Written by Brian McNamara
Twelve years into the revitalized series, it’s clear that we’re never going to get “pure” historical episodes – stories set in the past where there’s no alien involvement. But if we’re not going to get the Doctor and company just bumbling their way through historical events, at least we know the episodes can be as fun and exuberant about history as possible. While not every moment in ‘Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror’ is exactly electric – sorry, that pun couldn’t be helped, it is an enjoyable installment that matches the energy and tone of this season.
The Doctor is tracking a mysterious alien artifact through the Niagara Falls generator of Nikola Tesla. Their erstwhile meeting is cut short as a mysterious man in black attempts to kill the inventor. The Doctor whisks Tesla away, along with his assistant, Dorothy Skerritt, to New York City to find out just what is going on. There they cross paths with Thomas Edison and the storied history between the two inventors spills over into a war with scorpion aliens looking to use Tesla’s engineering skills to repair their ship.
The plot is a little messy for what is essentially a straightforward tale, but it does manage to include some very real bits of history about both Tesla and Edison. Tesla did in fact claim to have intercepted transmissions from Mars; Edison did have spies working to thwart Tesla and did steal all the patents of his workers. Edison is probably given a much fairer portrayal then he deserves, but the episode does paint him as a smart businessman who understands the science but who is envious of Tesla and whose interest in exploiting science for profit. The “science first, profits later” Tesla is placed well against this.
Goran Visnjic’s Nikola Tesla is wonderfully brought to life. He’s layered; at first suspicious of the Doctor and holding out information. HIs realization that the Doctor is an inventor and “understands his language” is a well-played moment and his subtle transformation into something akin to the Doctor over the episode is all part of a wonderful arc. He’s joyous, heroic, sullen and pragmatic throughout and it feels very real. Robert Glenister’s Edison is strong in its own right, playing the antagonist-turned-ally-turned-antagonist again. He’s not as nuanced as Tesla, but feels like a full character. Even the accent was pretty strong from the usually dodgy American accents on who. (Though the pronunciation of patent as “pay-tent” over “pah-tent” does sort of spoil the illusion.)
Our typical Team TARDIS all have their moments, if the plot conspires to put Tesla and the Doctor together as much as possible and thus short shrifts the group. Ryan, Yas and Graham testing each other on historical knowledge and Graham slapping Edison’s wrist stand out from the episode. Yas’s frustration with Tesla being unrecognized despite their intervention in history feels very appropriate to the episode, but maybe makes less sense given their run-ins with history already with Rosa Parks, Ada Lovelace and more.
Where ‘Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror’ does lose a little of its track is in the alien of the week part of the plot. It’s unclear why the evil scorpion aliens are killing people – including the entirety of Edison’s chemical division. That bit seems like a pretty big change to the past to just gloss over for the Doctor. The aliens only need a jumpstart so their move murder feels contrived. The aliens themselves are a little odd too. Scorpion aliens, operative on a hive mind, who bear a striking resemblance to the Racnoss, an alien race from the David Tennant era. The mask for the Scorpion Queen even looks like the same mask used for those creatures from over a decade ago.
They’re very one note, lacking clear direction and clear motives. The aliens use random technology from other species, but it’s just sort of hand waved away as a quirk. Random aliens using other species tech is something that’s popped up before in Whittaker’s stories, but it’s not really been explained (see the Space Racist from “Rosa”). It feels like the basis for a plotline or arc, but it’s just dropped, unremarked upon. Anjli Mohindra tries her best to play an over-the-top serial villain as the Scorpion Queen but it never quite feels like it matches the tone of the episode and thus it feels very silly. Adding to that silliness are random elements like including tight canted-angle closeups and the fact that the Queen has on liptick. Juxtaposed to the tender portrayal of Tesla, it feels like two forces at work that never quite matched up.
The episode is fun. It moves along at a great pace, everyone interacts with everyone else and everyone is charming. It’s a tidy little episode, too, there’s nothing too extraneous here. It’s fun to see Doctor Who expand beyond British history and bring in more American figures. It opens new avenues and can make the time travel feel fresh, especially as we’ve been on Earth for four episodes this season.
I must admit, as someone who was born and raised in Edison, NJ, and pass his original lab space (now a museum) almost everyday, I got a certain level of enjoyment out of the episode on just having the Doctor meet history that’s literally close to me.
