Doctor Who Blog

Playtime’s Over

Soon to be appearing at conventions all across the land, the giant dolls from tonight’s creepy Doctor Who. A sort of Empty Child meets Fear Her meets Twilight Zone by way of Spielberg.

What did you think of Night Terrors? Let us know in the comments after turning the lights on and off five times. The TARDIS file is locked up in a cupboard, but we hope it will get out soon. UPDATE: It’s out of the cupboard. Go read it!

22 Comments...

Can’t say this one was my favourite. Probably can say this was my least favourite of the season. I do understand (like the pirates ep) that the run needed a less complex and standalone breather after a challenging two parter, but even still…
A group of five of us watched the episode together, and sadly it garnered five thumbs down reviews :(

Posted by Andrew  on  09/04  at  04:07 AM

I agree.  I definitely pumped this episode up in my head expecting it to be super scary.  While it was a bit weird to watch it alone, I didn’t really enjoy it much.  I adore River Song so much that now I don’t have the same attachment to any episode she isn’t in.

Posted by Amanda  on  09/04  at  10:46 AM

On the other hand, on this one evening, everybody lives! That should count for something…

Posted by Peajay  on  09/04  at  11:53 AM

Well - I guess I sort of have to agree with the others.  I reeeeeallly wanted to be super-scared by this episode (as I’ve always thought dolls were evil anyway), so I shut off all the lights and got ready to be creeped out.  But I wasn’t, at least not much.  Okay, not at all.

It wasn’t horrible by any means, and I have to give Gatiss kudos for the idea.  But more focus on being chased by dolls in the dollhouse/turning into dolls and less of the boy in his bedroom(who didn’t look scared at all most of the time) would’ve served this episode much better.

I dunno.  I’ll watch it again tonight or tomorrow and see if it amuses me more on the second viewing.

Posted by Julie  on  09/04  at  12:19 PM

If you think doctor who is rubbish you r the silliest people in the world, i can edmit that it might not have been the greatest episode in the world but it was good, people put there time and money into stuff like this you could at least give them a nice comment. But i got to say it really got you watching, best of all it kept my mother up all nightthinking my father would come and scare her in the night.  so you think doctor who is rubbish if that is what you think just don’t put a comment.

Posted by millicent saunders  on  09/05  at  08:29 AM

Millicent, I apologize, but the comments board is for posting what you thought of the episode - both negative and positive.  Nobody suggested that Doctor Who is rubbish, just that this episode was lacking.  That neither makes us the silliest people in the world, nor requires us to post only nice comments.  We all understand that people put time and money into it, but that didn’t stop the result from being sub-standard.

Posted by Andrew  on  09/05  at  11:57 AM

I thought it was great. I loved the design and the colours.

Posted by John  on  09/05  at  12:39 PM

Well said Andrew.

Posted by Julie  on  09/05  at  12:42 PM

All I can do is weep.  This one felt like it should have been part of “The Sarah Jane Adventures” but Liz Sladen’s has tragically passed away so that show is done. 
Childrens’ closets and the monster’s therein…. such ripe opportunities for genuine scares (think of Steven Speilberg’s “Poltergeist” and the toy clown coming to life). Instead we have Amy being turned into “a big dolly”.

:(

Posted by steve  on  09/05  at  01:35 PM

I loved the landlord going through the floor, and the episode was promising at the start.
As Peajay says everybody lives is nice for a change.  I bet that this episode won’t be the most watched on Space, like Let’s Kill Hitler.

Posted by Matthew  on  09/05  at  04:15 PM

Like so many of you, Night Terrors wasn’t my favourite episode. I personally felt that the story borrowed elements from Fear Her, The Empty Child and The Idiot’s Lantern and that in some ways it was too similar to something that’s been done before. I know that in some cases the writers are limited to what they come up with, but when there’s five years of episodes that are still fresh in viewers minds, you don’t necessary borrow from something we saw in 2007!

Saying that though, it did make a change for Amy to be the one in peril as opposed to Rory.

Posted by Rachel  on  09/05  at  05:04 PM

Did Anyone else notice at the end they showed a page for 3 sec.  that showed the Dr.‘s date of death on 22/11/2011.  That is Nov. 22, 2011.  Though I do like this Doctor, I hope it is only saying that on that date, not far from now,  He get transformed and not ENDED>

Posted by Tom Sawyer  on  09/05  at  05:49 PM

Tom: watch “The Impossible Astronaut” from the first half of this series.

Posted by Doug Grandy  on  09/06  at  06:27 AM

“That is Nov. 22, 2011.  Though I do like this Doctor, I hope it is only saying that on that date, not far from now,  He get transformed and not ENDED>”

Hmmm, very curious.  That also happens to be the day before the 48th anniversary of the programme. Its obviously not coincidental.  I wonder if that is when they will be doing the Children in Need event [although, if memory serves, I seem to recall that its slightly earlier in November, like November 15th or something….]

Maybe they’ve pushed it back to coincide with the Anniversary???? 

That said, I absolutely DO NOT like this Doctor, his antics, his childish buffoonery and this constant lip-glossing with River Song and her darn spoilers and “Hello Sweety’s”.

Oi…! 

I really DO hope he regenerates on November 22nd/2011. 

Dear BBC: Please bring us a cool/funky Doctor to usher in the 50th year of DOCTOR WHO.  A cool Doctor with modern attire like Christopher Eccleston!!!

steve

Posted by steve  on  09/06  at  07:22 AM

> I absolutely DO NOT like this Doctor,
> his antics, his childish buffoonery

I know! It’s almost as bad as Tom Baker!  However can we stand it?

smile

Posted by Andrew  on  09/06  at  02:42 PM

> I know! It’s almost as bad as Tom Baker!

Hmmm. Well the thing is, Tom Baker had a way of being silly in a way that absolutely worked for program.  He would flash them pearly whites in the face of certain destruction and its effect threw the enemy off kilter. 

There was something so completely perfect about TOM BAKER as a whole that just worked (for the show, for the times, everything). Its no wonder that his first 3 seasons raked in the series’ highest viewing figures.  Along with producer Phillip Hincliffe and writer Bob Holmes, Tom Baker is responsible for making show go international. 

His total perfection in capturing the “uncapturable” alien essence of the mysterious time traveller in a way that appealed to both adults and children—and this sent thrilling shockwaves through the UK and spilled over the all parts of the world.

That’s why if you ask a non-fan about Doctor Who, they will invariably say something along the lines of “Oh yeah, that’s the guy with the floppy hat, long scarf and curly hair…”

The importance of Tom Baker cannot be over-stated. His importance ranks as high as the creation of the Daleks back in 1963.

~ Steve

Posted by Steve  on  09/07  at  07:17 AM

Hi Steve,

I had actually just been making a joke.  But since you responded, it’s all a matter of taste.  The reality is…

I love Matt Smith.  I’m not keen on Tom Baker.

I realize that’s heresy (at least the Baker part) but as a seven year-old kid, I started with Jon Pertwee and after him, Baker was just annoying.  I’ve gained an appreciation for Tom Baker after 35 years, but it is what it is…

Posted by Andrew  on  09/07  at  09:40 AM

I’m sorry to disappoint Tom but the death date on the monitor of the TARDIS says “22/04/2011”, or 22nd April, 2011 more precisely. The day before “The Impossible Astronaut” aired in the UK, Canada and the US, to be even more precise…

Posted by Graeme  on  09/09  at  09:49 AM

Wow. What a waste of a genuinely terrifying-looking monster.

Do you think this Doctor’s going to square-off against a tangible villain who’s actually got an agenda - like, ever? It seems like ages since we’ve had a baddie that wasn’t a poorly-defined, nebulous concept, or worse - “generally-decent-but-tragically-misunderstood.” One of the reasons I’ve never warmed up to Matt Smith is that his Doctor simply hasn’t been facing anything remotely resembling a nemesis, or thwarted any cunning plans. Of course, that would require the episodes to actually have plots, instead of being a collection of set pieces that are judged solely on the extent to which they contribute to the arc.

Posted by Brett  on  09/10  at  10:10 AM

These dolls were CREEPPYYY D: But again AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Elena  on  12/01  at  06:03 PM

Anything that takes place almost entirely in the dark is enough to make me a nervous wreck. Add in the dolls with holes for eyes—it was definitely a scary episode for me. I think that’s the creepiest thing—something with empty or staring, fixed eyes, like the cybermen or the Weeping Angels. The way nowadays intricate make-up & prosthetics allows very human eyes to show through on creatures like the Silurians makes them much less frightening than monsters in the old ‘rubber mask’ days.
Absolutely brilliant job conveying terror by the kid playing George, with hardly a word spoken. It was all in the eyes, the tense look of paralysing fear, and, most of all the, the hitched, quickened breathing.

Posted by Gail  on  12/07  at  10:54 AM

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Posted by Bennie Alamin  on  11/16  at  10:43 AM

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