Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

Last updated

290 "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Others
Production
Directed byNida Manzoor
Written by Nina Metivier
Script editorFiona McAllister
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive producer(s)
Music by Segun Akinola
Series Series 12
Running time50 minutes
First broadcast19 January 2020 (2020-01-19)
Chronology
 Preceded by
"Orphan 55"
Followed by 
"Fugitive of the Judoon"
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" is the fourth episode of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who , first broadcast on BBC One on 19 January 2020. It was written by Nina Metivier, and directed by Nida Manzoor.

Contents

In 1903, the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) helps Nikola Tesla (Goran Višnjić) escape from being kidnapped by the Skithra aliens, along with the assistance of her companions Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), and Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill).

The episode was watched by 5.20 million viewers, and received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Wardenclyffe Tower in 1904 Tesla Broadcast Tower 1904.jpeg
Wardenclyffe Tower in 1904

At Niagara Falls in 1903, Nikola Tesla is unsuccessful in getting investors for his wireless power transmission system as it is seen as dangerous and crazy. After working late fixing his generator, he comes across a floating orb. Feeling endangered, he makes a run with his assistant, Dorothy Skerritt, as a cloaked figure shoots at them. The Doctor arrives in time to help them escape aboard a train headed to New York City, ditching their pursuer by detaching the carriage.

In New York, the group finds protesters waiting outside Tesla's lab, having been goaded into fearing Tesla and his inventions by his competitor Thomas Edison. The Doctor identifies the orb as an Orb of Thassa designed to share knowledge, but repurposed for an unknown cause. After spotting a spy for Edison, the Doctor, Graham and Ryan visit Edison's workshop, suspecting him to be behind the attack on Tesla. The cloaked figure arrives at Edison's lab and fatally electrocutes everyone in the workshop before pursuing Edison. The group escapes and traps one of the creatures in a chemical ring of fire, but it escapes by teleportation. The Doctor tries to warn Tesla and Yaz back at his lab, but the two are captured and transported to an invisible alien ship above the city. The Queen of the Skithra demands they fix her ship. When Tesla refuses, the Queen threatens to kill Yaz, but the Doctor transports herself onto the ship just in time. She learns that the Skithra ship is just a collection of stolen parts from various species and the Skithra just use others to do their work for them. The Skithra also chose Tesla as their "engineer" because he was able to discover their signal while he had been working on his wireless power system.

The Doctor transports herself, Tesla, and Yaz back to Tesla's Wardenclyffe lab. The Doctor warns the Queen to leave, but the Queen refuses, threatening to destroy Earth if Tesla is not handed over. While Tesla and the Doctor hook up the TARDIS to help power Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower, Graham, Ryan, Yaz, Dorothy and Edison ward off the invading scorpion-like Skithra. The Tower activates, and electrical bolts shoot through the Skithra ship, forcing it to leave Earth. Yaz is disappointed that despite Tesla's heroics, his reputation in the future remained unchanged, but the Doctor reminds her that Tesla's vision for a wireless world will still come to pass.

Production

Development

"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" was written by Nina Metivier, who had worked as a script editor on the previous series. [1] [2]

Casting

Robert Glenister and Goran Višnjić were cast, [3] as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla respectively. [4] Glenister previously appeared on Doctor Who as the android Salateen in the 1984 serial The Caves of Androzani . [5] Anjli Mohindra, who had previously portrayed Rani Chandra in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures , played Queen Skithra. [6] [2] Further cast members were announced in Doctor Who Magazine #547 in early January 2020. [2]

Filming

Nida Manzoor directed the third block, consisting of the fourth and fifth episodes. [7] [2] The sets for 1903 New York City were located at Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria. [8]

Promotion

The trailer for the episode was released after the broadcast of the previous episode, "Orphan 55". [9]

Broadcast and reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)89% [10]
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score)7/10 [10]
Review scores
SourceRating
The A.V. Club B+ [11]
Entertainment Weekly B [12]
Radio Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [14]
The Telegraph Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [15]

Television

"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" aired on 19 January 2020. [16]

Ratings

"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" was watched by 4.04 million viewers overnight, making it the sixth most watched programme for the day in the United Kingdom. [17] The episode had an Audience Appreciation Index score of 79. [18] The episode received an official total of 5.20 million viewers across all UK channels. [18]

Critical reception

The episode holds an approval rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and an average of 7/10 based on 18 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "If a tad light on meaning, "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" is still an enjoyable historical romp that benefits greatly from Jodie Whittaker and guest star Goran Visnjic’s crackling chemistry." [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikola Tesla</span> Serbian-American inventor (1856–1943)

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wardenclyffe Tower</span> Experimental wireless transmission station (1901–1917)

Wardenclyffe Tower (1901–1917), also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early experimental wireless transmission station designed and built by Nikola Tesla on Long Island in 1901–1902, located in the village of Shoreham, New York. Tesla intended to transmit messages, telephony, and even facsimile images across the Atlantic Ocean to England and to ships at sea based on his theories of using the Earth to conduct the signals. His decision to increase the scale of the facility and implement his ideas of wireless power transmission to better compete with Guglielmo Marconi's radio-based telegraph system was met with refusal to fund the changes by the project's primary backer, financier J. P. Morgan. Additional investment could not be found, and the project was abandoned in 1906, never to become operational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goran Višnjić</span> Croatian–American actor (born 1972)

Goran Višnjić is a Croatian-American actor who has appeared in American and British films and television productions. He is best known for his roles as Dr. Luka Kovač in ER and Garcia Flynn in Timeless, both NBC television series. For ER, he and the cast were nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is the son-in-law of Croatian film director and former head of Hrvatska radiotelevizija (1991–95), Antun Vrdoljak.

The Caves of Androzani is the sixth serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1984.

Robert Lewis Glenister is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the crime drama series Hustle (2004–2012) and Nicholas Blake in the spy drama series Spooks (2006–2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikola Tesla in popular culture</span>

Nikola Tesla is portrayed in many forms of popular culture. The Serbian-American engineer has particularly been depicted in science fiction, a genre which is well suited to address his inventions; while often exaggerated, the fictionalized variants build mostly upon his own alleged claims or ideas. A popular, growing fixation among science fiction, comic book, and speculative history storytellers is to portray Tesla as a member of a secret society, along with other luminaries of science. The impacts of the technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction.

Thomas Edison has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, comics and video games. His prolific inventing helped make him an icon and he has made appearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the present day. He is often portrayed in popular culture as an adversary of Nikola Tesla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anjli Mohindra</span> English actress (born 1990)

Anjli Mohindra is an English stage, screen and voice-over actress and writer. She is best known for her television roles as Rani Chandra in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures (2008–2011) and would-be suicide bomber Nadia Ali in Bodyguard (2018). Her other television roles include Surgeon Lieutenant Tiffany Docherty in Vigil (2021), Detective Constable Josie Chancellor in Dark Heart (2016–2018) and Archie in The Lazarus Project (2022–2023).

<i>The Secret of Nikola Tesla</i> 1980 Yugoslavia film

The Secret of Nikola Tesla, is a 1980 Yugoslav biographical film which dramatizes events in the life of the Serbian-American engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla. This somewhat fictionalized portrayal of Tesla's life has him contending with Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan in his attempts to develop alternating current and then "free" wireless power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham O'Brien</span> Fictional character in the TV series Doctor Who

Graham O'Brien is a fictional character created by Chris Chibnall and portrayed by Bradley Walsh in the long-running British sci-fi television series Doctor Who. A retired bus driver from Essex who is in remission from cancer, the character is portrayed as an everyman. In the show's eleventh series, starting with the first episode, he served as a companion of the thirteenth incarnation of the alien time traveller known as the Doctor until the 2021 New Year's Special "Revolution of the Daleks".

<i>Doctor Who</i> series 12 2020 series of Doctor Who

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"Spyfall" is the two-part premiere of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 1 and 5 January 2020. It was written by showrunner and executive producer Chris Chibnall. The first episode was directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, and the second by Lee Haven Jones.

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References

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  14. "Doctor Who review – Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror: A lot of fun, but unlikely to beat Dancing on Ice in the ratings war" . The Independent. 19 January 2020. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022.
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