Surfing Sci-Fi: Doctor Who – “Night Terrors”

 
You are frightened of these spoilers and have put them in the cupboard. They’re so far back in the cupboard that they’re Mr. Tumnus’s problem now. Also, you’re wearing your pyjamas and will have kippers for breakfast.

 

 
 
 
 
From seeing the trailer numerous times over the last week, I’d tentatively booked a slot in this review-catch-up-analysis-opinion-thing for the words ‘delicious’ and ‘dark.’ Night Terrors, touted with similar synonyms, did manage to fulfill on the evocative brief but not in the literal, selfishly hoped way that the cleverly cut teaser would have you believe.

Behind it’s ‘scary’ facade is a simple and incredibly humbling story; a deliciously dark fairytale in fact – there it is – that plays and delivers somewhat to the trappings of a more sinister plot, but retains a charm entirely throughout right up until curtains. It’s in its simplicity that the episode truly shines, and the fact that it does so in a standalone respect after the grand arc of last weeks’ is a testament to that lovable dandy, Mark Gattis’ craft.

‘Heartfelt’ and ‘warm’ were two words that I didn’t expect to use, but they’re perhaps as more apt that the other two. The moment we first meet George – the little boy frightened of everything – and see how his cries for help pierce time and space and summon the Doctor to his aid, I defy your cockles not to go all fuzzy. These unexpected layers were so welcome, and this touching undercurrent struck a universal cord because who didn’t when they were little cower at the shadows in their bedroom and wished for someone to save them. If anything this factor alone will do more for this episode in viewers of a similar age to George, and that kind of service you could only find in Doctor Who.

But of course there’s something different about George, otherwise the Doctor would be making house-calls more often and wouldn’t be galavanting around history. George is a Tenza – a species whose young breeze through space like pollen on the wind and find unknowing foster parents, changing to take on the appearance of and adapting to become the children of those they end up with. Basically intergalactic stalk-and-baby stuff. Unable to cope with George’s ‘eccentricities’, his parents question whether they should take him away to a doctor. It’s in his eavesdropping and learning of his believed rejection that George’s fears begin to manifest themselves.

The scenes that follow do tip their hat to the horror cues conjured by the title of the episode, and too the belief of what lurks in a child’s bedroom at night. The slow build up to unlocking George’s cupboard – a place where he puts what scares him in very sense – works but does fall flat as both a result of the affair being drawn out and also the audience’s deductions of where Amy and Rory are trapped, but that’s dramatic irony for you.

The payoff at the end is incredibly satisfying and touching – although slightly syrupy and reset-button-ish – and did, I’ll admit, make me sniffle at Alex clutching George and telling him that despite whatever he is, he is his son; and George’s bleating of “Dad” didn’t help my plummeting manpoints either. By that token, this episode was less about the things that go bump and a story of acceptance between a father and son. Whether this is in someway biographical on Gattis’ part, I don’t know, but how could you not accept him – he’s a Gentlemen and Glen Bulb (if any of our readers get that latter reference, you and I are going to best friends.) Regardless, it’s something that all of us strive for, even if in this instance the sentiment is wrapped up in a pair of under-ten’s pyjamas.

While personally I enjoy the arc-centric installments, Night Terrors is proof that standalone episodes are still every bit a core element of the show and a particular example of how to do them right whilst delivering both the usual and something different.

 
Quotes

“The thing. You have to do the thing, Mum.”

“No offense, Doctor, but we could get a bus somewhere like this.”

“Is it about the bins?”

“Can I come in?” “Course not. You could be anyone.” “Could be, but I’m not.”

“Ah, we’re dead aren’t we?” “Ay?” “The lift fell and we’re dead” “Shut up” “We’re dead. Again.” “Oh, shut. Up.”

“You see these eyes? They’re old eyes. And one thing I can tell you… monsters are real.”

“You’re not from Social Services, are you?”

“Oi, listen mush!”

 
Bits

- Amy Pond. In the kitchen. With the wooden copper frying pan.

- Nice to see the Psychic Paper and Perception Filter making an appearance again.

- The Doctor, Amy and Rory going door-to-door was brilliant. Reminds me how pleased I am to have three back in the TARDIS again, but these particular three are so dynamic and an inspired coupling.

- Old school non-canon stage play reference of the night goes to “Doctor Who and the Daleks in ‘The Seven Keys to Doomsday.’”

- The Poltergeist bit of being dragged into the cupboard did make me trollface, and I was hoping that the dumpy dwarf lady with the hair and the voice and the glasses-on-a-chain would make an appearance.

- Fun. You can download and cut-out your own Peg Doll mask.

- Talking of the Peg Dolls, they were bloody creepy, but the little girl voices went a bit too much and detracted a bit from the terror. Scary-little-girl-giggling, fine, but incessant talking, not so much. Probably would have worked better if they had distorted nightmarey voices, but then that would have more than likely gave the resultant nightmares more of a wet-the-bed quality.

- Rory and his “we’re dead again” comment was priceless. He truly is the Kenny of Doctor Who, and sounds less upset so much as annoyed that its happened. Yet. Again.

- Beautiful directing framing the flats of the estate in a couple of the initial shots. Who knew a little ambient lightning and a HD camera could make a council estate look, dare I say it, attractive.