"What do you want?" "A second chance?"
REVIEW: Uh-oh, the show is going to go through another round of looking for an identity, isn't it? Power is so much like what Rescue could have been that in some ways, Blake's 7 feels like it's on hold. The characters trying to reach a ship so escape a booby-trapped bunker, while savage hostiles patrol the planet surface? This could have been Terminal without a big fuss. Even the absence of Soolin for 95% of the episode, and her joining in the final few seconds, has a big "this script wasn't really meant to do all this" sign at the front of it. Even when we ignore everything Boucher had to do to shape it into part of a new series opener, we still have some very familiar ideas. The planet belongs to space barbarians? We've done that a few times, its closest cousin being The Keeper (and it should seem very familiar to Dayna who grew up in such a place). A civilization split between Luddites and technological peoples? Likewise. Men vs. women? Yep, that too.
But the episode does keep its head above water in a number of ways. Gun Sarr, the warrior who leads by virtue of the right of challenge is a fun character, bombastic and obviously foolish. Avon gets the best of him, but it's hard to say which of them actually cheated. Dayna challenging him is even better, even if she needs a bit of telekinetic help from the Seskas opposed to the Hommik warriors to win her fight. Gun Sarr is surrounded by escapees from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, some of whom aren't such Luddites after all, and run the equipment left over from before the planet bombed itself into the Stone Age behind his back. It's kind of too bad he had to be killed - I mean, depending on whether or not Xenon is ever seen again - but I can't echo his wife's grieving over him. He was an abusive husband and the leader of a bunch of dudes who had captured, brainwashed and raped the whole of the opposing side (no Seskas remain at the end of this episode).
But the real problem of the week is opening the door to the hangar and getting to Dorian's ship, Scorpio. We eventually get some convoluted instructions from Orac - I hate him a lot in this one - and even more convoluted explanations for what Pella, the main Seska, is doing to get her hands on the ship herself. Like the whole bit with the teliport (on the base and on the ship - nice new effect, by the way) that's really a telekinesis booster she wants to use to open the door with, but can still be modified into a real teliport by Avon and Orac, though not one with bracelets any more solid than the Liberator's. I'm, like, okay, did we really need that extra complication just to get back to where we already thought we were. And though our heroes are often cool - I also like Tarrant telling Dayna to just walk away from the Hommiks and not ask for the crown - you're often just shouting "BUT WHERE THE HELL IS SOOLIN?!" at the television.
I mentioned hating Orac in this - the magical problem solver who argues to death his right not to, to the point where HAVING to ask him a question is now a sensible scene out cliffhanger - and it's a small consolation when he doesn't beam aboard Scorpio at the end. Is that a promise that we'll return to Xenon Base? Or that he's beamed aboard during the credits sequence? Because I don't believe he's out of the show, sadly.
NOT MY FEDERATION: The female faction on Xenon call themselves Seskas, and Seska was a recurring villain on Star Trek: Voyager. None of the shows had anyone called Hommik, however.
WHO?: Dicken Ashworth (Gunn Sar) would work with Paul Darrow again in Timelash, where he plays Sezon.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - While it does feel like a remix of old ideas, the restructuring of the show still comes off as exciting.
Comments