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Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #149
Doctor Who: Ghost Light
Perivale, 1983
A column of smoke rises from the blazing ruins of a forgotten, decaying mansion.
Perivale, 1883
In the sleepy, rural parish of Greenford Parva, Gabriel Chase is by far the most imposing edifice. The villagers shun the grim house, but the owner, the reclusive and controversial naturalist Josiah Samuel Smith, receives occasional visitors.
The Reverend Ernest Mathews, for instance, dean of Mortarhouse College, has travelled from Oxford to refute Smith’s blasphemous theories of evolution.
And in a deserted upstairs room, the Doctor and Ace venture from the TARDIS to explore the Victorian mansion …
Who – or what – is Josiah Smith? What terrible secrets does his house conceal? And why does Ace find everything so frightening familiar?
A column of smoke rises from the blazing ruins of a forgotten, decaying mansion.
Perivale, 1883
In the sleepy, rural parish of Greenford Parva, Gabriel Chase is by far the most imposing edifice. The villagers shun the grim house, but the owner, the reclusive and controversial naturalist Josiah Samuel Smith, receives occasional visitors.
The Reverend Ernest Mathews, for instance, dean of Mortarhouse College, has travelled from Oxford to refute Smith’s blasphemous theories of evolution.
And in a deserted upstairs room, the Doctor and Ace venture from the TARDIS to explore the Victorian mansion …
Who – or what – is Josiah Smith? What terrible secrets does his house conceal? And why does Ace find everything so frightening familiar?
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1990
5 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
About the author
Marc Platt
111 books48 followersMarc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC. He wrote the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light based on two proposals, one of which later became the novel Lungbarrow. That novel was greatly anticipated by fans as it was the culmination of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", revealing details of the Doctor's background and family.
After the original series' cancellation Platt wrote the script for the audio Doctor Who drama Spare Parts. The script was the inspiration for the 2006 Doctor Who television story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", for which Platt received a screen credit and a fee.
He lives in London.
After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC. He wrote the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light based on two proposals, one of which later became the novel Lungbarrow. That novel was greatly anticipated by fans as it was the culmination of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", revealing details of the Doctor's background and family.
After the original series' cancellation Platt wrote the script for the audio Doctor Who drama Spare Parts. The script was the inspiration for the 2006 Doctor Who television story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", for which Platt received a screen credit and a fee.
He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 15, 2025
It is no secret that several stories of the later years of the original series of Doctor Who suffered from edits made for reasons of running time rather then plot necessity. Ghost Light was one of the best examples of this and it does indeed remain a Doctor Who story that raises a lot of questions. Some of those questions through have been answered and have been for some time. The Target novelization of the story, published in 1990 and novelized by Marc Platt (the same writer who wrote the television story), shows that in some cases television stories work better on the printed page.
What shines through the most is the plot and the details of it lost in the television version due to the aforementioned editing done to it. A novel (or rather novelization) be definition gives the author a chance to let the reader get inside the heads of character's and also to allow for more depth in terms of the plot. Ghost Light's novelization does exactly that. Platt doesn't do any huge in depth backgrounds about character's but he gives them depth by adding little pieces here and there. This means that things that perhaps weren't quite clear in television version (such as who Light really is, what's he doing and why he sets out to do what he attempts to do towards the end) are all brought into greater focus. There's also the neat addition of a couple of new scenes in the first chapter that help set up the story and a major plot revelation that comes much later in the story. The result is a story that is much more coherent.
What also shines through is the characterization. Ghost Light has the distinction of being one of the best acted of the original series stories (or at least in my humble opinion anyway) so that fact alone might be surprising. But what the novelization reveals is that not only was much of that on the page all ready but also something else. From Josiah Samuel Smith to the Reverend Ernest Matthews to Nimrod, Control and the mysterious Light itself this novelized version of Ghost Light gives Platt a chance to shine. This is large part thanks to his descriptions for the characters, their mannerisms and the occasional change of point of view to them at just the right moment for dramatic effect. Perhaps though the character's who come through the most are the Doctor and especially Ace. This is very much an Ace story and from the new material in chapter one right through to the very end that fact is in abundance. The result is that, despite the complexity of the plot, this remains very much a character driven story.
Yet despite all that, it moves at a good pace Those additional bits here and there have some interesting consequences. The big one is that almost half the page count is taken up with just getting through what was the first part of the television story. This is because of that Platt, like in the television version, builds up the atmosphere of Gabriel Chase and then introduces a bewildering array of character's within it. Yet once Ace goes underground as it were the story really starts moving and building up the tension for the dramatic reveal of Light before the Doctor deals with the madness that seems to consume everyone around him. In that way Platt uses the cliffhanger-centered nature of his scripts to his advantage here with the novelization being filled with perhaps more mystery and tension then its television counterpart.
Novelizations offer the opportunity to expand, if not improve upon, the original script that it is based on. From his expansion of elements of the story to rich characterizations and its pacing, Marc Platt's novelization of Ghost Light does all of that. In fact, it does more then that. It shows that, despite being a story originally written for another medium, Ghost Light is better served as a novel.
What shines through the most is the plot and the details of it lost in the television version due to the aforementioned editing done to it. A novel (or rather novelization) be definition gives the author a chance to let the reader get inside the heads of character's and also to allow for more depth in terms of the plot. Ghost Light's novelization does exactly that. Platt doesn't do any huge in depth backgrounds about character's but he gives them depth by adding little pieces here and there. This means that things that perhaps weren't quite clear in television version (such as who Light really is, what's he doing and why he sets out to do what he attempts to do towards the end) are all brought into greater focus. There's also the neat addition of a couple of new scenes in the first chapter that help set up the story and a major plot revelation that comes much later in the story. The result is a story that is much more coherent.
What also shines through is the characterization. Ghost Light has the distinction of being one of the best acted of the original series stories (or at least in my humble opinion anyway) so that fact alone might be surprising. But what the novelization reveals is that not only was much of that on the page all ready but also something else. From Josiah Samuel Smith to the Reverend Ernest Matthews to Nimrod, Control and the mysterious Light itself this novelized version of Ghost Light gives Platt a chance to shine. This is large part thanks to his descriptions for the characters, their mannerisms and the occasional change of point of view to them at just the right moment for dramatic effect. Perhaps though the character's who come through the most are the Doctor and especially Ace. This is very much an Ace story and from the new material in chapter one right through to the very end that fact is in abundance. The result is that, despite the complexity of the plot, this remains very much a character driven story.
Yet despite all that, it moves at a good pace Those additional bits here and there have some interesting consequences. The big one is that almost half the page count is taken up with just getting through what was the first part of the television story. This is because of that Platt, like in the television version, builds up the atmosphere of Gabriel Chase and then introduces a bewildering array of character's within it. Yet once Ace goes underground as it were the story really starts moving and building up the tension for the dramatic reveal of Light before the Doctor deals with the madness that seems to consume everyone around him. In that way Platt uses the cliffhanger-centered nature of his scripts to his advantage here with the novelization being filled with perhaps more mystery and tension then its television counterpart.
Novelizations offer the opportunity to expand, if not improve upon, the original script that it is based on. From his expansion of elements of the story to rich characterizations and its pacing, Marc Platt's novelization of Ghost Light does all of that. In fact, it does more then that. It shows that, despite being a story originally written for another medium, Ghost Light is better served as a novel.
September 7, 2025
Less a muddle than the episode it’s based on. Light is a fun villain and the handling of it is well managed. A good haunted house story that is more than it appears at first blush.
May 15, 2021
"Ghost Light" the TV serial suffered from two major problems: 1) That it was a 4-part idea stuffed into a 3-part serial, and 2) Marc Platt's method of never revealing significant information directly. Thus, on TV, "Ghost Light" came across as a mulligan stew of ideas and set pieces with few apparent connections. Platt's novelization of his script provides much of the missing information and a few missing scenes that help give the story some sense of design. Platt has mainly tried to write an allegory of evolution set in a Victorian haunted mansion that is more like a madhouse. There are many juicy ideas and clever bits. It still does not quite come together, and large holes remain. Just how is Josiah Samuel Smith able to hypnotize or otherwise take over the minds of the people in this house, and do so almost effortlessly? Why is Smith so obsessed with the idea that Control is evil? Why does Control start evolving, and why now? What kind of superbeing is Light that sets about cataloguing all life, yet is unaware of and refuses to acknowledge that evolution is a rule of life? So many questions remain unanswered.
April 28, 2024
Ambitious but pretty incoherent. 1.5.
February 20, 2024
Recently rewatched this episode and found it as equally abstruse as when I originally viewed it when I was much younger. Revisiting the novelization provided a few additional insights into its themes, plot and characters. Aspects of the story still remain a bit of a puzzle regarding the origins of Gabriel Chase mansion and its inhabitants.
January 8, 2014
Ghost Light is a psychedelic tale about transformation. The Doctor influences his companion Ace as evolution unfolds around them in a tense, dramatic 19th century house inhabited by an alien survey team who have pretensions to become human. Light, the arch-villain of the story, is something quite unlike anything else ever seen in Doctor Who. This novelisation captures the horror of the script and allows us the point-of-view of many of the characters, thus enabling us to better understand a dense storyline with dialogue that sounds like it was written on LSD. Possibly the most bizarre Doctor Who story ever written.
June 1, 2022
Read it wanting to get the 'definitive' version of the story, which while a commendable experiment on TV suffered from massive script cuts and often unintelligible dialogue (for what amounts to a pretty straightforward DW plot in the end).
However, while the novelisation does help with character thoughts and motivations, it's still too opaque to be enjoyable.
However, while the novelisation does help with character thoughts and motivations, it's still too opaque to be enjoyable.
April 10, 2018
Thinking about it (and I have been recently), I think Ghost Light is possibly one of the most important Dr Who stories ever written. It's been a while since I saw the TV episodes to the point where I've pretty much forgotten what happens, so now seemed like a good time to delve back into this, one of my favourite eras of Dr Who, looking this time at the novelisations, which for some stories (this, Battlefield, The Curse of Fenric and Rememberance of the Daleks) are considered the definitive, 'Directors Cut' versions. The shape and the structure of it predicate the New Adventures books which started being published a year later, and without these (for which Mark Gatiss, Russell T. Davies, Paul Cornell and various other writers who went on to write New Who on TV) I don't think Dr Who would ever have come back to TV.
It's a beautiful little puzzle box of a thing, perhaps not immediately understandable on first viewing as three episodes of TV, but the novelisation improves on this massively, giving us background and fleshing out characters that don't get much focus (as I recall) in the episodes. This isn't a perfect process however, there's still several instances of characters doing things without any real motivation, seemingly just because the plot requires them to be in a certain place at a certain time. This is the only thing stopping me giving this five stars, as otherwise this is up there in the top... five? Dr Who stories ever made. In my opinion.
It's a beautiful little puzzle box of a thing, perhaps not immediately understandable on first viewing as three episodes of TV, but the novelisation improves on this massively, giving us background and fleshing out characters that don't get much focus (as I recall) in the episodes. This isn't a perfect process however, there's still several instances of characters doing things without any real motivation, seemingly just because the plot requires them to be in a certain place at a certain time. This is the only thing stopping me giving this five stars, as otherwise this is up there in the top... five? Dr Who stories ever made. In my opinion.
July 18, 2021
A much better effort from the author here, potentially due to novelising their own script, rather than someone else's. Has two things going for it - an interesting direct plot as such, and also digs into Ace's past and personality quite well too.
The antagonists here are quite different, and well fleshed out, and not your normal run of the mill villains - in fact one of them at least is portrayed as quite alien indeed, which is unusual for Doctor Who. The other one off characters are also interesting, and can be quite hard at times to work out what their various motivations are, and who are more 'good' as such.
The Doctor is in good form here, albeit in his manipulative style, but here it is more served to the benefit of his companion, rather than a proactive shot at trying to take out some bad guy / race.
Ace especially is in good form here, as we delve into her past as well as seeing how she reacts to the various situations, and given more opportunity by the Doctor to take a driving seat at times.
Overall, quite an interesting read.
The antagonists here are quite different, and well fleshed out, and not your normal run of the mill villains - in fact one of them at least is portrayed as quite alien indeed, which is unusual for Doctor Who. The other one off characters are also interesting, and can be quite hard at times to work out what their various motivations are, and who are more 'good' as such.
The Doctor is in good form here, albeit in his manipulative style, but here it is more served to the benefit of his companion, rather than a proactive shot at trying to take out some bad guy / race.
Ace especially is in good form here, as we delve into her past as well as seeing how she reacts to the various situations, and given more opportunity by the Doctor to take a driving seat at times.
Overall, quite an interesting read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2023
Doctor Who : Ghost Light (1990) by Marc Platt is the novelisation of the second serial of season twenty six of Doctor Who.
The Doctor and Ace travel to 1883 and to Perivale, where Ace lived much later. They venture to a house full of strange inhabitants. Josiah Smith, who rules over the house. The house itself has a Neanderthal butler and at least one strange presence within the house. The maids are very strange.
The action all happens within the house and it’s a strange but really quite engaging story. It’s well worth a read for any Doctor Who fan.
The Doctor and Ace travel to 1883 and to Perivale, where Ace lived much later. They venture to a house full of strange inhabitants. Josiah Smith, who rules over the house. The house itself has a Neanderthal butler and at least one strange presence within the house. The maids are very strange.
The action all happens within the house and it’s a strange but really quite engaging story. It’s well worth a read for any Doctor Who fan.
November 4, 2020
I remember this episode from when I was a child and even than I found it odd. It is as strange as the haunted mansion featured in the story. The story as told in this book is just as out there as the tv episode although I did like it. Ace and the 7th Doctor is one of my favorite duo's from when I watched the original Who reruns as a kid. They always had a found family feel about them. That aspect of their relationship shows up really well in this book.
January 15, 2026
A lovely, chilling adventure that makes a lot more sense on the page than on the screen. Platt retells his script brilliantly, giving us one of the smartest, scariest and imaginative stories in ages. There are literary clues scattered throughout here, making the ending feel a little less disappointing than it is - Light gets defeated by the power of imagination.At least it gets treated more seriously here than in The Mind Robber.
July 5, 2025
Well, it's slightly more comprehensible than the TV version, and I like the Ace backstory stuff and the Doctor thinking about his plans for her. But I still think the main plot is nonsense.
October 3, 2013
This was one of the weirdest Doctor Who books ever, also very hard to follow at times. However it still holds the feel and charm of the Classic Series and was a wonderful read.
The POV was constantly changing, but I enjoyed that. It allowed me to get inside the characters head in a way you can't when it's on screen. The peeks inside Ace and the Doctor's heads were my favorite, their thoughts on each other are often very sweet and family like. Perhaps my favorite line was a scene where Ace was thinking about the Doctor and thought, “The Doctor was the first person for a long time who had even bothered to accept her for what she was: a delinquent.”
The Doctor and Ace enjoy some playful bickering not shown on screen, such as this line, after Ace is told to find something Victorian to wear.
“And Alice?’ he called after them.
‘I’m not wearing a bustle!’ came the retort.
‘At least try for a bit of parlour-cred!”
Also captured much better than in the series is Ace's internal struggle. She's very afraid of being back in Perivale and especially at Gabriel Chase, and isn't sure if she can still trust the Doctor. When she finally confronts him after learning she's in Gabriel Chase she runs away from him, “She hadn’t realized she could hate the Doctor so much. He tried to take her arm, but she pulled clear." After quite a while, she finally seems to forgive him, and even confesses to him what happened in the house when she went there in the 80s, and the Doctor is shows an amazing amount of comfort to her.
“No, Control! Don’t do it! That’s what I did in 1983! Please! Don’t do it again!’
The Doctor caught her in his arms. This was not what he had rehearsed in his head. ‘Ace. You didn’t tell me.’
‘You’re not my probation officer! You don’t have to know everything!’
Oh, how he sometimes wished that was true. ‘Ace.’ He cradled her gently." ...... “She buried her head in the Doctor’s embrace.” ...... “The Doctor gently rocked Ace and hushed her tears. ‘It’s all right, Ace'.”
The Doctor himself is captured through the text as the wonderful scheming manipulator he is, while maintaining the part of him that honestly cares deeply for Ace. He continually thinks about her, and before she discovers where they are, a few comments he made caused me to think he may feel a little guilt at bringing her there. After he harasses her to tell him about the house, “In at the deep end again, he thought guiltily, but the flood of complaints and abuse never came. When he looked, Ace was already fast asleep in her chair. ‘Poor Ace,’ he said aloud, and he tucked her discarded dinner-jacket around her.”
The POV was constantly changing, but I enjoyed that. It allowed me to get inside the characters head in a way you can't when it's on screen. The peeks inside Ace and the Doctor's heads were my favorite, their thoughts on each other are often very sweet and family like. Perhaps my favorite line was a scene where Ace was thinking about the Doctor and thought, “The Doctor was the first person for a long time who had even bothered to accept her for what she was: a delinquent.”
The Doctor and Ace enjoy some playful bickering not shown on screen, such as this line, after Ace is told to find something Victorian to wear.
“And Alice?’ he called after them.
‘I’m not wearing a bustle!’ came the retort.
‘At least try for a bit of parlour-cred!”
Also captured much better than in the series is Ace's internal struggle. She's very afraid of being back in Perivale and especially at Gabriel Chase, and isn't sure if she can still trust the Doctor. When she finally confronts him after learning she's in Gabriel Chase she runs away from him, “She hadn’t realized she could hate the Doctor so much. He tried to take her arm, but she pulled clear." After quite a while, she finally seems to forgive him, and even confesses to him what happened in the house when she went there in the 80s, and the Doctor is shows an amazing amount of comfort to her.
“No, Control! Don’t do it! That’s what I did in 1983! Please! Don’t do it again!’
The Doctor caught her in his arms. This was not what he had rehearsed in his head. ‘Ace. You didn’t tell me.’
‘You’re not my probation officer! You don’t have to know everything!’
Oh, how he sometimes wished that was true. ‘Ace.’ He cradled her gently." ...... “She buried her head in the Doctor’s embrace.” ...... “The Doctor gently rocked Ace and hushed her tears. ‘It’s all right, Ace'.”
The Doctor himself is captured through the text as the wonderful scheming manipulator he is, while maintaining the part of him that honestly cares deeply for Ace. He continually thinks about her, and before she discovers where they are, a few comments he made caused me to think he may feel a little guilt at bringing her there. After he harasses her to tell him about the house, “In at the deep end again, he thought guiltily, but the flood of complaints and abuse never came. When he looked, Ace was already fast asleep in her chair. ‘Poor Ace,’ he said aloud, and he tucked her discarded dinner-jacket around her.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/1081346.html#cutid2[return][return]After enjoying most of Marc Platt's other work, including his novelisation of Battlefield, I was looking forward to reading this. I'm afraid I was disappointed. Once again, I realise just how vital the direction and acting of the TV version can be; and the intensely visual and subtle original just loses most of its vitality and mystery on the printed page. In particular, we lose the striking visual appearance of Nimrod the Neanderthal and of Light himself, who comes across as just some random and rather dull megalomaniac with super powers.[return][return]Scrapes through the Bechdel test: in most of the Ace/Gwendolen scenes they are talking about Josias and/or the Doctor, and the one exception is when they fight, and are then interrupted by Control. A fight is barely a conversation, but I suppose it will have to do. (Mrs/Lady Pritchard appears to communicate with the maidservants by telepathy.)
February 21, 2016
Throughout this whole book I kept thinking to myself, "I can't tell if this is really bad or really good." I'm going with really mediocre. Like the original serial on which it is based, this novelization had the potential to be one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever. The core story is there, and it's good. But the book feels like someone took the script (which had probably already been bastardized) and tried to make it into something it wasn't. There main culprits here are the characters' thoughts, which we aren't privy to in the serial. They hint at something more than is shown but unfortunately feel like they're just hung on the husk (bad story pun, sorry) of the edited script. Still, having finished the book and never feeling bored by it, I'm pretty ambivalent.
abandoned
October 7, 2016I could almost say I'd finished this being a little way into the final disc of 6 but the story was moving too slowly to stand driving round and round any longer to get it finished before the library closed on the day it was due back and with someone else having requested it.
I'm sure it wasn't entirely the story's fault that it seemed to take forever... but some of it was, and that was a pity because it was atmospheric, original and interesting and had some fascinating characters. Well read too... but wallowed somehow, could and should have been much tighter, and my fellow listener and I confessed that we didn't really know what was going on.
I'm sure it wasn't entirely the story's fault that it seemed to take forever... but some of it was, and that was a pity because it was atmospheric, original and interesting and had some fascinating characters. Well read too... but wallowed somehow, could and should have been much tighter, and my fellow listener and I confessed that we didn't really know what was going on.
September 5, 2023
Ghost Light is the second story of Season 26 (the classic era's final season) and is potentially the classic era's most enigmatic story. The plot sees the Seventh Doctor and Ace arrive at a Victorian house that Ace has destroyed one hundred years in the future. The main thrust of the story has to do with the theme of evolution. It's a good story, and the novel fleshes it out. I've heard that the novel clarifies some elements of the TV version, though I didn't really find that the case (the TV story isn't terribly confusing to me). That said, this is still an enjoyable, well-written novel that's worth reading if you like McCoy's Doctor.
April 10, 2017
Few stories better exemplify the newfound ambition of late 80s Doctor Who than Ghost Light. There's a surfeit of ideas and influences (Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, Richard O'Brien), and if they don't all quite come together, you can at least see they're all pushing in the same direction: Ghost Light wants to be a story about class and religion and personal demons, and all the rest of it all at once. It's realised what Doctor Who can do and is so excited: it's also a story about evolution versus stagnation. Which is pretty fitting.
November 17, 2016
The Doctor Who episode "Ghost Light" is known for being a bit hard to follow upon a first viewing. The story was compressed and too much left out of the broadcast. With multiple viewings, especially in context of Ace's total character arc, it makes more sense. I had been told the novelization fills in a lot of the gaps. I suppose it does, but the story remains one of the stranger, but certainly one the most ambitious, of any classic Doctor Who tales. Props to Marc Platt for not following the same old formula.
December 3, 2016
In the DVD extras on the "Ghost Light" episode, which was the most confusing Doctor Who I've ever seen, it was stated that much was cut from the story to meet time constraints and that the book version told the story better. I do think it is a good story overall, but there are just too many characters and the narrative point of view shifts in jarring and confusing ways. A decent quick read, but it could still be better.
April 6, 2015
This is an absolutely wonderful novel for a wonderful serial when the guillotine was slamming down on the nape of Doctor Who's neck. While the novel hardly fleshes out the story, if you put the pieces together, many questions can be answered from this novel. As the moodiest of all Who novels, though, enter with a warning: You may find this incomprehensible as a novel and as a story.
July 23, 2013
It's not quite as epic as his novelization of "Battlefield", but Marc Platt does sterling work transforming a dense visual text into dense-yet-accessible prose. I have a special liking for the extra spin he adds to the Doctor's final line in the story.
October 31, 2015
Took somewhat longer to read than expected - partly as a result of needed a reformat. This novelisation of a famously opaque and muddled story (it's not) added some detail and probably makes things a little clearer. I now want to rewatch the televised story so that's maybe a criterion of success!
March 17, 2025
This novelization of an already excellent TV episode builds on the original by way of creative prose and filling in gaps where the episode's editing forced things to be cut. An evocative and suspenseful read.
August 29, 2015
Weirdly, even though the novel follows the show very closely, I was able to understand and follow along much better. This makes me wonder if this carries over to re-watching the show.
November 10, 2015
There are more details here than in the original televised episode .
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews