The Empty Child

Holy Moly! I was out on Saturday (we went to see a film about a man who got his face changed into a gas mask, "Revenge of the Slith" or something like that) hence I have only just watched the tape. I'm sure it wasn't planned this way, but the earlier start time can only have created a mini-generation of toddlers who will forever be traumatised by even the briefest glimpse of a gas mask. Having taped the BBC3 repeat I then got to see RTD in "Confidential", waving his arms and stating that the over-arching theme for this story would be "romance". Romance? If your idea of romance is meeting your loved one at 1 a.m. in a foggy graveyard and then moving onto an abandoned morgue for some "action" then, yes, this was romantic. RTD wasn't joking when he said that this episode was pushing the limit as to what could be shown to children. A colleague of mine is having to deal with his distressed 5 year-old who hasn't slept a full night since Saturday. He's weighing up whether to let the child view part 2, it might 'cure' him to see the resolution and reassure him that "everything turns out right in the end ...". It doesn't help that the child's mother is away at the moment ... "Mummy ... Mummy ... where is my Mummy?"

Anyway, to the actual story. I'm sure somebody will contradict me, but I cannot recall anything to equal the pure "creepiness" of the horror portrayed here. Sure, the Dalek tentacle from under the Thal cape, the Yetis wandering through London (ditto Cybermen), Autons crashing through shop windows (the first time around) and Sea Devils striding from the ocean; these are all classic images that had the power to terrify. But those were terrifying on a gentler scale, somehow offset by the fantastic elements involved. Here "The Empty Child" gives us an image that will rank "gas mask and shoulders" above those that have gone before ... I speak of the child reaching through the letter box. We don't even get to see the mutated head, just a silhouette through the frosted glass in the door ... the grasping hand, the plaintive cry ... "I'm looking for my Mummy". These unsettling elements are topped off by the simple "unknown threat" that is personified by an anonymous small boy in short trousers.

The writer, Steven Moffat, has added so many themes and references to the В“Midwich CuckoosВ”/В”Invasion of the Body SnatchersВ” threads that you hardly know which way to turn. We have the kids from В“Oliver TwistВ” looking out for themselves (and each other), the spooky abandoned hospital (a horror film stalwart, right up to В“28 Days LaterВ”), the gas masks (1980s pop video short-hand for В“we are all faceless zombiesВ”), the monkey toy that repeated the В“whereВ’s my MummyВ” line (a la В“Close EncountersВ”) В… all of these elements are mixed brilliantly (brilliant in a dark way, that is) and they only felt like clichГ© when the undead moved in on the Doctor, Rose and the Captain for the cliff-hanger (and cliff-hangers are always clichГ©d, so even thatВ’s ok). And I could even overlook the smarmy Captain Jack and his leery brand of romance (although it was good line about living his ship tethered to Big Ben).

I hope part 2 doesnВ’t go in for any easy explanations and that the story manages to grip in the unprecedented manner of part 1 (i.e. gripping by the throat). And hopefully the writing team as a whole havenВ’t blown too many good ideas in this series; I can imagine that they thought there was a strong chance that the whole enterprise (no Spock pun intended) was only going to get one series and hence have decided to hit us with both barrels while they can. Happily, Doctor Who returning for only the one season seems like an absurd idea (a bit like George Lucas leaving things at just the one В“Star WarsВ” film).

I can only close by quoting those young sages on the Fear Factor page (at the BBC site); В“As the episode ends, Samuel asks his mum: "Can we watch the next episode in the daytime? When it's light? Adam has been taking lessons from his grandma about avoiding nightmares: "This is so scary - people shouldn't eat cheese before watching it."