Doctor Who: 10 Most Underrated Stories

10. The Unquiet Dead

Why you forgotit:Er, the buzz was all about two weeks prior, for this little show called "Doctor Who" actually being on the air for the first time in 16 years. Why you need to see it (again):Three words: Gatiss, Eccleston, Christmas. Dear Steven Moffat - Hello. I'm a fan. Have been since I was, oh, so high - Just like you! Anyways, thanks for the (better) journeys you've taken us on since becoming producer - They make up for "The Beast Below" and that mess at the end of Series 6. Can you do me a favour though? Maybe, just maybe, let your BFF Mark Gatiss write the next X-mas special. I think he might be better at it than you, and there's some solid proof in Series 1..... That letter goes on to request that he lose Alex Kingston's phone number and give the Silurians their third eye back - That's for another time though. "The Unquiet Dead" is a solid and very intriguing episode of "Doctor Who" that we'll probably never get again. For one thing, it's a Christmas story that doesn't try too hard. We haven't seen one of those since, oh, ever. Don't get me wrong, some are great ("The Christmas Invasion" IS tough to beat) and some.....well, some are so desperate they namecheck "Androzani Major" just because.

"Unquiet Dead" was written and showed up at a time when no one really knew how this "Doctor Who" relaunch thing was going to work - So we see some very pleasing touches that would fall away or get refined into something else entirely. Charles Dickens shows up, but gradually and naturally - Done today, he'd take up the entire pre-credit sequence. The Doctor does indeed start to take a liking to this Rose girl, but it's SO restrained and subtle - even alien! ("You look good....considering." - BRILLIANT.) With the overbearing Tennant-Rose dynamic and even the cheesy climax of 9-Rose ("You look like you need a Doctor" - Blech.) this is such a more appealing way to do it. It feels REAL, not like a soap opera. Minor characters (Mr. Sneed the undertaker and Gwyneth) are given development more characteristic of 1970's Who, and are actually important to the story. Two years later, "The Shakespeare Code" would pretty much have two character settings outside of the Doctor and Martha - "William Shakespeare" and "Everybody else who isn't a witch/alien". And the whole thing is shot in a very subtle way - When the dead DO come to life, it's almost surprising as the soundtrack and direction don't announce it before it happens.

I've gone this far and barely mentioned Simon Callow (Dickens) and Eccleston himself. The latter has made it clear that he wasn't as happy with the show's politics and workings - You certainly can't tell here. In fact, I'd almost dare to guess that Eccleston hadn't made his decision to bail yet - He is infectiously excited about being a Time Lord, in a way that rivals Tom Baker and David Tennant's better performances. And Callow plays Dickens perfectly - none of the mugging that later guest stars would assume and exactly, believably who you expect from the name. In some parallel universe, Eccleston stayed on for three years, and this was his first Christmas special. In that reality, it's part of why Tennant and Smith have to work so hard to measure up. Were this not sandwiched between the blockbusting debut/follow-up and two weeks of Slitheen fart jokes, it'd probably get a lot more notice and respect. Eccleston's first year ended on a high with "The Empty Child" and his epic Dalek finale, but "The Unquiet Dead" shows us that he had it all from the start - After an uneven first year, he could've been the maybe the best, most compelling Doctor ever without the overblown dynamics of Tennant stories. This story just sets up a world and its people perfectly, and then drops the Doctor into it - That's most of the best stories in this series in a single sentence.