Night Terrors (Doctor Who)
220 – "Night Terrors" | |||
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Doctor Who episode | |||
Cast | |||
Guest
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Production | |||
Directed by | Series 6 | ||
Running time | 45 minutes | ||
First broadcast | 3 September 2011 | ||
Chronology | |||
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"Night Terrors" is the ninth episode of the
In the episode, alien time traveller
"Night Terrors" was inspired by Gatiss's fear of dolls, and the ones in the episode were designed to be
Plot
Synopsis
The Eleventh Doctor decides to make a "house call" after his psychic paper receives a message from George, a frightened 8-year-old child, asking his help in getting rid of the monsters in his bedroom. On arrival at a council estate on present-day Earth, the Doctor, Amy and Rory split up to locate the child. The Doctor, taking the guise of a social services worker, finds the right flat, and meets George's father, Alex, while his mother Claire is working a night shift. Through Alex's photo album, the Doctor learns that George has been frightened all his life, fearing many of the sounds and people around the flat and is helped to cope by various habits, including metaphorically placing his fears in his wardrobe.
Meanwhile, Amy and Rory, while taking the lift down, suddenly find themselves in what appears to be an eighteenth-century house, but shortly discover most of the furnishings are wooden props. Other residents of the estate appear in the house but are caught by life-sized peg dolls which transform the residents into more dolls. Amy is caught and becomes a peg doll herself, joining the others in chasing Rory.
The Doctor, suspecting that the wardrobe contains the evil George fears, opens it to find its contents are simply clothes and toys, including a doll house. The Doctor recalls from Alex's photo album that Claire did not appear pregnant in the weeks leading up to George's supposed birth, causing Alex to remember the fact that Claire was unable to have children. The Doctor asserts that George is a Tenza child, an empathic alien who took on the form of Alex and Claire's desired child through a perception filter, and has the ability to literally lock away his fears in the wardrobe. The Doctor and Alex are pulled into the wardrobe, joining Rory in the dollhouse. As the peg dolls descend on the three, the Doctor calls out to George to face his fears; George is able to open the wardrobe and appears in the dollhouse, but the dolls turn to advance on him. The Doctor realises that George is still frightened that Alex and Claire plan to send him away, having mistakenly interpreted a conversation they had earlier that night; Alex rushes through the peg dolls to embrace George as his son. They all soon find themselves back at the estate, restored to normal.
The Doctor says goodbye to Alex and reassures him that George would be whatever he wants him to be, since George, being a Tenza, can adapt to his surroundings perfectly, although he promises to come back when George enters puberty, since it's "always a funny time".
Continuity
The Doctor refers to "Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday", "The Three Little Sontarans" and "The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes" as being among his childhood nursery stories, referencing the 1974 stage play '
Production
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Dutch_doll_from_Gr%C3%B6den.jpg/170px-Dutch_doll_from_Gr%C3%B6den.jpg)
Episode writer Mark Gatiss told Radio Times that he had always been scared of dolls, and was surprised that Doctor Who had never used them before. He was especially interested in peg dolls, which he said were "the stuff of proper nightmares".[3] Gatiss had previously worked with guest actor Daniel Mays in the BBC serial Funland and purposely inserted the line "Maybe later" into the script as it had been "a bit of a catchphrase" for the two on Funland. However, Mays did not notice the reference.[3] The episode was originally given the title of "What Are Little Boys Made Of?"[4]
To achieve a greater variety of stories in the first half of series 6 "Night Terrors" was moved to the second block of episodes, having been filmed as episode four and showing up in promos for the first half of the season.[5] This necessitated minor changes to the episode, including the removal of a recurring sequence featuring the appearance of Madame Kovarian.[1] The original last scene was dropped, and a new one was written so it would make sense at that point in the series.[6] This scene consisted of nursery rhyme; lead writer Steven Moffat wanted to foreshadow the Doctor's death and asked Gatiss to write a nursery rhyme, which he described as "rather wonderful".[7] Variations of the rhyme are heard in "Closing Time" and the series finale "The Wedding of River Song".[8][9]
The episode was the first to be filmed,
Broadcast and reception
"Night Terrors" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 3 September 2011.[12] The episode achieved an overnight figure of 5.5 million viewers, making it the fourth most-watched programme for the day.[13] Final consolidated figures showed it picked up 1.6 million timeshifted viewers, bringing the total up to 7.07 million viewers.[14] It received an Appreciation Index of 86, considered "excellent".[15]
Critical reception
Reception to the episode has been generally mixed. Dan Martin of The Guardian commented that the episode was an improvement on Gatiss's previous three episodes – "The Unquiet Dead", "The Idiot's Lantern" and "Victory of the Daleks". He complimented it overall as "a classy, creepy episode of retro Doctor Who" in comparison to "Let's Kill Hitler", though he saw its plot as over-similar to "The Empty Child" and other episodes written by Steven Moffat.[16] Martin later rated it the tenth best episode of the series, though the finale was not included in the list.[17] Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph praised the dolls for "stealing the show", as well as the concept of the doll's house.[18]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Doctor_Who_Experience_%286502049039%29.jpg/200px-Doctor_Who_Experience_%286502049039%29.jpg)
IGN's Matt Risley rated the episode 8 out of 10, praising Gatiss's script which "moved the drama and horror straight into the miniaturised heart of a rickety creepy dolls house, with a set of villains that — while never as memorable or scary as their look may suggest — used sound design to its most effective". He said that the main story "soared", though the sidelined Amy and Rory left "little impact" in relation to the Doctor, George, and Alex.[19] Russell Lewin of SFX gave "Night Terrors" three and a half out of five stars, saying that it had "many great things going for it but perhaps hasn't quite got that little extra something that would have turned it into a classic" and that nothing seemed especially unexpected. However, he praised the shots of the doll house and apartment buildings, the sound, dolls, the acting of Matt Smith and Daniel Mays, and the idea of George being an alien who created the reality.[20]
Blair Marnell of
Because the episode was originally planned to be in the first half of the series, many of the reviewers mentioned that it was strange that Amy and Rory did not comment upon what had happened previously, such as what had happened to their child.[18][21] McPherson noted the "tacked-on" nursery rhyme foreshadowing the Doctor's death was included, though he thought it was "unintelligible" and did not count.[22]
References
- ^ a b c "Night Terrors – The Fourth Dimension". BBC. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-1550229844.
- ^ a b Jones, Paul (2 September 2011). "Doctor Who: Mark Gatiss on new episode Night Terrors". Radio Times. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
- ^ McPherson, Sam (19 June 2011). "Doctor Who Will Give You 'Night Terrors' in the Fall". Zap2it. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ "Episodes shuffle for the 2011 series...". Doctor Who Magazine (430): 7. 9 February 2011.
- ^ a b Jeffery, Morgan (12 April 2011). "Mark Gatiss teases 'Doctor Who' episode". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f "About a Boy". Doctor Who Confidential. Series 6. Episode 9. 3 September 2011. BBC. BBC Three.
- ^ Gareth Roberts (writer), Steve Hughs (director), Denise Paul (producer) (24 September 2011). "Closing Time". Doctor Who. Series 6. Episode 12. BBC. BBC One.
- ^ Steven Moffat (writer), Jeremy Webb (director), Marcus Wilson (producer) (1 October 2011). "The Wedding of River Song". Doctor Who. Series 6. Episode 13. BBC. BBC One.
- ^ a b c Golder, Dave (27 August 2011). "Doctor Who "Night Terrors" Preview: Daniel Mays Interview". SFX. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ Jeffery, Morgan (1 September 2011). "'Doctor Who' Daniel Mays interview: 'Night Terrors is very scary'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
- ^ "Network TV BBC Week 36: Saturday 3 September 2011" (Press release). BBC. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ "Doctor Who "Night Terrors" Overnight Ratings". SFX. 4 September 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ Golder, Dave (11 September 2011). "Doctor Who "Night Terrors" Final Viewing Figures". SFX. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
- ^ "Night Terrors: Appreciation Index". The Doctor Who News Page. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
- ^ Martin, Dan (3 September 2011). "Doctor Who: Night Terrors – series 32, episode 9". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ Martin, Dan (30 September 2011). "Doctor Who: which is the best episode of this series?". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
- ^ a b Fuller, Gavin (3 September 2011). "Doctor Who Night Terrors, BBC One, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ Risley, Matt (4 September 2011). "Doctor Who: "Night Terrors" Review". IGN. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ Lewin, Russell (3 September 2011). "Doctor Who "Night Terrors" TV Review". SFX. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ CraveOnline. Archived from the originalon 28 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- ^ a b McPherson, Sam (4 September 2011). "Doctor Who Episode 6.09 "Night Terrors" Review". Zap2it. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Night Terrors on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- "Night Terrors" at IMDb
- "Night Terrors" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage