From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: jphalt{at}aol.com
Subject: The Unquiet Dead: my review

1 episode, approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Mark Gatiss. Directed by:
Euros Lyn. Produced by: Phil Collinson.


THE PLOT

Now that he's shown her the future, the Doctor decides to take Rose
into the past: Naples, 1860. But the TARDIS doesn't quite hit that
destination, instead materializing in 1869, Cardiff. It is here that
the Doctor discovers a dimensional rift, a tiny tear in time and
space. That rift is growing wider, and something is beginning to probe
through.

At Mr. Sneed (Aland David)'s funeral home, the dead are not staying
dead. The corpses are getting up and walking... and killing. One old
woman leaves the funeral home and takes in a free show held by "the
great man," Charles Dickens (Simon Callow). It is here that the Doctor
and Rose catch up with the spectres. Soon, they are all back at
Sneed's funeral home, with the Doctor using Gwyneth (Eve Myles),
Sneed's young servant who has "the sight," in order to make contact
with the Gelth.


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Doctor is intrigued by the walking corpses, and fairly
quickly determines that the cause is a rift. He has no use for
pointless denial, and snaps at Dickens to "shut up" when the author
tries to deny what he has just seen. He apologizes for this harshness.
But after he makes contact with the Gelth, they invoke the magic
words: "Time War." That is all it takes for the Doctor to lose
perspective. He abandons caution, shuts down Rose's protests, and
focuses intently on helping the Gelth - probably because, if he can
save them, then he thinks he'll undo some of what happened in the Time
War. It never crosses his mind that the Gelth are not the innocent
victims they're pretending to be, not with them playing directly to
his own guilt. He sees a chance of an at least partial redemption, and
won't allow any doubts to cloud his leaping for it.

Rose: She is excited to go into the past, and really processes that
for the Doctor, events past are never really gone. Gwyneth observes
that Rose has been thinking more and more about her dead father. Put
these two character beats together, and you have a lot of the
groundwork for Father's Day in place. She has sympathy for Gwyneth,
but not much empathy - She pities the girl, but as Gwyneth observes,
she also "thinks (Gwyneth is) stupid," which makes Gwyneth less
inclined to listen to her when she protests the Doctor's plan.

Charles Dickens: The always excellent Simon Callow gives this episode
a huge lift as Dickens. As scripted, the character could quickly
become tiresome. He spends the bulk of the episode wallowing first in
self-pity, then in skepticism that gradually passes into pure denial.
But Callow gives the character an added dimension.


THOUGHTS

Though I have several issues with this episode, I'll start with a big
positive: This has the best teaser scene of probably the new series'
entire first season. The ill-fated Mr. Redpath's dead grandmother
coming back to life in the funeral home and killing her grandson while
Mr. Sneed groans, "Not another one," and then the dead old woman
moaning as she stalks out onto the snow-covered streets... It's a
perfect mix of ghoulish and darkly funny, and the new series' first
"great" teaser.

The episode that follows rarely lives up to that opening, though it's
not a bad turn by any means. All of the performances are good, with
Alan David's hilariously disreputable Mr. Sneed an obvious Robert
Holmes throwback, very much a distant Welsh cousin of Henry Gordon
Jago. Euros Lyn helms with a strong sense of atmosphere and an
excellent visual eye. Even some bits that go on a touch too long (such
as any scene between Rose and Gwyneth) are kept watchable by Lyn's
ability to maintain the atmosphere.

The episode's biggest problem, for me, is that it's structurally top-
heavy. Most of the episode is set-up, with too much time devoted
particularly to the debate over whether or not use Gwyneth to let the
Gelth come through. Given the teaser, I doubt any viewer is truly in
any doubt as to the Gelth's intentions. And while the Doctor's
reactions may be good character stuff, this entire segment of the
episode just goes on too long. When the payoff - the Gelth's arrival -
finally comes, there is too little left of the episode to make much of
them before they have to be hurriedly dispatched for the episode's
end. Tightening up the setup would have allowed for more time with the
Gelth on the rampage, perhaps even letting us get them out of the
funeral home and into the streets. As it is, the problem is
established with no time to allow it to complicate before it needs a
(very quick) solution.

Lest I overemphasize the negative, I should say that this episode is
never less than entertaining. By introducing the Cardiff rift, it
establishes a plot point that will be very important to later Who
episodes, as well as being a large part of the basis for the Torchwood
spinoff. It has excellent character work for the two regulars, and
very good performances across the board. I might wish it was a bit
less top-heavy, or a bit longer to allow the payoff to be less rushed
when it arrives. But while this will never be a favorite of mine, it's
still quite a decent episode, netting a solid:


Rating: 6/10.

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