Doctor Who: Ghost Light - Review
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- Jonathan, Billy and I put our heads together to try and ascertain what this story is actually about. If you think you have a clear understanding of this story, or just think we've got it totally wrong, then please leave your answers below!
NEXT TIME: The Wilderness Years
My history teacher was quite big on the Doctor Who fan scene back in the day and ran my school Doctor Who club. We were spoilt with appearances at our after hours club at the school by some of the actors (Michael Wisher and Nicholas Courtney to name a few) as well as JNT (perhaps dodgily! lol), but the highlight was our trip the the BBC Studios to go behind the scens of Ghostlight dring their dress rehearsals (I was wearing my handknitted tanktop!) and we got to meet Sylvester and Sophie in their costumes (though he wasn't wearing his tanktop, probably because of the heat of the lights), and they were absolutely amazing. I was fressed up like him as best I could, and he said "SNAP!" and I pointed out he wasn't wearing his tanktop LOL. They were absolutely lovely.
I was quite young (between 6 and 8) when I first watched it. I loved it, and it wasn't till recently that I realised that everyone thought it was difficult to understand. It all just worked for me first time around.
Can you make it make sense
You and your brother sound exactly the same!!!
It's nice to see all three of you together at last!
Loved this review - it brought back a lot of memories of being confused but very much liking the acting and sets and script. It was a dense story and I am so glad Doctor Who did it. Shows the versatility of the format.
You guys need a podcast!
‘The Interior’ that fried poor Redvers was the cocoon with Light in the basement.
I'm still really scared how him and his brother JESUS! But fantastic review as always can't wait till the wilderness years
I was 19 when this story was aired and going by my first thoughts at the time I enjoyed the 3 part installment, as you mentioned it could have been better if it was a 4-parter, I liked the creepy atmosphere it had and Sylv and Soph excelled in their roles along with the guest casts. It also made me prouder to be a Whovian at the time too.
I see where you have got your ideas for friends reunited and hell on earth! Clever!
Excellent stuff as usual! My version of Mark Campbell's book said "A powerful statement about embracing change is spoilt by incomprehensible editing. 5/10" good story.
Ah so it is the book I was thinking of! Thanks
@@AnthonyP73 The opinions in that book are interesting to say the least....
If you guys are doing stories that have mixed-negative reviews in fandom, then I think that Colony in Space, Underworld and Destiny of the Daleks would make interesting reviews :) can't wait for more of these!
Or how about any of the stories with the cult of skaro (army of ghosts/ doomsday, daleks in manhattan/ evolution of the daleks or even stolen earth/ journeys end).
Re: Picture Noise - The lighting designer decided to try and make the gaslight look authentic in the studio rather than them treat it in post production. But the story was recorded with old BBC cameras that had trouble with the low light levels; it was recorded on one-inch tape and then due to editing the final result is several generations down (and JNT had the original studio recordings destroyed so the restoration team weren't able to fix it up any better than it is on the dvd).
Really enjoying your reviews, guys!
It could have been simplified by removing characters like Mrs Pritchard and Gwendoline. The household could have been totally replaced by the aliens inside the ship, and the Doctor and Ace work out that they're actually cuckoos in the nest. That then would have paralleled the wider plot of replacing the royal family, and perhaps made Josiah's plan a bit clearer.
When I first watched this story, I didn’t enjoy it also I thought the house was called Harrison Chase 😂, but now I have watched it again, and I think the story is great.
Ghost light was the first Sylvester McCoy serial I ever watched when I was first getting into classic stuff. Nice to see I wasn’t the only one who struggled to hear what was being said and found it hard to follow the plot.
I just watched it for the first time in order to watch this kind of along with it, and I have to say I enjoyed it, and understand it. It's very good considering the show ended two stories later.
Very entertaining review... I was 25 when this story aired, and I'd been lucky enough to visit the studio and see the sets during filming. However, I was still none the wiser when watching it. As a finished piece of television it is quite incomprehensible, which is a shame as I seem to recall the novelisation being a cracking read. Thank you for sharing this video. Be safe. :)
Timelash isn't really that bad. It's FAR from the worst episode of Doctor Who ever, I mean, have you SEEN Twin Dilemma? Have you SEEN some of the crap from the new series? I'd take that one over Love and monsters any day of the week...
Also, I've got the updated version of that review book and since then he's obviously taken a change of heart as he gave it a 5/10 and says he's still trying to like it despite the editing!
Ghost light was the first classic doctor who episode I watched, I was about 9 I did find it creepy but I didn't understand it. I watched it again recently and I thought it was an alright episode.
I actually watched this story a couple of weeks ago, and your review is very good, and helps with the understanding - but this story is never going to be completely understandable, is it?!
I have got to watch this episode!!! I don't feel like a proper whovian without watching this!
Steven Moffat did contribute to Virgin publishing but only wrote a short story for the third Decalog book in 1996 which featured the seventh doctor.
YEAH!!!, Ghostwatch, It was like a highlight that you mentioned! I recently watched that, like everyone else I thought It was, until i researched it, It was great, loved watching it, one of the creepiest things ever seen, Batmanmarch, try looking up the Mcphersons tape, It's like a werid thanks giving meal, but from a member point of view, terrified me, about alien abduction, that lead me to ghostwatch, but if you watch it the ending, is bit shit in some case, but
The DVD quality is way worse than the original transmission for some reason.
Great story.
Nice Capaldi poster on the right!
I remember writing GHOST LIGHT after getting some dreams and sending it to BBC then forgetting all about it. Sam. Goodwin
Please review Timelash!!
It's f^&king masterpiece! I think I finally know what it's about, but not if the editors did ;)
Brilliant review guys, always a pleasure to see Jonathan talking about a story or in an AFA. Ghost Light is one of those stories that I don't know what to think of it. I thought the story was great up until 'Light' showed up and I thought it could have been based on the Husks, giving them a different back story. Talking of the Husks, I absolutely loved going to Blackpool Doctor Who Exhibition and seeing the Husk costumes in a window and as a child I was strangely fascinated by them. I always get chills when hearing Sylvester say "We all have a universe of our own terrors to face...". Also: Could you review or do an overview of the Peter Cushing Dalek movies? I grew up with those movies and loving them and I'd really love to hear your opinions.
Your wish is our command. It will be our next review, after our discussion on the Wilderness Years! :)
Billy Garratt-John Thanks Billy :) Btw I think you're fantastic in these reviews, really enjoy your hearing your opinions.
Thanks very much. I'm really enjoying making them, so as long as you guys want me, I'll be there! :)
Billy Garratt-John you can't call Peter Cushing the Doctor he was Dr.Who! haha i just thought i would say that before the others did great review btw :)
Haha! We'll this is of course something we can discuss. :)
I think you more or less nailed it. Important also to point out the irony of Light looking like an angel, since he represents the anti-evolution Christian attitude of the times... taken to insane extremes, of course. ;)
when is series 3 part 2 of 8th doctor AFA coming out?
i am thinking of try to watch it tomorrow and see if i can watch it all i personally find it too confusing to watch most of the time
Are you going to review Deep Breath and the rest of series 8 like last time????
Ah "Ghostlight" the ultimate WTF is going on? Dr Who story, have watched it 2 or 3 times and still been totally bamboozled by it all every time, its even become the go to joke between myself and a friend about anything thats confusing, doesnt make sense (in life not just on the tellybox), or is there nothing else to watch (on the tellybox).
Its never a boring story, but makes such little sense that its such a slog to get through, and theres a certain irony that the last story ever filmed, is one of the stories that devides the die hard fans (who by then were probably just about the only people still watching) so much, Joe and Jane public at this point would have been "Oh Sod this, lets watch Corrie"!
Are you going to review the series 8 episodes??
Timelash wasn't as bad as it's made out to be :P
I saw this one go out, I was 8. I liked it eve though I didn't understand it.
It's all about biology.
Biology. science.
Ghostlight is surely a metaphor for contesting views about existence that have been with us since the nineteenth century post-Charles Darwin. The alien Light is akin to a religious Creationist today. Josiah can be seen as a metaphor for social Darwinism and negative /simplistic ways of understanding evolution. Stories that evolve around metaphor are common in John Nathan Turner / McCoy era. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is clearly a bit of finger up at the BBC and the fans for their criticism of Dr Who post-Peter Davidson. The gods of Ragnarok are the fans / the BBC whom the Doctor has to appease before the show is axed or he dies. The Captain is a stand in for William Hartnell, a pathetic parody of a former "golden age" of the show that never really was. While Happiness Patrol has been seen as a parody of Thatcherite England. In all these stories the plot doesn't serve the narrative first but the underlying metaphors.
Waitrose accent
KIds today!! They want everything expalining up front and simplified. I saw Ghostlight when it was first shown in 1989 (aged 21)and understood it perfectly. What exactly is so hard to understand?? Stick to the new series!
It's all about biology.