After taking her first trip into the future, Rose now takes her first steps into the past into the year 1869 in the city of Cardiff (with the show being filmed in Cardiff the TARDIS would end up visiting there quite a lot). This would aptly demonstrate to the new audience joining the show with the revamped series just how versatile the show could be.
This is very much a highlight of season 27 (I refuse to call it series 1!) The writing is sharp, witting and occasionally delightfully dark. Creatures made of gas are inhabiting dead bodies being stored at an undertakers.
Added to this we also have the Doctor meeting Charles Dickens, brilliantly played by Simon Callow. I didn't know this but apparently Dickens but a lot of effort into exposing the fraudulent nature of mediums and spiritualists and so when faced with the events of this story he has a sort of crisis of faith for want of a better word. He begins to despair that he has wasted his life by trying to expose these people when maybe what they are doing is real in some cases. Of course it turns out they are not ghosts but aliens made of gas. By the end of the story Dickens is full of joy in the world once more having witnessed theses spectacular goings on.
It's in this story that we find out there is a rift in space and time running through Cardiff and it is through this that the Gelth are passing. This rift would go on to play an important role in the future of the show and be one of the key factors in the spin off series Torchwood, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself now.
The servant to the house, Gwyneth, has lived over the rift pretty much her whole life and this has given her some kind of psychic powers. This becomes evident when she lets slip things that she couldn't possibly know and is used in one of the best scenes in the episode where she has visions of present day London when looking at Rose. She also refers to "the big bad wolf". If I'm counting correctly then this is actually the second reference to "bad wolf" so far in this season and is something that will pay off further down the line.
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