Ghost Light ( TV story ) Ghost Light was the second story in Season 26 of " Doctor Who " . Although two stories followed its broadcast , it was the last story of the classic series to be produced and the last to feature significant recording at BBC Television Centre . Synopsis . The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase , an old house that she once burnt down in her home town of Perivale . However , trying to get Ace to accept her guilt is not the real reason the Doctor came here ; a mysterious and highly mentally unstable being slays below them . Plot . Part 1 . The Seventh Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase , an old house that she burnt down in her home town of Perivale near London . The year is 1883 and the house is presided over by the mysterious Josiah Samuel Smith . It is a most mysterious place , where the serving women brandish guns and the butler is a Neanderthal named Nimrod . Other occupants include Gwendoline , the daughter of the original owners of the house , who have now disappeared , the calculating housekeeper Lady Pritchard , the explorer Redvers Fenn - Cooper , who has seen something which has driven him insane , and the Reverend Ernest Matthews , an opponent of the theory of evolution which Smith has done much to spread . The TARDIS arrives at Gabriel Chase . It turns out that Ace visited the house in 1983 and felt an evil presence . The Doctor ' s curiosity drives him to seek the answers . Something is also alive and evolving in the cellar beneath the house and when Ace investigates she finds two animated and dangerous husks . Part 2 . In rescuing Ace , the Doctor releases an evolving creature trapped in the cellar , known as Control . The party moves to ground level . Control remains trapped in the cellar for the moment . The cellar is really a vast , stone spaceship . The Doctor works his way through the stuffed animals in Gabriel Chase and finds a human in suspended animation , Inspector Mackenzie , who came to the house two years earlier in search of the owners . The Doctor revives him , and together they seek to unlock the mysteries of Gabriel Chase . The husks which attacked Ace were the remains of Smith , an alien who has been evolving into forms approximating a human and casting off his old husks as an insect would . For his pains , Smith transforms Matthews into an ape and places him in a display case . The Doctor helps Control release the trapped creature from the cellar , a being known as Light , who takes the form of an angel - like being . Part 3 . Thousands of years in the past , an alien spaceship came to Earth to catalogue all life on the planet . After completing its task and collecting samples ( including Nimrod ) the leader , Light , went into slumber . By 1881 the ship had returned to Earth . While Control remained imprisoned on the ship to serve as the " control " subject of the scientific investigation , events transpired such that Smith , the " survey agent " , mutinied against Light , keeping him in hibernation on the ship . Smith began evolving into the era ' s dominant life - form — a Victorian gentleman — and also took over the house . By 1883 Smith had lured and captured the explorer Fenn - Cooper within his den . Utilising Fenn - Cooper ' s association with Queen Victoria , he plans to get close to her so he can assassinate her and take control of the British Empire to make it a better place . Light is displeased by all the change on the planet while he was asleep . While Light tries to make sense of it all , Smith tries to keep his plan intact , but events are beyond his control . Angry that his catalogue is now missing the correct information , Light childishly decides to destroy all organic life to stop evolution after taking apart one of the maids to understand how humans work . He turns Gwendoline and her missing mother , revealed to be Mrs Pritchard , to stone in a bid to stop the speed of evolution . Inspector Mackenzie meets a sticky end and is turned into a primordial soup to serve at dinner . As Control tries to " evolve " into a lady and Ace tries to come to grips with her feelings about the house , the Doctor tries to keep the upper hand in all the events that have been set in motion . The Doctor finally convinces Light of the futility of opposing evolution , which causes him to overload and dissipate into the surrounding house . It was this presence that Ace sensed and which caused her to burn the house down in 1983 . Also , Control ' s complete evolution into a lady derails Smith ' s plan as Fenn - Cooper , having freed himself from Smith ' s brainwashing , chooses to side with her . In the end , with Smith the new Control creature imprisoned on the ship , Control , Fenn - Cooper and Nimrod set off in the alien ship to explore the universe . The Doctor asks Ace if she has any regrets about burning the house now ; Ace tells him she wishes she blew it up instead . The Doctor only smiles and says , " Wicked " . DVD , VHS and home audio release . DVD releases . This story was released as " Doctor Who : Ghost Light " . It was released : Content : Notes : It was released as issue 96 of " Doctor Who DVD Files " . VHS releases . This story was released as " Doctor Who : Ghost Light " . It was released :