The Quiet Undead is One of Doctor Who's Saddest Episodes

 

Credit to “Doctor Who” The Unquiet Dead (TV Episode 2005) — Simon Callow as Charles Dickens — IMDb

I have recently started to watch the Doctor Who series that features the 9th through the 12th doctors. I received the collection as a Christmas gift, and I told myself I would finally binge this beloved Sci — Fi series. 

I’m currently on the ninth doctor, and I have finished watching episode 3: The Quiet Undead. The episode is a brilliant short horror story, that features the undead coming to life and causing chaos in a small town during 1869.

The undead turned out to be aliens from space who use gas inside of a morgue to travel and inhabit dead bodies to continue their chances of survival. 

So, we get an episode of zombies that look pretty creepy, so that’s cool. 

And I felt like crying in multiple scenes throughout the episode. 

This story is a tragic tale of a hero sacrificing herself to save everyone. 

The characters who appear in this episode are the Doctor, his companion Rose, the real-life novelist Charles Dickens, the man who owns the funeral home, Mr. Sneed and his assistant, Gwyneth. 

We learn that Gwyneth is connected to the undead, and she can open a rift to help them find a way to survive. We then learn that these supernatural entities were lying, and turned out to be evil, wanting to use the dead bodies to rule over the Earth. 

They kill Mr. Sneed to make him a part of their group, and poor Gwyneth is stuck in place, letting out more of the aliens to invade bodies. The Doctor, Rose, and Charles Dickens are able to escape, but it’s at a horrible cost. 

The Doctor tries to help Gwyneth, but it turns out that she was died when she opened the rift. She tells the Doctor to run away, and she blows herself up with the funeral home to save the remaining survivors. 

I was so damn sad during this whole episode. 

Credit to Doctor Who: All 12 Clues That Rose Would Become Bad Wolf

Gwyneth’s character was a pure soul. She seemed like a happy young woman, who was pulled into this horrible situation. She never even got to live out her life, and watching her die was heartbreaking. 

I felt like crying throughout the entire episode, because the performance of Gwyneth made me feel so many emotions. 

And then my tears almost fell when Charles Dickens declares to the Doctor and Rose that he is planning to write a book on his experiences, only for the Doctor to reveal to Rose that he will never be able to write those books, because he will die in 1870, the next year. 

Watching Charles Dickens walk in happiness and say Merry Christmas to people on the streets broke my heart. 

The writers were on their A game with this episode, and man, they knew how to pull at my heartstrings. 

I did upload a YouTube video on my horror channel based on my brief thoughts about this episode. 

Here is the link to the video if you are interested:

https://youtu.be/b1ZlYXHnSUg?si=cYjoi6Ut9QjcDN9v