|
|
Post by Andy Turnbull on Mar 4, 2024 22:43:45 GMT
Chaps, can you guys help me out with Ghost Light, please? Like, maybe, tell me what's going on?!?! I mean, it's very good, it's lovely and weird, but I've no idea what's going! Heh, not an uncommon response. |
|
|
|
Post by blueshift on Mar 5, 2024 7:50:51 GMT
Chaps, can you guys help me out with Ghost Light, please? Like, maybe, tell me what's going on?!?! I mean, it's very good, it's lovely and weird, but I've no idea what's going! Ghost Light is amazing, I love it |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 5, 2024 8:44:49 GMT
It's about evolution.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 5, 2024 13:46:39 GMT
Despite having all episodes on dvd (and some on blu-ray), it is strangely thrilling to watch old Who on Iplayer. Sticking most of 20th century DW on Iplayer* is the best thing to happen for it in years. Putting it on a service most folk have makes it much more accessable, especially when the same place also has the 21st century episodes. It's been hard to recommend it when most serials have been behind paywalls. -Ralph *Does Britbox still exist? DW was/is on it but it's a small service. I loved it but had to bin it when updates for the app were turned off when it was subsumed by ITVX and no longer worked.  |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:08:02 GMT
Chaps, can you guys help me out with Ghost Light, please? Like, maybe, tell me what's going on?!?! I mean, it's very good, it's lovely and weird, but I've no idea what's going! Ghost Light is amazing, I love it Well, yes, I'm happy for you, but what the heck is it about?! |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:10:38 GMT
It's about evolution. -Ralph I need a bit more than that, Doc'. Like what's Ace's connection with the house? Isn't she from the future? She was on a future Earth colony when we first met her. Not a scary Victorian mansion. I'm watching it again. It's compelling, yet befuddling! |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:11:28 GMT
And that's sideburns guy. Who you people were banging on about a while back. I can't remember why.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:14:11 GMT
Why does Nimrod look like a Neanderthal?
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:16:43 GMT
And Sophie Alred can't half move. The way she jumped over that desk just then! (Which was quite a bizarre maneuver but athletic nonetheless.) And I can't remember if she was being chased by Daleks or Cybermen, but she was fair racing around.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 5, 2024 22:23:23 GMT
For me, Ghost Light is the weak link in that final season. Pretty but gibberish.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 5, 2024 22:27:49 GMT
Right. Yes. Ghostlight.
Well it's like this you see. Don't think about it.
Ace is from 80s Earth. The house in ghostlight is local to where she lived and after a friend of hers was subject to a racially motivated attack, she set fire to it and burned it down to vent her frustration. By that point it was derelict I think. I'm sure she does explain that in the story.
She believes she ended up in the future on ice world because of an explosion caused by one of her science experiments, but that point gets a further twist in the next story.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 5, 2024 22:36:20 GMT
Which also contains some dialogue that setup Ghost Light if they'd broadcast the stories in the intended order
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 5, 2024 22:41:58 GMT
Ah-hhhaaaaaa
But why did The Doctor take her back there? With deception?
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 5, 2024 22:46:29 GMT
Cos he's a git.
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 5, 2024 22:51:08 GMT
I think he wanted her to face her fears. There's more of him manipulating her and the consequences in the next two stories.
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 6, 2024 17:58:21 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 6, 2024 18:19:38 GMT
Oh that is great. I had wondered if the Randolph tapes would be of use for certain stories. I have high hopes they could improve the sound quality of The Massacre in particular.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 6, 2024 20:10:24 GMT
*Does Britbox still exist? DW was/is on it but it's a small service. I loved it but had to bin it when updates for the app were turned off when it was subsumed by ITVX and no longer worked. see tmukhub.proboards.com/post/515937/thread for answers |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 6, 2024 20:17:04 GMT
I think he wanted her to face her fears. There's more of him manipulating her and the consequences in the next two stories. ....Oh. |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 6, 2024 22:44:50 GMT
Why does Nimrod look like a Neanderthal? Ah, because he was a Neanderthal. Didn't make any more sense second time round. Curse of Fragle now. Not many to go. Hastag sad. |
|
|
|
Post by legios on Mar 6, 2024 23:20:55 GMT
It's about evolution. -Ralph I need a bit more than that, Doc'. Like what's Ace's connection with the house? Isn't she from the future? She was on a future Earth colony when we first met her. Not a scary Victorian mansion. I'm watching it again. It's compelling, yet befuddling! Right, yes... So, Light is an extraterrestrial entity of incredible power tasked with compiling a complete accounting of all life in the universe. As part of doing this when he arrives on a new planet he takes specimens of its species - thus he took a specimen of Home Neanderthalis, later to be known as Nimrod. He also employs a pair of biological sampling probes - one is released and adapts itself to take on the form of the dominant species on the planet, and then is supposed to return to be compared to the other probe - which remains on board Light's ship unchanged as a Control. At some point Light arrived on Earth and a problem of some kind led to his ship being trapped and Light entering stasis. The ship subsequently being buried under the house. One of the probes rebelled and fled the ship, after trapping the Control to ensure they could not interfere. It developed itself into the dominant species as it perceived it - the Victorian Gentleman. Seeing itself as the superior lifeform it intended to eliminate the ruler of the British Empire, the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg, using the explorer Redfers Cooper as its pawn, creating an opening for it to "evolve" into the King of England... The Doctor and Ace's involvement throws a massive spanner into this plan. Leading to the release of Control and the reawakening of Light. Light throws an absolute snit as he discovers that his time in suspension has allowed new species to develop by a process of variation and descent (evolution). Meaning his task of cataloguing all life in the universe cannot be completed. Light decides to therefore cleanse the Earth of life because he lacks any actual coping mechanisms for his anger. The Doctor maneuvers events so that Light is instead destroyed, and Ace confronts her own traumatic memories of her past and her own anger management issues - gaining some closure. (or vice-versa, it is difficult to tell with McCoy's Doctor sometimes to what degree the saving the universe is his main concern and how much offering Ace the chance to save herself is the primary goal of a lot of what he does). Later on a younger Ace, angry at a racial-motivated attack on her friend Manisha, burns down the remains of the house feeling that it is tainted by "evil" (and because she can't burn down the racists responsible for the attack). That is a rough gist of the main points I think. There is a lot more going on. Ghost Light is prone to being economical with the degree that it actually tells you its story directly, compared to how much it wants you to put together from the subtext of what its characters tell you. Which is complicated by the fact that all of the characters in the story with the exception of Ace, The Doctor, Control and (possibly) the Reverend are either insane, mind-controlled or both for most of the story's run time... I love Ghost Light, on an aesthetic level. It is a wonderful experience to watch, but a clearly and coherently told story - that it very much is not! Karl |
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 7, 2024 18:50:44 GMT
Karlos, you are so, THE MAN.
It makes sense to me now. It was a spectacle to be sure. But jolly confusing. Confusing no more!
It's basically about anger management and coping mechanisms. Adapt, or fail!
|
|
|
|
Post by Pinwig on Mar 7, 2024 19:53:43 GMT
Bloody marvellous summary that, Karl. Makes Ghostlight sound almost comprehensible.
|
|
|
|
Post by legios on Mar 7, 2024 21:13:06 GMT
It is entirely possible that Ghost Light could be one of my most rewatched McCoy stories...which may help...
Karl
|
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 7, 2024 21:59:55 GMT
I've never been able to sit through it all again. It infuriated me on original broadcast.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Shockprowl on Mar 7, 2024 23:26:11 GMT
I've never been able to sit through it all again. It infuriated me on original broadcast. -Ralph I can understand that. It was as though Madness had made a television show starring Sylvester McCoy DIRECTLY INSIDE MY MIND. It was simultaneously unwatchable, yet strangely had a TRUTH about it. I was confused; yet liked the cut of its jib. |
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 9, 2024 8:37:21 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 9, 2024 8:38:12 GMT
I've never been able to sit through it all again. It infuriated me on original broadcast. -Ralph I can understand that. It was as though Madness had made a television show starring Sylvester McCoy DIRECTLY INSIDE MY MIND. It was simultaneously unwatchable, yet strangely had a TRUTH about it. I was confused; yet liked the cut of its jib. And one of the maids was Zuckuss from Empire Strikes Back |
|
|
|
Post by The Doctor on Mar 9, 2024 9:49:49 GMT
WHAT.
-Ralph
|
|
|
|
Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 9, 2024 9:54:10 GMT
One of the maids in Ghost Light is Zuckuss She's also the dark curly haired Anethian sacrifice in Horns of the Nimon www.imdb.com/name/nm1071399/ |
|
