‘Doctor Who’: Season 12 Episode 4 Recap: Electrifying and Terrifying
Doctor Who continues to delight sci-fi fans. Season 12 Episode 4 of the show, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror,” had the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends trying to unravel an alien mystery. Along the way, they meet some intriguing historical figures, including Nikola Tesla.
Warning: there are spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 12 episode 4, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror.” So for those of you who don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now. If you’ve already seen the episode, or want to know what happened anyway, keep reading!
Famous inventors and mysterious figures in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 4
Season 12 Episode 4 of Doctor Who, “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” starts with a man standing in front of a waterfall and talking to potential investors about his wireless power transmitter. This man turns out to be Nikola Tesla. Unfortunately for Tesla, none of the investors seem interested. They all think that he and his inventions are too outlandish.
Tesla soon has more problems to deal with as a worker is killed because of an electric shock. He is stunned and immediately starts investigating to see how the worker might have died. He finds out that a part is missing. A floating orb appears, and he catches it in his hand.
As he’s examining the orb, his assistant Dorothy Skerritt comes up behind him. The two of them quickly have to run as someone is trying to shoot them. The Thirteenth Doctor then appears, asking Tesla and Skerritt if they’ve seen anything weird. Tesla, Skerritt, and the Doctor have to run from the shooter and end up boarding a train to New York City, where Ryan Sinclair, Graham O’Brien, and Yasmin Khan are waiting.
The mysterious shooter follows them, but the Doctor detaches the train car that the shooter is in from the rest and leaves the figure behind.
Orbs and alien weapons in ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 episode 4
The Doctor reveals why she had asked if there was anything weird: she had been tracking a strange energy signature, which she still finds in the train car with Tesla. Tesla does not want to give the orb he found to the Doctor, so she decides to stay with him and his assistant Dorothy Skerritt. When the group arrives in New York, there are protesters waiting outside of Tesla’s lab. They are protesting his inventions, thinking that they’re dangerous because of information spread by Tesla’s competitor Thomas Edison.
Eventually, they get inside the lab and Tesla shows the Doctor and her companions the orb he found. The Doctor recognizes the orb as an Orb of Thassor. It’s meant to spread information but has been reworked to do something else. Someone working for Edison, Harold Green, comes and takes a picture of Tesla’s lab.
The Doctor tells Yasmin, Tesla, and Skerritt to guard the orb, while she, Graham, and Ryan investigate Edison to see how his men got alien weapons.
Where is the real Harold Green? And new foes revealed
While the Doctor, Graham, and Ryan are talking to Edison, the mysterious figure from before comes into his office and kills all of his workers. Edison wants to know what happened to Harold Green, and he soon gets his answer. The alien creature comes in, looking just like Harold Green and the Doctor, Graham, Ryan, and Edison have to run. They then find the real Harold Green, dead.
The Doctor calls Yasmin, having found out that the aliens can take the form of anyone but it’s too late. Dorothy Skerritt, Tesla’s assistant, has already let two of the aliens in. They take Tesla and Yasmin onto their ship. The aliens are apparently called the Skithra and their queen wants Tesla to fix their ship and their weapons.
New and old friends saved and a race to save the Earth
The Doctor transports herself onto the ship just in time to save Tesla and Yasmin. But not before she finds out that the Skithra have taken the technology of other alien races and used it to suit their needs and that they chose Tesla because he was intelligent enough to find their signal. Once they’ve gotten off the Skithra ship, the Doctor sends a message to the queen telling her to leave. Of course, the queen doesn’t listen and instead threatens to kill everyone on Earth if the Doctor and her friends don’t hand over Tesla.
Tesla is willing to give himself up to save everyone else, but the Doctor won’t let that happen. The Doctor and Tesla work to power Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower while Yasmin and Edison get people off the streets. Meanwhile, Graham, Ryan, and Dorothy Skerritt start getting ready to defend Wardenclyffe. The Skithra Queen then comes down to earth just as the Doctor and Tesla are about to blast the ship with lightning.
Luckily, the Doctor manages to trick the Queen into being transported back to her ship, just in time for Tesla to hit it. Later, Yasmin questions whether or not Tesla becomes rich and famous after saving the world. The Doctor says that he doesn’t and Yasmin doesn’t think that’s right. They both tell Tesla not to give up, no matter what anyone says.
