Nikola Tesla

Played by Goran Višnjić

"It can be difficult, you know, to feel no one else sees the world the way you do. It's like you're... Out of place"

First Regular Appearance

Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

Visionary Serbian-American inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla is most famous for designing the alternating current (AC) system for supplying electricity. He spoke eight languages, had a photographic memory, and filed over 300 invention patents during his lifetime. Tesla’s ideas included X-ray technology and wireless technology such as radar, radio, and remote control. He was also well-known for his rivalry with fellow inventor Thomas Edison.

When the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan travelled to New York in 1903, Edison had riled up the press and the public in opposition to Tesla’s AC system. But Tesla himself – along with his assistant, Dorothy Skerrit – was more concerned by a strange alien artefact he had found: an Orb of Thassor.

The orb turned out to be a trap laid by the Queen of the Skithra, who wanted to capture Tesla to work aboard her ship. Using his pioneering technology (and with help from the Doctor and friends), Tesla defeated the Skithra and saved New York in the process.

Tesla’s work went forgotten for some time, but in recent years his legacy has been celebrated. As the Doctor comments, ‘History leaves him behind. But his vision of wireless energy, that does happen – a connected world, and that idea starts here, with him.’