"Stitch THIS, Dracula!"
Oh, by the way, the stuff behind the cut in the last entry is not really spoilery for "Ghost Light" itself, and only gives a vague rundown of some of the things Seven has done up TO that point, that remind me of Ten. You may run into one or two items that make you go "Wait, when did that happen?" if you haven't seen up through "Greatest Show in the Galaxy", but that's all.
And I was wrong--it wasn't that much like "The Unquiet Dead". I'll tell you what it started reminding me of, at one point. NEIL. FREAKING. GAIMAN, is who. Specifically, perhaps...Neverwhere? With strange, not quite explained, supernatural (or alien?) characters with names like "Light" and "Control"...where...you get the impression that isn't just their name, but also kind of waht they are. Hey, can we get Door over here too, please? (Which, of course, means that Gaiman was perhaps at least unconsciously thinking of this episode, since, ya know, "Neverwhere" was later.) I mean, like...everybody in Neverwhere may or may not be quite human and may or may not have powers and if they do, they work in ways we're not used to...it's not like you can peg them as: "Oh. That's A wizard. That's A vampire." They're just...what they are, and they're not gonna spill out their life stories to you.
And, the thing about the "angel" who is SO bloody annoyed at all these damn life forms moving about and...DOING stuff, when he's trying to catalog them, is intensely Pratchettian...although the character ALSO very much felt like something out of "Neverwhere" or "City of Angels" (the short story). I don't claim to be an expert on Gaiman, but from what I've read...yeah. A modern-day, working "angel" living on Earth--but that doesn't mean he's suddenly all tame, ordinary and friendly.
It's almost impossible to spoil "Ghost Light" 'cos it'd be "like nailing fog to the wall". I see now WHY everybody goes on about how incredibly confusing it was. I...didn't get much of anything at ALL, but I will tell you don't watch this last thing before you go to bed. Especially that one scene where Ace is in the narrow, dark-wallpapered hallway with all the different animals stuffed and on plaques around, LOOKING down at her, and suddenly just...GWLAEWJKLEARW. I did not need that much creepy in my Who. I could feel that "NO!" feeling I get whenever I recognise that a dream has just gone Bad, and am about to snap myself out of it in my sleep (I can do that) as the scene started, and yet I had to watch the whole thing. "Good-old-fashioned nightmare fuel!" is not a quip, here. It's a warning.
I do have to wonder...what this serial would've been like with a different Doctor. Seven was being his 12-steps-ahead-of-everyone kind of cold, frightening self, and...I'm sorry, but with only two serials left: It's obvious I'm never gonna warm up to him. He goes TOO far, too dark, and scares me. He can be all cuddly and adorable and funny sometimes and almost make me forget it...and then he gets that look in his eyes again when revealing his endgame, and I just kind of want to...run away. While he FIT with the overall style of this thing, he...did not help. I gotta think, that with all the symbolistic nightmare confusion going on and so many characters being crazy-creepy sadistic as FUCK--a cuddlier, more...explainy Doctor REALLY would've helped things out. This was not the part of the magical world where you're trading Chocolate Frog cards on the train. This was tracking down Horcruxes in abandoned, tattery Muggle houses with little old ladies lying dead on the floor*. I mean, I don't think Seven would do anything to me...as long as he was on my side...
But this is not the kind of situation that calls for a quirky chess-master with frightening flashes of temper, as your guide. This calls for a Mommy holding our hands, to keep the shadows at bay. Or, in this case, a loving uncle/grandfather figure. Seven helped keep the whole serial within its own mood...which is good in an artistic sense, but I rather would've broken and lightened it up a bit, myself. Oh, sure, there were funny bits. Control learning how to be a "ladylike". Nimrod was likeable. But...huh.
That aside, "Stitch THIS, Dracula!" HA ha ha! Ohmygod. Ace, you fuckin' rock.
...Notorious
*And I'm sorry for working in a Harry Potter mention AGAIN, but I just couldn't help it. The mansion SO reminded me of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. That one creepy hallway? The decor is so...Slytherin! It looks EXACTLY like the wallpaper in the version of that house I have in my Sims game right now, it really does. I keep expecting to see the family tree tapestry with some names/faces burned out...