Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror (TV story)

New York City, the turn of the 20th century. For Nikola Tesla, his grand ideas for revolutionising electricity and communication are proving to be a hard sell to the public. His business rival, Thomas Edison, may not want him to succeed, but surely even he cannot be behind the sudden appearance of hostile alien scavengers? The Thirteenth Doctor and her friends are about to find out.

Plot

to be added

Cast

Crew

to be added

References

Locations

Nikola Tesla has invited a crowd of people to Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company by Niagara Falls.
Tesla notes that invisible forces animate the universe.
The Statue of Liberty in Manhattan is seen.
The Doctor notes that Team TARDIS is in Gilded Age New York.
The Doctor notes that, at this point in the history of New York City, Times Square and the Empire State Building do not yet exist. Central Park, however, "has been around for ages".
Tesla has a small lab in New York.
Dorothy Skerrit came from Yorkshire, England.
Wardenclyffe is located on Long Island, right beside another Tesla lab.

Events

A Tesla machine once caused an earthquake.
Edison mentions how he once offered Tesla a job on the factory floor of his company and that he ended up digging ditches for two bucks a day.

Currency

Tesla requires an investment of 50,000 dollars.

Individuals

Mr. Brady notes about Mars-stories, but Dorothy debunks them as unbelievable stories from the Times.
Mr. Brady notes that he won't invest in fairy tales.
The Foreman thinks Mr. Brady was killed by electrical shock.
Graham calls the train they travel in the Orient Express.
Ryan hesitates to jump from one train department to another because of his dyspraxia.
The Doctor notes that Tesla dreamt up the 20th century before it happened and that he could have been a billionaire if he hadn't torn up his contract.
Mr. Morgan, Tesla's investor, wrote a letter saying that he is pulling the funding for the Wardenclyffe project.
Harold Green spies on Tesla.
Anyone wanting to speak with Edison has to make an appointment with his secretary.
Edison had dinner with Harold Green and his wife a week previously.
The Queen of the Skithra herself has come to steal Tesla.

Science

A scientist in Edison's lab uses grounding coil.
The Doctor uses ammonium nitrate, some green stuff and zinc to trap the "alien Harold Green".

Species

The Doctor calls the Thassor "one of the ancient races" and says they are amazing storytellers, inventors and explorers.
The Doctor wonders what the "alien Harold Green" uses to appear as human and debunks possession, psionic image cloaking and holograms.
The Skithra are giant alien scorpions.
The Skithra are a hive species.

Language

Mr. Brady says Poppycock.
Graham uses the expression tooting your own horn.
Graham notes Edison is in the TARDIS on the QT.
The Doctor tries to high five Tesla, but notes it's too early.
Graham notes that this is not their "first rodeo". Ryan notes they've never been to a rodeo.

Companies

Thomas Edison is making a speech in front of The Edison Electric Illuminating Company.
The newspaper New York Bugle reported on Tesla's message from Mars in 1903.
Schrauder and Sons is a 5 and 10 ¢ store.
There's a H.J. Bradshaw.
There's a restaurant selling coffee, sandwiches, tea, cakes and chocolate.
There's an Old Ale House that sells whisky.
There's a K.L. Simmons Stores.

Technology

Tesla demonstrates his Niagara Generator.
Tesla's machines transfer electrical energy from one location to another.
Tesla plans to harness forces of nature into a world wireless system.
Tesla says that Wardenclyffe will be very functional in about a year.
Tesla discovers an Orb of Thassor.
The Doctor and Team TARDIS travel by train.
The Skithra use a Silurian blaster.
Graham mentions that there are cars named after Tesla.
Nikola Tesla invented the shadowgraph which later led to X-rays, the automaton which led to drones, and the patent for radio which later got taken by Marconi. However he only worked on the technology rather than soley invent it as the Doctor claims. He also coined and thought up the idea of remote control.
Graham calls Tesla and Thomas Edison AC/DC, making a double reference.
- Nikola Tesla stood for the alternating current and Thomas Edison stood for the direct current.
Edison wants to build the Edison Generator in place of Tesla's.
Both Tesla and Edison are working on light bulbs.
Yaz mentions sirens and radars.
- Tesla would call a radar an exploring ray.
The Doctor is an expert in high-speed inventing and can rig a bypass.
The Skithra Queen has a Venusian spaceship, that the Skithra has dubbed the Throne Ship of the Skithra. They have also stolen a Klendov warp drive and a Dullirian resonator, as well as a starship power source.
The Skithra stole an electrical condenser.
Tesla detected the Mars signal by using his Teslascope.
The Doctor has a Braxium Bouncer Mark III in her tool box that she once found at a bazaar.
The Doctor blinds the Queen of the Skithra with a camera.
Nikola Tesla notes that the TARDIS's internal dimensions transcend the external.
Tesla has planning papers for the Wardenclyffe Power Plant Prototype.
Tesla uses a magnifying transformer to pump volts into his power plant's tunnel.
Tesla had the idea for Wi-Fi.
The Doctor extends the TARDIS force field to the boundaries of Wardenclyffe.
Tesla invented a "mechanism for photographing thoughts", an "apparatus for producing ozone" and a "prototype Death Ray".
The Doctor uses the TARDIS speakers.

Story notes

The official synopsis dates this story to 1903, however, this date is not given in the episode. In fact, the Thirteenth Doctor describes Nikola Tesla as "an inventor from 1900" when questioning why the Skithra sought him out. As, historically, the tower at Wardenclyffe was completed in 1902, it is likely that the story is set in 1903 and the reference to 1900 was intended as an approximation. Indeed, a newspaper image is briefly seen in the episode that dates Tesla's discovery of the transmission from "Mars", some months earlier, to 1903.
- The letter from J.P. Morgan refusing to fund Tesla was historically received on July 14, 1903. According to reports, that night Wardenclyffe tower "came alive shooting off bright flashes lighting up the night sky", which does seem to confirm the story as happening at that time.
Robert Glenister, who plays Thomas Edison, previously appeared as Salateen in the 1984 serial The Caves of Androzani, making him one of the select few actors to have appeared in both incarnations of the programme.
Anjli Mohindra, who plays Queen Skithra, was a member of the main cast in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. She played Rani Chandra from 2008 to 2011. This is Mohindra's first appearance in televised Doctor Who.
Bradley Walsh and Anjli Mohindra have worked together before on the Sarah Jane Adventures serial The Day of the Clown. In that story, Walsh played the story's antagonist, Elijah Spellman. This story sees their roles reversed with Walsh now playing a companion and Mohindra playing the villain. Mohindra said that, despite the fact that she and Walsh had worked together before, he did not recognise her due to her excessive make-up. She initially believed he was merely joking with her but it was only when he asked to see a picture of her so he could say hello to her if he passed her in the street that she realised he was being serious.^[1]
Although newspapers in the real world did cast reports on both Tesla's and Edison's views, the newspaper used in the episode, New York Bugle, was never a real world paper, nor were the headlines "Tesla: I Heard Message From Mars" and "Edison: Shut Down Tesla". The closest possible real world connections would be newspapers New York Herald and New York Times, both active at the time.
A sign in the story says Night of Tesla Terror, a play on the title Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror.

Ratings

4.04 million (BBC overnight)^[2]
5.20 million (BBC final)^[3]

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

Nikola Tesla previously aided the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush in defeating the Vardans. (AUDIO: Maker of Demons)
The Doctor tells Nikola that she created her sonic screwdriver using spoons. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
The Doctor notes to her companions that the Empire State Building has yet to be constructed. In November 1930, the Tenth Doctor found that the Cult of Skaro had manipulated the construction of the building for their own purposes. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks)
The Doctor has a tool box. (TV: Earthshock, et al.)
Team TARDIS visit Wardenclyffe. (PROSE: Wardenclyffe)

Home video releases

to be added

External links

Official Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror page on the Doctor Who website

Footnotes

[1] ttps://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-01-14/bradley-walsh-made-a-pretty-major-faux-pas-filming-doctor-who-episode/

[2] Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - Overnight Viewing Figures

[3] Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - Final Viewing Figures

[1]

[2]

[3]