"Doctor Who" Ghost Light: Part 2 (1989)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Alan Wareing

Writer:

Marc Platt (written by)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

11 October 1989 (Season 26, Episode 6)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Second Part | Time Lord | Alien | Companion | Renegade

Cast

Sylvester McCoy	...	The Doctor
Sophie Aldred	...	Ace
Ian Hogg	...	Josiah
Sylvia Syms	...	Mrs. Pritchard
Michael Cochrane	...	Redvers Fenn-Cooper
Frank Windsor	...	Inspector Mackenzie
Sharon Duce	...	Control
Katharine Schlesinger	...	Gwendoline
John Nettleton	...	Reverend Ernest Matthews
Carl Forgione	...	Nimrod
Brenda Kempner	...	Mrs. Grose

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Stanton Court, 11 Greenhill, Weymouth, Dorset, England, UK

Trivia:

This episode was watched by 4 million viewers on its original transmission.

Quotes:

Control: My half bidding done. Your desiring, in the darkness you shall find it!
Josiah Samuel Smith: [scared] Don't let it out!
[he gets electrocuted]
The Doctor: Light!
[a bright light bursts from the doors]

Intriguing second episode.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Doctor Who: Ghost Light: Part Two starts as the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) realises something sinister is going on when Josiah (Ian Hogg) offers him five thousand pounds to rid him of the one that opposes him. The Doctor refuses & wonders where Ace (Sophie Aldred) is, he finds her in a stone spaceship in Gabriel Chase's basement along with Neanderthal manservant Nimrod (Carl Forgione) & two 'husk' creatures. The Doctor recognises the room as the interior of a spacecraft & tells Ace that something is hibernating in a glowing panel on the wall, something in a locked room orders the two husk creatures to free it as Josiah, Nimrod, the Doctor & Ace make it back upstairs. Strange things are underway in Gabriel Chase, strange alien things based around the concept of evolution...

Episode 6 from season season 26 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during October 1989, directed by Alan Wareing Ghost Light is considered by many to be a highlight of the McCoy era (not that there are too many highlights) & it's easy to see why. It's certainly a different sort of story from much of what 80's Doctor Who was, in fact I'm not sure there was another story quite like Ghost Light in the whole original show's twenty six seasons. There are plenty of oddball moments in Ghost Light like the eyes of stuffed animal heads glowing, radioactive snuff boxes, bizarre alien evolution that parallels our own & how an alien would evolve to become what looks like a normal human being, hypnotised Scotland Yard police officers who have been lying in a cabinet drawer for two years (there's a plot hole here, the drawer would have to have been at least six foot deep which it clearly wasn't since the cabinet was placed against a wall), creatures, something evil locked in a basement room, a stone spaceship, a Reverend who turns into a monkey, housemaids who come out of wall panels at six O'Clock every night & empty shelled human beings who are controlled by an alien presence. It's an odd story with a fair amount of imagination, intrigue & mystery but that comes at a price since it's quite hard to follow at times & a lot of the events seem rather random & unconnected. Ghost Light is the sort of story that will split opinion down the middle, you will either like it's bold ideas & attempt to try something different or you will dislike it's ambiguous nature & laugh the thing off as confusing nonsense. You pay your money you takes your choice I suppose.

Like Part One this has nice Victorian period production design, the BBC have always been better at period drama than sci-fi so it comes as no great surprise that Ghost Light looks so nice whereas the previous story Battlefield (1989) looks a little cheap at times for instance. The special effects have been fine in this one so far although it helps when there aren't any! The two husk creatures look fine even if they are so obviously men in rubber monster masks. The acting is good from a solid cast of British TV veterans including Sylvia Syms, Ian Hogg, Frank Windsor who also appeared in the Peter Davison story The King's Demons (1983) during season twenty & Michael Cochrane who appeared in another Peter Davison story called Black Orchid (1982) during season nineteen.

Ghost Light: Part Two is another intriguing Doctor Who episode much like Part One & a departure from the normal glorified camp pantomime that passed for most of 80's Doctor Who, not that there's anything wrong with that of course... all hail the brilliance of Warriors of the Deep (1984) & it's pantomime horse the Myrka!