Time and Space: A Doctor Who Journey

Series 1, Episode 8 : The Empty Child
Written By : Steven Moffat
Directed By : James Hawes
Villian : The Child
Synopsis: Rose and the Doctor find themselves in London during the height of the London Blitz in 1941 trying to solve the mystery of an aliens spaceship that has crash landed.  A group of homeless children are chased by a mysterious and frightening child and Rose meets the infamous Captain Jack Harkness.

One of the best and most frightening episodes ever conceived!  I still get chills anytime I hear a child say "Mummy".  This was the episode that really hooked me on this show.  There is so much going on in it and yet it flows so well.  It is jam packed full of great characters, witty lines, geeky references and things you never even knew creeped you out (like kids in gas masks).




I love Captain Jack.  Not only is John Barrowman and incredibly attractive man, he does a great job at capturing the charisma of Jack.  From the first moment we meet him, you can tell there's something special about him.  I think one of the best decisions they have made is making him a recurring character and eventually giving this character his own show with the spin off Torchwood.

Rose and the Doctor both really grow as this story unfolds.  We see elements of the Doctors wit and learn a little bit more about his past with his passing remarks.  Rose really starts to stand on her own two feet by dealing with the mysterious Jack in such a way as to not reveal too much information about who she and the Doctor truly are even though Jack sweeps her off her feet.

The character of Nancy is fabulous.  She is strong in a way that you have to admire.  The way she looks after all the other homeless kids and still makes them mind their manners and chew their food makes me smile.  I can't imagine being in her position.  She makes you think about the real kids that went through the Blitz without any adult to look after them and yet they managed to survive.

Anytime I recommend Doctor Who to someone, I always tell them to keep watching until this episode and by the time you finish part 2 (The Doctor Dances), you will be totally hooked.  There is really nothing bad in this episode.  The dialogue is smart, the pacing is quick, the bad guy is creepy and the story stays with you for a very long time afterward. This is one of my all time favorite episodes and by far my favorite of Christopher Eccelston's Doctor.


Rating: 10 out of 10

Interesting Details:

• Mauve is the universal color for danger.
• Red is the universal color for "camp" leading to many misunderstandings between humans and aliens in the future. "All those red alerts, all that dancing"
• The ship they are following jumps time tracks
• This is the first time the Doctor uses the alias of John Smith in the new series
• Rose makes a Star Trek reference
• This is the third time we see through the villains eyes. (Previously the Dalek and the Reapers)
• The Doctor makes his debut as a stand up comedian without even realizing it.
• The fake phone on the TARDIS rings, surprising the Doctor
• We see Jack's attitude towards equal opportunity "dancing" before we even know his name.
• Cell phones interfere with Chula spaceship instruments
• The "west end musical" the Doctor refers to is Oliver, in which one of the main characters is Nancy, the big sister type to the homeless kids.
• Captain Jack also uses psychic paper
• When Rose hands the psychic paper to Jack it says she has a boyfriend called Mickey, but she considers herself available
• Jack doesn't know who Spock is
• Nancy jokes about the Doctors nose and ears being big
• Jack and Rose dance to "Moonlight Serenade" by The Glen Miller Band
• The Doctor goes to Albion hospital, which is the same hospital they took the pig creature to in Aliens of London
• The injuries all the victims have are massive head trauma to the left, partial collapse of the chest to the right, scarring on the back of the hand and a gas mask fused to the face.
• Before the war, Doctor Constantine says he was a father and a grandfather but now he is neither.  The Doctor responds that he knows the feeling showing that he too had a family (kids and grandkids) before the Time War
• You can hear Doctor Constantine's skull crack when the gas mask emerges
• Rose tells Jack that they are Time Agents and that the Doctor is named Mr. Spock
• The Chula war ship was an ambulance and Jack was scamming them
• There is one reference to the Title in this episode
• There is one passing reference to the Time War
• There are no Bad Wolf references