So what is Ghost Light about really? Well, there exists a creature named Light, who travelled around various planets, cataloguing all the various life forms that existed. There existed others who worked with him, such as Josiah, whose role on the ship was that, for each planet that they landed on, he took the form of the dominant species. This was in contrast to Control, whose job it was to remain in isolation and be the experimental control to Josiah's evolution. One day, Josiah decided to hijack the ship, and take it to Earth, where he would hopefully evolve to become head of the British Empire, through instigating a plot to assassinate Queen Victoria. So we've got this idea of evolution present in the story, as characters change their appearances to reflect changes in society. Control, who is locked up in the ship for much of the story, is almost always kept as a woman in rags, but slowly she forms herself into a proper Victorian lady, or ladylike as she refers to herself as.
But then, when Light awakens, he is rather cross. Firstly, at the fact that he's been left alone for all of that time, but also because, in his absence, Earth has evolved. Creatures such as humans have been able to change and adapt to their surroundings, while others such as the Neanderthal have been left to die out. Light decides to ensure that humans can never evolve again, by deciding to destroy all organic life on Earth, such that then nothing will evolve and everything will stay the same for his catalogue. But he's ignoring the very beauty that nature is. It changes as time changes, evolving and developing into new forms of life. It is a pointless exercise to catalogue and write down everything, instead it is far better to learn and understand what is going on, and to evolve as these notions evolve.
This is all a really interesting concept to base the story around, and there's plenty more within it that's hidden away in the depths of the adventure. But there is a massive problem with it. Almost all of this only really becomes apparent within the last third of the story, and even then, a fair portion is only accessible if close attention is being paid to what is going on. There's no scene where everybody sits down and explains the plot, instead we all are expected to pick it up as we go along and hope for the best, and that all will become clear by the time of the final act. It's why I've been avoiding talking about the story for the past few blog entries, because it's difficult to talk about something when it hasn't been made clear yet. One can only imagine having to watch this weeks apart, as it was originally transmitted, instead of watching it days apart for the purposes of the blog.
So we end up with a noble failure, something which reaches for the heavens, but doesn't quite get there because of the nature of the programme (it would probably work far better as one 75 minute story, or when everything is viewed in bulk). But in the undercurrents of this story, there's something very intriguing happening. We delve into Ace's past. A haunted house that she destroyed because she sensed something evil. But the Doctor is explicitly testing her, using her and traumatising her. A darker Doctor who plays and tests his companions. The next story in particular will look at this, and how Ace feels about it. And it's a story that I've been looking forward to for a while...
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