Ghost Light is one of my favorite stories. I don't fully understand it, and probably never will, but I go back to it again and again. Eminently quotable. Doctor Who at its weirdest and most gothic. Almost a throwback to the Hinchcliffe era.
Agreed. Its very weirdness and confusion is what I love so much about it. That, and its sheer atmosphere, enhanced in no small part by Mark Ayres' gem of a score.
i seem to remember reading that Cartmel's plan for ace was to eventually leave the doctor and would join the Academy on Galifrey. and Ace had a bunch of great stories in the Dr Who novels of the 90's
In my opinion, this is one of the best Doctor Who stories from the whole of the classic era. It's a little difficult to understand if you're not paying very close attention, but the concept and story are really original and the atmosphere is brilliant. It's like the production team finally worked out that low-key lighting is a thing. Ace definitely has some queer coding going on (starting with this story, but becoming more apparent in Survival).
Making-of documentaries detail the problems when using low light conditions and the show was always made on a tight timeframe. Considering most BBC shows of the 80s used bright lighting because videotape could not pick up on details, it's not the production team being unable. They out out plenty of interesting, innovative and classic episodes prior to this one.
@@ShamrockParticleIt’s the cameras that couldn’t pick up on details as the pickup tubes that cameras of that era used were not sensitive unless the BBC wanted to burn through £8k of camera tubes (each! Three per camera!) every three months or so. Videotape just records whatever’s fed to it.
This story is one of the most confusing on first watch... but watching the extended scenes on the blu-ray and in the novelization shed a lot more clarity on it,
This story was the final story of the original run filmed. Ghost light is great atmosphere but does require rewatches to understand what's going on. This season bar battlefield is very companion focused on Ace as I'm sure you've realised given you've now finished classic who.
I've been looking forward to this one ever since I found your channel! This is possibly my all-time favorite, even though I can just barely follow the plot (which is more than I can say about the rest of my family who watched it with me).
This is the first Who story which is practically designed to be rewatched in order to fully appreciate its many levels . The first Who of the "video age "if you like . A wonderfully dense ,atmospheric story which ticks all of the boxes for me . A highlight of the McCoy era .
@@stickytapenrust6869 I love Warrior's Gate too but I would respectfully argue that it was only on the publication of the novelisation that all of that story's mysteries were explained. In the case of Ghost Light all of the answers are on the screen, it just takes more than one viewing to put the pieces together.
@@colinmcdonough4034 I agree. Ghost Light's only *real* problem is that it tells you information ONCE and if you don't catch it, bad luck. But all the information IS there. I love this story. It's a fantastic story.
It's been said many times that Ace is kind of the template for modern series companions and there's a lot of truth in that. Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy also go great together, like bread and butter and the scene in this episode of Ace telling him the story about the real reason she first visited the house is magnificently done. I don't know if you're familiar with Clever Dick's UA-cam channel, but he does really meticulously detailed, well made documentary style videos about each Doctor's era of Doctor Who, which you can check out now that you're caught up on the Classic series. He also does the occasional video spotlighting different companions and recently uploaded one dedicated to Ace that I highly recommend. I personally love Ghost Light, but it's not to everyone's taste, so it'll be interesting to see where you come down on it. 😊
Love this one! It's actually a very simple story, once you've got your head around it, but it's wrapped up so much juicy atmospheric dialogue that can make the plot difficult to grasp on first viewing. You can argue that counts as a fail for a mainstream audience, but when it comes to rewatches this one holds up better than most.
It is simple to understand. At some point Ace had told the Doctor something about her past when she was 13 but there are parts she can't remember. Other than she could sense Evil. As I said the Doctor loves Ace like a Daughter and that worried him. Now he decided to find out what the problem was, but, he would take her to the same place at a Time before she was born. The rest of the Episode was a build up to finding out what the Evil was.
Ghost Light = Doctor Who vs. the original Resident Evil mansion. It has everything from zombie husks to stuffed animal trophies and horror erring towards the supernatural. The story is rich with atmosphere, well-written, has a lovely score, and can be pretty rewarding if you take the time to dissect the plot -- but even when I had absolutely no idea what was going on, I still enjoyed it. It's a very polarizing story that people either love or hate. Still, I like the idea of the Doctor taking time to explore haunted locations from a companion's past (although this is part of his grand scheme to prep Ace for a bigger future).
In an interview with the one of the cast, they said after reading the script, everyone was perplexed over certain areas of the story. Rather than just discussing, performing was the best option to see what could be unravelled
This one is popular with a lot of people, though it’s not a favourite of mine. What it does have going for it, though, is fantastic production design and costumes, while the seventh Doctor once again shows his manipulative side by bringing Ace back to a house full of bad memories for her, so keen is he to know what evil transpired there. Sylvester and Sophie are really good in the scenes they share together, bringing a depth to the Doctor-companion relationship that had not been seen for a long time. As I understand it, the Doctor’s switch to a darker jacket this season was meant to reflect the darkening of his personality.
If you can find the extended version of this on the Season 26 blu ray then I’d recommend watching it - the story makes more sense with all the cut stuff put back in - it took a couple of viewings for me to fully understand the story
This is one of those stories that splits opinion. A lot of people loved it and a lot of people complained that it was way too confusing for it’s own good. The reality is that some scenes were cut for timing reasons. The problem was that the cut footage happened to hold some key moments that enabled the story to make sense! Personally I love the story, if only because it’s one of the few occasions where the companion is an integral part of the plot as opposed to someone who happened to drop in with the Doctor. It’s also the last story of the Sylvester McCoy era to be recorded, even though it wasn’t the last one broadcast.
The Curse of Fenric suffers much the same fate through cut scenes. The special edition of that story is petty essential imo, otherwise it doesn't really make sense.
This is a very dense story but deeply atmospheric and intensely weird, and it’s almost like Sapphire & Steel meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ace in the suit is iconic (and she’s delightful in general).
Ghostlight, Doctor Who dips back into the Hinchcliffe era, this is a story where you are expecting a jump-scare every minute, takes me right back to the 70’s. You may recognise Michael Cochrane from 5’s Black Orchid as Charles Cranleigh and Frank Windsor the castle host Alfred Mackenzie from The King’s Demons. We also have Nimrod played by Carl Forgione who was also a resident “Om mani padme hum” chanter in 3’s Planet Of The Spiders. Great intellectual story telling here, really it needs a second watch because you’ll be looking for jump-scares first time around for me it’s a certain either 9.5 or 10. Brilliant! Om mani padme hum, Om mani padmi hum, Om mani padme hum 🎶🎶🕷️
Due to extenuating circumstances, I had to watch Season 26 primarily on an ageing black & white portable, which rendered Ghost Light actually more eerie and bizarre than it is in colour. I can't say I understood what was going on, but this hardly makes me unique. Even Director Alan Wareing (who, like many before him, had worked his way up through the production crew) was apparently forced to telephone the author, Marc Platt, to clarify what was actually going on. But I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. There is something in the chase to understand something that is stimulating in and of itself.
This one has great atmosphere, acting, sets and direction-but its infamously confusing. I'm interested to see what you make of it. I think you're right about Ace too. Lots of people think of her as the first modern companion, for some of the aspects you noticed. She's also the first classic companion to get real character focus outside of her first and last story.
This is a story I hated on first watch but loved on second watch. It's a tough one to understand; you really gotta pay attention. I enjoyed it a lot more on second watch because I knew to look out for themes of evolution after watching a DVD extra of the writer explaining the story.
The writer shouldn't have to have to explain it off-screen, it's like the other adage of "if the comedian has to explain the joke then it's not funny." Or so I've heard.
I couldn't get it for the longest time, and then I saw the extended cut available on the Season 26 bluray, and It is probably my favorite story in the last season.
I really hope you start warming to Season 26 soon! It's my favourite season of classic Who by a considerable distance. But maybe it does need to be seen in its entirety to appreciate it because the stories all feel semi-linked by this mythology and the Doctor's grand schemes.
An absolutely extraordinary story which I thought was great on first viewing and improves with subsequent viewing - once you hear all the dialogue 😊. I do hope you end up loving it 🥰
This one is a very good story, glorious setting, full of mystery and philosophical & cosmological conceots, but it's one of those stories (like Kinda), that takes most of us (myself included) a few re-watches to grasp it all.
This is one of the most Marmite stories in the entire classic run. I didn't really understand it on first broadcast, but it made much more sense when the novelisation came out a year or so afterwards. A lot of people love it, a lot of people dismiss it as being incoherent and pretentious. I think it's a clever story which asks for quite a lot of brainwork from the audience... I couldn't join all the dots together when I was 15 in 1989. :)
Absolutely. There's no middle ground with this. Fans seem to either think it's a piece of incoherent drivel, or an intelligent and original plot with a wonderfully spooky atmosphere.
I watched this when it first aired. I'd have been 8 at the time and the ending terrified me. Looks ridiculous now but really did give me a sleepless night. Was hooked on the show after that, though this was to be the last series for years and years of course, so my fascination was shortlived 😂
When we look up at the stars, we do not see the stars, but we see their light. The Sun about four minutes into the past, the next nearest star is four plus years ago, and so on. This is called 'Ghost' or sometimes 'fossil light'. A clue. What made Ace the person she is today? - and why does the Doctor do this? He showed her origins; her mother as a baby in one story, he found out what time eddy carried her to Iceworld, he showed her a picture of herself in the Queen of England's collection of art, he introduced her to a number of young women in similar situations, in each of the stories, young men, too. Each was either thriving or falling under the spell of a Doctor Who threat.
Fantastic atmospheric story with a superb cast. Should have been a four parter though. Sylvester and Sophie shine. It was a treat to see them in The Power of the Doctor.
I admit, it took me three viewings to actually understand this story. And I'm pretty sure there's plenty I still don't quite get. What you said at 13:38, about Ace wearing a suit - I'm glad you mentioned that. It's a fairly inconsequential detail in terms of the narrative, but Ace clearly isn't worried about conforming to gender norms (and is fairly queer-coded in general). I can't speak to how viewers at the time felt about that, but from my own perspective, as a 25-year-old queer trans woman watching the show today... it's really nice to see.
I say this story Marie-Clare was awesome, and I give it ten out of ten and been set on earth in 1883 was awesome as well. I also prefer this story, to Battlefield and the costumes are awesome and also the sets are awesome too n billions of ways.
I know you've seen the story, but ill try to keep my observations for all later parts for later, hehe. The story is steeped in atmosphere and it took me a few viewings to be interested in it. It's become one of my favorites, but it needed twice as many episodes to tell itself with.
I love Doctor Who. I also love that we all have different parts of it that resonate with us; at the end of the day our opinions can never be completely objective, and thats quite a beautiful thing. Personally, I find it especially charming when somebody unashamedly loves a story like Delta and the Bannermen, or Battlefield, or Time and the Rani. Whether I like them or not, it is fair to say that they are all somewhat underrated. But Ghost Light? I'm sort of hoping and expecting that you don't enjoy the next two parts because it is that very rare thing: a Doctor Who story I find totally overrated. Fan wisdom would have us believe that people who don't like Ghost Light are in some way 'not getting it' because it is 'too complex'. No. In essence Ghost Light is incredibly straight forward. Clever, yes, confusing, often, but not complex. What makes Ghost Light difficult to enjoy is that it hides its good bits (great concepts, fantastic production design, and sparkling dialogue) underneath a bafflingly impenetrable surface layer of nothing very much. And I think that's the real problem with Ghost Light. It is the Emperor's New Clothes of Doctor Who, constantly explained away with explainations when the naked truth is that it just doesn't work. There is nothing deeper to understand.
I have a theory about Ghost Light. I think it suffers from hiding its anti-Tory message a little too well. It's almost as coded as Ace's sexuality. The future of Doctor Who was on very thin ice at the time, and I can imagine that they didn't want to create even more reason for The BBC to axe it.
This one looks and sounds gorgeous. It's dripping in atmosphere and feels a bit creepy, which is an excellent basis for most Doctor Who. Also, some of the dialogue is great. However, if you can find an intelligible story in here... Still, it really is a very enjoyable watch!
Without giving anything away stick with this story as you've already sussed this is a story you have to work through and is not intended for those who need everything spoon fed to them but like a mysterious tale
Yes it is atmospheric and a bit creepy, but for both my husband and I, not a favourite. Let down by heavy editing to bring it to length, over complicated plot and some questionable performances. My husband likes to call it "Ghost Shite" Look forward to seeing your reactions to the rest.
You really really need to watch this one about 5 times... minimum... There's a good story in there, but a single viewing would simply leave confusion. Luckily you're getting to edit the vid, so that at least gives you a bit more time to digest. Overall I like this story, even though it's pretty bonkers, it just manages to maintain a coherent enough storyline, although again, you will benefit from multiple viewings - there's so much going on, compared to say Time and the Rani... :) Ghostlight was entirely studio-bound, using not great video cameras, and recording mostly low-lit scenes that really pushed the boundaries of what the equipment could handle. The result is - not great... but tolerable.
This is an ambitious, spooky story with brilliant productions. But it gets dull and off the rails for me. Last story ever filmed in the classic series☹️
Good luck making sense of this gibberish. A perfect example of the show's greatest problem now...poorly-structured scripts written by inexperienced script writers.
Also the atmosphere and music are so good that more of it made sense on later viewings. It's like "Warriors Gate", though I prefer that story by a tad...
Terrible story in my opinion,peopke always say its better after a re watch,which my be so be its over complicated and taken that its primarily a family show most kids would not have a clue whats going on.
What made Ace the person she is? What time eddy threw her to Iceworld? How does Ace change when she sees her mother as a baby? - and this one, how does she confront her own fears? No explosions and fights on precipices, but a solid character piece. - and 'Ghost Light' is what the stars show us: the past, arriving now.
@@stevetheduck1425 A story needs to do more than simply explore the characters, as worthy and interesting as that is. It also needs to offer a solid plot that viewers can follow, understand and enjoy.
FULL LENGTH | Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) | Part 2 | REACTION
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This is one of my all-time favourite stories, and really does require you to engage your brain to get the most out of it.
This is a 10/10 story but it's one that definitely needs more than one viewing in order to properly follow the plot
Ghost Light is one of my favorite stories. I don't fully understand it, and probably never will, but I go back to it again and again. Eminently quotable. Doctor Who at its weirdest and most gothic. Almost a throwback to the Hinchcliffe era.
Agreed. Its very weirdness and confusion is what I love so much about it. That, and its sheer atmosphere, enhanced in no small part by Mark Ayres' gem of a score.
RIP Sylvia Syms (Mrs Pritchard) who passed away in January 2023.
One of the GREATEST stories ever. Confusing, unexplained, superbly well-acted. Overall MAGNIFICENT!!!!
I LOVE this story, so many good moments. I feel that 7 and Ace are on point here. Also you need to watch it carefully - there is loads packed in.
i seem to remember reading that Cartmel's plan for ace was to eventually leave the doctor and would join the Academy on Galifrey. and Ace had a bunch of great stories in the Dr Who novels of the 90's
In my opinion, this is one of the best Doctor Who stories from the whole of the classic era. It's a little difficult to understand if you're not paying very close attention, but the concept and story are really original and the atmosphere is brilliant. It's like the production team finally worked out that low-key lighting is a thing.
Ace definitely has some queer coding going on (starting with this story, but becoming more apparent in Survival).
Making-of documentaries detail the problems when using low light conditions and the show was always made on a tight timeframe. Considering most BBC shows of the 80s used bright lighting because videotape could not pick up on details, it's not the production team being unable. They out out plenty of interesting, innovative and classic episodes prior to this one.
The queen coding is one of many perceptions. It didn't bother me. The best storytelling allows people to see any number of ideas and things.
@@ShamrockParticleIt’s the cameras that couldn’t pick up on details as the pickup tubes that cameras of that era used were not sensitive unless the BBC wanted to burn through £8k of camera tubes (each! Three per camera!) every three months or so. Videotape just records whatever’s fed to it.
This story is one of the most confusing on first watch... but watching the extended scenes on the blu-ray and in the novelization shed a lot more clarity on it,
This story was the final story of the original run filmed. Ghost light is great atmosphere but does require rewatches to understand what's going on.
This season bar battlefield is very companion focused on Ace as I'm sure you've realised given you've now finished classic who.
I've been looking forward to this one ever since I found your channel! This is possibly my all-time favorite, even though I can just barely follow the plot (which is more than I can say about the rest of my family who watched it with me).
This is the first Who story which is practically designed to be rewatched in order to fully appreciate its many levels . The first Who of the "video age "if you like . A wonderfully dense ,atmospheric story which ticks all of the boxes for me . A highlight of the McCoy era .
It’s not. Warrior’s Gate was the first that was designed to need repeated viewings to understand.
@@stickytapenrust6869 I love Warrior's Gate too but I would respectfully argue that it was only on the publication of the novelisation that all of that story's mysteries were explained. In the case of Ghost Light all of the answers are on the screen, it just takes more than one viewing to put the pieces together.
@@colinmcdonough4034 I agree. Ghost Light's only *real* problem is that it tells you information ONCE and if you don't catch it, bad luck. But all the information IS there. I love this story. It's a fantastic story.
Said this a lot about the McCoy era but this story scared the hell out of me as a kid on broadcast, the music is also terrifying.
The first time I watched it I was confused, but when I got it, I really got it. Frank Windsor looks comfortable in a drawer
Well as you now know you won't be getting that white walled spaceship - which is why I think you'd love Gerry Anderson's "Space: 1999" (on Britbox).
It's been said many times that Ace is kind of the template for modern series companions and there's a lot of truth in that. Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy also go great together, like bread and butter and the scene in this episode of Ace telling him the story about the real reason she first visited the house is magnificently done. I don't know if you're familiar with Clever Dick's UA-cam channel, but he does really meticulously detailed, well made documentary style videos about each Doctor's era of Doctor Who, which you can check out now that you're caught up on the Classic series. He also does the occasional video spotlighting different companions and recently uploaded one dedicated to Ace that I highly recommend. I personally love Ghost Light, but it's not to everyone's taste, so it'll be interesting to see where you come down on it. 😊
I adore Ghost light ❤️ The music is wonderful. Let’s all go to Java. Brilliant cast. Very complex rewarding writing ❤️
Love this one! It's actually a very simple story, once you've got your head around it, but it's wrapped up so much juicy atmospheric dialogue that can make the plot difficult to grasp on first viewing. You can argue that counts as a fail for a mainstream audience, but when it comes to rewatches this one holds up better than most.
It is simple to understand. At some point Ace had told the Doctor something about her past when she was 13 but there are parts she can't remember. Other than she could sense Evil. As I said the Doctor loves Ace like a Daughter and that worried him. Now he decided to find out what the problem was, but, he would take her to the same place at a Time before she was born. The rest of the Episode was a build up to finding out what the Evil was.
Great story, this. Though I am sad we are getting towards the end of Classic Who! Thank you so much for the joy, MC!
Ghost Light = Doctor Who vs. the original Resident Evil mansion. It has everything from zombie husks to stuffed animal trophies and horror erring towards the supernatural. The story is rich with atmosphere, well-written, has a lovely score, and can be pretty rewarding if you take the time to dissect the plot -- but even when I had absolutely no idea what was going on, I still enjoyed it. It's a very polarizing story that people either love or hate. Still, I like the idea of the Doctor taking time to explore haunted locations from a companion's past (although this is part of his grand scheme to prep Ace for a bigger future).
In an interview with the one of the cast, they said after reading the script, everyone was perplexed over certain areas of the story. Rather than just discussing, performing was the best option to see what could be unravelled
This one is popular with a lot of people, though it’s not a favourite of mine. What it does have going for it, though, is fantastic production design and costumes, while the seventh Doctor once again shows his manipulative side by bringing Ace back to a house full of bad memories for her, so keen is he to know what evil transpired there. Sylvester and Sophie are really good in the scenes they share together, bringing a depth to the Doctor-companion relationship that had not been seen for a long time. As I understand it, the Doctor’s switch to a darker jacket this season was meant to reflect the darkening of his personality.
If you can find the extended version of this on the Season 26 blu ray then I’d recommend watching it - the story makes more sense with all the cut stuff put back in - it took a couple of viewings for me to fully understand the story
Though not transmitted last,this was the last Classic story filmed (if you exclude the tvm of 1996)🎩
This is one of those stories that splits opinion. A lot of people loved it and a lot of people complained that it was way too confusing for it’s own good. The reality is that some scenes were cut for timing reasons. The problem was that the cut footage happened to hold some key moments that enabled the story to make sense!
Personally I love the story, if only because it’s one of the few occasions where the companion is an integral part of the plot as opposed to someone who happened to drop in with the Doctor.
It’s also the last story of the Sylvester McCoy era to be recorded, even though it wasn’t the last one broadcast.
The Curse of Fenric suffers much the same fate through cut scenes. The special edition of that story is petty essential imo, otherwise it doesn't really make sense.
love this one dr who always did gothic well
This is a very dense story but deeply atmospheric and intensely weird, and it’s almost like Sapphire & Steel meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ace in the suit is iconic (and she’s delightful in general).
The last story actually recorded for the series
The production order was wonky, but this one being the last makes a certain sense.
This is going to be one adventure. One watch was not enough for me. It is now a solid favourite
Ghostlight, Doctor Who dips back into the Hinchcliffe era, this is a story where you are expecting a jump-scare every minute, takes me right back to the 70’s. You may recognise Michael Cochrane from 5’s Black Orchid as Charles Cranleigh and Frank Windsor the castle host Alfred Mackenzie from The King’s Demons. We also have Nimrod played by Carl Forgione who was also a resident “Om mani padme hum” chanter in 3’s Planet Of The Spiders.
Great intellectual story telling here, really it needs a second watch because you’ll be looking for jump-scares first time around for me it’s a certain either 9.5 or 10. Brilliant!
Om mani padme hum, Om mani padmi hum, Om mani padme hum 🎶🎶🕷️
My favourite McCoy story. It really deserves to be watched again.
Due to extenuating circumstances, I had to watch Season 26 primarily on an ageing black & white portable, which rendered Ghost Light actually more eerie and bizarre than it is in colour. I can't say I understood what was going on, but this hardly makes me unique. Even Director Alan Wareing (who, like many before him, had worked his way up through the production crew) was apparently forced to telephone the author, Marc Platt, to clarify what was actually going on. But I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. There is something in the chase to understand something that is stimulating in and of itself.
This one has great atmosphere, acting, sets and direction-but its infamously confusing. I'm interested to see what you make of it.
I think you're right about Ace too. Lots of people think of her as the first modern companion, for some of the aspects you noticed. She's also the first classic companion to get real character focus outside of her first and last story.
This is a story I hated on first watch but loved on second watch. It's a tough one to understand; you really gotta pay attention. I enjoyed it a lot more on second watch because I knew to look out for themes of evolution after watching a DVD extra of the writer explaining the story.
The writer shouldn't have to have to explain it off-screen, it's like the other adage of "if the comedian has to explain the joke then it's not funny." Or so I've heard.
@@ShamrockParticle yes it is bad in that regard
I couldn't get it for the longest time, and then I saw the extended cut available on the Season 26 bluray, and It is probably my favorite story in the last season.
I really hope you start warming to Season 26 soon! It's my favourite season of classic Who by a considerable distance. But maybe it does need to be seen in its entirety to appreciate it because the stories all feel semi-linked by this mythology and the Doctor's grand schemes.
An absolutely extraordinary story which I thought was great on first viewing and improves with subsequent viewing - once you hear all the dialogue 😊. I do hope you end up loving it 🥰
This one is quite dense in terms of story. Definitely one that grows on rewatch.
For Nimrod, they didn’t employ an actor and put prosthetics on him, they just grabbed a bloke off a street in Barnsley…
This one is a very good story, glorious setting, full of mystery and philosophical & cosmological conceots, but it's one of those stories (like Kinda), that takes most of us (myself included) a few re-watches to grasp it all.
This is one of the most Marmite stories in the entire classic run. I didn't really understand it on first broadcast, but it made much more sense when the novelisation came out a year or so afterwards. A lot of people love it, a lot of people dismiss it as being incoherent and pretentious. I think it's a clever story which asks for quite a lot of brainwork from the audience... I couldn't join all the dots together when I was 15 in 1989. :)
Absolutely. There's no middle ground with this. Fans seem to either think it's a piece of incoherent drivel, or an intelligent and original plot with a wonderfully spooky atmosphere.
I watched this when it first aired. I'd have been 8 at the time and the ending terrified me. Looks ridiculous now but really did give me a sleepless night.
Was hooked on the show after that, though this was to be the last series for years and years of course, so my fascination was shortlived 😂
When we look up at the stars, we do not see the stars, but we see their light.
The Sun about four minutes into the past, the next nearest star is four plus years ago, and so on.
This is called 'Ghost' or sometimes 'fossil light'.
A clue. What made Ace the person she is today? - and why does the Doctor do this?
He showed her origins; her mother as a baby in one story, he found out what time eddy carried her to Iceworld, he showed her a picture of herself in the Queen of England's collection of art, he introduced her to a number of young women in similar situations, in each of the stories, young men, too.
Each was either thriving or falling under the spell of a Doctor Who threat.
Fantastic atmospheric story with a superb cast. Should have been a four parter though. Sylvester and Sophie shine. It was a treat to see them in The Power of the Doctor.
I admit, it took me three viewings to actually understand this story. And I'm pretty sure there's plenty I still don't quite get.
What you said at 13:38, about Ace wearing a suit - I'm glad you mentioned that. It's a fairly inconsequential detail in terms of the narrative, but Ace clearly isn't worried about conforming to gender norms (and is fairly queer-coded in general). I can't speak to how viewers at the time felt about that, but from my own perspective, as a 25-year-old queer trans woman watching the show today... it's really nice to see.
I love these latter McCoy stories.
One of my favourite stories ever. Although it does require a background in science to understand
I say this story Marie-Clare was awesome, and I give it ten out of ten and been set on earth in 1883 was awesome as well. I also prefer this story, to Battlefield and the costumes are awesome and also the sets are awesome too n billions of ways.
One of Sylvester McCoy's best stories.
My face story of the final season,even though it ultimately doesn't quite fulfil its promise ❤️👍🎩
Fave,not face🙄🎩
Ghost Light, Doctor Who meets the Adams Family. Is how I feel about this story
A great story... once you've finished, go back and watch it again... give yourself time to understand what's going on
I know you've seen the story, but ill try to keep my observations for all later parts for later, hehe.
The story is steeped in atmosphere and it took me a few viewings to be interested in it. It's become one of my favorites, but it needed twice as many episodes to tell itself with.
Yeah, funny predictions
I love Doctor Who. I also love that we all have different parts of it that resonate with us; at the end of the day our opinions can never be completely objective, and thats quite a beautiful thing.
Personally, I find it especially charming when somebody unashamedly loves a story like Delta and the Bannermen, or Battlefield, or Time and the Rani. Whether I like them or not, it is fair to say that they are all somewhat underrated.
But Ghost Light? I'm sort of hoping and expecting that you don't enjoy the next two parts because it is that very rare thing: a Doctor Who story I find totally overrated.
Fan wisdom would have us believe that people who don't like Ghost Light are in some way 'not getting it' because it is 'too complex'. No. In essence Ghost Light is incredibly straight forward. Clever, yes, confusing, often, but not complex.
What makes Ghost Light difficult to enjoy is that it hides its good bits (great concepts, fantastic production design, and sparkling dialogue) underneath a bafflingly impenetrable surface layer of nothing very much.
And I think that's the real problem with Ghost Light. It is the Emperor's New Clothes of Doctor Who, constantly explained away with explainations when the naked truth is that it just doesn't work. There is nothing deeper to understand.
I have a theory about Ghost Light. I think it suffers from hiding its anti-Tory message a little too well. It's almost as coded as Ace's sexuality. The future of Doctor Who was on very thin ice at the time, and I can imagine that they didn't want to create even more reason for The BBC to axe it.
Most people watch this the first time and go WTF. It takes a second viewing.
This one looks and sounds gorgeous. It's dripping in atmosphere and feels a bit creepy, which is an excellent basis for most Doctor Who. Also, some of the dialogue is great. However, if you can find an intelligible story in here...
Still, it really is a very enjoyable watch!
Ace was supposed to scream at that cliff hanger. But didn’t work out so cut it off I that ask to do is look scared face.😱
DW's version of Sapphire & Steel.
This could easily been rewritten as a Sapphire and Steel story
Without giving anything away stick with this story as you've already sussed this is a story you have to work through and is not intended for those who need everything spoon fed to them but like a mysterious tale
Yes it is atmospheric and a bit creepy, but for both my husband and I, not a favourite. Let down by heavy editing to bring it to length, over complicated plot and some questionable performances. My husband likes to call it "Ghost Shite" Look forward to seeing your reactions to the rest.
So close to the end now 😐
😢
You really really need to watch this one about 5 times... minimum... There's a good story in there, but a single viewing would simply leave confusion. Luckily you're getting to edit the vid, so that at least gives you a bit more time to digest. Overall I like this story, even though it's pretty bonkers, it just manages to maintain a coherent enough storyline, although again, you will benefit from multiple viewings - there's so much going on, compared to say Time and the Rani... :)
Ghostlight was entirely studio-bound, using not great video cameras, and recording mostly low-lit scenes that really pushed the boundaries of what the equipment could handle. The result is - not great... but tolerable.
This is an ambitious, spooky story with brilliant productions. But it gets dull and off the rails for me. Last story ever filmed in the classic series☹️
Yeah I’ve watched this story twice and I still really don’t like it it’s one of the weakest in my opinions
Good luck making sense of this gibberish. A perfect example of the show's greatest problem now...poorly-structured scripts written by inexperienced script writers.
But I might argue that it's made up for with some terrific atmosphere and music.
Also the atmosphere and music are so good that more of it made sense on later viewings. It's like "Warriors Gate", though I prefer that story by a tad...
Absolutely agree that new Who is terribly written and badly formatted. Ghostlight in my opinion is one you have to watch carefully to understand.
Terrible story in my opinion,peopke always say its better after a re watch,which my be so be its over complicated and taken that its primarily a family show most kids would not have a clue whats going on.
So is _The Caves of Androzani_ by that logic.
It's a confusing mess of a story.
What made Ace the person she is? What time eddy threw her to Iceworld? How does Ace change when she sees her mother as a baby? - and this one, how does she confront her own fears? No explosions and fights on precipices, but a solid character piece.
- and 'Ghost Light' is what the stars show us: the past, arriving now.
@@stevetheduck1425 A story needs to do more than simply explore the characters, as worthy and interesting as that is. It also needs to offer a solid plot that viewers can follow, understand and enjoy.
Marie Claire, this story has the some of the best british character actors of the time, and they wanted to be in a Dr Who.....no really!
Yes, it was confusing and awesome at the same time. Weird innit?. Ace was so cool at the time..even for us lads.