Investigating a strange energy reading brings the Doctor and her companions in contact with Nikola Tesla…

This was probably the most traditional episode of Doctor Who we’ve had in a very long time. Nina Metivier’s script gave us a beginning, a middle and an end, with action sequences, new aliens (I did wonder if they were going to be the Racnoss on their first reveal), and a couple of great turns as historical figures, with Goran Visnjic and Robert Glennister’s Tesla and Edison allowed to be much more than caricatured versions of “how history remembers them”. There wasn’t loads of complicated continuity or arcs being serviced – not that those things don’t have their place – but a straightforward threat to the Earth which encompassed genuine historical figures, and educated us about them (and from some of the accounts now surfacing online, pretty accurately too).

Director Nida Manzoor brought some interesting touches to the episode, and the filming inside the TARDIS interior was handled very well. The sequences with Yaz and Tesla were nicely pitched, and the only downside was this proving once again that three companions really is one too many. Anjli Mohindra was buried beneath layers of makeup as the Queen but kept the performance reined in enough to avoid it becoming too over the top (although it was a close run thing at times!)

Verdict: One of the best standalone episodes in a long time. Definitely more like this please. 9/10

Paul Simpson