Ghost Light Part Three

The one where the Doctor defeats Light with Darwinism...

Many people say they don't understand Ghost Light. I get why they say it, because it's not an easy watch, but the basics of what the story's about are present in the transmitted story, albeit tricky to catch. Basic explanations are given in the opening dialogue of part 3, when Light emerges and the Doctor explains who's who (as does Ace, who seems remarkably well informed).

"It's called Light," the Doctor tells Inspector Mackenzie. "It's come to survey life here... And while it slept, the survey got out of control." It's all a big experiment to catalogue life on Earth. Josiah is the survey, Control is, well... the control, and Light is an intergalactic David Attenborough. Light came to Earth in the stone spaceship, and while it slept, the survey and control got out of hand. Nimrod, a specimen of the Neanderthal race taken from pre-history, was released from his quarantine cubicle by Josiah as he climbed the evolutionary ladder and craved servants.

Ghost Light Part Two

The one where the Doctor finds a policeman in the drawer...

It's just the latest in a string of weird and wacky ideas and images in this story: the Doctor and Gwendoline coming across a Victorian sleeping policeman in the bottom drawer of Josiah's moth collection. "It's from Java," Gwendoline bewilderingly states. It seems Java is a simile for being killed, or perhaps just "preserved", as Gwendoline adds that the Reverend Matthews will be sent to Java soon, where he might meet her father.

"Your father, is he there?" enquires the Doctor. Gwendoline's reply always gives me goosebumps, thanks to the slightly unhinged way Katharine Schlesinger delivers the line, and the way the scene is edited. "Uncle Josiah sent him there," she says, "after he saw what was in the cellar." Cut to the cellar! Such an effective cut, sadly spoiled in the otherwise superior blu-ray workprint version, which adds a line on the end before cutting.

Ghost Light Part One

The one where the Doctor takes Ace into her worst nightmare...

Wish me luck with this one, guys. I'll need it. Right, I'm going in...

A dark and spooky Victorian house. Gothic, funereal organ music. A hatchet-faced housekeeper. And something nasty locked up in the cellar. This is the stuff that nightmarish dreams are made of, and the sort of thing the BBC always does so well. If it involves a period setting, the BBC usually come up trumps. And a period Victorian setting never fails to serve Doctor Who well. The two seem to go together like fish fingers and custard!