Night Terrors (Doctor Who)

"Night Terrors" is the ninth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC America on 3 September 2011. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Richard Clark.

In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (in his eleventh incarnation played by Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) decide to make a "house call" to Croydon, to an eight-year-old boy named George (Jamie Oram) who is terrified of almost everything and especially dreads the cupboard in his bedroom. While the Doctor discusses this with George's father Alex (Daniel Mays), Amy and Rory become trapped in a doll house with terrifying life-size peg dolls.

"Night Terrors" was inspired by Gatiss's fear of dolls, and the ones in the episode were designed to be scary and crude-looking. The episode was moved from the first half of the series to the second, which necessitated changes to make it fit into the series' story arc. It was the first to be filmed, with production taking place in September 2010 at a council estate in Redcliffe, Bristol and at Dyrham Park, where the doll's house interior scenes were filmed. The episode was watched by 7.07 million viewers in the UK and received mixed reviews from critics; it received praise for its tone and visual aspects, but some criticism due to the episode's lack of input into the overarching series narrative as it came after a heavy story-arc episode.