Doctor Who (TV Series)

The Unquiet Dead (2005)

Alan David: Gabriel Sneed

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Sneed and Company offer their sincerest condolences, sir, in this most trying hour.

  Redpath : Grandmama had a good innings, Mr. Sneed. She was so full of life. I can't believe she's gone.

  Gabriel Sneed : Not gone, Mr. Redpath. Merely sleeping.

  Redpath : May I have a moment?

  Gabriel Sneed : Yes, of course. I shall be in the next room should you require anything.

  [after Sneed leaves, the body rises up and strangles Redpath. Sneed rushes back in] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Oh, no. Gwyneth! Get down here now! We've got another one!

• Gabriel Sneed : What did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?

  The Doctor : Aliens.

  Gabriel Sneed : Like foreigners, you mean?

  The Doctor : Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there.

  [points upwards] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Brecon?

• The Doctor : The rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.

  Rose Tyler : What's the rift?

  The Doctor : A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.

  Gabriel Sneed : That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.

  [Dickens walks out of the room] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air. And a feeling like a shadow passing over your soul.

  [pause] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.

• Gabriel Sneed : The stiffs are getting lively again. Mr. Redpath's grandmother, she's up and on her feet out there somewhere on the streets. We've got to find her.

  Gwyneth : Mr. Sneed, for shame! How many more times? It's ungodly!

  Gabriel Sneed : Don't look at me like it's my fault! Now come on, hurry up. She was eighty-six; she can't have got far.

  Gwyneth : What about Mr. Redpath? Did you deal with him?

  Gabriel Sneed : No. She did.

  Gwyneth : 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 in this house, and we've got to get help.

  Gabriel Sneed : And we will! As soon as I get that dead old woman locked up and safe and sound. Now, stop prevaricating, girl. Get the hearse ready. We're going body-snatching!

• The Doctor : We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of the house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?

  Sneed : That would be... the morgue.

  Rose : No chance you were gonna say gazebo, is there?

• Gabriel Sneed : I did the Bishop a favour, once. Made his nephew look like a cherub. Even though he'd been a fortnight in the weir. Perhaps he'll do us an exorcism on the cheap.

  [There is a knock at the door. Sneed and Gwyneth look up, alarmed. Sneed tells Gwyneth] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Say I'm not in. Tell them we're closed. Just, just get rid of them.

  [In the parlor, Rose is just waking up, and while trying to come to her senses, she does not see a gassy spirit enter Mr. Redpath's body, causing him to sit up in his coffin] 

  Gwyneth : [opening the door to find the Doctor and Charles Dickens]  I'm sorry, sir, we're closed.

  Charles Dickens : Nonsense! Since when did an undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master.

  Gwyneth : He's not in, sir.

  Charles Dickens : [tries to force the door open as Gwyneth closes it]  Don't lie to me, girl!

  Gabriel Sneed : I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Dickens, but the mater's indisposed.

  [Behind her, a gas lamp flares up and the flames start flickering oddly] 

  The Doctor : Having trouble with your gas?

  Charles Dickens : What in Shakespeare is going on?

  Rose Tyler : [suddenly, she notices Mr. Redpath's corpse sitting up in his coffin as he making zombie noises]  Are you all right? You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding.

  [Redpath climbs out of his coffin] 

  Rose Tyler : You are, you're kidding me, aren't ya?

  [He takes staggering steps towards her] 

  Rose Tyler : Okay, not kidding!

  [She runs to the door and tries to open it. In the hallway, meanwhile, the Doctor has forced his way inside] 

  Gwyneth : You're not allowed inside, sir.

  The Doctor : There's something inside the walls.

  [Inside the parlor, the corpse of Mrs. Peace also sits up and climbs out of her coffin] 

  The Doctor : The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas.

  [Desparate, Rose throws a vase at Mr. Redpath, but that only causes him to stumble back a bit. She then frantically rattles the doorknob] 

  Rose Tyler : Let me out! Open the door!

  The Doctor : [outside]  That's her.

  [He runs off to find her, Charles Dickens following him] 

  Rose Tyler : Please, let me out!

  [Mrs. Peace and Mr. Redpath are advancing on her. In the hall, the Doctor and Dickens race past Sneed] 

  Gabriel Sneed : How dare you, sir! This is my house!

  [Dickens charges past him too. He shakes his finger at Gwyneth as she runs after them] 

  Gabriel Sneed : I told you!

  Rose Tyler : [still hammering on the door as the two bodies close in on her]  Let me out! Somebody, open the door! Open the door!

  [Redpath clasps a hand over her mouth, muffling her scream. At that moment, the Doctor kicks the door in] 

  The Doctor : I think this is MY dance.

  [releases Rose from Mr. Redpath's grasp] 

  Charles Dickens : It's a prank? It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence.

  The Doctor : No, we're not, the dead are walking.

  [grins down at the panting Rose] 

  The Doctor : Hi!

  Rose Tyler : Hi! Who's your friend?

  The Doctor : Charles Dickens.

  Rose Tyler : Oh. Okay.

  The Doctor : [to the corpses]  My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?

  Redpath : [speaking with a voice overlaid by that of a ghost]  We're failing. Open the rift, we're dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain. Help us.

  [He and Mrs. Peace raise their heads to the ceiling, and the gas leaves them with a wailing shriek, and then the bodies fall to the floor] 

• [Gwyneth pours the Doctor, Rose, and Charles Dickens tea. Rose, meanwhile, is lashing out at Sneed for the events of the cadavers' attack] 

  Rose Tyler : First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!

  [the Doctor sniggers] 

  Gabriel Sneed : I won't be spoken to like this!

  Rose Tyler : Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off! And leave me to die! So come on, talk!

  Gabriel Sneed : It's not my fault, it's this house! It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back. And then the stiffs...

  [Dickens looks mildly offended] 

  Gabriel Sneed : ... the er, dear departed started getting restless.

  Charles Dickens : Tommyrot.

  Gabriel Sneed : You witnessed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir! They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps...

  Gwyneth : [giving the Doctor his tea]  Two sugars, sir, just how you like it.

  [the Doctor looks at her, retreating back curiously] 

  Gabriel Sneed : One old fella who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service! Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir! Just as she planned.

  Charles Dickens : Morbid fancy.

  The Doctor : Oh, Charles, you were there.

  Charles Dickens : I saw nothing but an illusion.

  The Doctor : If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up.

  [Dickens is stunned. The Doctor turns to Sneed] 

  The Doctor : What about the gas?

  Gabriel Sneed : That's new, sir, never seen anything like that.

  The Doctor : Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.

  Rose Tyler : What's the rift?

  The Doctor : A weak point in time and space. The connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.

  Gabriel Sneed : [with revelation]  That's how I got the house so cheap.

  [Dickens sneaks out of the room unnoticed] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Stories going back generations. Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air and this feeling like a... shadow. Passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.

• The Gelth : The bridge is open. We descend.

  [Suddenly, the figure becomes demonic. The gas turns from blue to red] 

  The Gelth : The Gelth will come through in force.

  Charles Dickens : You said that you were *few* in number!

  The Gelth : A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses.

  [the dead bodies, possessed by the Gelth, begin to rise] 

  Gabriel Sneed : Gwyneth! Stop this! Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, leave these things alone. I beg of you...

  Rose Tyler : Mr. Sneed! Get back!

  [But it's too late. A corpse strangles Sneed from behind, holding him still to let a Gelth fill his body through the mouth. The Doctor and Rose leap back, and when Sneed looks up again, it is through his blank, dead eyes] 

  The Doctor : I think it's gone a little bit wrong.

  Gabriel Sneed , The Gelth : I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come. March with us.

  Charles Dickens : No!

  [the corpses start advancing on the Doctor and Rose] 

  Gabriel Sneed , The Gelth : We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.

  The Doctor : Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back! Now!

  The Gelth : Three more bodies. Make them vessels for the Gelth.

  Charles Dickens : I - I can't! I'm sorry!

  [the Doctor and Rose spot the dungeon door and lock themselves into it]