Spoilers Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror grade and discussion thread

Whenever aliens from RTD episodes showed up in the Moffat era there was always a "_____ created by Russell T Davies" in the credits, much as Dalek episodes always have a "Daleks created by Terry Nation" listed in the credits. Likewise, novels which have used aliens from RTD episodes have him listed on the copyright page as their "creator and owner." So, yes, I'd say he very much does own his aliens in the same manner as Terry Nation owned the Daleks. He just doesn't charge as much for them or is as difficult about other people using them as Nation was regarding the Daleks.

 

OK where does one begin?

That was a fantastic episode. I fricking loved it. Tesla is one of my favourite, no THE favourite inventor of mine.

I liked that they used him as the centre of this episode and it was good. Started off a bit slow but this episode actually kept me glued to my seat. I plan on watching it again. Everyone seemed to have a role in this one including the rest of the TARDIS crew. There was no mind wiping this episode either which surprised me. She left Tesla intact with his memories of adventures in the TARDIS, and what an adventure.

The Scorpion Queen (and that's how I will refer to her) was very reminiscent of the Racnoss queen, maybe the two species are related in some fashion. I wasn't sure about the ending with them firing on the alien ship and it just buggers off rather then explode, I wanted something to go boom. So does that mean she might be back in a future episode maybe next series. I wouldn't mind seeing this enemy return. Maybe next time they go boom.

Yeah Tesla was a great inventor and I sometimes feel that way too because history never gives him the amount of accolades that it gave Edison or Marconi for inventions that really began their life with Tesla. Wireless electricity would have been great but from a business POV you couldn't bill people for that and we humans have a society based on money so his system while worthwhile wouldn't have been economical even if he could have made it work on a large scale indefinitely. It's a very disappointing part of history that things didn't turn out that way. But I'm an optimist and I do believe in the "many worlds theory" and somewhere out there is an Earth where the roles were reversed and Tesla was in the spot Edison has on our world.

Anyway this was a fantastic episode and easily a solid 8/10

 

Sure, but not using ratings as a metric, especially when those models are separated by 30 years.

 

One of the most ignorant complaints I have heard from people who are dissatisfied with this episode is how anti-capitalist it is with its depiction of Thomas Edison. He was known for stealing ideas, for being a ruthless businessman. That is how he rolled.

There was a point when I questioned if the Doctor would use her mind wiping abilities on Tesla, his assistant, and Edison. Nope. I wonder just what the criteria is for using that ability.

And, I looked up the Internet for information on the real Tesla assistant of the same name. There is not whole lot about her out there.

 

I think the criteria for mind-wiping appears to be for non-companions learning about the future. Makes me wonder, though if her fam is going to get that treatment when she lets them go.

 

Thing is, people are billed for both collective services and for wireless services, so its not that wireless electricity couldn't have been monetized. Everyone would have had to have been billed at a flat rate by whoever owned the transmitter, much like single payer medicine is charged or basic cable.

 

That's true. But I don't know if the real Tesla had that in mind when he was toying with this idea. But based on the one in the story he didn't see the money side of it either. Edison on the other hand had he come up with the same idea would have found how to make it turn a buck or two.

it could definitely have been monetized though and who knows.... Maybe somewhere out there it was and is still in use.

 

A 7 for me, much better than last week. Tesla was great, it looked fabulous, the aliens left a bit to be desired though.

 

I thought it was a good episode. As an engineer, Tesla is one of the few heroes I have. I admire him both for his genius and is strength of character. This makes me a biased judge, but I gave it a 7, which seems to be near the general consensus. And, I'm happy to see evidence that the previous episode was an outlying fluke.

 

I found a nice book about Tesla on Amazon "Tesla a man out of time"

 

Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

Spoiler

The fourth episode of Series 12. Now that's more like it! A great improvement upon the previous episode. The Doctor and her 'fam' meet Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison during their DC/AC rivalry. But that's getting ahead. Niagara Falls, where Tesla has his hydro generator plant. Tesla and his assistant Dorothy Skerrit have found a mysterious orb, and the Doctor and rest of Team TARDIS stumble in. Then Tesla is under attack and they flee aboard a train to New York. This whole sequence was done very well.
In New York, the Doctor suspects that the orb may have a link to Thomas Edison, and investigates the possibility. But the aliens attack Edison's factory at Menlo Park (The name isn't mentioned, but it's obvious that it's meant to be). The Doctor's surprise is done well. As is Edison's compassion for his lost workers, and his reaction to the TARDIS interior. Meanwhile, Tesla has been abducted by the aliens. His reaction to the situation, including his incredulity that advanced aliens would want his help, was done very well.
The Doctor uses a teleport device to get aboard the Skithla ship, where it was revealed that it was they who were responsible for the mysterious orb Tesla had captured. (Sure they are similar to the Racknoss, but it's been 13 years, and designs can inspire later designs.) It also is revealed that they aren't original thinkers, they take what they need (similar to the Pakled from Star Trek: The Next Generation.) The parallels between them and Edison's business model were quite apt. (As was Graham's comparison of him to one of his old bosses.)
Wardenclyffe! The Doctor and Tesla come up with an idea to use the tower to defeat the Skithla ship. (But first, Tesla in the TARDIS. “The interior dimensions transcend the external,” was a great line.) The sequence with the Tower, using the TARDIS to power it to send the electric shock, and also defending against the Queen's forces was done quite well. The way the Doctor outwits the Queen with the teleport device was quite inspired (and well set up.) Thus the crisis is resolved without either Edison nor Tesla knowing anything about the future.
The ending, where the Doctor tells the 'fam' about the fate of Wardenclyffe isn't heavy handed. (At least, not in comparison with the previous episode.) Overall it was a rather good episode. 9/10.

 

^ FYI--spoiler coding reviews in these review threads that are marked "spoilers" is not necessary.

 

But is appreciated. Not everybody sees the"spoiler" tag at thread level, or is going to look, or thinks of looking, or other things, so it just seems to be good practice to put in spoiler tags. If not easier just to do by default, since it's easy to start posting away in a thread that isn't tagged after a thread that is tagged... it gets silly after a while so it seemingly makes more sense just to use the tag and not trip over something regardless.

 

Of course s/he can continue, but then we have one person spoiler coding and everyone else not.

Conversely, it seems silly for everyone to need to click Spoiler for every review in a Spoiler thread. First world problems, I know. But, I'd lean towards not spoiler coding for everyone's convenience--which is the only reason I mentioned.

 

The mind-wipe definitely seemed to be just about future events, as to Edison and Tesla these events were "current" therefore part of their history. Even the Master's tissue-compression rampage took place during Ada Lovelace's own time, so I suspect the memory of this would have been left fairly intact with some portions of the event censored.

 

8/10 for me. A much better adventure than Orphan 55.

 

Song about Tesla's fight with Edison by hard rock group Tesla

He was the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy, you was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Said you was outta your mind!

You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.

 

Just got around to watching the episode. Way better than "Orphan 55."

Minor nitpick: am the only one who thought it strange that the Doctor would refer to the Silurian weapon as "alien"? I mean, I guess the Silurians count as aliens in the same way that people from another country can be labelled as such. As for where they got Silurian technology, since we have seen that Silurians achieved space travel, I suppose the Skithra could have picked it up somewhere out in space.

 

There has been a far bit of criticism about her using the word ‘alien’ but at that point she did not have the time to give Tesla a history of the Silurians so using the word ‘alien’ probably did convey to Tesla how out of the ordinary the weapon to people in his time period.

 

Just got round to seeing it and this is much better from the show and a return to form.