The Unquiet Dead - Plot

Plot

The Doctor attempts to pilot the TARDIS to Naples in 1860 to show Rose the past, but misses, ending up in Cardiff in 1869. While they land and Rose changes into more appropriate garb, there is trouble in a nearby funeral parlour run by Gabriel Sneed and his servant girl Gwyneth. The corpse of the late Mrs. Peace has been taken over by a blue vapour; she kills her mourning grandson, Mr. Redpath, and then lurches away from the parlour with a wailing shriek as glowing blue vapour flows from her mouth. Gwyneth with her clairvoyance senses that the corpse, per her last desire, is going to see Charles Dickens at a nearby music hall. In the middle of his performance, the blue vapour leaves Mrs. Peace, scaring the audience away and attracting the attention of the Doctor and Rose. Gabriel and Gwyneth arrive to retake the corpse as the blue vapour disappears into the pipes, and they also kidnap Rose by knocking her out with chloroform when she confronts them. Dickens accuses the Doctor of ruining his performance, but after the Doctor gushes over his literary genius, and learning that an adventure is afoot, Dickens gladly joins up to help.

At the funeral parlour, Rose wakes up, and suddenly, so do the corpses of Mrs. Peace and Mr. Redpath. The Doctor and Dickens arrive, breaking into the parlour and rescuing Rose; the Doctor attempts to learn what is happening by questioning the corpses, and determines that the parlour is built on a rift in spacetime, and the blue vapours are beings attempting to cross through the Rift; they are able to use the corpses for a short time, but cannot sustain themselves in these forms. Rose talks more with Gwyneth, and learns of her clairvoyance, an effect of living in the parlour since her parents died, according to the Doctor. Using Gwyneth as a channel, they hold a séance to directly communicate with the beings, who they learn are called the Gelth, their bodies destroyed as part of the Time War. The Doctor offers the Gelth temporary use of corpses only until he can transport them to a place where they can build new bodies, using Gwyneth as a bridge to cross the Rift.

As the process starts, the number of Gelth is much greater than anticipated, and their true motive is revealed: they intend to kill the living to give themselves more hosts and take over the planet. One of the Gelth-animated bodies strangles Sneed to death, allowing another Gelth to possess his body. Dickens flees the parlour, and Rose and the Doctor are trapped in a part of the basement. Outside, Dickens notes that the beings are affected by gas, and returns to the house, extinguishing the gaslights and turning the gas on full. The Gelth are forced to abandon the corpses and though the Doctor tries to encourage Gwyneth to send them back across the Rift, she cannot, nor can she leave; instead, she takes out a box of matches, intending to ignite the gas and killing the Gelth along with herself. The Doctor then determines that Gwyneth is, in fact, already dead; the process of becoming a bridge for the Gelth was fatal. The Doctor, Rose, and Dickens flee the parlour before it is engulfed in flames. As the Doctor and Rose head back to the TARDIS, Dickens thanks them for their help and makes a commitment to patch up things with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, changing the end of the story so that Drood will not be killed by his uncle but rather by something supernatural (though the Doctor notes later to Rose that Dickens will die within the year, leaving that work unfinished, but they have made him feel more alive than he ever has been). The Doctor and Rose give their goodbyes and disappear in the TARDIS. An astounded and delighted Dickens walks away through the streets of Cardiff, greeting everyone he passes and quoting A Christmas Carol, "God bless us, everyone!"