Nightvisiting (TV story)

Nightvisiting was the third episode of Class. It was written by Patrick Ness, directed by Ed Bazalgette and featured Greg Austin as Charlie Smith, Fady Elsayed as Ram Singh, Sophie Hopkins as April MacLean, Vivian Oparah as Tanya Adeola and Katherine Kelly as Miss Quill.

It featured the first onscreen appearance of Tanya's brothers and her father, Jasper.

Synopsis
London is infiltrated by an eerie alien with the ability to morph into the shape of lost loved ones.

Tanya has an unexpected visitor come to her window in the dead of night — and she's not the only one, as Ram and Miss Quill face their own startling visitors.

Confronted with these emotional encounters, the team must overcome the persuasion of this strange new threat and battle through the streets to stop Tanya from being lost forever.

Plot
On the two-year anniversary of Tanya's father's death, she is visited by a creature resembling him in her bedroom. Although at first doubting that it is really occurring (believing she is hallucinating), the creature seems to have legitimate memories of their time together and appears to be real. The creature attempts to persuade her to take his hand, which he claims will relieve her of her grief.

Meanwhile, Miss Quill is visited by a similar creature which claims to be her sister. Although Quill is sceptical of this, the creature offers her a gun and states that taking it will allow her to use weapons once again. At the same time, Charlie and Matteusz have sex and confess their love for one another.

Ram also receives a "nightvisit" from his late girlfriend Rachel while video calling with April. Both Ram and April leave their houses in fear and meet outside. While trying to work out what the "nightvisits" are, April reveals that her father attempted to kill himself by driving his car off a bridge when she was 8, while both her and her mother were in the car (which is what caused her mother's paralysis).

The creature with Quill eventually reveals that the "nightvisitors" are an organism called the Lankin that feasts on the grief of people and kills them in the process. Quill destroys her branch of the Lankin by making Charlie stab it with a screwdriver. She then claims that she knew the Lankin was a fake from the beginning, as "no one insults the memory of [her] sister by making her nice." Quill, Charlie and Matteusz then decide to help the others defeat the Lankin.

Ram and April find a series of tentacles stretching across London that they believe to be the Lankin leading out of Coal Hill and they notice that one tentacle is leading to Tanya's flat. They follow it to attempt to warn her.

Meanwhile, Tanya is still struggling to believe that the Lankin is her father. As time passes, the Lankin appears to become more aggressive and forceful, which only strengthens Tanya's belief that he is not real. Ram and April arrive and warn her not to take the Lankin's hand. Tanya seemingly ignores them and grasps the Lankin. However, the Lankin is unable to feed off her grief as she feels more anger towards her father for leaving her than she does grief for losing him. Eventually, the Lankin is poisoned by Tanya's anger but not weakened enough.

To destroy the Lankin threat, Quill steals a bus and rams the tentacles, breaking them and causing the Lankin to withdraw back into the Rift. Charlie announces that Matteusz will be living with him and Quill, and April and Ram bond over the time they have spent together.

Cast

 * Miss Quill - Katherine Kelly
 * Charlie - Greg Austin
 * Ram - Fady Elsayed
 * April - Sophie Hopkins
 * Tanya - Vivian Oparah
 * Matteusz - Jordan Renzo
 * Jasper - Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
 * Vivian - Natasha Gordon
 * Orla'ath - Anastasia Hille
 * Rachel - Anna Shaffer
 * Man - Andrew Frame
 * Old Woman - Janie Booth

Coal Hill School

 * In a flashback, Tanya receives a letter from Coal Hill School, signed by Frank Armitage and dated 19 July 2013, accepting her request to be moved up three years. Mr Armitage invites Tanya and a parent or guardian to join him and Ms Brownlee in a meeting to discuss arrangements further.
 * In the letter, Coal Hill is further confirmed to have an address on Foreman Street in Shoreditch.
 * coalhillschool.sch.uk and info@chs.sch.uk is Coal Hill School's website and email address, respectively. 0207 946 0055 is the school's telephone number.

People

 * In the acceptance letter from Coal Hill School, Tanya's address is revealed to be Flat 15 at Clarendon House, St James's Place, London.
 * Matteusz's parents threw him out of their house. His mother almost accepted him liking boys, but his father was too stubborn.
 * Miss Quill had a sister called Orla'ath.
 * In shock of seeing Rachel, April exclaims "Holy Mother of Kanye", in reference to Kanye West.
 * The image of Jasper said Tanya's grief was like a Siren song.
 * The image of Orla'ath says that the Lankin bring the souls of the dead to Heaven. Miss Quill says it sounds like Hell.
 * Matteusz confesses that he loves Charlie.
 * Orla'ath and Andra'ath tried to kill each other in the nest. A way of knowing who is strongest.
 * Jasper and Tanya once watched the Regimental Horses in Hyde Park.
 * April says that after the incident in her father's car, people treated her and her mum like glass figurines.
 * Charlie sees a near-image of his parents. Matteusz asks if that often happened during sex.
 * When Tanya tells the image of Jasper that her dad used to be a policeman and her mum used to worry about his work shifts and that he maybe wouldn't come home, the image said it's not America, implying police work is more dangerous there.

Species

 * The Lankin can't be cut. If cut, they just grow back together.
 * Miss Quill compares the Lankin to chameleons.

Anatomy and physiology

 * When Charlie hesitates on stabbing the Lankin image, Quill sarcastically asks if he thinks the Lankin root on the back of the image of Orla'ath is just "really bad phlegm".

Technology

 * Ram attempts to call Tanya on Chat. He later calls April.
 * Ram attempts to phone his dad.
 * Charlie's computer is an iMac.
 * The Lankin create an image of Miss Quill's displacement gun.
 * Miss Quill steals a double decker bus going to Clerkenwell Road, Hackney, Oxford Circus, from Ensign Company LTD., Juliette Close, Purfleet Ind. Park, Purfleet, Essex, RM15 4YF.
 * The Adeolas own an Xbox.

Food and beverages

 * Bottles of Fanta, Pepsi, Schweppes and Dr Pepper, as well as a KitKat stand, can be seen in the shop which Ram enters.
 * At a family dinner in one of the flashbacks, Tanya is drinking apple juice, and Jasper is trying to serve her salad.
 * On the morning of the Adeolas' visit to Jasper's grave, Tanya is eating cornflakes.

Popular culture

 * Miss Quill reads The Hunger Games. She wonders whether the events depicted really happened.
 * Tanya and her brothers play the video game Destiny.
 * Charlie refers to the show Take Me Out as an example of the human sense of humour.

Music

 * April plays "Night Visiting" on her violin.
 * April also owns a keyboard.

Sport

 * Ram attempts to keep his football in the air.

Businesses

 * An advert for Princes' Housing is presented on the bus stop where April talks to Ram about her troubles. The advert mentions Princes' Housing's website, princeshousing.com, and their phone number, 020 1108 70007.
 * Wessex House is mentioned on the same advert.
 * The bus stop informs that the buses to Clapham JCN, Aldgate STN and London Bridge were delayed.

Story notes

 * The song "Nightvisitor", heard during the flashback on Jasper Adeola, was specially adapted by Jim Moray from "Nightvisiting", an earlier song of his, for Class. He released the song as a single on 29 October 2016, the same day on which Nightvisiting was broadcast. With this episode, Jim Moray also becomes the first person to receive an on-screen credit for writing and performing an original song.

Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * Ram is still trying to regain his football skills, after losing his leg to Corakinus. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die, TV: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)
 * The Lankin appears to Ram in the form of Rachel Chapman, whose death he witnessed very recently. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Orla'ath makes reference to the cracks in the skin of the universe. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, et al.)
 * The image of Orla'ath mentions the Shadow Kin attack on Rhodia. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * The kiosk appears. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Ram mentions that alien shadows and alien tattoos could kill him. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die, The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)
 * The Lankin creates an image of the displacement gun. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Miss Quill reminds Charlie that she can't use weapons. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * Matteusz's parents have not been able to accept his sexual orientation or his relationship with Charlie. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die)
 * When Miss Quill compares the Lankin to chameleons, the image of Orla'ath believes she is talking about a humanoid species. The Doctor has encountered a species called the Chameleons. (TV: The Faceless Ones, PROSE: Face Value)
 * The Doctor has also encountered an alien entity who took on the forms of loved ones. (PROSE: Nightshade)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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