Set in the early 20th century this storyline may almost be too late to be Victorian (reference is made to King Edward VII), but given that it's real world inspiration, the unexplained disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in Scotland's Flannan Isles, happened in 1900 it probably still counts (the Doctor even quotes from the Wilfrid Wilson Gibson poem Flannan Isle at the end of the final part of the serial, just to make the inspiration obvious). Another story inspired by a cursed or haunted setting, Horror of Fang Rock was a four part serial penned by regular Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks in which 4th Doctor Tom Baker and his savage warrior woman companion Leela (in less revealing costume than usual) wind up on an island off the South coast, rumoured to be cursed by a "Beast" and home to a lighthouse whose power is erratic at best and a dead lighthouse keeper. After the failing electricity of the lighthouse causes a ship to crash into the rock, it becomes clear that it is not the only crash landing here. An alien ship belonging to the Sonatarans' mortal enemy the Rutans has also crashed and poses a serious threat to the lighthouse and its occupants. The isolated foggy lighthouse is a classic ghostly setting and is well used here, keeping the serial tightly focused on a small amount of locations and characters means that a genuinely unsettling creepy atmosphere is maintained throughout. Dicks' script has few ambitions beyond being a solid slice of sci-fi horror and in sticking to that focus it succeeds admirably.
