History Recap / DoctorWhoS38E4NikolaTeslasNightOfTerror

This episode first aired January 19, 2020. Written by Nina Métivier.

JustForFun/TheOneWith the Series/{{Timeless}} [[Series/{{ER}} Doctor]]. And we don't mean Creator/JodieWhittaker.

** Thomas Edison is played by Robert Glenister, the general gadgeteer and fixer for the con artist crew in ''Series/Hustle'' (a successful one at that!).
** Nikola Tesla is played by Creator/GoranVisnjic, whose most famous role is of Garcia Flynn from fellow time-travelling show ''Series/Timeless''.

* AllegoricalCharacter: The Skithra are a distillation of all of Thomas Edison's flaws, with none of his redeeming qualities. Both of them exploit inventors like Tesla for their own benefit, but unlike the merely-less-prolific Edison, [[CreativeSterility the Skithra don't create anything at all]].
* ArtisticLicenceHistory: The episode is set in 1903, though in real life Dorothy Skerrit didn't join Tesla's service until 1912.

* BaitAndSwitch: When the Doctor helps Tesla and Dorothy escape from the alien shooting at them, she says she has a fast means of escape. Cut to, instead of the TARDIS, a night train: it turns out the Doctor and her "fam" have actually been in 1903 for a bit already, and the TARDIS is apparently parked in New York City.

** When the Doctor introduces Tesla and Dorothy to her companions on the train, Graham quips "Welcome to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress Orient Express]]."

* DeathGlare: When the Queen asks the Doctor [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder "Have you ever seen a dead planet?"]], Thirteen looks like she wants to strangle her.

* ExactWords: Edison convinces several civilians to hide indoors by stating that Tesla is experimenting with his tower and that there's a chance they could all be blown up. While both statements are true, he deliberately lets them assume that correlation equals causation when in reality Tesla's experiments are trying to ''stop'' them all from being blown up. It's clear from his reaction to a later headline that this is exactly the effect Edison hoped for.

** The episode got some criticism for its blanket celebration of Tesla's vision of the future, which besides all the technology also included a hardline support for eugenics, saying that the thought of marrying outside one's own race would be as foreign as marrying a murderer.

* ItsQuietTooQuiet: When the Doctor and Tesla are on the train and everyone else has gone ahead while she's holding a door shut, he realizes it's gone quiet moments before the cloaked assailant comes in through the ceiling.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Edison is generally an arrogant ass through the episode, he makes the valid point that brilliant inventions are little more than novelties without someone being able to turn them into products that can actually be used.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Edison is a pompous, greedy, and arrogant git. He's also openly horrified about the deaths of his workers, laments that many of them had families, vows to personally inform one man's wife, helps to save the world, and ultimately acknowledges his rival Tesla's genius.

* NotHelpingYourCase: At the beginning, Tesla's attempt to get investors falls flat when he refuses to deny a story that he intercepted a signal from Mars. His assistant Dorothy is visibly dismayed.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Done to a different extent with all three companions. Yaz has never heard of Nikola Tesla, while Ryan at least recognizes his name from the line of electric cars named after him. Graham admonishes them both and tries to educate them on Tesla's importance to the scientific world, but when pressed can't actually name a single one of his inventions.

* RunningGag: As usual, whenever a newcomer enters the TARDIS, they are completely blown away. Edison is flabbergasted, and Tesla states the BiggerOnTheInside speech in scientific prose; "The internal dimensions transcend the external" (which is the same terminology [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS3E5E6TheWeddingOfSarahJaneSmith Luke says when he enters Ten's TARDIS]] in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''). The Doctor is very pleased that someone speaks her language.

* SeriesContinuityError: The Doctor repeatedly identifies the Silurian blaster as an alien device. The Silurians [[UltraTerrestrials are from Earth.]]

** Graham calls Tesla and Edison Music/{{ACDC}} when shouting at them to stop arguing given the situation.

* WhyIsntItAttacking: Asked when the Skithra stay back after breaking down the door at the Wardenclyffe lab. It's because the Queen is there and hopes to abduct Tesla before killing the others.
* WouldHurtAChild: One of the Skithra agents asks a street urchin where Tesla is. When the boy answers the Skithra prepares to vaporize him, but Yaz snatches him away at the last moment.

JustForFun/TheOneWith the Series/{{Timeless}} [[Series/{{ER}} Doctor]]. And we don't mean Creator/JodieWhittaker.[[note]][---[[{{Foreshadowing}} ...]]''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren *cough*]]''---][[/note]]

And the one with [[Creator/SachaDhawan the Master]]'s girlfriend, [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Rani]] (not [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani that]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani one]]).

UsefulNotes/NiagaraFalls, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}, 1903. UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla is attempting to get funding for his generator plant so he can work on his project for transmitting energy through the "aether", but is falling flat due to investor disbelief and the reputation following him around because he claims to have picked up a signal from UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}. On top of that, something's wrong at the generator, and when Tesla investigates he discovers that someone has been stealing parts from the machinery. But when he thinks his assistant Dorothy Skerrit has come along that night, he instead discovers a mysterious floating green sphere, which he pockets after Dorothy does turn up, both amazed. But then an attack comes, from someone armed with weaponry not of this Earth. Help comes in the form of the Doctor, unexpectedly, who offers Tesla and Dorothy a way out: a train back to New York, with Graham, Ryan and Yaz on board. The fam has been seeing the sights, but the Doctor picked up an odd signal from Niagara Falls. The Doctor is amazed when Tesla introduces himself, although her companions aren't as familiar with the Serbian-born inventor. She also deduces that he is lying about something. Just then, another attack comes from a cloaked figure firing a laser weapon, and a chase begins up the length of the car. When the Doctor and Tesla are confronted by the attacker, the Doctor drops part of the roof on the figure and acquires the assailant's weapon, a stolen Silurian blaster.

Once everyone is safe, the Doctor having detached the rear of the train to lose the cloaked figure, the Doctor confronts Tesla about his lie, noting that she'd asked him if he'd seen anything weird, yet she's detecting the same energy signature she was investigating now coming from him. Tesla and Dorothy refuse to disclose it, so the Doctor and her fam decide they'll just have to stick around. In UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, people are protesting alternating current outside Tesla's lab, believing it's more dangerous than the direct current advocated by Tesla's rival UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison. Once inside and away from the crowd, Tesla claims he's unaffected by people's protests against him before leaving the room and implicitly getting angry elsewhere. Tesla's lab turns out to have less stuff in it than expected, and the companions discuss where they've heard his name before. Eventually, the inventor returns and shows the fam the glowing sphere he picked up. The Doctor recognizes it as a "Thassa Orb", an alien data storage device sent out by one of the ancient races, but quickly deduces that it's been altered from its original purpose somehow, and not in an especially skilled fashion.

They are interrupted by a spy of Edison taking a photograph of them before running off. Concluding that Edison has something to do with the attack on Tesla, the Doctor takes Ryan and Graham to meet Edison, who is busy stirring up the fears of the public with his claims that Tesla's alternating current is much more dangerous than his direct current. Edison shows interest in the Silurian blaster, but eventually explains how Tesla used to work for him, but left when Edison didn't pay him for his work fixing a generator. Edison also wants to know what happened to his spy, who he hasn't seen today. Yaz stays with Tesla, who explains his dream of using Wardenclyffe to project sound and images through the air; a precursor to wi-fi. While they are talking, the Thassa Orb starts to send out waves of energy, apparently scanning for something.

Back at Edison's factory, another cloaked figure uses bolts of electricity to kill the assembled workers. As the Doctor, her fam, and Edison run, they discover the attacker is using the form of Edison's spy, and once trapping it with fire, see the shadow of its true form, with a scorpion-like tail. The Doctor tries to warn Yaz, but two more attackers have taken Dorothy hostage. Tesla and Yaz offer the Thassa Orb, but the attackers reveal they want Tesla. They teleport him away, and Yaz grabs ahold and is brought along, to their ship, cloaked above New York. They meet the queen of the aliens (called the Skithra), who reveals they want Tesla to repair their technology for them, including weapons.

The Doctor brings Edison and the Fam in the TARDIS to pick up Dorothy and takes a closer look at the Orb, discovering that it has been modified as a tracking device to find Tesla. Dorothy realizes that it must be connected to Tesla's signals from Mars, and directs the Doctor to go to Tesla's lab at Wardenclyffe, cautioning everyone to keep a close eye on Edison when he sees this is where all of Tesla's current projects have been moved. Finding Tesla's readings, the Doctor rigs a teleporter to send her to the Skithra ship, showing disgust that the Skithra merely steal other people's technology instead of building anything for themselves. She teleports herself, Yaz, and Tesla back to Earth, only to receive an ultimatum from the Skithra Queen: give them Tesla, or they will attack the Earth. Tesla considers surrendering, but the Doctor has a plan, and she needs Wardenclyffe tower to make it work.

Following their experience, Edison offers Tesla a job with him again, but Tesla declines. The Doctor explains to Yaz that while Tesla will still fall into obscurity, his ideas and inventions will live on to inspire future technology. As Tesla says, "The future is mine."

JustForFun/TheOneWith the Series/{{Timeless}} [[Series/{{ER}} Doctor]]. And we don't mean Creator/JodieWhittaker.[---[[note]][[{{Foreshadowing}} ...]]''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren cough.]]''[[/note]]---]

JustForFun/TheOneWith the Series/{{Timeless}} [[Series/{{ER}} Doctor]]. And we don't mean Creator/JodieWhittaker.

* SeriesContinuityError: The Doctor repeatedly identifies the Silurian blaster as an an alien device. The Silurians [[UltraTerrestrials are from Earth.]]

The one with the Series/{{Timeless}} [[Series/{{ER}} Doctor]]. And we don't mean Creator/JodieWhittaker.

And the one with [[Creator/SachaDhawan the Master's]] girlfriend, [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Rani]] (not [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani that]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani one]]).

* TitleDrop: A variation. [[HeroWithBadPublicity TESLA'S NIGHT OF TERROR]] is the newspaper headline after it's all over.

** InUniverse when Tesla's plan for universal energy sounds to Team TARDIS like Wi-fi and TheInternet.

* HiveMind: The Skithra have one focused on their queen, so killing her will bring down all of them.