Night Terrors was originally scheduled to air as the second episode of season six, but moved to a later date as the stories surrounding it were considered too similar. This partly explains why there's no mention of the events of the previous episode, Let's Kill Hitler (still a hell of a title), where Amy and Rory discovered that their kidnapped daughter had grown up to be River Song and was on a mission to kill the Doctor. Considering the plot of Night Terrors revolves around parenthood and troubled children, it makes a particularly uncomfortable oversight and overshadows the episode's many other accomplishments. Like Cold War, Night Terrors is a Mark Gatiss episode strongly driven by theme. George, the little boy whose fears manifest themselves behind the doors of a particularly ominous cupboard (incidentally, worst parenting advice ever? "What do we do when something scares us? Put it in the cupboard."), embodies the idea that there's nothing scarier than the idea of being abandoned by those you care about. Gatiss skillfully expands on that to evoke how poverty can be a key driver in creating that isolation: the council block where much of the episode is set is lit in a grimy yellow, emphasizing the row after row of identical doors and windows, stripping each flat's inhabitants of their identity to the outside world. Behind one door, a disabled old lady lives in fear of local vandals and has no-one to help her carry out her rubbish. Behind another, a nasty landlord watches the same movie night after night, his only connection to people being to threaten them for money. Both are literally sucked into their surroundings, consumed by the very place where society has abandoned them. It's no coincidence that George's fears are also brought to life within the confines of a house, albeit the doll's house locked in his cupboard. Just as the inhabitants of the council block are reduced by their surroundings to a single identity - the poor - so too are the monsters in the dollhouse blank-faced and near-identical. Does Night Terrors work better as a metaphor than a story in its own right? Maybe, but like the best episodes of Who, it uses creepiness and foreboding to ultimately tell a tale of empathy and kindness. And yes, it's Gatiss episode so there's inevitably a power of love ending, but guest star Daniel Mays commits so thoroughly that it warms the heart rather than rolls the eyes.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
