9. The Empty Child

London, 1941, at the height of the Blitz.  The army guards a mysterious cylinder and homeless children, living on bombsites, are terrorized by an unearthly child.  Rose meets the dashing Jack Harkness and wonders if she has found a hero even better than the Doctor?

- DR. WHO COLLECTORS' EDITION EPISODE GUIDE

The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS follow a piece of alien technology through a time vortex to the city of London during World War 2.  They land in an alleyway, and as the Doctor goes inside a club to ask the natives if they've seen anything fall from the sky lately (with much laughter from the patrons and then he sees why, a poster advertising the war against Hitler) Rose follows the voice of a child crying out for its' Mummy.  She tries to climb up a rope to get to the small child wearing a gas mask, but instead ends up clinging to the rope that's attached to a barrage balloon for dear life as it hovers over London city. 

The special effects of this scene are awesome!  The aerial shot of London city, with the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in the background, and shots of the canon fire up at the German bombers as different parts on London are on fire are excellent, really bringing the story setting home.  Then just as Rose can't hold on any longer and begins to fall to her death, a bright light encases her.  A male voice with an American accent tells her to remain still as he programs her descent pattern and oh, can you please turn off your mobile phone? It's interfering with the instruments.  "You know, no-one ever believes that!" Rose snaps but she obeys. 

Rose lands inside a small space ship and into the arms of a tall, dark and handsome stranger (talk about being swept off your feet!).  After all that has happened, and now this, Rose is a little unsteady on her feet.  Rose says to her savior, "what, you're expecting me to faint or something?" to which he replies, "you look a little dizzy."  She laughs and says, "well what about you, you're not even in focus!" and then she passes out.  Our new hero immediately catches her and lies her down on a bed.

Meanwhile during the raid, the Doctor meets a girl named Nancy.  At first it's in the alleyway when he comes back out of the club looking for Rose, and the phone on the outside of the TARDIS rings, surprising him.  A girl appears, and warns the Doctor not to answer it, but the Doctor does so anyway.  "Are you my Mummy?" the voice of a small boy asks, the same voice that previously lured Rose.  The Doctor is of course curious as to why his fake phone receives the unusual phone call.  He follows after the girl, and finds that during the raid, the girl and several other homeless children go into houses while families are away in bomb shelters and steal food for survival.  The Doctor asks Nancy if she's seen the alien artifact, to which she clams up.  And then their discussion is interrupted when they hear the familiar voice, "are you in there Mummy?  Mummy!  I want my Mummy." Nancy and the children are afraid of the child with the gas mask, and all run away.  The Doctor remains, naturally to see what they're all afraid of and Nancy leaves him with this one piece of advice - not to touch him or he'll make the Doctor like him… empty inside.

Back on the space ship, Rose wakes up and meets Captain Jack Harkness, her handsome rescuer.  An amusing scene ensues as he hands Rose psychic paper and tries to lie that he's with the American Air Force.  Rose smiles and says no he's not, this is psychic paper, her friend uses it all the time.  And also, he handed her a piece of paper telling her that he's interested and that he works out.  She hands the paper back to Jack and he looks at it with a mischievous grin and reads out, that she some times has a boyfriend named Micky but she considers herself footloose and fancy free, and available, no the actual words are VERY available.  Rose blushes and they decide to try to get along with out the psychic paper.  When she complains of the rope burn from the barrage balloon, Jack treats her injuries, instantaneously healing them by the use of nanogenes, subatomic robots that are in the air of his ship. Then he takes her up onto the top of his craft for champagne.  Rose finds herself standing on top of an invisible space ship parked up in the air, right next to Big Ben. 

As Rose gets a little tipsy due to the champagne and Jack's smooth moves (they dance to Glen Miller) Jack thinks Rose is a Time Agent, knowing that she comes from the future.  He propositions to sell her an alien artifact, calling it a Chula Warship.  He tells Rose she has 2 hours to say yes and agree to his price before a German bomb falls on it.  Rose tells Jack that she has to run this by her companion first, and then Jack pulls her even closer and asks that when she says 'companion', just how jealous should he be? Through out the series so far, there have been many innuendoes and hints at the Doctor and Rose's real feelings for each other, which surface in the final episode of the series.  In the second episode, 'The End of the World' Jabe also asked Doctor what his relationship was to Rose… wife, lover or even a concubine? 

The Doctor, after following another piece of Nancy's advice when he later catches up to her and again asks about the alien artifact, goes to Albion Hospital, which is near the bomb site of the alien artifact.  There he meets Dr. Constantine and sees the wards are full of people all with the same injuries, including gas masks fused to their faces.  Dr. Constantine tells the Doctor that the empty child was the first victim from the alien artifact and then his injuries spread like plague, infecting all who had come into contact with the child, or didn't, and soon the hospital was over run by these patients.  Then the Doctor watches in bewilderment as Dr. Constantine also transforms into one of these victims. 

It's here that Rose and Jack catch up to the Doctor inside the hospital after Jack did a scan for alien tech.  Jack says to the Doctor, "it's a real pleasure meeting you Dr. Spock." And then he walks away to look at the patients.  The Doctor looks at Rose, "Dr. Spock?" Rose retorts with, "well, what was I supposed to say?  You don't have a name.  Doctor… Don't you ever get tired of Doctor?  Doctor who?" The Doctor says annoyed, "9 centuries in, I'm coping!"  

The episode finishes on a climatic ending.  When Nancy returned to the house to steal more food, the empty child follows her.  Previously we learnt from Nancy that the empty child was Nancy's little brother, Jaime, who died a night of an air raid, by the alien technology.  During the raid, Jaime became scared and tried to follow after Nancy while she was out finding food.  Even in death and being reanimated by the alien technology, he is still following her.  Just as Jaime closes in on Nancy, suddenly all of the patients in the hospital stand up and close in on the Doctor, Rose and Jack… are our heroes doomed to become empty inside?