Night Terrors (TV story)

Night Terrors was the ninth episode in the sixth series of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
The Doctor receives a distress call from the scariest place in the Universe: a child’s bedroom. Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear imaginable – fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate – George needs a doctor. Fortunately for George, his pleas for help break through the barriers of all time and space and the Doctor makes a house call. But allaying his fears won’t be easy. George’s monsters are real.

Plot
In an apartment block, a child named George is terrified of everything. When his mother, Claire, says goodnight before she goes to work, George makes her turn the light on and off five times to keep the monsters away. When she leaves, George starts chanting "Please save me from the monsters" over and over. Through the crack in his bedroom door, he can see and hear his mother talking to his father, Alex. They may need to send George to specialist to have him evaluated. In the TARDIS at the other side of the universe, the Eleventh Doctor gets George's message on his psychic paper and decides to make a house call on little George.

When they arrive, Amy, Rory and he split up to look for a scared child. Each visits a different apartment: the Doctor talks to the elderly Mrs Rossiter; Rory talks to the landlord, Jim Purcell; and Amy meets twin girls and their mother. All of them are suspicious of the strangers and slam the doors in their faces. The Doctor spots George looking out of his window and knocks on his apartment door, calling for Amy and Rory to join him. He is greeted by George's father, who mistakes the Doctor for a person sent from Child Services. The Doctor was planning on using a different lie with his Psychic Paper, but decides to go ahead and use the one given to him and changes what the paper says, letting himself in.

In the meantime, Amy and Rory get in a lift to join the Doctor, but the sound of the lift scares George, who chants "save me from the monsters" as the elevator plummets at high speed with Amy and Rory screaming for their lives. Once the elevator gets to the ground, they are no longer in it. They end up in an unusual house, where Rory suspects they have died (again). However, Amy proves they are still alive and they look around; Rory suspects is from the 1700s until they find a lantern with a lightbulb inside it with a switch. They also find a wooden pan that is painted to look like copper.

The Doctor asks George's father, Alex, about George's fears. Alex says George is "scared to death of everything". Alex and Claire created a tradition with George - anything that scares him, they put in the cupboard. The Doctor meets George, who asks if he came to take him away, The Doctor is confused by this and answers that he is not. Per the Doctor's suggestion, they prepare to open George's closet, but the landlord arrives and starts hectoring Alex about his rent. George watches from his room, becoming scared of the landlord and his dog. The Doctor tries to comfort George by activating all his toys with sonic screwdriver. Once George calms down, the Doctor scans George's cupboard for "monsters". Much to his surprise and horror, the sonic's readings tell him whatever is inside is off the scale. Alex comes back in and reaches for the cupboard - the Doctor stops him, saying "George's monsters are real".

Elsewhere, Amy and Rory are still exploring the strange house. They hear a sinister giggling coming from a near by closet. Their fears are allayed when they see the cupboard contains only a human-sized wooden doll. They leave to resume looking for a way out. However, when they're out of the room, the doll comes to life and slowly follows after them.

Back in the apartment, the Doctor tells Alex who he is and convinces him of the truth. They argue whether to open the cupboard because of the danger that may be posed by whatever's inside it. At the same time, Purcell is sucked through the carpet of his living room as George remembers him and becomes afraid. He arrives in the house with Rory and Amy. He is caught by the dolls and turned into one of them in front of Amy and Rory. The Doctor opens George's cupboard. He finds nothing inside but some clothes and a dollhouse.

Amy and Rory try to escape the dolls though well-thought-up plans, but Amy is caught and made into a doll in front of Rory. Horrified of what has happened to his wife, Rory continues running away from the dolls. In the flat, the Doctor knows he's missing something and examines a photo album of Alex and Claire. Claire is not pregnant in a photo taken only weeks before George was born. Pressured by the Doctor, Alex shouts that Claire can't have kids, then looks confused; he just remembered that. Both turn to look at Alex's "son", and the Doctor asks, "What are you, George?" Suddenly, a light flashes from the cupboard and the doors swing open with light coming form the dollhouse. The Doctor and Alex try to keep out of the cupboard but the pull becomes stronger as George chants "Please save me from the monsters". Despite his attempts to have George understand he means him no harm, the Doctor is pulled into the cupboard with Alex.

Inside the cupboard, the Doctor realises that they are in George's dollhouse due to the lights flickering in a pattern of five. Alex is shocked by this and continues asking the Doctor more about what is happening. They are chased by dolls and forced up a flight of stairs. The Doctor bumps into Rory and asks where Amy is. Frightened and sad, Rory anxiously points to a red-haired doll approaching from behind him. As everyone holds off the dolls with parts of the house, the Doctor realises that George is a Tenza - aliens that hatch in space, then assimilate themselves to their foster parents' needs. George saw Claire's longing for a child, so took the shape of a human boy and placed a perception filter to fool his parents. The Doctor yells out to George that he needs to face his fears or they'll be nothing left of them. A very scared George steps into his cupboard.

In the dollhouse, George appears. The dolls stop focusing on the Doctor, Alex, and Rory and start surrounding George. The Doctor asks Alex what could have caused him to become so afraid and Alex explains that they wanted to send him to a specialist about his fears. The Doctor explains George misunderstood this as a rejection of him being their son and encourages Alex to tell George he was wrong. Pushing his ways through the dolls, Alex tearfully hugs his son and and promises to never send him away. All the dolls stop moving.

Everyone that was taken into the dollhouse awakens where they were taken from the next morning. Amy and Rory emerge from the elevator on George's floor and Amy is confused as to what happened. Rory assures her that everything that she thinks happened in the doll house was real.

Back in the apartment, Claire arrives home and is surprised to see her son happy and well. The Doctor commends Alex for his actions, explaining George will grow up as a normal boy; puberty, on the other hand, is when he might need help. The Doctor meets up with Amy and Rory and head back into the TARDIS. The creepy nursery rhyme the dolls had been chanting continues: "Tick tock goes the clock, even for the Doctor" as the time and place of the Doctor's death flash up on the screen.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * Alex - Daniel Mays
 * George - Jamie Oram
 * Claire - Emma Cunniffe
 * Jim Purcell - Andrew Tiernan
 * Elsie Rossiter - Leila Hoffman
 * Julie - Sophie Cosson

The Doctor

 * The Doctor mentions three of his favourite bedtime stories as a child: The Three Little Sontarans, The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes and Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday.

Foods and beverages from the real world

 * The Doctor and Alex drink tea.
 * The Doctor asks for Jammie Dodgers.

Species

 * George is a Tenza. He is able to match himself to people's needs and create perception filters.

Television series from the real world

 * Rory mentions EastEnders.
 * Bergerac was one of the channels Purcell briefly views whilst channel surfing.

Story notes

 * This episode had the working titles: House Call, (The Doctor notes that he doesn't often make house calls) and What are Little Boys Made of? (a play on the Star Trek episode What are Little Girls Made Of?).
 * This was originally going to be the fourth episode of the series, but was moved to the second half as Steven Moffat felt that the first half was "too dark". This necessitated minor changes to the episode. A scene with Madame Kovarian was removed, and the ending with the data file from Let's Kill Hitler was added. (This means Karen Gillan, when she filmed the episode, was in fact performing as the Ganger version of Amy.)
 * The scene where the Doctor and Alex are being sucked into the cupboard is very similar to the movie Poltergeist where the daughter is sucked into the spirit realm through her bedroom cupboard.
 * When Alex is looking at pictures, an announcer from the television can be heard. She says that he is watching BBC One on Saturday night, the same channel and day Doctor Who is on.
 * One of the children's stories the Doctor mentions, Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, shares its title with a story in the then-recently published Doctor Who The Official Annual 2012. Had Night Terrors aired as originally planned in the first half of the season, the story would have been published afterwards (suggesting a probable tie-in with the episode).

Ratings

 * UK Overnight: 5.5 million
 * UK Final: 7.07 million

Myths

 * Amy will be turned into a doll. This was proven true.

Filming locations

 * Dyrham House, Bristol

Production errors
to be added

Continuity

 * Inside the dollhouse, Rory initially thinks he and Amy are "dead again". (DW: Amy's Choice, Cold Blood, The Pandorica Opens) He also believes at one point that the TARDIS is altering time and space again. (DW: The Doctor's Wife)
 * The Doctor asks for a Jammie Dodger. (DW: Victory of the Daleks, The Impossible Astronaut)
 * When the Doctor and Alex wake up in the Doll House, Alex wonders how it can be bigger on the inside. The Doctor says "More common than you'd think, actually" referring to the TARDIS.
 * When the Doctor explains to Alex that George is using a perception filter, he stops in the hallway to look in a mirror and makes the same face he did when he first saw his reflection in DW: The Vampires of Venice.
 * The Doctor performs his odd greeting kiss with Claire. (DW: The Lodger)
 * The sonic screwdriver doesn't work on wood. (DW: Silence in the Library, The Hungry Earth, The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * The information of the Doctor's death is shown (DW: Let's Kill Hitler) and the story arc involving his death is continued with the Peg Dolls' nursery rhyme.
 * The Eighth Doctor was previously turned into a doll by the Celestial Toymaker in a manner similar to Amy. (CC: Solitaire)
 * The Doctor again shows a connection to and concern for children. (DW: The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Hungry Earth, A Christmas Carol, The Impossible Astronaut, The Curse of the Black Spot).
 * The Doctor asks if there are any jelly babies he can have.
 * The Doctor mentions the titles of children's tales from Gallifrey: "The Three Little Sontarans"; "The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes" and "Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday". The last title marks the first acknowledgment in televised canon of the events of the 1970s stage play SP: Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after: DW: Let's Kill Hitler
 * This story occurs before: DW: The Girl Who Waited

Home video releases
This episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the airing of episode thirteen.