The Empty Child

"The Empty Child" is the ninth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 May 2005. It was directed by James Hawes, and was the first canonical episode written by Steven Moffat, who previously wrote the Comic Relief mini-episode "The Curse of Fatal Death" in 1999. He would later become the showrunner and main writer of Doctor Who from the fifth to tenth series. "The Empty Child" is the first of a two-part story, which continued and concluded with "The Doctor Dances", on 28 May.

In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his travelling companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) arrive in 1941 during the London Blitz, where they find that the city has been terrorised by a strange child in a gas mask repeatedly asking for his mother.

The episode marks the first appearance of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, who would become a recurring character in Doctor Who and the lead character of the spin-off series Torchwood. "The Empty Child" was watched by 7.11 million viewers in the UK. The two-part story has been cited by critics amongst the best of the show, and it won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.