Nightmare Fuel / Doctor Who Series 11

• "The Woman Who Fell to Earth":
  • The introduction of the tentacle-creature, writhing its way out of the darkness after blasting down the train carriage's doors. Then gliding along via Ceiling Cling and cornering its hapless target. An entity that doesn't even have recognizable eyes, let along anything remotely resembling a face, for the viewer to fix upon! In a way, it's as alien-looking an alien as we've seen on the show since the dream crabs from "Last Christmas".
  • "Tim Shaw" (the Monster of the Week) opening his helmet, revealing what became of the tooth he took from his victim: he absorbed it into his body, along with about fifty other teeth from previous kills.
    "A Stenza warrior wears his conquests."
    • Not that he's less frightening with the mask on. A massive, silent, relentless killer in shiny, black body armor who lethally freezer-burns anyone standing in his way just with contact to his bare skin. He's very reminiscent of the titular cyborg in The Terminator.
    • His entire reason for killing? It's a Rite of Passage. In order to become a leader of the Stenza, you must track a random, marked human "trophy", hunt it down, and kill it without assistance.
  • At the episode's end, the Doctor attempts to teleport herself into the orbiting TARDIS using a jury-rigged device. It fails, leaving her adrift in the void of space, with no TARDIS in sight — along with the human companions who got snagged in the teleport.
  • For the first time, the Doctor describes just how painful it is to regenerate, shattering any illusions that Time Lord biology had any effect on the sensation of every cell in your body burning and then being reborn. She also outright says there's always a moment where you fully expect you're about to die for good.
  • The way Tzim-Sha dies is incredibly gruesome. He starts writhing and screaming in pain, and the last we see of him before he transports himself back home is the sight of his face melting off! Apparently those DNA-bombs were outlawed for a reason...
  • The crane scenes are premium nightmare fuel for anyone suffering from acrophobia (fear of heights). Ryan almost slips climbing a very high ladder, Karl is told to make a leap between two cranes (and we get some lovely close ups of just how far he could fall if it goes wrong). The Doctor ends up making said leap and only just manages to grab the opposite crane arm, spending several seconds holding on for dear life, and Grace dies falling off a high ladder after being electrocuted by the gathering coil.
• "Rosa":
  • Just the thought that racism can still exist into the far future, far enough that a prisoner of Stormcage like Krasko could be so blatantly and openly racist, is a horrifying prospect. We know he was bad enough that they deliberately wired his brain so he couldn't kill anyone, and even that wasn't enough to stop him from trying to sabotage the Civil Rights movement from what would have been, from his perspective, centuries in the past.
  • The episode pulls no punches in portraying the horrific racism present in the American south of the 1950s, even specifically bringing up Emmett Till, the teenage black boy who was violently kidnapped and viciously tortured and murdered after a white woman accused him of harassing her (and who recently admitted that she made it up before her passing). Ryan and Yaz are forced to walk on eggshells in a society just waiting for the opportunity to beat them up or kill them. It's especially nerve-wracking to watch if you happen to be a person of color yourself. Even at the episode's end the only satisfaction they get is that things have progressed to the still-unsatisfactory level of their own time and may one day reach true equality.
  • How does the Doctor confirm that Krasko has a Thou Shall Not Kill Restraining Bolt? She provokes him until he snaps and tries to throttle her. It's an uncomfortably nasty burst of up-close and personal violence.
  • On the Doctor's part, she seems to be having a little too much fun taunting Krasko and revels in the fact that he can't actually hurt her no matter what she does. She tells him about how she knows about his Restraining Bolt and rips off and stomps on his vortex manipulator with almost-maniacal glee. This is a little unsettling coming from the normally cheerful and sweet Thirteenth Doctor. Also counts as a Moment of Awesome because Krasko absolutely deserved every bit of that taunting.
• "Arachnids in the UK":
  • The giant spiders are nightmare fuel for anyone with arachnophobia.
  • For most of the episode, Jack Robertson (a Corrupt Corporate Executive) is portrayed as a whiny, cowardly, egotistical, comic relief villain, who's so pathetic that the other characters barely even pay him any attention. All of that changes in the climax, when he needlessly guns down the leader of the spiders who was already choking to death, and when the Doctor confronts him about his cruelty, he shows zero remorse for his actions, making it quite clear that he doesn't answer to her or anyone else. The tone of the episode grows ice cold, and for the first time, we see the true malevolence at the heart of his character. Suffice to say, it's very unsettling, and since he mentioned earlier that he has political ambitions, Graham is very worried about what would happen should this man ever actually gain a position of power.
• "The Witchfinders":
  • The Morax King is a giant tendril of mud that moves in a very unsettling way, looking more like claymation than CGI.
  • The mud zombies are quite creepy, especially Willa's grandmother when she grabs an axe.
  • For the first time, the Doctor's new gender works against her, culminating in the village trying to drown her for being a witch, as such accusations can be easily thrown at her. She even complains to the effect that when she was a man she could just get on with things without having to defend herself. While she's able to escape no worse for wear, it's a stark reminder that she's not got the privilege to navigate most situations safely that she used to.
• "It Takes You Away":
  • The Antizone. It's a dark, red-tinted Pocket Dimension populated by flesh-eating moths and a creepy humanoid named Ribbon.
  • The very concept of the Solitract. It's an universe that will destroy ours if the two come in contact. The fact that it's not actually malicious just makes it worse. Imagine destroying an entire universe just because you wanted a friend.
  • The Solitract constructs of Grace and Trine. They act friendly, but there's something very off about them. Especially when they shoot beams of light out of their hands and act as if nothing unusual is happening.
• "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos": Tzim-Sha (AKA Tim Shaw) is back, and proves to be as depraved and unpleasant as he was in his first appearance.
  Tim Shaw: Paltraki. Do you remember me, Paltraki?
  The Doctor: I know that voice.
  Yaz: IS that...?
  Ryan: It can't be...
  Tim Shaw: [appears on the monitor] I want what is mine returned.
  Paltraki: And why would I do that?
  Tim Shaw: For your crew. Return what you took, or I will dismantle them piece by piece, beamed directly into your ship.
  Umsang: Paltraki, don't come back. Don't worry about us. You got what we came for.
  [Tim Shaw kills her]
  Tim Shaw: Two of your crew left. You have till lightfall.
• "Resolution":
  • The Dalek(s) return in this episode. At first, the Kaled mutant is out of its shell, and it is even more threatening and menacing than ever before. The Kaled mutant can apparently take over a human's body with the use of mind control.
  • After the Reconnaissance Dalek creates its own special casing, we see how much carnage it can cause. Oh and to mention, this Dalek can fire rockets from its baubles, and lays waste to an army trying to attack the Dalek.