"From now on, we're just passengers."
REVIEW: A new series begins with only a few cosmetic changes. A new wardrobe for the characters, showing a preference for long coats and robes, and feminizing Cally (with floofier hair and more make-up too). Some new space shots, moving away from the painterly mattes of Series A. But otherwise, it's the same show. Tensions (and cracking dialogue) flare between Blake and Avon. Blake still wants to take his fight to the Federation even if if the season opener is a detour. Zen is still uncollaborative... and unfortunately, we're still dealing with the previous episode's ludicrous "prediction" made by Orac that the ship would explode. This is the last of Nation's scripts before other people take up the baton and he only comes in from time to time, and I personally can't wait. His handle on science is tenuous and his themes cycle back and back again. All the great dialogue is from Boucher anyway. So get ready for another fascist machine society...
So deal with the computer prophecy, we must. Avon deduces from the background of the image that the Liberator will explode in Sector 12, so they just have to avoid it. Of course, events are going to bring them TO Sector 12. Ships attack! They look just like Liberator's prongs, and Zen shuts down as if commanded to fail. This is exciting. We're finally going to meet the ship's original owners. Under remote control, as the (anti) heroes get picked off one by one by intruder, the ship makes its way to a cool black space station run by a human-like alien race that allows itself to be run by computer (the "System"). They want their "Deep Space Vehicle 2" back and they want answers, and while not the Federation, they still fall into that mold and are therefore perfect Blake's 7 villains. The system has slaves and piles of bodies for when they are worked to the core. There's no freedom for the three planets under "Spaceworld"'s rule. (Yeah, Spaceworld. Terry Nation's sci-fi often feels like it's from the early space operas.) Speaking of Nation, his choice of title here, "Redemption" uses the second meaning of retrieval or repossession, not what you think. Blake even uses it in conversation and it's really odd.
It's unfortunate that the station interiors couldn't have the same black aesthetic, but the power station locations offer space and levels, plus RADIATION! (No kidding, there's a story that the cast and crew had to be checked for stray rads every day and that Sally Knyvette (Jenna) once had to be brushed off after the counter crackled. Jan Chappell (Cally), nursing at the time, eventually had a clause written into her contract that they wouldn't film in places like this anymore.) But danger aside, it gives scope to the crew's escape at the end, room for smoke bombs, and big fights. If only one of the main soldiers weren't so lanky and awkward... He's a regular stunt person and really calls attention to himself in these shows.
By the time they're launching the ship (with soldiers in the tunnel, whoa!), having had Orac's remote help (should we call him Or-HACK?), I think we can guess how the prophecy comes to pass. Yep! It was ANOTHER such ship that blows up. Not even a shot fired. Or-HACK just does his thing, while the main "Alta" aboard Spaceworld goes "Defunct! Defunct!" and its sounds like something rude. The crew goes right back to trusting Zen, but with Orac now ALSO being voiced by Peter Tuddenham anyway, wouldn't it be a good time to install Orac into the ship and replace Zen for good? They have the same function, that plexi box is unsightly, and the old boy can't be trusted. It's a big redundancy on the show and I wish they'd take care of it.
NOT MY FEDERATION: Though less extreme, the black tubes on the Altas register as Borg to me, especially considering how they are networked with a machine intelligence.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Some of the crew costumes for this episode have a Battlestar Galactica (and therefore Star Wars feel), especially Gan's brown robes. The Altas and their soldiers have Vader-like fuse boxes in the middle of their torsos.
WHO?: Most noticeably, Harriet Philpin (Alta Two) was in Genesis of the Daleks (another Terry Nation story) as the Thal fighter Bettan. Sheila Ruskin (Alta One) would be Kassia in The Keeper of Traken. Roy Evans (the slave who helps Blake) is perhaps most recognizable as Bert in The Green Death, but he was also Trantis in The Daleks' Master Plan and Rima in The Monster of Peladon. The costume designer here (and on several Series B stories) was June Hudson, who did several Doctor Whos between The Ribos Operation and Logopolis (I'll concede, some of the most interesting designs in Doctor Who), so we might want to compare Jenna and Cally's clothes this season to Romana's. She did NOT however work on The Pirate Planet, despite the soldiers here looking a LOT like the Captain's soldiers and Avon's S&M studs being part of those uniforms. Spaceworld seems a cousin to the pirate ship there too.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - Only fruit of the poison tree (the prophecy) keeps this cracking episode from achieving a High.
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