An English Gentleman: I’m not sure that this is the TARDIS team that I would want to turn up if I was having this kind of disaster. The fifth Doctor is kind and helpful, sure, but then you have Tegan who always wants to leave, especially if things are hairy, Turlough who is always looking out for himself and Kamelion who is proving to be utterly exploitable. It’s not the first time the Doctor has had to explain the term ‘as right as rain’ but his back is feeling much better after being crippled in the previous adventure. The Doctor outright lies to a man who is dying, refusing to tell him that his son has already perished in the same accident. It’s the story’s most touching moment and another example of the fifth Doctor’s gentle humanity. The Doctor taking his friends into the future to show how the miners are remembered is really very sweet.
Mouth on Legs: Tegan is suffering from cabin fever but then again Tegan suffered from that in every other story on television so it’s hardly stunning revelation. How many times has she heard that they are going on holiday and they end up somewhere terrible? Tegan, ever ready to make a stand for women’s rights (and too right) is appalled when it is assumed that the Doctor is the Doctor of their party simply because he is a man.
Over the Shoulder: Somewhat authentically in The Kings Demons, The Five Doctors and The Awakening mould, Turlough is given nothing at all to do. He's always had a hankering to visit New York.
Kamelion: He doesn’t seem to get Tegan’s sarcasm, but then nobody else in the universe does either. He takes on human form in this story, which is something I have been saying he was made for donkey’s years. It’s clear to me that the overriding concept of Kamelion as far as Big Finish is concerned is one of dominance and control. He’s built to be used and simply too much trouble to keep around. The Doctor would have been able to skip town after an episode if it weren’t for his metal friend complicating matters and succumbing to the grief of a widowed miners wife.
Standout Performance: I couldn’t work out if Lizzie Roper’s Eira Hughes was a tragic or histrionic figure. Probably a little of both.
Isn’t it Odd: In The Kings Demons, Kamelion was able to play King John with a great amount of gusto and personality so why when posing as a human in this story is he so stiff and characterless? Is it because he was getting his florid acting style directly from the Master? That would explain a lot. The last minute soap opera twist felt entirely superfluous.
Standout Scene: The cliff-hanger is pretty creepy given it has been signposted. Kamelion takes on the guise of a dead miner and swears to get retribution for his death. I can almost believe that this moment was the inspiration for the story, because it was certainly the most effective moment and the only one that rose above the mediocrity of the rest. It feels added just to insert a little surprise in the climax.
Result: Sincere but inessential, Black Thursday was driven almost entirely by its phenomenal performances. By the end I was perfectly convinced that working down the mines must have been a precarious occupation and a genuine worry for the families of the workers. However why this needed to be a Doctor Who story baffles me. It’s another man versus management story in The Behemoth style but without Marc Platt’s gift for memorable dialogue and local colour. Jamie Anderson managed to squeeze a fair amount of character into this story as far as the miners and their family are concerned but a two-part story really isn’t the place for a four-man TARDIS team when they aren’t the focus and there really isn’t a great deal of plot to be had for any of them to engage with. The first episode is almost entirely a rescue effort on the Doctor’s part, the sort of thing that he would skip over in five minutes in a four-part story. It’s a short story and has to talk to broad assumptions that the management are corporate scum and the miners are all innocent victims where I prefer a little more nuance than that. Anderson had more time with Absolute Power to shade his characters and build his location, although I think I’m the only person who enjoyed that particular story. I didn’t dislike Black Thursday (as I said its heart is in the right place) but I’m not sure why I was listening to it in the first place. Kamelion is proving to be a complete liability: 5/10
1 comment:
I loved the first part immensely. I really felt the emotion Jon Culshaw put across with Kamelion's cock-eyed empathy of the two miner's deaths. Also the music nearly brought a tear to my eye.
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