Written by Marc Platt and Sydney Newman
Directed by Alan Wareing

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series which has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Sylvester McCoy and is traveling with a young female companion known as Ace (portrayed by Sophie Aldred).

The Doctor brings Ace to a Victorian house that is supposedly haunted.  It’s actually a place Ace visited once when she was 13 and had a traumatic experience.  However, it is the year 1883, long before Ace’s time.  However, once she realizes that the house is a familiar one to her, she’s none too happy with the Doctor.

In the meantime, they encounter the residents of the house in the time period they are visiting.  Josiah Samuel Smith is the owner complete with servants including a butler who looks rather strange and goes by the name “Nimrod”.  He has a number of other houseguests as well, which make the setting more resemble the board game Clue than anything else.

However, what’s going on in the house is something far more sinister.  In addition to a plot to kill Queen Victoria, there’s an alien being in the basement whose purpose is somewhat anthropological.  However, he is thwarted by the evolution that takes place.  Every time he thinks he finished he has to begin again as so many changes have taken place.  This causes him to try and stop what’s happening by using the tools at his disposal, which happen to be the members of the human race that reside in the house.

Ghost Light was the last episode of the original run of the series filmed, but it wasn’t the last aired.  This works well to the story as it relies more on the writing than on special effects.  It’s even more noticeable that the story-arc was done on a shoestring as the little bit of effects that are present are definitely cut-rate.  That is also part of the charm of the series.

There are many things that work well in this story.  The setting is perfect for a mystery rather than just a typical shoot-out with the alien of the week.  The friendship between the Doctor and Ace grows quite a bit and cements the almost father-daughter bond between the two.

Especially in light of the new series, I really like what Sylvester McCoy does with the Doctor here.  It seems like he’s been continually growing darker and more morose than many of his predecessors.  This segues quite nicely into Christopher Eccleston’s interpretation of the Doctor as he had definite edge to the role.  McCoy has unfortunately gotten the shaft due to the fact that the series ended its initial run on his watch.

Sophie Aldred as Ace is actually a pretty good companion.  She suffered from a two-fold problem that came from the writers and producers of the series.  First off, she’s the BBC interpretation of a British teen in the 1980s.  Usually when television shows try to show us a rebellious teen, they end up a bit of a caricature and Ace is no exception.  Although she’s not as bad off as teens were on American television shows, she does suffer much of the same exaggerations.  Second, it seems to be a case of how much trauma the writers can load on Ace’s past to be discovered.  Every story-arc it seems that there is more to be learned about her that was traumatic.  Her life ends up reading like more of a soap opera with the Doctor as her therapist taking her to the places and people that haunt her the most.

The eccentric people who reside in the house make Ghost Light fun, even as it’s a bit nonsensical.  It creates the mystery more than the alien in the basement, really, and keeps the setting familiar to those watching.  The performances are all good, particularly that of Katharine Schlesinger as Gwendoline, the daughter of the home’s owners.

The special features on the disc are once again terrific, in keeping with what all of the DVD releases of this series have been.  I wish more television shows would take a cue from Doctor Who and give their releases on DVD attention like this.  The commentary is a lot of fun and relaxed.  The only thing missing there is Sylvester McCoy.  There are a significant number of deleted and extended scenes, as well as a couple of futurities.  All in all, there’s plenty of bonus material to make it worth buying the DVD even if the story is somewhat lacking and confusing.

While Ghost Light has its strong points, the story overall is confusing and doesn’t seem to know which direction it wants to go from one minute to the next.  The schizophrenic nature of the story-arc leads it to be one of the weaker shows of the series, which is a shame.  Nearing the end of the run with the possibility for excellent focus on the characters, its disappointing that Ghost Light is as muddy as it is.  Still, it’s better than a lot of other shows on television and worth checking out.



SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Sophie Aldred, Mark Platt (Writer), Mark Ayres (Incidental Music), and Andrew Cartmel (Script Editor)
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Information Text
• Writer’s Question Time
• Light in Dark Places
• Shooting Ghosts
• Photo Gallery
• Who’s Who