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Since Steven Moffat took over as head writer of Doctor Who two years ago, there has been a noticeable - and appreciated - shift away from the anthology structure that the show favoured under Russell T. Davies towards a more serialised form that follows in the tradition of American science fiction and fantasy shows. There were over-arching plots during Davies' tenure on the show, but they tended to be more to do with character than plot, and the closest it got to a serialised narrative was the introduction of special words - such Bad Wolf, Torchwood and Saxon - that appeared in the background, only to be given meaning in the finales. Moffat's Who feels more like a longer story composed of individual elements, rather than individual elements that are somewhat crudely joined up at the end.

One of the side-effects of this model has been that episodes of the show are now divided somewhat starkly into standalone stories and mythology-heavy ones that advance the grander plot, in a manner not dissimilar to the way in which The X-Files was structured. This can be seen fairly clearly in the first half of season six, when the densely plotted double whammy of "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" was followed by the slight and frivolous pirate adventure of "The Curse of the Black Spot". Following on from the River Song-heavy, misleadingly titled "Let's Kill Hitler", the show moves back into self-contained mode this week with the Mark Gatiss-penned episode "Night Terrors", in which The Doctor, Amy and Rory are called to help a young boy named George (Jamie Oram) who is terrified of everything, but particularly his cupboard, and the things that are contained inside of it. (None of which, sadly, were Hitler, who found himself unwillingly forced into a cupboard last week.)

Whilst I like the model of the show, I have to say that I found it incredibly jarring that, in service of this single story, there didn't seem to be any mention of the fact that Amy and Rory are looking for their kidnapped baby. You can argue that this is because they saw last week that they might not get her back, otherwise there's no reason why Melody would grow up to try to kill The Doctor, but it still feels weird to me having such a major plot point go unacknowledged. Then again, the last thing anyone wants is to see is Amy and Rory curling up in the fetal position and crying over their lost child every week, so maybe a bit of cognitive dissonance in service of the plot is preferable.

The plot of the episode was pretty slight; it turns out that George is actually an empathic alien who appeared when his "parents" Alex (Daniel Mays) and Claire (Emma Cunniffe) discovered that they couldn't have children. Their desperate desire for a child led George to fulfil that role, and the same power that gave him form allows him to give physical form to his fears, which in turn start attacking other people and dragging them into whatever realm he has created for them. The Doctor, Amy, Rory and Alex end up getting trapped in the world of George's fears - represented by a doll's house - and are in turn chased after by the absolutely horrible doll creatures that reside there.

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