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 Probably the most astonishing fact about The Unquiet Dead was that it was set in Cardiff...you know, the same Cardiff which is being used to portray London throughout the season. "So what?" I hear you ask. Ah, but for this story, which actually IS in Cardiff, they filmed in Swansea......???? Hmmmm.
That peculiarity aside, the third story of the season took the Doctor & Rose to their third different time period. We've had the present; we've had the future, so now we get the past. Once again, plenty of time & trouble was taken showing how Rose comes to terms with her newfound ability to travel to any time period. The future was one thing, but to actually travel back to a time in history that you have some familiarity with is something else again. The sense of excitement & wonderment she shows as she peers out of the TARDIS & gingerly places a footprint in the Victorian snow was handled excellently both by the script & by Billie Piper's acting. The Doctor, in traditional style being unable to accept that he will look out of place now that he's changed his jumper, joins Rose outside & with his ever-present grin invites her to take a stroll into history.
As the season progresses, it seems that more & more elements from the past are seeping through, which is no bad thing, since the original programme had plenty of superb elements on which to draw. Here we see the Doctor confidently announcing that they have arrived in Naples in 1860, whereas in reality the TARDIS has (probably sensing the inherent danger) deposited the travellers in Cardiff 1869. The Doctor discovers this by buying a newspaper, but Rose doesn't care they are 9 years out...doesn't care that they aren't in Naples...but when the Doctor tells her that they are in Cardiff......!!!!! The humour is still there throughout the episode, but this is a much darker story than the previous two. Literally. The setting of Victorian Britain has always provided the series with a chance to show off the BBC's forte of producing quality reproduction period sets & lighting, & this is no exception.
The story actually starts in Mr Sneed's funeral parlour, with poor Mr Redpath dealing with the death of his grandmother. Except that as he grieves over her inert body a ghostly blue-grey pallor comes over her, her eyes snap open & she throttles him. Sneed tries to help, but is knocked out & this reanimated cadavre stumbles out into the snow wailing & emitting a blue vapour from its dead mouth. Tremendous opening sequence which I feel sure will have left more than one youngster having nightmares that night. Some may argue that such powerful images are unsuitable for 7pm on Saturday evenings, but I say, "bah, humbug" (keeping with the tone of the story!), when we were growing up with Doctor Who part of the appeal of it was its scary nature. I say bravo that the new production team refuse to bend to the whims of political correctness, but instead follow good, solid storytelling techniques, whilst still remaining on the side of decency (there will be no gratuitous violence on this show, but the horror of the situation can come across just as well by simply filming it the right way). This new, pre-title sequence gives us a cliffhanger of sorts, although obviously not in the same way as before when we had to wait at least a day (& most usually a week) to discover the outcome. I understand the arguments from both sides here. On the one hand, having a self-contained story allows viewers to tune in & not to miss any action, but on the other, there is no hook to make viewers think they have to tune in the following week to find out what happens. Never mind...we get a two parter next week, so maybe the traditional cliffhanger will return then.
Mark Gatiss, the first writer other than RTD to pen a storyline this season, has always been a big fan of the series & has never made a secret of the fact. His credentials are impressive & he certainly doesn't fail to deliver here. The plot is very well sculpted & the episode flows along very nicely throughout. Everything makes sense as well, which in sci-fi stories often doesn't always happen as dramatic effect is generally allowed to overtake naturally developing plots. Gatiss also has a certain fondness for Dickens &, allied to a breathtaking performance by the rarely below par Simon Callow, ably supported by a fine ensemble cast, this shines through like a beacon. Plenty of attention to detail is paid to all aspects of the story & as such it feels very natural & real.
As a writer, a man of imagination, you would assume that Charles Dickens would easily be able to accept the unnatural, yet it takes him most of the story to believe any of what he sees. Once he does, after overcoming his initial shock, he feels revitalised, realising that he has not "thought all he will ever think" & that there is still much of the world that can be new to him & therefore plenty of life still to be lived...sadly, as we discover at the end of the episode, for him there is precious little time, but at least he is able to see out his days with a fresh spring in his step.
The Unquiet Dead may very well go down as an all-time classic Doctor Who episode, such is its content. There are several notable scenes: Rose's coming to terms with actually being in her own past; the Doctor's commandeering of Dickens' carriage; Gwyneth's reading of Rose's mind; the Doctor's disgust that Rose would disallow a (supposedly) dying species the opportunity to survive by her refusal to allow them to inhabit the bodies of the dead; all the scenes, in fact, containg the Doctor & Dickens. The Gelth are similar in many ways to the Axons, pretending to be helpless & facing extinction, whilst in reality planning to annihilate humanity for their own purposes. The Doctor, being the "humanitarian" that he is, accepts their story at face value, as he has many times in the past (Eldrad being a prime example), whilst Rose is against his whole plan, not through suspicion, but through her abhorrence of the idea of the bodies of the dead being desecrated. Perhaps the Doctor was won over by mention of the "Time War", which just HAS to be the same war of which we keep hearing, & which makes the victors all the more likely to be an enemy with time-travelling capabilities...step forward the Daleks again!
Last week we had a life form being basically just skin connected to a brain. This time out the villains of the piece are gaseous in nature. The Gelth are a well thought out creation. They survive in a gaseous environment, so inhabiting the decomposing remains of humans makes sense. Victorian times had gas lamps aplenty, allowing them refuge when their hosts could no longer sustain them, whilst also allowing the means for their defeat. The Doctor's explanation of how ghosts tend to exist makes perfect sense within the framework of the story, as does Gwyneth's latent telepathic ability by virtue of her connection to the rift.
Once again, it is a human that eventually saves the day & it is fitting here that it is Dickens. His genius is put to best use as he realises that by turning on all the gas valves in the house the Gelth will be sucked out of their hosts & into the atmosphere, whilst also enabling the rift to be closed & the trapped Gelth to be disposed of. The Doctor is again prepared to sacrifice himself to bring this about, but upon discovering that the trapped Gwyneth has already passed on, but is still animated by the rift, he accepts that she must finish the job for him.
All in all it is very hard to find any fault with this story. It is superbly paced, with an excellent cast, all of whom give totally credible performances. The story is believable & makes good sense throughout. It draws on aspects of the show's past whilst still making it very current. There are lighter touches as well as genuinely scary moments. The sets are magnificent & the effects are none too shabby either. It also reveals more of the season's arc story. First, in 'Rose', we learned that the Doctor had fought in a war; then in 'The End of the World', we discovered that this war had brought about the destruction of Gallifrey; now we learn that it is a time war, which has had far-reaching consequences throughout history. As I write this, it suddenly dawns on me that the previous story's title, 'The End of the World', is probably meant to imply the end of Gallifrey as much as that of the Earth...surprising that none of the reviews I have read up to now had picked up on that one actually!!!!!
One final positive to draw from another great 45 minutes' entertainment is that for the third week in succession, the trailer for the forthcoming episode has left me frustrated that we have another week to wait. Each time the prospects seem better & better. Before the season started there was the massive anticipation of the show coming back after all that time. After 'Rose' there was the anticipation of another great episode, but with a better storyline & the opportunity to know more about the Doctor's new character. Last week's trailer showed us what promised to be (& delivered) a dark, gothic period piece. And now we have THAT FX sequence to come! The much trailed & jaw-droppingly impressive Big Ben sequence.
Roll on next Saturday!!!!
» Review by Miles Northcott, Copyright 2005.
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I’ve sat through 63 episodes of Six Feet Under and have seen many unique, silly and heartbreaking depictions of death as well as many fascinating discussion of how it affects the people who lose loved ones but this episode offered a rather new interpretation on the manner of ghosts and corpses.
The Unquiet Dead demonstrated the high production quality of this story.
I'm over the initial jittery hype of waiting for Doctor Who to come on (even if, just as in 1988 and 89 when I first got into Doctor Who, you have sit through a tedious programme presented by an annoying Irishman* first.).
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