Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eerie, 27 April 2009
Confusing, yes; disjointed, certainly; too self-aware, maybe; but this is one of the strongest Doctor Who stories of the 1980s and is well worth watching to see how it was before it became all constant references to pop culture and encounters with bisexual immortals.
The story is creepy and weird and The Seventh Doctor has just got to grips with his place in the universe. Ace is sullen and moody but is also becoming a little more interesting as we see glimpses of her past, whilst the costumes are simply fab, particularly the 'husks'. Watch it again, wallow in nostalgia and imagine how good it could have been.
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35 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ghost Light/Dark, 3 Jul 2004
The Sylvester McCoy era of Doctor Who is looked upon, in many eyes, as being very mediocre if not poor. I disagree with that assumption, I think the only way we can review the S McCoy years is to look at the three seasons in which he played our beloved Timelord.....
Season 24 (poor)
Season 25 (better/good)
Season 26 (excellent) Season 24 is quite possibly the worst season in the programs history, but I don't believe we can place the blame on McCoy / Cartmel (new script editor) or JNT (producer). The show was going through major changes, new faces were introduced in many areas and the Production team were battling the BBC Big Wigs to keep the show running. Therefore we experienced a performance from McCoy which wasn't really written for him and a season of experiment which didn't work. Season 25 opens with the, now classic, Remembrance of the Daleks. For the first time McCoy looked more suited to the role and gave a good performance along with a strong cast. McCoy's suggestions of making the Doctor dark and more mysterious were now being developed and the 25th anniversary season, in my eyes, was a leap forward in the right direction towards a new era for Doctor Who. Season 26 has to be the best season since the Philip Hinchcliffe era ended in 1977. McCoy gave us a totally different side to the Doctor, one which had never been attempted before. Dark, mysterious and somewhat sinister. After all, the programme is called Doctor WHO.... So WHO is the Doctor? Those are some of the questions touched upon here. I think if there had been a season 27 we would look upon the McCoy years in a different view. I believe the show had returned to its best in season 26 but it all ended there so who knows what might have happened next eh.........??? Ghost Light is doctor who at its (almost) best. The BBC is renowned for period drama, and this is pure BBC period drama, oh with a few aliens thrown in too!! The TARDIS arrives in a mysterious old house. The Doctor tells Ace that their location is a surprise. Ace hopes that the house isn't haunted as she hates haunted houses - she's been in one already...
The Story moves along at lightning pace and at times may be a little hard to follow. But Ghost Light will have you gripped, Set in Victorian times (1883) in a house named Gabriel Chase, the Doctor and Ace are faced with strange happenings, somewhat insane characters and a dormant spaceship in the basement. I'm not going to give too much away for those who haven't seen the story, but it is based mainly on evolution and Darwin's theories. The Doctor must discover what lurks in the basement, why the house has been inhabited by a mysterious man named Josiah Samuel-Smith and Ace must face upto her fears from the past.
McCoy is at his brilliant best here and even Ace gives here best performance so far.... A fantastic story with very few flaws, but as it only has 3 parts, the story moves really fast, you can't afford to miss anything and therefore may need repeat viewing to understand it fully.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Confuzzling, 27 Sep 2006
"Ghost Light" is a great example of the renaissance of concept that Doctor Who was undergoing in its last couple of seasons before its untimely cancellation in 1989. There are some very imaginative concepts at work here, in the first story from the frightningly clever pen of Marc Platt, who has gone on to write for both the Virgin / BBC book series and the Big Finish audio series. However, "Ghost Light" also suffers from massive editing at both he pre- and post-production stages in order to squeeze into three episodes what deserves to be at least a four-parter.
You've heard it before and you'll hear it again - "Ghost Light" is confusing. It's all very atmospheric and intriguing stuff, but over the first couple of viewings you will likely have many unanswered questions, such as: Just how long has the alien ship been buried in Gabriel Chase, what exactly are the husks, and who on Earth is Control? Having seen the story many times I feel that I largely understand it now, but it wasn't until I watched the special features on this DVD that I realised the exact nature of the relationship between the sinister Josiah Samuel Smith (Ian Hogg) and Control (Sharon Duce), why the characters change the way they do and the real meaning of the latter character's name.
Indeed, the commentary, documentaries and deleted scenes on the DVD do a great job of explaining the story to those who may have missed the point (and also those who haven't), due in a large part to writer Marc Platt's extensive involvement. But the main point of the DVD is of course the story itself, which due to the BBC's skill for costume drama has stood the test of time much more effectively than many classic Who serials - no rubber monsters here! (Well, maybe just a couple.)
A stellar cast is assembled for this story, which includes Sylvia Syms and Michael Cochrane as well as the above, and both Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are on top form to match the guest performers, on top of which Mark Ayres provides an excellent score. Everybody seems to enjoy the proceedings, however unintelligible they may be, and in watching "Ghost Light" one realises just how much of a shame it was that the series had to be cancelled after such a strong season. Despite its strengths, however, "Ghost Light" loses points for the amount of content that had to be cut - a real shame!
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