"Sneed And Company offer their sincerest condolences, sir, in this most trying hour." "Grandmama had a good innings, Mr Sneed." "She was so full of life." " I can't believe she's gone." " Not gone, Mr Redpath." "Merely sleeping." " May I have a moment?" " Yes, of course." "I shall be in the next room should you need anything." "Oh, no." "Gwyneth!" "Get down here now!" "We've got another one!" " Hold that one down." " I am!" " Hold them both down!" " It won't work!" "I promised you a time machine." "We've seen the future." "Let's see the past." " How does 1860 sound?" " What happened in 1860?" "I don't know." "Let's find out." "Hold on." "Gwyneth!" "Where are you, girl?" "Gwyneth!" "Where have you been?" "I was shouting." " The stables, breaking the ice for Samson." " Go back and harness him up." " Whatever for, sir?" " The stiffs are getting lively again." "Mr Redpath's grandmother is up and out there somewhere." "We've got to find her." "Mr Sneed, how many more times?" "It's ungodly." "Don't look at me like it's my fault." "Hurry up." "She was 86." "She can't have got far." "What about Mr Redpath?" "Did you deal with him?" "No... she did." "That's awful, sir." "I know it's not my place and please forgive me for talking out of turn, sir, but this is getting beyond now." "Something terrible is happening here and we need to get help." "And we will... as soon as I get that dead old woman locked up." "Stop prevaricating, get the hearse ready." "We're going body-snatching." " Blimey!" " Are you all right?" "Yeah, I think so." "Nothing broken." "Did we make it?" "I did it." "Give the man a medal." "Earth, Naples." "December 24th 1860." "That's so weird." "It's Christmas." "All yours." "But it's like..." "Think about it, though." "Christmas 1860." "It happens once, just once, and it's gone." "It's finished." "It'll never happen again." "Except for you." "You can go back and see days that are dead and gone 100,000 sunsets ago." " No wonder you never stay still." " Not a bad life?" "Better with two." "Come on." " Where are you going?" " 1860." "Like that?" "You'll start a riot, Barbarella." "There's a wardrobe." "First left, second right, past the bins, fifth door on your left." "Hurry up." "Not a sign." "Where is she?" "She's vanished into the ether, sir." "Where can she be?" " You tell me, girl." " What do you mean?" " Gwyneth, you know full well." " No, sir." "I can't." " Use the sight." " It's not right, sir." "Find the old lady or you're dismissed." "Now..." "look inside, girl." "Look deep." "Where is she?" "She's lost, sir." "She's so alone." "Oh, my Lord." "So many strange things in her head." "But where?" "She was excited about tonight." " Before she passed on, she was to see him." " Who's him?" "The great man." "All the way from London." "The great, great man." "Mr Dickens?" "Excuse me, sir." "This is your call." " Are you quite well, sir?" " Splendid." "Sorry." " Time you were on, sir." " Absolutely." "I was just brooding." "Christmas Eve." "Not the best of times to be alone." "Did no one travel with you, sir?" "No lady wife?" " Afraid not." " You can have mine, if you want." "I wouldn't dare." "I've been rather..." "let's say clumsy with family matters." "Thank God I'm too old to cause any more trouble." " You speak as if it's all over, sir." " No." "It's never over." "On and on I go... the same old show." "I'm like a ghost, condemned to repeat myself through all eternity." "It's never too late, sir." "You can think up some new turns." "No, I can't." "Even my imagination grows stale." "I'm an old man." "Perhaps I've thought everything I'll ever think." "Still..." "The lure of the limelight's as potent as a pipe, what?" "On with the motley." " Blimey!" " Don't laugh." "You look beautiful." " Considering." " Considering what?" "That you're human." "I think that's a compliment." "Are you changing?" " I've changed my jumper." "Come on." " You stay there." "This is mine." "Ready for this?" "Here we go." "History." ""GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN")" " She's in there, sir." "I'm certain of it." " Right." " I got the flight a bit wrong." " I don't care." " It's not 1860, it's 1869." " I don't care." " And it's not Naples." " I don't care." "It's Cardiff." "Right." "Now, it is a fact that there was nothing particular at all about the knocker on the door of this house, but let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door," "saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change... not a knocker, but Marley's face." "Marley's face!" "It looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look." "It looked like..." "Oh, my Lord." "It looked..." "like that." "What phantasmagoria is this?" "That's more like it." "Stay in your seats..." "I beg you." "It is a lantern show." "It's trickery." " Excuse me." " There she is, sir!" "I can see that." "The whole blooming world can see that!" "Fantastic." " Did you see where it came from?" " Ah, the wag reveals himself." " I trust you're satisfied, sir!" " Oi!" "Leave her alone!" "I'll get them!" "Be careful!" "Did it say anything?" "Can it speak?" " I'm the Doctor." " You look more like a navvy." "What's wrong with this jumper?" " What are you doing?" " It's a tragedy, miss." "We'll deal with it." "This poor lady's been taken with the brain fever." "She's cold." "She's dead." "What did you do to her?" " What did you do that for?" " She's seen too much." "Get her in." "Legs." "Gas." "It's made of gas." " Rose!" " You're not escaping me, sir." "What do you know about that hobgoblin?" "Projection on glass?" "Who put you up to it?" "Yeah, mate." "Not now." "Oi, you!" "Follow that hearse!" " I can't do that, sir." " Why not?" "I'll tell you why not!" "Because this is my coach." "Well, get in, then." "Move!" "Yah!" "Come on." " Come on." " Everything in order, Mr Dickens?" " No!" " What did he say?" " I am not without a sense of humour..." " Dickens?" " Yes." " Charles Dickens?" "The Charles Dickens?" " Shall I remove the gentleman, sir?" " You're brilliant!" "I've read them all." ""Great Expectations", "Oliver Twist" and the one with the ghost." " "A Christmas Carol"?" " No." "With the trains." ""The Signalman"." "Terrifying." "The best short story ever." "You're a genius." " Shall I get rid of him, sir?" " No." "He can stay." "Charles..." "Can I call you Charles?" "I'm such a fan." " A what?" "A big what?" " Fan." "Number one fan." "How exactly are you a fan?" "How do you resemble a way of keeping cool?" "It means fanatic." "Mind you, the American bit in "Martin Chuzzlewit", what's that?" "It's rubbish." " I thought you were my fan." " If you can't take criticism..." "Do the death of Little Nell..." "No, forget that." "Faster!" "Who exactly is in that hearse?" "My friend." "She's only 19." "Now she's in danger." "Why are we talking about dry old books?" "This is much more important." " Driver, be swift!" "The chase is on!" " Attaboy, Charlie." " Nobody calls me Charlie." " The ladies do." " How do you know?" " I'm your..." "Number one fan." "Yes." " What are we going to do with her?" " I don't know." "I didn't plan any of this." "It isn't my fault if the dead won't stay dead." "Then whose fault is it, sir?" "Why is this happening to us?" "I did the bishop a favour once - made his nephew look like a cherub though he'd been a fortnight in the weir." "Perhaps he'll do us an exorcism on the cheap." "Say I'm not in." "Just get rid of them." " We're closed." " Nonsense." "Undertakers don't keep office hours." "The dead don't die on schedule." " I demand to see your master." " He's not in." "Don't lie to me, child!" "Summon him." "I'm sorry, Mr Dickens, but the master's indisposed." " Having trouble with your gas?" " What the Shakespeare is going on?" "Are you all right?" "You're kidding me, yeah?" "You are kidding me, aren't you?" "OK." "No kidding." " You're not allowed in, sir." " There's something in the walls." "The gas pipes." "Something's living inside the gas." "Let me out!" "Open the door!" " That's her." " Please let me out!" " How dare you, sir?" "This is my house!" " Shut up!" "I told you..." "Let me out!" "Somebody open the door!" "Open the door!" "I think this is my dance." "It's a prank." "We're under some mesmeric influence." " No." "The dead are walking." "Hi." " Hi." "Who's your friend?" " Charles Dickens." " OK." "I'm the Doctor." "Who are you?" " Failing." " Open the rift." "We're dying." "Trapped in this form." "Cannot sustain." "Help us." "First you drug me, then you kidnap me - and I felt your hands having a quick wander!" " I won't be spoken to like this!" " You put me in a room full of zombies!" " You swan off and leave me to die!" " It's not my fault!" "It's this house." "It always had a reputation." "Haunted." "I never had much bother until three months back." "Then the stiffs..." "The... dear departed..." "started getting restless." " Tommy-rot!" " You witnessed it." "Can't keep the beggars down, sir." "They walk." "The queerest thing, they hang on to scraps..." "Two sugars, sir." "How you like it." "One old sexton almost went to his own memorial service." "Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir." " Morbid fancy." " Charles, you were there." " I saw nothing but an illusion." " If you're going to deny it, just shut up." " What about the gas?" " That's new, sir." "I've never seen that." "The rift's getting wider and something's getting through." " What's a rift?" " A weak point in time and space." "A connection with another place." "That's the cause of ghost stories." "That's how I got the house so cheap." "Stories going back generations." "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul." "It's been good for business." "What people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine." "Impossible." "Checking for strings?" "Wires, perhaps." "There must be some mechanism behind this fraud." "Oh, come on, Charles." "I shouldn't have told you to shut up." "I'm sorry." "You've got one of the best minds in the world." " You saw the gas creatures." " I cannot accept..." "What does the human body do when it decomposes?" "It produces gas." "Perfect home for these gas things." "They can use it as a vehicle." " Just like your coach." " Stop it." "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?" " Not wrong." "There's just more to learn." " I've always railed against the fantasist." "I've always loved an illusion, but that's exactly what they were - illusions." "The real world is something else." "I dedicated myself to that - injustices, the great social causes." "I hoped that I was a force for good." "Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o'-lanterns." "In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor?" "Has it all been for nothing?" " Miss, you shouldn't be helping." " Don't be daft." "Sneed works you to death." " How much do you get paid?" " Eight pound a year, miss." " How much?" " I know." "I would have been happy with six." " So did you even go to school or what?" " Of course I did." "What do you think I am, an urchin?" "I went every Sunday, nice and proper." " Once a week?" " We did sums and everything." " To be honest, I hated every second." " Me too." "Don't tell anyone, but one week..." "I didn't go and I runned on the heath on my own!" "I did plenty of that." "I used to go round the shops with my mate Shereen." " We used to go and look at boys." " I don't know much about that, miss." "Times haven't changed that much." "I bet you've done the same." " I don't think so, miss." " Gwyneth, you can tell me." "I bet you've got your eye on someone." "I suppose..." "There is one lad." "The butcher's boy." "He comes by every Tuesday." "Such a lovely smile on him." "I like a nice smile." "Good smile." "Nice bum." "Well, I've never heard the like!" "Ask him out." "Give him a cup of tea or something." "That's a start." "I swear it is the strangest thing, miss." "You've got the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing." "Maybe I am." "Maybe that's a good thing." "You need a bit more in your life than Mr Sneed." "That's not fair." "He's not so bad, old Sneed." "He was very kind to take me in." "I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was 12." "I'm sorry." "Thank you, miss." "But I'll be with them again one day - sitting with them in paradise." "I shall be so blessed." "They're waiting for me." "Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you too, miss." "Maybe." "Um..." "Who told you he was dead?" "I don't know." "Must have been the Doctor." "My father died years back." "But you've been thinking about him lately." "I suppose so." "How do you know all this?" "Mr Sneed says I think too much." "I'm all alone down here." "I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you?" " No." "No servants where I'm from." " And you've come such a long way." "What makes you think so?" "You're from London." "I've seen London in drawings, but never like that." "All those people rushing about, half-naked." "For shame." "And the noise..." "And the metal boxes racing past." "And the birds in the sky..." "No, they're metal as well." "Metal birds with people in them." "People are flying." "And you've flown so far, further than anyone." "The things you've seen." "The darkness..." "The Big Bad Wolf." " I'm sorry." "I'm sorry, miss." " It's all right." "Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight." "But it's getting stronger, more powerful?" "All the time, sir." "Every night... voices in my head." "You grew up on top of the rift." "You're part of it." "You're the key." "I've tried to make sense of it, sir." "Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." "That should help." "You can show us what to do." " What do to where, sir?" " We're going to have a seance." "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists." "Come..." " Join hands." " I can't take part." "Humbug?" "Come on." "Open mind." "This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask." "Seances?" "Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze-box concealed between the knees." " This girl knows nothing." " Don't antagonise her." " I love a happy medium." " I can't believe you said that." "Come on." "We might need you." "Good man." "Now, Gwyneth..." "Reach out." "Speak to us." "Are you there, spirits?" "Come." "Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." "Can you hear that?" " Nothing can happen." "This is sheer folly." " Look at her." "I see them." "I feel them." " What's it saying?" " It can't get through." "You're controlling it." "Look deep." "Allow them through." " I can't." " You can." "Just believe it." "I have faith in you, Gwyneth." "Make the link." "Yes." "Great God!" "Spirits from the other side." "The other side of the universe." " Pity us." " Pity the Gelth." "There is so little time." "Help us." " What do you want us to do?" " The rift." " Take the girl to the rift." "Make a bridge." " What for?" "We are so very few - the last of our kind." "We face extinction." "Why?" "What happened?" "We had a physical form like you, but then the war came..." "War?" "What war?" "The Time War." "The whole universe convulsed." "The Time War raged." "Invisible to smaller species, but devastating to higher forms." "Our bodies wasted away." "We're trapped in this gaseous state." "That's why you need the corpses." "We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again." "We need a physical form and your dead are abandoned." " They go to waste." "Give them to us." " But we can't." " Why not?" " It's not..." "I mean, it's not..." "Not decent?" "It could save their lives." "Open the rift." "Let the Gelth through." "We're dying." "Help us." "Pity the Gelth." "Gwyneth?" "All true." "Are you OK?" "It's all true." "It's all right." "You just sleep." "But my angels, miss..." "They came, didn't they?" "They need me." " They do." "You're their only chance." " Leave her alone." "She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." "Drink this." "What did you say, Doctor?" "Explain it again." "What are they?" "Aliens." " Like foreigners?" " Pretty foreign, yeah." "From up there." " Brecon?" " Close." "They want to get from Brecon to Cardiff, but the road's blocked." "Only a few get through and they're weak." "They can only test-drive the bodies for so long, then they revert to gas." " Which is why they need the girl." " No." "But she can help." "She can open up the rift, make a bridge and let them through." "Incredible." "Ghosts that are not ghosts, but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." "Good system." " You can't let them inside dead people." " Why not?" "It's recycling." " Seriously, you can't." " Seriously, I can!" "It's wrong." "Those bodies were living people." "We should respect them even in death." " Do you carry a donor card?" " It's different." "Yes, it's a different morality." "Get used to it or go home." "Time's short." "I can't worry about a few corpses when the Gelth could be dying." " I don't care." "They're not using her." " Don't I get a say, miss?" "Look... you don't understand what's going on." "You would say that, miss, because inside your head you think I'm stupid." " That's not fair." " It's true, though." "Things might be different where you're from, but here and now I know my own mind and the angels need me." " Doctor, what do I have to do?" " You don't have to do anything." "They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on holy mission." " So tell me." " We need to find the rift." "This house is on a weak spot." "Mr Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house?" " The place where most ghosts are seen." " That would be the morgue." "Any chance you were going to say gazebo?" "Talk about Bleak House." "Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed." "I know they don't." "I know corpses weren't walking around in 1869." "Time's changing every second." "Your world can be rewritten like that." " Nothing is safe." "Remember that." "Nothing." " Doctor..." "I think the room is getting colder." "Here they come." "You've come to help." "Praise the Doctor!" "Praise him!" " Promise you won't hurt her." " Hurry." "So little time." "Pity the Gelth." "I'll take you somewhere else after." "Somewhere you can build bodies." "This isn't a permanent solution." "My angels." "I can help them live." " Where's the weak point?" " Here." "Beneath the arch." "Beneath the arch." " You don't have to do this." " My angels." "Establish the bridge out of the void, let us through." "Yes." "I can see you." "I can see you..." "Come." " Bridgehead establishing." " Come to this world, poor lost souls." "It is begun." "The bridge is made." " She has given herself to the Gelth." " There's rather a lot of them." "The bridge is open." "We descend." "The Gelth will come through in force." "You said you were few in number." "A few billion." "And all of us in need of corpses." "Oh, Gwyneth..." "Stop this!" "Listen to your master." "This has gone far enough." "Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." "Mr Sneed!" " I think it's gone a little bit wrong." " I have joined the legions of the Gelth." "Come." "March with us." "No..." "We need bodies." "All of you... dead." "The human race... dead." "Gwyneth, send them back!" "Three more bodies." "Make them vessels for the Gelth." "Doctor, I can't..." "Sorry." "This new world of yours is too much for me." "I'm so..." "Give yourself to glory." "Sacrifice your lives to the Gelth." " I trusted you." "I pitied you." " We don't want your pity!" " We want this world and all its flesh!" " Not while I'm alive." "Then live no more." "But I can't die." "Tell me I can't." "I haven't even been born yet." "It's impossible for me to die." "Isn't it?" "I'm sorry." "Failing." "Atmosphere hostile." "Gas..." "Gas!" "But it's 1869." "How can I die now?" "Time isn't a straight line." "It can twist into any shape." "You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th and it's my fault." "I brought you here." "It's not your fault." "I wanted to come." "What about me?" "I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five." "I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party." "Now I'm going to die in a dungeon... in Cardiff!" "It's not just dying..." "We're going to become one of them." " We'll go down fighting, yeah?" " Yeah." " Together?" " Yeah." "I'm so glad I met you." "Me too." "Doctor!" "Doctor!" "Turn off the flame, turn up the gas!" " Fill the room now!" " What are you doing?" "Turn it all on." "Flood the place!" " Brilliant." "Gas." " So we choke to death instead?" "Am I correct, Doctor?" "These creatures are gaseous." "Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host - like poison from a wound." "I hope..." "Oh, Lord." "I hope that this theory will be validated soon... if not immediately." "Plenty more!" "It's working." "Gwyneth!" "Send them back!" "They lied." "They're not angels." " Liars?" " Look at me." "If your mother and father could see this, they'd tell you the same." "They'd give you strength." "Send them back." " I can't breathe." " Charles, get her out." " I'm not leaving her!" " They're too strong." "Remember Rose's world?" "None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift." "I can't send them back." "But I can hold them." "Hold them in this place, hold them here." "Get out." " You can't!" " Leave this place!" "Get out!" "I won't leave her while she's in danger." "Leave that to me." "This way." "I'm sorry." "Thank you." " She didn't make it." " I'm sorry." "She closed the rift." "At such a cost." "The poor child." "I did try, but Gwyneth was already dead." " She had been for at least five minutes." " What do you mean?" "She was dead when she stood in that arch." "But she can't have..." "She spoke to us." "She helped us." "She saved us." "How could she have done that?" ""There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."" "Even for you, Doctor." "She saved the world." "A servant girl." "No one will ever know." "Right, then, Charlie boy." "I've just got to go into my... shed." " Won't be long." " What are you going to do now?" "I shall take the mail coach back to London, post-haste." "This is no time for me to be on my own." "I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them." "After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." " You've cheered up." " Exceedingly." "I thought I knew everything in the world." "Now I know I've just started." "All these huge and wonderful notions." "I'm inspired." "I must write about them." " Do you think that's wise?" " I shall be subtle... at first." ""The Mystery Of Edwin Drood" still lacks an ending." "Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle." "Perhaps he was not of this earth." ""The Mystery Of Edwin Drood And The Blue Elementals"." "I can spread the word, the truth." "Good luck with it." "Nice to meet you." "Fantastic." "Bye, then." "And thanks."