Blake's 7: Sarcophagus

“I think I will accept your ship as your gift to me.”       

This is an interesting one, nicely structured and with lots of very interesting and thoughtful characterisation for all of our regular characters. But it leaves me with the impression that there are subtexts I’m not getting, and although I can recognise a lot of quality here I can’t quite say I particularly enjoyed it more than other episodes, less laden with meaning and subtext, at least on first viewing. Still, I’d like to see more from Tanith Lee, and Boucher’s policy of getting established sci-fi authors to write episodes is certainly a great idea.

The extended opening sequence is extraordinarily weird. Female-only cultists carrying torches on bleak alien landscapes is already a Blake’s 7 cliché, but this- several minutes of no dialogue in which a series of masked, colour-codes female figures are summoned into being, seemingly by magic, to perform rituals- is baffling, very odd indeed and must surely have alienated the viewing audience. After one viewing, and deliberately not reading up on the episode until after my review, I have no idea what any of this symbolises. I’m guessing it’s something pagan and on the theme of the feminine, but I have no idea.

We then switch to the safe and familiar territory of the Liberator, although admittedly by means of a very unusual camera zoom outwards from Cally’s eye in close-up. We have dialogue at last, and Tanith Lee proves herself to be rather expert at it, as well as depicting all the regulars as fully-rounded characters and saying interesting things about all of them before the episode ends.         

The chat between Avon and Cally is extremely interesting; both of these characters are somewhat broken after their sufferings during the last two episodes, and its clear there’s a bond between them. For all Avon’s aloof manner, he’s genuinely kind and comforting to Cally here, because he cares about her. And it’s obvious that she knows this. And it’s interesting in this light to later see this episode’s obligatory fight between Avon and Tarrant for the spot of alpha male of the pack; it starts with Tarrant accusing Cally of hiding something and Avon defending her.  

In fact, this particular Avon / Tarrant scrap is very interesting indeed. Tarrant is the one who lets rip, saying some very hurtful things about Avon while Avon keeps his cool. But Avon is the clear winner here; no one has thicker skin than he does, and he’s the one who ends up looking like an adult. Even his deferral to the majority vote on exploring the mysterious alien ship nearby makes him look strong, and indisputably the leader; he can afford to be magnanimous. As we shall see, Tarrant ends this episode considerably diminished, and quite low down on the Liberator’s pecking order.     

Avon quietly asserts his superiority over Tarrant by leading the search party himself. He, Cally and Vila find what appears to be a tomb, complete with grave goods, adrift in space like an Anglo-Saxon ship burial. It’s a trap, of course, which gives us something of an exciting sequence, but ultimately the team end up bringing two artifacts aboard the Liberator; one large, obvious and immediately studied, and the other a ring hoarder by Cally, who is clearly beginning to come under some influence.    

Night falls, everyone goes to sleep, and things become very creepy for most of the rest of the episode. “Night” may well be an arbitrary concept for a spacecraft (and how come the Liberator only ever gets chased by Federation pursuit ships when everyone is awake?) but we’re certainly made to be afraid of the dark. Firstly Orac describes the artifact as “irrational”, then asks to be disconnected. Then Zen, whilst being drained of power, warns that there’s a malign power on board the ship. We get some very eerie poltergeistiness before the artifact seems to age rapidly and collapse. Cally, meanwhile, is clearly under its baleful influence.         

Then things really get weird. Vila’s magic trick (a nice nod back to The Keeper) actually works, and that weird space lute thingy starts playing itself. Both Vila and Dayna simultaneously exist in two realities, one of which has them hooded and robed in strange surroundings.    

Dayna and Tarrant find Cally, and Dayna reveals she was knocked unconscious by a being which looked exactly like Cally. Tarrant responds with an excitable babble of theories. Then Avon turns up- calm, collected and organised, having been rather sensibly observing everything that’s happened. He cautions Tarrant against a “cavalry charge”. Tarrant, being Tarrant, doesn’t listen. And gets utterly humiliated and diminished as a result.

The being is gradually absorbing Cally’s life force to fashion a body based on hers. It may be ancient, but it is also childlike, simply demanding anything it wants, including the ship’s crew as its “pets”: Dayna as musician, Vila as fool (ha!) and Tarrant (no doubt sarcastically meant…) as “protector”. It is perceptive, though, saying of Vila that “This one interests me. He has a very high IQ and yet he behaves like an imbecile.”

Avon, who’s been conspicuous by his absence, now returns to do the heroic thing and reaffirm his place in the pecking order. He goads the being into killing him, knowing that Cally won’t let her; interestingly, we get confirmation here that Cally has feelings for him. He then declares that “You’re beautiful when you’re angry”, and suddenly kisses her- a surprisingly misogynistic moment for a script by a female writer. He then uses the distraction to grab the ring, my precious, which is the source of her psychic power. The being then ages, horribly, and fades away to her awful fate of fully conscious nothingness. It’s all very bleak, but elegantly put.

The episode ends with Avon most definitely as top dog, with Cally and Dayna both seeming to be well above Tarrant in the pecking order. Will this last…?

Blake's 7: Rumours of Death

“Oh. Don’t tell me, let me guess. You only ever followed orders?”

This episode is extraordinary. Simultaneously the finest character study of Avon we’ve yet seen, somewhat disorientating in its cleverer-than-it-looks structure, and also managing to be an “arc” episode, this is a showcase for the massive talents of both Chris Boucher and Paul Darrow.

The beginning is a shock; Avon, in a suitably grotty cell, with sounds of unpleasantness in the background and signs of mistreatment conveyed by Darrow’s performance. He’s been there for five days, and has finally attracted the attention of the chief torturer, Shrinker. Then, the tables are suddenly turned, as Avon stops transmitting his signal. Dayna and Tarrant suddenly teleport into the cell, and the three of them force Shrinker back to the Liberator. It’s a brilliant reversal, and a stand-out scene.

What follows is almost as good. Inevitably, the torturer comes in for some baiting from Dayna and Tarrant, but Cally refuses to join in, realising that behaving in this way can lead to a very dark place.

Meanwhile, Servalan is about to take possession of her presidential planet with is on Earth and, inevitably, somewhere that looks an awful lot like Hertfordshire. We see a rather senior married couple, Chesku and Sula, discussing how “Earth and the inner planets are once again united” under Servalan; once again we learn of the limited range of her authority as “president”. But this scene is also, if less dramatically, upended, as Sula turns out to be in league with rebels, shooting her husband dead. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to military double act Granlee and Forres (David Haig), some rather well-drawn and acted characters who are the framing device for much of what follows.

The crew have agreed to carry out Avon’s intentions from last episode; to track down Anna Grant’s killer. There’s a reason for the kidnapping; teleporting down with Shrinker to a subterranean cave, Avon eventually learns more than he’s bargained for, as do we, the viewers. There’s a flashback to Anna Grant, and we have two surprises. Firstly that Anna, apparently the great love of Avon’s life, calls him by his surname(!) and, secondly, that she’s played by the same actress as Sula and is thus the same person. Well, one surprise for me as I didn’t actually notice the big revelation until it was rather more blatantly pointed out later on…

Shrinker convinces Avon that he never met Anna, and that Avon was always being “run” by a Federation agent known as “Bartholomew”; it seems this person may be the killer, and it’s possible that Servalan would know more. With that, Avon abandons the torturer to die in the cave, his mercy extending only to giving him a gun. It’s a graphic example of how, behind Avon’s carefully maintained sardonic exterior, are some very, very passionate feelings.

Servalan, meanwhile, is on film in a posh house, about to host some posh dinner as president. Her presence is making our two surveillance chaps nervous, and rightly so; the rebel plan is being executed very competently indeed, and when the final attack is sprung it works perfectly. Both of our surveillance chaps are shot, and David Haig’s light relief character is the one who’s killed; this tells us something about what we can expect from the tone of the rest of the episode.

The rebels’ moral dilemma of what to do with Servalan nicely mirrors the scene with Shrinker earlier, in the Liberator. It also indicates that their position is not so secure now that they’ve completed their immediate objective; what do they do now? The consequences could be grave, especially as a dying Granlee calls for help.      

The contrast is with a fairly united Liberator crew; for all the quips from Dayna, Tarrant and Cally, they care about Avon because, deep down, they know that he cares a lot for them. Again, passions underneath the cold exterior. 

They find the palace under occupation, with Servalan chained to a wall (kinky!), in obvious distress and showing signs of physical violence. She’s a distressing sight; Jacqueline Pearce is great here.    

Sula’s arrival is a crushing moment for Avon, of course, as he instantly recognises her. Flashbacks of Shrinker’s words reverberate effectively as she tries to convince him she still loves him; she is Bartholomew, and was always using him from the beginning. Only when she tries to kill him does he shoot her, and he’s a broken man. “I let you go, my love”, she says, dying. “No, you never let me go, you never did,” he replies, allowing us a glimpse at those deep, deep passions. Avon is such a more complex and interesting character than he’s often taken for.                                              

Doctor Who: Planet of Fire

Part One

“For our people to survive, we must have faith.”

Another script by Peter Grimwade, a writer with a decidedly mixed reputation. But it’s a positive start; filming in Lanzarote allows the programme to create an alien planet which looks very different. We’re instantly introduced to the cultural and religious fault lines of Saudi Ara- er, Sarn, with a conflict between Timanov (Jason King!) and his belief in the god Logar, and a new generation of sceptics. Sadly, this aspect of the plot is rather perfunctory as there is no real hint of any cultural hinterland to this religion beyond what is requited by the plot, but this is more or less acceptable given that this turns out not to be the main aspect of the plot.

The Doctor’s a bit upset over the circumstances of Tegan’s departure, but it’s notable that when Turlough asks if he missed Tegan he only replies “Well, we were together a long time.” I still maintain that the Doctor never particularly liked Tegan but just put up with her out of politeness!

Amazingly, Kamelion pops up again. I’d quite forgotten about him. And Turlough sabotages the TARDIS to prevent the Doctor hearing about a distress signal from his home planet of Trion. Well, well, well! I’d quite forgotten about Turlough’s sneaky tendencies, too, but even at this late stage it’s all quite in character- another reminder that in an exception from the norm the scripts generally develop the character superbly. Although I’m not sure how this fits in with his apparent wish to return home back during The King’s Demons.

We’re introduced to Peri and her guardian Howard, both of whom have absolutely 100% convincing American accents. They have a bit of an argument, the upshot of which is Peri taking off most of her clothes so she can go swimming. Mmm. Following which Turlough decides to keep his shirt on while swimming for some reason.

More plot stuff happens, as Turlough and Malkon both turn out to have a “chosen one” symbol on their arms, the TARDIS ends up on Sarn, and Kamelion turns into the Master…

Part Two

“I’m Perpugilliam Brown and I can shout just as loud as you can!”

Kamelion’s wearing the Master’s body but the real Master is here too, watching from behind a screen just as he was during The Keeper of Traken. Kamelion can’t maintain his form after mental pressure of Peri, but instead of turning back into his normal form he becomes a silver version of Howard, which is much cheaper.

We see the Master’s TARDIS again, and there still see to be a few light bulbs that need replacing. Lots of stuff happens which is entertaining enough- the planet’s going to blow up, the equipment kept underground is probably from Turlough’s father’s ship- but it all feels like a bunch of set pieces in search of a plot.

Part Three

“Gullible idiots!”

Full marks for finally getting Turlough to ditch that awful uniform, but the Doctor’s question mark braces are quite the fashion faux pas.

It turns out that Turlough and Malkon are probably brothers. This is an excellent departure story for Turlough, penned by his creator. I particularly like the scene with the Doctor warning him that if he holds back anything important then their friendship is at an end- in this situation more than any other Turlough has to choose between his natural deviousness and his decent side. 

The plot’s all over the place again this episode- the Doctor wanting to materialise around the Master’s TARDIS a la Logopolis, a healing flame a la The Brain of Morbius- but froth though it is it’s enjoyable all the same.

That’s quite a cliffhanger- the Master’s all little!

Part Four

“Leave us in peace. We wish to die with our faith.”

So, Sarn's a prison planet to which Turlough’s family were dispatched for being on the wrong side. It’s a little cursory, perhaps, but at least Turlough gets an origin. Apparently Trion has agents on every civilised world, including “an eccentric solicitor in Chancery Lane”. We finally learn that Turlough’s first name is Vizlor and that for him the English public school is “the worst place in the universe”.

Kamelion asks the Doctor to kill him, is a faintly embarrassing scene that reaches for pathos but doesn’t quite manage it as the prop was sadly never very mobile or suggestive of a personality. Timanov’s dignified exit is rather more effective. And as for the Master’s demise- well, that looked rather permanent. I feel absolutely sure that in the unlikely event we ever see the Master again we can expect a full and detailed explanation of his survival.

Turlough, it seems, is no longer a political prisoner. His leaving scene is most satisfying in terms of his character arc; in returning to Trion to face his responsibilities he’s finally grown up.

Peri, meanwhile, has been welcomed aboard…

That was entertaining enough, if a little slight. The plot was a little disjointed, but it was all good fun and Turlough got a good exit. A solid 3/5.

Doctor Who: Enlightenment

Part One

“The rigging’s no place for a coward like me.”

Chess in the TARDIS at the start reminds me of the previous regime but, of course, there’s no K9 and the tone is quite different. It’s hard not to see the black and white pieces as symbolic of the Guardians. It’s also hard to resist reading into the fact that Turlough’s playing white and Tegan’s playing black, although what this might signify I’ve no idea.

The TARDIS’ power is being drained by a rather weak-seeming White Guardian who has been much diminished from the days of The Ribos Operation, to the point that he’s taken to wearing a bird on his head. Beaches and cocktails are a distant memory.

Interesting that the Doctor doesn’t see Turlough as reliable and charges Tegan with communicating with the White Guardian- I tend to see this as judgement of Turlough’s character rather than any specific knowledge of what he’s up to at this point, but rather that the Doctor has understood both Turlough’s shifty nature and that he’s well-meaning underneath it all.

The Doctor and Turlough emerge on to an Edwardian sailing ship and acquaint themselves with its crew, who are oddly unable to remember coming aboard. Meanwhile Tegan is enticed outside by the creepy and mysterious Marriner. But we’re soon introduced to Captain Striker and the TARDISeers are reunited for a meal which supplies what I think is only the second “Brave heart, Tegan” ever.

The cliffhanger, of course, is mind-blowingly brilliant, and this is the perfect opening episode, piling mystery upon mystery.

Part Two

“You’re a Time Lord. A lord of time. Are there lords in such a small domain?”

The yacht’s crew wouldn’t dream of using their advanced technology to cheat at the race in which they’re competing, as they “observe the spirit as well as the rules of the race”. Aside from the minor fact it’s taking place in space it’s being treated entirely as a race between ships involving marker buoys. Which just so happen to be planets. Striker’s ship is seen rounding Venus, meaning he must be a Bjork fan. I mean, Venus as a Buoy. Boom boom. Oh, and the prize is “enlightenment”.

There’s lots of clever writing here. Our brief sight of the Greek captain alerts us both to the fact that the different ships are from different time zones and also that the Greek captain, in a nice bit of foreshadowing has an anachronistic red jewel on his sword. Meanwhile, we’re interested to the concept of the Eternals and their dependence on “Ephemerals” to be truly alive. They are gods in all but name, capricious and fickle as were the Olympians, treating humans as toys whose lives mean nothing because “Ephemerals have such short lives in any case. But these ideas are developed far more effectively in the relationship between Tegan and Marriner than in any expository dialogue.

Turlough gets some superb material this episode, being condemned to everlasting life on the ship by the Black Guardian for his failure to kill the Doctor and then appalling the Doctor by betraying a confidence about the expected mutiny. He’s being significantly better written here than in either of the previous two stories, with Strickson providing a performance to match, and as a result the cliffhanger has real weight.

Part Three

“I had no idea ephemerals could be so entertaining.”

Turlough’s picked up by Captain Wrack’s Buccaneer, and he’s now drinking in the Last Chance Saloon in more ways than one. Sadly, in spite of the required personnel being present, we don’t get the appropriate musical accompaniment.

It’s great seeing inside another ship, greater still that it’s a pirate ship, and utterly surreal (in a good way) that the ship is commanded by Nurse Gladys from Open All Hours. Although of course her towering and triumphant vocal performance of a certain ballad is of course the crowning moment of Lynda Barron’s career. Wrack the character is great, and even Leee John’s… unusual performing style is not out of place in these surroundings.

There’s a fascinating moment as mariner says to the Doctor that “Your companion is a very beautiful woman” and the Doctor replies “Is she?”, further ammunition for my theory that the Doctor doesn’t actually like Tegan and only keeps her around because he’s too nice to just turn her off the Ship.

Part Four

“Your mind is divided, confused, hard to read sometimes. But one thing is clear in it always- greed!”

There’s an interesting conversation early on between Tegan and Marriner in which Tegan misunderstands his fascination as love whereas he only wants “existence”. And we’re still being given a lot of these nice little character moments right through the final episodes even with all the plot threads to resolve. This is a bloody brilliant script.

Turlough seems to betray the Doctor by denouncing him as a spy to Wrack and insists on staying behind on the Buccaneer. Yet the Doctor still has faith in the boy, hoping that he intends to prove himself by doing so.

Tegan and the Doctor realise that the tiara is Wrack’s focus for her weapon, and the Doctor smashes it into tiny bits, which results in nothing aside from Wrack briefly re-enacting the final scene from The War Games. 

But shortly after that he saves the ship from destruction, and heads over to the Buccaneer to assist Turlough. We see two figures thrown overboard, who Tegan assumes to be Turlough and the Doctor. It’s clear from Marriner’s reading of her thought that the Doctor’s dislike of her is not reciprocated, although I don’t see anything in this story to indicate she has any sexual feelings for him as has been suggested in the past.

We end with both Guardians and Enlightenment, a prize to be awarded to a bunch of innocent immortals, which apparently consists of knowledge of good and evil. I’m sure there’s some kind of allusion here but I’m not sure what it is. I’m a bit confused by the Guardians’ dialogue though- I thought it was established in The Armageddon Factor that they represented chaos and order rather than good and evil? Perhaps I’m going too far with that- the Black Guardian was certainly described many times as “evil” in The Armageddon Factor- but chaos and order are much more interesting as concepts.

The Doctor and Turlough win, the Doctor declining his prize. Turlough’s share is forfeit to the Black Guardian under some sub-clause of his deal. Turlough ultimately redeems himself by choosing the Doctor’s life instead of Enlightenment, his conscience thus winning out over his greed. The Black Guardian is defeated by this, and Turlough’s contract is terminated. “Enlightenment was not the diamond” says the Doctor. “Enlightenment was the choice.” Utterly superb stuff.

Well, we’ve waited twenty years for a script by a woman and the first one goes straight into my top ten. 5/5. The finest story since Kinda and only the second truly great story of the Davison years.

Doctor Who: Snakedance

Part One

“The Federator’s son is bored.”

This is the first time I’ve had to resort to video again, after a stream of DVDs, since Kinda. Is there some kind of anti-Christopher Bailey conspiracy going on?

The story begins with perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment yet to be seen in 1980s Doctor who: Nyssa has actually changed her clothes! Of course, the Doctor doesn’t notice, to Nyssa’s resigned irritation. Nice little subtle character moment, that. Nyssa has a lot more personality these days than she used to.

We can now add Tegan to the list of TARDISeers whose bedrooms we’ve seen! So let’s see: that’s Romana, Nyssa, Adric, the Doctor and now Tegan. Is that it, or will we eventually see even more? Stay tuned, for you may be surprised and delighted, unless of course the memory cheats.

Anyway, the Mara’s at it again inside Tegan’s subconscious. Meanwhile, on the planet of cheap ‘80s proto-IKEA décor, Lon, son of the unseen Federator, is lounging around being bored. He’s a brilliant character, perfectly radiating the self-indulgent ennui of unearned privilege and a total lack of responsibilities. I’m no fan of that wretched sitcom Martin Clunes is best known for, but he’s great here.

This scene also provides some much-needed exposition on the Mara’s destruction five hundred years ago, the role of the Federation in this and his predicted return, also briefly alluding to the snakedancers. All this is admirably imparted in ways which sketch out for us the personalities of Tanha, Lon and Ambril.

For all the competence of the script, though it’s a shame about the sets. It’s not the cheapness I mind- this is Doctor Who after all- but the lack of imagination. The design of everything on this supposedly alien planet, with what is apparently meant to be a less advanced level of technological development than our own, just looks contemporary.

The Doctor reveals himself to warn Tanha, Lon and Ambril of the Mara but, again, this Doctor is not accepted as his predecessors probably would have been. Instead his warning is seen not just as the rantings of a crank, but worse, those of a harmless one, no more than a minor irritation. We’ve never quite seen the Doctor receive this reaction before. As Lon says, “No, let them go. What’s the point?”

Part Two

“Are you just going to lie there being bored?”

“Yes, I rather suspect I am. After all, what else is there to do?”

The scene with the mask, and its “six faces of delusion”, is a nice touch, although it shows Ambril to be rather a poor archaeologist to have missed seeing something so obvious. But worryingly, although this is still a good episode, nothing new is really developed. It’s becoming apparent that this isn’t going to be as good as Kinda- the plotting and characterisation is as competently done as before, but thematically there’s nowhere near as much going on, and this robs the events of having much meaning.

Janet Fielding is brilliant as the Mara-possessed Tegan at the cliffhanger, and the combination of her and Martin Clunes is particularly great.

Part Three

“We wait.”

Again, not much new really happens here, although there’s nothing bad about the story exactly, and Christopher Bailey is too good a writer to let things become dull. We get to fill in a few more details about Dojjen and the snakedancers, we see a Punch and Judy show, and we learn the history of the Mara, much of which, I’m sure, consists rather heavily of a Buddhist subtext which I’m not getting.

This is a very odd story, with a mystical type thereat and no attempt to give a scientific explanation for the Mara. It isn’t a science fiction story at all. And never has the Doctor, who spends pretty much the entire episode in a cell awaiting rescue, seemed so powerless. And the main source of conflict in this story so far has been the refusal of others to believe the Doctor. This seems to indicate that scepticism should be seen as a bad thing, a potentially worrying message.

Part Four

“Am I forgiven?”

“Oh, yes of course. Aren’t you always?”

It all concludes logically enough, although the visions induced by the hallucinogenic snakebite are rather too reminiscent of the visions induced by Mary Morris’ character in Kinda. But I like the ceremony (“I offer you fear in a handful of dust”) and the snake effect is very well realised this time.

Overall, I’m slightly underwhelmed. After Kinda, at the moment my second favourite story, I was expecting something similarly brilliant. But while Snakedance was certainly a decent enough story, it seemed something of a retread of Kinda, with less apparent thematic depth. A high 3/5.