DOCTOR WHO REVIEW
NIKOLA TESLA'S NIGHT OF TERROR
Hello and welcome to another Doctor Who review on this blog, where today we are reviewing episode four of the twelfth series of Doctor Who which is entitled 'Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror'.
This reimagining sees Tesla, in a charismatic performance from ER’s Goran Visnjic targeted for his expertise by unpleasant scorpion race the Skithra.
So this episode is another sudo historical following on from episodes such as: Rosa, Demons of the Panjab, The Witchfinders, Spyfall Part Two, Chris Chibnall has decided to take us back to the historical roots of the show and give audiences a history lesson, but to make it interesting throw an alien into it, or throw a monster into it.
Nikola Tesla isn't actually someone who I've heard of, ever. I've heard of Telsa cars, only to discover that Elon Musk actually created the Tesla because he was a fan of Nikola Tesla's work.
Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror, I have to say I love the story for the title alone, but also for those of us largely unbothered by the details of electric current, ‘Night of Terror’ is a classic story of realising your true potential. Throughout history Tesla is someone whose work is overlooked, he achieved amazing things and as the Doctor tells Yaz at the end of the episode, these things do come fruition, lots of good does come out Tesla and his work.
I think it got the balance of history and adventure absolutely right, it was a well executed and solid adventure and I really enjoyed watching it.
The acting was absolutely on point, from the guests especially, Robert Glenister was fantastic as Thomas Edison he's almost borderline villainous, he portrays Edison as almost pantomimesque businessman whereas Goran Visnjic gave a very nuanced portrayal in this episode as Nikola Tesla I can't fault it, it was splendid to watch. Definitely I would say one of the strongest guest cast performances Doctor Who has seen in recent years. Great to see guest stars actually being USED WELL as apposed to getting killed off after ten minutes like Stephen Fry.
Jodie Whittaker in this story is delightful, I really liked her performance in this, it's the most doctor-ish I've seen her in all her episodes so far. Another thing to point out which I like is it's nice to see thirteen's darker impulses start to come out a little more. Her doctor is getting progressively more darker as the current series continues from what I've noticed. At times she was flat-out intimidating towards Tesla at the beginning and definitely towards the Queen of the Skithra at the end.
It is interesting to see her Doctor who is usually quite perky having an attitude which in such a way that is on par with the previous doctors, she's starting to get a little bit bloodthirsty. I think it's interesting, I can't say at this point whether I like this side to her character or not. What it does do is give her character more depth as apposed to Gallifrey's now 're destruction' So all I'll say for now is 'let's just see how far down this path we will go' who knows, by episode eight or nine she could be turned into a raving lunatic. (Please don't over play it if that is the case). It's something which I think Whittaker has the ability to pull off, from what I've heard she's a bit nuts in real life, so we'll just wait, watch and see what happens. What concerns me is Chibnall and Whittaker over playing it, and making it out to be a bit thing, there is such a thing as over acting.
What I do end up questioning about this episode more than anything else is why didn't the Doctor wipe the minds of Tesla and Edison at the end? She did it at the end of Spyfall to Ada and Nour which sets a strange precedent, but I'm not a fan of mind wiping being used in that sort of way anyway, so I'm not going to follow it up.
It's lovely to see Yaz get more scene time, I really liked how she took everything in that was around her in this episode and how there is not always a happy ending to some of these things and that's what the ending to this episode symbolised. The fact that Tesla will die penniless and the fact that no matter how great you are and the things you achieve things just don't go your way, and I thought Yaz's confusion and desolation to this was very well done, well acted.
One of the issues I found with this episode is something that has been an issue with previous episodes is that it's still heavy on exposition, there's too much of it and it feels a little bit forced, and the doctor is sadly always the one that has to end up dealing with it. Surely there must be more simpler ways of delivering the information necessary because sometimes it just brings the episode down to a halt and gradually you feel yourself becoming less and less invested until something new happens and then you're back in it again.
Another issue I had with this episode was the doctor's costume. I thought it was a shame and a missed opportunity that she didn’t get an outfit to match the era of 1903. The others got one, why didn’t the doctor? Especially as they did give her a new outfit for Spyfall.
The Skithra, the scorpion like shape shifting aliens in this, I feel could have been designed better, we don't see much of them or get a good proper look at them but from their appearance that we did see, they just looked like a black and red CGI giant scorpion to me, I think the production team could have been more inventive with the design of them. The Queen's costume I thought was great, and although I didn't like the voice effects, Anjili Mohindra gives a really good performance in that role, reminiscent to the Empress of the Racnoss, performed magnificently by Sarah Parish.
This episode was really, really good. I’m buzzing after watching it (pardon the pun). My favourite episode of series twelve so far.
Graham was really funny, Ryan and Yaz were very good, especially Yaz.
I loved it, and for that reason, Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror deserves a 9/10.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review, and I shall see you next time for another Doctor Who Review next week.
