Search & filter every Whoniverse story ever made!
View stories featuring your favourite characters & track your progress!
Complete sets of stories, track them on the homepage, earn badges!
Join TARDIS Guide to keep track of the stories you've completed - rate them, add to favourites, get stats!
Lots more Guides are on their way!
3 July 2025
This review contains spoilers!
It's rare to be able to say this unapologetically, but Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror is a fun enough adventure and a good example of the better side of this era. There's a decent if slightly cartoonish version of the historical dynamic going on between Edison and Tesla, which I quite enjoy. It might be a bit silly, it doesn't feel terribly accurate to history, and the alien looks a little off to me, but on the whole I had a good time with an interesting little chapter in human history.
While not exactly a brilliant work of art, Nicola Tesla's Night of Terror is a fun enough episode definitely a lot closer to the level of earlier pre-Chibnall seasons. Goran Visnjic and Robert Glenister both do a great job bringing some life to the story of Edison and Tesla. The monster is a bit useless as like Fires of Pompeii this is one of those episodes where the historical drama works better than anything from the realm of science fiction here. I'm not a fan of that side of the story. The alien looks a greasy but is passable. Problems aside, this is a pretty pleasant watching experience.
The weakest part of the episode is the Doctor, who doesn't have much to do and Jodie is ever flat to me. I think it has to do with the writing and direction more than her acting, though. I had some fun with the companions, and it feels like the whole team do get some solid moments with Tesla and Edison. The TARDIS crew might not leave much of an impact with me yet again as characters, but their little moments around Tesla is more than enough to make this episode worth the audience's time. It's a lot like Rosa, in that regard, where these stories don't really add a lot to the TARDIS crew characters, but at least they relate well to these real historical figures and tell an interesting story in the process.
The Chibnall era was rough all over but the historicals were pretty consistently bright spots, and while none of them perfect, they definitely show a little more effort and sincerity to them that many other 13th Doctor episodes sadly lack.
dema1020
View profile
Not a member? Join for free! Forgot password?
Content