Rate & Discuss: Night Terrors
Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear you can possibly imagine – fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate – George needs a doctor.
Series 6 continues with the Doctor, Amy and Rory encountering the terrifying Peg Dolls…
Suffice to say, the Doctor’s visited some pretty scary places across his travels (it comes with the job!), but we all know that the deadliest of terrors always seemingly lie in wait in the most ordinary places, and that theory was definitely proven right in tonight’s visit to the TARDIS, with poor George living in fear of the monsters dwelling in his cupboard…
Of course, this is Doctor Who after all, so, naturally, it was far from being simply part of George’s imagination. Luckily for him, though, his desperate pleas were picked up by a certain Time Lord, who then broke through the barriers of time and space to make it all better. Or worse. Much worse. If you ever had any doubts, know that monsters are real!
Night Terrors was brought to us by Mark Gatiss, who is no stranger to the series (both on and off screen), but what did you think of his latest contribution? Will you be sleeping with one eye open tonight, or did it fail to scare you? Share your thoughts with us below!
First thoughts?……..”Fear Her”
In both episodes, an alien from space comes to Earth. In Fear Her, the alien inhabits the girl whilst in Night Terrors, it becomes a little boy. In Fear Her, the girl is scared of the voice of her Father from the walk-in wardrobe, whilst in Night Terrors, the boy is scared of the cupboard.
The alien in Fear Her needed Chloe Webber, the alien in Night Terrors needed parents.
All of the aside, it wasn’t a bad episode and the similarities to Fear Her didn’t ruin it, but it was noticeable.
I don’t know what else to say about this episode at the moment, need more time to think.
Was expecting more from this but it just didn’t do it for me. I thought I was gonna get freaked out by this episode but there was suppose to be a big twist at the end but really there wasn’t one at all other than showing the Doctor’s death. An ok episode but not great.
@JC
It was a million times better than that tripe Fear Her!
Fantastic episode, one of the best of series six so far by a long way. Just wonderful, creepy, funny, looked amazing, great performances – fantastic.
@TWWL
I’ve pointed out the similarities, you attack me if you wish, there they are, black and white
@JC
Touchy, there was no ‘attack’, just saying I thought Fear Her was woeful. Obvously there are links between the two.
@TWWL
People have different opinions and you have to respect that opinion that JC made whether you disagree with him or not.
Not touchy, so much as had a really bad day. My apologies
Best episode so far very scary. creepy dolls work very well can’t wait to see how series will end with doctor death and river saga. I feel this series is best I seen well done to writers. Keep up with good work guys
I have to say that i am very dissapointed at that episode i was looking forward to the dolls being creepy and they were far from it in my honest opinion and i expected more from mr Gatiss.
Deeply disappointing, kept waiting for that special something to happen which never did. 5/10 for me.
@shots1
That’s exactly how i felt especially with how brilliant mark gatiss’ past episodes were.
Disappointing. I thought it could have been much more creepy and scary but the camera work was a bit shoddy. It ended up being not scary, and just like a filler episode. I don’t like “filler” episodes.
A fantastic episode!! It was deffo the best since The Doctor’s Wife. Series 6 has been very disappointing so far (IMO)but this made up for it. I agree with @JC though that it was very similar in style to Fear Her. Actually I thought it was what would have been Fear Her if FH had more of a budget.
I just feel that the story was a very basic one- which is good to have a basic episode after the complixities of the last 3 or 4 episodes
Very scary and I feel it was Mark Gatiss’ best scripts…deffo makes up for the awful Dalek episode.
Solid but not spectacular,. However, I suspect it might reward repeat viewing.
Fear Her immediately came to mind, but Night Terrors was far better. That being said, I guess I’m now too old to be genuinely scared by Doctor Who (Blink remains THE creepiest episode of the revived series). I don’t really know what to say about the episode right now, I need to watch it again.
This episode was set to be transmitted during the first half of Series 6, and it was noticeable, with not a single mention to the main plot. The final scene was too short to make the impact it should have made, especially when you know it wasn’t originally planned for the episode.
As a standalone story it was OK, but it could have been creepier and more powerful, more emotional, I think. For instance, [SPOILERS !] when Amy becomes one of the Dolls, we hardly see any aftermath for Rory or for the Doctor (of course they’re shocked, but that’s all). The guest characters aren’t fleshed out enough, it’s hard to care for them.
Anyway, we’re far from memorable episodes (my opinion of course) like Blink, Fires of Pompeii, Father’s Day or Amy’s Choice. But an OK Doctor Who episode is often better than pretty much everyting on television nowadays.
I rather enjoyed tonight’s episode… it was good to have a stand-alone episode for a change.
I know I will be shot down for saying this, but I imagine the overnight ratings won’t be great tonight, what with “Red or Black” on what is rapidly becoming the Simon Cowell channel. Still, as many of you say, it is the overall BARB figure that counts.
I love Mark Gatiss, I just wish I could love his stories too. He started off brilliantly with Unquiet Dead and has got worse with each story since. I tried so hard to like it, but just didn’t find it very engaging. And not at all scary. Just confusing and dull.
Rory and Amy are acting strangely – not reacting enough when they get dumped out of the lift, just sitting there on the brick wall. Then the Doctor says “in the flesh”, so is there going to be another revelation like Amy’s?
And then what was that mention of the three wishes? Multiple universes? I feel like this episode was chock full of little hints, even if it wasn’t the best plotwise.
Have to agree with Rassilon’s Rod comment above. “The Unquiet Dead” is one of my favorites of the new era. But yes, each Gatiss written story since has gotten worse. What is most amazingly awful about “Night Terrors” (other than sharing a title with an equally awful episode of “Star Trek – The Next Generation) is that this episode is basically a retelling of “Fear Her”. Of all stories that most certainly didn’t need a retelling!
Matt Smith was great and did the most he could with the material he was given. Amy and Rory could have been completely removed from the script for all that they did do. A big problem with stories involving a small child is a whole lot is riding on that child being played by a good actor. Unfortunately, the little boy playing the part was not a good actor.
I’ve read the thoughts of others and see that many enjoyed the episode. What I didn’t like most, was that it was a retelling of another poor episode, and took away 45 minutes from another wonderful story that’s out there somewhere.
The basic concept of this was reminiscent of ‘Fear Her’ I agree. But ‘Night Terrors’ was a much better episode. Not brilliant but not bad either.
Overall, it was fairly eerie, but the sight of Daniel Mays prodding huge scary looking dolls with a giant pair of toy scissors is the funniest thing I’ve saw for a long time.