"I'm in hell and it's full of Avons."
REVIEW: Well, wow. What an absolute mess. There IS some interest in Cally recounting legends from her native Auron, and initially, the black hole science is very true to fact, which impressed me. But that soon falls apart as the Liberator is drawn into a pocket dimension (I guess) and meaningless technobabble takes hold. This is also an episode that was CLEARLY written for Blake and Jenna and not script edited enough not to let it show. Terrant is particularly off-model (unless this is the model they'll be going with), giving other people orders and being very abrasive with Avon. It goes further than that, as he tries to kill Avon for taking a spacesuit when things seem desperate, stating that if he's going to die, then he's gonna bring Avon with him. Is this the same crew that's playing Space Monopoly at the top of the episode, having a nice little time?
Terrant perhaps deserves to be put off the ship here (it's not like he's owed loyalty the way Blake might have been), but Orac is also quite insane and should be thrown into the garbage disposal. It's obsessed with investigating the black hole and takes over the ship to do so. The episode can't quite decide if he's responsible or if the Thaarn - a "god" of Auron - is using a gravity manipulator to latch onto the Liberator. Both can be true, but it's clumsy writing. I swear, sometimes it feels like one person wrote the front half of the show, and someone else the back. Some special effects later, the characters stop being so overtly at each other's throats and send Vila out into the void. Which appears to be a cave (because magic technobabble says gravity can be used to make a ship phase through solid walls), and there's a nice bit of business where you think they've killed him. Then a fight with a drone/vehicle on which a toothy mouth has been painted, and it only gets stranger from there.
But I don't mean that in a positive way. The Thaarn is making slaves of passing crews, but promising them kingdoms on conquered planets in the positive universe. His main emissary dresses in Restoration clothes. They're mostly put to work doing maths, because the Thaarn doesn't want anyone having the tools to defeat him. Yet he fairly easily is. He's interested in Cally whom he considers one of his children (his people seeded life and culture on Auron), but for some reason doesn't want to show himself. I mean, sure, he's a little grotesque, but why is this "reveal" given such weight? Why does Cally make at the end like she DIDN'T see him? What's the big deal? And does anyone really believe the Liberator has made another enemy? The Thaarn may have escaped, but he doesn't reappear. Let's throw in the bit where Vila freezes as the drone approaches, which was fine the FIRST time, but is pointless, manufactured tension on the second go. I did like the bit where Dayna and then Terrant tell the truth about Orac under duress without revealing he's a computer. But whatever joy I get from the episode is usually followed by a wrinkle-causing frown at some artificial dramatic element.
NOT MY FEDERATION: They try a slingshot maneuver, but it doesn't send the Liberator to another time. Star Trek has made use of areas of nothingness ("The Immunity Syndrome", and more recently, Discovery's "Anomaly"), but black studio spaces to create surreal environments hasn't really been a thing since TNG's "The Royale". Trek does have an anti-matter universe, as per "The Alternative Factor".
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Marcus Powell (the Thaarn) went uncredited as Rycar Ryjerd (a Cantina dude) in both A New Hope and the Star Wars Holiday Special.
WHO?: A powerful being inside a black hole recalls Omega. Terry Scully (engineer Groff) was the terrified Fewsham in The Seeds of Death. Destiny of the Daleks used and uncredited Powell (the Thaarn) as a prisoner.
REWATCHABILITY: Low - An attempt at repurposing a script meant for the old status quo that falls apart before our very eyes.
Comments
I like the first 10-15 minutes. Playing Space Monopoly may seem like a feckless idea, but if you think about it, it's a good way of underlining how aimless the crew of the Liberator are without Blake to give them purpose. And Orac's line about how a gap in his knowledge "cannot be tolerated!" is really superbly delivered. The bit about falling into a black hole is nicely set up and had bags of potential to create a really good tale.
But the instant that the Caliph of Krandor appears dressed in one of those silly costumes super-powerful guest aliens on Star Trek used to wear when trying to 'imitate Earthly fashions,' it all crumbles to the lowest standard of cringe. Given we're talking about a story about falling through a black hole, the plot is astonishingly formulaic, while the escape by the crew, which consists simply of running back to the ship and taking off, just leaves you thinking 'reset button.'
Predictability kills any narrative tension. Especially Thaarn's stupidity at not realising what Cally was so obviously going to do when he switched off the energy isolators. (Why did no one think to disarm her when she was captured?!?) It makes the Thaarn the most-easily-beaten 'omnipotent super-villain' this side of Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars Episode VIII. And as soon as Groff says he's staying behind, he might as well have helped up a neon sign saying, "I'll be dead in the next couple of minutes."
In some regards, the ending feels like an exact re-run of the closing stages of "Redemption", from the little-spoken-to guest character sacrificing himself to let the crew escape for unclear reasons, to the crew just getting back onto the Liberator and taking off, to the Big Old Explosion (C), TM & (R)) they leave in their wake.
By the time Avon looks at the camera and breaks the fourth wall about having a new enemy, I'm all out of f*kks to give whether the Thaarn ever makes a return appearance anyway.