Doctor Who_ Ghost Light - Marc Platt [0]
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 Matthews, 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?
ISBN 0-426-20351-8
UK: £2.50 *USA: $5.95
CANADA: $6.25 NZ: $11.95
*AUSTRALIA: $3.95
,-7IA4C6-cadfbD-
*RECOMMENDED PRICE
Science Fiction/TV Tie-in
DOCTOR WHO
GHOST LIGHT
Based on the BBC television series by Marc Platt by arrangement with BBC Books, a division of BBC
Enterprises Ltd
MARC PLATT
Number 149 in the
Target Doctor Who Library
A TARGET BOOK
published by
The Paperback Division of
W. H. Allen & Co. PLC
For
Ian, Margaret and the wonderful Alice
A Target Book
Published in 1990
By the Paperback Division of
W H Allen & Co Plc
338 Ladbroke Grove, London W10 5AH
Novelization copyright © Marc Platt, 1990
Original script copyright © Marc Platt, 1989
‘Doctor Who’ series copyright ©British Broadcasting Corporation 1989, 1990
The BBC producer of Ghost Light was John Nathan-Turner The director was Alan Wareing
The role of the Doctor was played by Sylvester McCoy Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading
ISBN 0 426 20351 8
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.
CONTENTS
1 Tropic of Perivale
2 Gabriel Chase
3 Uncharted Territory
4 Gaslight Boogie
5 Josiah's Web
6 That's the Way to the Zoo
7 Ace's Adventures Underground
8 Creature Comforts
9 Out of Control
10 Twice upon a Time
11 Trick of the Light
12 Beautiful Soup
1
Tropic of Perivale
It was hot, the dog days of August. The girl ran along the footpath, her straggly hair flying and a dust storm rising behind her. She nearly collided with a woman who was walking a baby in a push-chair, but she careered on and spun round a corner. Flinging herself through a gap in the scrubby bushes, she came to rest at the foot of an old brick wall.
She was alone. Around her feet lay the scattered remains of a torn, yellowing newspaper and a couple of old fizzy drinks cans.
It was getting hotter. She raged inside as she sat on the baked earth, but she would not cry. She dragged her snotty nose across one sleeve of her blouse. No crying! thought the girl as she scraped her cheeks where she guessed tears had streaked her dusty face. That would be a dead giveaway.
In an outburst of anger she hurled one and then the other drinks can as far as she could along the length of the wall. Two magpies flew from the bushes chattering in alarm.
The girl howled.
There were people in the world who were animals — no, they were worse than animals. She remembered Manisha’s eyes staring at her, fierce with hatred. Her best friend had stared accusingly at the whole world including her. And Manisha’s sister in her green and gold sari had cried hysterically while the firemen in their heavy coats trudged in and out of the smoking, steaming wreck of a house that had been Manisha’s home.
It had felt like a home to her too. She stayed often enough, and the Purkayastha family always made her welcome. It was better than the flat where her own mum would lecture her, while a Michael Jackson song blared from the radio.
‘Dory this and Dory that,’ her mother