Black Thursday by Jamie Anderson
1902. Deep beneath the Welsh village of Abertysswg, men have worked the black seam for generations. Until the day of the disaster. The day that a blue box from the future materialised inside the mine…. and things would never be the same again.
Power Game by Eddie Robson
Welcome to the Incredible Power Game, in which three brave Earthlings enter the Void Pit in search of strange gems to help return the alien Hostess to her home dimension. Today’s contestants include Graham, Sadia… and Tegan, an air stewardess from Brisbane!
BLACK THURSDAY
We have a surprising break from the usual format in the monthly range – #248 contains two, two-part stories: “Black Thursday” by Jamie Anderson and “Power Game” by Eddie Robson. Both feature the fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, and Kamelion, and both tell what is apparently the only possible Kamelion story: he comes under the malign influence of someone or something dangerous. “Black Thursday” is similar to “Black Orchid” in that it’s a two-part Davison historical, but rather than a murder mystery we have Kamelion running amok. The TARDIS lands in 1902 in a Welsh coal mine right before a massive explosion collapses the mine, kills several workers, and injures several more. Most of the first episode involves the Doctor and his companions trying to save as many miners as possible, and while Anderson writes the supporting characters well and gives them an appropriate amount of pathos, “carrying people out of a mine” feels rather unimportant for a Doctor Who story. Things pick up in the second half, as a woman’s grief at losing her family overwhelms Kamelion and he resolves to take revenge on the mine owner. The desperate struggle to find him is entertaining enough, but the ending is dreadful. Kamelion carries the owner’s daughter up a building like a robotic King Kong and there’s lots of screaming and wailing by the supporting cast in an unimpressive, unimaginative soap opera revelation. I’m not sure what the point of this story is. We don’t learn anything interesting about the historical period – surely everyone knows that coal mining was a horrendously dangerous occupation – and the regular characters, Kamelion included, are used in the most obvious possible ways. Much like “Black Orchid,” this feels like filler, but it’s not even as good.
4/10
POWER GAME
I know that there are a lot of Doctor Who stories, and that they often take inspiration from their fellows, but seriously, what story am I describing: One of the Doctor’s companions is abducted via teleport and forced to compete in a game show (based on the game shows of the time) that appears innocuous at first but turns out to be deadly. It’s “Bad Wolf,” right? Well, it’s also “Power Game,” and while there are some differences, the similarities are hard to ignore. The biggest twist is that the evil host of the game show is actually Kamelion, under the influence of an alien being trying to bring dangerous materials from its universe into our own. Robson does a fine job with the characters: he really captures the individual voices of the regulars and the 1980s supporting characters all have unique, recognizable personalities. The plot is straightforward and entertaining, even if it never really hits any surprising beats. My question is about Kamelion: honestly, why is the Doctor keeping him around? Literally every single time the TARDIS lands, something takes control of him and he becomes a serious danger to everyone around him. I understand the desire to teach Kamelion, a sentient being, to interact with the universe in a controlled, healthy manner, but at some point, the Doctor is just willfully endangering the people around him by bringing Kamelion along. I also understand that Kamelion isn’t going to be in every Davison audio, and so the writers want to use him while they can, but isn’t there any other story we can tell? How about a story that takes advantage of his shapeshifting abilities without incorporating a malign psychic influence? But these complaints aren’t really about “Power Game,” which is a solid, entertaining piece of Doctor Who, even if it doesn’t feel wholly original.
6/10