The Unquiet Dead

I feel like stories and serials set in the past are always a very mixed bag with who but this is definitely one of the better ones. We get the first proper horror episode of the revival and I remember being genuinely unnerved and frightened by it when I first watched it back in 05. The whole idea of setting it at Christmas and having Charles Dickens who at the time is touring A Christmas Carol mixed in with the Ghost/Aliens is a stroke of genius and really makes this one stand out. The episode isn't without fault by any means, the pacing is a wee bit strange among other things but I'd definitely recommend this one for fans of the back in time stories. I'm going to give "The Unquiet Dead" a 7.7 to a 7.8

DOCTOR WHO is considered as something of a horror series and it's true to say that the most fondly remembered stories feature Cybermen walking down London streets , monsters coming out of the sea , giant spiders and that one with the mummies but this horror imagery was very much absent and didn't really feature in the show until the mid to late sixties . But it's fair to say that that DOCTOR WHO is summed up as the show that made children go running behind the sofa

The Unquiet Dead by THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN actor/writer Mark Gatiss is very much in the vein of the traditional type of story . It's atmospheric and features zombies and ethereal spirits and instantly reminds the fans of the golden era of the early Tom Baker stories though with even better production values and it's something of a pity that thescheduling of the series meant that it was broadcast on a spring evening . This would have been excellent to watch on a cold December Saturday night

It should be pointed out that in some ways that The Unquiet Dead mirrors the structure of a Hartnell tale in that The Doctor is something of a catalyst and that it's not The Doctor who saves the day while at the same time we're treated to a line that wouldn't have been broadcast in the original series : " First you drug me , then you kidnap me and don't think i didn't feel your hands having a quick wander you dirty old man "

I had higher hopes than i should have for this episode. While it has the potential to scare the younger viewers like the Classic Who did; for the adult viewers it drags on a little too long and so loses some of the grip.

Still an above average episode however, as it does have a catching ending

Classic episode! Very good show, and cool 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, alien time traveler the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) travel to Victorian Cardiff on Christmas, 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 parlor 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 to guest star in "The Unquiet Dead" because he felt the historical figure was written accurately. 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, the episode was filmed in Swansea. 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 criticized some plot points and lack of moral dilemma. In addition, Doctor Who spin-off author Lawrence Miles accused the episode of having a xenophobic subtext, which caused a controversy. The direction and production are both amazing. The idea is out-of-the-box, and the writers of this show are brilliant.Good show. Thanks for making such an epic show, guys!!!

I can't think of anyone who could have played Dicken's better. Just like the the future Matt Smith episode with Van Gogh, absolutely perfect casting. This episode was very intriguing indeed, I thought it was brilliant.