#3 (1.3): The Unquiet Dead.

1 episode, approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Mark Gatiss. Directed by: Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

Now that he's shown her the future, the Doctor decides to take Rose into the past: Naples, 1860. But the TARDIS doesn't quite hit that destination, instead materializing in 1869, Cardiff. It is here that the Doctor discovers a dimensional rift, a tiny tear in time and space. That rift is growing wider, and something is beginning to probe through.

At Mr. Sneed (Alan David)'s funeral home, the dead are not staying dead. The corpses are getting up and walking... and killing. One old woman leaves the funeral home and takes in a free show held by "the great man," Charles Dickens (Simon Callow). It is here that the Doctor and Rose catch up with the spectres. Soon, they are all back at Sneed's funeral home, with the Doctor using Gwyneth (Eve Myles), Sneed's young servant who has "the sight," in order to make contact with the Gelth.


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Doctor is intrigued by the walking corpses, and fairly quickly determines that the cause is a rift. He has no use for pointless denial, and snaps at Dickens to "shut up" when the author tries to deny what he has just seen. He apologizes for this harshness. But after he makes contact with the Gelth, they invoke the magic words: "Time War." That is all it takes for the Doctor to lose perspective. He abandons caution, shuts down Rose's protests, and focuses intently on helping the Gelth - probably because, if he can save them, then he thinks he'll undo some of what happened in the Time War. It never crosses his mind that the Gelth are not the innocent victims they're pretending to be, not with them playing directly to his own guilt. He sees a chance of an at least partial redemption, and won't allow any doubts to cloud his leaping for it.

Rose: She is excited to go into the past, and really processes that for the Doctor, events past are never really gone. Gwyneth observes that Rose has been thinking more and more about her dead father. Put these two character beats together, and this episode puts in place a lot of the groundwork for Father's Day. She has sympathy for Gwyneth, but not much empathy - She pities the girl, but as Gwyneth observes, she also "thinks (Gwyneth is) stupid," which makes Gwyneth less inclined to listen to her when she protests the Doctor's plan.

Charles Dickens: The always excellent Simon Callow gives this episode a huge lift as Dickens. As scripted, the character could quickly become tiresome. He spends the bulk of it wallowing first in self-pity, then in skepticism that gradually passes into pure denial. But Callow gives the character an added dimension.


THOUGHTS

Though I have several issues with this episode, I'll start with a big positive: This has the best teaser scene of probably the new series' entire first season. The ill-fated Mr. Redpath's dead grandmother coming back to life in the funeral home and killing her grandson while Mr. Sneed groans, "Not another one," and then the dead old woman moaning as she stalks out onto the snow-covered streets... It's a perfect mix of ghoulish and darkly funny, and the new series' first "great" teaser.

The episode that follows rarely lives up to that opening, though it's not a bad turn by any means. All of the performances are good, with Alan David's hilariously disreputable Mr. Sneed an obvious Robert Holmes throwback, very much a distant Welsh cousin of Henry Gordon Jago. Euros Lyn helms with a strong sense of atmosphere and an excellent visual eye. Even some bits that go on a touch too long (such as any scene between Rose and Gwyneth) are kept watchable by Lyn's ability to maintain the atmosphere.

The episode's biggest problem is that it's structurally top-heavy. Most of the episode is set-up, with too much time devoted to the debate over whether or not use Gwyneth to let the Gelth come through. Given the teaser, I doubt any viewer is truly in doubt as to the Gelth's intentions. And while the Doctor's reactions may be good character stuff, this entire segment of the episode just goes on too long. When the payoff - the Gelth's arrival - finally comes, there is too little left of the episode to make much of them before they have to be hurriedly dispatched for the episode's end. Tightening up the setup would have allowed for more time with the Gelth on the rampage, perhaps even letting us get them out of the funeral home and into the streets. As it is, the problem is established with no time to allow it to complicate before it needs a (very quick) solution.

Lest I overemphasize the negative, I should say that this episode is never less than entertaining. By introducing the Cardiff rift, it establishes a plot point that will be very important to later Who episodes, as well as being a large part of the basis for the Torchwood spinoff. It has excellent character work for the two regulars, and very good performances across the board. I might wish it was a bit less top-heavy, or a bit longer to allow the payoff to be less rushed when it arrives. But while this will never be a favorite of mine, it's still quite a decent episode, netting a solid:


Rating: 6/10.

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