The era of Doctor Who
with Philip Hinchcliffe as producer and Robert Holmes as script editor was
famous for its themes of gothic style horror stories, making children terrified
and parent groups lead by Mary Whitehouse want to get the show off the air
because it will corrupt the youth. Big
Finish knowing that Hinchcliffe had some ideas for his time on the show that
were never really able to get off the ground, and once they got Tom Baker back
to play the Doctor, they decided to contact Hinchcliffe to put together a set
based on two stories from that era that were never made. The set opens with a tale set in Victorian
London and to start off the range based off ideas of Philip Hinchcliffe, as a
story is has almost a godly quality when giving out its story. The first thing that really sticks out when
you look at the story is its rather interesting structure. Now the structure for six part stories are
structured to have the plot go for four episodes on one plot, insert a twist
and having the final two episodes go off in a different direction or vice
versa. The Ghosts of Gralstead is a story that is structured to have two
twists roughly splitting up the story into three equal chunks which flow very
nicely into one another and allowing for quite a few good character arcs to
come from it.
The first two episodes are
a celebration of old horror from the Victorian era, specifically the stories of
Jack the Ripper, The Body Snatcher and
Sweeney Todd. There are body snatchers roaming the streets
in a house where they cart the bodies off to Sir Edward Scrivener to perform
medical research on. A Doctor McDivett
has set up shop with a freak show where he cures the freaks in question while a
ghost haunts Gralstead House, getting angrier as it is ready to feast on human
flesh. The first episode itself is very
much an introduction to the characters and the connections between them. The plot that gets the most development is of
the ghost as the Doctor and Leela end up helping the spirit along in becoming
corporeal in nature and it wishes to feed on human flesh. The ghost is actually Mordrega, an alien from
the planet Alcion, looking for a corona to become all powerful. She makes a deal with Sir Edward Scrivener to
provide bodies in exchange for searching for the corona. The gore and body horror evoked by these
first two episodes are tremendous as you get a sense for the eating of human
beings which makes your skin crawl up and down your arms. The inhabitants of Gralstead House are also
interesting but they get more development in the second section of the
story. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson show
how much they’ve grown as performers together as they banter their way through
the first few scenes as we see the freak show and the Doctor calls out McDivett
for being a charlatan.
The middle two episodes
follow an almost completely different plotline with the Doctor and Leela
agreeing to get the corona from Africa.
They travel in the TARDIS with Cedric Scrivener, Edward’s brother, and
his servant Abasi. Abasi is the lost
king of an African tribe with an arc involving his trial against the wicked
king Obingo to recover the crown. The
catch is that he has to give the king the crown by the end of his trial. This character arc, while nearly leaning on
the standard redemption arc of the man lost formula, is bolstered by a lot of
atmosphere. The closest literary
allusion I can see from these episodes is Heart
of Darkness, but that’s a very vague allusion. The real bolstering comes in the exploration
of the corona and Leela. The corona
actually has the powers to raise the dead back to live which is wonderfully
done, so much so that it allows the Doctor to die and come back. It’s a series of episodes that sees Leela
under the influence of Mordrega which is just a powerful series of scenes as
things go on towards darkness. The
effect the corona has on other humans is also extremely interesting as it gives
them the absolute power that they desire, but kills human beings in the process
which ends in the redemption of Abasi who is restored to his rightful place as
king of the tribe, but he has to say a heartbreaking goodbye to Leela whom he’s
fallen in love with.
The conclusion is a
haunted house story as it’s the Doctor and Leela versus Mordrega in about an
hour of increasing tension to the highest it could possibly become. Mordrega is played by Caroline Seymour who
just has this hypnotic quality one minute followed by vile hatred the next
minute. She makes for a powerful villain
and the final two episodes really give Tom Baker a chance to show off his over
the top acting skills. He has this habit
when going over the top to overdo over the top, but director Ken Bentley keeps
him in check while allowing him to still have his fun.
To summarize, this review
is just of the simplicity and perfection of The
Ghosts of Gralstead as Hinchcliffe and Platt give us this story of complex
characters and plotlines. My
explanations of the plot would not do the production justice as it allows the
nearly three hours of runtime be dripping with atmosphere and tension. The acting is full of tension and perfect
performances to bring the characters to life and make this ranges opener, one
of the best openers. 100/100.
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