Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E03 The Unquiet Dead: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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The Doctor tries to take Rose to Naples, 1860. The TARDIS disagrees, and instead takes them to Cardiff, Christmas 1869.
The Doctor tries to take Rose to Naples, 1860. The TARDIS disagrees, and instead takes them to Cardiff, Christmas 1869.


[[Charles Dickens]] is in town, prompting an outbreak of earnest [[Fan Boy|fanboyishness]] from the usually sardonic Ninth Doctor. The squee doesn't last -- the dead are walking, so the Doctor springs into action. It turns out that there's a ''massive'' space/time rift right in the middle of Cardiff. This will [[Torchwood|become important later]]. A young psychic maid named Gwyneth ([[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E13 Journeys End|identical relative]] of one [[Torchwood/Characters|Gwen Cooper]]) can guide things through the rift.
[[Charles Dickens]] is in town, prompting an outbreak of earnest [[Fan Boy|fanboyishness]] from the usually sardonic Ninth Doctor. The squee doesn't last—the dead are walking, so the Doctor springs into action. It turns out that there's a ''massive'' space/time rift right in the middle of Cardiff. This will [[Torchwood|become important later]]. A young psychic maid named Gwyneth ([[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E13 Journeys End|identical relative]] of one [[Torchwood/Characters|Gwen Cooper]]) can guide things through the rift.


Dragging the very skeptical Dickens along, he organises a seance and negotiates with the aliens. If he helps them through the Cardiff Rift, they can temporarily occupy some corpses until he finds them a better home. Rose is [[Squick|Squicked]], but the Doctor [[Can't Argue with Elves|isn't in the mood to listen to some silly little human and coddle her delicate sensibilities.]]
Dragging the very skeptical Dickens along, he organises a seance and negotiates with the aliens. If he helps them through the Cardiff Rift, they can temporarily occupy some corpses until he finds them a better home. Rose is [[Squick]]ed, but the Doctor [[Can't Argue with Elves|isn't in the mood to listen to some silly little human and coddle her delicate sensibilities.]]


The Gelth (as they call themselves) prove to be a bunch of lying promise-breakers bent on (what else?) taking over the galaxy. The Doctor shows his raging [[Survivor Guilt]] over having previously killed a few species, most recently his own, and hesitates to jump into action. Gwyneth takes the decision out of his hands by sacrificing herself. Charles Dickens learns an important lesson about Christmas, and merrily bids the Doctor farewell, planning to include all sorts of ghosts and blue lights and aliens in police boxes in his novels from now on. The Doctor gloomily notes that nothing will actually change, though, because Dickens will be dead of natural causes within a year.
The Gelth (as they call themselves) prove to be a bunch of lying promise-breakers bent on (what else?) taking over the galaxy. The Doctor shows his raging [[Survivor Guilt]] over having previously killed a few species, most recently his own, and hesitates to jump into action. Gwyneth takes the decision out of his hands by sacrificing herself. Charles Dickens learns an important lesson about Christmas, and merrily bids the Doctor farewell, planning to include all sorts of ghosts and blue lights and aliens in police boxes in his novels from now on. The Doctor gloomily notes that nothing will actually change, though, because Dickens will be dead of natural causes within a year.
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* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: Quite literally.
* [[Aliens in Cardiff]]: Quite literally.
* [[Arc Words]]
* [[Arc Words]]
{{quote| '''Gwyneth''' (to Rose): The things you've seen. The darkness. The big bad wolf.}}
{{quote|'''Gwyneth''' (to Rose): The things you've seen. The darkness. The big bad wolf.}}
* [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Or, in this case, with the Doctor.
* [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Or, in this case, with the Doctor.
* [[Casting Gag]]: Simon Callow is a Dickensian scholar and has played [[Charles Dickens]] on several other programs.
* [[Casting Gag]]: Simon Callow is a Dickensian scholar and has played [[Charles Dickens]] on several other programs.
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* [[Historical In-Joke]]: Blink and you'll miss it, but the body that the Gelth reanimate when {{spoiler|they try to invade}} [[Shout-Out|looks a lot like]] [[Memetic Sex God|Rasputin...]].
* [[Historical In-Joke]]: Blink and you'll miss it, but the body that the Gelth reanimate when {{spoiler|they try to invade}} [[Shout-Out|looks a lot like]] [[Memetic Sex God|Rasputin...]].
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]
{{quote| '''Doctor:''' Don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium.<br />
{{quote|'''Doctor:''' Don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium.
'''Rose:''' I can't believe you just said that. }}
'''Rose:''' I can't believe you just said that. }}
* [[I Was Just Passing Through]]: The Doctor claims this when Dickens inquires as to his true identity.
* [[I Was Just Passing Through]]: The Doctor claims this when Dickens inquires as to his true identity.
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* [[Puppeteer Parasite]]: The Gelth.
* [[Puppeteer Parasite]]: The Gelth.
* [[Spooky Seance]]
* [[Spooky Seance]]
* [[Temporal Paradox]]: Rose ''thinks'' that this means the Gelth can't kill her in 1869, since she's still living in 2005. As the Doctor explains, however, a paradox only prevents you from killing your past self -- it's 100% possible for your '''present''' self to travel to a different time zone and get killed there,
* [[Temporal Paradox]]: Rose ''thinks'' that this means the Gelth can't kill her in 1869, since she's still living in 2005. As the Doctor explains, however, a paradox only prevents you from killing your past self—it's 100% possible for your '''present''' self to travel to a different time zone and get killed there,
* [[Victorian Britain]]: Cardiff, 1869.
* [[Victorian Britain]]: Cardiff, 1869.
* [[You Look Familiar]]: The voice of the main Gelth sounds an awful lot like the [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E12 The Sound of Drums|Toclafane, and has a similar fear]] {{spoiler|well, they both say that's what they're running from.}}
* [[You Look Familiar]]: The voice of the main Gelth sounds an awful lot like the [[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E12 The Sound of Drums|Toclafane, and has a similar fear]] {{spoiler|well, they both say that's what they're running from.}}


{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

Latest revision as of 01:07, 29 June 2016
I saw the Fall of Troy! World War Five! I was pushing boxes at the Boston Tea Party! Now I'm gonna die in a dungeon.... in Cardiff!
—The Doctor

The Doctor tries to take Rose to Naples, 1860. The TARDIS disagrees, and instead takes them to Cardiff, Christmas 1869.

Charles Dickens is in town, prompting an outbreak of earnest fanboyishness from the usually sardonic Ninth Doctor. The squee doesn't last—the dead are walking, so the Doctor springs into action. It turns out that there's a massive space/time rift right in the middle of Cardiff. This will become important later. A young psychic maid named Gwyneth (identical relative of one Gwen Cooper) can guide things through the rift.

Dragging the very skeptical Dickens along, he organises a seance and negotiates with the aliens. If he helps them through the Cardiff Rift, they can temporarily occupy some corpses until he finds them a better home. Rose is Squicked, but the Doctor isn't in the mood to listen to some silly little human and coddle her delicate sensibilities.

The Gelth (as they call themselves) prove to be a bunch of lying promise-breakers bent on (what else?) taking over the galaxy. The Doctor shows his raging Survivor Guilt over having previously killed a few species, most recently his own, and hesitates to jump into action. Gwyneth takes the decision out of his hands by sacrificing herself. Charles Dickens learns an important lesson about Christmas, and merrily bids the Doctor farewell, planning to include all sorts of ghosts and blue lights and aliens in police boxes in his novels from now on. The Doctor gloomily notes that nothing will actually change, though, because Dickens will be dead of natural causes within a year.

The Cardiff rift remains open, and becomes a major feature of the Whoniverse from this point on.

Tropes

Gwyneth (to Rose): The things you've seen. The darkness. The big bad wolf.

Doctor: Don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium.
Rose: I can't believe you just said that.

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