View source for Ghost Light (Doctor Who)

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Ghost Light'' (''Doctor Who'')}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox Doctor Who episode
| number             = 153<ref>From the ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). ''[[The Discontinuity Guide]]'', which counts the four segments of ''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'' as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial ''[[Shada (Doctor Who)|Shada]]'', lists this story as number 157. [[DVD region code#1|Region 1]] DVD [[Doctor Who DVD releases|releases]] follow ''The Discontinuity Guide'' numbering system.</ref>
| serial_name        = Ghost Light
| show               = DW
| type               = serial
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| doctor             = [[Sylvester McCoy]] – [[Seventh Doctor]]
| companion          = [[Sophie Aldred]] – [[Ace (Doctor Who)|Ace]]
| guests             = 
* [[Ian Hogg (actor)|Ian Hogg]] – Josiah Samuel Smith
* [[Michael Cochrane]] – Redvers Fenn-Cooper
* [[Carl Forgione]] – Nimrod
* [[Sharon Duce]] – Control
* [[John Nettleton (actor)|John Nettleton]] – Reverend Ernest Matthews
* [[Katharine Schlesinger]]{{efn|Incorrectly credited as ''Katherine'' Schlesinger on the broadcast versions of parts one and two.}} – Gwendoline
* [[Frank Windsor]] – Inspector Mackenzie
* [[Brenda Kempner]] – Mrs Grose
* [[Sylvia Syms]] – Mrs Pritchard
* [[John Hallam]] – Light
| director           = [[Alan Wareing]]
| writer             = [[Marc Platt (writer)|Marc Platt]]
| script_editor      = [[Andrew Cartmel]]
| producer           = [[John Nathan-Turner]]
| composer           = [[Mark Ayres]]
| production_code    = 7Q
| series             = [[Doctor Who season 26|Season 26]]
| length             = 3 episodes, 25 minutes each
| started            = {{Start date|1989|10|4|df=y}}
| ended              = {{End date|1989|10|18|df=y}}
| preceding          = ''[[Battlefield (Doctor Who)|Battlefield]]''
| following          = ''[[The Curse of Fenric]]''
}}
'''''Ghost Light''''' is the second serial of the [[Doctor Who season 26|26th season]] of the British [[science fiction television]] series ''[[Doctor Who]]'', which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on [[BBC One|BBC1]] from 4 to 18 October 1989.

Set in a mansion house in [[Perivale]] in 1883, Josiah Smith ([[Ian Hogg (actor)|Ian Hogg]]), a cataloguer of life forms from another planet, seeks to assassinate [[Queen Victoria]] and take over the [[British Empire]].

==Plot==
Thousands of years ago, an alien expedition came to Earth to catalogue life. After completing its task and collecting samples, which included the [[Neanderthal]] Nimrod, the leader alien, known as Light, went into slumber. By 1881, another alien, who had adopted the name Josiah Smith, gained control and kept Light in hibernation and imprisoned a third crewmember known as Control on the ship, which had now become the cellar of a manor named Gabriel Chase. Smith began evolving into the era's dominant life-form – the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] gentleman – and also took over the house. By 1883, Smith, having "evolved" into forms approximating a human and casting off his old husks as an insect would, managed to lure and capture the explorer Redvers Fenn-Cooper, brainwashing him. Utilising Fenn-Cooper's association with [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]], he plans to get close to her so that he can assassinate her and subsequently take control of the [[British Empire]].

The TARDIS arrives at Gabriel Chase. [[Ace (Doctor Who)|Ace]] had visited the house in 1983 and had felt an evil presence. The [[Seventh Doctor]]'s curiosity drives him to seek answers. He encounters Control, which has now taken on human form, and makes a deal with it. The Doctor helps it release Light. Once awake, Light is displeased by all the changes while he was asleep. Smith tries to keep his plan intact, but events are moving beyond his control. As Control tries to "evolve" into a Lady, Ace tries to come to grips with her feelings about the house, revealing that she burned it down when she felt the evil. The Doctor finally convinces Light of the futility of opposing evolution, which causes him to overload and dissipate into the surrounding house. 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 instead of him. In the end, with Smith taken captive on the ship, Control, Fenn-Cooper, and Nimrod set off in the alien ship to explore the universe.

===Outside references===
In the dinner scene, the Doctor says, "Who was it said Earthmen never invite their ancestors around to dinner?"  This refers to [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Paul |author-link1=Paul Cornell |last2=Day |first2=Martin |author-link2=Martin Day (writer) |last3=Topping |first3=Keith |author-link3=Keith Topping |title=Doctor Who: The Discontinuity Guide |year=1995 |publisher=[[Virgin Books|Doctor Who Books]] |location=London |isbn=0-426-20442-5 |pages=351–2 |chapter=157 'Ghost Light' |chapter-url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/ghostlight/detail.shtml#roots}}</ref>

==Production==
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
 |EpisodeNumber      = 1
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 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1989|10|4|df=y}}
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
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 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1989|10|11|df=y}}
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
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===Pre-production===
Working titles for this story included ''The Bestiary'' and ''Life-Cycle''.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed ''Das Haus der tausend Schrecken'' (''The House of a Thousand Frights/Horrors'') upon translation into [[German language|German]].

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.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}} Script editor [[Andrew Cartmel]] said it "was too internal a script to really work as a drama."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jeffery |first1=Morgan |title=Here's why Doctor Who's fabled lost story Lungbarrow never made it to TV |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-lungbarrow-tv-story/ |website=Radio Times |access-date=30 September 2023}}</ref> 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]]''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

===Production===
''Ghost Light'' was the final production of the original 26-year run, with the last recorded sequence being the final scene between Mrs Pritchard and Gwendoline. It was not, however, the last to be screened – ''[[The Curse of Fenric]]'' and ''[[Survival (Doctor Who)|Survival]]'', both produced beforehand, followed it in transmission order.

The master tapes for Parts One and Two were changed after broadcast to correct a spelling error in the credits, [[Katharine Schlesinger]] originally being misspelt as ''Katherine'' Schlesinger.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/ghostlight/detail.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107064356/https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/ghostlight/detail.shtml |title=BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - Ghost Light - Details |publisher=BBC |access-date=February 3, 2025 |url-status=dead|archive-date=7 November 2012}}</ref>

===Cast notes===
Michael Cochrane and Frank Windsor had both previously appeared in ''Doctor Who'' with [[Peter Davison]]; Cochrane as Charles Cranleigh in ''[[Black Orchid (Doctor Who)|Black Orchid]]'' in [[Doctor Who season 19|Season 19]]; Windsor played Ranulf in ''[[The King's Demons]]'' in [[Doctor Who season 20|Season 20]]. Carl Forgione appeared in the final serial of the [[Jon Pertwee]] era, ''[[Planet of the Spiders]]''.

==Commercial releases==

===Home media===
''Ghost Light'' was released on [[VHS]] in May 1994. A DVD was released in September 2004, with many extended and deleted scenes included as bonus features.  However, unlike ''[[The Curse of Fenric]]'', these scenes no longer existed in broadcast quality as the master 625 line PAL colour videotapes containing the extra footage had been erased for reuse shortly after the story was broadcast, and were thus sourced from VHS copies, some with [[timecode]]s burnt-in, i.e. recorded permanently onto the picture. This made an extended edit, as had been prepared for the ''Curse of Fenric'' DVD release the previous year, impossible. This serial was also released as part of the [[Doctor Who DVD Files]] in Issue 96 on 5 September 2012. In February 2020 the full serial was released as part of the Doctor Who: The Collection Season 26 box-set with a new Extended Workprint Cut.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=the-collection-season-26-announcement#_ | title=Season 26 announced as the next instalment in the Collection Blu-ray range}}</ref>

'''Extended Workprint'''
{{clear}}
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 |series = 6 |title = 20 | aux1=6 
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
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 |Aux1               = 27:30
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
 |EpisodeNumber      = 2
 |Title              = Part Two
 |RTitle             = 
 |Aux1               = 28:16
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{{Episode list/sublist|Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
 |EpisodeNumber      = 3
 |Title              = Part Three
 |RTitle             = 
 |Aux1               = 27:14
 |LineColor          = 
}}
}}

===In print===
{{Infobox book
| name              = Ghost Light
| image             = 
| caption           = 
| author            = [[Marc Platt (writer)|Marc Platt]]
| cover_artist      = [[Alister Pearson]]
| series            = ''[[Doctor Who]]'' book:<br />[[List of Doctor Who novelisations|Target novelisations]]
| release_number    = 149
| release_date      = 20 September 1990
| publisher         = [[Target Books]]
| isbn              = 0-426-20351-8
| italic title      = no
| exclude_cover     = yes
}}

[[Marc Platt (writer)|Marc Platt's]] novelisation was published by [[Target Books]] in September 1990.

In June 2011, an audiobook of the novelisation was released, read by Ian Hogg.

The script, edited by John McElroy, was published by Titan Books in June 1993. Marc Platt contributed a chapter, written especially for this book, which rectified the omissions from the transmitted story.<ref>{{cite book |last=Platt |first=Marc |author-link=Marc Platt (writer) |editor-last=McElroy |editor-first=John |title=Doctor Who - The Scripts: Ghost Light |date=June 1993 |publisher=[[Titan Books]] |location=London |isbn=1-85286-477-X |pages=2, 5}}</ref>

===Soundtrack release===
{{Infobox album
| italic_title = no
| name         = ''Doctor Who: Ghost Light''
| type         = Soundtrack
| artist       = [[Mark Ayres]]
| cover        = 
| alt          =
| caption      = Reissue cover
| released     = June 1993 (original) <br />26 August 2013 (reissue)
| recorded     =
| venue        =
| studio       =
| genre        = Soundtrack
| length       = 51:34
| label        = Silva Screen
| producer     =
| prev_title   = [[Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy| The Greatest Show in the Galaxy]]
| prev_year    = 1992
| next_title   = [[The Innocent Sleep#Soundtrack|The Innocent Sleep]]
| next_year    = 1995
| misc         = {{Extra chronology
 | artist     = [[Doctor Who Soundtrack|''Doctor Who'' soundtrack]]
 | type       = soundtrack
 | prev_title = [[Doctor Who: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy|The Greatest Show in the Galaxy]]
 | prev_year  = 1992
 | title      = Ghost Light
 | year       = 1993
 | next_title = [[Pyramids of Mars (album)|Pyramids of Mars]]
 | next_year  = 1993
}}
}}

The soundtrack album for this serial was released on Silva Screen Records in 1993 on CD with a cover adapted from the novelisation cover.<ref>{{cite AV media notes
 |title = Doctor Who: Ghost Light |year = 1993 |type = CD Booklet|publisher = Silva Screen|id= FILMCD 133}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DocWho.htm |title=Mark Ayres - Doctor Who Incidental Music |access-date=2008-10-05 |last=Ayres |first=Mark |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915183140/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DocWho.htm |archive-date=15 September 2008}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/composed-silva.php#ghost |title=Millennium Effect |access-date=2008-10-05 |archive-date=10 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410060538/http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/composed-silva.php#ghost |url-status=dead}}</ref> It was reissued on CD with extra tracks on 26 August 2013 with a new cover.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doctorwhomusic.com/doctor-who-ghost-light/ |title=Doctor Who: Ghost Light |publisher=Doctor Who Music |access-date=2013-07-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|title= Doctor Who: Ghost Light |year= 2013 |type= CD Booklet|publisher = Silva Screen|id= SILCD1372}}</ref>

====Track listing====
{{Track listing
| all_writing=[[Mark Ayres]], except where noted
| headline = Original 1993 track listing
|title1=The Madhouse
|title2=Redvers, I Presume?
|title3=Uncharted Territory
|title4=Heart of the Interior
|title5=Enter Josiah
|title6=Indoor Lightning
|title7=Nimrod Observed
|title8=Time to Emerge
|title9=Burnt Toast
|title10=Ace's Adventures Underground
|title11=Where is Mamma?
|title12=Loss of Control
|title13=The Way to the Zoo
|title14=The Memory Teller
|title15=Lighting the Touchpaper
|title16=Homo Victorianus Ineptus
|title17=Out of the Shadows
|title18=Light Enlightened
|title19=Tropic of Perivale
|title20=Tricks of the Light
|title21=Judgement in Stone
|title22=Requiem
|title23=Passing Thoughts
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = 2013 reissue track listing
|title1= Doctor Who (Opening Theme) 
|note1= [[Ron Grainer]] arr. [[Keff McCulloch]]
|length1=00’55″
|title2= The Madhouse 
|length2=03’52″
|title3= Redvers, I Presume? 
|length3=00’44″
|title4= Uncharted Territory 
|length4=01’41″
|title5= Heart of the Interior 
|length5=02’19″
|title6= Gwendoline 
|note6=previously unreleased
|length6=00’23″
|title7= The Fang of a Cave Bear 
|note7=previously unreleased
|length7=00’19″
|title8= Enter Josiah 
|length8=00’29″
|title9= Indoor Lightning 
|length9=01’39″
|title10= Nimrod Observed 
|length10=01’02″
|title11= Time to Emerge 
|length11=01’24″
|title12= Burnt Toast 
|length12=01’42″
|title13= Ace’s Adventures Underground 
|length13=04’37″
|title14= Where is Mamma? 
|length14=00’44″
|title15= Loss of Control 
|length15=03’34″
|title16= The Way to the Zoo 
|length16=01’54″
|title17= The Hungry Inspector 
|note17=previously unreleased
|length17=00’34″
|title18= The Memory Teller 
|length18=01’51″
|title19= Lighting the Touchpaper 
|length19=01’11″
|title20= Homo Victorianus Ineptus 
|length20=01’20″
|title21= Out of the Shadows 
|length21=04’03″
|title22= Light Enlightened 
|length22=01’58″
|title23= Tropic of Perivale 
|length23=02’16″
|title24= Tricks of the Light 
|length24=04’31″
|title25= Judgement in Stone 
|length25=02’20″
|title26= Requiem 
|length26=05’04″
|title27= Passing Thoughts 
|length27=01’25″
|title28= Doctor Who (Closing Theme) 
|note28= Ron Grainer arr. Keff McCulloch
|length28=01’13″
|title29= The Madhouse 
|note29=demo version, previously unreleased
|length29=03’45″
|title30= Redvers, I Presume? 
|note30=demo version, previously unreleased
|length30=00’25″
|title31= Uncharted Territory 
|note31=demo version, previously unreleased
|length31=01’36″
|title32= Heart of the Interior 
|note32=demo version, previously unreleased
|length32=02’18″
|title33= Gwendoline
|note33=demo version, previously unreleased
|length33=00’22″
|title34= The Fang of a Cave Bear 
|note34=demo version, previously unreleased
|length34=00’18″
|title35= Enter Josiah 
|note35=demo version, previously unreleased
|length35=00’29″
|title36= Indoor Lightning 
|note36=demo version, previously unreleased
|length36=01’39″
|title37= Nimrod Observed 
|note37=demo version, previously unreleased
|length37=01’02″
|title38= Time to Emerge 
|note38=demo version, previously unreleased
|length38=01’08″
|title39= Burnt Toast 
|note39=demo version, previously unreleased
|length39=01’35″
|title40= Ace’s Adventures Underground 
|note40=demo version, previously unreleased
|length40=01’31″
}}

== Critical analysis ==
A book length study written by Jonathan Dennis was published as part of [[The Black Archive]] series from [[Obverse Books]] in 2016.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dennis|first=Jonathan|title=Ghost light.|date=2016|publisher=Obverse Books|isbn=978-1-909031-43-2|location=Place of publication not identified|language=en|oclc=945390781}}</ref>

The serial was covered in volume 46 of the [[Doctor Who Magazine#Doctor Who: The Complete History (2015–2019)|Doctor Who: The Complete History]], which reprinted Andrew Pixley's ''Archive'' features from ''Doctor Who Magazine'' and the various ''Doctor Who Magazine Special Editions'', as well as new articles created specifically for the book.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015|title=Doctor Who: The Complete History|journal=Doctor Who: The Complete History|language=en|issn=2057-6048|oclc=978424294}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{stack|{{Wikiquote|Seventh Doctor}}}}
* {{BBCCDW|id=ghostlight|title=Ghost Light}}
* {{TardisIndexFile|Ghost Light}}
* [http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv40/sts-ghostlight.html ''Script to Screen: Ghost Light'', by Jon Preddle (''Time Space Visualiser'' issue 40, July 1994)]

=== Target novelisation ===
*{{Isfdb title|id=10725|title=Ghost Light}}
* [https://archive.today/20121223020108/http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1990/ghost/90ghost.htm On Target – ''Ghost Light'']

{{Doctor Who episodes|C26}}
{{Seventh Doctor stories|selected=Television}}
{{Doctor Who soundtracks}}

[[Category:1989 British television episodes]]
[[Category:Doctor Who pseudohistorical serials]]
[[Category:Evolution in popular culture]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1883]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Marc Platt]]
[[Category:Fiction about Neanderthals]]
[[Category:Seventh Doctor serials|Ghost Light]]
[[Category:Steampunk television episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in London]]
[[Category:Victorian era in popular culture]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in the 1880s]]
[[Category:Depictions of Queen Victoria on television]]
[[Category:Television episodes set in the 19th century]]