Nikolai Tesla’s Night of Terror written by Nina Metivier and directed by Nida Manzoor

Oh Brilliant: It’s time for all those crusty old men who can’t bear a woman in the role to switch off right at the beginning of this review because once again I found Jodie Whittaker a delight in this episode. It was packed full of those ‘moments of charm’ that Pertwee was always talking about but they feel a million times less forced than they did at moments in the previous year. Whittaker is so comfortable in the role now and has overcome all of those first year nerves and slapping her down in the middle of a celebrity historical where she gets to not only engage with two important figures from history but actually form a relationship with both them in some expertly written dialogue scenes is wonderful to watch. I love how she enters the story, whilst it is already in full swing, looking daft as hell and sniffing out trouble. I love how Tesla takes a careful step between the two trains carts and the Doctor leaps from one to the other as though she has been appearing in action movies her entire life. Is she always this impertinent? Her companions chime ‘yes.’ The Doctor/Tesla scenes are as important as the Doctor/Stevenson ones in Mark of the Rani, sometimes completely away from the action the Doctor engaging with a historical figure that she/he greatly admires. It put a huge smile on my face. Luckily high-speed inventing is one of her specialisms. Her confidence is at all time high; walking straight up to Edison and demanding answers, saving Tesla’s life and marching onto the Skithra ship and firing one liners like she is a stand-up comedian. I love her pure self-belief, she wont panic until she has a very good reason to do so.

Graham: He’s just having a whale of time on these adventures these days. Does a companion need to have a specific arc to make them relevant in the series? In the new series it would seem so but it in the classic series it was never a priority. If a character is really fun to spend time with and gets lovely moments and is simply there because he loves the adventure what on earth is wrong with that? When did making them part of the fabric of the season become a priority? Shakes fist at RTD (but then puts it down because he handled that sort of stuff so well). Do I want to see Graham get juicier material? Sure. Am I happy with his contributions at the moment? Absolutely. Walsh brings huge personality to the show.

Yaz: Hold the phone was there an entire subplot where Yaz was given something substantial to do? It can be done! And it should be done more often because Mandip Gill once again proves what she can bring to the show beyond enthusiasm. Pairing her up with Tesla was a great idea because she gets to show everything that she has learnt from the Doctor and from her time in the police. It’s naive but sweet how Yaz thinks that because of their intervention that Tesla’s life will change for the better. It’s exactly the same lesson that Amy Pond learnt in the Van Gogh episode.

Ryan: Ryan’s dyspraxia is remembered for half a millisecond on the train but in all honesty, I thought this had been chipped off by Chibnall. He’s done much more dangerous stunts in the previous couple of episodes. Is it a thing that Ryan and Graham have to have one moment of joy in every episode because the death ray moment had me howling with laughter.

Tesla: Once again the Chibnall era is shining a light on the lesser known figures from history, something that RTD and Moffat shied away from because they wanted their historical episodes to feature celebrities. What an extraordinary performance by Goran Visnjic, who wanders into this show as though he owns it but with incredible grace and charisma. I knew next to nothing about Tesla and given his importance to history it is a strange anomaly that he hasn’t been featured on Doctor Who yet. How the story chooses to follow his narrative throughout means this is a singularly unique experience. There are some clever parallels between him and the Doctor; he’s a bit too quick to admit some very quirky things with a straight face, he’s an inventor, he makes ridiculous demands…and those are all revealed in the first scene. It means when they eventually meet that Tesla and the Doctor are made for each other. I genuinely had no idea of the depth and breadth of Tesla’s imagination and how many of the things we take for granted he conjured up at the beginning of the previous century. That was where this episode was a revelation and it is summed up beautifully by the Doctor by making parallels with equipment and devices that we use every day. I would really love to learn more about Tesla and Doctor Who hasn’t done that to me in a long time, but it is something that the historicals do very well. Inspire you to learn. What is both brilliant and perfectly unjust is how Tesla is obviously bound for greatness, that his creative notions are bound for success. But he dies penniless and unrecognised in this time and the episode refuses to shy away from that. He has this extraordinary adventure with the Doctor and you would think that would turn everything around for him but his life is still set on the same course. Like the Doctor said in The Aztecs; they can observe but not interfere. The sad truth is that the most recognition he would get is from the Skithra, who choose him out of everybody else on the planet to fix their problem. It’s not everything he deserved but it is something.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Perhaps ai will achieve nothing but If I achieve anything, it will be in the name of progress.’
‘When you die, there’ll be nothing left behind. Just a trial of blood and other people’s brilliance. No-one will even know you existed.’
‘Have you ever seen a dead planet?’

The Good: Niagara Falls? Are you kidding me? Is there nothing that this show cannot realise anymore? I’ll tell you what this feels like…it feels like the budget for two seasons has been allocated to this year and that was what the wait was all about. I seriously thought after Spyfall that there would be some penny pinching because that looked so expensive but there is no sign of that in the first four episodes of the season. What is it about Doctor Who on trains that I simply adore? Black Orchid, Eater of Wasps, The Nowhere Place, Mummy on the Orient Express, Flatline…I don’t think it is just a blokey thing to love trains but I get a giddy thrill every time it happens. The fact that this where they drop the shows latest super creepy villain in a deftly filmed action sequence makes it even better. I love the simplicity of the look of these bad guys; bowler hats, glowing red eyes and mouths that can distort into a parody of a scream. How New York is described as ‘more people getting rich quick and more poor people than ever before’ is a beautiful summation of the time. You have to be succinct in 50 minutes to set the scene and Manzoor has the Holmes/RTD ability to conjure up a location vividly with very few words. Robert Gelnnister in his second Doctor Who appearance makes just as much of an impact as his first. Edison isn’t a one-note rival of Tesla’s but a fully realised character in his own right. He’s capable of showing terrific growth within these 50 minutes whilst maintaining his gruff personality. My partner rarely comments on anything during Doctor Who but during this episode he physically recoiled at the introduction of the Skithra (he has quite bad arachnophobia so these are definitely not the monsters for him!) and also how impressed he was by Anjili Mohindra’s performance as the Queen. Not an easy part to play without going into Racnoss over the topness and yet she manages to make this part quite dignified whilst ticking all the boxes of a good, snarling Doctor Who villain. Even Skerrit’s little dialogue with Ryan shows how a character’s background can be sketched in with remarkable brevity – the absence is the sort of stuff that would irritated me in Moffat’s era. You can give characters a motive and some texture without stalling the plot. There’s a definitive feeling of momentum as all the pieces of the plot come together and all of regulars (and historical figures) pool their resources to bring down the Tesla. All the elements of the plot cohere beautifully and there is a feeling of optimism in the air. I was enchanted. Even more embarrassingly, I was screaming with excitement when the Skithra attacked the streets of New York. Fuck me, this season has kicked ass with its alien action. And isn’t great how the Skithra squabble and fight amongst themselves as they attack? Like they are all desperate children hungry for the feast. The blue TARDIS interior. Bestill my heart.

The Bad: The only real negative I can see is that Doctor Who has done the Skithra before in the Racnoss (the make up is strikingly similar) and the spider aliens in Kill the Moon and the idea that aliens beg, borrow and steal was handled in School Reunion. Nothing about the Skithra is particularly original but then this episode isn’t really about them. It’s not their story we are following, it’s Tesla’s. The monsters are just there so we can learn more about him. Oh and it steals its ending from Horror of Fang Rock.

The Shallow Bit: How gorgeous does everybody look in their Regency finery? It’s Yaz who stands out the most because whilst the boys look very dapper it feels like she has had the most striking transformation. Last year the time travellers simply walked around history in their usual clothes – why would you do that? Tesla is a little bit handsome, isn’t he? I would never usually go for a guy with just a moustache (it’s a thing) but there is something about his magnetism and intelligence that draws me to him.

Result: Series 12 is shaping up very nicely indeed. It’s four for four as far as I’m concerned (with some caveats for Orphan 55). Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror strikes me as exactly what season 11 needed in this slot; a terrifically entertaining character tale with great monsters, plenty of action and chance for Jodie Whittaker to show off what she can do. The fact that we are waiting a whole year later is a shame but the simple fact of the matter is that in her second year Doctor Who feels confident and stylish and is unapologetically mixing historical figures with monsters with great results. This is a history lesson couched in an action movie set during the Regency period…and that is a pitch that pretty much any series would die for. Tesla is a remarkably vivid character, expertly played and written with enough detail so you feel as if you have learnt a lot about him but with no time to sketch him in terrific depth so you can pop off to the land of the internet and find out more. Doctor Who at its best inspires you to ask questions and to discover, whilst entertaining you at the same time. The monsters are generic but outstandingly realised and the action at the climax quite took my breath away. Tesla is a great example of what the show is doing so well this season; fully realised locations, a great sense of fun, surprises, terrific action and a brilliantly written Doctor. A story written by a woman and directed by a woman (both new names to the series – huzzah!) and featuring a woman in the main role…it’s about damn time and the results are a glorious piece of Doctor Who that feels utterly traditional but trendy and smart at the same time: 8/10