The third element of any new Doctor Who series is the trip into the past. We've already had the contemporary one, and the future one, so now it's time to dip into history.
Purely historical stories - ones which had no Sci-Fi / fantasy element other than the presence of the Doctor and the TARDIS, had ended in early 1967. Initially these had mostly been what we now call "celebrity historical" stories - wherein the Doctor and companions meet a famous person, or become involved in a famous event. A period of history can become as much a celebrity as a person - just look at all the TV programmes (drama or documentary) about just two of the Tudors, Henry VIII and Elizabeth.
As well as "celebrity historicals" we also had "genre historicals" which didn't necessarily rely on a famous person / event, but more on a style of historical literature - such as the swashbuckler. The final historical of the 1960's - The Highlanders - is about the Jacobite Rebellion - but Bonnie Prince Charlie doesn't appear, and it begins after the Battle of Culloden has ended. It owes more to Sir Walter Scott or Robert Louis Stevenson than it does to documented historic fact.
The third type of historical story was the "pseudo-historical". These are Sci-Fi stories, with a historical setting. The first of these was The Time Meddler, and they became a regular fixture of the programe from The Time Warrior onwards.
There had been one later attempt at a purely historical story in the early 1980's - Black Orchid - but once again this was "genre historical", being little more than a country house murder mystery tale.
Russel T Davies decided to forego the purely historical stories when he brought the series back in 2005, but he would continue the tradition of the "pseudo-historical", combined with the "celebrity" flavour.
The BBC has a long tradition of producing good quality costume drama, often adaptations of famous works of literature. A great many of these featured a Victorian setting.
After completing their time on Doctor Who, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks both moved on to the Classic Serial slot, which saw dramatisations of novels in episodic form, going out every Sunday evening. A number of these were the works of Charles Dickens and his contemporaries.
Everyone was familiar with Dickens thanks to various film adaptations, even if they had only ever read the actual works at school. As well as "straight" versions of the books - such as David Lean's Great Expectations or the Ealing film version of David Copperfield - there were also the odd musical versions - Lionel Bart's Oliver! or Scrooge - The Musical. The general public knew what Dickens looked like as well - his face appearing on the £10 note.
For Doctor Who's first series back, it was therefore decided to go for a Victorian set story, with an appearance by Charles Dickens, as both would be familiar to the public. This was given to Mark Gatiss to develop. As well as being a well-known performer on TV and on stage (best known for The League of Gentlemen) he had also been one of the Virgin New Adventures writers.
One of Dickens' best known works was A Christmas Carol, which featured the supernatural in the form of a series of ghosts. He was also well remembered for the BBC TV adaptation of his short story The Signalman - another ghost story which had been screened at Christmas in 1976, starring Denholm Elliot. These two things gave the Christmas setting for Gatiss' story. The ghosts became the Gelth, who appear as ghostly figures initially.
The first drafts concerned a hotel and fake mediums, but gradually this switched to a funeral parlour setting.
RTD was determined to show off Wales in the new series, as that was where it was going to be made. He also wanted it to feature in some of the stories, and this is why the story is set in Cardiff rather than the expected London of Victorian times. This choice of setting could be easily explained as Dickens was famous for his reading tours. He would travel all over the country, reciting passages from his most popular works. As it happens, this story is set around Dickens' final Christmas, the year before he dies. However, he did not conduct one of these tours then.
As far as specific works are concerned, the Doctor tells Dickens that he loved The Signal-Man (first published in 1866), and that he wasn't all that moved by the death of Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop (1840). Here he is referencing Oscar Wilde, who said "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing".
Dickens is reading A Christmas Carol (1843) when he first sees Mrs Peace and the Gelth, and later he sees a Gelth emerge from a door knocker, just as Scrooge had first seen the spirit of his dead partner Jacob Marley. Another book which the Doctor dislikes is Martin Chuzzlewit (1844). He clearly wasn't impressed by the book's American section.
Finally, Dickens mentions that his encounter with the Gelth might furnish The Mystery of Edwin Drood with its ending. This novel remained unfinished at his death in June 1870.
One of the things the new series wanted to do was to distance itself from the negative cliches of the original series. We had already seen this with the CGI effects in the last episode. RTD was also determined that there would be no stunt casting, and it was hoped that big names would accept roles in the series - proper actors rather than light entertainment personalities. To portray Charles Dickens, Simon Callow was cast. Not only was he a highly regarded thespian, but he had a particular interest in Dickens, and had performed a one-man show in which he played the author. No doubt Mark Gatiss would have seen this. Callow accepted the part mainly because he was happy that the way Dickens was written was historically accurate.
There is a common phrase denoting astonishment: "What the Dickens!". Naturally, Dickens himself wouldn't say this, so here it becomes "What the Shakespeare!".
Next time: Pigs In Space! (And flatulent aliens in Downing Street...).
