What could be more suited to this era of Doctor Who than a period Ghost Story? Although I suppose given how The Doctor and Romana lead their lives every where they go its "period". enjoyed this one very much. An isolated house on the Romney Marshes where lost souls come wandering out of the mist, lost loves are reunited and off course things are not what they seem. It even begins with the Doctor and Romana discussing ghost stories, specifically The Turn Of The Screw, before heading off into seance country. You know, the lovely Lalla Ward used to be married to Steven Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, and I cannot see those two fierce intellects sitting around the fire side trying to spook each other with ghost stories. We hear phantom giggling children on foggy nights on the squidgey Romney Marsh where there are deep bogs which can drag a man, or a Timelord or Timelady, to their doom. It is all very atmospheric with great characters and quite a moving human tragedy at its heart. Like so many classic ghost stories. There are even quiet moments when one finds the largely know it all regulars musing on the mystery they find themselves embroiled in. There is a playful thoughtful repartee between the two inhuman leads, never rising above the material and always prepared to learn and be surprised like two brilliant Galifreyan children. It is all just so well performed I saw The Doctor and Romana squelching about in the grassy marshes of my imagination.
Tom baker delivers a particularly sensitive performance, at once all alien remoteness and yet perfectly attuned to humanities firefly existence and the scale of the monstrosity that was WW1, the great war, indeed.
No more new Who on telly until Christmas yet we can have new Who anytime we want thanks to Big Finish. They love stories and so do we.
