"A Fool knows everything and nothing."
REVIEW: Terry Nation was apparently all set to kill off Jenna and Vila, didn't deliver, and so Allan Prior was instead commissioned to write their biggest roles in ages. The two of them are center stage in some space Vikings' court, trying to figure out which of the "royal family" has the brain chip with the location of Star One on it. Vila is forced into the role of the court jester and Michael Keating shows off some very real, on-camera magic tricks, while Jenna is romanced by the oafish Sharl (king) and manipulates him with her Teutonic looks and a lot of finesse (though his witchy sister is more difficult to trick). All of these scenes - Jenna sparring with the woman, Vila vs. the jealous Fool, etc. - are quite entertaining, but Blake's crew is working from partial information and there are other members of this family about. The Sharl's brother and rival (who, it turns out, isn't as good as he looks) and their father, thrown into an oubliette where no one seems to realize he might be of any import. It does feel like you're way ahead of the characters through most of the episode, but the final revelations do contain a few surprises. For example, I thought the old man was the cybersurgeon, and didn't expect the Fool to have been (rather conveniently) cyber-programmed.
A surprise here - because it doesn't fit very well with the previous episode's events - is that Travis and Servalan are both on the planet, hanging out in the Goths' underground tents, walking in on Jenna and Vila like it's normal for them to be in the same room with Blake's rebels. How did they know where to find the brain print (they weren't present when the information was discovered) and why are they now a team (she was trying to kill him). And how does Blake and co. KNOW they're in a race with Travis given that WE don't know how he knows, etc., etc. I'm perhaps more mystified by the fact that Servalan herself doesn't know where Star One is. Sure, the Council are keeping the Federation's command center a secret, but from their military's Supreme Commander?! How is this thing defended? With secrecy alone? It reorients the stakes though: If the bad guys get there first, they can stage a coup and take control of the Federation. Just how Star One would allow this, we might find out next time. The episode ends with Travis having taken it (is he still with Servalan or has he left her behind?).
The least of the subplots here is Avon and Cally's. Left aboard the Liberator, Avon causes problems for Blake when he leaves orbit (take a drink!) to destroy Travis' ship. A futile gesture since he's not aboard, and I have to wonder how he got planetside. There was a "transmission", so do the villains now have teleports, or are there unseen shuttles? It's a good moment anyway, with Avon creeping in for the backstab, but this whole thing doesn't really amount to anything. Even though Avon is still hunting pursuit ships, we don't return to the Liberator after the mid-point. The episode feels like it ran long and was mangled in editing. It's not just what seems to be a missing piece here, but the way Servalan's scenes cut out too. Some of the fighting bits are really ropey too. Sometimes it's the editing, sometimes it's the staging (like setting up a shot where a weapon will spike a cooked chicken on the table, then missing it, yet still showing it).
NOT MY FEDERATION: Cultures based on ancient peoples abound in Star Trek, sometimes but not always credited to an ancient race called the Preservers. Spiked hand weapons were a key feature in an early TNG episode, Code of Honor.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Mental powers are real, and the "witch" here has some low-level Jedi tricks up her sleeve (as opposed to Vila who has literal STUFF up his sleeve).
WHO?: Having a character known as the Keeper evokes the Keeper of Traken and the Keeper of the Matrix. Goth, here a planet, is a Time Lord name. The Sharl (Gola) is played by Bruce Purchase, who was the Captain in The PIrate Planet - a very similar performance if the Fool were named Fibuli. Arthur Hewlett (the old man) would play Kalmar in State of Decay and Kimber in Terror of the Vervoids. The voice of the Patrol Leader is Ron Tarr's, who had had an uncredited role as a slave in Genesis of the Daleks.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - While the world of the Goths is brought to life quite well, the episode has many technical failings.
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