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Overview

First aired

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Written by

Nina Metivier

Directed by

Nida Manzoor

Runtime

50 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Celebrity Historical

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, New York, USA

UK Viewers

5.20 million

Appreciation Index

79

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 Thirteenth Doctor and her friends are about to find out.

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How to watch Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror:

Watch on iPlayer
Blu-Ray

The Complete Twelfth Series [Steelbook]

Blu-Ray

The Complete Twelfth Series

DVD

The Complete Twelfth Series

Reviews

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4 reviews

do you guys think there was crazy discourse with the balkan doctor who fandom because they casted a croatian guy as nikola tesla. i really need to do some investigating on this because that was actually the most controversial thing ive ever seen this show do ever

Review last edited on 18-01-25

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This review contains spoilers!

I really enjoyed this one, might be my favorite historical so far. The actor playing Tesla was great, and cool seeing Rani playing the alien queen.

The scorpion aliens were a great design, similar to the spiders in runaway bride, but IMO these were superior.

 

Review last edited on 6-01-25

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Best of the season so far but in part because it feels like a series 11 episode. The fam have nothing to do, Tesla is interesting when playing off Jodie. Edison is obnoxious but not for the right reasons. The Skithra are so basic they forgot that they already did the Racnoss. There’s nothing wrong in this episode that isn’t also recurring throughout the era.

Review last edited on 28-08-24

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Well that was a great episode! Some lovely scenes between 13 and Tesla, a great new alien menace and Jodie Whittaker delivers another strong performance. All the Thomas Edison hating was weird though. He did invent the light bulb.

Review last edited on 19-07-24

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Statistics

AVG. Rating570 members
3.38 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating1,083 votes
3.63 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating126 votes
3.60 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

1172

Favourited

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Reviewed

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Owned

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Quotes

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Tags: Thasmin

DOCTOR: Are you guys all right?

YASMIN: Better now you're here.

— Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

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Transcript Needs checking

[Niagara Falls]

(Lights are flickering in a building just downstream of the famous horseshoe of waterfalls. A collection of gentlemen in top hats are gathered on the opposite side, presumably at Prospect Point?)

TESLA: Niagara Falls. Is there a better demonstration of the sheer power of nature? When I first saw this view, I was inspired to build my Niagara Generator, and now these waters power a city. But there's so much more in nature that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Forces invisible to us which animate the universe. And they were hidden from our understanding until now. Gentlemen, I, Nikola Tesla, have invited you here to pull back the curtain. Shall we begin?

[Laboratory]

(Tesla pulls a lever and electricity flows between a pair of what look very like van der Graff generators to me, but I'd love to hear from an expert.)

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