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The Empty Child pt 1 S01E09

 1. Summed up in one sentence

A freaky child with a gas mask follows people around, and it is terrifying (YAY FOR HORROR WHO!!!)

2. The Doctor

It's fun to see the Doctor walk around in a time period he knows well. It's like he's perusing a favorite book he's read many times and continues to discover new favorite parts as he meets new people.

For most of this episode he follows around a group of poor, homeless children who are guided with a gentle hand by Nancy, a young woman that scouts empty homes from which they pillage food. This is the first time we see how well the Doctor can get along with children, mentioning that he knows what it's like to lose his children and grandchildren. He respects their vulnerability and has the impulse to protect and nurture. He especially has a difficult time coping with this zombie-like child wondering around creepily asking for his mummy. You can see he really wants to look past the fact that this isn't an ordinary child and take him into his arms and take care of him. It's interesting to see this paternal instinct come up so early in the show because it does pop up occasionally in later seasons and it just warms my heart. 

3. The Companions

Captain Jack finally arrives on the scene! (And we all breathe a horny sigh of relief) Finally Rose found someone other than the Doctor worth swooning over, and boy does she swoon, but we can hardly blame her for getting distracted. 

And I completely forgot that he was a con artist before he got all immortal! Not that it was a big shock, he can con me any day. 

I think it's pretty funny that while the Doctor is in the thick of the horror mystery in this episode, Rose and Captain Jack are up in his spaceship flirting, like, the whole time, until the very end of the episode when they finally meet up with the Doctor. So, the companions aren't very helpful in this episode, which is fine.

4. The Villain

This being a two parter, the villain in this episode remains fairly mysterious to us, which is what makes it all the more scary. All we know is that there is a child that wanders around in a gas mask asking for his mummy. I think what makes it as terrifying as it is is that your initial instinct is to help the poor kid! Whoever directed the kid did a phenomenal job in making him still sound like a small child that wants help, but there's a hint of deadness in his voice, and an effort to manipulate people. It reminds me of those criminals that camp outside your house and play a recording of a child in distress to lure you out of the house so they can attack (not completely sure that's a thing or an urban legend, but still an unpleasant thought). 

What I really enjoy about this villain is that it incorporates a couple different horror genres in one entity. The way the child can manipulate telephones and radios and other things that use energy to work is reminiscent of a ghost haunting, while the literal child walking around that you can't touch or you become like him is very zombie-esk. 

5. The Score

9/10

I love, love, love, love this episode cuz I love me some Doctor Who horror! And they just really nail their first attempt. What I love about Who horror is the one image you are allowed of the villain is so powerful and icon worthy, but there is still so much mystery behind the villain.

6. The Very Whoiest Moment

K, that part when the mask forces its way out of the doctor's throat (the human doctor) and congeals with the rest of his face, it's like, is this really happening?? We see this genuinely good man trying to help these people and solve this mystery, and it turns out he was slowly but surely becoming what he was trying to help. For him, it's a moment of this is really happening. I've seen the signs in myself and have been waiting for this moment to finally happen, but now that it's actually happening, I'm so scared. 

And the Doctor (our doctor) can't do anything but watch in sadness, disgust, and frustration at the injustice of it all. There's nowhere to run. Nothing to do, but just watch, and that is such good horror right there. 




Sorry to end on a morbid note there, but this is "The Empty Child" after all, so, you know, it was difficult to avoid.

But this mystery gets resolved in the most beautiful way in part two . . . .



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