"The trouble with the people of Auron is that they all suffer from a superiority complex." "You should get on well with them then."
REVIEW: We finally see Auron and it makes for an exciting enough episode, but... did was the writer not given ANY continuity instructions?! I can square the mention of Cally's parents two episodes ago with her being a clone - she had to have been raised by SOMEone - but Auron as a very obvious Earth colony that relatively recently developed telepathy thanks to genetic manipulation doesn't jibe with the Dawn of the Gods THREE episodes back, which implied Auron was seeded by powerful psychic entities. THAT story was terrible, so it's the one I'm happy to ignore. But even this episode's contention that Cally was exiled for wanting to break with the planet's neutral isolationism to fight the Federation contradicts her first appearance. Regardless, between this story and the previous one, it's nice to see characters finally get spotlights. Series 1 and 2 were mostly just the Blake and Avon show.
In this post-COVID era, how badly Auron deals with a pandemic feels especially egregious. By the time the word "quarantine" is evoked, the planet's a total loss and they're talking about evacuating (and therefore taking the disease with them?!) just a couple of technicians and a couple of valises of genetic material to recreate the race elsewhere. The show is unfortunately confused about how many Aurons there are, especially for a largely cloned people. Cally has a twin sister called Zelda and it's, first of all, not clear to me if they are bred in pairs, but the gestation chambers hold many more fetuses. The older population isn't affected by the virus, or at least not yet, but after Servalan blows up their control tower (where the people landing shuttles also appear to be the government---?????), there's no thought to anyone else on the planet. Servalan's radiation technique to cure the disease her people manufactured can't possibly save the planet - it's too slow - but everyone seems to forget Orac has also found a cure, one that COULD be extended to anyone who needs it... right?! I mean, the Liberator crew is infected and will be treated, though one wonders why Earthers wouldn't be immune if Servalan and her men are. It's a very messy script.
Part of that mess is that characters make very strange decisions. Leaving the planet for dead and forgetting cures is just the most visible tip of the iceberg. Zelda refusing to abandon the fetuses as missiles bear down on the building smacks of the production just not wanting to do more "twin" shots than absolutely necessary. Servalan wanting to have babies via the Auron cloning banks (daughters identical to herself) is a weird motivation to have all of a sudden, and Pearce really goes BIG when the embryos are destroyed, saying she can actually feel it. Were they telepathic in some way and reaching out to their clone mommy? Servalan with a troop of telepathic daughters could be a thing, I suppose. But it kind of comes out of nowhere. We get one of those stupid endings where everybody laughs, but Cally just lost her sister and 99% of her homeworld's population. And of course, we have Avon et. al. going down to the planet knowing they'll be infected, before there's any cure available (that's trust). But it's not a complete wash. I like that Avon wants to go back to Earth to take revenge for the death of his love (as per Countdown). I like that Cally, as the non-Earther, is dead set against this useless and selfish mission. I like that she tells Avon that she certainly isn't staying with the crew out of any affection for him (I still ship them). And all the internecine feuding on Servalan's side, with the ambitious Ginka not only undermining his captain, but eventually Servalan herself, is very well done. She goes Amanda Waller on both their asses. Well, dude did trick her into blowing up her future babies. I've read that Pearce asked to wear black from now on to show she's grieving for those unborn children (but that's as maybe, since she wears black HERE and is in black AND white in the next episode). But you know, great location work, a lot of action, devious plans, and a story that means something to one of the regulars.
NOT MY FEDERATION: When the Vulcan ship, the Intrepid, dies in "The Immunity Syndrome", Spock feels it. Just like Cally can feel her home dying.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: When Alderan dies in "A New Hope", Obi-Wan feels it. Ditto.
WHO?: There was a Zelda in Boucher's Doctor Who story "The Robots of Death", so he seems to like this name. The Aurons are to be relocated to Kaarn, not to be confused with Karn from "The Brain of Morbius" and later stories. Servalan's space captain Deral is played by Rio Fanning, who was Harker in Horror of Fang Rock. For Ronald Leigh-Hunt (C.A. One - the nominal leader)'s first Doctor Who appearance, we have to go back to The Seeds of Death (Commander Radnor), but he was also Commander Stevenson in Revenge of the Cybermen nearly a decade later. The patient zero pilot is played by one of Patrick Troughton's sons, Michael, who took over the Second Doctor's role for Big Finish audio. He was Albert Smithe in Last Christmas.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Despite many misgivings, I recognize the episode's strengths - world-building, personal stakes and exciting action.
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