Stories Television Doctor Who Series 1 Episode: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 The Empty Child 1 image Overview Characters How to Watch Reviews 13 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 5 Transcript Overview First aired Saturday, May 21, 2005 Production Code 1.9 Written by Steven Moffat Directed by James Hawes Runtime 45 minutes Story Type New Companion Introduction, Two-Parter Time Travel Past Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Doctor Who?, LGBTQA+, The Doctor’s Name, War, World War II Inventory (Potential Spoilers!) Psychic Paper Location (Potential Spoilers!) Earth, England, London UK Viewers 7.11 million Appreciation Index 84 Synopsis Chasing a metallic object through the Time Vortex, the Ninth Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, arrive in London during the Blitz. While Rose meets "Captain Jack Harkness", the dashing Time Agent responsible for bringing the object, the Doctor finds a group of homeless children terrorised by Jamie, an "empty" child wearing a gas mask. Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston Rose Tyler Billie Piper Captain Jack Harkness John Barrowman First Appearance Nancy First Appearance Jamie (the empty child) First Appearance Spoiler!Click to reveal 👀 Show All Characters (5) How to watch The Empty Child: Watch on iPlayer Doctor Who Confidential DVD Series 1 Volume 3: The Long Game – Father‘s Day – The Empty Child – The Doctor Dances DVD The Complete First Series Blu-Ray Series 1 Blu-Ray The Complete First Series [Steelbook] Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 13 reviews 13 June 2025 · 42 words Review by shauny 3 One of the most chilling episodes of Doctor Who ever. The “uncannyness” of the Empty Child is genius - a way to have a scary monster with no CGI and no gore. This cemented Moffat as my favourite writer for the show! shauny View profile Like Liked 3 11 June 2025 · 45 words Review by Rock_Angel 1 Just finished up empty child with my nephew he wanted to watch it due to the ending of reality war and cause he’s studied ww2 in school atm it’s kind of a perfect two parter and he seemed to love it so on to part 2 Rock_Angel View profile Like Liked 1 8 June 2025 · 119 words Review by InterstellarCas Spoilers 1 This review contains spoilers! Say what you will, but Moffat sure can write a banger. This is an iconic story for so many reasons. The titular “Empty Child” was nightmare fuel for many a child following their first viewing—me included. And of course, we are introduced to the notoriously flirtatious Captain Jack Harkness. The Doctor and Rose are split up, Rose being rescued by Jack and subsequently fancying him as she tries to figure out what he’s doing in the Blitz while the Doctor starts to solve the mystery behind the iconic gas-masked child with sparing information from the stubbornly independent Nancy. The story is so well written, balancing the tension of the horror aspects with the strong personalities of all the characters. InterstellarCas View profile Like Liked 1 11 May 2025 · 16 words Review by GodofRealEstate 1 Steven "The Moff" Moffat comes in heavy from the top rope and delivers lasting childhood nightmares GodofRealEstate View profile Like Liked 1 9 May 2025 · 183 words Review by DanDunn There’s just so many great ideas, characters and moments all throughout. The nightmare inducing Empty Child with his iconic catchphrase, the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness, the clever revelation of what’s causing the gas mask plague and why, the emotional ending and Eccleston’s outstanding performance. I just never get tired of revisiting this story. Out of all of Steven Moffat’s written works, this has aged considerably better than most of his episodes. Mostly due to the fact that while it’s bursting with imagination and different ideas, he never gets over ambitious or ahead of himself. The story is kept tightly written and never veers off in a pointless direction. The characters also have a lot more dimension compared to a lot of Moffat’s later side characters whose names I can’t remember even if you held a gun to my head! Especially when this story introduces the one and only Captain Jack Harkness who absolutely steals the show. It’s a real shame Jack’s time onboard the TARDIS was as short-lived as it was, he’s easily the most fun part of the Ninth Doctor era. DanDunn View profile Like Liked 0 Show All Reviews (13) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating1,071 members 4.54 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 2041 Favourited 421 Reviewed 13 Saved 4 Skipped 1 Related Stories Doctor Who S1 • Episode 10 The Doctor Dances Rating: 4.58 Story Skipped Television Reviews(9) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Series 1 Set of Stories: Doctor Who (2005-2022) Set of Stories: Ninth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Torchwood Series 1 • Episode 12 Captain Jack Harkness Rating: 4.11 Story Skipped Television Reviews(6) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Torchwood (Series 1-4) Set of Stories: Torchwood Series 1 Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth? ROSE: Five days? Or is that just when we're out of milk? DOCTOR: Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow. — The Empty Child Show All Quotes (5) Open in new window Transcript [TARDIS] (The TARDIS is in pursuit of a small spacecraft.) ROSE: What's the emergency?DOCTOR: It's mauve.ROSE: Mauve?DOCTOR: The universally recognised colour for danger.ROSE: What happened to red?DOCTOR: That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing. It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go.ROSE: And that's safe, is it?DOCTOR: Totally. (Bang!) DOCTOR: Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there. No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us.ROSE: What exactly is this thing?DOCTOR: No idea.ROSE: Then why are we chasing it?DOCTOR: It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the centre of London. Show Full Transcript Open in new window