The Doctor has dinner with the enemy, Mickey wants to cheat on his girlfriend, and no one seems to object to Cardiff Castle being demolished.
Doc and Rose accidentally materialise in Cardiff and go Ghostbusting with Charles Dickens.
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Doc promises to take Rose on a beautiful trip to Italy, but accidentally wibbly-wobblys them to Cardiff, 1869, Christmas.
At a nearby funeral parlour, Mr Sneed and his psychic servant, Gwyneth (played by Eve Myles of Torchwood fame), are less surprised than you’d imagine to find that a recently deceased old lady in their care has risen, Walking-Dead-style, and killed her unsuspecting grandson who up until then had been grieving by her side.
Meanwhile, Charles Dickens himself (admirably portrayed by Simon Callow) is sitting backstage of a theatre where he is just about to regale an audience with his tales, thinking that there just isn’t enough excitement or change in his life.
Long story short, Mrs Zombie Lady heads off to see Dickens perform live on stage; glowing blue vapour flies out of her mouth, scaring Charlie and his audience; The Doctor and Rose are intrigued and decide to investigate; and suddenly Rose is being chloroformed by Sneed while Doc and Dickens must Ghostbust their way to her rescue.
"Where's Wa...I mean, Zombie?"
Zombie-Gelth looking very 'In The Flesh'
Eve Myles as Gwyneth sees dead people.
Simon Callow as Charles Dickens
"Fantastic boob, Dickens. You work out?"
Finally. Rose and Doc in the Bondage Cupboard.
I’m sorry, but the only good thing I have to say about this episode is that it was cool to watch while I was in a frenzy right after starting to watch for the first time. Upon second viewing, I found it dull. Nowhere near as awful as The Web Planet, but dull.
To me, the plot left quite a bit to be desired. In fact, this episode seemed to be more focused on Charles Dickens than it did on the plot. As a result, I didn’t enjoy this episode to much when I rewatched it. Sorry, Charley. However, this doesn’t mean I would recommend skipping it. It is quite important, and the rift in space(or something like that) is used later on in this season, as well as throughout Tennant’s time on the show.
This episode only warrants a 2.0, if I am going to be honest. I didn’t enjoy it too much, but it did have Charles Dickens. I did find that to be a neat concept.