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.

I adore the life of Nikola Tesla, and I adore what he did for humanity. Had I known nothing of Tesla prior to watching, I'd probably have rated the episode higher. But this interpretation of Tesla is quite surface-level, and pales in comparison to The Current War movie. For those interested in Tesla, I highly recommend The Current War movie over this episode. This episode should've remained a true historical, and simply didn't need an alien threat. The parallels between Tesla and The Doctor could have been so much better and explored much further. I'm pretty sure Tesla didn't have an American accent (again, look at the Current War movie) as he spent the majority of his childhood and some of his adult life in Serbia.

The Doctor implying that Tesla should've been a billionaire and shouldn't have torn apart the patents is also a failure to understand Tesla as a person.

Similarly, the story should've been more pessimistic in it's approach to Tesla's life and work, because the final thing the Doctor says, about how Tesla ultimately fails and becomes homeless seems very blunt and sudden compared to the episode's otherwise optimistic portrayal of Tesla's life and accomplishments.

I did enjoy the actor of Tesla, and his portrayal, but this was distinctly not Tesla. Tesla was extremely introverted, had OCD, and probably didn't carry himself as well as the actor in this episode did, around other people. Again, look at the interpretation in The Current War.

There was also a surprising and disappointing lack of pigeons. Similarly, there was a lack of Tesla's love for pigeons.

If I ever were to become showrunner, I'd again create a story of Tesla (I love him so much), that would be more accurate to his real life, and more introspective towards his character. But that doesn't mean to say I'd say this episode never happened, or that I believe the actor did a poor portrayal. But Tesla, at least in my opinion, deserved a better episode and tribute than what this episode currently provides.

💔

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.

Nikola Tesla's night of terror

I know I said Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos had a long name but this is ridiculous, this is literally an episode description.

This is my personal favorite episode of Series 12 and there's tough competition. Objectively one of the best Thirteenth Doctor stories.

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.