Day 705: The Empty Child

As good as this episode is (and it is very good indeed), I can't help but think instead that I should write about something else entirely. When I was around 10 years old, I was a regular visitor to the Doctor Who website. I'd read episode guides, photonovels of missing episodes, watch webcasts (I felt really brave when I watched Real Time, given that it was advised to be watched by only mature audiences), and grow steadily addicted to the 'TARDIS Tennis' flash game (an event which would later foreshadow a crippling addiction to online flash games that would hamper my results in my final year of schooling). Later, though, I stopped visiting, for one reason or another, and moved onto other things. Curiosity drove me back to the website, where I was greeted with a bit of a shock.

Everything on the website was updated, to reflect the new series that was currently airing. Suddenly, there were a whole raft of new features, from fear factors to trailers to episode previews that had me hooked every single day to this website. Except for one week in May. For on that week, the home page was changed to reflect the upcoming episode: The Empty Child. Instead of seeing the Doctor and Rose, up to mischief, there was instead the haunting image of the child in the gas mask as you see at the top of this page. This was accompanied by a steady heart beat, as a child's voice slowly cried out for his mummy. It was thoroughly distressing to say the least, but the entire experience is etched in my memory as an example of the hype that was personally building for me around the series.