Doctor Who/The Empty Child (1)

The Empty Child (1)
Season 27, Episode 9
Airdate	May 21, 2005
Production Number	NCFR036H
Written by	Steven Moffat
Directed by	James Hawes
← 27x08 Father's Day	27x10 → The Doctor Dances (2)
Doctor Who — Season Twenty-Seven

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

The Empty Child (1) is the ninth episode of the twenty-seventh season of Doctor Who, and the seven hundred twenty-eighth episode overall.

Guest Stars:

Plot Overview

The Doctor and Rose follow a mysterious object through time and space, finally landing in London in 1941, in the middle of a German air raid. While the Doctor tries to track down the object, Rose follows after a little boy wearing a gas mask, who appears to be lost and is looking for him mother.

She meets Captain Jack Harkness on the way - an ex-Time Agent turned con man. He's in town with something to sell: A "Chula war ship". In the meantime, however, he and Rose flirt, sharing a dance on top of his invisible spaceship.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has encountered the little boy and is intrigued that the little boy has the ability to make the TARDIS's phone ring, along with the ability to speak through radios and any other device with a speaker. Nancy warns him not to touch the child, or he'll become like th boy himself - "empty". When the Doctor presses Nancy for more information, she refers him to the doctor at Albion Hospital - Dr. Constantine.

The Doctor goes to speak with Dr. Constantine at the hospital and finds every room in the hospital filled with patients who have the exact same injures. "Physical injuries as plague," (and transmitted by touch) Dr. Constantine explains, before he, too, begins asking for him Mummy and his face transforms, making him one of the patients.

Rose and Jack meet up with the Doctor at the hospital, and the Doctor confronts Jack about the Chula war ship. Jack denies involvement with the situation at the hospital and finally admits that the "war ship" was really an ambulance; he'd mistaken the Doctor and Rose for Time Agents and was trying to con them out of money.

Suddenly, all the patients in the ward wake up and surround the three heroes. As the Doctor, Rose, and Jack, are backed into a corner, the patients draw closer, each one of them mimicking the little boy's cries for his Mummy.

Notes

• Time and Space: 1941, London, England, Earth.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• First appearance: This is the first appearance of Captain Jack Harkeness, an ex-Time Agent turned con artist.

Trivia

The Show

• The hospital in which all the "plague" victims are being kept is shown to be "Albion Hospital". This hospital will come into play again in future episodes.
• Psychic paper makes a reappearance, as Captain Jack tries to use it on Rose but fails.

Allusions and References

• Code Red: An emergency code signal. In hospitals, it denotes fire or, in some, a surgical patient who requires more advanced life support.
• Spock: Dr. Spock was the chief science officer of the USS Enterprise in various incarnations of Star Trek.
• The Blitz: The Blitz, short for the German word Blitzkrieg, refers to a period of sustained bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between September 7, 1940 and May 10, 1941.
• Marxism: A sociological theory named after Karl Marx that emphasizes the distinctions between classes. In part, the theory exhibits a sympathy towards the working class and makes the arguement that class struggles have been the driving force in historical change.
• Black Market: The black market refers an underground market of trade in stolen - or otherwise outlawed - goods.

Memorable Moments

• Rose and Jack dance to Glenn Millar's Moonlight Serenade on the top of his spaceship, as the German Blitz carries on around them.

Quotes

• The Doctor: By everyone else's standards, (code) red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings! All those red alerts; all that dancing!
• Rose Tyler: And that's safe, is it?
  The Doctor: Totally! (The TARDIS begins to spark) Okay, reasonably! Should have said "reasonably" there.
• Rose: What exactly is this thing?
  The Doctor: No idea.
  Rose: Then why are we chasing it?
  The Doctor: It's mauve and dangerous! And about thirty seconds from the center of London.
• The Doctor: 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.
  The Doctor: All the species in all the unvierse, and it has to come out of a cow.
• Rose: So, what's the plan, then? You going to do a scan for alien tech or something?
  The Doctor: Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm gonna ask.
• Rose: Not very Spock, is it? Just...asking?
  The Doctor: Door, music people. What do you think?
  Rose: I think you should scan for alien tech! Give me some Spock, for once! Would it kill you?
• The Doctor: Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently? (Everyone laughs.) Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just there's this thing that I need to find. Would have fallen from the sky a couple of days ago. (Sirens begin to wail.) Would have landed quite near here! With a very loud... (Everyone starts to file out. The Doctor notices a poster that reads "HITLER WILL SEND NO WARNING" and realizes the siren he hears is an air raid siren.) ...Bang.
• The Doctor: You know, one day. Just one day. Maybe. I'm going to meet somebody who gets the whole "don't wander off" thing. 900 years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me. (The phone on the TARDIS starts to ring)
• The Doctor: (To the phone on the TARDIS) How can you be ringing? What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?
  Nancy: Don't answer it. It's not for you.
  The Doctor: And how do you know that?
  Nancy: 'Cause I do. And I'm telling you. Don't answer it.
  The Doctor: Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone! It's not connected; it's not... (Turns and finds Nancy gone.)
• Child: (Recurring line) Mummy? Mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy!
• Captain Jack Harkness: Okay, okay, I've got you!
  Rose: Who's got me? Who's got me, and...you know...how?
  Jack: I'm just programming your descent pattern. Stay as still as you can, and keep your hands and feet inside the light field.
  Rose: Descent pattern?
  Jack: Oh, and can you switch off your cell phone? (Rose scoffs.) No, seriously, it interferes with my instruments.
  Rose: You know, no one ever believes that! (Turns off phone.)
  Jack: Thank you! That's much better!
  Rose: Oh, yeah, that's a real load off, that is! I'm hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid, with a Union Jack across my chest, but, hey, my mobile phone's off!
• Jack: Ready for you! Hold tight!
  Rose: To WHAT?
  Jack: Fair point.
• Rose: Hello.
  Jack: Hello.
  Rose: Hello. Sorry. That was "hello" twice there. Dull, but, you know, thorough.
  Jack: Are you alright?
  Rose: Fine! Why, you expecting me to faint or something?
  Jack: You look a little dizzy.
  Rose: What about you; you're not even in focus! (Faints.)
• Nancy: Something wrong with that?
  The Doctor: Wrong with it? It's brilliant! I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical.
• The Doctor: I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean, a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving.
• The Doctor: Never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know.
  Nancy: I suppose you'd know something about that.
  The Doctor: I do, actually, yes.
  Nancy: He's not exactly a child.
• Nancy: You mustn't let him touch you!
  The Doctor: What happens if he touches me?
  Nancy: He'll make you like him.
  The Doctor: And what's he like? ... Nancy, what's he like?
  Nancy: He's empty.
• The Doctor: Nobody here but us chickens! Well, this chicken.
• Rose: This is psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me.
  Jack: How do you know?
  Rose: Two things. One, I have a friend that uses this all the time. And two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling you're single, and you work out.
  Jack: Tricky thing, psychic paper.
  Rose: Yeah. Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over. (Hands Jack back the paper.)
  Jack: Ohhhh....you sort of have a boyfriend called Micky Smith, but you consider yourself to be footloose and fancy free!
  Rose: What?
  Jack: Actually, the word you use is "available".
  Rose: No way!
  Jack: And another one, "very".
• Rose: Nice spaceship. Very...Spock.
• Rose: Okay, you have an invisible spaceship. Tethered up to Big Ben for some reason.
  Jack: First rule of active camouflage: Park somewhere you'll remember.
• The Doctor: My nose has special powers.
  Nancy: Yeah? Is that why it's so...
  The Doctor: What?
  Nancy: Nothing!
• Nancy: Do your ears have special powers too?
  The Doctor: What are you trying to say?
• Nancy: There's someone you need to talk to first.
  The Doctor: And who might that be.
  Nancy: The Doctor. (The Doctor looks confused.)
• Rose: This isn't business; this is champagne!
• Jack: I try never to discuss business with a clear head.
• Rose: Do you have the time? (Jack hits a button and lights up Big Ben) Okay, that was flash. That was on the flash side!
• Jack: When you say your companion, just how disappointed should I be?
  Rose: We're standing in midair...on a spaceship...during a German air raid...Do you really think now's a good time to be coming on to me?
  Jack: Perhaps not. (Jack moves away.)
  Rose: Well, it was just a suggestion!
• Rose: (To Jack, as he tries to discuss business while they dance.) Do you know what I think?
  Jack: What?
  Rose: I think you were talking just there.
• Jack: I like to think of myself as a criminal.
  Rose: I'll bet you do!
• Jack: I'll do a scan for alien tech.
  Rose: Finally! A professional!
• The Doctor: 1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing! Until one tiny, damp little island says, "No! No. Not here." A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. I don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me!
• Dr. Constantine: Are you a doctor?
  The Doctor: I have my moments.
• The Doctor: (Examining a patient in the ward) Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand, and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns.
  Dr. Constantine: Examine another one.
  The Doctor: (Examining another patient) This is impossible.
  Dr. Constantine: Examine another.
  The Doctor: (Examining another patient) This is impossible!
  Dr. Constantine: No.
  The Doctor: They've all got the same injuries!
  Dr. Constantine: Yes.
  The Doctor: Exactly the same! Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand!
• Dr. Constantine: When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim.
  The Doctor: Dead.
  Dr. Constantine: At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient on the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague.
• The Doctor: What was the cause of death?
  Dr. Constantine: There wasn't one. They're not dead. (Hits a trash can with his cane, and all the patients sit up.)
• Dr. Constantine: They just...don't die.
• Dr. Constantine: Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I'm neither. But I'm still a doctor.
  The Doctor: Yeah. I know the feeling.
• Dr. Constantine: Mum...my...Are...you...my...mummy? (His face transforms into a gas mask, like the other patients in the hospital.)
• Jack: (To the Doctor) And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mr. Spock.
• The Doctor: Mr. Spock?
  Rose: What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of "Doctor"? Doctor who?
  The Doctor: Nine centuries in, I'm coping!
• The Doctor: Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz; it's not a good time for a stroll!
  Rose: Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid.
  The Doctor: What?
• Jack: I should have known, the way you guys were blending in with the local color! Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-boat Captain?
• The Doctor: Human DNA is being rewritten. By an idiot.
• The Doctor: (As all the patients in the ward stand and surround the Doctor, Rose, and Jack, asking for their mommies.) Don't let them touch you!
  Rose: What happens if they touch us?
  The Doctor: You're looking at it.