Revisiting Doctor Who - Series 1, Episode 3 - The Unquiet Dead
In 1860 Naples, a man looks on as his Grandmother lies in her coffin. She'd dead to start with, but when a strange blue/grey smoke flies into her, she becomes a little bit less dead, killing her Grandson and knocking out the undertaker, and then she heads off into the night moaning.
Meanwhile, The Doctor suggests that, as she's seen the future, Rose might like to see the past - 1860 to be precise. I can see trouble ahead...
The undertaker talks to Gwen from Torchwood - sorry, her long lost relation (what's a Welsh girl doing in 1860 Naples?) - and tells her they are heading out to find the dead lady.
Rose and The Doctor climb off the floor, having fallen in a bumpy landing, and prepare to head out into Naples. Rose gets misty-eyed looking at The Doctor as she realises he gets to live every day over and over again if he wants to, but he misses the moment and asks her to get changed instead.
We learn that Gwen - Gwyneth, sorry - has the power of 'sight'. It's hinted that this is different to regular sight however, as she seems to know what the old lady is up to from a distance. She's very excited apparently, and was going to see a great man that evening before death interfered.
It appears that the great man is Charles Dickens, who is brooding alone before a performance on stage. He gets a pep talk from a stage hand, which at least succeeds in getting him out of his chair, even if it doesn't make him any less grumpy.
Back in the Tardis, Rose has changed, looking lovely and Victorian, and they head on out into the snow. Gwen - GWYNETH, dammit! - are close behind, and Gwen's sight allows her to detect that the old lady is watching Charles Dicken's performance in the building that Rose and The Doctor have walked near, although we know this already because we've seen her drooling over him from the audience a few seconds earlier.
The Doctor realises that it's actually 1869, not 1860, but Rose tells him not to be so OCD about it, until he tells her it's Cardiff and not Naples, and then she looks a bit more fed up. That explains why there's a Welsh girl in Naples then.
Back to Mr Dickens, who is reciting A Christmas Carol, when he notices the old lady giving off the blue/grey smoke. She moans a bit again, perhaps annoyed that he stopped the performance when she was enjoying it so, which attracts the attention of Gwyneth, the undertaker, The Doctor and Rose, who come in to see the smoke flying around looking evil, which The Doctor finds fantastic, but freaks everyone else out. Gwyneth tries to spirit the old lady's now cold body away, but when Rose tries to stop them, the undertaker chloroforms her, as you do. The Doctor and Charles Dickens leave the theatre, having discovered the smoke is actually gas, to see Rose being kidnapped. They persue, The Doctor getting very excited and Northern when he realises who he is sharing a cab with, although don't call him Charlie.
At the undertaker's house, Rose is placed on a table, but when he and Gwyneth leave, the lights start flickering ominously. Rose wakes up just as the gas inhabits the old lady's grandson. The Doctor and Dickens arrive at this point, as Rose nearly falls victim to the grandson, and then the old lady as she decides to join the fun again, and are just in time to help her out of the locked room. The Doctor questions the gas, which reveals that they are dying as some sort of rift can't be sustained.
Rose tears a strip off the undertaker whilst the others take tea, and the undertaker reveals that they house is haunted which led to the dead walking a few months ago. Charles Dickens refuses to believe it, but The Doctor tells him to stop being a silly bugger, and that the rift is obviously widening for the problems to be getting worse.
Dickens goes to look at the bodies and see if he can work out how the trick has been done, but The Doctor tries to convince him that just because he hasn't ever seen aliens and gas together, doesn't mean they can't mix to produce something weird, and to stop being a sissy.
Rose and Gwyneth bond over being women, and Rose is appalled to learn that women weren't treated well back then, which is somehow a surprise. And the japes they both got up to! Oh man, they used to skip school, crush on boys, do sums...Anyway, Gwyneth accidentally reveals her sight when she says she knows about Rose's father dying, and them having come a long way from London, which is a much different version than Gwyneth has seen in drawings. The Doctor decides that, if Gwyneth has the sight,they may as well try a seance.
As Gwyneth does her best Most Haunted impression, the gas begins to descend, leaving Dickens looking rather sheepish. Gwyneth establishes a link with the gas, who beg for help, and want her taking to the rift itself. Apparently, the gas have no home, as it fell victim to the Time War, and have no physical bodies any longer. They want to use the dead. Rose protests, but The Doctor plays Devil's Advocate and asks why not if it could save a species? Bit of a guilt trip going on there at is was all his fault...
The undertaker believes the aliens are from Scotland, but everyone else understands what's happening, and then they have a discussion about the ethics of using a dead body to host another species - The Doctor makes an excellent point about it being the same as a donor card, but Rose remains unconvinced, so he tells her to bugger off home if it's a problem. Gwyneth wants to have her say, and thinks of them as angels, having sang to her all her life, and wants to save them.
When they reach their destination, Rose tells The Doctor that she knows the gas aliens (OK, they're called the Gelf, but I can't think of anything but Red Dwarf and GELFS, so for the sake of this article, they're just gas aliens) don't succeed because they haven't in her own time, but The Doctor tells her that time is in flux and can be re-written at any time (he hasn't coined 'Timey-Wimey' yet). The room becomes colder as the gas aliens arrive. The Doctor tells them it isn't permanent solution, and that he will take them elsewhere to a new world later. Gwyneth establishes contact again, becoming 'the Bridge', but then they go all psycho nasty and turn into what appear to be baby-Balrogs, killing the undertaker. There are a few more of the gas aliens than they originally let on, and they look set to claim humanity. Dickens runs away, as The Doctor traps himself and Rose behind a gate, and talks smack to them. However, as Dickens leaves the house, the aliens that follow him realise the atmosphere is hostile outside, and he realises that he can save the day by turning off the flame for the gas lamp and ramping the gas itself up (I wish he wrote stories like this, they'd have been so much better), sucking them out of their hosts and into the air. Well, The Doctor did give them a chance. He tells Gwyneth that they aren't angels, and to send them back - she says that she can't, but she can hold them in place while she lights a match and blows them away, which will mean sacrificing herself. Though The Doctor promises Rose he won't leave her, he realises that it's the only way, and runs before the explosion occurs. Though Rose is hurt that he couldn't do more, The Doctor explains that he thinks she was dead from the minute she opened the bridge. They reflect on her sacrifice to some stirring and emotional music whilst gazing into the air, in one quite bizarre uniform turn of their heads upwards.
They bid Dickens goodbye, who has been inspired to write about his adventures, which again sound far more exciting than any Dickens I've ever actually read. The ending extends longer than the end of The Return of The King, but eventually they depart, assuring him that his books will live forever. Although he'll die in a few weeks time, so swings and roundabouts.
He also leaves laughing manically and shouting to himself, so I think he might be drunk.
So, from the future last time into the past this time. And, although I can't remember anything from this episode the first time round, for me it's a definite improvement on Episode 2. The mystery behind it is stronger, and the moral conundrum at the heart of it (until the reveal of the gas aliens' true evil nature towards the end) make it far more interesting.
There are a few genuine scares as well - there's something about old ladies with creepy eyes walking towards a camera that puts the willies up me, and the opening scene was no exception. Not on a Weeping Angels level, certainly, but it creeped me out a bit.
Key to The Doctor's character here as well is having him meet aliens affrected by the fallout from the Time War. His actions have led them to lose their world, and it's clear that he feels extra responsibility to try and help them. Are they evil in the end because of what happened in the Time War, or would they have been even before their world was destroyed? It all adds up to how I see Eccleston's Doctor as being a much grumpier character.
Knowing now that she'll play Gwen in Torchwood, it's strange seeing Eve Myles play a much more laid back character - there's no way Gwen would take any of this so mildly!
Rose and Gwyneth talking together is very enjoyable as a character building moment, showing Rose's good nature and wild side together. I might have joked about it in the actual review, but it's these little character moments that make Doctor Who such a good show.
The Doctor really does love strange things - he has a massive grin as the undertaker reveals all this zombie-lark has been great for business, which is hilarious. That huge grin is one of my main memories of the Ninth Doctor, and I can't help but grin along whenever it appears. It contrasts so much with his stern stare that he reserves for those he is trying to stop from doing evil, much more than occurs with David Tennant or Matt Smith. For me, you can lump Tennant and Smith together into two Doctor's that have a lot of similarities, whereas Eccleston is much further removed. And not just because he's Northern.
How It Fits Into The Series As A Whole
The rift is of course the rift in Cardiff that is mentioned throughout the series.
Bad Wolf
Gwyneth mentions that she sees the Big Bad Wolf when she uses the 'sight' on Rose.
Overall
A much stronger episode than previously, with a couple of genuine scares, and a great moral conundrum and myster at the heart.
8/10
I remember enjoying this one as it touched on an idea that they never really use again. Later on, they push for the idea that the companion is there to remind the Doctor of human morality, and pull him back from the edge. But in this episode they pushed the idea that his alien morality isn't wrong or too ruthless, just different. I wish they had done more of that.
ReplyDeleteHe's one step removed so can be more objective - and rightly so - it isn't too different from having a donor card, and in this instance you could still be used as a donor once the aliens have left your body! Double bonus!
ReplyDeleteHe's not the messiah-like figure that he'll become by the end of Series 6 where he's become too well known, or the Tennant specials where his ego takes over too much, so he doesn't need the companion to keep him grounded or remind him that he gives people chances before ending them. Thinking back on it all now, I really do see the Ninth Doctor as someone much more desperate to make amends than the Tenth and Eleventh, although it's still there with them obviously - there's one line that Matt Smith delivers when asked about whether he's trying to make amends (or something about that) and he just says 'Isn't everyone?' - it's my favourite bit of acting in the whole of Who, such is the look of utter emotional turmoil he brings across. But back onto Ecclestone, I can genuinely hear the emotion causing his voice to crack and it's so much more poignant for me this time around, now that I know we're getting to the secrets of the Time War (possibly!)