1869 Cardiff. A young man grieves over the body of his grandmother. There’s a strange blue light, her eyes open and she reaches up and chokes him. The undertaker Mr Sneed tries to subdue her and calls out “we’ve got another one!”

The Doctor and Rose arrive, aiming for Naples in 1860.

Mr Sneed and his servant Gwyneth hunt for the reanimated corpse.

Mr Charles Dickens is preparing to give a show. He’s old and tired and cynical. He goes on stage, not noticing the strange old lady in the audience. As he starts to talk the figure rises and a spectral blue light rises from it, terrifying all around it. Attracted by the screams the Doctor arrives and watches the ‘ghost’ while Rose chases after the two people removing the old woman’s body. Not wanting anyone to find out what’s going on Sneed drugs and abducts her.

The Doctor and Dickens pursue them in a coach.

Rose wakes up to find a corpse being reanimated behind her. She yells for help and the Doctor and Dickens who have just arrived hear her.

Rose cross-examins the Undertaker, none to kindly, she’s not too happy about her abduction. He admits that corpses have been getting up and walking and the house has a reputation for being haunted. The Doctor says that it is built on a rift, a rip in space/time.

Dickens can’t accept all this talk of spirits and other worlds and starts looking for an explanation he can deal with.

Rose talks to Gwyneth who quickly gives away that she has the Second Sight.

The Doctor has already spotted this and asks her to perform a séance, to talk to the spirits and find out what they want.

The spirits reveal themselves to be aliens called the Gelth. They claim they were victims of the Time War, their physical forms destroyed. They want the rift to open so they can come across and occupy corpses to live again. The Doctor is very quick to insist that they must help and I can’t help but think that his personal guilt over the Time War is the main factor. It’s not clear if his guilt is over something that he did, or didn’t do, or if he feels responsible for what the Time Lords did, but either way the minute it’s mentioned it’s out with the hair shirt and he starts making decisions based on that guilt.

Against Rose’s objections Gwyneth agrees to be the bridge but it quickly becomes apparent that the Gelth lied. They are many in number and they’re more than happy to manufacture enough corpses to meet their requirements.

The Doctor and Rose are trapped in the morgue while Dickens escapes.

However, rather than just running off Dickens has a theory, flood the room with gas and the Gelth will be drawn from the bodies they occupy. It works.

Told that she’s been deceived Gwyneth says she can hold the Gelth but is not strong enough to close the rift. After sending the others away the Doctor touches her neck and realises he can’t save her, she’s already dead. After has has escaped too Gwyneth strikes a match in the gas filled room and blows up the Gelth and herself, closing the rift.

The Doctor and Rose take their leave of Dickens who now has great plans for the future. Unfortunately he will die the next year with his tales of alien ghosts unwritten.

Darth_Namialus : This episode was okay. Not the best but not bad, either. The Gelth were interesting villains and the characters introduced were likable.

I enjoyed seeing Rose speak to Gwyneth, it showed how Rose is the caring side of the Doctor. While the Doctor is off fighting off aliens, she tries to help those being hurt, like other companions. After all, they’re human. Gwyneth, on the other hand, was a sweet character. I really liked how she was willing to sacrifice herself to stop the the Gelth, and her death kind of started the trend that a secondary ”good” character would die in almost every episode (after Jabe).

Everything on the show has a more scientific approach. The Gelth could have been a supernatural race of ghosts but no, they’re alien and always will be alien. Nothing is supernatural on this show. Sometimes I prefer the mystical, but defeating the supernatural would be different and not sci-fi.

Charles Dickens was probably the highlight of the episode. He was a very fun character aiding the Doctor. Too bad he died not long after.

Anyway, this episode would get a 7/10 for me. It wasn’t amazing or very memorable but still fine with a nice sacrifice, fun characters, and interesting villains.