Ghost Light (TV story)

Ghost Light was the second serial of season 26 of Doctor Who. Although two stories followed its broadcast, it was the last story of the classic series to be produced and the last to feature significant recording at BBC Television Centre.

Synopsis
The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase, an old house that she once burnt down in her hometown of Perivale. However, trying to get Ace to accept her guilt is not the real reason the Doctor came here; a mysterious and highly mentally unstable being slays below them.

Part one
The Seventh Doctor brings the TARDIS and Ace to a room which seems to be a cross between a nursery and an old laboratory. As Ace examines the artefacts in the room, wondering where they are, the Doctor simply tells her, "It's a surprise." Ace expresses her concern that this might be a haunted house, saying that after one she'd been in before she would never go into another.

They decide to explore the Victorian house which reminds Ace of a museum. A clock reads after midnight. On the floor lies a metal snuff box with the initials RFC embossed on it. The Doctor scans it and finds that it is radioactive. A man shows up and soon mentions "atrocities that are rumoured about this house". He says he came here to find the explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper and the box is the first evidence he was here. Before Ace can stop him, he pockets the radioactive box. He means to save Mr. Fenn-Cooper from "the clutches of that braggart Josiah Samuel Smith".

The Doctor and Ace follow the man as he explores another room of the old house. Suddenly the man picks up and aims an elephant rifle at them as he starts describing Redvers Fenn-Cooper's adventures, insisting he must find him. As the Doctor dodges out of the way, the curtain behind him slips open and the man sees his own reflection in the window. He lowers his gun in recognition, saying, "Redvers, I've found you!"

A woman in black, two others in 1800s maid's garb, and a hunched butler enter. The woman in black says, "Fenn-Cooper, we were worried about you," then roughly twists his arm up behind his back and marches him out. The butler, Nimrod, explains that the man is unbalanced and is under their care at the house. He then says his master, Mr Smith, asks if they would join his other guest in the drawing room.

There they meet Smith's ward, Gwendoline, conversing with the Reverend Ernest Matthews. Matthews assumes the Doctor is actually Josiah Smith and begins criticising his ethics and far reaching support of the newly popular theory of evolution. After the girls leave together the actual Josiah Smith comes in wearing dark glasses and dims the lights. He then welcomes Matthews and the Doctor to the old house which is called Gabriel Chase.

Soon Fenn-Cooper can be heard screaming and everyone converges at his door. The Doctor makes his way in to see a bright light pouring from the snuff box, but Nimrod forces him back out of the room again. The guests are told to leave him to the house staff.

The Reverend Ernest Matthews finally gets his long awaited meeting with Josiah Smith and immediately carries on with his criticisms. Smith has the matron chloroform him.

Back in the drawing room, Ace and the Doctor observe that Nimrod is a Neanderthal. Then Ace becomes agitated at hearing that they are in the house called Gabriel Chase, shouting "You tricked me!" as she turns and runs off. The Doctor catches up with her and they relay that this was the haunted house she entered (will enter) in her home town of Perivale near London. She had gone in on a dare in 1983 at the age of 13 and felt an evil presence. As Ace tells the story, she becomes agitated and again runs off.

Josiah Smith receives a telephone call that shocks him to the core. He then offers the Doctor money to help him but he refuses.

In the meantime, Ace finds her way to a small elevator which takes her deep below the house to a large stone chamber with alien technology apparent in its simple lit panels. A threatening voice speaks to her, then two alien bipeds close in on her.

Part two
The Doctor finds Gwendoline opening drawers containing specimen cases of beetles. She opens a final drawer which contains a man, saying that it's one of her "favourites" and that it's from Java. She then tells the Doctor that the reverend Earnest Mathews will be leaving for Java soon and that Uncle Josiah sent her father there after he saw what was in the cellar.

In the cellar the two aliens creatures are dragging Ace toward a door. Nimrod appears and comes to her rescue, brandishing a lantern while Ace takes up a stick and fights them off.

The Doctor, starting to worry about Ace, begins looking around, but the house matron, suddenly overly-friendly tells him that Ace has gone to bed. Gwendoline offers to show him. The Doctor moves past them to find Ace and all the uniformed maids suddenly raise revolvers and aim at him.

Ace continues to swing her stick at the threatening aliens. Central to the cellar room is a large oval light divided into many segments. Brandishing her stick she threatens "Let us go or I'll smash it!" This brings about a change of heart in Nimrod who says she is profaning the temple of light and grabs her stick, crying "The sleeping one must not be woken!" But as they struggle they strike the oval light and steam bursts from it.

An alarm goes off in the house and in the surprise the Doctor grabs one of the guns then grabs Josiah Smith, ordering him down the elevator. The Doctor and Smith arrive in the chaotic cellar and Smith cries that his work in his observatory could be ruined.

Back in the house, Gwendoline starts crying, asking why her father went to Java and left her; and wondering where her mother is.

The Doctor patches the steam leak in the cellar, stabilising the situation. He then identifies Ace's alien attackers as previous incarnations of Josiah Smith, kind of like an insect which casts off its outer husk as it grows. These "husks" however are fully animate and bear little resemblance to humans.

A screen comes up showing DNA and Ace realises they are actually in a stone spaceship. The Doctor says the owner will be displeased when it awakes, but Smith responds that he is the owner. The Doctor retorts that Smith is just part of the cargo. Smith regains the gun and orders the Doctor to stabilise the fluctuating energy before it blows up this part of England. In vying for control, the Doctor reopens the steam patch.

Whatever is behind the door starts to come out and the others all run for the elevator. On the way up Smith's appearance starts to change. The Doctor says he is evolving again. On the main floor the maids come to help him from the lift. He orders them, "It's first light, secure the house!" The matron tells them to take Smith to the upper observatory. The Doctor tells Ace they won't see them again until nightfall.

Josiah Smith awakens reverend Matthews from his chloroform-induced sleep, and while Matthews goes straight back to chastising evolutionary theory, Smith feeds him a banana and it is revealed that Matthews' arms have grown long ape-like hair. Gwendolyn, having seen that it is daylight outside, checks on her uncle Josiah and finds him still mid-transformation, looking sickly. He drops another dose of chloroform onto a handkerchief and Gwendoline administers it to the metamorphosing Matthews.

Meanwhile, the Doctor opens the drawer with the man inside and wakes him.

Ace awakens in a bed as a maid opens the curtains. She is not one of the uniformed non-speaking gun-wielding maids, but a pleasant servant named Mrs. Grose, who is bringing Ace breakfast. But she tells her it is after five and will be getting dark soon, "And no one in their right mind stays in this house after dark."

The man in the drawer turns out to be a police Inspector Mackenzie from Scotland Yard sent to investigate the disappearance of George Pritchard (Gwendoline's father) in 1881, two years previous, and is dead set on conducting his investigation.

The Doctor is aware that there were two beings in the stone spaceship below the house — one asleep, the master of the ship; and one imprisoned, which was able to get through the door as he rescued Ace and the others. Josiah Smith has been keeping them subdued and using the ship's resources, fearing the ship's master. The explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper saw it and lost his mind. And the neanderthal butler Nimrod worships it, but what is it?

In the meantime, Ace and Inspector Mackenzie make their way to a room where they find Josiah Smith, the matron, Gwendoline and the half-ape Reverend Matthews all seated and all inanimate, and covered with sheets like furniture in a vacant house.

The Doctor, wanting to move things along, turns the clock ahead so it strikes midnight and panels open in the wall revealing the uniformed maids, who then move silently into the room. Upstairs, the seated figures become animate and Gwendolyn attacks Ace. The matron knocks Mackenzie down and he is held by the previous husk of Smith. The new Smith enters the room and has them all go downstairs.

The Doctor talks about someone known as Control, one of the beings on the ship who has finally been set free. Out of the lift steps a shrouded figure. The Doctor says, "Thank you for trusting me, Control." A woman reveals her face and says that what they are desiring will be found in the darkness of the lift. Smith rushes to secure the doors but is electrocuted when he touches it. The Doctor calls, "Light" and the doors fly open as a bright light envelops them all.

Part three
The Doctor helps Control release the trapped creature from the cellar, a being known as Light, who takes the form of an angel-like being.

Thousands of years in the past, an alien spaceship came to Earth to catalogue all life on the planet. After completing its task and collecting samples including Nimrod, the leader, Light, went into slumber. By 1881 the ship had returned to Earth.

The year is 1883. While Control remained imprisoned on the ship to serve as the "control" subject of the scientific investigation, events transpired such that Smith, the "survey agent", mutinied against Light, keeping him in hibernation on the ship. Smith began evolving into the era's dominant life-form — a Victorian gentleman — and also took over the house. By 1883 Smith had lured and captured the explorer Fenn-Cooper within his den. Utilising Fenn-Cooper's association with Queen Victoria, he plans to get close to her so he can assassinate her and take control of the British Empire to make it a better place.

Light is displeased by all the change on the planet while he was asleep. While Light tries to make sense of it all, Smith tries to keep his plan intact, but events are beyond his control. Angry that his catalogue is now missing the correct information, Light childishly decides to destroy all organic life to stop evolution after taking apart one of the maids to understand how humans work. He turns Gwendoline and her missing mother, revealed to be Lady Pritchard, to stone in a bid to stop the speed of evolution. Inspector Mackenzie meets a sticky end and is turned into a primordial soup to serve at dinner. As Control tries to "evolve" into a lady and Ace tries to come to grips with her feelings about the house, the Doctor tries to keep the upper hand in all the events that have been set in motion.

The Doctor finally convinces Light of the futility of opposing evolution, which causes him to overload and dissipate into the surrounding house. It was this presence that Ace sensed and which caused her to burn the house down in 1983. Also, 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. In the end, with Smith the new Control creature imprisoned on the ship, Control, Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod set off in the alien ship to explore the universe.

The Doctor asks Ace if she has any regrets about burning the house now; Ace tells him she wishes she blew it up instead. The Doctor only smiles and says, "Wicked."

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Josiah - Ian Hogg
 * Mrs. Pritchard - Sylvia Syms
 * Redvers Fenn-Cooper - Michael Cochrane
 * Control - Sharon Duce
 * Gwendoline - Katharine Schlesinger
 * Reverend Ernest Matthews - John Nettleton
 * Nimrod - Carl Forgione
 * Mrs Grose - Brenda Kempner
 * Inspector Mackenzie - Frank Windsor
 * Light - John Hallam

Crew

 * Writer - Marc Platt
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Stephen Garwood
 * Camera Supervisor - Spencer Payne
 * Costumes - Ken Trew
 * Designer - Nick Somerville
 * Graphic Designer - Oliver Elmes
 * Incidental Music - Mark Ayres
 * Make-Up - Joan Stribling
 * Production Assistant - Valerie Whiston
 * Production Associate - June Collins
 * Production Manager - Gary Downie
 * Properties Buyer - Nick Barnett
 * Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Henry Barber
 * Studio Sound - Scott Talbott, Keith Bowden
 * Stunt Arranger - Paul Heasman
 * Technical Coordinator - Richard Wilson
 * Theme Arrangement - Keff McCulloch
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Videotape Editor - Hugh Parson
 * Video Effects - Dave Chapman
 * Vision Mixer - Susan Brincat
 * Visual Effects - Malcolm James
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Director - Alan Wareing

Story notes

 * This story had working titles of The Bestiary and Life-Cycle. (Marc Platt also briefly jokingly referred to the story as Not The Bestiary when John Nathan-Turner, disliking the title The Bestiary, asked him to change it.)
 * Whilst this story is often considered a parable about the battle of religion against science, it would be more accurate to say it is more about progress against any kind of teleological view of the universe, as demonstrated both by creationism and the misapplication of scientific theory.
 * Some fans and critics considered the story to be incredibly confusing, as many important plot elements were only alluded to or suggested via metaphor. This was an intentional act on the part of the writer who was later quoted as stating a belief that all drama is more satisfying if not "handed to the viewer on a plate".
 * As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed Das Haus der Tausend Schrecken (translation: 'The House of the Thousand Frights/Horrors') in German.
 * Ghost Light was the last serial of the original series ever produced. The last recorded sequence was the final scene between Mrs Pritchard and Gwendoline where, before the eyes of a horrified Nimrod, Light turns them to stone so they will never change again. It was not, however, the last to be screened — both The Curse of Fenric and Survival, produced beforehand, followed it in transmission order.
 * Michael Cochrane (Redvers Fenn-Cooper) is credited as "Redvers" in Radio Times for part one.
 * Radio Times credits John Nettleton (Reverend Ernest Matthews) as "Rev. Ernest Matthews" for part one, and as "Rev. Matthews" for part two.
 * Frank Windsor (Inspector Mackenzie) is credited as "Mackenzie" in Radio Times.
 * A line from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is referenced by the Doctor, in the form of the rhetorical question "Who was it said that Earthmen never invite their ancestors round to dinner?" Its creator, Douglas Adams, was a script editor and writer for the series, penning both TV: The Pirate Planet and TV: City of Death (with Graham Williams, under the BBC in-house pseudonym "David Agnew)", as well as the unaired TV: Shada.
 * A sound effect was inadvertently omitted from the scene of Control entering the lift and the Doctor, Ace and Inspector Mackenzie in the hallway in part two. The sound of the lift mechanism engaging with a clunk and the lift descending should have been added in between the Doctor suddenly raising his voice and saying “It's very clever, climbing up the lift shaft. But I had hoped the Control creature might bring something with it. And for that, it will need the lift!”, and the Doctor and Ace heading for the drawing room. (PROSE: Ghost Light)
 * Although Ghost Light would no doubt have greatly benefited from an extended BBC Video release, as was done with The Curse of Fenric in 1991, such a project was made impossible by the master 625 line PAL colour videotapes containing the extra recorded footage being erased for reuse shortly after the story was broadcast. However, by the time of the Blu-ray release of Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 26 in 2020, the "missing" footage had been rediscovered courtesy of a work print and was successfully added back into the story. However, the excised scenes were of a notably poorer film quality than the scenes that were present for the original broadcast.
 * The story evolved out of an earlier, rejected script entitled Lungbarrow. It was to be set on Gallifrey in the Doctor's ancestral home and deal with the Doctor's past, but producer John Nathan-Turner felt it revealed too much of the Doctor's origins. It was reworked to make 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 novel Lungbarrow.
 * Sylvester McCoy named this as his favourite serial, while Andrew Cartmel called it "the jewel in the crown".
 * Marc Platt was one of only two writers in the entire history of the series (the other being Andrew Smith) to have a script accepted with no professional writing experience whatsoever, and no writing background beyond fanfiction.
 * The frog and fish footmen costumes came from a recent production of Alice in Wonderland.
 * Platt described the story as "The Addams Family on acid".
 * At the read-through, Sylvia Syms shared everyone's thought on the script when she asked Platt what he'd sprinkled on his corn flakes.
 * It was originally intended that when Light emerged from the lift, he would walk straight through the Doctor standing in his path. Unfortunately, this effect proved impossible to achieve on-screen, but was reinstated by Platt for his novelisation of the story. In the finished programme, the Doctor is forced aside — presumably by Light's telekinesis — as the tall, thin angel-like figure passes.
 * One key scene was not completed due to time constraints, and featured Mackenzie encountering the night maids and Mrs Pritchard as they prepare to leave, whereupon one of the maids chases him with a machete. This explains why he is hurrying and muttering about Gabriel Chase being "a mad house" just prior to his death at Light's hands. Several more scenes were cut or trimmed in post-production due to the serial running over-length. These included Light preventing Mackenzie from leaving Gabriel Chase by causing the door to become immovably bolted, and material expanding on the spy devices Josiah has secreted in the upper observatory where the TARDIS materialises. Another scene set in the upper observatory saw Nimrod tendering his resignation to Josiah, but although this was rehearsed it was never actually recorded.
 * During the early stages of his development, Light was silent and had wings (which he used to smother the maid in part three); the latter element was abandoned due to concerns that they could not be effectively realised.
 * Marc Platt drew from several Victorian literary sources, particularly as inspiration for his characters.  Light was derived from the angels in the works of William Blake (and Platt at one point hoped that the character could have wings, until this was deemed unfeasible). Mrs Grose was a lift from the character of the same name in another haunted house story, Henry James's 1898 novel The Turn of the Screw. Gwendoline was originally called Maud, after the character Maud Ruthyn in the 1864 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu novel Uncle Silas, but the name had to be changed due to the BBC adaptation The Dark Angel set to air around the same time. Redvers Fenn-Cooper was based on H Rider Haggard's classic adventure character Allan Quatermain, who debuted in King Solomon's Mines.
 * Nicholas Ball, Christopher Cazennove, Tom Chadbon, Peter Firth, Dominic Guard, Simon Ward and James Warwick were considered for Redvers Fenn-Cooper.
 * Ian Bannen, Michael Caine, John Carson, Kenneth Colley, Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard, Del Henney, Bernard Hill, Denis Lill, Anthony Valentine and David Warner were considered for Josiah Smith.
 * Emma Thompson was considered for Control.
 * Originally, there was to have been three husks, with a fish-man joining the insectoid and reptilian versions. Their faces were also intended to incorporate echoes of Josiah's human features, but these details were essentially lost.
 * John Nathan-Turner insisted that the cameo role of Inspector Mackenzie was played by a actor known for playing TV detectives, so Frank Windsor of Z-Cars fame was cast.
 * Ben Aaronovitch came up with the backstory involving Ace's friend Manisha.
 * Some elements of the original Lungbarrow script were reimagined for the new setting; for instance Mackenzie, the policeman in suspended animation had originally been a character trapped in a transporter for three centuries, while Redvers Fenn-Cooper's invitation to Buckingham Palace had earlier been a will for which characters were vying in “Lungbarrow”.
 * Andrew Cartmel suggested making evolution a theme of the piece, while Marc Platt's BBC duties inspired Light's mission to document all forms of life on Earth.
 * At a late stage, Marc Platt considered changing "Josiah Samuel Smith" to "Josiah Solomon Smith", to avoid any potential issue with the Samuel Smith Brewery company from whom he had borrowed the name in the first place.
 * John Nathan-Turner became concerned at the lack of a traditional Doctor Who monster. In response, Marc Platt devised the husks in the basement, which represented Josiah's earlier evolutionary forms. Originally, he envisioned an army of the creatures, before the numbers were trimmed to three and then just two (omitting a fish-man husk). It was hoped that the faces of the reptilian and insectoid husks might incorporate echoes of Josiah's human features, but such details were lost when the production borrowed costumes from ta recent adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
 * It was Sylvester McCoy's idea to change the Doctor's closing line from “That's my girl!” to “Wicked.”
 * The only location work was the establishing shots of Gabriel Chase, which were filmed in Weymouth during production of Survival.
 * John Nathan-Turner wanted the score to be played on conventional instruments, something he'd forbidden when he took over the show, but it was too expensive.

Ratings

 * Part one - 4.2 million viewers
 * Part two - 4.0 million viewers
 * Part three - 4.0 million viewers

Myths

 * Few of the cast could make sense of the storyline. (This is true, as confirmed by cast interviews included with the DVD release of the story.)
 * The final scene filmed was the ending bit with the Doctor and Ace. (While that was the final scene in the episode the final scene filmed was when Light turns Mrs Pritchard and Gwendoline to stone.)

Filming locations

 * Stanton Court, 11 Greenhill, Weymouth, Dorset
 * BBC Television Centre (TC3), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

 * When the Doctor and Ace emerge into the corridor from the upper observatory in part one, Sophie Aldred is wearing a ring, one of her own which she had forgotten to remove before recording. Fortunately, Aldred noticed and removed the ring in time for the close-up of Ace reaching out to touch Fenn-Cooper's snuffbox.
 * When the Doctor tests Redvers for radiation, a cameraman's reflection can be seen in the door of the open cabinet that Redvers is looking into.
 * At the end of the scene in part one when Mrs Grose leaves Gabriel Chase, a tiny sliver of the actual studio floor can be seen by Mrs Grose's left (i.e. the viewer's right).
 * Katharine Schlesinger's first name was misspelled as "Katherine" for the broadcast of parts one and two and for the whole serial in Radio Times. (This on-screen misspelling has been corrected for the BBC Video, DVD and Blu-ray releases.)
 * When Ace pushes the maid into the room and slams the door behind her in part three, there is a bad case of wobbly wall syndrome. The wall proves equally unstable a few scenes later when Gwendoline and the maid break out.

Continuity

 * The Third Doctor sang "Jabberwocky" to himself in Doctor Who and the Silurians.
 * Ace would later tell the Doctor that her friend Manisha Purkayastha was killed when her flat was attacked by the firebomb attack which scorched her flat. (PROSE: Blood Heat)
 * The Torchwood Institute would later investigate the Doctor's involvement in the Gabriel Chase incident. (COMIC: The Time Machination)
 * The Timewyrm would later reprimand the Doctor for his actions in Gabriel Chase. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)

DVD releases
This story was released as Doctor Who: Ghost Light.

It was released: Content: Notes: It was released as issue 96 of Doctor Who DVD Files.
 * Region 2 - 20 September 2004
 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1352
 * Region 4 - 3 February 2005
 * Region 1 - 7 June 2005
 * NTSC - Warner Video E2218
 * Light in Dark Places Documentary - A look back at the making of the story.
 * Deleted/Extended Scenes
 * Shooting Ghost - A unique look at the studio recording process.
 * Writer's Question Time - Marc Platt answers questions at a 1990 Doctor Who convention.
 * 5.1 Mix
 * Music-only Option
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Subtitles
 * Easter Eggs-
 * On the main menu move down to Episode Selection and press the left arrow to reveal a hidden Doctor Who logo. Press select and you'll get the unexpurgated version of the song that Gwendoline is heard playing in the story.
 * On the Special Features menu move down to Writer's Question Time and press the left arrow to reveal a hidden Doctor Who logo. Press select and you'll get the continuity announcements from the original BBC broadcast. Also included with the continuity announcements are the original versions of the end credits for parts one and two, which misspelled Katharine Schlesinger's first name as "Katherine".
 * Commentary: Sophie Aldred, Andrew Cartmel, Marc Platt, and Mark Ayres
 * Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Blu-ray release
This story was released on Blu-ray as part of the Season 26 box set on 27 January 2020.

Contents:
 * Audio Commentary - With Sophie Aldred, Andrew Cartmel, Marc Platt (Writer), and Mark Ayres (Composer).
 * 5.1 Surround Sound Mix
 * Isolated Music Soundtrack - Listen to the superb incidental music score.
 * Info Text
 * Ghost Light: Extended Workprint - Specially assembled for Blu-ray, a brand new three-part extended version of Ghost Light blending the original episodes with lower-quality deleted footage to present an alternative version of the classic story.
 * Light in Dark Places Documentary - A look back at the making of the story.
 * Behind the Sofa - Will our panel be baffled by the goings-on in Gabriel Chase?
 * Deleted & Extended Scenes - Material cut from the finished episodes.
 * Studio Footage - Go behind the scenes of the final classic series recording sessions, with nearly three hours of rare footage from the studio floor, including Katharine Schlesinger's complete performance of That's The Way To The Zoo.
 * Writer's Question Time - Marc Platt answers questions at a 1990 Doctor Who convention.
 * Little Girl Lost - A look at one of the series most fondly-remembered companions; with Sophie Aldred, Andrew Cartmel and Ian Briggs (Writer).
 * BBC1 Trails & Continuities
 * HD Photo Gallery
 * PDF Written Archive

VHS releases
This story was released as Doctor Who: Ghost Light.

It was released:
 * UK May 1994
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV5344
 * Australia/NZ July 1994
 * US June 1996
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1318

Digital releases

 * The story is available to download through iTunes.

Audio releases

 * The musical soundtrack of this story was released by Silva Screen in 1993.

Script book

 * In July 1993, Titan Books published the scripts for the serial as part of its Doctor Who: The Scripts line of books.