Day 687: Ghost Light Part 2

The next step in my understanding of Ghost Light came when I was around 14 or 15. My grandparents, out of nowhere, gave me a book that they'd found in a local bookstore about Doctor Who called Through Time: An Unofficial and Unauthorised History of Doctor Who. Written by Andrew Cartmel, script editor for the Sylvester McCoy era of the programme, it purported to be a potted history of the series, dipping into various stories throughout the years that Doctor Who had been on television. I began reading it, and it began a slow process in my mind of widening my horizons to the world of Doctor Who.

The book itself provided an in depth analysis of individual stories, examining their strengths and weaknesses as well as what the stories were ultimately about. I found this to be interesting, because I'd previously only engaged with Doctor Who as a viewer, getting excited about things appearing on screen but never really engaging with the text on a deeper level. So I guess that that book was a sort of catalyst for me starting to write this blog, trying to engage with stories and see why they are so good or so bad, or what is inherently interesting within them.

Now, the book wasn't perfect. I don't recall much from it, but I seem to think that Cartmel looked down on The Ribos Operation, which is something that I fundamentally disagree with. He also spent the chapter of the book dealing with his own time on the series in an unnecessarily fawning way, describing almost everything he did as some sort of masterpiece, which jarred with me at the time. But, he did spend some time on Ghost Light, where he examined the story and explained it. It was all about evolution, he said, and he doesn't see why this story is so hard to understand. And, once you know that, you can agree with him. I now watch this story with a degree of interest that I didn't have when I was 11 and first watching it, because I can see the hidden meanings in the story. But this doesn't necessarily mean that the story is good, nor does it mean that I would recommend it...