Story: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
Written By: Nina Metivier
Length: 50 Minutes
Year: 2020
Nikola Tesla is a great figure for historical science fiction. He seems like a science fiction creation. I'm actually surprised it has taken Doctor Who this long to get to him. Looking into it he has only appeared within the Doctor Who spin-off media a handful of times, and much of that has been without interactions with the Doctor. Whenever the show explores a prominent historical figure at this point, I always wonder in what spin-off material they've already landed in. I don't worry about continuity or anything, as this universe has the most nonsensical canon of all time. I just get curious about how obvious the idea is to other writers. But surprisingly this one hasn't really been done before.
And it works! This is a solid historical, with some decent monsters and a fun bit of historical figure business with both Tesla and and his rival Thomas Edison. It uses the characters well, not only in showcasing who these men were, but also in utilizing Tesla's invention to take down the enemy. I also loved the moment where Yaz is trying to clear the streets to no avail, only to have Edison successfully doing it by yelling Tesla's mad experiments will kill them all. At this point he knows (at least possibly) that Tesla's work isn't as mad as he so often declared, but he uses his past bag of tricks to help save the day. And that moment works pretty well I think.
I thought this was a fun episode, and continues a trend of the Chibnall/13th Doctor era that historicals are pretty darn good. I continue to be amazed that I enjoy them so much, as historicals were usually not my favorite style of episode in previous eras.
NEXT TIME: The Judoon Are Back
Written By: Nina Metivier
Length: 50 Minutes
Year: 2020
Nikola Tesla is a great figure for historical science fiction. He seems like a science fiction creation. I'm actually surprised it has taken Doctor Who this long to get to him. Looking into it he has only appeared within the Doctor Who spin-off media a handful of times, and much of that has been without interactions with the Doctor. Whenever the show explores a prominent historical figure at this point, I always wonder in what spin-off material they've already landed in. I don't worry about continuity or anything, as this universe has the most nonsensical canon of all time. I just get curious about how obvious the idea is to other writers. But surprisingly this one hasn't really been done before.
I thought this was a fun episode, and continues a trend of the Chibnall/13th Doctor era that historicals are pretty darn good. I continue to be amazed that I enjoy them so much, as historicals were usually not my favorite style of episode in previous eras.
NEXT TIME: The Judoon Are Back
Comments
Post a Comment