''Ghost Light'' is the second serial of the 26th season of the British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

from 4 to 18 October 1989. Set in a mansion house in

Perivale Perivale () is an area of Greater London, west of Charing Cross. It is the smallest of the seven towns which make up the London Borough of Ealing. Perivale is mostly residential, with a library, community centre, a number of parks and open ...

in 1883, Josiah Smith ( Ian Hogg), a cataloguer of life forms from another planet, seeks to assassinate

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and take over the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

Plot

Thousands of years ago, an alien expedition came to Earth to catalogue life. After completing its task and collecting samples which included Nimrod, a being known as Light, the leader, went into slumber. By 1881, Josiah Smith gained control and kept Light in hibernation and imprisoned the creature known as Control on the ship, which is now the cellar of the house. Smith began evolving into the era's dominant life-form – the Victorian gentleman – and also took over the house. By 1883, Smith, having "evolved" into forms approximating a human and casting off his old husks as an insect would, managed to lure and capture the explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper, brainwashing him. Utilising Fenn-Cooper's association with

, he plans to get close to her so that he can assassinate her and subsequently take control of the

. The TARDIS arrives at Gabriel Chase.

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

had visited the house in 1983 and had felt an evil presence. The

Seventh Doctor The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', and the final incarnation of the original Doctor Who series. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy. ...

's curiosity drives him to seek answers. He encounters Control, which has now taken on human form, and makes a deal with it. The Doctor helps it release Light. Once awake, Light is displeased by all the changes while he was asleep. Smith tries to keep his plan intact, but events are moving beyond his control. As Control tries to "evolve" into a Lady, Ace tries to come to grips with her feelings about the house, revealing that she burned it down when she felt the evil. The Doctor finally convinces Light of the futility of opposing evolution, which causes him to overload and dissipate into the surrounding house. Control's complete evolution into a Lady derails Smith's plan as Fenn-Cooper, having freed himself from Smith's brainwashing, chooses to side with her instead of him. In the end, with Smith taken captive on the ship, Control, Fenn-Cooper, and Nimrod set off in the alien ship to explore the universe.

Outside references

In the dinner scene, the Doctor says, "Who was it said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round to dinner?" This refers to

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

' ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...

''.

Production

Pre-production

Working titles for this story included ''The Bestiary'' and ''Life-Cycle''. As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed ''Das Haus der tausend Schrecken'' (''The House of a Thousand Frights/Horrors'') upon translation into German. The story evolved out of an earlier, rejected script entitled ''Lungbarrow''. It was to be set on

Gallifrey Gallifrey () is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It is the original home world of the Time Lords, the civilisation to which the protagonist, the Doctor belongs. It is located in ...

in the Doctor's ancestral home and deal with the Doctor's past, but producer John Nathan-Turner felt that it revealed too much of the Doctor's origins. It was reworked to make both evolution and the idea of an ancient house central to the story. Marc Platt used elements of his original idea for his

Virgin New Adventures The ''Virgin New Adventures'' (NA series, or NAs) are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the televisio ...

novel ''

Lungbarrow ''Lungbarrow'' is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Published in Virgin Books' ''New Adventures'' range, it was the last of that range to feature the ...

''.

Production

''Ghost Light'' was the final production of the original 26-year run, with the last recorded sequence being the final scene between Mrs Pritchard and Gwendoline. It was not, however, the last to be screened – ''

The Curse of Fenric ''The Curse of Fenric'' is the third serial of the 26th season of the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 October to 15 November 1989. In it, the ancient evil ...

'' and ''

Survival Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...

'', both produced beforehand, followed it in transmission order.

Cast notes

Michael Cochrane and Frank Windsor had both previously appeared in ''Doctor Who'' with Peter Davison; Cochrane as Charles Cranleigh in '' Black Orchid'' in Season 19; Windsor played Ranulf in '' The King's Demons'' in Season 20. Carl Forgione appeared in the final serial of the Jon Pertwee era, ''

Planet of the Spiders ''Planet of the Spiders'' is the fifth and final serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 May to 8 June 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's fina ...

''.

Commercial releases

Home media

''Ghost Light'' was released on VHS in May 1994. A DVD was released in September 2004, with many extended and deleted scenes included as bonus features. However, unlike ''

'', these scenes no longer existed in broadcast quality as the master 625 line PAL colour videotapes containing the extra footage had been erased for reuse shortly after the story was broadcast, and were thus sourced from VHS copies, some with

timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

s burnt-in, i.e. recorded permanently onto the picture. This made an extended edit, as had been prepared for the ''Curse of Fenric'' DVD release the previous year, impossible. This serial was also released as part of the

Doctor Who DVD Files This is a list of ''Doctor Who'' serials and episodes that have been released on DVD and Blu-ray. DVD Release Most ''Doctor Who'' DVDs have been released first in the United Kingdom with Region 2, and released later in Australia and Ne ...

in Issue 96 on 5 September 2012. In February 2020 the full serial was released as part of the Doctor Who: The Collection Season 26 box-set with a new Extended Workprint Cut. Extended Workprint

In print

Marc Platt's novelisation was published by

Target Books Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became wel ...

in September 1990. In June 2011, an audiobook of the novelisation was released, read by Ian Hogg. The script, edited by John McElroy, was published by Titan Books in June 1993. Marc Platt contributed a chapter, written especially for this book, which rectified the omissions from the transmitted story.

Soundtrack release

The soundtrack album for this serial was released on Silva Screen Records in 1993 on CD with a cover adapted from the novelisation cover. It was reissued on CD with extra tracks on 26 August 2013 with a new cover.

Track listing

Critical analysis

A book length study written by Jonathan Dennis was published as part of

The Black Archive ''The Black Archive'' is a series of critical monographs about selected individual '' Doctor Who'' stories, from the series' earliest history to the present day. Rather than focusing on behind-the-scenes production history as much ''Doctor Who' ...

series from Obverse Books in 2016. The serial was covered in volume 46 of the Doctor Who: The Complete History, which reprinted Andrew Pixley's ''Archive'' features from ''Doctor Who Magazine'' and the various ''Doctor Who Magazine Special Editions'', as well as new articles created specifically for the book.

References

External links

* *
''Script to Screen: Ghost Light'', by Jon Preddle (''Time Space Visualiser'' issue 40, July 1994)

Target novelisation

*

{{Doctor Who soundtracks 1989 British television episodes Doctor Who pseudohistorical serials Evolution in popular culture Fiction set in 1883 Films with screenplays by Marc Platt Fiction about neanderthals Ghost Light Steampunk television episodes Television episodes set in London Victorian era in popular culture Television episodes set in the 19th century