Sorry I didn’t start another thread yesterday for this episode. I was doing duty at my baby sister’s birthday party looking after 13 eight-year-olds. I meant to start the thread beforehand, but didn’t manage. Since there seems to be sustained interest, though, I’ll go ahead and start this thread, even though it’s late.
I did manage to see “The Unquiet Dead” on DVR tonight. I thought it was great–the best one yet. The characterizations had great depth, especially the guest characters. I especially liked the conversation between Rose and the maid. It was one of the most realistic-seeming time-travel scenes I’ve ever watched. The best bit was when the maid said to Rose, “You have the outfit and breeding, but the way you speak is as if you were some wild thing!” That and her reaction to the vision she had of London in the 21st century. It wasn’t over-the-top or unbelievable at all–I actually believed she was seeing Rose’s past (and London’s future) through Rose’s eyes.
I also thought the SFX, though still rather cheap-looking, were very effectively used. There was a real sense of creepiness throughout the episode.
I also liked the continuation of the idea that Rose and the Doctor see things through very different moral lenses, but without either of them coming off as foolish or wrong-headed. Rose has a very “human” perspective and sees people (or tries to see them, at least, and sometimes fails) as individuals, which she values over any abstract idea of “justice.” She has difficulty seeing large groups in the same way that she sees individuals, though. The Doctor often loses sight of the individuals involved in his Eli Wiesel-like quest to undo the effects of a historical tragedy and war he seems to feel a personal responsabilty for.
In the first ep, e.g., he risked his own life and those of the humans on Earth, including especially Rose’s, in order to avoid killing the Nestene Conciousness (apparently in comlpiance with some sort of interplanetary law) but didn’t shed a tear when the Conciousness was killed after all. He seemed quite please, in fact. In his own way, the Doctor is far more self-centered than Rose is, even with his larger perspective and grander sense of moral responsability.
I don’t know much about Dickens, and I’m curious how historically accurate the show’s portrayal of him was. I know he was a proponant for social juctice (especially wrt child labor), but I didn’t know of him as a skeptic. Was that just made up? What about his alienation from his family and his existance as a lonely celebrity late in life? And what was the American bit the Doctor thought was rubbish?
One more thing–I got my baby sis to watch “Rose” with me tonight after I’d seen “The Unquiet Dead.” She seemed to really like it, though the accents seemed to be a bit of a problem for her. She’s got English cousins, though, so I know she can get used to it. She was pretty tired as well, which might explain why she kept asking me to explain things. But she did ask–which means she was interested! Hooray for spreading geekiness! Any parents out there raising young boy-geeks should thank me for raising, however slightly, the odds that their offspring may someday find a mate! 
