DOCTOR WHO-GHOSTLIGHT part 2 and 3, THE CURSE OF FENRIC parts 1-4

 

DOCTOR WHO-GHOSTLIGHT part 2 and 3, THE CURSE OF FENRIC parts 1-4

 

To think years ago, I really hated these two stories but the truth is I really enjoyed them now. I like the relationship between Ace and the Doctor; I like that Ace is the focus of the stories in many ways; I like McCoy’s added quirks (whistling to the baby, mumbling at crucial times such as when he tells the nurse that Judson is already dead and uses some of his companions’ names—the first five of them anyway, though the subtitles on one version do not include Ian; his nose poking of Ace; and many, many more). McCoy is a solid Doctor. I even love his R twirling.

 

In both stories a trusted ally dies horribly (the Inspector Mackenzie becomes soup in GHOSTLIGHT and Wainwright is sucked dry by the taken over people who are now Haemovore vampire). I’m not overly fond that the Earth will end up with the Ancient One being the last thing on Earth (does this jive with the other endings of human kind in the show and the awful RTD story where we become mechanical butcher balls? What was RTD thinking?). If you count Sorin as a trusted ally (I do) that’s two trusted pseudo companions that die horribly, though Sorin is just killed internally by Fenric taking him over.

 

BTW the wolves thing…it works but there is a lot going on in both these stories and the Doctor just plunges himself into them as if we’re meant to understand why he’s doing this. It’s one of the weak spots of both stories IMO. I DO like that he does know what’s going on but his not telling Ace is a bit…odd but DOES make sense, especially in this story. The order of stories is also odd because it makes dialog seem as if GHOSTLIGHT was supposed to come AFTER FENRIC.

 

The death of the nurse by Judson and his vampire horde was horrible. She just took care of him.  Fenric either used Judson’s (a horrible person to begin with, always telling others to SHUT UP) natural hatred of the way she treated him or just saw the evil side of things but either way she didn’t deserve to die that way. She seemed to truly care about him.

 

I have to say that though I never really considered DOCTOR WHO scary on ANY level really, some of the shots here (the misty face of one of the vampire monsters over a grave stone) and circumstances ARE pretty scary.

 

Well, okay, I’ve totally turned around on GHOSTLIGHT even more than last time and love FENRIC more than ever now. It makes me sad we do not have more McCoy. We DO have his audios and frankly other than one or two, ALL OF THEM, are fantastic. THE HIGH PRICE OF PARKING is one of them. And almost all of his early ones are great (avoid the one with the project and his double act with Colin Baker as a Doctor clone or something) especially the ones with Benny and Ace together. I think in a recent one he teamed up with Jo Grant!

 

And of course we have the NEW ADVENTURES, which range from horrid to fantastic (BAD THERAPY, A ROOM WITH NO DOORS, and DAMAGED GOODS are three of the best).

 

The only thing in FENRIC that was weird, well apart from Ace’s very odd distracting of Leith (she’s not sexy at all and later the poor man seems hypnotized before he’s eaten), is Ace yelling out, “Mum, I’m sorry!” as she’s about to be shot by a firing squad (of British soldiers!). Christian Anholt, the son of SPACE: 1999 actor, Tony Anholt is Perkins. Christian will be the sidekick in RELIC HUNTER, a TV show of the 90s and early 2000s. As Perkins, like so many in this story, he dies but I didn’t see him die on screen but a lot is happening. There are a lot of good looking guys in FENRIC and most of them die though there is Bates (named after Norman?) and the Russian he saves who saves him, too, who seem almost about to KISS.

 

I like the Doctor’s insults to Ace to break her faith in him in order to free the Ancient One, who then conveniently kills Fenric (possibly?). And the explosions. And even baby Audrey. And the fights Ace had with the monsters. There does seem to be a very pro Communist/Russian feel here and I wonder what faith Sorin has in the revolution. What revolution? The Russian one? That was over in 1917 wasn’t it?

 

While on the past, these two stories have a heavy STEPHEN KING influence and/or influenced KING. There’s also a HEAVIER than might be expected DARK SHADOWS influence here. We have vampires, zombie like bodies rising, a curse, an ancient artefact that is trouble, a spooky old house with a creepy maid, and there is a scene in GHOST LIGHT that very closely resembles a scene in DARK SHADOWS where David, trapped in an antique shop, is menaced by the cries of the stuffed animals and heads on the walls. It’s almost shot for shot the same scene. In GHOSTLIGHT, some 15 or more years later, it is Ace menaced by stuffed animals. Added to that, we have a daughter who laments that her father vanished, the possibility that the father is dead, a creature that’s evolving (the Leviathan Jeb in DARK SHADOWS), and a man who gets hairy (in one of the strangest scenes in GHOSTLIGHT, most of which is probably the strangest and weirdest DOCTOR WHO story ever, some of it works well and some of it just is like WTF?). Girls vanishing from cliffs is a mainstay of DARK SHADOWS. So are crypts and curses. Josiah (Roger?), Control (Liz?), and Light (Barnabas) as well as Gwen (Carolyn) can almost be DARK SHADOWS characters. 

 

For KING, we have THE MIST, SALEM’S LOT (the faith stuff especially with Wainwright), and IT, among others, probably.

 

It’s a pity that there’s only one more McCoy story for the Classic Series. I really changed a lot of my feeling for this. I wish we had a few more McCoy seasons as I really enjoyed this in a way that I NEVER did when his seasons first aired and even more than the last full re-watch. I rarely watch these stories as the feels they bring back are not great ones but that’s all in the past now.

 

I want to extend the adventures by watching the fan made TIME RIFT, which I have and is on you tube but honestly, the bits I recall and the bits I saw a few months ago, were just painful. Maybe? SCREAM OF THE SHAKLA is going to be painful enough.

 

NOTES: two children played two of the vampires. 

 When the Doc is apologizing to Ace, someone can be seen walking in the background in FENRIC. The female baby might be played by a male baby. Kathleen singing 'down will come baby cradle and all," is creepy for a character who isn't creepy. FENRIC has some very good music which is rare for the classic series.