The new Who: copycat or continuity?

[acroyear]

I finished watching Dr. Who The Unquiet Dead (episode 3 of the new series) on Sci-Fi (yes, I'd seen it before).  Its certainly one of the best of the new series and was the first to really show they could capture what made the original series work.

When it finished, I felt rather...driven...to watch an older story.  I was called, in a sense, to watch the 1976 Tom Baker & Leela classic, Image of the Fendhal.  The differences hit first, of course.  The pace was so much slower back then, taking 5 minutes to introduce sideline characters rather than 15 seconds, and even then there was much in the way of backstory left out.

But then the similarities started to hit.

• A time fisure
• which the doctor says can lead to the impression that a place is haunted
• and where someone living in or near it has psychic abilities, and
• an alien has taken advantage of it to take control of the resident population, including
• the only attractive non-companion female in the story (who dies as a result),
  
• and, finally, the doctor wins by convincing a skeptic that its all real, just he's not ready to explain the alien science behind it all.
  

It's all in how one looks at it, I guess.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Is there any part of Ghost Light you'd like explained?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

No, I understood it and I remember Ace's issues with Perivale; I just considered having a character named "Light" being upset that living creatures changed around him ham-handed in the extreme. They've done better at doing "issue" shows. And unlike the first time I saw it, I can now compare it to the latest Who and the way Pratchett handles science, and I like it even less than I did last time.

Sorry, this is just not an episode I'm going to warm to.