In my reviews of the earlier episodes in Series 1, I've generally considered the plots to be the weakest parts of those stories. Not so here. I think the plotting in this episode is easily the strongest so far in the shows revival. This episode is also does a good job with the characters.

I'm generally not the biggest fan of the historical celebrity episodes. Some are fine, but they tend to be too reverential to the celebrities in question and the show is usually too interested in the celebs that they neglect the story. This episode is absolutely reverential, but it doesn't present Charles Dickens as perfect. He's going through something of a personal crisis when we meet him, and for the first half of the episode he's more of a hindrance than anything else. He does turn this around in time to have his hero moment at the climax. But to begin with he's a skeptic who the Doctor loses his patience with.

But despite this, I enjoy Dickens as a temporary new companion for the Doctor. I like that there's some friction, but mostly some obvious respect, and the Doctor being a fan is genuinely funny at times. I like him talking about Dicken's books (especially the Martin Chuzzlewit criticism) and the moment when Dickens tells his coach driver the Doctor can stay (because he enjoys the Doctors fangirling) is very well played and makes me laugh.

I also really enjoy that Rose gets her own companion for the episode, in Gwyneth. They're a fun team, who enjoy just being young women together. It's a dynamic you don't see too often in Doctor Who and it made for a nice change of tone. You instantly buy into their connection and understand why Rose is so protective of Gwyneth later in the episode. But the episode is smart enough to give Gwyneth her own agency, when she decides to risk herself to save the Gelth despite Rose's protestations.

The problem with this episode is how rushed the end feels. This happens alot with Doctor Who to be fair. It has 45 minutes where it not only has to establish a story, but usually a new world/time, and then it has fun with putting our heroes in the new setting. This often means there's not a lot of time left for the stories to resolve.

It's more of an issue here because the ending feels a little like a cop out and it makes the Gelth a lot less interesting. What I mean by this, is that the episode has the Doctor making the decision to allow the Gelth into our world where they can inhabit Earth's corpses, and he'll then take them away from Earth. This is something of a queasy solution for most of the characters, who don't want to give away the bodies of other people's loved ones and think it's disrespectful to the dead. This is an easy decision for the Doctor though, who thinks that saving lives is almost always better than losing them. Gwyneth also agrees, as she wants to help her angels. The episode sets up a situation with an interesting and questionable morality. But, instead of answering the questions it poses, it just turns out the Gelth are evil and want to take over the world. Now we don't need to save them, we need to defeat them (and in just a couple of minutes because the episode is running out of time). So Dickens comes up with a solution and Gwyneth sacrifices herself to save the world. Problems solved. The plotting had been really tight and interesting, until it ran out of time. Then it abandons it's questions and shifts gears to allow a clean but boring conclusion.

This also makes the Doctor look foolish, as his eagerness to believe the Gelth was hasty, gullible and nearly cost everyone their lives. I actually really like this though because his mistakes are informed by his character and not just plot function. The fact that the Doctor greets new species with trust (not distrust) tells new viewers a lot about his character. The fact that the Doctor's priority is always saving lives (he chose to call himself the Doctor after all) tells new viewers a lot about his character. The fact that the Gelth say that they're lost and homeless and dying as a result of the destruction caused by the Time War is also relevant. It implies that the Doctor is eager to help them due to the guilt he has for the part he played in the Time War, the destruction it caused and the lives it cost. So of cause our Doctor would be too eager to try and make amends to casualties of the Time War. The Doctor messes up, but he does so precisely because he is the Doctor. It makes me like the character more. Not in spite of his flaws, but because of how easy it is to understand these flaws.

I liked this more than I remembered. It's a nice change of pace with some strong plotting & interesting ideas (although both do get abandoned at the end) and the characterisations remains strong.