Night Thoughts (TV Story)

***Night Thoughts*** was the third episode of Season 27 of *Doctor Who*. It was based on a poem by Edward Young, directed by Alan Wareing, and starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Julia Sawalha as Raine Cunningham.

## Synopsis

"I warn you, things could get very nasty here before they get better."

A remote Scottish mansion. Five bickering academics are haunted by ghosts from their past. Reluctantly they offer shelter to the Doctor and his companion Raine, who, already troubled by a vivid nightmare, is further disturbed by the night-time appearance of a whistling, hooded apparition.

Raine tries to befriend the young housemaid, Sue. Sue knows secrets. She knows why the academics have assembled here, and she knows why they are all so afraid. But Sue's lips are sealed — she prefers to communicate through her disturbing toy, Happy the Rabbit.

And then the killing begins. Gruesome deaths that lead the Doctor and his friends to discover the grisly truth behind the academics' plans, and — as the ghosts of the past become ghosts of the present — to recognise that sometimes death can be preferable to life...

## Cast

* The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
* Raine - Julia Sawalha
* Major Dickens - Bernard Kay
* The Bursar - Joanna McCallum
* Dr O'Neil - Andrew Forbes
* Sue - Holly Aird
* The Deacon - Ann Beach
* Joe Hartley - Michael York

## Crew

* Writer - Edward Young
* Assistant Floor Manager - Hilary Bevan Jones
* Camera Supervisor - Alec Wheal
* Costumes - Ken Trew
* Designer - Martin Collins
* Graphic Designer - Oliver Elmes
* Incidental Music - Keff McCulloch
* Make-Up - Sue Bide
* Production Assistant - Alexandra Todd
* Production Associate - Christopher Moss
* Production Manager - Ian Fraser
* Properties Buyer - Bob Blanks
* Script Editor - Marc Platt
* Special Sounds - Dick Mills
* Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
* Studio Sound - Trevor Webster, Scott Talbot
* Technical Co-Ordinator - Richard Wilson
* Theme Arrangement - Keff McCulloch
* Title Music - Ron Grainer
* Video Effects - Dave Chapman
* Videotape Editor - Hugh Parson
* Vision Mixer - Julie Mann
* Visual Effects - Stuart Brisdon
* Producer - John Nathan-Turner
* Director - Alan Wareing

## Worldbuilding

### Individuals

* Raine's paternal grandmother, Orla Cunningham, died in 1973. She remembered that her father Sam cried for days afterwards.

### Cultural references from the real world

* Raine refers to the Doctor as "Batman".
* Raine later says that the Doctor is "smarter than the average bear".

## Notes

* This story credits Edward Young, an 18th century Romantic writer. The serial was inspired by the poem of the same name.
* The story's very violent nature and infrequent depictions of corpses, did attract some controversy. Whenever released, it is one of the only stories to have a rating higher than PG, having a rating of 12 in Britain.
* It was voted the #1 "horror episode" by fans of the series in 2011.

## Home Video & DVD Releases

### VHS

* This story was first released on VHS in 2000.

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 27 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Twenty-Seventh Season* in 2005.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 27 were upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and were released as *Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 27* in the UK.