![]() ![]() A perplexing mystery for viewers to sink their teeth into allows some respite from the sheer dread of the dark library scenes – although, in their own ways, they’re both as horrifying as each other. Why this story works so well, though, is that Moffat balances out the more primal horror of spooky corridors and grinning skeletons with the more cerebral problem of the enigmatic River Song, first introduced in this episode as a figure from the Doctor’s future who knows him intimately whilst he doesn’t know her at all. Step into these shadows, though, and they’ll strip your flesh from your bones in seconds the Doctor tells us they’re present on every planet in the universe, including Earth. And what’s in it is very frightening indeed – a microscopic and hungry bunch of creatures called the Vashta Nerada, who, in large enough swarms, appear to look like shadows. Writer Steven Moffat, New Who’s horror maestro, goes all-in on this two-part story as he decides to fall back on one of the most basic human anxieties the fear of the dark, or, more specifically, what might be in it. Even so, the episode is deeply atmospheric, and the dead-eyed zombie baddies are absolutely chilling. The episode’s questionable political subtext might raise some eyebrows – the Villains Of The Week are intergalactic refugees who reveal they’re actually evil monsters once they’re granted safe passage to Earth – and that prevents “The Unquiet Dead” from ranking any higher (though for writer Mark Gatiss’ part, he claims this parallel was completely unintentional). If you’re writing a Doctor Who horror story set in the Victorian period, and you don’t ram it full of creepy funeral parlors, a wonderfully hammy Charles Dickens (courtesy of Simon Callow), and as many whispering CGI ghouls as the budget can handle, you’re not really doing it right, are you? “The Unquiet Dead” does an excellent job of embracing both the look and style of the era (you know you want to hear a cynical, Scrooge-like Dickens bitterly refer to things as “tommyrot”) and the literary conventions of its historical guest star. ![]()
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