Doctor Who Retrospective #3 of 10 “The Unquiet Dead”

The anticpation for The Unquiet Dead was pretty high and one of the reasons for this was the fact that this episode was written by the League Of Gentlemen’s Mark Gatiss, who has since kept his association with the show by penning The Idiot’s Lantern, narrating Doctor Who Confidential’s second season and playing Doctor Lazarus in the soon to be seen third season. TUD is also noteworthy for its star, Eve Myles, who went on to play PC Gwen Cooper in the spinoff series,

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Tags: Charles-Dickens, Doctor Who, Eve-Myles, Mark-Gatiss, Mary-Whitehouse, Mediawatch, Simon-Callow, TARDIS, The-Mill, The-Rift, The-Unquiet-Dead, Torchwood

“Where did you get that blank expression on your face?”

My regular reader will know where my allegiances lie when it comes to the greatest of all TV shows, Doctor Who. Just scroll down a little to some of my previous posts to see the esteem in which I hold this little slice of British pop culture. The BAFTA award winning, critical and commercial success story of the last couple of years is enjoying a fantastic renaissance. Imagine my surprise when I saw the headline in the Guardian asking “Where have all the viewers gone?”. 6.3 million and 32% of the audience tuned in to the Idiot’s Lantern, penned by Leaugue of Gentlemen’s Mark Gatiss, who gave us the beautiful “Unquiet Dead” last year. The article goes on to answer its own question in a mostly sensible fashion, but are we seeing the begining of the backlash? Last night’s figures have shown another drop to below 6m but the share is looking healthy again after ITV’s return to showing old Bond movies.

Well, there are criticisms that can justifiably be turned on this story. Set during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and (cleverly) a road called Florizel Street, we are treated to a story of a disembodied alien that is somehow using the medium of television to steal the life force of viewers. You can imagine the scene when the scripts were being developed, “What’s gonna really scare the kids watching this show?“. “How about if the TV’s themselves are dangerous?“. “Cool“. Don’t get me wrong, it was worthwhile stuff… Maureen Lipman hammed it up wonderfully as The Wire, people getting their faces sucked off was genuinely disturbing, and the 50’s setting was convincingly realised. The problem was that I wasn’t completely bought into the whole idea and found myself watching the clock a few too many times during the episode. The backstory of the nasty side of Tommy’s dad, didn’t quite knit together for me. 7 out of 10 rather than the usual 8, 9, or 10 is not such a bad story anyway.

Tags: Doctor Who, Mark-Gatiss, Maureen-Lipman, The-Idiots-Lantern, The-Unquiet-Dead