Doctor Who season 12, episode 4 recap: Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

It wouldn’t be an episode of Doctor Who if we didn’t have a race of scorpion aliens, right?

Doctor Who continues its trend of silly, ridiculous alien races as this week the Doctor and companions face off with scorpion aliens called the Skithra. Yes, scorpion aliens. I won’t lie when I say they were freaky AF.

But where the episode gets really good is when this group of aliens wants something to do with Nikola Tesla–the inventor, engineer, and pioneer of the modern alternating current electricity supply system. As always, the Doctor shows up to save the day and keep history intact. Unfortunately, it didn’t change Tesla’s unfortunate fate.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Doctor Who’s deep-dive into history this season because I’m learning so much. There was very little I knew about Tesla before this episode but it was thrilling to learn just how much he contributed.

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

Similar to The Current War, we saw the scuffle between Tesla and Thomas Edison, and boy, were there some differences. I was definitely #TeamTesla.

Particularly, in the battle against the Skithra, there was a lot to enjoy about the interaction between Tesla and the Doctor. They seemed to have an excitement around one another and fed off each other’s genius.

The Skithra Queen was frightening, to say the least, and when the Doctor cleverly finds a way to zap her back onto the ship to take her down is probably one of my favorite scenes from the episode.

In that scene alone, the viewer was just as fooled as the Skithra Queen, and that’s all Whittaker’s genius acting.

All in all, Doctor Who gave us a fun, incredible episode filled with all the usual quirks and nuances that we’ve come to appreciate about the series. Not only did the Doctor and her companions manage to defeat the Skithras, but gave Tesla the confidence to go on to do what he was always going to. Yes, he’d still end up penniless and unappreciated for his innovations, but his accomplishments would go down in history.

Side note, Jodie Whittaker is so good at playing the Doctor–she effortlessly pulls it off. Oh, how I love her!

What did you think of this Doctor Who episode? Tell us what you thought below!