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{{Infobox TV|
{{title dab away}}
story name=The Empty Child|
{{real world}}
image= [[Image:The empty child.jpg|300px]] |
{{ImageLinkTV}}
series=[[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[TV stories|TV Stories]] |
{{Infobox Story SMW
number= 1 |
|image                 = The-empty-child.jpg  
doctor=[[Ninth Doctor]] |
|series               = [[Doctor Who television stories|''Doctor Who'' television stories]]
companions= [[Rose Tyler]]<br>[[Jack Harkness|Captain Jack Harkness]] |
|season number        = Series 1 (Doctor Who 2005)
enemy= [[Empty Child plague|Empty Child]] |
|series episode number = 9
year= [[London]], [[1941]] |
|story number          = 164a
writer= [[Steven Moffat]] |
|doctor               = Ninth Doctor  
director= [[James Hawes]] |
|companions           = [[Rose Tyler|Rose]]
producer= [[Phil Collinson]] |
|featuring            = [[Jack Harkness|Jack]]
broadcast date= [[21st May]] [[2005]] |
|enemy                 = [[Empty Child Syndrome|Empty Child]]
format= 1 45-minute episodes |
|setting              = [[London]], [[20 January]] [[1941]]{{Note|In [[TV]]: ''[[Everything Changes (TV story)|Everything Changes]]'', [[Yvonne (Everything Changes)|Yvonne]] states that Jack failed to report for duty on the morning of [[21 January]] [[1941]].}}
production code= 169 |
|writer               = Steven Moffat
next story= [[The Doctor Dances]] |
|director             = [[James Hawes]]  
previous story=[[Father's Day (TV story)]] | }}
|producer             = [[Phil Collinson]]
|confidential          = Special Effects (CON episode)|Special Effects
|broadcast date       = 21 May 2005
|network              = BBC One
|format               = 1x45 minute episode<br/>Part 1 of 2
|production code       = 1.9
|next                 = The Doctor Dances (TV story)
|prev                  = Father's Day (TV story)  
|made prev            = The Long Game (TV story)
|made next            = The Doctor Dances (TV story)
|script                = The Shooting Scripts
|clip                  = "Are You My Mummy?" (HD) The Empty Child Doctor Who
|clip2                = Gas Mask Transformation (HD) The Empty Child Doctor Who
|bts                  = Best chair in the business - Dr Who Confidential - BBC sci-fi
}}
{{you may|Empty Child|Jamie (The Empty Child)|n1=the condition|n2=the "patient zero" of the condition}}
'''''The Empty Child''''' was the ninth episode of [[Series 1 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 1]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]''.


==Synopsis==
It was the first part of a two-part story, and [[writer]] [[Steven Moffat]]'s first episode of ''Doctor Who''. Furthermore, it introduced [[Jack Harkness|Captain Jack Harkness]] into the [[DWU]]. The idea of alien interference during the Second World War would be revisited later in the [[Eleventh Doctor]] story ''[[Victory of the Daleks (TV story)|Victory of the Daleks]]''.
Chasing a metallic object through the vortex, the Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in London during the Blitz. There, they find homeless children being terrorised, dead bodies with unexplained marks on their hands, a strange cylinder guarded by the army, and the dashing Captain Jack Harkness.


==Plot==
It's the first of the Revived Series to have a child being responsible for the bizarre goings-on in the episode, due to gaining some kind of extraterrestrial powers. This pattern would be repeated in future stories such as ''[[Fear Her (TV story)|Fear Her]]'' and ''[[Night Terrors (TV story)|Night Terrors]]''.
Following on from the end of "The Empty Child", the gas-masked virus carriers each call out "Mummy?" while they back the Doctor, Rose and Jack up into a corner; meanwhile, in a house in another part of London, the Child himself is cornering Nancy. At the last moment, the Doctor forcefully steps forward and commands the zombies in a stern, parental voice, to go to their room. The zombies pause, uncertain, and simultaneously, so does the Child. The Doctor repeats his order, saying that he is very cross with them, and slowly, the zombies turn and return to their beds, and the Child turns away from Nancy, leaving the house and wandering away. The Doctor relaxes, glad that his ruse worked — it would have been a terrible set of last words.


Jack explains how his con was supposed to work: he would find some space junk, throw it through time, convince a Time Agent that it was worth something and get fifty percent of the payment before a German bomb would land and erase all evidence of the swindle before the buyer could claim it. He says the London Blitz is particularly good for this, as bombs fall all the time, and recommends Pompeii as another suitable location that can double as a "vacation". The Doctor does not approve, and points to the dormant zombies around the room as the consequences of what Jack did. Jack protests that the crashed ship was an empty, burnt-out medical transport and so could not have anything to do with this. As the Doctor heads for the door and upstairs, they hear the all-clear siren sounding.
== Synopsis ==
Chasing a metallic object through the [[Time Vortex]], the [[Ninth Doctor]] and his [[companion]], [[Rose Tyler]], arrive in [[London]] during [[the Blitz]]. While Rose meets "Captain [[Jack Harkness]]", the dashing [[Time Agent]] responsible for bringing the object, the Doctor finds a group of [[homeless]] children terrorised by [[Jamie (The Empty Child)|Jamie]], an "empty" child wearing a gas mask.


Nancy hears the all-clear as well, but before she can leave the house, she is caught by the family that lives there, who grab and force her back inside until the authorities can deal with her. However, when alone with Mr Lloyd, Nancy adroitly points out that there was much more food on the table than should have been in a time of rationing. She says that half the street believes that Mrs Lloyd is "messing about" with the butcher, but she knows that it is actually Mr Lloyd who is doing so, leaving the implied threat of blackmail hanging. She demands wire cutters, a torch and food before she is allowed to leave.
== Plot ==
[[The Doctor's TARDIS]] chases a [[Chula ambulance|metal cylinder]] displaying [[mauve alert]], which prompts [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] to ask why they are chasing it. The [[Ninth Doctor]] explains that mauve is the universally recognised colour for danger, and that "red's camp" — only [[human]]s considered red a colour for danger. The Doctor hacks into the flight program of the cylinder and keeps the TARDIS locked on it. However, the cylinder begins jumping [[time track]]s. Coming out of the [[Time Vortex|vortex]], they find the cylinder is thirty seconds from the centre of [[London]].


Back at the hospital, the three time travellers reach Room 802, where the Child, the first victim of the "bomb", was taken. The Doctor gets Jack to use his sonic blaster, identifying the weapon as coming from the 51st century. The blaster digitises the lock, leaving a clean square hole where it used to be, and they enter. The room is in disarray, the glass separating the observation booth from the rest of the room smashed. The Doctor prompts Jack, who notes that whatever did this was powerful and angry. On the floor are toys, and on the walls are child's drawings in crayon. The Doctor turns on the tape recorder in the booth, and the voice of Dr Constantine issues from the speakers. Constantine had been questioning the Child, but all the Child kept asking was if he was his "mummy".
The TARDIS [[materialise]]s in a narrow alley between some brick buildings at night. The Doctor and Rose step out in search of the object; the Doctor notes they have arrived a couple of weeks to a month after the cylinder's impact — it was jumping time tracks, which made it hard to keep up. He hears music coming from behind a locked door and uses the [[The Doctor's sonic screwdriver|sonic screwdriver]] to open it. He steps inside, but Rose hears a child calling for his mother. She looks up and sees a [[Empty Child|young boy]] wearing a [[gas mask]] on the roof.


As the tape continues to play, the Doctor walks around the room, thinking out loud. The homeless children he encountered earlier were living around the bombsite. Suppose one of them wandered near the crashed ship and was somehow altered. The Child is incredibly powerful, and it will soon realise that. The Doctor realises as well that he sent the Child to its room: the very room they are in right now. He turns around and sees the Child standing there, asking its eternal question.
The door the Doctor enters leads to a makeshift cabaret. After the [[nightclub singer (The Empty Child)|singer]] ends her set, the Doctor steps up to the microphone and asks if any object has fallen from the sky in the last few days. Everyone laughs, and the Doctor finally spots posters showing that it's [[1941]] — the middle of the Blitz — and closes his eyes in embarrassment.


The Doctor uses Jack's blaster to digitise a wall of the room and they run out into the corridor. Jack reverses the settings and reintegrates the wall, sealing the Child in. However, their respite is short-lived as the Child begins to batter its way through the wall and the zombies start approaching them from both sides. The Child is not just controlling them — it is every living thing it has infected. Rose pulls Jack's blaster down to disintegrate the floor just as the zombies close in and they fall down to the ward below. The zombies in that ward wake up as well, and the trio run for a door, sealing it shut behind them with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. Unfortunately, it is a storeroom, and a dead end. As the Doctor looks for a way out, Jack vanishes.
In the meantime, Rose has reached the roof of the building where the young boy is standing on a cargo container. A rope dangles in front of her. She uses it to climb up, not realising that it is attached to a [[barrage balloon]] above. It rises, taking Rose with it, clean off the roof and hanging on for dear life. Rose sees bits of the city of London in flames, spotlights sweeping through the sky, the sound of anti-aircraft fire and bombers flying right at her.


Nancy reaches her makeshift living space at the abandoned rail yard, and finds the other children there. She chides them, saying that they should have looked for somewhere else to stay, but they say they are safe with her. Nancy disclaims this, saying that it is not that the Child keeps coming after them; the Child keeps coming after her. As if to prove her point, a typewriter in the hovel starts typing on its own, tapping out the Child's question. Nancy leaves, heading for the bombsite.
[[File:The_Empty_Child_076.JPG|thumb|left|The Doctor finds that the dummy [[TARDIS telephone|police box telephone]] is ringing.]]
The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and sees no sign of Rose. Petting [[Cat (The Empty Child)|a stray cat]], he rather sarcastically remarks that one day, he'll get a [[companion]] that actually does what he says. He pulls up short when the [[TARDIS telephone|exterior telephone of the TARDIS]] rings; it's not a real [[phone]]. He prepares to examine it with the sonic screwdriver when a [[Nancy (The Empty Child)|young woman]] appears and tells him not to answer it. The Doctor asks her how the telephone can be ringing, but when he turns back she has disappeared. He picks up the earpiece, but all that comes through is a child's voice asking, "Mummy? Are you my mummy?" several times before the phone falls dead again. Hearing clattering down the alley, the Doctor looks over a wall into a residential garden and sees [[Lloyd (The Empty Child)|a woman]] ushering her family into an air-raid shelter. He also spots the young woman he saw moments before entering the house. Once inside, she begins to raid the cupboards for tinned food.


In the storeroom, Jack's voice comes over a disconnected radio. He had used his ship's teleporter, but could not take the others along because it was keyed to his molecular structure. He is trying to override the navigational computer's security, but it will take some time. Jack is able to communicate over the disconnected radio because of his ship's Om-Com technology — an ability the Child also has. The Child's voice comes over the radio, tauntingly saying that it is going to find them, and Jack jams the signal by playing Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade", the same music he and Rose danced to on his spaceship.
Rose is still hanging by a rope over a blazing London. From a balcony below, a man dressed in RAF uniform peers through binoculars up at her. A [[British Army]] officer addresses him as "Jack" and asks if he is going to the shelter, but Jack is distracted by the sight of Rose's bottom in his sights. Jack mutters, "Excellent bottom", and grins at the officer, before saying that he has to meet a girl, "but you've got an excellent bottom too."


As the Doctor works on breaking through the concrete by setting up a resonance pattern with the sonic screwdriver, he asks Rose why she seems to trust Jack. Rose says Jack reminds her of the Doctor, except with "dating and dancing." The Doctor is mildly offended that Rose assumes he cannot dance, and Rose, amused, asks him to prove it. As they start to dance, however, they are teleported up to Jack's ship. There, the nanogenes heal the Doctor's hand that he burnt on the TARDIS console when it sparked during the pursuit of the cylinder. The Doctor identifies Jack's "borrowed" ship as being of Chula design like the crashed ship. Jack works on getting the nav-com back online, and in answer to Rose's questions, he explains that his confidence trickster activities are not wholly mercenary. He had left the Time Agents when he discovered that they had stolen two years of his memory. Jack observes that the Doctor does not trust him, and he may be right not to.
Rose loses her grip on the rope and falls, screaming, until she finds her descent halted by a blue beam. Jack's voice tells her to deactivate her [[mobile phone]] and to keep her limbs inside the light field as she slides rapidly down the beam into Jack's ship and his arms. Rose stares at the handsome Jack and gets out a couple of "hellos" before she faints.


Meanwhile, Nancy has reached the crash site, and uses the wire cutters to get past the barbed wire. However, as she reaches the tarpaulin-covered ship, she is discovered by the soldiers guarding the site and placed under arrest. She is brought to a hut where Jenkins, a sick soldier bearing the lighting scar mark of the Child's plague, is resting. Despite pleading with the commanding officer (the same Army officer Jack was talking to the previous episode) not to leave her there, he handcuffs her to the table. Once left alone, Nancy can do nothing but watch helplessly as Jenkins painfully transforms into another gas-masked zombie.
Back at the house, the young woman has been joined by other children. They start to eat the dinner left on the [[table]]. The Doctor appears suddenly and [[deduce]]s that all of them are homeless, but notes that, as it is 1941, they should have been evacuated to the country long ago. The children say that they were, but they returned to London for various reasons. Nancy, the young woman who told him not to answer the phone earlier, finds them food this way, waiting for families to hide in shelters before stealing their food. The Doctor thinks it a great idea, but isn't sure if it's "Marxism in action or a [[West End]] musical".


The Doctor, Jack and Rose reach the crash site as well. Rose offers to distract the guards' commander, but Jack points out that he knows Algy, and Rose is not his type. Jack goes ahead instead, leaving Rose slightly shocked. The Doctor points out that in the 51st century, people are more flexible in who they "dance" with. However, when Jack tries to talk to Algy, the British officer transforms into a zombie and collapses. The Doctor hears singing from a nearby hut and finds Nancy, who is keeping the zombie Jenkins asleep with a lullaby. The Doctor frees her from her bonds and they all head to the Chula transport.
The Doctor asks the children if they have seen the cylinder, drawing them a picture, but before any can answer, there is knocking on the window, accompanied by a child's voice asking for its mother. Outside is a child in a gas mask. He wanders over to the front door, repeating his query. Nancy hurriedly bolts the door before he can get in. Nancy tells the Doctor that he is "not exactly" a child, and then orders the other children to leave via the back entrance.


As Jack tries to open the coded lock on the transport, he sets off an alarm which awakens the zombies in Albion Hospital, who then start to move toward the site. The Doctor orders Jack to secure the gates and tells Rose and Nancy to reconnect the barbed wire with the sonic screwdriver. Nancy asks Rose who they are, and Rose tells her that they are from the future. When Nancy is sceptical that there will even be a future, given all the carnage of war around them, Rose confidentially tells her that the British will win the war.
[[File:The_Empty_Child_Nancy_and_the_Doctor.JPG|thumb|right|Nancy and the Doctor watch the gas-masked child beyond the door.]]
The child sticks his arm through the mail slot; he has a strange scar on his hand. Nancy tells the Doctor not to let the child touch him or he will become just like him — empty. The telephone on the mantelpiece rings. When the Doctor picks it up to hear the same plaintive request for its mother, Nancy grabs the receiver and hangs up. The child has the ability to make telephone calls.


Jack manages to open the transport and reveals that it is empty. However, the Doctor asks Rose what they should expect in a Chula medical transport, and Rose hits on the right answer: nanogenes. The ship was full of them, and when it crashed, billions and billions of nanogenes escaped, programmed to heal everything they came across. However, the first thing the nanogenes found was a dead child wearing a gas mask, and never having seen a "normal" living human before, they used that as their only pattern. They then started to transform everything they encountered to fit that baseline. The nanogenes have given unimaginable power to a little boy searching for his mother, one who is both willing and able to tear apart the world to do it.
The Doctor asks the child through the door why the other children are frightened of him, but he keeps asking to be let in, saying he is scared of the bombs. The Doctor agrees to open the door, but when he does, the street is empty.


Cries of "mummy" fill the air as the zombie army, led by the Child, approach the site. When Jack triggered the alarm, the ship thought it was under attack and so summoned the zombies as troops to protect it. The transport was a battlefield medical unit, built to heal Chula warriors and send them back to the front lines; that was why the Child was so strong and could transmit its voice using the same technology as Jack's ship. Nancy begins to cry, saying that it is all her fault. The Doctor starts to comfort her, but then realises that the Child — Jamie — is not her brother, but her son, whose maternity she kept a secret even from him.
Rose wakes up in Jack's ship, which she says is very "Spock", a reference he does not understand. He introduces himself as Captain Jack Harkness, an [[American]] volunteer with No. [[133 Squadron]] RAF. He hands her an identification card which Rose identifies as [[psychic paper]] — it shows her whatever he wants her to see, which is apparently that he is single and works out. To Rose's embarrassment, when she hands the paper back, Jack reads it as showing that Rose has a boyfriend but considers herself "very" available. Jack uses his ship's [[nanogene]]s to treat Rose's hands for rope burns. He also tells her to stop acting, he can spot a "[[Time Agent]]" a mile away and has been expecting one to turn up. Jack invites her for a drink on the "balcony"; opening the hatch, they step out onto the invisible hull of the ship, floating next to [[Big Ben]].


Jack notes the bomb is seconds away from dropping, but the nav-com is back on-line and the teleporter is only working for him again. The Doctor tells him to do what he has to, and Jack teleports away, making Rose think he has abandoned them. The Doctor asks Nancy to tell Jamie the answer to the question he has been asking all along. Jamie steps up to Nancy, asking once again whether she is his mummy. Nancy answers yes, she is, and she will always be. They embrace, and the nanogenes swell up around them in a cloud of glowing particles. To the Doctor's delight, the nanogenes scan Nancy and Jamie, matching their DNA. Because she is Jamie's mother, Nancy's genetic code provides them the information they lacked with Jamie. The nanogenes recognise Nancy's living form as the correct pattern and, using this as their new baseline, restore Jamie back to full health. With a laugh of joy, the Doctor unmasks the restored Jamie and lifts him in his arms.
Nancy makes her way across an abandoned rail yard to a locomotive, where she unloads the tins she took from the house. The Doctor surprises her again, having followed her. He has made the connection between the fallen cylinder and the empty child. Nancy tells him about a "bomb that was not a bomb" falling near the [[Limehouse Green station]]. It is now guarded by soldiers and barbed wire. Nancy says that if he wants to find out what is going on, he needs to talk to [[Constantine (The Empty Child)|"the doctor"]].


Rose suddenly remembers the bomb, but the Doctor says it has been taken care of. As it streaks down towards them, so does Jack's ship, capturing the bomb in its tractor beam. The Doctor had judged Jack's psychology right and the former Time Agent has returned for the rescue. Jack is riding the bomb itself in the beam, and tells the Doctor that the bomb has commenced detonation. Jack is keeping it in stasis, but it will not last. The Doctor asks him to get rid of it as safely as he can. Jack tells Rose good-bye, and teleports with the bomb back to his ship, which flies away. The Doctor waves his fingers, summoning the nanogenes around them and applying a patch to their programming. He hurls the nanogenes towards the zombies, crying out triumphantly, "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once — everybody lives!"
[[File:The_Empty_Child_Jack_and_Rose_screenshot.JPG|thumb|left|Rose and Jack dance to "Moonlight Serenade" in front of Big Ben.]]
On top of his ship, Jack and Rose continue to flirt. He tells her that he has something the Time Agency might want to buy and asks her if she is empowered to negotiate. Rose plays along, saying that she should talk to her "companion" first. Jack tells her that what fell on London was a fully equipped [[Chula]] warship — the last of its kind — and offers to get it for her if the Agency names the right price. However, the deadline for a decision is in two hours — because that is when a [[Germany|German]] bomb will fall and destroy it. He proceeds to look for her "companion" by scanning for [[alien]] technology. Rose gives an approving smile — the Doctor had earlier refused to do just that.


The former zombies rise; all of them restored to their normal selves and with their ailments cured by the nanogenes, even to the extent of Mrs Harcourt regrowing her missing leg. The Doctor leaves Dr Constantine to tend to his patients, bidding them farewell with an exhortation to beat the Germans, save the world, and not forget the welfare state. He sets the Chula transport to self-destruct once they leave, to fulfil history's requirement of an explosion. As Rose and the Doctor enter the TARDIS, the Doctor is almost insufferably pleased with himself — the reprogrammed nanogenes will fix all the earlier damage they did before they deactivate and Nancy and Jamie will get the help they need from Dr Constantine. Rose then asks about Jack and the unexploded bomb, and his smile fades.
The Doctor uses his own binoculars to monitor the cylinder's crash site from afar with Nancy. She encourages him to go speak to the doctor at nearby [[Albion Hospital]]. The Doctor remarks that Nancy is looking after the children to make up for something and she admits that it is because her brother Jamie died during an air raid.


In space, Jack discovers that there is no way to eject the bomb or even himself, and his situation seems hopeless. With an air of resignation, he orders "emergency protocol 417", a large martini (with too much vermouth) and begins to drink as the strains of Glenn Miller start to play… from the open doors of the TARDIS appearing at the back of his ship. He enters the console room and the Doctor tells him to shut the doors, welcoming him to his ship. The Doctor switches the music to "In the Mood" and starts to dance with Rose, who points out that Jack may want that dance. The Doctor agrees, but mischievously asks, "But who with?" As Jack watches, smiling, the Doctor and Rose dance around the console.
In the wards, the Doctor finds the beds apparently filled with corpses wearing gas masks. An elderly man in a doctor's coat appears. He tells the Doctor that there are hundreds of masked people in the hospital. [[Constantine (The Empty Child)|Dr Constantine]] invites the Doctor to examine them, warning him not to touch their flesh. The Doctor finds that, impossibly, all of them have the exact same injuries to the skull and chest cavity. The gas masks are also seemingly fused to their flesh, although there are no burns or scarring. They also have lightning-shaped scars on the backs of their hands; Constantine has the same scar, but the Doctor does not notice.


==Cast==
Constantine explains that when the "bomb" dropped, it claimed one victim. Those in contact with the victim soon suffered the exact same injuries, the symptoms spreading like a plague. After the Doctor guesses unsuccessfully what the cause of death was, he asks Constantine for the answer. Constantine tells that there wasn't one; they are not dead. When he raps his cane against an empty pail, the "corpses" come to life, sitting up in their beds.
*[[Ninth Doctor | The Doctor]] - [[Christopher Eccleston]]
*[[Rose Tyler]] - [[Billie Piper]]
*[[Captain Jack Harkness]] - [[John Barrowman]]
*Dr Constantine - [[Richard Wilson]]


==Crew==
The Doctor takes a startled step back, but Constantine tells him they are harmless: they just sit there. They have no life signs, but they do not die. The Doctor is shocked that the patients have just been abandoned with nobody doing anything about it; all Constantine can do is keep them comfortable. Constantine states that before the war, he was a father and a grandfather; now he is neither, but still a doctor. The Doctor, [[Last Great Time War|having been through a similar experience]], tells Constantine that he "knows the feeling". Constantine suspects that the Army plans to blow up the [[hospital]] and blame it on a German bomb, but the Doctor suspects that it is probably too late for such a act to make a difference. Constantine agrees, stating that there are now isolated cases breaking out all over London. Suddenly, he enters a coughing fit; when the Doctor moves to help him, Constantine tells him to keep back. He directs the Doctor to [[Room 802]] on the top floor of the hospital, where the first victim from the crash site was housed. He also advises the Doctor to find Nancy again; the first victim was her brother, and she knows more than she is saying, but she has refused to tell Constantine anything.
''to be added''


==References==
[[File:The_Empty_Child_290.JPG|thumb|right|Constantine's transformation.]]
* Jack mentions [[Time Agents]].
Before Constantine can say anything else, he grabs his neck and starts to choke out the words, "Are you my mummy?" The Doctor watches aghast as Constantine's features shift and change into a gas mask and he slumps in his chair, as lifeless as the rest of the plague victims.
* Rose refers to the Doctor as "''[[Star Trek |Spock]]''".


==Story Notes==
Rose and Jack enter the hospital. Jack introduces himself to the Doctor, calling him "Mr Spock", to the Doctor's puzzlement. Rose privately tells the Doctor that she had to tell Jack they were Time Agents and give him a false name. She tells the Doctor about the [[Chula warship]]. The Doctor demands to know from Jack what kind of warship it is, but Jack insists that it has nothing to do with the plague. Jack confesses that the cylinder was just an ambulance — an empty shell which he was trying to pass off as valuable. Jack realises now that Rose and the Doctor are not really Time Agents. The Doctor explains that human [[DNA]] is being rewritten by an idiot — but for what purpose?
''to be added''


===Ratings===
Back at the house, Nancy has returned to raid the kitchens, but the child gets inside. She does her best to hide, but the child eventually finds her in the dining room and asks her, "Are you my mummy?" Nancy backs away, calling the child "Jamie" and pleading, "But you're dead!"
*7.1 million viewers


===Myths===
In the hospital, the gas-mask virus carriers suddenly get up and start advancing on the trio of time travellers, all calling for "Mummy"...
''to be added''


===Location Filming===
== Cast ==
* [[Cardiff Royal Infirmary]], [[Cardiff]].
* [[Ninth Doctor|Doctor Who]] - [[Christopher Eccleston]]
* [[Rose Tyler]] - [[Billie Piper]]
* [[Nightclub singer (The Empty Child)|Nightclub Singer]] - [[Kate Harvey]]
* [[Jamie (The Empty Child)|The Child]] - [[Albert Valentine]]
* [[Nancy (The Empty Child)|Nancy]] - [[Florence Hoath]]
* [[Lloyd (The Empty Child)|Mrs Lloyd]] - [[Cheryl Fergison]]
* [[Arthur Lloyd|Mr Lloyd]] - [[Damian Samuels]]
* [[Jack Harkness]] - [[John Barrowman]]
* [[Algy]] - [[Robert Hands]]
* [[Jim (The Empty Child)|Jim]] - [[Joseph Tremain]]
* [[Ernie (The Empty Child)|Ernie]] - [[Jordan Murphy]]
* [[Alf (The Empty Child)|Alf]] - [[Brandon Miller]]
* Dr [[Constantine (The Empty Child)|Constantine]] - [[Richard Wilson (actor)|Richard Wilson]]
* Voice of The Empty Child <!--Exact capitalisation in credits--> - [[Noah Johnson]]
* Computer Voice - [[Dian Perry]]
 
=== Uncredited Cast ===
 
* [[Timothy Lloyd]] - [[Luke Perry]]
* London Kids - [[Laura Flook]], [[Levi Cavelli]], [[Jessica Grey]], [[Ryan Conway]], [[Chris Conway]], [[David Pursey]]
* British Soldiers - [[Jason Weeks]], [[Philip Rattray]], [[Leighton Haberfield]], [[Alan White]], [[Paul Birke]], [[Nigel Ash]]
* Doctors - [[Alan Sula]], [[Tony Blair|Roderick Mair]]
 
== Crew ==
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|2ndAD=Steffan Morris
|3rdAD=Dan Mumford
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|AssistantProductionAccountant=Debi Griffiths
|AssistantProductionAccountant2=Kath Blackman
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|ContractsAssistant2=
|ScriptEditor=Helen Raynor
|Continuity=Non Eleri Hughes
|CameraOperator=Martin Stephens
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|FocusPuller=Mark Isaac
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|Grip=John Robinson
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|Gaffer=Mark Hutchings
|BestBoy=Peter Chester
|Electrician=
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|Electrician3=
|Electrician4=
|StuntCoOrdinator=Lee Sheward
|StuntCoOrdinator2=
|Choreographer=
|Wires=
|Stunt=Kim McGarrity
|Stunt2=
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|Stunt5=
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|ChiefSupervisingArtDirector=
|SupervisingArtDirector=Stephen Nicholas
|ArtDeptCoOrdinator=Gwenllian Llwyd
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|ProductionBuyer=Catherine Samuel
|SetDecorator=Liz Griffiths
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|StandbyArtDirector=Arwel Jones
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== Worldbuilding ==
 
=== Theories and concepts ===
* The Doctor uses the word "[[Camp (style)|camp]]".
* [[Jack Harkness]] uses his ship's computer to forecast [[Rose Tyler]]'s [[descent pattern]] as she's falling.
 
=== Professions ===
* One of the kids thinks the Doctor is a "[[Policeman|copper]]".
 
=== Individuals ===
* Rose wears a [[Union Flag|Union Jack]] T-shirt.
* The Doctor states that if he was [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], he would be scared of [[Britain]].
* The Doctor's jacket matches the style worn by [[U-boat]] captains.
* Rose uses the word "[[flash (slang)|flash]]" as slang.
* Rose tells Jack that the Doctor's name is [[Spock]].
 
=== Mammals ===
* The Doctor says about [[milk]], "Of all the species, in all the universe, it has to come out of a [[cow]]."
* The Doctor talks to a [[cat]] about his companions "wandering off".
* The Doctor describes the [[United Kingdom]] standing up and fighting against [[Germany]] as "a [[mouse]] in front of a [[lion]]".
 
=== Foods and beverages ===
* The children eat [[Turkey (bird)|turkey]] inside a home during the air raid.
* Jack and Rose drink [[champagne]].
 
=== Music ===
* ''[[Moonlight Serenade]]'' and ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mood In the Mood]'' by [[Glenn Miller]] are heard.
* Jamie makes "[[Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens]]" play on the [[radio]]. The Doctor then references the song name to Jamie, soon correcting himself — ''this'' [[chicken]] — when he realises the song's stopped playing and everybody else has left.
* The Doctor comparing Nancy's actions to a West End musical is a reference to ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver! Oliver!]''
 
=== Psychic paper ===
* The Doctor's psychic paper says that he's [[Aliases of the Doctor|Doctor John Smith]] from the [[Ministry of Asteroids]] when Rose reads it.
 
== Story notes ==
* This story introduces [[John Barrowman]] as [[Jack Harkness]]. Although slated to become a companion, Barrowman's name is not added to the opening credits. The notion of adding a third name to reflect an "expanded roster" would not be introduced until Barrowman's return to the series [[Series 3 (Doctor Who 2005)|two years later]] in ''[[Utopia (TV story)|Utopia]]''.
* The only words the Empty Child says not in relation to his mummy are "[[balloon]]" and a mention of his fear of "[[bomb]]s".
* The Empty Child shows an ability to make [[telephone]]s ring even when they are not really connected to anything, such as the fake police box phone. [[Steven Moffat]] would later reuse this device in his series {{wi|Jekyll (TV series)|Jekyll}}, in which Mr Hyde develops the ability to make his alter ego, Tom Jackman, believe that phones are ringing even if they are turned off or disconnected, and can then communicate with Jackman through these phones.
* This episode had the working title ''World War II''. Early versions of this script quoted this episode's title as being ''An Empty Child''. This is a reference to ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]''. The episode's television listings information and the DVD cover also mention that "London is being terrorised by an unearthly child".
* In [[Russell T Davies]]' initial pitch, Captain Jack was originally called 'Captain Jax', an interstellar alien soldier who befriends the Doctor but intimidates Rose. He was to be tracking an escaped child-creature, the story's antagonist, while posing as an English officer. The name Jax was eventually dropped, as was Jack's original characterisation, instead being a human conman from the 51st century. [[Steven Moffat]] suggested making Jack a human from the future rather than an alien, to avoid having too many extraterrestrials present in 1941 London. His relationship with Rose was made more flirtatious, helping to establish Davies' vision of the character as pansexual.
* The sound of Dr Constantine's skull cracking as his face changes into a gas mask was considered too horrific in its full form by the production team and was cut before broadcast. However, writer [[Steven Moffat]] claims on the DVD commentary to this episode that the sound was discussed but never put on.
* Unlike previous episodes, the "next episode" trailers were shown after the end credits instead of immediately preceding them, possibly in reaction to comments after ''[[Aliens of London (TV story)|Aliens of London]]'' about having the cliffhanger for that episode spoiled. This trend has continued for most two-part stories in the new series.
* [[Steven Moffat]] says in the DVD commentary for this episode that the Doctor's reply to Rose asking him what she should call him ("Doctor who?") was originally going to be, "I'd rather have Doctor Who than ''[[Star Trek]]''," a metafictional dig at the latter programme. This is the first televised ''Doctor Who'' story to make a direct reference to ''Star Trek''.
* Chula ships are named after Chula, an Indian/Bangladeshi fusion restaurant in [[Hammersmith]], London where the writers celebrated and discussed their briefs on the scripts they were to write for the season after being commissioned by [[Russell T Davies]]. This meeting was videotaped, and is available on the DVD release of ''Doctor Who'' — The Complete First Series.
* The episode was initially smaller in scale and personal with [[Steven Moffat]] saying that "there was no big enemy and the major fear factor was a little boy looking for his mummy. ''Doctor Who'' can be small and domestic, and brilliantly effective."
* The French title is "Drôle de Mort" (A Weird Dead), while the Hungarian title is "Bomba meglepetés" (Bomb Surprise).
* Early drafts included the character of Jamie's father, who would silently and anonymously appear to aid Nancy and the war orphans. The climactic discovery of his true identity would be accompanied by the revelation that he is German, providing an alternative motivation to Nancy's shame.
* This episode, along with its following part, has the distinction of being ranked as ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' readers' favourite [[Ninth Doctor]] story in all three of their major polls held since its airing, in [[2009]], [[2014]], and [[2023]]. ([[DWM 592]])
* [[Russell T Davies]] chose a World War II setting because he wanted to place Rose in a romantic era that was just far enough away from her own time to be disconcerting.
* Whereas [[Russell T Davies]] focussed on the romance of the period, [[Steven Moffat]] wanted to emphasise the haunting nature of Blitz-torn London. Spending some time immersing himself in the history of the era, he was struck by the image of gas masks tailored specifically for use by children. This suggested that the child-creature of the pitch document could instead be an eerie young boy clad in a gas mask.
* The initial draft of the serial gave the infected humans more elaborate powers, including the ability to levitate and generate waves of force.
* Dr. Constantine was originally called Summers, and it was he who brought the Doctor to the hospital after meeting at the club.
* The material at the hospital was originally more horrific, depicting a skeleton and organs in jars, all sporting gas masks.
* The street urchins were originally protected by a woman named Miss Timberlake and a man called Mr McTavish. It was ultimately revealed that Timberlake was Nancy's mother and McTavish was really the German father of Nancy's child. The former was dropped, while the latter was at one stage an apparantely mute man named John who hovered around Nancy.
* The Doctor was originally led to the hospital by one of the children, who was called Billy. However, concern then arose that the Doctor did not meet Nancy until the very end of the narrative, so she was given Billy's role.
* The nanogenes were originally called nanites; the new terminology was suggested by [[Helen Raynor]] after it was observed that nanites were a plot device often used in ''[[Star Trek (franchise)|Star Trek]]''.
* [[James Hawes]] was originally a candidate to direct Block One (''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]], [[Aliens of London (TV story)|Aliens of London]]'' and ''[[World War Three (TV story)|World War Three]]'').
* Lighting the Vale of Glamorgan Railway proved to be a challenge. Director of photography [[Ernie Vincze]] erected a single large arc lamp, which proved to be visible from a great distance, becoming an irritant and a traffic hazard. A number of smaller lamps were used instead, slowing the pace of production to the point that some material had to be dropped or rewritten for the studio.
* Jamie was played by [[Albert Valentine]], although [[Luke Perry]] (who had been cast as Timothy Lloyd) stood in for him in some long shots. It was originally planned that Valentine would also provide the Empty Child's dialogue but, in post-production, concerns were raised that his delivery lacked a sense of menace. The production team instead turned to [[Zoe Thorne]], but her timbre was too obviously feminine. Finally, it was decided that the Empty Child would be dubbed by [[Noah Johnson]], who was the son of a friend of dialogue editor [[Paul McFadden]].


===Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors===
=== Ratings ===
''to be added''
* 7.11 million viewers (UK final)<ref>[http://guide.doctorwhonews.net/info.php?detail=ratings&start=100&type=date&order= Doctor Who - consolidated ratings]</ref>


==Continuity==
=== Filming locations ===
* This story is continued in [[The Doctor Dances]].
* [[Barry Island]]
* Time Agents have previously been mentioned in: [[The Talons of Weng-Chiang]], [[Eater of Wasps]] and [[Trading Futures]].
* [[Cardiff Royal Infirmary]], [[Cardiff]].
* [[Torchwood]]: [[Captain Jack Harkness (Torchwood story) | Captain Jack Harkness]] explains some details of Jack's past.
*The concept of jumping time tracks was introduced in [[The Space Museum (TV story)|The Space Museum]].


==DVD, Other Releases==
=== Production errors ===
''to be added''
{{discontinuity}}
* When the Doctor opens the TARDIS' telephone compartment, it's blue but both the inside of the TARDIS doors and the phone compartment are white.


==See Also==
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* Jack is a Time Agent. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)|The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]'', ''[[Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (TV story)|Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang]]'', ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[Eater of Wasps (novel)|Eater of Wasps]]'', ''[[Trading Futures (novel)|Trading Futures]]'', ''[[Human Nature (novel)|Human Nature]]'')
* Jack will later return to an earlier point in World War II and meet the real [[Jack Harkness (Captain Jack Harkness)|Jack Harkness]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Captain Jack Harkness (TV story)|Captain Jack Harkness]]'')
* The [[Chula ambulance]] jumps [[time track]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Space Museum (TV story)|The Space Museum]]'')
* [[Albion Hospital]] becomes involved in another incident when, in [[2006]], the [[Alien (Aliens of London)|alien body]] found in a spaceship that crashed into the [[River Thames|Thames]] is taken there for study. ([[TV]]: ''[[Aliens of London (TV story)|Aliens of London]]'')
* According to [[Gwen Cooper]]'s [[police]] colleague, [[Yvonne (Everything Changes)|Yvonne]], a detailed search of [[United Kingdom|UK]] records revealed that Captain Jack Harkness failed to report for duty on [[21 January]] [[1941]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Everything Changes (TV story)|Everything Changes]]'')
* The [[Tenth Doctor]] quips "Are you my mummy?" when given a gas mask to wear, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Poison Sky (TV story)|The Poison Sky]]'') as does the [[Twelfth Doctor]] when he sees the mummy-like [[Foretold]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Mummy on the Orient Express (TV story)|Mummy on the Orient Express]]'')
* The Doctor relates to Constantine's statement that he was once a father and a grandfather, but is still a doctor despite being neither now. In doing so, the Doctor indirectly references his own granddaughter, [[Susan Foreman|Susan]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'' et al.) The Doctor would later offhandedly tell Rose that he used to be a dad. ([[TV]]: ''[[Fear Her (TV story)|Fear Her]]'')
* During his [[First Doctor|first incarnation]], the Doctor and Susan also visited London during the Blitz in 1941. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Alchemists (audio story)|The Alchemists]]'')
* While Rose hands Jack the psychic paper it says she has a "sort of" boyfriend but that she considers herself to be available, alluding to the stress on her and Mickey's relationship travelling with the Doctor has caused. ([[TV]]: ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]'', ''[[Aliens of London (TV story)|Aliens of London]]'' / ''[[World War Three (TV story)|World War Three]]'') The topic is revisited in [[TV]]: ''[[Boom Town (TV story)|Boom Town]]''.
* In his [[sixth incarnation]], the Doctor met a future version of Jack who had been abandoned by the [[Ninth Doctor]]. At the end of their premature encounter, the Doctor assured Jack that he would "edit" his [[memory]] and, indeed, the Ninth Doctor seemingly fails to recognise the younger Jack here. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Piece of Mind (audio story)|Piece of Mind]]'')
* The Doctor dismisses the idea of using an alien technology scanner. However, he uses one much later in ''[[The Woman Who Lived (TV story)|The Woman Who Lived]]''.


==External Links==
== Home video releases ==
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2005/emptychild.shtml Official BBC  Website - Episode Guide for '''The Empty Child''']
[[File:Bbcdvd-s1-v3.jpg|thumb|Series 1 Volume 3 DVD Cover]]
* [http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=2005-09 Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide: '''The Empty Child''']
* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_tv08.htm The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of '''The Empty Child''']
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/discontinuity/9I.php The Whoniverse Discontinuity Guide to '''The Empty Child''']
*[http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/2005ij.html A Brief History of Time (Travel): '''The Empty Child''']


=== DVD releases ===
* This story was released on a vanilla DVD with ''[[The Long Game (TV story)|The Long Game]]'', ''[[Father's Day (TV story)|Father's Day]]'' and ''[[The Doctor Dances (TV story)|The Doctor Dances]]'' on [[1 August (releases)|1 August]] [[2005 (releases)|2005]]. This episode and ''Father's Day'' were the focus of the front cover.
* It was also released as part of the Series 1 DVD box set on [[21 November (releases)|21 November]] 2005.
* This story was also released with Issue 5 of the [[Doctor Who DVD Files]].


'''Television'''
=== Blu-Ray releases ===
* This story was released in the Series 1 Blu-Ray set in November [[2013 (releases)|2013]] along with the rest of the series. Despite not being filmed in HD, the Blu-Ray features an upscaled picture and fewer compression artefacts. The release was initially bundled with the first seven series of the revived ''Doctor Who''.


{| class="browser"
=== Digital releases ===
|-
* This story is available for streaming via HBO Max. It can also be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, and other online video stores.
| class="prev" | '''Previous story''':<br />[[Father's Day]]
* In 2015, it was released by BBC Worldwide on BitTorrent and iTunes, in ''A Decade of the Doctor'' bundle to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the new series. It included introductions by [[Peter Capaldi]], ''Earth Conquest: The World Tour'' and an episode guide.
|
| class="next" | '''Next story''':<br />[[The Doctor Dances]]
|}


== External links ==
* {{bbcdw|episodes/2005/emptychild.shtml|The Empty Child}}
{{dwrefguide|who_tv08.htm|The Empty Child}}
* {{whoniverse|s01_09|The Empty Child}}
* {{briefhistory|serials/2005ij.html|The Empty Child}}


'''All Media'''
== Footnotes ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}


{| class="browser"
=== Sources ===
|-
{{reflist}}
| class="prev" | '''Previous story''':<br />''[[The Monsters Inside]]''
{{DWTV}}
|
{{TitleSort}}
| class="next" | '''Next story''':<br />[[The Doctor Dances]]
|}


{{Stub}}
[[Category:Doctor Who (2005) television stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1941]]
[[Category:Stories set in London]]
[[Category:Series 1 (Doctor Who) stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in World War II]]
[[Category:An Introduction To The Ninth Doctor television stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in the City of London]]


[[Category:Ninth Doctor episodes|Empty Child, The]]
[[es:The Empty Child]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1941|Empty Child, The]]
[[fr:The Empty Child (TV)]]
[[Category:Stories set in London|Empty Child, The]]
[[he:הילד הריק (סיפור טלוויזיה)]]
[[Category:Bad Wolf arc|Empty Child, The]]
[[pt:The Empty Child]]
[[ro:The Empty Child]]
[[ru:Пустой ребёнок]]

Latest revision as of 14:37, 4 August 2024

RealWorld.png

You may be looking for the condition or the "patient zero" of the condition.

The Empty Child was the ninth episode of series 1 of Doctor Who.

It was the first part of a two-part story, and writer Steven Moffat's first episode of Doctor Who. Furthermore, it introduced Captain Jack Harkness into the DWU. The idea of alien interference during the Second World War would be revisited later in the Eleventh Doctor story Victory of the Daleks.

It's the first of the Revived Series to have a child being responsible for the bizarre goings-on in the episode, due to gaining some kind of extraterrestrial powers. This pattern would be repeated in future stories such as Fear Her and Night Terrors.

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

Chasing a metallic object through the Time Vortex, the Ninth Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, arrive in London during the Blitz. While Rose meets "Captain Jack Harkness", the dashing Time Agent responsible for bringing the object, the Doctor finds a group of homeless children terrorised by Jamie, an "empty" child wearing a gas mask.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor's TARDIS chases a metal cylinder displaying mauve alert, which prompts Rose to ask why they are chasing it. The Ninth Doctor explains that mauve is the universally recognised colour for danger, and that "red's camp" — only humans considered red a colour for danger. The Doctor hacks into the flight program of the cylinder and keeps the TARDIS locked on it. However, the cylinder begins jumping time tracks. Coming out of the vortex, they find the cylinder is thirty seconds from the centre of London.

The TARDIS materialises in a narrow alley between some brick buildings at night. The Doctor and Rose step out in search of the object; the Doctor notes they have arrived a couple of weeks to a month after the cylinder's impact — it was jumping time tracks, which made it hard to keep up. He hears music coming from behind a locked door and uses the sonic screwdriver to open it. He steps inside, but Rose hears a child calling for his mother. She looks up and sees a young boy wearing a gas mask on the roof.

The door the Doctor enters leads to a makeshift cabaret. After the singer ends her set, the Doctor steps up to the microphone and asks if any object has fallen from the sky in the last few days. Everyone laughs, and the Doctor finally spots posters showing that it's 1941 — the middle of the Blitz — and closes his eyes in embarrassment.

In the meantime, Rose has reached the roof of the building where the young boy is standing on a cargo container. A rope dangles in front of her. She uses it to climb up, not realising that it is attached to a barrage balloon above. It rises, taking Rose with it, clean off the roof and hanging on for dear life. Rose sees bits of the city of London in flames, spotlights sweeping through the sky, the sound of anti-aircraft fire and bombers flying right at her.

The Doctor finds that the dummy police box telephone is ringing.

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and sees no sign of Rose. Petting a stray cat, he rather sarcastically remarks that one day, he'll get a companion that actually does what he says. He pulls up short when the exterior telephone of the TARDIS rings; it's not a real phone. He prepares to examine it with the sonic screwdriver when a young woman appears and tells him not to answer it. The Doctor asks her how the telephone can be ringing, but when he turns back she has disappeared. He picks up the earpiece, but all that comes through is a child's voice asking, "Mummy? Are you my mummy?" several times before the phone falls dead again. Hearing clattering down the alley, the Doctor looks over a wall into a residential garden and sees a woman ushering her family into an air-raid shelter. He also spots the young woman he saw moments before entering the house. Once inside, she begins to raid the cupboards for tinned food.

Rose is still hanging by a rope over a blazing London. From a balcony below, a man dressed in RAF uniform peers through binoculars up at her. A British Army officer addresses him as "Jack" and asks if he is going to the shelter, but Jack is distracted by the sight of Rose's bottom in his sights. Jack mutters, "Excellent bottom", and grins at the officer, before saying that he has to meet a girl, "but you've got an excellent bottom too."

Rose loses her grip on the rope and falls, screaming, until she finds her descent halted by a blue beam. Jack's voice tells her to deactivate her mobile phone and to keep her limbs inside the light field as she slides rapidly down the beam into Jack's ship and his arms. Rose stares at the handsome Jack and gets out a couple of "hellos" before she faints.

Back at the house, the young woman has been joined by other children. They start to eat the dinner left on the table. The Doctor appears suddenly and deduces that all of them are homeless, but notes that, as it is 1941, they should have been evacuated to the country long ago. The children say that they were, but they returned to London for various reasons. Nancy, the young woman who told him not to answer the phone earlier, finds them food this way, waiting for families to hide in shelters before stealing their food. The Doctor thinks it a great idea, but isn't sure if it's "Marxism in action or a West End musical".

The Doctor asks the children if they have seen the cylinder, drawing them a picture, but before any can answer, there is knocking on the window, accompanied by a child's voice asking for its mother. Outside is a child in a gas mask. He wanders over to the front door, repeating his query. Nancy hurriedly bolts the door before he can get in. Nancy tells the Doctor that he is "not exactly" a child, and then orders the other children to leave via the back entrance.

Nancy and the Doctor watch the gas-masked child beyond the door.

The child sticks his arm through the mail slot; he has a strange scar on his hand. Nancy tells the Doctor not to let the child touch him or he will become just like him — empty. The telephone on the mantelpiece rings. When the Doctor picks it up to hear the same plaintive request for its mother, Nancy grabs the receiver and hangs up. The child has the ability to make telephone calls.

The Doctor asks the child through the door why the other children are frightened of him, but he keeps asking to be let in, saying he is scared of the bombs. The Doctor agrees to open the door, but when he does, the street is empty.

Rose wakes up in Jack's ship, which she says is very "Spock", a reference he does not understand. He introduces himself as Captain Jack Harkness, an American volunteer with No. 133 Squadron RAF. He hands her an identification card which Rose identifies as psychic paper — it shows her whatever he wants her to see, which is apparently that he is single and works out. To Rose's embarrassment, when she hands the paper back, Jack reads it as showing that Rose has a boyfriend but considers herself "very" available. Jack uses his ship's nanogenes to treat Rose's hands for rope burns. He also tells her to stop acting, he can spot a "Time Agent" a mile away and has been expecting one to turn up. Jack invites her for a drink on the "balcony"; opening the hatch, they step out onto the invisible hull of the ship, floating next to Big Ben.

Nancy makes her way across an abandoned rail yard to a locomotive, where she unloads the tins she took from the house. The Doctor surprises her again, having followed her. He has made the connection between the fallen cylinder and the empty child. Nancy tells him about a "bomb that was not a bomb" falling near the Limehouse Green station. It is now guarded by soldiers and barbed wire. Nancy says that if he wants to find out what is going on, he needs to talk to "the doctor".

Rose and Jack dance to "Moonlight Serenade" in front of Big Ben.

On top of his ship, Jack and Rose continue to flirt. He tells her that he has something the Time Agency might want to buy and asks her if she is empowered to negotiate. Rose plays along, saying that she should talk to her "companion" first. Jack tells her that what fell on London was a fully equipped Chula warship — the last of its kind — and offers to get it for her if the Agency names the right price. However, the deadline for a decision is in two hours — because that is when a German bomb will fall and destroy it. He proceeds to look for her "companion" by scanning for alien technology. Rose gives an approving smile — the Doctor had earlier refused to do just that.

The Doctor uses his own binoculars to monitor the cylinder's crash site from afar with Nancy. She encourages him to go speak to the doctor at nearby Albion Hospital. The Doctor remarks that Nancy is looking after the children to make up for something and she admits that it is because her brother Jamie died during an air raid.

In the wards, the Doctor finds the beds apparently filled with corpses wearing gas masks. An elderly man in a doctor's coat appears. He tells the Doctor that there are hundreds of masked people in the hospital. Dr Constantine invites the Doctor to examine them, warning him not to touch their flesh. The Doctor finds that, impossibly, all of them have the exact same injuries to the skull and chest cavity. The gas masks are also seemingly fused to their flesh, although there are no burns or scarring. They also have lightning-shaped scars on the backs of their hands; Constantine has the same scar, but the Doctor does not notice.

Constantine explains that when the "bomb" dropped, it claimed one victim. Those in contact with the victim soon suffered the exact same injuries, the symptoms spreading like a plague. After the Doctor guesses unsuccessfully what the cause of death was, he asks Constantine for the answer. Constantine tells that there wasn't one; they are not dead. When he raps his cane against an empty pail, the "corpses" come to life, sitting up in their beds.

The Doctor takes a startled step back, but Constantine tells him they are harmless: they just sit there. They have no life signs, but they do not die. The Doctor is shocked that the patients have just been abandoned with nobody doing anything about it; all Constantine can do is keep them comfortable. Constantine states that before the war, he was a father and a grandfather; now he is neither, but still a doctor. The Doctor, having been through a similar experience, tells Constantine that he "knows the feeling". Constantine suspects that the Army plans to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb, but the Doctor suspects that it is probably too late for such a act to make a difference. Constantine agrees, stating that there are now isolated cases breaking out all over London. Suddenly, he enters a coughing fit; when the Doctor moves to help him, Constantine tells him to keep back. He directs the Doctor to Room 802 on the top floor of the hospital, where the first victim from the crash site was housed. He also advises the Doctor to find Nancy again; the first victim was her brother, and she knows more than she is saying, but she has refused to tell Constantine anything.

Constantine's transformation.

Before Constantine can say anything else, he grabs his neck and starts to choke out the words, "Are you my mummy?" The Doctor watches aghast as Constantine's features shift and change into a gas mask and he slumps in his chair, as lifeless as the rest of the plague victims.

Rose and Jack enter the hospital. Jack introduces himself to the Doctor, calling him "Mr Spock", to the Doctor's puzzlement. Rose privately tells the Doctor that she had to tell Jack they were Time Agents and give him a false name. She tells the Doctor about the Chula warship. The Doctor demands to know from Jack what kind of warship it is, but Jack insists that it has nothing to do with the plague. Jack confesses that the cylinder was just an ambulance — an empty shell which he was trying to pass off as valuable. Jack realises now that Rose and the Doctor are not really Time Agents. The Doctor explains that human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot — but for what purpose?

Back at the house, Nancy has returned to raid the kitchens, but the child gets inside. She does her best to hide, but the child eventually finds her in the dining room and asks her, "Are you my mummy?" Nancy backs away, calling the child "Jamie" and pleading, "But you're dead!"

In the hospital, the gas-mask virus carriers suddenly get up and start advancing on the trio of time travellers, all calling for "Mummy"...

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



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[[edit] | [edit source]]

Theories and concepts[[edit] | [edit source]]

Professions[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • One of the kids thinks the Doctor is a "copper".

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Rose wears a Union Jack T-shirt.
  • The Doctor states that if he was Hitler, he would be scared of Britain.
  • The Doctor's jacket matches the style worn by U-boat captains.
  • Rose uses the word "flash" as slang.
  • Rose tells Jack that the Doctor's name is Spock.

Mammals[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor says about milk, "Of all the species, in all the universe, it has to come out of a cow."
  • The Doctor talks to a cat about his companions "wandering off".
  • The Doctor describes the United Kingdom standing up and fighting against Germany as "a mouse in front of a lion".

Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The children eat turkey inside a home during the air raid.
  • Jack and Rose drink champagne.

Music[[edit] | [edit source]]

Psychic paper[[edit] | [edit source]]

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story introduces John Barrowman as Jack Harkness. Although slated to become a companion, Barrowman's name is not added to the opening credits. The notion of adding a third name to reflect an "expanded roster" would not be introduced until Barrowman's return to the series two years later in Utopia.
  • The only words the Empty Child says not in relation to his mummy are "balloon" and a mention of his fear of "bombs".
  • The Empty Child shows an ability to make telephones ring even when they are not really connected to anything, such as the fake police box phone. Steven Moffat would later reuse this device in his series Jekyll, in which Mr Hyde develops the ability to make his alter ego, Tom Jackman, believe that phones are ringing even if they are turned off or disconnected, and can then communicate with Jackman through these phones.
  • This episode had the working title World War II. Early versions of this script quoted this episode's title as being An Empty Child. This is a reference to An Unearthly Child. The episode's television listings information and the DVD cover also mention that "London is being terrorised by an unearthly child".
  • In Russell T Davies' initial pitch, Captain Jack was originally called 'Captain Jax', an interstellar alien soldier who befriends the Doctor but intimidates Rose. He was to be tracking an escaped child-creature, the story's antagonist, while posing as an English officer. The name Jax was eventually dropped, as was Jack's original characterisation, instead being a human conman from the 51st century. Steven Moffat suggested making Jack a human from the future rather than an alien, to avoid having too many extraterrestrials present in 1941 London. His relationship with Rose was made more flirtatious, helping to establish Davies' vision of the character as pansexual.
  • The sound of Dr Constantine's skull cracking as his face changes into a gas mask was considered too horrific in its full form by the production team and was cut before broadcast. However, writer Steven Moffat claims on the DVD commentary to this episode that the sound was discussed but never put on.
  • Unlike previous episodes, the "next episode" trailers were shown after the end credits instead of immediately preceding them, possibly in reaction to comments after Aliens of London about having the cliffhanger for that episode spoiled. This trend has continued for most two-part stories in the new series.
  • Steven Moffat says in the DVD commentary for this episode that the Doctor's reply to Rose asking him what she should call him ("Doctor who?") was originally going to be, "I'd rather have Doctor Who than Star Trek," a metafictional dig at the latter programme. This is the first televised Doctor Who story to make a direct reference to Star Trek.
  • Chula ships are named after Chula, an Indian/Bangladeshi fusion restaurant in Hammersmith, London where the writers celebrated and discussed their briefs on the scripts they were to write for the season after being commissioned by Russell T Davies. This meeting was videotaped, and is available on the DVD release of Doctor Who — The Complete First Series.
  • The episode was initially smaller in scale and personal with Steven Moffat saying that "there was no big enemy and the major fear factor was a little boy looking for his mummy. Doctor Who can be small and domestic, and brilliantly effective."
  • The French title is "Drôle de Mort" (A Weird Dead), while the Hungarian title is "Bomba meglepetés" (Bomb Surprise).
  • Early drafts included the character of Jamie's father, who would silently and anonymously appear to aid Nancy and the war orphans. The climactic discovery of his true identity would be accompanied by the revelation that he is German, providing an alternative motivation to Nancy's shame.
  • This episode, along with its following part, has the distinction of being ranked as Doctor Who Magazine readers' favourite Ninth Doctor story in all three of their major polls held since its airing, in 2009, 2014, and 2023. (DWM 592)
  • Russell T Davies chose a World War II setting because he wanted to place Rose in a romantic era that was just far enough away from her own time to be disconcerting.
  • Whereas Russell T Davies focussed on the romance of the period, Steven Moffat wanted to emphasise the haunting nature of Blitz-torn London. Spending some time immersing himself in the history of the era, he was struck by the image of gas masks tailored specifically for use by children. This suggested that the child-creature of the pitch document could instead be an eerie young boy clad in a gas mask.
  • The initial draft of the serial gave the infected humans more elaborate powers, including the ability to levitate and generate waves of force.
  • Dr. Constantine was originally called Summers, and it was he who brought the Doctor to the hospital after meeting at the club.
  • The material at the hospital was originally more horrific, depicting a skeleton and organs in jars, all sporting gas masks.
  • The street urchins were originally protected by a woman named Miss Timberlake and a man called Mr McTavish. It was ultimately revealed that Timberlake was Nancy's mother and McTavish was really the German father of Nancy's child. The former was dropped, while the latter was at one stage an apparantely mute man named John who hovered around Nancy.
  • The Doctor was originally led to the hospital by one of the children, who was called Billy. However, concern then arose that the Doctor did not meet Nancy until the very end of the narrative, so she was given Billy's role.
  • The nanogenes were originally called nanites; the new terminology was suggested by Helen Raynor after it was observed that nanites were a plot device often used in Star Trek.
  • James Hawes was originally a candidate to direct Block One (Rose, Aliens of London and World War Three).
  • Lighting the Vale of Glamorgan Railway proved to be a challenge. Director of photography Ernie Vincze erected a single large arc lamp, which proved to be visible from a great distance, becoming an irritant and a traffic hazard. A number of smaller lamps were used instead, slowing the pace of production to the point that some material had to be dropped or rewritten for the studio.
  • Jamie was played by Albert Valentine, although Luke Perry (who had been cast as Timothy Lloyd) stood in for him in some long shots. It was originally planned that Valentine would also provide the Empty Child's dialogue but, in post-production, concerns were raised that his delivery lacked a sense of menace. The production team instead turned to Zoe Thorne, but her timbre was too obviously feminine. Finally, it was decided that the Empty Child would be dubbed by Noah Johnson, who was the son of a friend of dialogue editor Paul McFadden.

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 7.11 million viewers (UK final)[1]

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

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.
  • When the Doctor opens the TARDIS' telephone compartment, it's blue but both the inside of the TARDIS doors and the phone compartment are white.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Home video releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Series 1 Volume 3 DVD Cover

DVD releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Blu-Ray releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story was released in the Series 1 Blu-Ray set in November 2013 along with the rest of the series. Despite not being filmed in HD, the Blu-Ray features an upscaled picture and fewer compression artefacts. The release was initially bundled with the first seven series of the revived Doctor Who.

Digital releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story is available for streaming via HBO Max. It can also be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, and other online video stores.
  • In 2015, it was released by BBC Worldwide on BitTorrent and iTunes, in A Decade of the Doctor bundle to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the new series. It included introductions by Peter Capaldi, Earth Conquest: The World Tour and an episode guide.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ In TV: Everything Changes, Yvonne states that Jack failed to report for duty on the morning of 21 January 1941.

Sources[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ Doctor Who - consolidated ratings
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