"There isn't a volcano alive that'd dare to swallow Avon."
REVIEW: Now that a new cast has been assembled, what is the new status quo? Well... indeterminate. Servalan seems to think, at the end, that without Blake, the Liberator is manned only be criminals who will get their just deserts eventually, but not until she reestablishes the rule of law. The crew themselves don't seem to have abandoned Blake's mission however - and Avon sighs deep - looking for him on a volcanic planet (a rumor seeded by Servalan as a trap, but Avon says they won't be doing that for long), and hoping to use this strategic location as a base to recruit others to the cause. But what IS the cause at this point? The Federation is in shambles and Servalan is in reconstruction mode, promising her old position of Supreme Commander to subalterns and guiding a now ragtag fleet to attack the Liberator, which she wants to acquire. It's not clear and the episode comes off as a patchwork of different things the show MIGHT do, but doesn't really know if it will.
One of the objectives here is to put meat on Dayna and Terrant's bones, seeing as they're the new kids on the block. They make up the away team who beams down to the planet - pretty well realized with a quarry, pyrotechnic effects and stock footage; no trip to Lazzarotti required - to try and convince the locals to help them. Michael Gough is the scientist and leader whose ideas have bred aggression out of his people (but for his son who will betray them all to the Federation) and would rather blow up the planet than let the Feds set up a strategic base there. And does. As a spotlight on the newbies, it's only okay, They don't really do much, at least until Cally and Orac need to be rescued from Federation troopers at the end. Tarrant has trust issues. Vila is attracted to Dayna (but perhaps not as much as to soma). It doesn't go much farther than that. I couldn't even get through this without mentioning one of the original cast. Indeed, they remain the most interesting. Avon programming Zen to attack the fleet without anyone at the controls. Orac being super-grumpy and pedantic. Cally using her powers to warn or guide the others, even if the director apparently doesn't know how to make this work. It feels like she's not getting through to Avon, confusion compounded by Terrant explicitly not hearing her voice while Dayna can later.
It's not the only production problem. At the script level, we have things like making a point of the population dying from radiation sickness, but refusing to explain why (and still spending dialog on that refusal). It doesn't add anything. The effects are fine to good, but this season's new model ships look like organic lumps. But mostly, the problem is that Zen keeps manufacturing ticking clocks, either not having information available (repeatedly!) or taking too long to do things. A lot of pointless back and forth too, like having Servalan abandon her plans for the Liberator, but then returning to planet Obsidian to get her hands on Orac. There isn't a strong thruline to the episode, so Cally's right: We all lose. Even the locals who commit suicide, Cally, I don't know why you would say different.
MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Vila's outfit is a good example Tattooine Chic. Does he think he's a Skywalker?
WHO?: A people who are ready to die in the name of pacifism, while others argue they should fight for survival is right out of the Terry Nation playbook (despite a different writer penning the script), most prominently in The Daleks. The servitor robot recalls Boucher's own The Robots of Death. I'm pretty sure some of the stock footage of the volcano is exactly the same as the one used in Inferno. Michael Gough (Hower) was the original Toymaker, but also the Time Lord Hedin in Arc of Infinity. Ben Howard (Commander Mori) was Hinks in The Green Death.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-Low - The result of a little bit of everything means it's not much of anything at all.
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