Doctor Who S06 E09 Night Terrors

As you can probably tell from the title of the episode, 'Night Terrors' was never going to be full of cupcakes and unicorns. Are we able to sleep with the lights off after watching it? Read on to find out.


Now, I don't want to seem like a Moffat-basher, cause I do enjoy his work, but it was very nice to be able to step back from the whole River Song clusterfuck and get taken on a creepy-as-hell ride by Mark Gatiss. Allegedly this episode was originally supposed to air in place of the pirates episode earlier in the season, which explains the complete lack of mention of the major story arc.

In Night Terrors we meet George, the little chap who is terrified of everything. The elevator in his block of flats is terrifying, the creepy old neighbour is terrifying, the cupboard in his room is terrifying etc etc. The Doctor (masquerading as Social Services) drops in to find out WTF is going on with George.

Hello, ladies

Surprise! George is an alien with abandonment issues, and his stress has caused all his fears to manifest. Hurrah! Amy and Rory get sucked into the cupboard (where all the 'bad things' go. Poor Rory), and end up getting chased by creepy dolls in a creepy house. Creepy creepy everywhere. Then Amy gets turned into a doll.

Sucked in, Amy

The Good

The atmosphere
While I was cursing this episode while trying to pick out screencaps (so daaaaaark) the lighting in the ep was almost a character in itself. Starting with the sickly green/yellow of the estate that had me hovering over the white balance in Photoshop (Just...just...let me colour correct it. C'moooon), then moving on to the shadowy interior of the doll's house with little more than slivers of light to reveal the danger, it left the viewer in a constant state of unease. I watched it in broad daylight, but still ended up with a nervous foot tap for most of the episode.

Good god, my EYES

King of the kids
It's blindingly obvious the affinity Eleven has with children. He's very childlike and eccentric himself, so you really feel he connects to the kids he encounters in a more meaningful way than many of the adults he comes across (baby Pond in the first episode of series 5 being the most obvious example). George warms to him far more quickly than you'd expect a kid who's scared of his own shadow to do, and they speak to each other as equals. The Doctor knows the tricks. Bring robots to life, get the little boy on your side immediately. ADORBS.

Nothin' suss

Creepy dollies
The 'monsters' in this episode have been slammed in part for being too cliche, but seriously, if something works, why not use it? Emotionless dolls with soulless eyes ARE terrifying. And no, I'm not just talking about the one the Doctor has as his companion! *high-fives self* Yeah, anyway. The first you hear of the dolls is creepy disembodied children's laughter. Ugh. Even when you see one of the dolls for the first time, I managed to keep the contents of my bladder in its proper place. Then, the bastards come alive and turn the guy who used to be on Hornblower INTO ONE OF THEM.

Aw shit, man. Even then, I was like 'No, this is fine. It's creepy, but it's not too bad. I'm fine. Everything's fine. It's not like they're big dolls. They're only kid size. It's all ok'. Then Rory and Amy go 'Screw this' and try to lock themselves in the library (or where ever they are. It's dark, okay?!). The dolls go 'Oh, oh, no I don't think so' and then this happens:

WHAT. WHAT. IT'S HUGE AND ITS HEAD IS GIGANTIC AND THE HEAD ALONE IS PRACTICALLY PUSHING THE DOOR OPEN AND IT'S LIKE BERT NEWTON IN CREEPY DOLL FORM AND OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE.

Yep.

The Bad

The great disappearing coat
The Doctor's coat was GONE. Okay, so I'm grasping at straws a bit, I couldn't really find much to fault. Nice concept, linear storytelling, the twist was good and made SENSE, George was awesome, and Rory didn't die. And Amy was turned into a doll.

'And I got to make cups of tea'

The OMGWTF

Personpig, WTF?
Look, if your big 'thing' is making sure all the scary stuff goes in the cupboard, how on EARTH did you miss THIS, George???

 
A marionette pig person in farmer clothes. I mean, SHIT. I was honestly expecting this little guy to come alive and snack on George's eyeballs like they were delicious truffles.

So yes, I liked it. It was suspenseful, had decent characterisation, Matt Smith was wonderful (as per always), and Amy did the impossible by becoming even more wooden than usual. Lulz. Next week's episode looks very intriguing, sort of an alternate-universe Tron ninja sort of thing. Looking forward to it a lot.