"Change is inevitable." "Why else even fight, Avon?"
REVIEW: This "standard" episode keeps "Blake's mission" to a minimum, not even tricking the pursuit ships into the web, in favor of a planet of the week style plot, but it's not bad, as it follows the theme of authoritarian control vs. freedom that's at the core of Blake's quest and character. And when confronted with the truth of the deal he's been offered, Gareth Thomas plays that distaste to perfection.
It's notably Cally's first episode as a crew member, and already, she's acting strange - sinister, even. Jenna seems very quick to realize she's not herself given how short a time she would have been on the Liberator (though that's not entirely clear given the travel times described), but as we can hear a telepathic voice guiding her, we can be more trusting. But this early? There should have been more impetus to throw her out an airlock (but Avon isn't in charge, so). The call comes from one of the Lost, renegades from her planet who left and never returned, according to legend, and as it turns out, are all housed in the same grotesque body in a jar (an effect that's just insane enough to work). The Lost are genetic engineers, creating creatures and sentient life against the laws of Man and Nature, some of which have mutated and rebelled. The Liberator is trapped in a massive spider's web in space - another experiment gone wrong - and the only way out is for the Lost to zap it with their fungal spray... if only Blake would give them some power cells so they can keep doing their thing and also commit genocide on the pathetic beings they created, called the Decimas. There are several satisfying twists and reveals throughout. Blake is once again very bad at bluffing (in the drinking game, you take a shot when he peddles back from a bluff), and is forced into the deal... until the Decimas just enter the makeshift compound and destroy everything. It MIGHT have been nice to have Blake somehow open the door for them, maybe? As is, we don't know why the door wasn't locked this one time, and it doesn't seem like Blake and Avon had very much to do with the resolution. Ending: Poor.
Cally doesn't go down to the planet, though she's really keen to (remember, she was a lone commando in the previous episode, so she's a woman of action), but they're afraid she might fall under the spell again. Jenna was also selected to be "possessed", which isn't a great showing for the male writers despite having two kickass women on the team. Of interest is that despite the enmity between Blake and Avon, Blake is very quick to run to Avon's aid, telling the bioengineered minions of the Lost that he's a "friend". Tit for tat: Avon saves Blake's life and claims it was by reflex. I know the idea is for Avon to play the Judas on the show, but I'm kind of hoping these two forge a strange friendship they can't admit to, but always act on. We'll see.
Let's talk production values because I do think they at least tried to put a lot of money on screen. It doesn't all work. The Lost habitat, for example, while acceptably grungy doesn't quite match the interiors. Blake is inside looking DOWN on a situation, but there's only one level from the outside. And the creatures are banging at lit-up windows that don't match the exteriors so looked like they were actually in cages inside the compound. I also question the ugly tech inside the Liberator when you open a panel, which looks like Federation technology, but not like the rest of Liberator. But many things DO work. There are a lot of guys in rubber suits playing the Decimas (about half a dozen), and when they swarm, it gives off the proper chaotic atmosphere. The web in space (more Web of Fear than Tholian Web) is well done, as is the frightening gore - Cally's burns, Blake's hand wound, the skin graft "creature", and the desiccated corpse of the minion at the end.
NOT MY FEDERATION: Genetic engineering is apparently banned in this Federation, just like it is in Star Trek's. It's been used, among other things, to create intelligent beings that - to cross into another type of technology - have a complexion very much like Soong-Type Androids. Giant things in space is also a Star Trek trope. Deep Roy plays the smaller Decima who sadly dies in Blake's arms, and was Keenser in the Kelvin timeline films.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: It's still unclear what aliens look like in Blake's Universe, since the Decimas are constructed by human-looking people. But is it an indication that future aliens will be distinctly not human (and thus more like Star Wars?) or that they are actually all human looking (say if Cally's people didn't come from Earth), and therefore more like Star Trek? Deep Roy again? Why yes, he was the body of Yoda in Episode V and Droopy McCool in VI.
WHO?: Telepathic creatures in jars luring unwary travellers into doing their bidding was a trope Terry Nation used in The Keys of Marinus, his second Doctor Who serial. The Decimas' rubber suits are modified Zygon suits (Terror of the Zygons) - I recognized them immediately. Richard Beale - the head in a jar - was in several Doctor Who serials (The Ark, The Gunfighters, The Macra Terror and The Green Death), sometimes as only a voice. Miles Fothergill (Novana) was in - here we go again - The Robots of Death as S.V.7. Deep Roy alert! He was a Possican delegate in Mindwarp and before Blake's 7, in The Talons of Weng-Chiang as Mr. Sin.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Perfectly fine for episodic sci-fi, but it feels like the shocking violence is the only thing setting it apart from a bog-standard Space 1999.
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