The Unquiet Dead [TV/2005.4.9]

★★★★☆

  A pity that this is all but forgotten nowadays -- I genuinely think The Unquiet Dead is a fantastic slice of television, putting teatime terror back on the forefront of the revived show. It's a bold move to make an episode that feel most like a condensed four-parter from the days of old, and I'm not joking at all when I say that we were incredibly lucky to have Mark Gatiss pen this particular tale. If you're going to use familiar subjects and structures to create something thrilling and chilling, Gatiss is your man. 

  Who's also the man? Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper, carrying the refreshing feeling of travel -- the first experience stepping on grounds of the past -- with such ease and refinement. They slip into this mini horror tale effortlessly, with Rose being the quintessential audience identification figure and the Doctor being the stern but breathless and kind guide throughout the universe. Eccleston gets to do so many wonderful things with the Ninth Doctor here, such as when he gushes over Charles Dickens, and when he betrays grief and guilt towards the seeming victims of the Time War. Series 1 of Doctor Who is such an intricately set-up series of stories, and the development between the Doctor and Rose we see here is vital in the episodes to come. 

  For its long-lasting influences (the Rift, Gwyneth/Gwen, the celebrity historical figure format) alone, The Unquiet Dead is worth a watch -- and yet it still stands firm as an honest-to-God, bread-and-butter Who. Victorian London sets, walking corpses and even ghosts -- there are more than a few whiffs of the Philip Hinchcliffe era here, updated for the early 21st century. The Gelth are not the most memorable Doctor Who villains, but they serve their purpose in the episode nicely... and their dated, uncanny-valley CGI makes them even more creepy. If a horror tale has something that reminds me of those ghost effects in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's doing something right. Praise The Unquiet Dead for holding up so well, it has been 17 years!