Script to Screen: Ghost LightBy Jon PreddleOne of the more intelligent and complex stories ever to appear on Doctor Who is Marc Platt's Ghost Light. Like most of the stories in the McCoy era, the serial's first edit over-ran the standard episode duration. This necessitated severe editing of the recorded material. Marc Platt's fascinating essay on the creation of the serial in Ghost Light - The Scripts (Titan Books, 1993), details some of the scenes edited from the story, both before and after production, including many from the third episode. However there are many others which were recorded but later edited out. This guide to the Ghost Light cuts is based on a video recording of the first edits for the second and third episodes (the rough edit of episode one on the tape has no extra footage). Platt's novelisation of Ghost Light appears to be an amalgamation of several drafts of the story, together with new sequences specifically written for the book. Page numbers for the novel are quoted where applicable. An extended version might have been released on BBC Video were it not for the fact that the original master recordings containing the extra footage were wiped soon after the story was made, and the surviving copies - such as the one used for this article - are time-coded and are not of broadcast quality. However many of these cut or extended sequences appear as extras on the 2005 DVD release of the story, and are noted accordingly. Duration Timings:
PART ONEGhost Light - The Scripts and the excellent Archive feature in DWM 190 cover much of what was cut from the scripts both before and after the story was recorded. An early scene had the Doctor and Ace, still in the observatory where the TARDIS has landed, activating the surveillance systems and being 'watched' by Josiah. Another cut was of the Doctor playing a 'boogie-woogie' on the piano to Reverend Matthews just before Josiah's entrance. PART TWOAfter the recap, the first edit picks up from where Ace backs away from the advancing husks: (NIMROD SLOWLY WAKES ON THE FLOOR) {Novel, page 76} Before Gwendoline enters the study: (AN EXTERIOR SHOT OF THE HOUSE, WITH LIGHTNING FLASHES. THE DOCTOR ENTERS THE STUDY. HE EXAMINES THE BLAZING FIRE, THEN CROSSES TO THE DESK. HE SNATCHES UP SOMETHING AND DARTS FOR THE DOOR, JUST AS GWENDOLINE ENTERS) {Novel, Page 79} After Gwendoline's line 'after he saw what was in the cellar': DOCTOR: Gwendoline. Do you know where Ace is? {Novel, page 80} After Ace's line 'I'll sort you lot out!': NIMROD: Come here. They won't dare come near the core. {Novel, page 77} Before Ace's line 'Let us go or I'll smash it!': (ACE HOLDS A STICK OVER THE GLOWING GLOBE) {Novel, page 78} After Mrs Pritchard's line 'It's this Doctor. Filling your head with his ideas.': GWENDOLINE: He has words. So confusing. Uncle Josiah's ideas are much
clearer. {Novel, page 93} Between Josiah's lines 'most of Southern England in a firestorm' and 'Drive in the crystal rods', a scene lasting about 40 seconds set in Redver's room: REDVERS: Not much time left. It'll soon be light. {Novel, pages 93-94; scripts, pages 125-126} After Ace has fallen asleep in the study: DOCTOR: Poor Ace. Some of the Doctor's lines were dubbed over the retained shot of him opening the drawer, placed slightly later in the episode. {Novel, pages 96, 102} Before Gwendoline enters the observatory and Josiah's line 'Gwendoline, come here, dear child', an additional 13 seconds: SMITH: Reverend Matthews. I thought you would amuse me. But you bore me just as much as you did before. (HE COUGHS) Then Gwendoline enters - as on TV. {Novel, page 99} After the Doctor's line 'Yes, especially when roused': DOCTOR: Which is exactly what is eluding me at the moment. Inserted at this point is the short shot of Control's arm emerging from the lift shaft. (THE DOCTOR RE-ENTERS THE STUDY, NOW CARRYING A TRAY. MACKENZIE IS MUNCHING ON A SANDWICH) Continues with the Doctor's line 'Since I awoke you, you have consumed...' {Novel, pages 104-105} Control listens at the door, and hears the first line of the scene inside the study as a voice-over, but the scene originally started earlier, involving about 20 seconds more dialogue before the Doctor's line 'The fang of the cave bear calls you, Nimrod', so the line Control over-hears has changed: (CONTROL MOVES TO THE DOOR) {Novel, pages 106-107} After Redvers' line 'The Doctor did that hours ago', an extra 12 seconds: REDVERS: Redvers only wears it against the cold of the night air. {Novel, page 113} Just before Ace and Mackenzie enter the observatory, there is a short scene on TV in which the Doctor talks to a beetle about things 'getting out of control'. Curiously, this segment does not appear in the original edit (or the novel). PART THREEThe recap is reduced from 1.27 minutes on the tape to only 27 seconds on TV. This brings the extra footage total down to only 2.13 minutes. After the Doctor's line, 'We'll talk': (MACKENZIE MOVES OVER TO THE STUDY DOOR. LIGHT GESTURES AND THE BOLTS SLIDE
ACROSS LOCKING THE DOOR. MACKENZIE TURNS TO LIGHT) {Novel, page 123} The scene which begins with the Doctor's line 'How many more times...' was originally transposed in order with the following scene which begins with Josiah's line 'Nothing will delay my plans...' That scene has an additional 26 seconds at the end, after Josiah's line 'Not as much as you'll enjoy sending her, my dear': SMITH: And Redvers Fenn-Cooper? {Novel, page 127} After Light's line 'No sooner had I finished than it all started changing': LIGHT: New species. New sub-species. Evolution running amuck. I had to start amending my entries. Oh, the task is endless. Continues with the Doctor's line 'That's life.' {Novel, pages 124-125} Between Light's line 'No. This is not Earth. It cannot be!' and the entrance of the maid with the soup tureen: LIGHT: Where are the ice fields? The proboscis pachyderms and the horse-tailed forests? This line is an interpretation of a patch of slightly indistinct dialogue which does not appear in the novel or script book. After Gwendoline's line 'Come away with me to Java!': (LIGHT STARES DOWN AT THE DEAD MAID. HE BENDS OVER HER, ENSHROUDING HER BODY
WITH HIS CLOAK. THERE IS A FLASH AND THEY BOTH VANISH. MACKENZIE ENTERS THE
HALLWAY JUST AS THEY VANISH. HE LOOKS UP THE STAIRS, AND SEES MRS PRITCHARD AND
SOME MAIDS DESCENDING) {Novel, page 133-134; scripts, pages 130-131} This cut scene makes sense of MacKenzie's next scene where, just before he is killed by Light, he says the place is 'a mad-house!' After the above scene: (ACE LASHES OUT AT GWENDOLINE WHO IS ARMED WITH CHLOROFORM) {This scene appears on the DVD} After the Doctor's line 'Just in time for dinner': (THE DOCTOR HOLDS OUT HIS ARM FOR CONTROL, WHO ACCEPTS IT) {Novel, page 143} After the above scene: (AN EXTERIOR SHOT OF THE DARK HOUSE. A WHITE FIREBALL SHOOTS OUT OF AN UPPER WINDOW AND ZOOMS AWAY INTO THE NIGHT SKY) {Novel, page 144} After Josiah's line 'Light will come!', an additional 21 seconds: (LIGHT MATERIALISES IN AN UPSTAIRS ROOM. NIMROD WATCHES IN AWE) {Novel, page 145; scripts, page 134} After Light's line 'I have decided Earth's future': LIGHT: We must collect items from the ship. Follow me. {This scene appears on the DVD} Between the Doctor's line 'Myself mostly' and Josiah's 'The British Empire is an anarchic mess!': DOCTOR: But you're not really Empire material are you? Look. Your
background's a bit dodgy and Light wouldn't be amused. {Novel, page 150} After the Doctor's line 'A very big explosion, very soon' and the group run for the lift: (JOSIAH APPEARS FROM THE DINING ROOM AND WATCHES AFTER THEM) {Novel, page 156} This item appeared in TSV 40 (July 1994). | |||||||||||||||||