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Ghost Light (TV story): Difference between revisions
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next story= [[The Curse of Fenric (TV story) | The Curse of Fenric]] }} | next story= [[The Curse of Fenric (TV story) | The Curse of Fenric]] }} | ||
'''Ghost Light''' was the second story of [[Season 26]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Two stories followed it when broadcast, although production-wise, it was the last story of the classic series. | |||
==Synopsis== | ==Synopsis== | ||
The Doctor | The Doctor and Ace investigate mysterious goings-on at an old house in Perivale in 1883, a hundred years before Ace burns it down. | ||
==Plot== | |||
===Part 1=== | |||
[[Image:Ghostlight_part1.JPG|thumb|right|150px|[[Redvers Fenn-Cooper|Fenn-Cooper]] has been driven mad by [[Light]]]] | |||
[[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]] brings [[Ace]] to [[Gabriel Chase]], an old house that she once burnt down in her home town of [[Perivale]] near [[London]]. The year is [[1883]] and the house is presided over by the mysterious [[Josiah Samuel Smith]]. It is a most mysterious place, where the serving women brandish guns and the butler is a [[Neanderthal]] named [[Nimrod (Ghost Light)|Nimrod]]. Other occupants include [[Gwendoline]], the daughter of the original owners of the house who have now disappeared, the calculating housekeeper [[Lady Pritchard]], the explorer [[Redvers Fenn-Cooper]], who has seen something which has driven him insane, and the [[Ernest Matthews|Reverend Ernest Matthews]], opponent of the theory of [[evolution]] which Smith has done much to spread. | |||
The [[TARDIS]] arrives at Gabriel Chase. It turns out that Ace had visited the house in [[1983]], and had felt an evil presence, and the Doctor's curiosity drives him to seek the answers. Something is also alive and evolving in the cellar beneath the house and when Ace investigates she finds two animated and dangerous husks. | |||
===Part 2=== | |||
[[Image:Ghostlight_part2.JPG|thumb|left|150px|[[Josiah Samuel Smith|Josiah]] turns into a husk]] | |||
In rescuing Ace, the Doctor releases an evolving creature trapped in the cellar known as [[Control]]. The party moves to ground level and Control remains trapped in the cellar for the moment. The cellar is in fact a vast stone spaceship. The Doctor works his way through the stuffed animals in Gabriel Chase and eventually finds a human in suspended animation, an [[Mackenzie|Inspector Mackenzie]], who came to the house two years earlier in search of the owners. The Doctor revives him and together they seek to unlock the mysteries of Gabriel Chase. | |||
== | The husks which attacked Ace were the remains of Smith, an alien who has been evolving into forms approximating a human and casting off his old husks as an insect would. For his pains Smith transforms Matthews into an ape and places him in a display case. | ||
''to be | |||
The Doctor helps Control release the trapped creature from the cellar, a being known as [[Light]] who takes the form of an angel. | |||
===Part 3=== | |||
[[Image:Ghostlight_part3.JPG|thumb|right|150px|[[Light]] wakes up]] | |||
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 some samples, which included Nimrod, the leader Light went into slumber. By [[1881]] the ship had returned to Earth. 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 managed to lure and capture the explorer Fenn-Cooper within his den. Utilising Fenn-Cooper's association with [[Queen Victoria]], he plans to get close to her so that he can assassinate her and subsequently take control of the British Empire. | |||
Light is displeased by all the change that has occurred on the planet while he was asleep. While Light tries to make sense of all the change, Smith tries to keep his plan intact, but events are moving beyond his control. Light turns Gwendoline and her missing mother, revealed to be Mrs. Pritchard, to stone in a bid to stop the speed of evolution; while 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 himself 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 derail's 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 now the new Control creature imprisoned on the ship, Control, Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod set off in the alien ship to explore the universe. | |||
==Cast== | ==Cast== | ||
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==Crew== | ==Crew== | ||
*[[Writer]] - [[Marc Platt]] | |||
*[[Assistant Floor Manager]] - [[Stephen Garwood]] | *[[Assistant Floor Manager]] - [[Stephen Garwood]] | ||
*[[Costumes]] - [[Ken Trew]] | *[[Costumes]] - [[Ken Trew]] | ||
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*[[Incidental Music]] - [[Mark Ayres]] | *[[Incidental Music]] - [[Mark Ayres]] | ||
*[[Make-Up]] - [[Joan Stribling]] | *[[Make-Up]] - [[Joan Stribling]] | ||
*[[Production Assistant]] - [[Valerie Whiston]] | *[[Production Assistant]] - [[Valerie Whiston]] | ||
*[[Production Associate]] - [[June Collins]] | *[[Production Associate]] - [[June Collins]] | ||
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*[[Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]] | *[[Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]] | ||
*[[Visual Effects]] - [[Malcolm James]] | *[[Visual Effects]] - [[Malcolm James]] | ||
*[[Producer]] - [[John Nathan-Turner]] | |||
*[[Director]] - [[Alan Wareing]] | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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==Story Notes== | ==Story Notes== | ||
*This was the last | *This story had working titles of; ''The Bestiary'', ''Life-Cycle''. As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed Das Haus der tausenden Schrecken (The House of a Thousand Frights/Horrors) upon translation into German. | ||
* | *'''Ghost Light''' was the last serial of the original series ever produced, with the last recorded sequence being the final scene between [[Mrs Pritchard]] and [[Gwendoline]]. It was not, however, the last to be screened — both ''[[The Curse of Fenric]]'' and ''[[Survival]]'', produced beforehand, followed it in transmission order. | ||
*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 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]] novel ''[[Lungbarrow]]''. | |||
===Ratings=== | ===Ratings=== | ||
* | *Part 1 - 4.2m viewers. | ||
* | *Part 2 - 4.0m viewers. | ||
* | *Part 3 - 4.0m viewers. | ||
===Myths=== | ===Myths=== | ||
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*Weymouth, Dorset | *Weymouth, Dorset | ||
===Discontinuity | ===Discontinuity=== | ||
' | *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. | ||
*Why does Josiah think that killing the Queen will mean that he takes over the Empire? | |||
==Continuity== | ==Continuity== | ||
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* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_7q.htm The Doctor Who Reference Guide: Detailed Synopsis - '''Ghost Light'''] | * [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_7q.htm The Doctor Who Reference Guide: Detailed Synopsis - '''Ghost Light'''] | ||
* [http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/7q.html A Brief History of Time (Travel) Guide to '''Ghost Light'''] | * [http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/7q.html A Brief History of Time (Travel) Guide to '''Ghost Light'''] | ||
[[Category:Seventh Doctor episodes]] | [[Category:Seventh Doctor episodes]] | ||
