Series 1, Episode 3 | First broadcast: 9 April 2005 | Writer: Mark Gatiss | Director: Euros Lyn
Cast
- Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor
- Billie Piper as Rose Tyler
- Simon Callow as Charles Dickens
- Alan David as Mr Sneed
- Eve Myles as Gwyneth
- Zoe Thorne as the voice of the Gelth
Summary
The Doctor and Rose travel to Victorian Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869, where there have been sightings of strange gas-like creatures reanimating the dead. They team up with the real-life author Charles Dickens to investigate Mr Sneed, an undertaker whose funeral parlour has been plagued by corpses coming back to life. The source of the disturbance turns out to be the Gelth, a gaseous alien race left homeless by the Time War, who convince the Doctor they need to use human corpses as temporary bodies to survive. When their true, invasive intentions are revealed, it falls to the maid Gwyneth, who has a psychic rift-sensitive gift, to make the ultimate sacrifice and seal the Gelth’s path back into the world.
Interesting Facts
- This is the first Doctor Who script written by Mark Gatiss, who went on to write and act in numerous future episodes.
- It marks the first appearance of a real historical figure in the revived series, with Simon Callow playing Charles Dickens.
- Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth here, would go on to play Gwen Cooper, the lead character in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.
- The episode establishes Cardiff as sitting on a rift in time and space, a concept later central to Torchwood, which is set in the city.
- It was the first episode of the revived series to be a traditional “historical” story, a format the classic series used frequently but the new series largely moved away from afterward.
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