Written by Nina Metivier
Directed by Nida Manzoor
Nikola (to the Doctor): "The present is theirs. I work for the future and the future is mine."
After last week's ecological misfire, things returned to a more neutral stance with this nice but unremarkable episode. Okay, I won't be harsh. This was mostly a serviceable enough piece as the Doctor and her companions encounters two famous figures in history (and rivals) while also battling one of the first alien female baddies this series.
Two weeks ago, in the second half of Spyfall, the show made great use of both Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan and here, the attention turns to inventor Nikola Tesla (Goran Višnjić) who is given a sizeable amount before his world collides with our main characters and the main threat of the week, in the shape of scavenger alien Queen Skithra (Anjli Mohindra) who needed Tesla's help in repairing her ship while planning to take over the planet.
Now this is where things get a little bit interesting. At first the Doctor is pretty hostile towards Tesla, even calling him a liar upon the first meeting but the two of them then suddenly bond over being inventors. Then both Tesla and Yasmin are captured by the Queen and the latter clearly had luck on her side given that the Queen was willing to kill Yaz in order to motivate Tesla into cooperating with her.
Then there was the meeting of the Queen and the Doctor. I'll admit that Whittaker and Mohindra played off each other well enough and while there was a certain camp quality to the Queen, I kind felt that between the badly lit design and the quick dispatching, the character's overall potential was a bit squandered here. Having seen some behind the scene photos of Skithra, I have to say that I've seen better efforts at cosplay that what the designers were going for with this particular monster.
As for Graham and Ryan, they were mostly relegated to a comedy act and while not strictly a bad one, it didn't really do either favours. Still though, their scenes with Tesla's rival, Thomas Edison (Robert Glenister) were decent enough and the latter did manage to put his issues aside with Tesla to play a part in defeating the Skithra. The episode did a decent job giving both Tesla and Edison screen time and giving a look into their history even if the episode felt slight itself.
- Robert Glenister who played Edison previously appeared in The Caves Of Androzani while Anjli Monhindra played Rani Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bradley Walsh played the main villain in Rani's debut story on that show.
- Nice use of a Silurian blaster in this episode. I kind of wish we had seen them but they'll show up later in this current era.
- Were the Skithra meant to be a relation to the Racnoss? There was a similar design even if they were related to scorpions instead of spiders.
- Yasmin seemed to be taking some styling tips from Missy in this episode. I noticed the Doctor decided not to blend in this week, compared to her last setting.
- Last week Ryan flirted with Bella and this week he seemed to be getting a bit friendly with Tesla's lady friend, Dorothy Skerrit (Haley McGee).
- Chronology: 1903 New York, making this the fourth New York based story the series has done since returning in 2005.
Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror is a solid enough episode with a great guest performance from Goran Višnjić in the title role. Saying that though, while Metivier is undoubtedly a more solid writer compared to Ed Hime, the episode could've done with a bit more oomph in places but other than that, it's a pretty inoffensive one.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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