I suppose I should admit from the outset that I am extremely partial to a bit of pseudo-historical Doctor Who, 'The Curse Of Fenric' and 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang' being two of my all-time favourite serials, to name but two, so it is safe to say I had been looking forward to this episode of the new series with baited breath. I was not to be disappointed as Mark Gatiss' script delivered and the production team created an episode that will almost certainly stand up to the test of time.

All of my doubts from watching 'Rose' and 'The End Of The World' regarding the 50 minute stories being too short to deliver a real story with twists and turns have been instantly dispersed with 'The Unquiet Dead'. Everything about the plot was classic Who. The Doctor and Rose arrive in the nick of time to witness a shocking supernatural scene and get involved in the thick of things all in the first 10 minutes of the story before unravelling the mystery of what is going on to the corpses that are walking the streets of Cardiff. It was intriguing, surprising and well-plotted - the first story to lay claim to any of those three adjectives in this season so far in my opinion.

What's more, the script also stayed entirely within the characterisation of the two leads that Davies created in the first two episodes of the series. Rose is wide-eyed and questioning of the worlds she is travelling to, but feisty, headstrong and willing to question the Doctor's morals whenever she doesn't agree with his methods. The Doctor meanwhile is touched by those who are innocent and is venomous to those who are not, totally in keeping with his behaviour towards Cassandra in the finale of 'The End Of The World'. Christopher Eccleston's performance remains intriguing and unique - never before has the Doctor been played with such wide-eyed innocence and enthusiasm when meeting historical figures from the past like he is when he meets Dickens here. Eccleston's energy and vigour in playing the role is intoxicating and I was just thrilled to be caught up in the moment with him. At the same time, Billie Piper is with him every step of the way. She has a better acting range than the majority of the companions from the first 'era' of Doctor Who and is giving meatier scripts to work with. She can express anger, fear, humour and excitement all at the drop of a hat and always in good measure to the requirements of the character and the script.

The supporting cast were superb through and through, with the standout being Simon Callow as Dickens. His performance as the man gradually dissuaded from his own beliefs to accept a completely alien possibility in his world was devastatingly effective.

For all my criticism of the plots of the first 2 episodes, their production was spot on, so the fear was always that when a story was well-plotted, the production might suffer, but that was not to be the case. While not as dramatically edited and directed as 'Rose' and without all the huge special effects sequences of 'The End Of The World', the realisation of the spirits was effective and did what it needed to do.

I have to say, I don't think there has been a 'weak' episode in 2005 yet, but for me this really was the pinnacle of the series so far, right up there with some of the best stories of the classic years. Everything fell into place excellently and as I'd hoped for from Mark Gatiss, a man who I thoroughly respect and admire. Here's to more of the same.

Doctor Who fans may be choking on thier jelly babies, but the show is hurtling at great speed through its very modern incarnation. My personal initial doubts are fading, as each show fits into its new form in very much the same way as each actor becomes suited and comforable in their own role. "The Unquiet Dead" was, indeed, a very modern take on an ear the Doctor has found himself in before, and those of a certain age may indeed be wondering why a character here didn't start singing about monkeys in a zoo and carting Rose off to Java....

"The Unquiet Dead" was the third in what must be seen now as a trio of introductory episodes - one modern day, one far future, one recent past. In this darker, more sinister episode - thanks to the writing of one member of The League of Gentlemen - the Doctor and Rose stumble into 1869 Cardiff on Christmas Eve, and straight into a tale of gaseous aliens in need of a home. The usual moral dilemmas abounded here, and in an episode with a good pace and a strong supporting cast, the story was not quite over until it was definately over; an improvement on the first two which seemed to rush to the conclusion.

Christopher "Fantastic" Eccleston is really enjoying his role, or so it seems, which makes his consequent announcement the more of a puzzle. If fans now accept that "Volume I" of Doctor Who finished with "Survival", this is very much "Volume II", starting when Paul McGann woke up in a morgue and now continuing with a character just as bubbling and with just a twinkle in his eyes for the ladies. In "The Unquiet Dead", the hint seems to be regeneration has caused the usual haphazard TARDIS navigation technique to be completely forgotten, and it is with great humour that Chris manages to persuade Rose, and the audience, that he can travel around space and time in a machine he obviously can't quite control. It was with great charm the Tom Baker direction in-joke was used to get Rose through the maze of the TARDIS and into a 'wardrobe'. 

In this episode, computer graphics again were used but unlike episode 2, here there was really only one creation - the Gelf. Here, the use of technology really helps the show, and the genuinely disturbing sight of people with ghosts coming out of their mouths was very well executed. With great charm and class, Charles Dickens found himself in a most un-natural story and it seemed like Simon Callow really enjoyed taking his own most famous characterisation into a whole new world. Unlike the first two episodes, this did not hurtle towards a conclusion, and I felt the genuine sorrow and guilt felt by the Doctor and Rose were well communicated. For here, Rose is now almost certainly not going to give up on this new life and her conversation with Gwynedd was another chance to show how her character is related to Ace in her modern take on a very bizarre new journey.

This "Volume II" Doctor is, from these past reviews alone, certainly causing some dedicated fans to break their celery sticks in two and demand the dead of Russel T Davies on a stick. Now my own initial doubts are subsiding, I hope others will see how this new regeneration has helped what was a very modern idea in the 1960s become a very contemporary idea in the 21st Century. For, surely, taking the Doctor this far is everything fans wanted. "The Unquiet Dead" shows that stories we have seen in the past can come into the future without being ripped up and ruined.

After the first two excellent episodes of the new series I sat down to watch the third episode expecting the same standard of story and I wasn't left wanting.

A lot of people aren't warming to this 45-minute single episode stories but I am rather a fan of this format and I believe that this is the first episode that really used the format to its fullest. You had a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, all present and correct here. The excellent pre-title sequence sets up the story very nicely and it flows along quite well. The two-part stories will allow for a slower pace of storytelling but in this episode they have proved that the 45 minute single episode formatdoes work.

I must admit that the story was not half as scary as I had been led to believe it would be. Although how scary it can be when it is aimed at a family audience at 7pm on a Saturday evening it was probably about what I would have expected. I am enjoying the recurring themes of the Time War that will proliferate in this season with all the mentions of the 'bad wolf' etc. It is just the right amount of information to get the imagination flowing about what the war was about and how it ended like it did etc. Certainly it will be interesting so see how they do conclude this ongoing plot arc.

The acting in the episode was also of a very high standard with all of the people putting in sterling performances. Simon Callow was perfect as Dickens in a role that he was born to play. The fact that Callow is a renowned expert on Dickens means that he must have been impressed by Mark Gattis' take on him. Indeed Dickens in this episode has a lot to do and is a very memorable character. I like the reference to his novels and the last scene was superb! Also impressive in this episode was Eve Myles as Gwyneth who was, apart from Callow, one of the many highlights of this episode. Her scene with Rose was a lovely, well written scene which perfectly contrasted the life's of the two, similarly aged girls.

Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper were also excellent in this episode and I am really warming to Eccleston's take on the Doctor. He is a very interesting Doctor as you are never too sure what he is going to do and the ambiguity of his character is refreshing. I also love the way that he can go from being very flippant to being deadly serious in the same sentence. He handles the humourous scenes very well and I laughed out loud at the scene in the carriage with Dickens. I thought it was a perfecly judged scene and well played by both Callow and Eccleston. I also loved the line when the zombies are about to break through the gate "I'm going to die in a dungeon. In Cardiff!".

Again Billie plays Rose as the Doctor's equal and they have some good, very intense scenes together. Every week she is suprising me with her excellent performances. I hope she continues to do so.

My only criticism of this episode is that a lot of it seems very similar to the previous episode. I mean the scene between Rose and Gwyneth is very like the scene in The End of The World between Rose and the plumber. Also in both stories Rose is knocked out and locked in a room where something nasty is about to happen. You also have the main female character in the episode sacrificing themselves at the end.

All in all an excellent episode and shows that the new series is going from strength to strength.

Roll on next Saturday.

This is the one. This is the episode, the story, the moment, where I felt at the end that the series was truly and completely back in all its former glory, and with much more besides. With this one, they complete the present-future-past cycle of the first three episodes, and they do it with tremendous style, with what I think is perhaps Mark Gatiss' best "Doctor Who" story he's ever written... the only one possibly better was his first, "Nightshade," and I can't be sure of that now since it's so long since I read that.

So, what was it that did this for me? Well, right out of the gate we have a tremendous pre-credit sequence leading into the electronic scream and the opening theme that was the equal of any of the best traditional cliffhanger endings, with an already scary-looking dead grandmother turning glowy-blue, snapping her grieving grandson's neck, the undertaker rushing in and trying to close the lid on her, her busting out of her coffin and then out onto an utterly perfectly designed Victorian-era nighttime street with snow all over the place, screaming straight into camera. Now _that's_ how you start an episode!

And then we have a nice and traditional story structure which Gatiss is usually very good at, where you take a few interesting elements, mix them together in the special Doctor Who mixing bowl, and out comes a delicious concoction. Here it's Victorian times (has the BBC ever done this wrong?), Charles Dickens played by Simon Callow (has he ever got this part wrong? (no)), a creepy undertaker, a young servant girl with second sight, and some aliens that look like they're ghosts. If these were all the elements of a book or a Big Finish audio, one such as myself might cry "cliche" or "we've seen it done before", but it's something else entirely to see it all realized on-screen in such a convincing way and by such tremendous actors. What might have been bad for the goose was terrific for the gander this time.

In fact, this was very, very much like watching a Big Finish story come to life before your eyes... like a cross between Gatiss' own "Phantasmagoria" (with the ghosts and the seance) and Rob Shearman's "The Chimes of Midnight" (with the servant girl and the class issues), and perhaps a bit of "Bloodtide" as well only with Dickens playing the part of the brilliant man in the middle instead of Darwin.

That's what made this a double joy to see. Oh, and "Medicinal Purposes" too probably, only with Christopher Eccleston instead of David Tennant. :)

If I have one teeny, tiny criticism of this story, it's that it was perhaps a bit too Big Finish-like in places. I say "teeny tiny" because the only people this affects are those who've listened to all the audios a lot, and specifically, the Eighth Doctor and Charley ones, because at times this seemed more like an Eighth Doctor/Charley story than the Ninth Doctor/Rose stories we've had so far. Specifically, I'm thinking of the scene where the Doctor talks with Dickens in his coach and blathers on and on and on about his books. He should be enthusiastic about meeting Dickens, but it seems like more of a McGann Doctor trait for him to keep running on and on and on with his sentences like this than an Eccleston Doctor trait to me. But again, this is probably just me! And a Ninth Doctor/Rose relationship that's a lot like the Eighth Doctor/Charley one is not something I should be complaining about really, since that will be a near guarantee of mainstream success, imho. (and the ratings for this week would seem to confirm that this is already happening)

As for the science fiction part of the story, I loved it to pieces. This is partly because in that slush pile story of mine I mentioned last week in the "Dreamtime" review (the one with the steamboat on the Mississippi), I had also planned to reuse the time-rifts-cause-hauntings-and-psychics device that Gatiss used here. (He beat me to it, the rotter. :) ) I say reuse because this was all Chris Boucher's idea back in '"Image of the Fendahl," that time fissures are to be found in every haunted place like Fetchborough, and was the reason Mother Tyler (oo! I hadn't spotted the name similarity till just now....heywaitaminute....) was psychic having lived on it all her life. (ooo... and could this somehow tie into this Big Bad Wolf thing that keeps getting mentioned? hmmm.) The rest of the idea, of the aliens being composed of gas, was not a million miles away from the situation in "Fury from the Deep," where the weed fed on natural gas, but sort of turned on its head, and glued together with the ghost and cadaver-possession theme, and like I said before, this new combination in the blender worked out really very well.

One brilliant touch to the storytelling was Gwyneth having already been dead when the Doctor offered to set off the explosion for her and the way that it was played. At first, you might just think that this Doctor let her do her self-sacrifice just because she asked to... but upon closer inspection on a second viewing, you can tell she really was dead (the glazed look on her face, her non-reaction to the poisonous atmosphere that forced Rose and Dickens out, and the Doctor checking her pulse) and he wasn't lying after all. But on that first viewing, you might just think that he was being a bit more selfish than usual... especially given the "damaged" issues we learn he's dealing with since last week. It's clearly that which motivates him to blunder in and help the Gelth even though all he knows about them is what they've told him... just the fact they're also refugees from the Time War was enough to turn on his pity bones and do what they asked of him. He clearly feels some responsibility for it, as this was probably also the reason he decided to give the Nestenes a chance back in "Rose" rather than just tip in the anti-plastic from the start.

And I really also love the farewell scene to Dickens, where he keeps stopping them and asking questions, and the Doctor gets to tell him his works will live on "forever." That's such a wonderful idea... imagine being able to go back in time and tell your favorite person in history how much they meant to you and to the future as a whole... like being able to show Abraham Lincoln Mount Rushmore or something. That was tremendous.

And now my extra-special mentions for some little details that I haven't seen remarked on much if at all yet. First is in the sound design, where if you now listen carefully to the interior TARDIS scenes, you can now hear the late 70s-to-80s-era original TARDIS interior humming sounds mixed in underneath the new more TVMovie-like sounds. This is especially evident during the Dickens farewell scene as the Doctor and Rose look at him on the scanner. They've also taken pains to play in the fully-restored TARDIS dematerialisation sound and let it play a good long while. That's also great. But best of all is a really, really, really neat touch from the special effects department.

Look carefully at the TARDIS as it's disappearing... look at the little bits of snow that've gathered on the sills of the panels on the police box... as the TARDIS fades away, that snow _doesn't_... it instead starts to fall to the ground, and then gets whipped up in a swirl by the wind! There's only one word for that: Fantastic!

My overall rating for this... 9 out of 10. I really want to give it a full 10, but I'm in that awful position already of having to hold off on using it as I suspect I'm going to need 10 later in the season. How about 9.2 for this one?

A mixed bag this one. Script wise, the best of the series so far. Mark Gatiss brings together a much sharper vision and brings out the mysteriousness of the Doctor far better than RTD has managed so far. Such things as the Doctor silently overhearing conversations, arguing with Rose over morality are some of the best moments yet. This is a Doctor, like the first, who follows his own laws. Yet this is the second time in three episodes that the Doctor has had to be rescued by someone else, Firstly Rose herself when an Auton grabs hold of him and now Charles Dickens.

First things first. Simon Callow made this episode, he blew everyone else off screen. I don't think there is another actor out there who could currently portray Dickens. Callow has the perfect attributes to do so, it was unfortunate then that this episode was a clunker for Billie and that Eccleston degenerated into the worst mugging and ham acting I have ever seen in the cab scene. Billie, who was fantastic last week, here descended into a kind of expressions by numbers type of acting, she did redeem herself in a couple of scenes, such as the seance, where she was genuinely naturally performing and I felt like I was watching Rose rather than Billie attempting to be Rose.

There are a couple of things that stand out as being repeated in each episode, like they want to drum it into us, firstly, Rose keeps going on about things only occurring once and no one being there to see them, or other comments of that ilk. it's feeling repetitive now. Also Rose, apart from always befriends someone who is going to die: Clive, blue plumber girl, Gwyneth, with the latter two all that has happened is that she has shown her inability to adapt, she keeps trying to turn the world to how she see's it rather than as it is. While this may be realistic for an inner city girl with only a gymnastics award to her name, if it continues it's going to become very predictable and boring. Even Leela adapted to time travel better than this. The assistant is there to show us the wonder of a new world with fresh eyes, not keep trying to turn it into something normal, because it's not and never will be. This is part of what this series of Doctor Who has lost.

I've worked out why this series bugs me, the cinematography is too crisp and clean. I don't know what it's shot on, digital film or what but the atmosphere just doesn't feel right. The special effects this week were again wonderful, the Geith were truly fantastic and wonderfully rendered but great effects do not a great show make if the overall atmosphere is wrong. It simply did not affect me, whereas perhaps a bit more soft focus or grain in the film, a bit of fog on the sets could have tightened things up considerably.

And yet another gripe about the format length. 45 minutes (to an hour) has established itself as the proper length for sci fi serials in the US and there, it works. It feels like 45 minutes. On Doctor Who it feels like 25 minutes. Something about the pacing, the amount of work to do closes down the time. It just doesn't seem to work. The American shows also have ad breaks which are perfect for mini cliffhangers. What I would have done for a cliff hanger after the Geith turn evil, the Doctor and Rose locked in the dungeon, Sneed dead and Charles Dickens running for his life. It was perfect.

Britain has not produced any proper sci fi in years (suddenly after Dr Who they've redone Quatermass), when was the last great piece of home grown sci fi? Neverwhere? The Tomorrow People (90's version) I think we've lost the knack which is why several aspects of Who borrow from Buffy or Star Trek and I think that's wrong, we have, or had our own way of doing things and used to be far more succesful at sci fi than America ever was.

Rant out of the way this episode was enjoyable for Mark's script, Callow's wonderful Dickens and the fantastically realised monsters, there were a few memorable scenes from Eccleston and that was it. The stage manager character was wasted, I've worked with Wayne (who played the character) and he's a fantastic actor and very funny. His first (and only) scene sets the character up and then he disappeared (see him out of focus on the right of the stage as the ghost attacks). Why did he exist in the first place? Is there a deleted scene somewhere? Surely he'd be out looking for his star. What was the point of this character being in the show, standing around for two scenes doing nothing? especially when I know Wayne is a very talented actor.

Also since when did the Doctor become Wales o phobic. Funny lines and of course tongue in cheek, but still cheap jokes and depressing to a Cardiff born Welshman. Especially considering the hospitality Cardiff has shown to the show. I should perhaps be grateful that a tv series even acknowledges the existence of the place. (Having a Welshman running the show being a huge boon)

Overall 8 out of 10. A really strong script that shines through any criticism I can make. Also Simon Callow is just a joy to watch (There's gonna be a problem if the guest stars keep outshining the regulars) I can imagine how scary this story would have been if it had been produced in a manner befitting British rather than American sci fi.

Of the first three, I can honestly say that it was the episode I was least looking forward to, yet it was the episode that reminded me most of the ‘classic series,' and the one I enjoyed the most overall. I even had my Who-sceptic fiancйe on the edge of her seat. "Wow" is all I can say!

Well, I can elaborate on "Wow" - Gatiss' script is further proof that the series can work exceedingly well in this format; it reminded me so much of a Hinchcliffe/Holmes/Tom Baker era four-parter, only made bite size for today's audience. I also love the idea of the pre-credit sequence, it sets up the stories beautifully and serves as a wonderful teaser - it means we still get that "cliff-hanger feel" as the action kicks off and the howl of the music kicks in even though over half the episodes in this series are stand-alone stories. 

However, to get it out of the way first, I did think the plot had weak parts, particularly in the first half of the story – Rose's kidnap by Mr. Sneed and Gwyneth for example – it seemed to have only been put in merely to build up to the scene where Rose is trapped with the ‘unquiet dead', and to compensate for the lack of a ‘real' villain initially. I also thought the Doctor walking in and the dead just stopping their advance on Rose was a bit feeble and detracted from their menace somewhat, though I would argue that the ‘zombies/gelth' or whatever you will call them weren't what provided the story with it's moments of genuine horror, they were just a gimmick. Thanks to some classy writing, the real horror came from the human element, from our own limitations.

After all, when you come right down to it, the story was about the Doctor and his relationship with Rose and to a lesser extent with the sceptical and world-weary Dickens. Gatiss picked up seamlessly where Davies had left off, exploring in depth Rose's wonder and confusion about being able to visit the past (and for new viewers explaining the mechanics of time travel and timelines etc.) as well as perhaps sewing the seeds of attraction between the two – "You look beautiful… considering" and "I'm so glad I met you." Wonderfully and tastefully done in my opinion, at least thus far! Most importantly of all, their relationship evolves in this story Rose was proved right, and the Doctor wrong. I'd assume that most of the audience too was sharing Rose's reservations about the Gelth. This I think will prove crucial to the dynamic of the series – it's not going to be "The Doctor always knows best," it looks like there will be occasions where Rose knows best, where the Doctor can learn from her. I loved how at the start of the story the Doctor was just in awe of Dickens – totally tongue-tied by this famous historical figure, obviously a literary favourite of the Doctor's – yet by the stories end, the Doctor had opened Dickens eyes to the wonders of the universe, given him a new zest for life and the satisfaction of knowing his books will last forever. In turn, Dickens makes the Doctor realise that a Timelord he may be, and a very clever and experienced once at that, but there are still some things of which the Doctor knows nothing. Once again, the Doctor teaches, the Doctor learns.

As for the main blood of the story, it had all the key "Doctor Who" elements, with the lovely gothic touch of Mark Gatiss that had "Season 14" written all over it. The atmosphere was very "Talons of Weng-Chiang" I reckon. The dead rose from their caskets, but aha! It was aliens taking them over. Of course, the lines between good and evil aren't as black and white as they were in the seventies – though they ultimately proved hostile, the Gelth did have our pity as like the Nestene and the Timelords, they appear to have been on the losing end of this "Time War;" the intrigue around this catastrophic war growing each and every week. It is interesting to note that it was referred to as a "TIME war", and that the Doctor made a point of telling Rose that her "cosy little future" can come unravelled… Is this what happened to Gallifrey? Were the Time Lords "undone"?

Charles Dickens, portrayed admirably by Simon Callow, would have stolen the show with his witty repartee with the Doctor were it not for the character of Gwyneth, touchingly played by Eve Myles. The scenes where she looked into Rose and saw the future were the best of the episode for me – and her sad demise at the end of the story left me with a lump in the throat. From watching this episode Eccleston's Doctor seems to also share the 5th Doctor's vulnerability – a quality that made the 5th Doctor one of the most endearing of all the Doctors and produced some of the most poignant moments in the series' initial 26-year run – Adric's death, being forced to kill the Silurians and Sea Devils… Here it was Gwyneth, an innocent, a "little person" who saved the world and died, paying for the Doctor's miscalculation and his inability to solve the situation another way.

The script also had a couple of lovely little touches for the fans – I thought it was hilarious how the Doctor seemed so pleased with himself for changing his jumper. After all, it's a really big deal to a Timelord who rarely changes his clothes – I don't think his first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth incarnations ever changed their outfits! Sure, they changed they coat or cloak every once in a while, but a jumper… no chance in hell! The jumper appearing identical to the one he wore before only added to the humour! I think Terrance Dicks was right when he called the Doctor a "very smelly old man."

There were some great comedy moments too – Rose accusing Mr. Sneed's hands of "having a wander"; the Doctor's derogatory remarks about Cardiff (where the series was filmed); the Dickensian quotes littered throughout the script… it was just another triumph all round. The effects, once again, were also spot on, and the location filming in Monmouth and Swansea was beautiful, especially in the snow.

A wonderful, touching, funny, and scary story, set in a winter wonderland and encapsulated by one of the closing lines from Dickens to the Doctor:

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than dreamed of in your philosophy. Or yours, for that matter Doctor."

Last of the Timelords, brilliant, funny, fast and flawed. The 21st century Doctor!