This release contained two dual-part stories, completely opposite in setting but both heavily featuring The Doctor's new Robot Buddy, Kamelion. The two stories serve as the combined middle part of a loose trilogy, beginning with "Devil in the Mist" and concluding with "The Kamelion Empire".
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.
Black Thursday contains examples of:
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Nobody questions that the Doctor might not be an actual doctor, and the TARDIS team just roll with it.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Attitudes to women in general and particularly to women with careers in 1902 have changed a lot by Tegan's day, let alone now. Tegan is frustrated at the constant assumption that The Doctor, Turlough and Kamelion are actual doctors but she only gets considered a nurse.
- Don't Think, Feel: Essentially, this is what the Doctor is attempting to teach Kamelion, who faces a curious dilemma in that he is hugely affected by the emotions of others but has zero understanding of them, as his usual logical analysis doesn't always work for moments of extreme emotion.
- Easily Forgiven: Discussed at the end, when Kamelion can't quite believe that everyone is willing to forgive his actions while under Eira's influence.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Doctor suggests that Kamelion assumes a human form so as not to startle the locals.
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: Poor Kamelion has absolutely no control over his form or his actions in the face of Eira's overwhelming grief.
- Mauve Shirt: John and Gwyn Hughes star in the opening scenes and have their characters quickly established, with the emphasis on them instead of Eira, John's wife, who is mostly in the background. The gas explosion kills them both in short order not long after the TARDIS arrives.
- Literal-Minded: Oh, Kamelion.The Doctor: Now, New York beckons, I believe. They call it the city that never sleeps, you know.Kamelion: The populace suffers from insomnia?
- Long-Lost Relative: Judith is Eira's illegitimate child by Mr Matson.
- Lovable Coward: After finding out they've arrived at the site of a recent gas explosion, Turlough suggests they just turn right around and leave again. Nobody pays attention.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Kamelion does not understand this concept, and is confused when the Doctor tells a dying man that his son survived the explosion, as opposed to revealing the truth of his death and causing the man even more pain in his final moments.
- Never My Fault: Matson had a child with another man's wife and kept it a secret because the other woman would stain his late wife's name, conveniently ignoring the fact that he initiated the affair in the first place.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: It takes Matson all of thirty seconds to accuse the Doctor of trespassing in the mine and attempt to sieze the TARIS as "stolen police property".
- Pay Evil unto Evil: John Hughes' life motto is "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". He usually meant it as a colorful way of saying "treat others how you want to be treated", but when Kamelion takes on his form, it gets twisted into an overwhelming need to do this to Matson.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Saving dozens of miners from a deadly explosion and then stopping his shapeshifting robot friend is just another day for the Doctor. But being asked if he thinks it's ok for one of the miners to tell a woman he likes her? He escapes to the TARDIS as fast as his feet will carry him.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Doctor's plan of shielding the miners from another explosion by stashing them in the TARDIS without also freaking them out with the Bigger on the Inside thing is to... dim the lights. And tell them it was made in America.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Kamelion is absolutely hopeless around Tegan.The Doctor: We're where I intended... more or less. But about 260 meters underground.Tegan: Oh, great.Kamelion: Do you like being underground?
- Shaming the Mob: Geoff Evans does this to save Turlough, after an entire crowd of people were about to beat him up merely because one woman accused him of setting off the mine explosion.
- Stay in the Kitchen: In 1902, this kind of attitude towards women is still very common, and Mr Matson in particular is very dismissive to women, even his own daughter. Absolutely no one in this time period is equipped to deal with someone like Tegan.
- The Reveal: Matson had a child with Eira, and threatened her husband's job if she ever told anyone.
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!
Power Game contains examples of:
- Alien Sky: Tegan mentions that the sky of the Hostess' world is a dark purple.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "If this is a TV show, then where are the cameras?"
- Call-Forward: When Turlough moans about the TARDIS managing to land in York rather than New York, the Doctor tells him to count himself lucky they didn't end up in New New York.
- Demonic Possession: The way the Hostess controls Kamelion is more like this than when he is usually influenced by others. She completely dominates his mind, making an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight impossible, and she boosts his powers to far beyond their usual capacity.
- Demoted to Extra: Technically, Kamelion does appear throughout the story, but his body and voice are taken over by the Hostess. Kamelion only appears in his natural form in the last few minutes.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: This is how the Hostess is broadcasting The Incredible Power Game, but it's stated that it's only being transmitted across the greater York area, not worldwide.
- Glamor Failure: The Doctor is able to interfere with Kamelion's systems enough that this starts to happen to the Hostess' alien world.
- Energy Beings: The true form of The Hostess and her race.
- Hand Wave: The Hostess supposedly broadcasts the show to Earth because when she needs new contestants, its easier to mind control people whose minds are adjusted to the trappings of the Power Game. Yet she has no problem controlling Turlough, who'd never seen it before, merely saying he is "easily dominated".
- Immoral Reality Show: That kidnaps its contestants into another universe, mind controls them into gathering fuel for devastating weapons, and does nothing to prevent their highly probable deaths.
- Lampshade Hanging: Turlough points out how strange it is that the TARDIS should end up in York instead of New York, since its navigation systems search by coordinates, not place names. The Doctor avoids giving a proper answer.
- More than Mind Control: The Hostess is able to convince her victims that they are merely contestants in a reality show, and that they really want to play.
- Psychic Powers: The Hostess, and her powers are able to extend to electronic life, enabling her to control Kamelion.
- Sequel Hook: Kamelion intercepts a transmission from another planet: his home world.
- Spotting the Thread: Una, Richard and Stewart are more willing to believe that something weird is going on with The Incredible Power Game than others, since they've already noticed
how strange it is that an illegal show that has no advertising and hijacks other broadcasts has such a high special effects budget. - Special Effects Failure: In-universe; the Glamor Failure that the Doctor forces into Kamelion's systems makes the alien world appear to suffer from this.
- Squee: Una is thrilled to be caught up in an alien abduction plot.
- Stylistic Suck: The Incredible Power Game does this as part of its illusion, making the very real and deadly alien planet the contestants are trapped in seem like high quality (for the '80s) but still obvious computer graphics.
- Trapped in Another World: The Hostess doesn't just kidnap people to another planet, but to another universe entirely.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's mentioned that the failed contestants don't necessarily die, they are just left behind, and Tegan's fellow contestant Sadia managed to survive her ship crash landing. So what about all of the other contestants who might have survived?
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Turlough tries to console the Doctor after Kamelion goes missing by comparing it to the time he lost his digital watch. The Doctor is not impressed.
- Would Hit a Girl: Well, a shapeshifting android possessed by an energy being choosing to present as female, but yes, Turlough would. Right in the face.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The Hostess casually mentions that her true name is completely impossible for human brains to process.
