Might be a bit difficult one this. Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror) described it on broadcast as one of the most perfect 45 minutes of television he had ever seen.
However, it's the first historical story of the revived series, and a celebrity one to boot - so there has to be some factual issues with the story. Mark Gatiss is very much a fan of Victorian Gothic, and does do his homework, but in order to make a 45 minute drama you have to cut a few factual corners.
The obvious starting point is Charles Dickens in Cardiff on 24th December 1869 as part of one of his celebrated reading tours...
He embarked on one such tour in January 1869, but had to abandon it in April on health grounds. He had begun to include the dramatic murder of Nancy at the hands of Bill Sykes, from Oliver Twist, in his repertoire. This was controversial for two reasons - the shocking nature of the material for those of a nervous disposition (i.e. ladies), and the effect this was having on his health, as he would become both physically and emotionally drained by the experience.
He did not resume his tours until the beginning of 1870, and then he was accompanied by his personal physician and was so frail that the venues had to have special adaptations made to accommodate him.
He did not give a reading in Cardiff on the Christmas Eve of 1869.
The venue - the Taliesin Lodge - is fictitious as well.
Talking of Christmas, the holiday was popularised by Prince Albert and then by Dickens himself - yet there isn't a sign of it anywhere in the city.
Dickens claims that he will be home in time to spend Christmas with his family by catching the early mail coach to London. As the journey by coach in 1870 between Cardiff and London took between 25 - 30 hours, this is unlikely to say the least. He could have gone by train - but then he had a massive problem with these after having been involved in a famous train crash, at Staplehurst in 1865.
We do know a little about his final Christmas, because of the incident with the turkey...
He had been sent a 30lb prize bird, to be delivered by train from Ross-on-Wye. However, the freight carriage carrying it caught fire and his turkey was destroyed.
We see that Dickens has his own coach anyway, presumably hired to serve his needs whilst in the city if local, or perhaps even one which was arranged for his entire trip. But this disappears and is never mentioned again after it takes the writer and the Doctor to the funeral parlour.
The Doctor and Dickens emerge from the theatre only after Rose has been bundled into the hearse. It is glass-sided, but has heavy purple velvet drapes obscuring the interior - so how does the Doctor know his companion is inside it?
Gwyneth is telepathic - we see her read Rose's mind - yet she hasn't sensed any evil intent or duplicity from the Gelth even though she's been in contact with them since she was a child.
And they haven't seen that she might just act against them if she were to learn their true intentions.
Why do they reveal their true evil nature straight away, rather than continue their pretence of being helpless refugees until after they have properly established themselves? The moment they begin to come through, they go from nice blue entities to fiery red devils.
Their plan has other drawbacks. It would appear that they cannot always control the bodies they inhabit, as we know of one other corpse which went AWOL before Mrs Peace goes off to the theatre.
Their plan also seems to depend on someone who knows (a) that they are an alien race and (b) all about the Time War - someone who can convince Gwyneth to allow them to cross over. Bit of a coincidence, the apparent sole Time Lord survivor of the War turning up purely by accident, as the TARDIS was supposed to be going to Naples.
Why should Gwyneth's death stop their invasion - if she's already dead when it begins?
Why require a human conduit at all if the Rift is the thing that matters, and it runs through the whole city and not just Sneed's mortuary? It's strongest at a certain point, under the basement arch, but not exclusive to that spot.
Presumably it is important that they do get physical bodies, as there were an awful lot of other methane sources available in Victorian Britain, places like coal mines and sewers where their presence might not have attracted too much attention until they were safely established.
It's never mentioned, but do they have a means of suspending decomposition? Otherwise their new bodies won't last very long. Even if they go round making new ones by killing people, they'd soon run out.
Everyone acts as if the gas in this story is natural gas, as we have today. In 1869 it would have been town gas - a mix of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide - which was highly toxic and would have incapacitated then killed everyone within seconds in the confined spaces we see here. The Doctor might have a respiratory bypass system, but Rose and Dickens don't.
Finally, a few minor issues.
There's an anachronistic street light outside the theatre.
Dickens doesn't appear to leave any footprints in the snow - and no-one's breath shows on a winter's night.
Sneed mentions Mrs Peace as having had "a good innings". Deriving from cricket, this only entered common parlance in the 1900's.
(He also refers to the corpses as "stiffs", which sounds like it should be an anachronism but actually entered slang use in the mid 19th Century).
Dickens says "On with the motley" - a theatrical expression, but one which first appeared in the opera Pagliacci in 1892.
"What the dickens" has nothing to do with Charles. It's an old name for the Devil.
The funeral parlour is in Llandaff - it says so on the side of the hearse. That's more than 5 miles from Cardiff Bay where Torchwood claims the Rift to be centred.
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