"My people have a saying: A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken." "Life expectancy must be fairly short among your people."
REVIEW: The previous episode's promise is broken as we go back to a ship/planet of the week story, with the Federation have absolutely no presence aside from a quick mention that the guest stars are from Destiny colony, established 100 years ago and not members of the Federation (though they've received threats). That helps date the Federation, and maybe they have more to do with this than is revealed. I wouldn't be surprised if THEY poisoned the agrarian world's ecosystem, for example. Now these people are on a desperate mission to return a "nutritope" that will send radiation wavelengths across their world and rid it of the fungus ravaging its plant life (Terry Nation, friends). But still, the serialization that seemed to be setting in, the attention given to the villains, etc. in Seek-Locate-Destroy is absent, and that's disappointing. The good news is that Mission to Destiny is actually pretty fun regardless.
It starts with a distress call mystery and Blake, Avon and Cally boarding a ship where everyone's asleep. Coincidence of coincidences, it wasn't 24 hours earlier that I'd watched the Czech SF classic Ikarie XB 1 (1963), AKA Voyage to the End of the Universe, where the crew mysteriously falling asleep is a plot point. There, it's some kind of radiation, and it all seemed like I'd accidentally come across the episode's inspiration, as Blake and his gang start getting drowsy too (something foreshadowed early when Avon playfully asks Vila over the coms if he's awake). But no, it's a gas borne of sabotage to cover up the theft of the nutritope. Not that it's been stolen yet. Matters are complicated further by one of the crew being murdered when he failed to fall asleep. Blake offers to take the ship's priceless treasure to Destiny in record time while Avon and Cally stay behind to effect repairs and act as hostages, guarantees, and, well, detectives. From there it's really an Avon episode (with Cally as his Dr. Watson), and Paul Darrow has a lot of fun with it. Avon's weakness for an intriguing puzzle keeps him in the game, though there's a great moment when he stops himself from pursuing the murderer and lets the crew do its duty instead.
As far as mysteries go, it works well. There are several sour-faced suspects, and the eventual reveal surprises without cheating. Avon and Cally are great throughout when discussing the case. There's the extra twist that I realized was going to be revealed when space obstacles make the nutritope aboard the Liberator slide to the floor with a crash. And though the murderer seems to escape at the end, ruthless old Blake has it covered. Now... can someone tell me why some scenes are on film rather than video?!
NOT MY FEDERATION: Destiny's ship is a Galaxy-class, the designation that will one day be given to the Enterprise-D.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Stuart Fell (the dead body of Dortmunn) did some stunt work for in The Empire Strikes Back.
WHO?: Because of the Chris Boucher connection, the episode immediately evokes The Robots of Death, though the collars aren't quite as outrageous in THIS episode. John Leeson, the voice of K9, becomes the first Doctor Who companion to guest star on the show (as Pasco). the other immediately recognizable face is Barry Jackson's (Kendall) - he was the cockney Time Lord Drax in The Armageddon Factor (but had also appeared in The Romans and Galaxy 4). Nigel Humphreys (Sonheim) will be Bulic in Warriors of the Deep. Carl Forgione (Grovane) was Land in Plante of the Spiders, and would be unrecognizable under make-up as Nimrod the caveman in Ghost Light. Stuart Fell of course had many parts in Doctor Who over the years, as fight arranger, stuntman and actor.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - I resent the return to a Trekkish format, but Avon makes for great detective drama.
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