Black Thursday/Power Game

Regular Cast

Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Jon Culshaw (Kamelion), Lizzie Roper (Eira Hughes), Tim Treloar (John Hughes), Matthew Aubrey (Gwyn Hughes), Derek Hutchinson (Geoff Evans), Bettrys Jones (Judith Matson), Christopher Naylor (James Hudd), Harriet Kershaw (The Hostess), Natalie Winter (Una), Richard Popple (Richard), Dougie McMeekin (Stuart), Alex Tregear (Sadia). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Synopsis

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!

A ship that’s in trouble, and about to make a crash-landing…

On a planet of mists.

Plot

BLACK THURSDAY

Part One

The Doctor, whose back is almost completely healed following the crash of Orna’s ship, pilots the TARDIS to 1902 Abertysswg so that he, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion can have some fresh air and relax. The ship materialises in a coal mine and is hit by a natural gas explosion, the survivors of which the group go to assist. To blend in, The Doctor has Kamelion take on the appearance of a generic human labourer.

Whilst Tegan and Turlough work to get those who can walk to the mineshaft, The Doctor and Kamelion are directed by Geoff Evans to the seriously wounded John Hughes, whose legs have been crushed, and his son Gwyn. Gwyn dies with Kamelion, but The Doctor comforts John in his final moments by telling him that Gwyn will make a full recovery. This confuses Kamelion. When Tegan informs The Doctor of the build-up of afterdamp, The Doctor amends the evacuation plan and tells Tegan and Kamelion to go with the first group to leave; he will then have everyone else taken into the TARDIS.

Mr Matson is more concerned with the mine than the wellbeing of the survivors and refuses to let his daughter, Judith, go to help them. Tegan and Kamelion reach the surface with Geoff and tell the lift manager, William Doughty, that he should expect a “container” in the lift when it next comes up. Geoff tells Eira Hughes about the deaths of her son and husband and Kamelion, sensing Eira’s grief, transforms back into his true self. Geoff takes Eira home out of the cold when she refuses to leave until the bodies are brought up and Kamelion follows.

After The Doctor and Turlough bring up the miners, Mr Matson accuses them of trespassing and has the TARDIS confiscated due to his assumption that it has been stolen from the police. They realise that Kamelion has disappeared and Tegan suggests that he might have become a slave to Eira’s grief.

Kamelion transforms into John and, when Geoff leaves the house, he enters and surprises Eira. Switching between John and Gwyn, he tells her, having heard her say that Mr Matson is responsible and that an eye should be taken for an eye, that he is going to make things right and kill Mr Matson.

Part Two

Kamelion establishes a mental link with Eira and sees her memories of John and Gwyn, allowing him to better mimic them in an attempt to comfort her. He leaves and frightens Geoff by switching between the Hugheses, knocking him down when he says that he will fetch the police.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough meet Judith whilst looking for Eira and get directions from her to the makeshift hospital. There, the injured Geoff gives them directions to Eira’s house and Nora Death and James Hudd accuse Turlough, who remains behind, of being responsible for the accident. Geoff defends him, however, and later tells him who it was that attacked him. Turlough recognises the description and hurries away to the colliery where he sees Kamelion take Judith captive and goes after them.

Heading to the colliery with Eira, The Doctor and Tegan see Kamelion climbing whilst carrying Judith. Kamelion prepares to drop Judith from a height, but The Doctor has Eira concentrate on a particular memory which makes Kamelion realise that Judith is Eira’s daughter. Kamelion is confused and drops Judith, but Turlough catches her. Mr Matson is angered by Eira making her relationship to Judith public and insults her, so Geoff punches him. Mr Matson later returns to London.

Eira and Judith talk and Geoff tells The Doctor that he might take them both in in John’s memory; whilst The Doctor is uncomfortable offering advice on this matter, Kamelion tells Geoff that he believes John would have appreciated it. In the TARDIS, Kamelion apologises for his actions and the Doctor takes them to 1984, by which time the mine has been closed and a monument to the deceased erected. Kamelion believes that he is a liability and suggests that he should no longer travel with them, but The Doctor says that he is learning. The Doctor sets the coordinates for New York City per Turlough’s wish.

POWER GAME

Part One

Three weeks after arriving in York in 1984 instead of New York and losing Kamelion, The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are still looking for their android companion without success. Tegan is transported onto the Incredible Power Game gameshow as a contestant and Turlough goes looking for her, carrying a communicator so that The Doctor does not lose him as well, and soon learns from Una where she is. She explains that the Incredible Power Game is unlisted and appears on television in the middle of other programmes.

Turlough takes Una to The Doctor and the three of them go to her house to view her recording, in which Tegan is on a giant chessboard and retrieves a Power Gem with Sadia’s help whilst avoiding a duplicate of herself. She wins no prizes beyond being invited to take part in the next episode, which Turlough finds unusual, and the Doctor suggests that any one of the other contestants could be Kamelion. The Doctor’s tracker picks up a signal from Kamelion and gets Una’s friend, Richard, drive them to its source: Richard’s flat. Kamelion has, The Doctor deduces, become the Hostess of the show and is kidnapping Stuart, but she instead takes Turlough.

Part Two

The Doctor has Una, Richard and Stuart flick between BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4 and ITV in anticipation of a new episode of the Incredible Power Game. In the episode, Tegan and Turlough help Sadia navigate a pod to an island on an alien planet, but she is attacked by an alien bird and loses the game. Turlough is then tasked with shooting at the birds and the Doctor, recognising the planet as an alternative Earth, returns to the TARDIS with Richard and flies there. The Hostess reveals that she is a Psionem and has taken control of Kamelion. The TARDIS dematerialises after The Doctor and Richard exit and Sadia, having survived the crashing of her pod, Sadia joins them.

The Hostess kidnaps Turlough and the remaining members of the group fly to the Psionem spaceship to take the Power Gems, which The Doctor recognises as dragasis crystals, capable of creating a destructive beam in his universe. The Hostess admits that she intends to create and sell weapons, unaware that The Doctor has redirected her signals to her homeworld. Her people arrive and take her back with them, returning Kamelion’s control over his body. They are all teleported back to Earth and the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion return to the TARDIS and take off, discussing the trouble caused by the android. He picks up a signal from his homeworld, calling him back.

Trailer

Review

coming soon

Notes

Two more adventures have been released for the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion in the latest addition to The Doctor Who Main Range. Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson and Jon Culshaw continue their adventures in the TARDIS†¦

Black Thursday by Jamie Anderson

Jamie Anderson, writer of Black Thursday, told us how this story was inspired by a personal connection: “When I moved to the small village of Abertysswg at the end of 2017 I had no idea that I’d become so fascinated by the village’s history – in particular its coal mining past. But when I discovered that the village wouldn’t have existed without the search for ‘black diamonds’, I began looking into it more. You’d think that a kid growing up in the 1980s might have a better appreciation of the huge sacrifices made by miners, and the scale of the coal mining industry.

“The personal sacrifices and tragedies were really brought home when I found the miners’ memorial just up the road from my house. Seventeen men (the youngest having just turned 17) were killed in a gas explosion in 1902, that happened in the pit just a few hundred metres from where I live.”

Power Game by Eddie Robson

Writer, Eddie Robson, told us about his 1980s television game show inspired story: “Thinking about that period led me onto thinking about The Adventure Game, which I dimly remember watching as a kid, and other gameshows like The Krypton Factor and First Class and the Crystal Maze, and I built up the story from there.†¨

“It’s a little uneasy when Kamelion’s there – Tegan and Turlough are more suspicious of him than The Doctor is. In fact early in the play when Kamelion is missing, Turlough compares him to a lost digital watch. But The Doctor treats Kamelion as a being in his own right, and refuses to give up on him.”

Doctor Who – Black Thursday/Power Game is available now at £14.99 on CD or £12.99 on download. All CD purchases unlock a download option via the Big Finish app and the Big Finish website.

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