The Unquiet Dead (TV story)

The Unquiet Dead
Script release:	The Shooting Scripts
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Companion(s):	Rose
Featuring:	Dickens
Main enemy:	Gelth ambassador
Main setting:	Cardiff, 24 December 1869
Key crew
Writer:	Mark Gatiss
Director:	Euros Lyn
Producer:	Phil Collinson
Release details
Story number:	159
Premiere broadcast:	9 April 2005
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x45 minute episode
Production code:	1.3
Confidential:	TARDIS Tales
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Doctor Who television stories
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The Unquiet Dead was the third episode of series 1 of Doctor Who.

It was the first episode of the BBC Wales series to be set in the past, relative to the viewer. It was also the first since Timelash to feature an extended encounter with a historical figure from Earth's past. From a production perspective, it was significant for being writer Mark Gatiss' first televised Doctor Who episode. This episode features the first appearance of the Cardiff Space-Time Rift which would reappear this series in Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"] and become the initial focus of Torchwood.

The mythos of the "darkness" and the "big Bad Wolf" would come to pass in Turn Left ^[+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"] and The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"] respectively.

Synopsis

The dead are roaming the streets of Cardiff in 1869 when the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler arrive, just in time for Christmas. Teaming up with Charles Dickens, the TARDIS team encounter the Gelth, creatures sucked through the Cardiff Rift from the other end of the universe, their home lost to war. Surely inhabiting dead bodies is wrong, though! Can both sides be helped, or are these gaseous creatures not to be trusted?

Plot

In the funeral parlour of Sneed and Company in the Victorian era, Mr Redpath grieves over the open casket holding his dead grandmother, Mrs Peace. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. Mrs Peace's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, strangling him to death. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor, then gets up and wanders onto the street, wailing.

Sometime later, Gwyneth, Sneed's young servant girl, returns from looking after the carriage horses in the stables to find Sneed recovering from the cadaver's attack. This is not the first time there have been zombie incidents in the funeral home, and Gwyneth tells Sneed they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault and that they have to get Mrs Peace back before she does any damage. In the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek out the dead woman, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town at Taliesin Lodge. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels he has seen all there is to see.

In the TARDIS, the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns in more suitable attire: an off-the-shoulder gown. The Doctor admires her beauty, "considering" that she's human. They step into the snow-covered streets of history. The Doctor realises when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off — it's Christmas Eve 1869, and they aren't in Naples — they're in Cardiff.

In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol. Just as he reaches the point where Marley's face appears in Scrooge's door knocker, he stops short. In the audience, Mrs Pearce starts to glow blue. Vapour pours out of her mouth, and an ethereal gas with a vaguely humanoid shape sweeps around the hall, emitting ghastly screams and sending the audience into a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor, as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. The vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body and is sucked into a gas lamp, as the body collapses. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed knocks her out with chloroform, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach. The great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase.

The Doctor meets Charles Dickens.

Rose awakes in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, just as the gas takes over Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Mr Redpath and his grandmother climb out of their coffins to menace Rose. The house's gas lights flicker. The Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are. The corpses cry that they are dying because the Cardiff Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. The screaming blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse again.

After recovering from the incident, Gwyneth pours the Doctor's tea just the way he likes it — that is, with two sugars — without asking him what his preference is. Rose lashes out at Sneed for drugging her, kidnapping her and locking her in a room full of zombies. The stricken Sneed explains that the house has a reputation as haunted, which is why he bought it at such a low cost. The Doctor tells him that the house was built on top of the Rift, a crack in space-time that's growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is sceptical, refusing to believe there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor informs them that dead bodies release gas when they decompose, making ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. The Doctor tries to reassure him that the real world is still the same; there's just more than Dickens thought.

Rose talks to Gwyneth, finding out she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve after her parents died. The two girls initially get along well. Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the Rift. She is the key. He suggests they hold a séance.

Gwyneth summons the aliens, who speak through her. They identify themselves as the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed in the Last Great Time War, which left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the Rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists they help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the Rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest. She knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux. The future can be rewritten. Nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth this is only a temporary solution — once they possess the bodies, he will take them to another place where they can build permanent ones.

Gelth pass through the Cardiff Space-Time Rift.

However, when Gwyneth stands at the Rift and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are "a few billion" — much more than they originally implied. They show their true colours. Only dead corpses are not enough for them. They will kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the Rift as the Gelth stream in. Sneed demands Gwyneth to stop, only to have his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and be taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, flees as the Doctor and Rose are backed into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she assures him that she wanted to come. The Doctor and Rose hold hands as they prepare to go out fighting together. He tells Rose he is glad he met her; she replies the same and they share a final smile.

Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street with a scream. Suddenly, he has an idea. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes into the morgue, doing the same, explaining to the Doctor what he is doing: these creatures are gaseous, so the moment the house is filled with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the corpses like poison from a wound. This is precisely what happens; the Gelth pour out of the collapsing corpses, screaming and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here. She takes out a box of matches from her apron, but Rose won't let her carry through.

The Doctor, Rose, and Dickens watch the funeral parlour burn.

The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out before the two succumb to the gas fumes. He tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth and leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in an explosion. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised she was dead — and probably had been from the moment she stood in the Rift. Rose does not understand, because Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act I, scene v). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home and mournfully states, "She saved the world... a servant girl. No one will ever know."

Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. Dickens has overcome his depression, and has regained his thirst for knowledge and adventure. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental to secretly spread the truth of the Gelth. He asks the Doctor if his books will last. The Doctor assures a smiling Dickens his work will last... forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story; he dies the following year, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood will never be finished. Right now, though, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. The Doctor decides to give Dickens one final surprise...

Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and exclaiming, "God bless us, everyone!"

Cast

• Doctor Who – Christopher Eccleston
• Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
• Gabriel Sneed – Alan David
• Redpath – Huw Rhys
• Mrs Peace – Jennifer Hill
• Gwyneth – Eve Myles
• Charles Dickens – Simon Callow
• Stage Manager – Wayne Cater
• Driver — Meic Povey
• The Gelth – Zoe Thorne

Uncredited Cast

• Morgue Zombies - Harry Damsell, Owain Rodderick, John Richardson, Nigel Starke, Alan Dorrington, Julian Bosley, Caroline Axworthy, Mary Cox, Nadine Brown

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young

Written by Mark Gatiss	Produced by Phil Collinson	Directed by Euros Lyn	Director of Photography Ernie Vincze BSC	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Davy Jones	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Lucinda Wright	Edited by John Richards	Special Effects Any Effects
Original theme music by Ron Grainer

General production staff Associate Producer - Helen Vallis Production Manager - Tracie Simpson Location Manager - Clive Evans Unit Manager - Emma Reid Production Co-ordinator - Pamela Joyce Production Accountant - Endaf Emyr Williams A/Production Accountants - Debi Griffiths, Kath Blackman Finance Manager - Richard Pugsley Script department Script Editor - Helen Raynor Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Lloyd Elis 2nd Assistant Director - Steffan Morris 3rd Assistant Director - Dan Mumford Continuity - Non Eleri Hughes Camera Operators - Mike Costelloe, Martin Stephens Focus Pullers - Steve Lawes, Mark Isaac Grip - John Robinson Camera Assistants - Anna James, David Jones Boom Operator - Damian Richardson Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Peter Chester	Art department Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Art Department Co-ordinator - Gwenllian Llwyd Production Buyer - Catherine Samuel Set Decorator - Peter Walpole Concept Artist - Bryan Hitch Graphic Artist - Jenny Bowers Standby Props - Phill Shellard, Adrian Anscombe Standby Art Director - Arwel Wyn Jones Property Master - Patrick Begley Construction Manager - Andrew Smith Costume department Wardrobe Supervisor - Yolanda Peart-Smith	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Linda Davie Make-up Artists - Sarah Wilson, Claire Pritchard Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Lee Sheward Stunt Performer - Lucy Allan Casting Casting Associate - Kirsty Robertson General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Ceres Doyle On-line Editor - Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects Visual FX Producer - Will Cohen Visual FX Supervisor - Dave Houghton 3D Artists - Chris Tucker, Chris Petts 2D Artists - Sara Bennett, Jennifer Herbert, Simon C. Holden, Alberto Montanes, Astrid Busser-Casas, David Bowman Colourist - Kai van Beers Sound Sound Recordist - Ian Richardson Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Dialogue Editor - Paul McFadden Sound FX Editor - Paul Jefferies

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

Worldbuilding

• According to the Doctor, Rose is nineteen years old.
• As he panics about how he is going to die in the dungeon in Cardiff, the Doctor claims he has seen the fall of Troy and World War V, and has "pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party".
• The Doctor calls Rose "Barbarella" for wanting to go out before changing into something more suitable for 1869.
• There are several literary in-jokes during Dickens and the Doctor's conversation in the coach.
  • The "American bit" in Martin Chuzzlewit, which the Doctor describes as "rubbish" and "padding", was indeed inserted by Dickens to spice up the original serialised story when sales flagged, although the gambit failed to improve sales.
  • The death of Little Nell, which the Doctor says always "cracks [him] up," is cited (notably by Oscar Wilde in 1895) as an example of bathos, excessive sentimentality and purple prose that becomes unintentionally amusing.

TARDIS arrival

• The Doctor was aiming for Naples, 24 December 1860, but they arrive in Cardiff, Christmas Eve, 1869.

Individuals

• Sneed once did a bishop a favour.

Locations

• The deceased are laid to rest in the Chapel of Rest.

Professions

• Dickens calls the Doctor a "navvy".

Foods and beverages

• Gwyneth serves tea to everyone. The Doctor takes his with two sugars.

Last Great Time War

• The Gelth mention "the Time War".

Space-time anomalies

• The rift is a weak point in time and space.

Bad Wolf arc

• When looking into Rose's mind, Gwyneth is frightened and breaks off contact when she sees "the things you've seen... the darkness... the big bad wolf!"

Story notes

• The Unquiet Dead was initially titled My Name's Dickens... Charles Dickens. It later held the title The Crippingwell Horror. The Angels of Crippingwell was also considered as a title.
• Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television and in a one-man show. The Unquiet Dead was his fifth time playing Dickens in a film or TV production.
• The address on Sneed's hearse indicates his mortuary is in Llandaff where the BBC Wales production offices are. Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks, was also born there.
• Dickens also cries, "What the Shakespeare?", a play on the common exclamation, "What the Dickens?" Contrary to popular belief, the phrase has nothing to do with Charles Dickens; "Dickens" is a euphemism for the Devil. Riffing on this comment, in the 2006 Big Finish Productions audio drama The Kingmaker, William Shakespeare cries, "What the Geoffrey Chaucer?" Shakespeare used the phrase "What the Dickens" in his work (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, scene ii).
• Mark Gatiss stated in Radio Times that the original script was bleaker and more frightening, including details about the previous death of Gwyneth's younger brother. He was advised by Russell T Davies to "make it more of a romp."
• When Eve Myles was cast as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood, it was noted that the character she played in The Unquiet Dead had a similar name. Russell T Davies initially stated that there was no relationship between the two characters. In the fourth season finale episode, Journey's End ^[+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"], written by Davies, there is a short conversation between the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, which suggests that Gwyneth's physical characteristics remained as an echo in the Time Rift and eventually imprinted themselves into Gwen. Russell T Davies has explained it as "It's not familial as we understand it. There's no blood tie. Spatial genetic multiplicity means an echo and repetition of physical traits across a Time Rift."
• According to Mark Gatiss on this story's commentary, there was originally going to be a scene in which the Doctor was mistaken for Sneed's new cleaner. Someone would have stated, "I thought you'd be a woman" to which the Doctor replies "No, not yet", hinting that Time Lords can change sex.
• The episode also reintroduces the TARDIS's habit of taking the Doctor to the wrong places, something that had not yet happened in the revived series.
• At an early stage, under the title of The Crippingwell Horror, the adventure was set at a "spiritualist hotel" owned by a Mrs Plumchute, and involved a psychic named Noah Sneed contacting the Gelth. The maid, Gwyneth, was a much more minor character at this stage; her brother, Davy, was interred at the nearby Crippingwell Cemetery.
• Gabriel Sneed was initially conceived to be a younger character, with David Tennant in mind for the role.
• Several characters were introduced and subsequently excised, including Mrs Sneed (who became superfluous as Mark Gatiss strived to focus on Gwyneth) and a fake medium named Gideon Mortlock (who survived only in Gwyneth's mention of learning how to conduct a séance from a Madame Mortlock).
• During the scene in which the Doctor and Dickens are talking in the coach, the driver was supposed to shout down to them (referencing a Dickens work) and the coach was to crash, but this was too expensive.
• There was originally a scene where the Doctor responds to Rose's assertion that recorded history can't be altered by taking her to a devastated 2005, inspired by a similar scene in Pyramids of Mars. Drawing the eerie depiction of George's travel through time in the 1960 film version of The Time Machine, Mark Gatiss scripted this to show the TARDIS scanner filling with Gelth-animated zombies as time marched on. However, it was ultimately felt that the return to the TARDIS interrupted the flow of the story too much and so the scene was removed, with the threat to the future now established through dialogue between the Doctor and Rose.
• The Hungarian title of this episode is "Testrablók" (Body Robbers).
• Mark Gatiss was encouraged to personify the Gelth, which he originally questioned because he felt that monsters whispering "Doctor" was a cliché; Phil Collinson remarked that perhaps it was a cliché because it worked well.
• At the time, Mark Gatiss was best known for The League of Gentlemen. Christopher Eccleston made a cameo appearance in the final episode, "How the Elephant Got Its Trunk".
• The Rift was added into the plot to simplify the Gelth's origins.
• Mark Gatiss originally resisted having Dickens star in the episode, as traditionally the Doctor only mentioned meeting historical figures, but he eventually warmed to the idea.
• Mark Gatiss set the story at Christmas due to his love of A Christmas Carol. He later realised that Dickens' journey in the episode mirrored that of Ebenezer Scrooge. In one scene, Gatiss wanted the knocker on a door behind Dickens to briefly show the Gelth's face in reference to A Christmas Carol, but this visual effect was not done.
• The episode originally began in the TARDIS, as Mark Gatiss wanted the first glimpse of 1860 to be through Rose's eyes. While this changed, Gatiss still wanted to show how great travelling in time is.
• It was scripted that snow would blow into the TARDIS when the doors opened, but this was cut because of budget reasons.
• Because the episode underran, some new scenes were added - Sneed telling Gwyneth that they would pursue Mrs Peace was new, as was Rose's mention of her father (which now presaged the forthcoming Father's Day) and Dickens exhorting the Doctor about the longevity of his works.
• Simon 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". Euros Lyn noted that the material being of interest to Callow was key to getting him involved.
• Promoting his role in Doctor Who, Simon Callow stated that Mark Gatiss knew "exactly what Dickens is all about" and "very cleverly connects his idealism... with the Doctor's desire to save the world". 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 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 Christopher Eccleston being "one of my favourite actors of all time". After inadvertently attending the audition in a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of two naked women kissing under the slogan "I support Nudist Colonies", Myles was convinced she had not got the part; her appearance contrasted grossly with Gwyneth's personality. After being notified of her success Myles did not want to prioritise between her theatre commitments and Doctor Who; her agent decided that she would appear in the episode.
• Mark Gatiss was pleased with Alan David's casting, as he had grown up watching the actor.
• Small pieces of paper were sprayed as snow, which caused a problem as it scared the horses. However, the snow falling from the sky was a foam substance.
• The actors who played the dead bodies possessed by the Gelth had simple make-up, with just shading and contact lenses and no prosthetics. The production team was mindful of the programme's audience, and decided to not have any missing facial features.
• Zoe Thorne had been filmed separately as the Gelth head and was used as a template for animation. In other scenes, Thorne had the challenge of matching her voice-overs to the actors who portrayed the bodies animated by the Gelth.
• Originally, The Mill planned the computer-generated effects (CGI) to just be the "ethereal swirl", but in the seance scene they ran into the challenge of animating the Gelth's mouth.
• The Gelth turning red during the seance scene was a "last-minute" change to the visual effects.
• The Mill overshot their quota of CGI for the episode, and compensated with small swirls in shots that focused on other characters.
• Lawrence Miles posted a scathing review 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. The review produced considerable backlash on the Internet, mainly over his comments about Mark Gatiss. Miles was personally contacted and ran into trouble with his publishers, Miles deleted the review and posted a revision, though the original is still available on another of his websites.
• The scene in which the Doctor expresses his appreciation for Dickens' work to the author himself is rather ironic, as Christopher Eccleston would later portray the role of Fagin, a character from Dickens' most famous novel, Oliver Twist in the 2022 CBBC prequel series entitled Dodger, focusing on the Artful Dodger. In 2023, he starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic.
• Russell T Davies' pitch document informally dubbed the story My Name's Dickens... Charles Dickens. It saw Dickens investigating Miss Pendragon (a name recycled from Dark Season) who purported to have invented an Ectoplasm Machine which could summon ghosts. The device turned out to be a weapon, while the ghosts were unmasked as aliens.
• The Gelth were partly inspired by an image which had haunted Mark Gatiss in his youth, of a cadaver in a wedding dress.
• The Gelth's need to possess human bodies drew upon elements of Last of the Gaderene, which was also written by Mark Gatiss.
• Mark Gatiss initially thought that the Gelth could be defeated by being condensed into a liquid form.
• Gwyneth was named after a character in Upstairs Downstairs episode "Desirous of Change".
• Mrs Peace was named after Victorian-era burglar and murderer Charles Peace.
• Dickens' description of the Gelth as “phantasmagoria” was an intentional reference to Phantasmagoria, which was also written by Mark Gatiss.
• Billie Piper was unwell during the shoot in Penarth, and was also dealing with the deterioration of her marriage to Chris Evans, which had gained considerable attention in the tabloid press. Fortunately, the series gave Piper something on which to focus her energies.
• Russell T Davies was very impressed with Eve Myles's performance and when the episode underran, he gave her more scenes. Amongst the new material was Sneed telling Gwyneth that they would pursue Mrs Peace, the scene between Rose and Gwyneth and Dickens discussing his legacy with the Doctor and Rose.

Ratings

• 8.86 million (UK final)

Broadcasts

• An advert for the American broadcast of this episode on the Sci Fi Channel read, "The year: 1869. The place: England. The problem: The walking dead." The episode is set in Wales, not England. The location of this episode is also misidentified as "Victorian England" in Doctor Who: The Interactive Electronic Board Game by Toy Brokers.
• Author and Faction Paradox creator Lawrence Miles posted a damning review of this episode 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). The review produced some considerable backlash in Internet forums, especially in light of his favourable reviews of Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"] and The End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"], mainly over his comments about writer Mark Gatiss. Miles conceded in a later edit of the review that the subtext was probably unintentional, but still felt it should have been detected and edited out of the script.

Filming locations

• Although the story is set in 19th century Cardiff, the production was actually filmed in Swansea and Monmouth, as there were not enough Victorian-looking buildings in Cardiff.
• The funeral parlour was filmed at a children's home in Cardiff.

• New Theatre, Cardiff (Theatre where Charles Dickens gives his performance)
• Beaufort Arms Court, Monmouth
• White Swan Court, Monmouth
• Headlands School, Penarth
• Cambrian Place, Swansea Marina, Swansea
• Shire Hall, Monmouth
• St Mary's Street, Monmouth
• Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Imperial Way, Newport

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• Redpath reacts when the lid is taken off the coffin he is in.
• At the end, the Doctor and Rose treat Charles Dickens by making the TARDIS dematerialise in front of him. The engines begin to grind but the twin-engine pumps do not move.
• In one of the scenes set in the theatre when the Doctor and Rose confront Gelth for the first time an electric light switch is visible on the wall behind Rose.

Explainable Errors

Internet Movie Database

Anachronisms

• Dickens uses the phrase "On with the motley." which is anachronistically incorrect. The phrase translates from "vesti la giubba", a line of dialogue from the opera 'I Pagliacci'. The opera wasn't written until 1892, and wasn't translated into English until 1902 (by Enrico Caruso). The phrase could have been use years before it was included in the opera.

Miscellaneous

• When The Doctor and Rose first land, he tells her the date is December 24, 1860. Later in Charles Dickens' dressing room there is a poster listing the date as December 24, 1869. The Doctor was aiming for 1860, and didn't realise they were in 1869 until after he and Rose had left the TARDIS.

Movie Mistakes

Corrections

• When Rose is having a friendly chat with Gwyneth, just before the Doctor walks in the room, a crew member's shoulder and arm is visible in the bottom left of the screen. That's the Doctor's shoulder and arm. The material of the clothing is the same as his jacket, and he's standing the same distance away from Rose and Gwyneth.
• The Doctor advises Rose to change her clothes as to be less conspicuous in the 1860's, yet he himself does not change his clothing. He states he changed his jumper, however, it has been widely stated that he simply "blends in".
• Charles Dickens says he is going off to catch a mail coach ("Quite literally 'Post Haste'" is the line). However, mail coaches ceased to be in regular use some 40 years earlier in the 1830s, killed off by the arrival of the railway network. He could be using slang. Mail coach = Mail train.

Continuity

• Gwyneth references the "big bad wolf" when sensing Rose's thoughts. The phrase "Bad Wolf" would prove to have special meaning in Rose's future, revealed in TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"].
• Rose has been thinking about her father a lot recently, foreshadowing her meeting him in TV: Father's Day ^[+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"].
• The Doctor suggests Gwyneth's powers are due to her growing up near the time rift. Mrs Tyler developed psychic abilities due to spending her childhood near a time fissure. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
• The Doctor and Rose revisit the Cardiff rift in the 21st century in TV: Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"] and Torchwood Three would regularly monitor and interact with it over the course of many years. (TV: Everything Changes, et al.)
• The Doctor gives Rose some complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe: "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left." Previously the Fourth Doctor asked Leela to escort Chancellor Borusa to the VIP suite. The directions were so complicated that she lost her way and left him in a luxurious bathroom instead. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
  • This echoes a similar conversation between Romana and Chris Parsons (TV: Shada, WC: Shada) about where to find the TARDIS medical kit.
  • The Eleventh Doctor gives a similarly complicated set of directions to Amy Pond about finding the drawing room (GAME: TARDIS):

Half a mile down the corridor, left, then right, then right again, then the third right, past a weird swirly thing, left, then the other left, through the sunroom, past a green door, right, along a wall until it becomes slimy, down a lift to the third floor and straight ahead - easy-peasy!"Eleventh Doctor

• The Doctor's partiality to the works of Dickens was indicated previously when the Sixth Doctor quoted A Tale of Two Cities. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) The Fourth Doctor also read out a description of Little Nell's dress (from The Old Curiosity Shop). (TV: Shada)
• Rose later references both her conversation with Gwyneth and Gwyneth's sacrifice in TV: Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"].
• The Doctor previously fell for trickery only to endanger others in his first, (TV: The Daleks) second, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) third, (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians) fourth, (TV: The Brain of Morbius) fifth, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks) sixth, (AUDIO: The Juggernauts) seventh, (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) and eighth incarnations. (AUDIO: To the Death)
• Rose and the Tenth Doctor notice that Gwen Cooper bears a strong resemblance to Gwyneth, which the Doctor attributes to several generations of Gwen's family having lived in Cardiff, displayed in TV: Journey's End ^[+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"].
• Donna Noble unintentionally references these events: "Yeah, but think about it. There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie... No, but isn't that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. I mean that's like meeting Charles Dickens, and he's surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas." The Doctor reacts but does not explain, as shown in TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp ^[+]Loading...["The Unicorn and the Wasp (TV story)"].
• The Doctor will later have many more adventures at or near Christmas, as displayed in TV: The Christmas Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], The Runaway Bride ^[+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"], Voyage of the Damned ^[+]Loading...["Voyage of the Damned (TV story)","Voyage of the Damned"], The Next Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Next Doctor (TV story)"], The End of Time ^[+]Loading...["The End of Time (TV story)"], A Christmas Carol ^[+]Loading...["A Christmas Carol (TV story)"], The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (TV story)"], The Snowmen ^[+]Loading...["The Snowmen (TV story)"], Last Christmas ^[+]Loading...["Last Christmas (TV story)"], Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"] and The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"].
• During his sixth incarnation, the Doctor encountered the Artful Dodger, a major character from Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, in the Land of Fiction. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
• Charles Dickens later reappears as part of an alternative timeline created by River Song's defiance of a fixed point in time, as experienced in TV: The Wedding of River Song ^[+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"].
• The Doctor mentions that he saw the fall of Troy. (TV: The Myth Makers)
• During his eighth incarnation, the Doctor met Charles Dickens in the Reform Club in London in 1866. The two of them got into an argument about an error in Great Expectations. (AUDIO: The Man Who Wasn't There)
• This is not the only time the Doctor is called a "navvie" in this incarnation. (PROSE: The Albino's Dancer)
• Despite Rose and Dickens struggling to breathe as the dungeon fills with gas, the Doctor shows no issues with it due to his respiratory bypass system. The Fourth Doctor was previously able to avoid breathing in helium because of it. (TV: The Robots of Death)

Home video releases

Series 1 Volume 1 DVD Cover

• This story was released along with Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"] and The End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"] on a "vanilla" DVD with no extras.
• It was also part of the Series 1 DVD box set.
• This story was also released with Issue 2 of the Doctor Who DVD Files.

External links

• BBC - Doctor Who - Episode Guide - The Unquiet Dead
• The Unquiet Dead at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Unquiet Dead at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• The Discontinuity Guide to: The Unquiet Dead at The Whoniverse
• The Unquiet Dead at The Locations Guide