History Recap / DoctorWhoS26E2GhostLight

'''Production code:''' 7Q

Written by Creator/MarcPlatt. This three-episode serial first aired from October 4--18, 1989.

* LetThePastBurn: Ace tried to invoke this by burning down Gabriel Chase. She wasn't counting on the Doctor bringing her back in time to before she did it.

->'''Gwendoline:''' I think Mr. Matthews is confused.
-> '''The Doctor:''' Never mind, I'll have him completely bewildered by the time I'm finished.

The confusing one.

The confusing one, and the ''actual'' finale of the classic series, in terms of production order. (Filmed after "The Curse of Fenric" and "Survival")

As it turns out, Ace encountered this place in her youth (in the future, with respect to the story's Victorian setting) and the evil feeling left behind from Josiah and Light pushed Ace into burning down the mansion. This resulted in a trauma as well as some time spent with meddling guidance counselors. Ace's only regret after all this? [[MadBomber That she didn't blow it up instead.]]

The original pitch was set in a sinister house from ''the Doctor's'' childhood, on Gallifrey, but showrunner Creator/JohnNathanTurner asked for that aspect of it to be changed, as he felt it gave away too much about the Doctor at once. Creator/MarcPlatt went on to actually write that story as the notoriously confusing ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' GrandFinale ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresLungbarrow Lungbarrow]]''. "Ghost Light" ended up being the final production of the original series, as it was produced ''after'' "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric The Curse of Fenric]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E4Survival Survival]]", despite airing before both of them; they got priority in the production scheduling because they required extensive location filming, whereas "Ghost Light" was entirely studio-bound. [[note]]The final scene shot was of Light turning Gwendoline and her mother to stone, in case you're curious.[[/note]]

The confusing one.

The story finally comes down to the Doctor and Light having a verbal sparring match, which culminates in the Doctor pointing out the inevitability of change for all things and finally [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking Light into ending his own life]] so that he will no longer change. The space ship beneath the mansion decides to recruit a new crew, and enlists Control, who was formerly locked within the ship with fellow prisoners Light, Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod. Ship and crew then depart for places unknown while the Doctor talks to Ace about any regrets she may have in her life.

* DevolutionDevice: Rev. Matthews is turned into a monkey by a Light; it is justified, however, by suggesting that this is not "de-evolution" as such, because the alien could have turned him into anything and only chose the monkey form to mock the clergyman's anti-Darwinist beliefs. (Another character, for instance, is transformed into stone instead.)

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Josiah and his laughably inept grasp of evolutionary theory, though the former trope name (You Fail Biology Forever) could just as easily be the arc word for the serial as a whole, seeing how it skewers both Light's attempts to catalogue a neverending list of lifeforms and Victorian England's attitudes towards evolutionary science juxtaposed with their own rigid social hierarchy.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Josiah plots to overthrow Queen Victoria and seize the throne for himself thereby, it's explained, becoming rulers of the most powerful country in the world. The only problem with this plan is that Victoria was a powerless symbolic figurehead. The British monarch has not attempted to veto a Bill of Parliament since Queen Anne and has not appointed a government that did not have the confidence of Parliament since King William IV. The first example may be justified by him being very stupid and over-confident.

Written by Marc Platt. This three-episode serial first aired from October 4--18, 1989.

** According to writer Marc Platt, he had Gwendoline accidentally call Ace "Alice" because he saw her as "a delinquent version of Alice."

Written by Marc Platt. This serial first aired October 4-18, 1989.

The DVD release contained a 45-minute documentary, a 30-minute interview and commentary that slowly filled in the gaps in what was missing and not entirely clear. Prior to that, a 1993 scriptbook contained an article by Platt explaining the serial's backstory.

* AudienceSurrogate: One of the ways they were trying to develop Ace around this time was to have the Doctor teach her about the universe so she could take a more active role in their adventures than previous companions had. This meant that in this story, the Doctor doesn't spend much time explaining things to her; it's explicitly stated that he's "testing" her. But as Andrew Cartmel admits, this unfortunately meant that a lot of things don't get explained at all, and that they probably should have had someone like Inspector Mackenzie be the audience surrogate (although with their time constraints it still might not have made things much clearer).

Written by Marc Platt. This serial first aired October 4, 1989.