Night Terrors ( TV story ) Night Terrors was the ninth episode in the sixth series of " Doctor Who " . The episode is set an unknown amount of time after " Let ' s Kill Hitler " and again shows the Doctor ' s sympathy towards children in distress as in " The Empty Child " " , School Reunion , The Girl in the Fireplace , The Eleventh Hour " , " The Beast Below " and " A Christmas Carol " . Much like " Fear Her " ' s Isolus , the chaos of the entire episode arises from a child ' s psychic powers ; although the difference is that in this episode , the powers were unconsciously being used , while the Isolus was basically throwing a tantrum . It also continued the second half of series 6 ' s theme - the Doctor ' s impending death - through the contrast of the Eleventh Doctor ' s feeling of age and impending death and the fears of a child . During the episode , the peg dolls recite a children ' s rhyme that at the end is revealed to be about the Doctor . The rhyme reappears in " Closing Time " and " The Wedding of River Song " and is shown to be about the Doctor ' s impending " death . " Synopsis . The Eleventh Doctor receives a distress call , bringing him , Amy Pond and Rory Williams to Earth . George is a young boy terrorised by the monsters in his cupboard . Are they imaginary , or are they real ? Plot . In an apartment block on Earth , a young boy called George is being put to bed by his mother , Claire , before she leaves for work ; however , George is terrified of everything and reluctant to go to sleep . He makes his mother turn the lights on and off five times — a nightly ritual — and Claire encourages him to put what he ' s afraid of in his cupboard . When she leaves , George starts whispering , " Please save me from the monsters , " over and over . Through the crack in the door , he listens to his mother and father , Alex , talking . Claire insists that George needs to see a doctor about his problems . George thinks about this and continues his chanting . Meanwhile , in the TARDIS — which is floating in space at the other end of the universe — Amy and Rory are enjoying a mug of some beverage as the Eleventh Doctor works the console . The Doctor abruptly spins around and pulls out the psychic paper , and reads George ' s plea from it . He then begins setting the TARDIS on a new course , saying he hasn ' t done something in a while . When questioned by Amy what he means , the Doctor says " a house call " . The TARDIS materialises and Amy and Rory depart , being temporarily unimpressed with where they have ended up , expecting aliens and history . The Doctor says that it ' s like that most of the time , but they are not up to that today . Instead , they are answering a cry for help from the scariest place in the universe ; a child ' s bedroom . The group splits up to search for George , each meeting a variety of characters , including the elderly Mrs Rossiter , the beefy landlord Jim Purcell , and a mother and her creepy twin daughters . All of the residents are suspicious of the strangers and slam the door in their faces . As they pass by George ' s window , Rory jokes that they should let the monsters he ' s scared of eat him , scaring George even more . The Doctor notices George looking out the window at Amy and Rory . Meeting his companion s , the Doctor asks what they found ; after they explain , he diverts them to a lower floor while he goes to George ' s apartment to help the boy alone . He knocks on the door and is greeted by Alex , who believes that he is a Child Services representative that Claire called . The Doctor confirms this easily given cover via his psychic paper . Amy and Rory take an elevator to the lower floor , but the sound of the lift terrifies George , who continues chanting , " Please save me from the monsters . " His mantra prompts the elevator to plummet downwards at an alarmingly high speed ; both Amy and Rory scream in terror . Once the lift reaches the ground floor , the doors open to reveal that Amy and Rory are no longer inside . Instead , they awake on the floor of a dark and unusual house , though Rory suspects they have died ( again ) . The Doctor speaks to Alex about George ' s fears , though Alex insists that George is " scared to death of everything . " Alex and Claire have created a tradition with George — anything that scares him , they put in the cupboard . The Doctor meets George , who wonders if the Doctor has come to take him away . However , he dismisses this , saying he is only there to ask him about the monsters . Elsewhere , Amy and Rory have begun exploring their new environment . Rory changes his previous theory , suggesting that the TARDIS has malfunctioned and they have been transported to the 1700s ; however , they later discover a lantern with an electric light bulb inside it , along with a wooden pan painted to look like it was made of copper . They are not in the past , but " where " are they ? Back in the flat , per the Doctor ' s suggestion , they prepare to open George ' s cupboard , but Purcell arrives and starts badgering Alex about the rent money he owes . George watches from his room , obviously terrified of Purcell and his dog . The Doctor tries to comfort George by activating all of his electronic toys with the sonic screwdriver ; once George has calmed down , the Doctor scans his cupboard for " monsters , " and is clearly shocked and terrified by the sonic ' s readings , which are " off the charts . " When Alex returns and reaches for the cupboard door , the Doctor frantically stops him and declares , " George ' s monsters are real . " Elsewhere , Amy and Rory continue to explore the strange house in which they ' ve landed , and become aware of a sinister giggling in a nearby closet . Their fears are temporarily allayed when they see the cupboard merely contains a human - sized wooden doll ; however , when they leave the room to continue their exploring , the doll comes to life and begins to follow them . The Doctor begins making tea , but Alex stops him , outraged that the Doctor has apparently fed George ' s fears . However , the Doctor tells him he ' s the ultimate expert and that whatever is in the cupboard is so evil and powerful , it made George ' s fear break the barriers of time and space to reach him . Alex can only look dumbfounded by the Doctor ' s explanation — " You ' re not from Social Services are you ? " Outside , Mrs Rossiter has taken out her trash , but sees something moving in the pile . Suspecting it may be George or another kid , she leans in to see who it is , but is " devoured " by the trash and ends up in the same house as Amy and Rory . Scared , she walks around , asking for help , unaware of someone other than Amy and Rory following her around . At the same time , the Doctor is looking through a photo album of Alex ' s family , enjoying a cup of tea ; he notes that there is something wrong with the pictures that he can ' t quite figure out . However , he then wonders if they should open the cupboard . At first he thinks it ' s the best idea so they know what it is , but then thinks it ' s a bad idea as he has no idea how powerful or evil the monsters are . Alex agrees with him both times ; the Doctor ultimately decides to open the cupboard . Elsewhere , Purcell is trying to find something to watch on television , but finds nothing he likes , telling his dog , Bernard , that they ' ll have to watch the same film again . Getting up from his chair , Purcell finds that his foot is stuck in the floor and is being sucked into it . Though he calls for help , Purcell is sucked in completely . Inside the flat , the Doctor opens the cupboard to find nothing but old clothes and toys inside it . This makes him puzzled because of the readings he got . He then realises that he is missing something . Picking up one of the photo albums , the Doctor realises that in a photo taken mere weeks before George ' s birth , Claire isn ' t nine months pregnant . Pressured by the Doctor , Alex shouts that Claire can ' t have children and becomes confused as to how he just remembered that ; Alex goes on to explain that they tired all the IVF the could afford , but it never worked . Blank - faced , they turn to George . The Doctor asks George to tell him who he is . The toys start working on their own . The Doctor asks again , nicely , but the cupboard doors swing open and a bright light begins to suck Alex and the Doctor inside . Confused , the Doctor asks if George is doing this ; he tries explaining that he can help . George watches , horrified while chanting , " Please save me from the monsters . " Despite their attempts to try calming George , the Doctor and Alex are sucked into the cupboard with the door slamming . Elsewhere , Rory has begun panicking , but is quickly calmed by Amy . They run into Purcell , who begs them to keep " them " away from him . Much to their horror , they watch him be grabbed by a doll and turned into one . Amy tells Rory to panic now and they run into a room and block the door with a large spool of thread . Inside the cupboard , the Doctor realises that they are in George ' s dollhouse . Alex is reluctant to believe this and demands the Doctor tell him how he could forget Claire couldn ' t have kids . The Doctor explains it ' s because of a powerful perception filter , which changed the memories of them and everyone around them . They pass a mirror , which shows another doll ; it begins following them . Back to Amy and Rory . They ' ve decided to take control of the situation by surprising the dolls by letting them in . They open the door and run out . However , Amy is caught by a doll and , much to Rory ' s horror , becomes one of the dolls chasing him . All this while , the dolls sing a haunting rhyme . In the meantime , the Doctor and Alex have found a toy that flashes on and off the same amount of times as George wants his bedroom light to be . The Doctor deduce s that the dollhouse is a psychic repository for all the things that George fears ; even the sound of the lift has been put in there . Outside , the lift and the other things in the building have begun working on their own ; George whimpers in fear . They are then surprised by the doll and use a pair of safety scissors to keep it at bay . As they flee , the Doctor realises George is a Tenza , an alien species that are like cuckoo birds ; they find foster parents and adapt perfectly into what their parents want as their child . George instinctively sought out Claire and Alex because they could not have kids . However , something startled him and began this subconscious cycle of fear . The Doctor then begins shouting to George to make him aware that he is controlling everything that is happening in the dollhouse . However , George will not listen to him . Forced up the stairs , the Doctor is happy to see Rory , who is also being chased by dolls , and is horrified to see Amy has been turned into one . He then yells to George again , telling him he is the only one who can save them from being in a " living death " — being one of the dolls . George opens the cupboard . George appears in the dollhouse and the dolls stop focusing on the Doctor , Rory , and Alex . The Doctor congratulates George , but the dolls begin moving again , but this time towards George . This confuses the Doctor as he tries to get George to believe he can smash the world they ' re in . George is too scared to believe him . The Doctor then remembers George asking if he was going to take him away when he introduced himself . It was Alex and Claire ' s suggestion that George be sent somewhere for help that inspired George ' s fears ; he misunderstood the suggestion as a rejection of him . The Doctor encourages Alex to tell George that he was wrong , and while Alex initially expresses some reluctance at accepting George as his son , when he sees the dolls surrounding him and hears George ' s cries , he pushes the dolls aside to protect him . Alex tearfully embraces George and promises to never send him away . All the dolls stop moving . The cupboard opens and brilliant light shines out . All who were taken into the dollhouse wake on Earth the next morning , returned to their human forms . Purcell is back in his flat with his dog ; Mrs . Rossiter is lying in the trash bags . Amy and Rory exit the lift , with her very confused . When she attempts asking Rory about what happened , he just confirms it to avoid rehashing a terrible event like that . Back at the apartment , Claire returns home , astonished to find her son happy and well . Alex lies that the Doctor came from Social Services and is the reason for George being better . The Doctor prepares to leave , but Alex runs after him , wondering what he should do since George isn ' t human . The Doctor commends Alex for his actions and insists that George will grow up like a normal boy , and will become whatever his parents want him to be . However , he promises to visit around George ' s puberty as it ' s " always a funny time " . The Doctor meets up with Amy and Rory and they return to the TARDIS , with the Doctor remembering that they previously requested aliens and history . Amy ' s mind is still having trouble focusing after her transformation into a doll and Rory says choosing a destination in the TARDIS is like having three wishes . The Doctor then gets an idea from this and goes on to explain it . As they set a course for their next destination , a nursery rhyme sounds : " Tick , tock , goes the clock , even for the Doctor , " as the time and place of the Doctor ' s death appears onscreen . Home video releases . This episode , along with the rest of the second half of series 6 , was released on DVD and Blu Ray on the 10 October 2011 . The episode was later released in the complete series 6 , which included the first and second half of the series , was released on DVD and Blu Ray on the 21 November 2011 .