Aired between 4th October 1989 and 18th October 1989
Written by Marc Platt
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Alan Wareing
Synopsis
The TARDIS lands in an old Victorian mansion. It gives Ace the creeps as she has "a thing" about haunted houses after she snuck in one at Perivale when she was a delinquent.
They explore and find a snuff box. A Victorian gentleman turns up and confirms that "atrocities" have happened in this house and he came here looking for Redvers Fenn-Cooper. The snuff box is the first evidence he's found of him being in the mansion. He's allegedly being held captive by the owner of the house - Josiah Samuel Smith. It soon transpires that the man is in fact Fenn-Cooper himself and he's gone insane.
Out of nowhere, maids who seem to know him turn up and march him away. A very strange Neanderthal butler called Nimrod instructs the Doctor and Ace to the drawing room, saying Mr Smith is expecting them.
Once in the drawing room, they meet a young lady, Gwendoline, who is staying with her uncle Josiah. They have another visitor - the Reverend Matthews, who has shown up at the house to have it out with Smith over his outlandish theories of evolution that he published in a book recently. The Reverend mistakes the Doctor for Smith and gives him an earful before Josiah turns up.
He instructs Gwendoline and Ace to change for dinner, whilst he converses with the gentlemen. They don't get far before they hear Fenn-Cooper screaming from upstairs. They all rush to find him, cowering from a bright light coming from his snuff box.
Nimrod forces them out of the room and tells them to leave him to the house staff.
In all the commotion, the Doctor and Ace miss the fact that Josiah instructs the Reverend to be chloroformed and taken away.
As they get back to the hall, Ace discovers that the mansion is in fact Gabriel Chase, the same building she sneaked into when she was 13. She runs off in a huff and gets into the basement where she sees a strange room with clear alien technology and green skinned monsters in dinner suits.
A gravelly voice calls out for them to get her. Nimrod turns up and helps her escape them.
Meanwhile, the Doctor watches curiously as Gwendoline examines her uncles collection of insects. In the bottom drawer is a Policeman, presumably in suspended animation.
She says he's all the way from Java, and that the Reverend will be leaving for there soon. She also says her father was sent there by her uncle after he saw what was in the cellar. Growing concerned, the Doctor tries to find Ace but is held captive by the staff who suddenly have revolvers.
Back in the cellar, Ace gets a bit overzealous with the stick and threatens to smash an oval panel with glowing light. Nimrod doesn't like this and proclaims that "the sleeping one must not be woken". He struggles with her and she breaks the pane, setting off alarms all over the mansion. In the confusion, the Doctor grabs a gun and holds it to Josiah's head, forcing him to take him to the cellar.
Seeing the danger, the Doctor stabilises the streaming smoke from the hole Ace made, and recognises the green skinned monsters as past skins of Josiah Smith, left with rudimentary abilities to move and act. Smith grabs the gun and orders the Doctor to repair the ship, but he unleashes the steam and gets Smith in the blast. Together, Ace and the Doctor flee, bringing with them Nimrod and the incapacitated Josiah Smith as a retched creature is released from a cell in the ship.
Once out of the cellar, Smith is taken by the maids to the upstairs. The Doctor says they won't see him until nightfall. With that, they retire to rest.
During the day, the injured form of Josiah Smith starts to evolve, peeling and removing his husked skin.
The Reverend Matthews wakes up, and starts lambasting Smith once more, but is soon put in a perilous position as he begins inexplicably devolving into a monkey.
Gwendoline turns up and using chloroform, sends the Reverend to "Java".
Ace is woken at dusk by a human maid and given breakfast.
When she arrives downstairs, she sees that the Doctor has awoken the Inspector McKenzie from the drawer who apparently came here three years ago to inspect the disappearance of George Pritchard, Gwendline's father.
The Doctor suggests some theories as to what's going on. He reckons that there are two creatures in the basement, the one in the cell and the one in the glass. He thinks the one in the glass is the master that Smith has kept subdued, asleep because he fears it. Redvers Fenn-Cooper saw it and lost his mind, and Nimrod worships it.
They go to the attic to speed things along. The Doctor winds the clock forwards to midnight and the occupants of the house come to life. They subdue Ace, the Doctor and the Inspector and a newly evolved Josiah Smith shows himself, bringing them all back downstairs.
He doesn't count on the fact that the Doctor has made a deal with the creature called "control" from the cell though. It has released the master from it's sleep and it indicates that it has brought it up from the cellar. Smith tries to stop the creature called "light", but is blown back by an electrical charge. With a blaze of light, the creature emerges.
The creature turns up in a glowing humanoid form that it adopts as the dominant form in this world.
The Doctor explains to all that the creature came to earth to catalogue all life here. With him came two other creatures - Control who was a control subject, was kept in the ship to remain pure. The other was Josiah Smith, who went out to gather samples for Light. He however rebelled against Light and after their first expedition to Earth (in which he collected Nimrod as a sample), Smith ensured Light remained asleep and brought the ship back to Earth. He took over the mansion, hypnotising the Pritchards and killing the owner of the house. Once in control, he tricked Fenn-Cooper into coming to the mansion and aimed to use him to get close to Queen Victoria, with the hopes of killing her and taking over the empire.
All this is inconsequential now though, as Light has awoken and is very displeased to find that everything has "changed" and evolved. It cannot handle the fact and decides to make sure that life will not evolve again, setting in motion a firestorm and devising a plan to turn people into primordial soup, starting with the unfortunate Inspector McKenzie.
As Light goes off to formulate his plan, the Doctor cures Fenn-Cooper and despite Gwendoline on the orders of Smith trying to send Ace to "Java", brings them out of their spell by revealing that her and the head housemaid are actually mother and daughter. Light turns them to stone and goes to dinner.
After Control begins to evolve into a "Ladylike", she helps Ace free herself from Gwendoline and goes to dinner.
Everyone gathers in the dining room and Light outlays it's plan to stop evolution, but the Doctor points out that everything changes, even Light. It changes location, changes it's mind, changes forms. It cannot handle it and dissipates into the house. This is the sinister feeling Ace had when she visits the house in the future and she reveals that she set the building on fire and burned it to the ground.
They all make it to the ship in the cellar to stop the oncoming firestorm, but Josiah Smith has one final attempt at gaining the upper hand. Control somehow switches place with Smith, becoming the more evolved of the two and sending him back to a simpler creature. With the threat ended, Control, Smith, Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod all fly off in the ship, taking the threat away.
The Doctor and Ace leave, going back to the hallway. The Doctor asks Ace if she has any regrets and she says yes, she regrets not blowing the place up instead.
Trivia
- This story was originally set on Galifrey and was the Doctor's worst nightmare from his past, with links to his family. John Nathan-Turner thought it revealed far too much of his past, so they changed it to be a storyline for Ace. The original idea was used for the novel "Lungbarrow" instead.
- The story didn't have any monsters originally beyond Light and Control, but John Nathan-Turner insisted, so they put in the husks to fulfil the demand
- This was actually the last true Doctor Who story to be filmed before the show was cancelled. The final scene to be shot was the one where Gwendoline and Mrs Pritchard were turned to stone.
- Many of the deleted scenes for this story were sadly lost as their tapes were wiped for reuse shortly after broadcast
The Review
Other guides accompanying this story have indicated that it is somewhat "marmite", that you will love or hate this story. I find personally that in fact there is a middle ground to be had. The main clue to this, beyond personal experience, is in watching the making of. This story is rich in background and concept. It accomplishes a lot in three episodes and has no time to dally about, therefore beyond a little explanation, it leaves people with little option to keep up unless they watch it on re-run which in 1989 was indeed possible. Because of this, many of the cast said that they knew it was pretty good, even though they couldn't fathom what the hell was going on. That is where I found myself for much of this in the years from being a teenager until now.
Watching Ghost Light as an adult, I have found that I understand the plot a lot more and I appreciate how hard the story works. It cooks up a very good sinister atmosphere, from the music, to the darkened lighting and aged scenery. The sense of foreboding and the sinister implication of being sent to "Java". It also handles mutlitple plot threads from Josiah's plans, the background of Gwnedoline, the evolution of Control and the nature of Light. All of this is very well done and when put in contrast to the Doctor Who Series 2 episode with Queen Victoria and the Werewolf, you can see just how much future stories will talk down to people.
The downside of this story is that because there is so much going on, it has glaring cuts from scene to scene that left me feeling a little frustrated. It's almost like vignettes of action where the logic just disappears between times. For example, you know Josiah is up to no good, yet let him retire to bed, and hang about in his house until nightfall, even letting Ace sleep there! Nobody seems to say "hang about, you're a Neanderthal" until way into episode 1. It's all quite infuriating, plus Light just disappearing because he can't handle things is a bit of an anti-climax.
So, I do refute the Marmite argument. I like this story, there's a lot to like, but it is equally non-sequitur and confusing which does detract from the enjoyment quite a bit in my opinion. Still. One of the better efforts for the Seventh Doctor.
Rating
6 out of 10
Re-Watchability Factor
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Lungbarrow
- The Unquiet Dead (Doctor Who Series 1)
- Tooth and Claw (Doctor Who Series 2)
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