The Gelth were an incorporeal race that had lost their physical forms during the Time War. They came to Earth in the 19th Century through a rift in time and space, appearing in the form of ghosts. Charles Dickens encountered these apparitions in Cardiff, 1869 where he also met the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. Charles Dickens was inspired by the ghosts and meeting aliens opened his closed mind to new ideas. The Unquiet Dead is one of many celebrity historical episodes in Doctor Who.
The Unquiet Dead
★★★★☆
TX: 09/04/2005
Written by Mark Gatiss Directed by Euros Lyn
The Ninth Doctor takes Rose Tyler back in time to Cardiff, 1869 where the pair meet Charles Dickens, who is on tour reading his works, including A Christmas Carol. However, a ghostly apparition flies around the theatre where this takes place, the ghost having emanated from a walking corpse of an old lady. The old lady is whisked away by an undertaker called Mr Sneed and his servant Gwyneth. The pair have been struggling to contain lots of zombies in their undertakers. The zombies are hosts for a gaseous race of creatures called the Gelth, who lost their corporeal forms during the Time War but now seek a new home on Earth. The corpses decompose and produce gas making them the perfect hosts for the Gelth. The Gelth have come to Earth via a rift in time and space that runs through Cardiff, something that the future Torchwood Three team (including one of Gwyneth’s descendants, Gwen Cooper) will one day have to deal with. The Doctor suggests that the group have a seance where they commune with the desperate Gelth. The Doctor decides to allow Gwyneth to form the bridgehead to let the rest of the Gelth through in an archway in the morgue. However, this is a trick by the Gelth who actually have hostile intentions, they want to possess everyone on Earth – as corpses! Mr Sneed is killed by the Gelth. Charles Dickens turns up the gas in the undertakers in order to draw the Gelth out of the zombie bodies, which occurs when the Doctor adds to the gas. The Doctor convinces Gwyneth that the Gelth are liars and that they have deceived her. Gwyneth agrees to sacrifice herself and the Gelth by lighting a match and blowing up the undertakers, moments after the Doctor, Rose and Charles Dickens escape. Charles Dickens is amazed by these events and the notion of extraterrestrial life. Inspired by this, he resolves to write more about ghostly apparitions. However, in the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Rose that the following year, 1870, is the year that Dickens dies and he therefore will never get to tell his story. But, Rose and the Doctor leave Dickens in high spirits nonetheless! God bless us everyone! Dickens appears again briefly in The Wedding of River Song. Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston both give incredible performances in this fantastic episode. Eccleston is on the podium of Doctors!
Chris Olsen's TARDIS 