This week on Doctor Who, we are taken to 1903 New York where we meet Nikola Tesla. This episode felt like an educational stand-alone similar to episodes in series eleven. It is always fun when we get a historical episode with an alien twist.
Let’s dive into the episode. This review does contain spoilers. Please do not read any further if you have not seen the episode.
Doctor Who: We meet Nikola Tesla
If you weren’t familiar with the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla before this episode, let me tell you, it was rough. Edison gets credit for his work as being the father of electricity. His work was actually founded on stolen ideas. He was a businessman. Tesla was a genius. He had brilliant ideas that we don’t truly learn about until well into adulthood. It’s a tragedy, really.
The episode begins with Nikola Tesla (played by Goran Visnjic) giving a pitch for his generator to a crowd of investors in Niagara Falls, New York. Apparently, these men don’t take him seriously. Tesla claims he received a message from Mars, and that didn’t sit well with the investors. A man later is found dead in Tesla’s lab from electric shock. They don’t want it leaking to the press that he died because of Tesla’s equipment. When Tesla is doing work in his lab, he discovers pieces of his machinery are missing. He hears someone lurking about. When he investigates, he finds a strange orb floating around him. He is intrigued and ends up keeping it. As he and his friend Dorothy are attempting to escape, the Doctor (played by Jodie Whittaker) shows up. She asks if they’ve seen anything weird around. Clearly, that is a yes. Next, the “lurker” begins to shoot at them. The Doctor helps them escape. What happened next confused me a bit.
The next scene shows everyone on a train. Graham, Yaz, and Ryan are there. How did they end up there? There was no TARDIS and no running to the train. I feel like there could have been a better link here between the Doctor saving Tesla and the events on the train. I did love it when the Doctor realized who she had just saved. She has always wanted to meet him! The being in black appears and begins shooting at all of them. The weapon is a Silurian gun, yet the Doctor notices it isn’t Silurian. She takes the gun, and they suspect the one in black is either Thomas Edison or someone who works for him. It would make sense, and that’s what I thought.
The Doctor was chasing an energy reading and sees that he’s still holding on to whatever it was she was chasing. So of course, they can’t let Tesla out of their sight.
Is Edison responsible for the attacks on Tesla?
The Doctor gets to see Nikola Tesla’s lab, and she is underwhelmed. She may not have been impressed by his lab, but she explains to her friends how much of a genius he is. Then, Tesla shows the Doctor the orb. It’s an orb of Thessa. However, it isn’t doing what it was programmed to do. When she uses her sonic, Tesla is amazed by it. At that moment, I really admired their connection. The Doctor and Tesla, both inventors. Both incredibly smart, and both seemingly out of place. The Doctor reminds him that changing the world takes time. That’s such a powerful thought. We can’t expect to see changes and big things happen overnight.
Next, Tesla gets some bad news about an investor pulling out. One of Edison’s men comes by and takes a sneaky picture of them. Why would Thomas Edison ( (played in Doctor Who by Robert Glenister) want a Thessa orb? The Doctor finds Edison and asks him about the alien weapons. Someone is trying to steal from Tesla, and everyone is sure it’s Edison. Edison gives off a real high-horse, not-so-nice business man vibe. He is only interested in money, and that’s obvious when he mentions Tesla used to work for him.
Yaz and Tesla have stayed behind to watch over the orb of Thessa. The orb ends up giving off a load of energy. Flashback to the Doctor, Ryan, Graham, and Edison. The man who took Tesla’s picture, one of Edison’s men, is actually not a human. Harold Green, who is actually dead, is the face the alien is using to hide. So, it isn’t Edison.
Historical, but make it alien, is the Doctor Who way
Next, the Doctor uses “green stuff” and a couple of other chemicals to trap the alien. When the Doctor calls Yaz to tell them it’s aliens and not Edison, the aliens are already there. They don’t want the orb. They want Tesla. Then, Tesla and Yaz are transported to the alien ship, and these aliens look like scorpions. Back when the BBC put out a trailer for this new season, I was under the impression the Racnoss was coming back. The Racnoss were seen in the 10th Doctor’s (David Tennant) episode “The Runaway Bride.” These aren’t the same. However, they are similar. The queen even sounds the same as the empress did.
Everyone in the TARDIS and the Doctor sees that the orb is scanning the Earth. It’s been looking for Tesla. The Skithra have been watching and waiting. They were the ones who took pieces from his labs. Remember that Mars signal Tesla claimed he received? It turns out it was these aliens. Yaz and Tesla are scrambling to figure out how to get off the ship. Yaz reminds Tesla that he doesn’t have to figure this all out on his own. The queen of the Skithra needs Tesla to fix their ship and prepare it for battle. He refuses. The Doctor, back in Tesla’s lab, found a contraption that can transport her onto the ship and save Yaz and Tesla.
The ship is a mix-match of whatever the Skithra can get their hands on. The Doctor calls out the queen for stealing everything. Once she saves Tesla and Yaz, everyone ends up back in the TARDIS to figure out how to get rid of these aliens.
Teamwork makes the dream work
When Tesla enters the TARDIS, he is of course amazed. Edison says he couldn’t figure it out either. What happens next is pretty wonderful. Tesla, being the genius scientist he is, says, “The internal dimensions transcend the external.” Take that, Edison! The Doctor uses the orb as a radio to talk to the queen of the Skithra. The queen gives them the typical bad-guy ultimatum: give us Tesla or everyone else dies.
The Doctor tells Tesla that he will change the world. But first, they need to save it. Joe P on Twitter says:
Massive Vincent and the Doctor vibes. Great episode! #DoctorWho
— Joe P (@justplainjoe) January 20, 2020
This is the moment that I felt that. Tesla, a man way ahead of his time, was not appreciated. His work was protested, and his ideas were not shared for years and years to come. The Eleventh Doctor (played by Matt Smith) used the help of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting skills to save Vincent’s town. Vincent was not appreciated. He was the town drunk. Now, many years after his passing, he is renowned as one of the world’s greatest painters. Nikola Tesla’s work has that same feeling. We now understand the genius behind Tesla’s ideas. It is just a shame that these men could not see how they changed the world.
I digress. Tesla’s World Wide System tower is going to be how they use electrical currents to destroy the alien ship. Edison and Yaz are in charge of getting people off of the streets while Tesla and the Doctor use the TARDIS to fire up Tesla’s tower. Graham, Ryan, and Dorothy have to find ways to protect the lab. Edison, being the terrible person that he is, used everyone’s fear of Tesla’s work to get everyone inside. Granted, it worked, but it was a low blow. The alien scorpions are chasing Yas and Edison through the streets. I noticed these creatures don’t seem too intelligent. They were running into each other as more of them were on the street. I found that odd. Later, the Doctor does mention they are a hive mind and need their queen to function. So, I guess they do not need to be incredibly intelligent.
The aliens have superior numbers, but the team has superior minds. The TARDIS only has enough power to charge the tower, so the shields have to come down. Of course, the tower doesn’t power up. It looks like they cannot blast the ship. The queen ends up in the lab, privy to what they were up to. She patronizes them, calling the team fragile creatures. She demands Tesla, and the Doctor will not allow that. As always, the Doctor gave her a chance to change. There is only one strike with the Doctor, and now she has no problem letting the Skithra die. Being clever, the Doctor has the queen take the same tool she used to transport back to the ship. This allows the tower to charge and destroy the ship as they planned. It’s a shame that because this was Tesla’s tower that the headlines read “Tesla’s Night of Terror.” Tesla’s tower may have saved the world, but that doesn’t change anything. Still no recognition, yet Tesla is still determined.
More thoughts on the episode
I enjoyed this episode. My only complaint is that I wish the companions did a little bit more. This episode did center more on Tesla and the Doctor working together. It was fun to watch two brilliant minds work, but the TARDIS fam did not get to shine as they have in the last three episodes. Seeing rivals mostly putting their differences aside to save the world was great, even though it didn’t change Tesla’s history. Obviously. Also, Goran Visnjic did a fantastic job. His acting was incredible and I fully believed he was Nikola Tesla. Overall, it was a fun, stand-alone, historical episode with that classic Doctor Who alien twist.
Doctor Who will return on BBCA on Sunday, January 26 at 8 pm.
Fan Reactions
Finally got to see #DoctorWho's "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror". Easily one of my new favorite episodes. Fun, scary, interesting, a nice Doctor-y save, great cast. And @goranvisnjic was easily one of my favorite guest stars! Basically loved it, from beginning to end.
— Johanna C (@ElleTraduit) January 20, 2020
"Nikola Tesla’s Night of Horror" is one of only a handful of #DoctorWho episodes both written and directed by women (and for the first time since 1985), scribed by Nina Metivier and directed by Nida Manzoor. It's also super fun and I loved it. https://t.co/x0xurhrWun pic.twitter.com/UI6h8iTrCD
— Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) January 20, 2020
"The future is mine." Words to live by, Mr. Tesla. #DoctorWho
— Luke | Great Gecko (@trying2scribble) January 20, 2020
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