"We certainly have nothing to teach them, unless it's how to remain ignorant."
REVIEW: Another one of those done-in-one Blake's 7 stories, Ultraworld does mention Servalan's expanding empire, but otherwise seems out of character for the setting. Novelist Trevor Hoyle would write some B7 tie-in novels, but no other episodes. Like Sarcophagus before it, it's got cool designs and effects, but it's always strange to me when the show presents non-human sentients as if it were a full galaxy out there, à la Star Trek or Star Wars. But those cool designs and effects do go a long way, up to and including the aliens deteriorating before our eyes in the climax. The use of Camden Deep Tunnels (war-era shelters) creates some interest even if they're not as slick as you'd expect the artificial planet's interior to be. Lighting cues help with that. But though it looks nice, what about its story?
Ultraworld and its silver-skinned henchmen is basically a big brain collecting data on the entire universe, snatching ships and people to add to its whole, using some of them as "menials" - zombie bodies (you really need to look at Not My Federation, below) - and in this case wanting Cally for her rare telepathic powers (which I'm sure got rarer after Auron was destroyed earlier in the season). They seem to dazzle her with disco ball trauma, and it's all Avon's fault for having an exploratory spirit, so it's proper that he actually looks worried for her. Rare emotion for Avon, but as Sarcophagus pointed to, there's something happening there. Speaking of which... Dayna and Tarrant make a deal for the release of the Liberator and its crew that may spark more 'shipping. I find it quite dubious that despite the Ultras having "absorbed" lots of humanoids before, they don't know about human "bonding" and are keen to watch the duo have sex. It's a ploy to buy time and for Dayna to slip an explosive tooth out of her mouth (she's so cool, guys) and make their escape, but they still go 'round first base (at least). Just performative, or could there be more between the two younger cast members?
It's a race to free Cally, put her mind back in her body before it's incinerated, use techobabble to blow up the big gross brain, and slip the Liberator out of its cage. The drones being old men doesn't inspire much anxiety, mind, and the fight choreography is particularly limp in this one, but it's okay action stuff. There IS that weird moment where Tarrant kills someone and seems distressed about it. Bad editing? What's not so great is the dumb subplot in which Vila teaches Orac knock knock jokes and basic wordplay. I've read Keating hates this episode, and I can understand why. Vila is already the show's fool, but this makes him unfunny to boot (I do like Orac's whimpering "off" sound coming in as a reaction). You might say that, at least, the subplot has an effect on the main plot, with Orac beaming Vila's limericks to Ultraworld to make itself explode, but you could use that argument against the episode too.
NOT MY FEDERATION: Not even my FIRST Federation (Ultraworld looks like Balok's ship). In this episode, a computer brain learns comedy (like Data in The Outrageous Okona) and another dies from it (like the androids in I, Mudd). Ultraworld's modus operandi at first made me think of Spock's Brain, but the more we learn, the more like the Borg Collective it is. Ultraworld wants to absorb (assimilate) ships and people to add their distinctiveness to its own. It even uses some of them as drones (menials). The planet/ship is like a Borg Cube, but note that the Collective also uses spheres.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: They call Servalan's Federation her "empire". Hard not to see Ultraworld as a kind of Death Star.
WHO?: The disintegrating make-up was conceived by Sheelagh Wells who also worked on Mawdryn Undead and later, every episode from The Christmas Invasion to Doomsday (she had her name removed from Ultraworld after a conflict with wardrobe). Stephen Jenn, one of the Ultras, was Secker in Nightmare of Eden. Another, Ian Barritt, would be the short-lived Professor Peach in The Unicorn and the Wasp.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-Low: Some nice effects and a few amusing scenes, but it's largely nonsense.
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