Sylvester McCoy
Season Twenty Six

7Q. Ghost Light

Writer: Marc Platt
Director: Alan Wareing
Designer: Nick Somerville
Incidental Music: Mark Ayres

TRANSMISSION DETAILS:

686. Part One                      04.10.89   7.35pm - 8.00pm   4.2M/Outside Top 100/68%
687. Part Two                      11.10.89   7.35pm - 8.00pm   4.0M/Outside Top 100/68%
688. Part Three                    18.10.89   7.35pm - 8.00pm   4.0M/Outside Top 100/64%

CAST:

JOSIAH SAMUEL SMITH: Ian Higgl; MRS PRITCHARD: Sylvia Syms; REDVERS FENN-COOPER: Michael Cochrane; CONTROL: Sharon Duce; GWENDOLINE PRITCHARD: Katharine Schlesinger (credited as Katherine Schlesinger for 1-2); NIMROD: Carl Forgoine; REV ERNEST MATTHEWS: John Nettleton (1-2); MRS GROSE: Brenda Kempner (1-2); INSPECTOR MacKENZIE: Frank Windsor (2-3); LIGHT: John Hallam (3). UNCREDITED: HUSKS: Keith Harvie, Jack Talbot; DAY MAIDS: Katy Jarrett (1), Sue Somerset (1); NIGHT MAIDS: Emma Darrell, Vivienne Darke, Diana Frances, Fiona King

STORY:

The Doctor and Ace visit Gabriel Chase, Perivale, in 1883. In 1983 it is a house that Ace blew up. On the face everything seems normal, but after dark the place turns nasty.

There is an long running arguement about evolution. One one side is Reverend Matthews, who is set against Darwin's theories. On the other is Josiah Samuel Smith, who himself is the evolved form of a creature brought to Earth by a spaceship located in the basement.

Smith plans to assassinate Queen Victoria and return the British Emipire to its former glory. During the time in the house Ace frees the space craft's owner, Light, who was attempting to catalogue all life in the Universe. Realising that evolution on Earth has caused his catalogue to become obsolete, Light plans to destroy the planet. He disintergrates when the Doctor convinces him that evolution is inevitable, and that Light himself was also evolving.

Josiah Smith reverts to an earlier form while Control and a Neanderthal take off in the space craft.

STUDIOS:

Television Centre Studio 3

LOCATIONS:

House nr. Warmell, Dorset

WORKING TITLES:

The Bestiary, Life Cycle

NOTES:

This was the last regular Doctor Who story to be made

NOVELISATION:

Ghost Light Marc Platt

VIDEO:

Ghost Light

Sylvester McCoySeason Twenty Six