Time and Space: A Doctor Who Journey

Series 1, Episode 3 : The Unquiet Dead
Written By : Mark Gatis
Directed By : Euros Lyn
Villians : The Gelth
Synopsis : The Doctor and Rose find themselves in 1869 and the dead are walking.  They team up with Charles Dickens to solve the mystery of the local undertaker, the seer maid, the gas creatures and the risen corpses.

Still dealing with the slow start of this reboot, this episode finally start to pick up a tiny bit of steam by adding one of the great elements at the disposal of this show, exploring the past and meeting some of history's greatest characters.  Simon Gallow does a masterful job of bringing Charles Dickens to life.  One of my favorite things that this show does is show historical figures are real people with real problems and issues, just like the rest of us.  When you first meet Dickens, he is a tired old man who makes reference to how he has screwed up his personal life and his marriage.  It's not until he gets onstage to do a reading of A Christmas Carol that the Dickens most of us have heard of is seen.  We see the great story teller who has enthralled countless generations.  I like that he isn't perfect.  I like that he is a huge skeptic.  I also really enjoy when the Doctor is trying to explain to him what the phrase "number one fan" means.

Although the main plot in this episode is not one of the strongest in the series, it is going in the right direction.  The idea of the Gelth is much greater than it's execution.  There is so much build up making you feel sorry for them and wanting the Doctor to help them and then wrestling with the decision along with Rose of how ethical it is to allow them to recycle our dead that the big reveal that they are in fact evil is fast, forced and a little out of left field.  I feel they could have spent less time with Rose and the Doctor locked behind a gate helpless with just a bunch of hand reaching at them for an enormously long time and maybe a little more time establishing the fear that the Gelth should bring.

I did really love the Gwenyth and I was very happy to see Eve Myles parlay a career out of this episode with her role on Torchwood.

While this is not one of the most memorable episodes ever, it is still fairly solid and can stand one it's own.  Like any newborn, the show's first steps are a little wobbly, but hang in there.  The best is yet to come.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• First episode to begin without a focus on one of the main characters
• First time the Doctor gets his date/location wrong
• The Doctor gives Rose some very complicated directions to find the wardrobe (first left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left) which shows that there is a lot more to the TARDIS than just the main control room
• The Doctor invents the term "Fan" early 
• Rose's age, 19, is revealed
• Dickens uses the phrase "What the Shakespeare is going on?" a play on the phrase "What the Dickens?"
• First mention of the Cardiff rift, which become prominent in future episodes as well as in Torchwood
• Gwenyth reads the Doctor's mind when pouring him tea
• Gwenyth mentions "the Big Bad Wolf" when speaking to Rose
• Gwenyth's psychic powers are strengthened because she grew up on the rift according to the Doctor
• This is the first mention of the Time War.  It was previously only referred to as the war.  The Gelth also give a sense of the scope and devastation the war caused.
• The gaseous Gelth come out of the door knocker after Dickens, mimicking the knocker in A Christmas Carol
• The doctor refers to some of his past adventures (fall of Troy, WW5, the Boston Tea Party) some of which actually happened to previous Doctors
• Dickens quotes Hamlet when explaining Gwenyth's death; "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
• Dickens talks about the ending for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" being about aliens.  Dickens novel was never completed in real life.
• Dickens final line is "Good Bless us, everyone" in reference to his novel, A Christmas Carol.
• There are 2 mentions of the Time War in this episode
• There are no mentions of chips in this episode.
• There are no mentions of the title in this episode.