Mark Gatiss' "The Unquiet Dead" was one of the more acclaimed Christopher Eccleston stories - possibly due to coming after two rather hopeless episodes meaning fans everywhere were prepared to laud anything of any real quality. His second attempt at a Who story is sadly considerably less impressive.

On the plus side, the story does effortlessly evoke the feel of the 1950s, and early on there's a very sinister atmosphere. This soon dissipates, sadly, with the story perhaps playing its' hand a little early - though for some reason the idea of faceless people is nowhere near as chilling as it should be. It could well be that after the build-up given to Grandma Connolly's condition, the audience were expecting something a bit different, but it certainly places an anticlimax very early in the story. The explanation for why exactly The Wire steals faces when it takes someone's energy is also lost. At this point, the story makes a rather unconvincing lurch from would-be gothic chiller to chase caper.

It's not helped that the characterisation of the Connolly family could be written on the back of a postage stamp, with the actors not lending anything extra - Eddie is a bully, wife and son are spineless. And that's really about it. DI Bishop is also a very lazy character - he basically exists to provide some exposition so The Doctor can piece together what's going on, before being swiftly written out in a rather illogical scene (I can just about conceive that The Doctor can somehow avoid being drained by The Wire, but why can Tommy? So he can help save the day and prove to his dad he's not a useless dreamer, that's why...).

The whole plot isn't too smart. Aside from the utterly juvenile 'subtext' (TV rots your individuality! Subtle...) it's almost criminally unimaginative. As poor as Russell T. Davies' revival has been in places (the Slitheen episodes; the reality TV spoof segment of "Bad Wolf"; the self-destruction of the Cybermen story), it's never been this dull and obvious. The plot is actually so derivative of a 1960s sci-fi anthology I spend the entire run-time waiting for the plot twist that revealed this to be something smarter. It didn't come.

It makes for an episode largely devoid of any tension, drama or pace, especially on repeated viewings when you're fully ware that the plot really is that limp and unimaginative. Euros Lyn, one of the outstanding directors of the revived series, is here utterly uninspired - his contribution extends about as far as tilting all of the cameras at 15°, which quickly becomes very irritating. There's just no sense of danger to the thing, and the ending is pretty dire, falling to the common trap of thinking that shouting and running around a bit are interchangeable with drama.

It's a shame, then, that both Tennant and Piper continue to become more likeable, and it's drowned in this dross. The key thing appears to be that Tennant spends much of the episode without her. Their chemistry is very good, but when written in the elitist vein Russell T. Davies tends to spout, it sees them form a single, solid unit and become unlikeable and cliquey.

Sadly, it's about the only redeeming feature of this rather disappointing little filler episode.

Review written: 15/06/2006