Over the weekend, I picked up a few little decor bits and pieces for my office, simple things. One of which is just a very nice art piece of that giraffe scene from The Last of Us. A scene in a game that really does everything it is supposed to, it is a beautiful little moment. I also got something else, this one for my desk, which has evolved me into my ultimate form: Craig Ferguson. Did I buy a little (11 inches tall) blue box? Yes, I did, and now I have a slightly battered Tenth Doctor’s T.A.R.D.I.S. sitting in the corner of my desk that I can just look over at a few times… a minute.

Anyway, between that and Big Finish this week, that’s the only good Doctor Who I’m going to talk about. It just had to be the peg doll episode, the very dull “let’s horrify children with something innocent turned horrific” because no one seems to understand an adventure show can be about adventure. Look, I get that part of Doctor Who‘s history is sending children running behind the sofa terrified. However, that’s when you were six, TVs were still in Black and White, and the Daleks were made on the budget of about five pounds. Now you are fifty-seven and have a mortgage. Times have changed.

My point with that hypothetical Who fan, some of whom I’ve met, is simply that the device to put kids behind the sofa now is the typical jump-scare nonsense. Add a tiny bit of blood and you’ve got any TV Horror film, and that’s my problem. It is the cheap version of all horror: jump-scares, sped up the footage to show something “ate” someone, innocence turned corrupt, and someone has been going about with a baseball bat smashing out all the lightbulbs. So, of course, it is the trope of being as dim as a reality TV star.

I mean, until the halfway point it is mostly, “Oh my, aren’t council estates and Post-war architecture for mass housing in a city just the worst, filled with horrible and scary poor people?” I won’t say it is something to hold Gatiss in particular to, but it is a rather trite and classist story overdone in British film and TV. Daniel Mays as Alex is perfect casting for a tired and rough-looking early to mid-30s dad in such a setting. Make sure he doesn’t shave two days before, put a non-descript T-shirt on him, give him a pair of jeans, and boom! You have a laid-off dad trying to get by with his son that’s having his own troubles.

That claustrophobic environment. Which we’ve seen with past (and future) companions, of those enclosed stairwells, landings leading to elevators, and small dark walkways past small homes. It is just done in such a grim and unpleasant way until we get to the big twist that is about as signposted as Stirling Point, New Zealand. There was just a time in the early to mid-2010s where every down on their luck couple in film and TV had trouble having kids, wasn’t there? Anyway, back to the blocky and unpleasant housing: Rose and Jackie’s flat wasn’t as unwelcoming, and neither is Clara’s when Eleven comes for Christmas in the scud.

I’ll get to Mark Gatiss’ writing in a minute, but I have to say, little George isn’t all that great. I get it, Jamie Oram (the actor playing him) couldn’t have all the experience of, say, Tom Hanks or Patrick Stewart. Nonetheless, clearly he was just told to stand/sit there and look into the distance with an absent mind. That’s not to critique the very young actor alone, that’s a problem with the script giving him nothing and director Richard Clark giving what feels like no proper direction. The way “Night Terrors” goes, it makes his performance something to highlight.

Shock among shocks, George is an alien and he’s the one causing all the bother. Whether he knows it or not, the entire story falls flat when it looks like George has the story happening around him rather than because of him. This is ultimately the crux of it all coming together has to make me believe George is the one causing all the strife when he looks as blank as a bit of psychic paper. If he held that kind of expression around a medical doctor long enough, he’d get switched off.

See, I don’t mind that it lacks the arc-heavy story throughout. I like a good break away from Moffat’s nonsense. However, there is nothing here that I couldn’t get from a middle of the week drama about some supernatural kid, or anything else. Maybe I have the privilege of time and distance from its first airing to say this, but the visual style and direction isn’t that interesting. Yes, the Dolls being rather simplistic and large makes them unsettling. Since then we’ve seen 2014’s Annabelle and its sequels; effectively a spin-off of Chucky. Arguably, they are too uncomplicated to feel like much of a threat.

I don’t want to say the writing is uninspired, but from this position, it lacks something to set it apart. There was no point where I’m pointing at the screen yelling “Yes!” for the sheer brilliance on display, there is none of that. When we were leading up to “The Idiot’s Lantern,” oh we were young back then, I wasn’t all too excited for it. However, that feeling turned around once seeing it again. For all the grimness, it had fun moments, and ultimately “Victory of the Daleks” was just a collection of fun moments after another. “Night Terrors” is about as fun and enjoyable as watching food turn moldy and disgusting.

Any frivolity is undercut with the color brown and slight desaturation on everything, highlighted by the lack of anything bright and exciting to look at. The most memorable thing throughout the whole thing is some simple dolls, with very little else making it stick in your memory. Everyone that I know references this one as “that peg doll episode” for a reason, it lacks something standing out.

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Doctor Who "Night Terrors"

5.5

Score

5.5/10

Pros

• Daniel Mays' perfectly cast as Alex.
• Darvill and Gilan giving everything to what little they have.

Cons

• Bland horror.
• Trope heavy.
• Lacking something interesting.