Retrospective Discussion | Doctor Who (2005) 1x03 "The Unquiet Dead"

I think this one's pretty fun. The one disappointment for me is that the story sacrifices all its complexity by making the Gelth generic evil monsters. The moral question of reusing the bodies of the dead is an interesting one that the episode ultimately doesn't have to bother reckoning with because it turns out the Gelth really suck. It's the rare twist that makes the story less compelling. It's already pretty twisty to do a zombie body snatcher plot where it turns out the snatchers aren't evil, so pivoting back to them being evil again is just a bit boring.

Otherwise, I like how the episode makes good use of a historical figure. They can sometimes feel a bit hit and miss, but Dickens makes for a good one-off companion who doesn't suffer a major character assassination, etc. It is mildly weird that we have two episodes in a row where a one-off companion burns up (Jabe last week, Gwyneth this week). I wonder if more thought goes into episode order in later series, just to avoid stories echoing each other's plot points. It's not really a problem, but you wouldn't want to turn it into a pattern.

I missed the first couple of episodes of this rewatch, so joining in here.

Compared to the newer episodes a lot of the direction in this one feels more like the classic series - more like a stage play than a typical TV drama, which fits the theme of the story well.

There's lots of jokes sprinkled throughout this story, and it really works well with Christopher Eccleston. I missed that mad grin he does.

Acting - In the theatre, I did notice some of the bg extras not really running quite as fast from the ghost as they should have been, which was amusing. And the actors playing the reanimated dead bodies was really cheesy, felt less like an entity controlling them and more like they were playing stereotypical zombies. I did enjoy the portrayal of dickens as the sceptical and haunted artist.

The gelth needing the dead bodies because they've lost their own reminds me a bit of that voyager episode where the aliens take dead bodies to reuse them. It set up a nice conflict between Doctor and Rose - but after the tense conversation it doesn't go anywhere, and an exploration of what it could mean is undermined by the twist that they're evil. I didn't really like the cgi, even considering it's a couple decades old.

It's not the best episode, but certainly not the worst. I think this might actually be the first time I've rewatched this episode since I saw it live when it aired.

Random bit I noticed at the end - they look at dickens through a viewscreen monitor on the Tardis console just before they leave. The Tardis often has futuristic looking interfaces in modern series, seeing a plain cctv camera view is very retro (and dare I say it seems more useful than a semi transparent screen with a bunch of circles for no good reason ;) )

This one is pretty average. Not great, not bad?

It serves to establish the time travel rules for new viewers - the past can be changed! Just because you know what 2005 looks like, you shouldn't assume it will look like that next time you visit.

The Doctor's edginess continues, turning on a dime to snap at Charles Dickens (and eventually turning back to apologize), and making it clear that he's perfectly willing to let the Gelth inhabit dead humans - it's like recycling!

I don't think the Gelth themselves hold together very well. They're stated to be gaseous, but they act more like stereotypical "non-corporeal" life forms for the most part. But the climax hinges on them being "drawn out" by the gas from the gaslights, so I guess they're attuned to that specific mixture, rather than a standard nitrogen/oxygen mix? Not really the sort of thing we should dwell on.

Of course, this episode also establishes the Cardiff rifts, and introduces us to Eve Myles, which will be important soon-ish.