Night Terrors (TV story)

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Night Terrors was the ninth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

The Doctor receives a distress call from the scariest place in the Universe: a child’s bedroom. Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear imaginable – fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate – George needs a doctor. Fortunately for George, his pleas for help break through the barriers of all time and space and the Doctor makes a house call. But allaying his fears won’t be easy. George’s monsters are real.

Plot

The Doctor decides to make a "house call" after his psychic paper receives a message from George, a frightened 8-year-old child, asking his help in getting rid of the monsters in his bedroom. On arrival at a council estate on present-day Earth, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory split up to try to locate the child. The Doctor, taking the guise of a social services worker, finds the right flat, and meets George's father, Alex, while his mother Claire is working a night shift.

Through Alex's photo album, the Doctor learns that George has been frightened all his life, fearing many of the sounds and people around the flat and is helped to cope by various habits, including metaphorically placing his fears within his wardrobe. Meanwhile, Amy and Rory, while taking the lift down, suddenly find themselves in what appears to be an eighteenth-century house, but shortly discover most of the furnishings are wooden props.

Other residents of the estate appear in the house, but are caught by life-sized peg dolls that laugh and sing like children, and transform the residents into more dolls. Amy and Rory witness one transformation and try to flee, but Amy is caught and becomes a doll herself, joining the others in chasing Rory.

The Doctor, suspecting that the wardrobe is containing the evil that George fears, opens it to find its contents are simply clothes and toys, including a doll house. The Doctor suddenly recalls from Alex's photo album that Claire did not appear pregnant in the weeks leading up to George's supposed birth, causing Alex to remember the fact that Claire was unable to have children.

The Doctor asserts that George is a Tenza child, an empathic alien who took on the form of Alex and Claire's desired child through a perception filter, and has the ability to literally lock away his fears within the wardrobe. George begins to panic from this revelation and the Doctor and Alex are pulled into the wardrobe, joining Rory in the dollhouse.

As the dolls descend on the three, the Doctor calls out to George to face his fears; George is able to open the wardrobe and appears in the dollhouse, but the dolls turn to advance on him. The Doctor realises that George is still frightened that Alex and Claire plan to send him away, having mistakenly interpreted a conversation they had earlier that night; Alex rushes through the dolls to embrace George as his son.

They all soon find themselves back at the estate, restored to normal. Claire returns the next morning to find George no longer scared while Alex and the Doctor make him breakfast. After being thanked, the Doctor rejoins his companions to set off for their next adventure. Meanwhile the Teselecta File showing the day the Doctor Dies is shown again while a nursery rhyme that the Dolls were singing becomes coherent: Tick Tock, everyone has a time, Even the Doctor.

Cast

Crew

to be added

References

The Doctor

Foods and beverages from the real world

Races and species

Television series from the real world

Story notes

  • This episode had the working titles: What are Little Boys Made of? and House Call.[1]
  • This was originally going to be the fourth episode of the series, but was moved to the second half as Steven Moffat felt that the first half was "too dark". This necessitated minor changes to the episode. A scene with Madame Kovarian was removed, and the ending with the data file from Let's Kill Hitler was added.
  • The scene where the Doctor and Alex are being sucked into the cupboard is very similar to the movie Poltergeist where the daughter is sucked into the spirit realm through her bedroom cupboard.
  • When the Doctor knocks on the door to address Alex, a ring can be seen on his wedding finger. Whether this is a production error or a hint at a future episode remains to be seen.

Ratings

  • UK Overnight: 5.5 million

Myths

  • Amy will be turned into a doll.[2] This was proven true.

Filming locations

  • Bristol

Production errors

to be added

Continuity

Timeline

Home video releases

This episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the airing of episode thirteen.[3]

External links

to be added

Footnotes