Well drawn characters. Did justice to the historical figures. Allowed the story to develope and allowed time for people to have conversations (something they often neglect for exposition). Alien menace had a simple plan which made sense. Best episode so far.

  • Dalekparadigm2

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:08pm

    Brilliant episode and a properly motivating message at the end…unlike some episodes…

  • Anonymous

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:08pm

    The Tesla coil, the device used at the end to shoot the ship was a genuine device he worked on from 1891. Great fun.

  • ColinB

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:07pm

    An average but forgettable episode. Good character of tesla , but a rubbish villian of a scorpion queen. Why do the scorpion queen and the spider queen of racanoss always chew the scenery. The scorpion solders were really Good, funny and scary at same time but the villian drink. Hopefully next weeks story will be better

  • Anonymous

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:04pm

    Great stuff. Anjil mohindra was great. Don’t care what anyone else thinks I loved it and so did my kids.

  • When The Doctor Was Me

    January 19th, 2020 - 8:03pm

    Really enjoyed that one! Can’t see a reason not to. 50mins of great escapism!

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