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the Doctor Who episode

"The Unquiet Dead" is the third episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on 9 April 2005 on BBC One. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn. In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) travel to Victorian Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 where there have been sightings of strange gas like creatures. The Doctor and Rose team up with Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) to investigate Mr Sneed (Alan David), a man who runs a funeral parlour where it seems that corpses have come to life. It is revealed that the gaseous Gelth (voiced by Zoe Thorne) have entered Cardiff through a Rift, and wish to survive by taking over the corpses. "The Unquiet Dead" is the first episode of the revival to be set in the past, and was intended to show the series' range. The original brief and script included a focus on mediums and was grimmer in tone, but it evolved into a story about zombies and became more of a "romp". Callow, who had researched Dickens as well as portraying him on multiple occasions, accepted the guest starring role in "The Unquiet Dead" because he felt the historical figure was written accurately. The episode also introduced the Cardiff Rift. The episode also features a guest appearance by actress Eve Myles; Myles would go on to play Gwen Cooper in the Doctor Who spin off series Torchwood from 2006. As contemporary Cardiff, location of the Doctor Who production, did not have enough Victorian architecture, location work for the episode was filmed in Swansea and Monmouth in September 2004 and Penarth in September and October, though one location scene was shot in Cardiff in September. Studio work was recorded at the Unit Q2 warehouse in Newport in September and October. Computer generated imagery (CGI) was used as the main visual effect for the Gelth. "The Unquiet Dead" was seen by 8.86 million viewers in the United Kingdom on first broadcast. It attracted generally positive reception, although some reviewers criticised some plot points and lack of moral dilemma. This episodes mention of the Series wide arc "Bad Wolf" comes in a conversation between Rose & Gwyneth. When Gwyneth sees 2005 through Rose. Before saying the following:
"The things you've seen The darkness The Big Bad Wolf!"

Originally aiming for Naples on Christmas Eve, 1860, the Ninth Doctor and Rose land in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869. At a nearby funeral parlour, run by Gabriel Sneed and his servant Gwyneth, the corpse of the late Mrs. Peace has been taken over by a blue vapour. She kills her grandson Mr. Redpath and escapes from the parlour. Gwyneth, a clairvoyant, senses that the corpse is going to see Charles Dickens at a nearby theatre. In the middle of Dickens' performance, the blue vapour leaves Mrs. Peace and scares the audience away. The commotion attracts the attention of the Doctor and Rose, who rush to investigate. Sneed and Gwyneth arrive and capture the corpse, as well as Rose, who confronts them. At the funeral parlour, Rose wakes up along with the newly reanimated corpses of Mrs. Peace and Mr. Redpath. The Doctor and Dickens arrive and break into the parlour just in time to rescue Rose. The Doctor convinces Gwyneth to help him hold a séance to attempt to communicate with the corpses. The blue vapours fill the room and reveal that they are the Gelth, a once corporeal alien race until they were devastated by the Time War. They plead with the Doctor to open the rift that exists in the morgue and allow "a few" Gelth to cross over. The Doctor offers the Gelth temporary use of the corpses until he can transport them to a place where they can build new bodies, using Gwyneth as a bridge to cross the rift. Gwyneth stands in the middle of an arch and opens the rift, allowing the Gelth to cross over. The Gelth deceived how many of them there are, and their true motive is revealed: they intend to kill the living to give themselves more hosts and take over the planet. Sneed is killed and his body is possessed by the Gelth. Realising the Gelth are affected by the gas, Dickens extinguishes the gaslights and turns the gas on full, pulling the Gelth out of the bodies. Unable to send the Gelth back, Gwyneth takes out a box of matches, intending to ignite the gas and hold the Gelth in one spot with the explosion. The Doctor determines that Gwyneth is already dead, and that by opening the rift, she had doomed herself. The Doctor, Rose, and Dickens flee the parlour just before it explodes and burns, trapping the Gelth and closing the rift.

Executive producer and head writer Russell T Davies came up with the concept of "The Unquiet Dead". As the third episode of the revived series, it was designed to continue to show the range of the programme by exploring the past, after the contemporary "Rose" and far future "The End of the World". The episode also reintroduces the TARDIS' habit of taking the Doctor to the wrong places, something that had not yet happened in the revived series. However, Gwyneth became a more popular character with the production team, and she took on much of the medium role. The working titles for this story included "The Crippingwell Horror" and "The Angels of Crippingwell". The original draft was grimmer, including details about the previous death of Gwyneth's younger brother, but in subsequent drafts the story became more of a "romp". Callow contended that for him to agree to play Dickens, the script would have to be a sufficiently high quality. When he heard that the author was to feature in Doctor Who his heart "sank" as he felt fiction has a tendency to posit the author as "a kind of all purpose Victorian literary character and really understand little, if anything, about him, his life or his books". Callow was also pleased that the episode portrayed Dickens as he was towards the end of his life: ill and sad rather than energetic. Eve Myles, who played Gwyneth, was initially not supposed to film the episode as she was booked for another role in theatre. However, her agent notified Myles of the role and Myles was keen to audition for the series due to its reputation and Eccleston being "one of my favourite actors of all time". Russell T Davies was enamoured by her performance, which he felt confirmed that the actress was "one of Wales's best kept secrets", and subsequently wrote her a lead role in the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood. Myles' Torchwood character Gwen Cooper is intimated to be related to Gwyneth in "Journey's End" after the Doctor asks Gwen about her family history. Alan David was cast as Mr Sneed; Gatiss was pleased with the casting, as he had grown up watching David. On 20 September, the theatre's exterior, along with Dickens' departure scene, was filmed at Cambrian Place at Swansea Marina. The funeral parlour exterior was the Beaufort Arms Court in Monmouth, recorded on 21 September. More scenes in the Cardiff square were filmed on Church Street and St Mary's Street in Monmouth on 22 September. Small pieces of paper were sprayed as snow, which caused a problem as it scared the horses. The interiors of Sneed's parlour were shot at Headlands School in Penarth, a former children's home, from 27 September to 2 October. Based on research of Victorian morgues, the production team selected red and sepia as the main colour scheme. More scenes at Unit Q2 took place on 22 October, comprising pick ups and Zoe Thorne recording her scenes as the Gelth. Thorne had been filmed separately as the Gelth head and was used as a template for animation. In the United States, the episode aired on 24 March 2006 on the Sci Fi Channel. When final ratings were calculated, figures rose to 8.86 million. The episode received an Audience Appreciation Index score of 80. "The Unquiet Dead" received some criticism from parents, who felt that it was "too scary" for their young children; the BBC dismissed the complaints, saying that it had never been intended for the youngest of children. Doctor Who novelist and Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles posted a scathing review of "The Unquiet Dead" on the Internet within an hour of its broadcast, focusing on a perceived political subtext suggesting that asylum seekers (the Gelth) are really all evil and out to exploit liberal generosity (the Doctor). He criticised the script for promoting xenophobia and "claiming that all foreigners were invaders", especially as the top stories in the news were about immigration into Britain. Miles deleted the review and posted a revision, though the original is still available on another of his websites. He later described it as "a chilling tale" and "a cracker". Charlie Brooker of The Guardian wrote that the episode "may be the single best piece of family oriented entertainment BBC has broadcast in its entire history", complimenting that "it's clever, it's funny, it's exciting, it's moving, [ ] it looks fantastic, and in places it's genuinely frightening". Brooker also notes a similarity to the style of Nigel Kneale. Now Playing magazine reviewer Arnold T Blumburg gave "The Unquiet Dead" a grade of A−, describing it as "spectacular", though he noted there were "a few hiccups, such as the weak and convenient plot point that forces the Gelth to be drawn out of their human hosts by the mere presence of gas". He also criticised Eccleston for making the Doctor appear an "ineffectual goof", and noted that he played no role in the resolution. In 2013, Mark Braxton of Radio Times described the episode as "a sparkling script, as crisp and inviting as a winter wonderland", praising the magical atmosphere and the treatment of Dickens. However, he felt that "the spectral swirlings are all a bit Raiders of the Lost Ark". In Who Is the Doctor, a guide to the revived series, Graeme Burk felt that "The Unquiet Dead" was "terribly, terribly disappointing" on first viewing, as Rose and the Doctor's characterisation did not drive the plot and the story was reduced to playing it safe and being "ordinary", as it just made the aliens evil instead of discussing their morality. Burk's coauthor, Robert Smith? , called the episode a "complete mess". He felt that Gatiss was attempting to recreate the classic series, but that it came across as "half hearted".