Doctor Who 1x03 - "The Unquiet Dead"

[Danny Stewart]

This week on Doctor Who:

The TARDIS materialises on Christmas Eve in 1869 Cardiff. A reading by esteemed author Charles Dickens is interrupted by a walking corpse, from which issues an eerie gaseous phantom. Intervening, the Doctor and Rose -- together with a skeptical Dickens -- trace the supernatural occurrence back to the premises of undertaker Gabriel Sneed. During their investigation, Rose befriends Sneed's maid, Gwyneth, who is gifted with the "second sight." And Gwyneth alone may be the key to unlocking the terrible secret of the mortuary.

What were the opinions of this episode? Personally, I thought it was outstanding. Perhaps the best so far. This one really rang true the memories of the classic Doctor Who series. It was a bit like "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" or similar period episodes. Very well done to the author, Mark Gatiss!

[Bajoran Rogue]

I loved it!
I like the couple of hints at the Time Lords' deaths, the state of the TARDIS, Rose had to hold on to various parts of the control panel showing it to be in a poor state of repair as perhaps the Doctor couldn't get replacement parts. The "Time War" was a bit of a more obvious reference, I wonder whether the gas beings were on the Time Lords side or opposing them.
I liked the gas creatures, they were a really interesting concept, the idea of them traveling through gas was well used, traveling through the gas pipes, being a reason for them possessing the dead, the way of getting them out of the dead.

[Danny Stewart]

Glad you enjoyed it, Drex. This is the third 5/5 in a row for me. The Gelth turned out to be evil, so I imagine they would have either opposed the Time Lords or perhaps remained neutral (and maybe they were just adversely affected by the conflict going on around them).

[Ross Hendrie]

3/5 I thought it was good, though i dont understand the end part where he turned on the gas taps so i didnt understand how they got rid of them. It wasnt explained very well so i didnt think it was a very well written episode. Danny i accidentally voted 4/5 instead of 3/5, can you change it?

[Danny Stewart]

Changed. And the Doctor described it as sort of diluting the air, like sucking poison out of the wound. Rather than there being gas only concentrated in the corpses, it was in the entire air around them, so they were unable to remain inside the bodies.

[Ross Hendrie]

Ah right i understand, however that wasnt made very clear in the episode.

[Danny Stewart]

He said that though, word for word. "Like sucking poison from a wound." I don't have the episode handy at the moment, but as soon as I do I'll post exactly what the Doctor said to Dickens and Rose.

EDIT: Here's the conversation, word for word from the episode.

Doctor: Brilliant, gas!
Rose: What, so we choke to death instead?
Dickens: Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous!
Doctor: Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host! Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!

Don't lower the episode's rating because of poor writing when it was in fact explained.

Edit note 4/14: Ross requested via MSN that I re-raise his score from a 3/5 to a 4/5 now that he realized there was an explanation in the episode.

[Danny Stewart]

This is a shameless bump so that "The Unquiet Dead" shows up above "The End of the World" in the forum list. Please disregard.