The Black Archive #6: Ghost Light
The Black Archive – a series of book-length looks at single Doctor Who stories from 1963 to the present day.
One of the most densely complex stories in Doctor Who to this day, Ghost Light (1989) is a fast- paced production where every shot and every line has meaning, often more than one. As the last story produced in the original 26-year run, it is the true antecedent of the modern incarnation of the series, both in style and in its focus on the companion’s development.
Ghost Light is a bricolage of literary and cultural references that, in a story of alien experimentation hidden within the framework of a haunted house tale, explores issues of science, religion, class, race and more.
