Ghost Light

I really enjoyed watching Ghost Light. It's atmospheric and mysterious right from the start and really captivated my attention. The directing is strong, the costumes are good and the sets are solid. I really enjoyed watching it. However, now that I've finished the story, I'm just filled with confusion and unanswered questions. This story deserved to be longer and I feel that it's really suffered from just being 3 episodes long. The Blu-ray release does include an "extended workprint" version which I imagine is better as it includes some of the originally cut material, but I've not watched it yet so I can't comment. I can also see this being a story that the novelisation improves a lot, but, similarly, I've not yet read it.

I've enjoyed the off beat nature of this era but for me this story is where the wheels finally come off. Great atmosphere, love the development that Ace gets and there are some interesting ideas about evolution in there somewhere but the final on screen product is a mess. You can read about it and watch it a few times and more or less work out what's going on but I don't think it needs this because it's so layered and intelligent, it's more because the script has been cut down to the point that it's just a series of scenes rather than a coherent story.

A fantastically spooky and atmospheric story. This one concerns a Victorian house that scared Ace as a child, and an ethereal entity called Light who catalogs every living species. It's a lavish production, expertly directed, and with some of the strongest writing in the JNT era.

I wish I could say I enjoyed Ghost Light more, or that I could rate it higher than its current average, rather than pushing it lower. Unfortunately, this is a limited storyline for Who. On the one hand, it has exceptional production in its sets and design. They do a lot with clearly a limited budget. There's some great ideas in here but it is definitely cram packed full of plot, clearly truncated on some level and all the worse for it. The weird ghost wanting to catalogue everything and being obsessed with evolution was interesting, but I'm not sure how well it squared with the excellent character work around Ace.

There's some great moments here kind of unforgettable to Who, but it is held back in little ways and odd little beats of acting here and there.

This is one I remember watching in 2009 with my little brother. I'm not sure we knew 100% what was going on with the notoriously complex plot back then so this time I had the subtitles on and was in full concentration mode. I watched the originally transmitted version, not the newly expanded ones that Marc Platt recommends (I would be interested to see these).

At its heart Ghost Light is two plots which have been smooshed together. 1) Haunted house from Ace's childhood gets a backstory (great!). 2) An alien surveyor from eons ago wakes up after a long sleep, pissed off to find that his survey is out of date (mmm... okay!) The first of these two elements works like a charm and is sufficiently affecting that the huge amount of intricate detail you have to take on board with the surveyor elements gets a pass. This would have the potential of being McCoy's best story if it had just been simplified. The Victorian setting is always perfect for Doctor Who, this plays well with the increasingly mysterious nature of The Doctor and Ace's growing backstory. Ace feels like a real character.

Josiah Smith is a good main villain, though I'm not sure why he was "evolving" into a Victorian gentleman or taking over the house. I enjoyed The Doctor trying to teach Light of the futility of opposing evolution though - that felt very "Doctor-ish".