THE PLOT
Fraser's Rest was once a bustling shipyard, constructing top-quality space liners. Once. Now it's a shell of its former self, most of its business having gone to newer competitors. It has been given one final gasp of life: A new cargo ship, known by the locals as The Defiance, commissioned thanks to a wealthy man's nostalgia for his boyhood at Fraser's Rest during its glory days. A last chance for those on the decaying shipyard to show what they're capable of.
This is what draws Salim, the Shadow Trader. Salim inherited the trade from his father, who swore it was a noble profession. Great ships, like great buildings, require an ingredient beyond engineering and technology. They require a soul. That's what the Shadow Traders provide: The shadow of a person who best reflects the personality of the edifice. This requires cutting away that person's shadow, and with it a piece of that person's soul.
When Salim sees a young girl with a particularly brash personality on Fraser's Rest, he is certain that he has found a good match for The Defiance. But he hasn't counted on the girl's companion, an unimposing, umbrella-wielding man with a surprising knowledge of Shadow Traders...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Hasn't come to Fraser's Rest for any particular purpose. He just enjoys watching the launchings of ships, any ships. He likes to imagine where the ship might go, what adventures it might have. He has dealt with Shadow Traders before, and regards them poorly. He refers to the Traders as "parasites," and includes in that description the Traders of old, who took their shadows from willing participants. He also uses the word "victim" to describe those whose shadows are taken, even the ones who sell them willingly.
The Doctor: Hasn't come to Fraser's Rest for any particular purpose. He just enjoys watching the launchings of ships, any ships. He likes to imagine where the ship might go, what adventures it might have. He has dealt with Shadow Traders before, and regards them poorly. He refers to the Traders as "parasites," and includes in that description the Traders of old, who took their shadows from willing participants. He also uses the word "victim" to describe those whose shadows are taken, even the ones who sell them willingly.
Ace: Salim first sees her reacting very belligerently to some bad food served to her. In fairness, the food is apparently extremely bad, leaving her gasping and croaking. But she also shows impatience at the Doctor's desire to watch the launch of a new ship. This continues once Salim has trapped her with a lure that roots her shadow (and with it, her) to the spot. When he approaches, she threatens to kick him - "hard" - leaving them in a stalemate long enough for the Doctor to show up. It's a threat she makes good on the instant she's free.
Salim: By his own admission, he's not much of a Shadow Trader. The knowledge was passed down to him by his dying father only because the old man had no other choice. Salim is presented as a drifter, lacking ambition. His father, who took pride in the trade, would investigate many potential people before settling on the perfect choice for a given building or ship; Salim, by contrast, sees Ace and decides that she'll be "good enough." When he prepares to cut away her shadow, he confesses that he's not really very good at it. The final scene can be read two ways, equally valid: Either Salim takes a drastic action in response to his encounter with the Doctor or, every bit as likely, his ambition to be more is briefly stirred, before his inherent indolence takes over again.
THOUGHTS
The Shadow Trader is another good example of why Big Finish's range of audio-original Short Trips was short lived. It's not a bad story at all. Writer Charles Williams' prose is sharp and descriptive. There is a running theme of decay: Fraser's Rest was once glorious and is now a shadow of its former self; Salim's father was a proud Shadow Trader, who would work tirelessly to do his job perfectly, while Salim is an unkempt drifter who does the minimum required to maintain his trade. The entire concept of the Shadow Traders, both what they do and the effect it has on their victims, is intriguing and could easily form the basis of a fine story.
The problem is that there isn't enough time in the piece's scant, 17-minute duration, to actually tell much of a story. Listening to it, I find myself interested in the concept, sucked in by the descriptions of Salim's father, instructing his son in the Shadow Trade, and genuinely hooked by the Doctor's disgusted yet conflicted account of the Shadow Traders of days past - Traders who were clearly far more formidable than Salim.
But then, just as the story truly seems to be kicking into gear... It's over. A quick tag, the truncated end music, and I'm left saying, "That's it?"
Everything that's here is good, some of it very good. But there just isn't enough, and the story is left feeling incomplete. Which is why I'm left giving a story that I genuinely did enjoy listening to for 15 of its 17 minutes, a below-average grade of...
Overall Rating: 4/10.
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