Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

[0:00]

Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to Jody Interterterra, the only Doctor Who flash cast with an SI unit of measurement named after it.

It's used by scientists to quantify tiresomeness.

I'm Nathan.

I'm James.

And I'm Peter.

Well, we are here mere days after having seen the latest episode of Doctor Who series 12, the superbly named Nicola Tesla's Night of Terror.

How about Nicola Bryant's night of Jaffa?

Nicolette Bryant's 18 months of constant torment.

Um, and we're here to tell you what we thought of it.

So let's do the traditional thing and go round the table.

Peter, what did you think?

Well, Nicola Terra's Knight of Tesla.

I thought it was a fairly entertaining episode.

Lots of colour. simply beautiful to look at.

In fact, it reminded me a bit of Pete Harness's recent War of the Worlds, that same kind of aesthetic and the colour palette.

[01:05]

Yeah, it was, it was...

It was nice.

Yaz had more to do than usual.

It was nice to see Robert Glenister, old Salatine back then. wanted him to throw back his head and give that mad laugh.

You know, like, ga, ga, ga.

I missed the fringe.

The fringe.

And I don't know, the teeth seemed less overwhelming this time.

I don't know.

But space has grown to match.

Yeah, that's true.

And yet, and yet, I found, as with a lot of recent episodes, that the whole was somehow less than some of its parts.

Um, all the elements were there for a strong episode, and, you know, it's kind of, um, to use that old phrase pseudo-historical story that I'm genetically disposed to enjoy from all those ABC repeats of the horrifying rock and stuff like that.

But it never quite took off for me.

Um, Yeah, the piece was frenetic, um, but I think the storytelling was glacial.

Um, It sort of set out to educate, I think, and that's great.

[02:07]

That's a positive goal, but I'm not sure there was a great deal to learn.

I think you need a Robert Holmes or an RTD or, you know, dare I say, to Pip and Jane to add a bit of romp to these romps.

You know, I actually thought that it did a really, really good job of the education thing, you know, that there's, well, we'll get back to it, but there's a lot to know about Tesla and Edison and their relationship that isn't sort of or hasn't really been widely known except in the last few decades.

And so I kind of appreciated that.

What did you think of it, James?

Um, look, I would, I would probably say, I, I think I had a more positive reaction to it than Peter.

I, I enjoyed it.

I agreed the pace was Glacial?

Um, It, though it did seem to be a bit more balanced, the pace was slow, but at least the pace, I guess, was better than last week.

[03:08]

Um, of which I was not a huge fan.

I...

I don't know, like I also, I mean, having done a bit of background research about Tesla.

I kind of wish that maybe made him a bit more rounded and truthful to who he was as a person.

He was not the nicest of people.

Um, he was a terrible misogynist and uh, a eugenicist.

Yeah, I think maybe...

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, where do you draw the line for historical accuracy on his dog character?

But, you know, they've done this person is a misogynist before.

Um, they could have done this, this person is a comedy misogynist.

At least that would maybe been a bit more truthful.

I don't know how you shoehorn the eugenics into it.

Um, But he had some pretty terrible, almost fascist views on, on uh, on humanity.

[04:13]

So, hmm, yes.

Yeah.

Did those kick in later or was that always a thing?

Or is that what you just expect from a sort of weird ass white guy in 1900s America?

Well, I mean, he, I guess he did come to the misogyny a bit later in life, but it came from the, it came from a, oh, those women coming over here stealing our jobs kind of mentality, which is delightful.

Um, because some...

Miss Garrett.

Dorothy Skerritt was a real person.

And like he never had any relationships, but he did like women.

And, you know, like on a personal level.

Anyway, look.

I think I think, though, there was...

Yeah, there was a lot to learn though. from that.

And I thought, you know, for me, it was an episode that really relied on just one central guest star performance and he was really good, you know, Goran Business.

Definitely he was.

Yeah, you know, like and so the whole thing kind of wrote on that, watching it for the 2nd time today, it actually takes quite a while before the doctor even turns up and he holds that, you know, that those 1st few minutes of the episode really well.

[05:25]

And I was kind of the lesson that you take Nathan from something like the Shakespeare code, when you have a celebrity historical, you've got to have a celebrity at the heart of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know, the reason that the Unquiet Dead works. as well as it does, is that you've got some, you know, lovely old Simon Callow there, you know, absolutely.

And tooth and claw as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I agree with you, Peter though.

I thought it looked incredibly good.

Like, it looked really quite amazing.

And the 2nd time, like I did the sort of quick, you know, look through Wikipedia and stuff like that.

And there was actually a real effort to make things look the way that they did in a way that I don't really think is necessary for historical, but it's kind of a nice to have.

Yeah, and we sort of got used to it, you know, in the modern era, that the show just default looks brilliant, but it's rarely looked this good.

And I mean, one of the problems with maybe last week's episode is that it was a bit patchy in its delivery.

So it was nice to have a return to form.

[06:26]

There were some weird design decisions, which I think were quite deliberate, like, but they were still weird last week.

But, you know, one thing, like last year we had that very sort of prestige TV look to the show, which I thought went a bit too far and ended up looking a bit washed out and a little bit worthy and dull.

They sort of leaned into their Sunday nightness.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But they've really course corrected here.

It still looks spectacular.

It looks much more expensive than it did last year and it I think it looks great, you know.

Oh, look, also, I mean, on that, um, you know, really good script.

Uh, great to have another female writer.

In fact, this is a Doctor Who first.

It's not the 1st story to be directed and written by a woman.

Enlightenment.

Yes, Enlightenment is the 1st one.

It is the 1st Doctor Who story where both the director and the writer were called Nina.

[07:30]

Ha.

So there you go.

And I was listening to another podcast with Liz Miles on it, friend of the podcast, Liz Miles, and that podcast pointed out that it's the 1st episode where we see Canada.

Oh yeah.

I'm not sure you're right on that, Nathan.

I think the horns of Nimon was written and directed by people called Nina, wasn't it?

No, okay.

That's Proctor Nieman.

I think both of you.

That's right, you make good points about this episode.

And by no means did I dislike it.

I thought it was pretty well done and pretty to look at.

And by most sane measures, it was a bit of a step up from last week.

It just kind of washed over me.

Um, and like anything that washed so view was a bit wet.

But I don't know if that was the episode's fault or maybe it was my reaction was at fault.

I don't know.

It was pretty solid.

Yeah, I think there's a sort of simplicity to the show now, uh, and a sort of earnestness in its desire to kind of educate and and maybe to kind of set the historical record a bit straight.

[08:33]

And I think those 2 things are very good.

I can see that they're a reaction in a way to the Moffat era.

There are no celebrity historicals, as Sandifer points out, in the Capoldi era, I think, at all.

So, you know, it's sort of a new thing.

But in a sense, I don't know.

It's a little bit less wacky than I normally like my Doctor Who.

It's a little bit serious.

And, you know, I still thought it was great, but it's not sort of up there among my absolute favourites, I think.

Solid.

Solid.

Yeah, there's kind of a subdued tone, I think, to the Chris Chibnol era, and I think that's entirely by design.

And I applaud it sometimes.

I think something like demons of the Punjab works well because it pulls back rather than going over the top.

And this story, I think, does work well.

I'm struggling a little bit to explain my own reaction to it.

[09:37]

Well, let me just segue.

I mean, while we're talking about pulling back rather than going over the top.

How did we think Angeli Indra went today?

She's amazing.

I mean she's so good.

Apparently, Bradley Walsh did not recognise her.

Yes, I heard that as well.

Well, of course they guessed that.

He guest star, didn't he?

Yeah, her 1st episode.

Yeah.

To be fair, she was under a lot of makeup.

That's true And also a little known fact was that she only played the head and actually it was Tommy Knight playing the body.

Okay, fake news.

People said that she wasn't recognisable, but I thought that she was absolutely fabulously recognisable.

Oh, yeah. as well.

Well, and the other thing was her sort of South London accent as well.

She was, you know, the Derek Deadman kind of school of alien accents and I was absolutely on board for it.

[10:41]

It was just wonderful. absolutely.

And I thought she was a worthy follow-up to the Empress of the Ragnar.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Todd thinks that she's a sort of, you know, bargain basement version, you know, for the Empress of the Rachnos, you know, her non-union Mexican equivalent. or something.

But, but, but it's Sarah Parish, isn't it, that plays, is that right?

Yes, Empress, yes.

Yeah.

And she is doing a big, giant, ridiculous panto thing for people who are drunk and and, you know, falling asleep after sort of Christmas turkey.

This wasn't quite that.

But it was, it was big and it was, it was really fun.

And I loved the scorpions.

Yeah, me too.

And also, um, what Todd was saying there, if there's an argument to be made for bargain basement, I think the emperor spent more time hanging around basements.

Well, the Queen's got this great outfit.

Like, if you look at it, like, there's a car tire on her shoulder and spikes and stuff like that, she's like properly humanoid and stuff and her, her, her outfit is made of bits and pieces of things much like her technology.

[11:51]

I should think that...

Maybe she wasn't scorpion like enough.

Yeah, maybe you're right.

Um, if they could have easily sort of handwaved that away as, you know, like her way of cloaking device or that she's the queen, exactly.

Um, But maybe at least have sort of, you know, maybe her a bit, a bit more like her.

Her um, her subjects. is like that's the only criticism I have of that I thought she was brilliant.

She's such a great actress and.

Um, it was so lovely to see her back.

Yeah, yeah.

It's so nice to see her really sort of, you know, having fun with a role because did you watch the bodyguard?

No.

She plays a pivotal role in the 1st and last episodes of that and it's a deadly serious role and she's superb at it.

So just to see her kind of, you know, we know her from the Sarah Jane Adventures, where she was amazing, but it's fair to say there wasn't a huge range required, but it's so nice to see her as an actress now able to totally span that range.

[13:03]

Well, so that was a decade ago.

I guess it was, wasn't it?

Yeah, she was better than she was a child.

Well, she wasn't quite a child, but yeah, but she was a young up and coming actress.

I think, you know, like she's she's come a long way.

If you were a completely opposite, sort of, thing that she's been in recently.

She was in the, the, not the current, but the most recent season of DC's legends of tomorrow as a, as a shape shifting punk.

Oh wow.

And she was just fantastic.

She gives a devastating speech in one of the last few episodes of cucumber as well, where she kind of is really kind of horrible. fantastic in that.

So incredibly good.

Yeah.

No, I'm, I think she's, like, I'm not surprised that Russell asked her back and I'm not surprised that she's really taken off because she's really something.

[14:04]

She's just fantastic.

Yeah, we would do the cucumber banana and tofu podcast.

Oh, yeah.

And I guess so the last thing that we have to talk about is how do we feel that regulars did this week?

James.

Somebody pointed out on Twitter to to one of us.

I think it might have been you, uh, Nathan, uh, that.

If you, uh, they edited out all of, you know, all of the companions lines and it didn't distract anything from the episode.

Um because they, you know, all they really did was go, what's that?

Oh, what's going on here, doctor?

Like they didn't really have much to do.

I didn't think that's true.

I mean, I think that they were kind of interchangeable in a way, but I think that I think that's what they were getting at.

But I love that scene where Dorothy and Ryan talk about what it's like to be with Tesla and the doctor respectively.

[15:09]

I thought that was really, really good.

Oh, one of the best things.

That is great, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, both of them were great in it.

I thought they gave Yaz a stack to do.

And in fact, it was Graham this week.

He was sort of reduced to dad jokes and stuff like that.

And he got a few, like, you know, this era doesn't do humour, all that. well, I think.

But he did get some really funny, some properly funny lines or silly lines in that.

And there were just a one off few little comic touches that I saw him do that I just thought, yep, you're really a pro.

You kind of know what you're doing.

Well, that's that's the thing, like even...

And it's one of the good things about having him on the show is that even when you don't give him much to do, he still shines because he's a bloody good actor and has great comic timing.

It feels to me, like the writers know that Graham Bradley Walsh is, you know, the biggest bonus they have in the companions, and they've realised that Ryan and Yaz are a little bit underwritten.

[16:14]

And so they're taking pains to boost Ryan and Yaz a little bit more, and that means Graham's got to go into the background, but it's fine because even not doing much, the actor has so much charisma that you still feel his presence.

He can carry it. absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

How do we feel?

How do we feel Jody went?

I thought it was good performance.

Um, Do you know, I still, I still have a problem.

I'm just going to say it.

I still have a problem with her costume.

Um, it actually, especially in historical setting.

I have a little bit of trouble taking her seriously in that slightly weird made for cosplay ensemble that no one would choose to wear.

I think that, and Brendan said this as well, that it would have been nice to see her.

I just want to see her in a frock, frankly, but at least sort of for something more period would have been kind of nice.

I think that they probably are avoiding putting her in a dress, given the way that she dressed in Spy Fall, part one, but I am absolutely on board for the 1st time that she wears a fabulous frock.

[17:18]

Oh, well, dresser is a suffragette.

That would be awesome.

That would piss off, but not my doctor people.

Yeah, have Jody in a period costume, but flavoured by her normal costume. like the stripes or similar colours or something like that.

But there's something, I think, about the cut of that costume, um, that doesn't work in an historical. like Colin Baker's coat.

You think, why aren't these people back in history looking at it and saying, what are you wearing?

But no, Jody, Jody is, I think she's found defeat this year.

Yeah, I love you too.

Definitely.

All right.

Well, I think we might wind that up unless anyone has anything that they're desperately itching to say.

I have an itch, but I'm not desperate to say anything.

Okay, just keep it playing the cream.

Sorry.

All right.

Well, we might wind it up, but next week we have an episode whose use of a particular preposition is already irritating me.

[18:19]

But we will talk about that then.

But that looks really good.

There is a kind of sort of end of season promo thing floating around, which I think looks really exciting and perhaps we'll see things sort of kick up a notch in the back half of the season.

But we will be here next week to talk about that then.

Fabulous.

Fantastic.

So until next time, in series 18, celebrity historical, based on your life and work, may the part of you be played by Goran Visnich.

Thank you very much for listening and good night.

Good night.

Good night everyone.