Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror (TV Story)

Matt Strevens

***Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror*** was the third serial of Season 54 of *Doctor Who*. It was written by Nina Metivier, directed by Nida Manzoor and starred Jemma Redgrave as the Fifteenth Doctor & Rebecca Root as Joanne Tilley.

## Synopsis

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 Doctor & Joanne are about to find out.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Jemma Redgrave
* Joanne Tilley - Rebecca Root
* Nikola Tesla - Goran Višnjić
* Thomas Edison - Robert Glenister
* Queen Skithra - Anjli Mohindra
* Dorothy Skerrit - Haley McGee
* Harold Green - Paul Kasey
* Bill Tallow - Robin Guiver
* Mr Sorensson - Erick Hayden
* Mr Brady - Russell Bentley
* Mr Martin - Brian Caspe
* Foreman - Shaun Mason

## 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 they're 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.

### Cultural references from the real world

* The Doctor calls the Queen of the Skithra a queen of "shreds and patches," referencing a lyric from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta *The Mikado*.

### Individuals

* Mr Brady notes that he won't invest in fairy tales.
* The Foreman thinks Bill Tallow was killed by an electrical shock.
* 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.

### Science

* A scientist in Edison's lab uses a grounding coil.
* The Doctor uses ammonium nitrate, some green stuff and zinc to trap the "alien Harold Green".
* The Queen of the Skithra taunts the Doctor by asking her if she has "ever seen a dead planet".

### 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 is a hive species.

### Language

* Mr Brady says Poppycock.
* Joanne uses the expression tooting your own horn.
* Joanne notes Edison is in the TARDIS on the QT.
* The Doctor tries to high five Tesla but notes it's too early.
* Joanne notes that this is not their "first 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. Mr. Brady mentions Mars-stories, but Dorothy debunks them as unbelievable stories from the Times.
* Schrauder and Sons is a 5 and 10¢ store.
* H.J. Bradshaw is a grocery store on Long Island.
* A restaurant is seen to be selling coffee, sandwiches, tea, cakes and chocolate.
* The Old Ale House sells whisky.
* K.L. Simmons Stores is a shop located on Long Island.

### 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 & Joanne travel by train.
* The Skithra use a Silurian blaster.
* Joanne mentions that there used to be cars named after Tesla by her time.
* 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. He also coined and thought up the idea of remote control.
* Edison wants to build the Edison Generator in place of Tesla's.
* Both Tesla and Edison are working on light bulbs.
* Joanne 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.
* 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.

## Continuity

* The Doctor has a toolbox. (TV: *Earthshock*, et al.)

## Home video releases

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 54 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Fourth Season* in 2019.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 54 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Fourth Season* on Blu-ray in 2019.