Classic Dr Who was nearing the end of its life in 1989 and heading towards hibernation, but the production team weren't giving up quite yet.In those days, the BBC did period pieces very well, but alien planets not so and Ghost Light plays to that strength immediately, being set entirely within a Victorian mansion.
But this is more than just a plain, old haunted house story ... with its neanderthal butler, creepy housekeeper (in the style of Mrs Danvers), debates about evolution against creationism and Lovecraftian twists of strange, alien creatures in the basement and an insane big game hunter.
From the pen of Marc Platt, this story is derived from his proposal for the legendary "Lungbarrow", a Gallifrey-based story about the Doctor's history, that eventually morphed into one of the rarest and most sought after of the 'New Adventures' line of spin-off novels, then published by Virgin.
Ghost Light is not the most straight forward of Who tales, although the central conceit of an ancient alien life form cataloguing all life on Earth, but constantly finding his work incomplete because lifeforms are evolving, is simple to grasp, if not to fully appreciate.
Sadly, the production over-reaches itself in the execution of the main alien lifeform who comes across as no more threatening than Liberace, and is the only aspect of the yarn that really dates it.
As a sign of the plans script editor Andrew Cartmel had for the series, Ghost Light just makes you wish he'd been allowed at least another season to show the potential left in the old warhorse; although the tone of his dreams (if not the fine print) echo in Russell T Davies' current incarnation of the BBC's flagship science-fiction show.
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