When I started watching old Doctor Who on DVD, Tracy (she who is my wife) at first wasn’t even interested in watching them, much less choosing them, but she eventually got drawn in and became as big a fan as I. Now, with only a handful of stories left to choose from before we’re caught up to everything currently available on DVD, you might think we would be able to agree on the order in which to watch the remaining stories. You might think so, but you’d be wrong. We went to the store yesterday with the intention of buying two, one of my choice and one of hers. My choice was to have been The Monster of Peladon (Third Doctor) because we just finished watching The Curse of Peladon, but do to some last minute negotiations which I need not go into here (you’re welcome), we bought Planet of Evil (Fourth Doctor), Timelash (Sixth Doctor) and Ghost Light (Seventh Doctor). Ghost Light was Tracy’s choice because Bob once said something along the lines of if we can figure out what it’s about to let him know. Her plan is to figure out what it’s about and let Bob know. I told her that wasn’t exactly an endorsement and actually more of a joke, but she was undeterred. Because I often can’t quite follow what’s going on in old Doctor Whos until after I’ve seen them and read the “Who’s Next” treatment, I decided to read the guide first, SPOILERS be damned. Consequently, I am much less confused after watching one episode than she is. Incidentally, the episode guide RAVES about this one. Tracy and I use two very different methods of choosing our Whos. I tend to choose them based on the monsters or first/last appearances of Doctors, companions or other characters, but she reads the episode descriptions on the back of the cases in the store and goes with her gut. In this case, we both read the description and both thought it sounded very interesting. Tracy and I are both big fans of Dark Shadows, an until yesterday I thought “The Evil of the Daleks” (based on the one surviving episode I have seen) was the Doctor Who storyline most like Dark Shadows. It probably is the most gothic (Daleks notwithstanding) and the most like the early black and white episodes of Dark Shadows, but Ghost Light is more closely related to Dark Shadows’ later years, when the gothic soap opera became more science fictiony.
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See, I'm one of those who always thought that it suffered from excessive editing. I suspect that the scenes we need to fill in the blanks and make it make sense were excised from the script or wound up on the cutting room floor.
I really like the serial nature of the original black and white episodes, but when the switch was made to color I think the show would have been better served had the format switched to hour-long self-contained episodes, more like Star Trek. This move would have made for tighter plots with less “running up and down corridors” in the middle bits. Either that, or one continuous soap opera-style narrative, Like Dark Shadows except science fiction.
I’ll be back with my final thoughts on the conclusion tomorrow.
In the meantime, you may want to read this.
“ Ghost Light is an emphatic repudiation of any suggestion that the series had run out of steam. It’s a story that couldn’t be told in any other series, combining science, history, philosophy and fantasy in a way that only Who can — and yet it breaks new ground, the finished product unlike anything the series had attempted before. The script is clever, densely packed with gags, and references, and is brought to life by an astonishing cast. Confined to one house, this is the most all-round successful production of the McCoy era, with excellent sets and costumes. At the centre of a story about change versus stasis, there’s the developing relationship between the Doctor an Ace. McCoy and Aldred are never better than here, rarely slipping into the weaker regions of their respective acting abilities, and with a constructive tension between them as the Doctor challenges Ace’s fears and encourages her to grow up. Smart, funny, subtle and exiting.”
Did they see the same episodes we did?
I think I've only seen the second half of the story, and that once. Ace is supposed to have burned the house down in her own time. It turns out she had sensed the residue that the evil Light left behind when he was destroyed. The events of the story get her over this part of her past.
My recollection is the Doctor is portrayed as if he's supposed to be manipulating events (as often in the era), but he doesn't come across as doing so effectively, or with sufficient regard for the well-being of some of the innocent characters. I could believe the why behind some of the story's events wasn't properly worked out, but perhaps I'm just not sufficiently familiar with it.
As I recall, some force in the house, which the villain is aware of or responsible for, devolves the clergyman into an ape-man and the policeman into primordial soup. The insane guy is affected in a positive way, getting over his madness. At the climax the caveman servant evolves forwards while the villain is reduced to incompetence, possibly again as an effect of this force. The villain's goal has something to do with Light's ship. It would be consistent with the other elements of the story if his goal was to evolve himself forwards, but I don't remember a line of dialogue to that effect.
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