Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror, the fourth episode of Doctor Who‘s series 12, does not improve its impressively dismal run. Despite its pulpy title, I found it dull and uninspiring. I think I may have gone to unload the dishwasher at one point.
Set in 1903, the plot revolves around the rivalry between Nikola Tesla (pioneering, a solo flyer, has no money) and Thomas Edison (commercially-minded, wealthy), with a mysterious alien orb thrown in for good measure. It turns out that a vaguely lizardy/snakey species called the Skithra want Tesla for his engineering skills, and are prepared to destroy the planet to get him.
The overall thrust of the episode, broadly, seems to be that Stealing Intellectual Property Is Bad. Tesla dislikes Edison because he buys intellectual property and commercialises it; the Skithra are cheapskate deadbeats because their spaceship is made up of bits and pieces of other species’ technology. Be like Tesla! writer Nina Metivier seems to say. Invent your own stuff! Create the future!
Which is a mindset that neither the salvagepunk nor the socialist in me can get behind, fundamentally. It smacks of American exceptionalism, this idolisation of ~pure~ genius/creativity: not everyone can invent, and equally not every inventor is skilled at deploying and distributing their inventions effectively. Metivier’s Edison isn’t a corporate monster: he knows his staff and mourns their deaths at the hands of the Skithra; he doesn’t seem to be exploiting anyone. As for the Skithra – well, criticising their practice of cobbling together other species’ technology seems pretty rich for an alien whose time machine looks like a 1960s police box.
It’s possible your mileage may vary! There’s nothing outright wrong or offensive about Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror – what it was trying to do just didn’t resonate with me. I found it a pretty dismal addition to an already fairly dismal series 12, though.
The English Student 