Foggy on Doctor Who - Night Terrors

Again, expect spoilers as I dig into Night Terrors



Night Terrors seems a bit like an episode featuring Deja Vu, since it has a sort of parallel plot to an episode in Series 2 of the re-vamp called Fear Her, in which a little girl is scared of something hiding in her closet, swap girl for boy and closet to cupboard and boom, Night Terrors.

Well that's the very very slight look at it. Night Terrors is deeper and scarier than Fear Her.

Night Terrors plays on the mundane things that scare children in real life, a dull sound of the lift could manifest itself  like roaring blood thirsty creature to the wide imagination of a young kid. And obviously the detachment parents feel to kids with their babyish fears, telling them that it's not real, and hiding whatever it is away.

But clearly it is real, after all, what's more factual than a show about a time traveling alien who is a thousand years old and goes on adventures on multiple planets and time periods.

The first thing that will hit you, easily, is how stunning the episode is, clearly shot on a lower budget that most of the episodes feature thus far, the cinematography is both well crafted and stylised. Set on a council estate (which is quickly becoming a regular place for various horrors following from Attack the Block), the episode uses the camera to peak behind corners or through the cracks of doors, creating a detachment the father figure feels about his son, which is further strained as the episode goes on. However the episode gets even more creepy as it lands Rory and Amy to a strange place (P.S. if you can't work it out by the first clue they give you, you simply have a lack of brain cells) where small doll like creatures follow them through the shadows, chanting the typical get under you skin child's song.

It's simply brilliant example of how less is more. The monster of the week is nothing complex, just a hollow creepy walking doll, the setting is basically one council estate and one dolls house, and it does more than anything I felt they did on a huge Pirate Ship, a spaceship filled full of headless monks and colonial marines and 1940's Berlin. Just simply good ideas combined with a well written script, and good talent behind the camera to create a great episode overall.

However, it isn't perfect. The first complaint being acting wise. Most the acting is typical great, with the father, Adam, having particularly good chemistry with Matt Smith in the short amount of time they have together. My main complaint is with the young kid, for the most part he's ok, acting like a typical act like your scared way. But early on, in one of the scene, which becomes pivotal latter on, we find out the kids main fear is to be taken away and his parents to reject him. When he first meets The Doctor the first thing he asks is "Are you going to take me away?". But the way he asks it, he has a huge smile on his face, I'm not kidding. Now either they had to wrap up really quickly the day they shot that scene, or they were being sneaky by original making you feel like he wants to be taken away (which doesn't work well when you flashback to the scene to make a point), but that just seemed really awful to include.

After that little nitpick, along with a few others like the usual sorts of things cropping up in a Doctor Who episode (some, key word being SOME, of the CGI was bad, like the man being sucked into the carpet, and some (less as funny as last series) cruelty to old people). (Which reminds me, when is the Dream Lord cropping back up). The main complaint with the episode comes down to Rory and Amy, they are given very little to do with the episode, as they walk around aimlessly doing nothing but eluding to nothing more than getting some of the plot worked out before The Doctor comes down to stop it. As I mentioned before, it's pretty clear where they are from the moment we are shown the wooden frying pan, so the whole time they come up on screen, the episode gets bogged down, although they are fun to watch, they're not given a lot to do. Plus why would an 8 year old boy have a dollhouse, especially one so old fashioned in such a rural area as a council estate.

As the episode ends, one line got me worried as to the final conclusion of the series, and I know this is getting caught up on superstitions, but it's worth mentioning before I conclude. The line was "it's good to be back together, in the flesh", I really don't want the final reveal to be that The Doctor is a part of the Flesh when he is shot dead, it would be such a cop out, considering it's been done twice so far this series alone.

But, Night Terrors...

What a brilliant episode, and although it has it's slow moments, it's actually far more welcome than the typical episode, the pacing is actual a relief for the most part, after the rush of last weeks episode, that ran 5 mins more than a proper run time. There are only a few moments I felt that this could do with a speed boost. It also proves to be the best looking episode so far, with plenty of scary going around. Next weeks episode looks to be the slight dip in quality that is expected of the series, although I hope I'm wrong as it seems there is plenty of potential.

8/10