As of about an hour ago, I watched the seven hundredth episode of Doctor Who while walking on a treadmill. Can you believe it? I am still about four months away from the finish line, but it's getting about four miles closer every day. 

It's late, I'm tired, so let's talk about this so I can get to bed.

The Unquiet Dead

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This story marks the first televised Doctor Who episode to be written by Mark Gatiss, who has become one of the most prolific writers on the show as well as appearing on screen in several more. Functionally, story serves to demonstrate the scope of the show to new viewers - with the previous one having taken place in the far future followed by this one in 19th century Cardiff. It's kind of a hybrid ghost / zombie / alien invasion tale, guest starring Charles Dickens for some historical flavor.

Essentially, a funeral home sits on top of a rift in space/time that is sucking the alien Gelth across the universe. Because they are gaseous beings, they can travel through the gaslight common to the era, and can also briefly inhabit human cadavers because of Reasons. Lot's of spooky things happen, and then ultimately the Doctor Charles Dickens does a Very Clever Thing, and the aliens are defeated.

It is a properly scary story, and Simon Callow's performance as Charles Dickens is spectacular (as well it should be, since he is not only a genuine Dickens historian but is well known for playing the man on both television and on stage in a one-man-show). Eve Myles is also very good in the supporting role of a house maid who has grown up on top of the rift and is deeply connected to it. In fact, Myles was so good that she was subsequently cast as one of the leads in Torchwood. She is also, if I may say, a very lovely person to talk to, which I discovered a few months ago when she visited Orlando.

On the downside, there is a moment in the story that just makes me cringe, because I just can't stomach the whole Sainted Rose love story. Near the climax, when it seems like they are both about to die, they hold hands as the Doctor says he is glad he met her while she replies the same. She is nineteen. He is nearly a thousand years old. Ew. Just, ew. I didn't like the kissing in the Eighth Doctor story, and I don't like the romance here. It is essentially an octogenarian dating an infant, and it's just gross and wrong.

But that's only a small moment in this story, and the rest is very good. Which is nice, because the next two days feature the Farting Aliens, and I really wish I could just skip ahead to Dalek. How wretched is that, to be looking forward to another damned Dalek story instead of the two wasted hours that loom in front of me?

STATS:

Doctor(s): Ninth
Companion(s): Rose Tyler
Episode(s): The Unquiet Dead
Steps Walked: 7,188 today, 2,542,498 total
Distance Walked: 3.74 miles today, 1,319.11 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 283 total
Weight: 250.18 lbs (five day moving average), net change -57.12 lbs