"Cheer up, Vila. You've got a lot of very bright associates too." "Oh yeah? Name six."
REVIEW: The show was cancelled, or rather slow to renew, and 18 months later, it's back, suffering more casualties than when it happened to Doctor Who a few years later. Frequent director Vere Lorrimer becomes producer since David Maloney had moved on. Jan Chappell - who seemed less and less enthusiastic about being there in the previous season - is killed within minutes, her last moments broadcast as a telepathic voice. Zen and the Liberator didn't make it out of the finale... The show takes this moment to refresh itself, but only somewhat. Visually, there's certainly an improvement. The opening credits are less Saturday matinee serial (the new logo reminds me of Babylon 5's). The model work is stronger, and so lavish, you just KNOW it's going to be reused. Same with the Xenon HQ set. Even the snow on Terminal increases the production values.
We, the audience, really spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the new status quo will be. It's obvious from amortized expenses that the ship, Scorpio, will be the new Liberator. Suspiciously, it has a lot of the features the Liberator did - an armory of fancy weapons, a teliport bay, and a talking computer (Slave is an obsequious toad, which makes a change from the haughty Zen and therefore more of a contrast with Orac). It also comes with a cool hanger on an asteroid, a base with a nice couch, and... new crew members? I really liked Dorian as a possible member of the Seven. A rogue who is having fun with it, where the others are mostly miserable? I would have liked the dynamic that would have come out if it. But the fact that he essentially had everyone else's skills (a rogue like Vila, a weapons master like Dayna, a pilot like Tarrant, a tech wizard like Avon) was probably going to be his undoing, long term. We also meet a woman who's the fastest draw in the Space West - Soolin - and from the actress's position in the end credits, I guess SHE'LL join up. At this point, she's a cipher who is initially Dorian's girlfriend and partner, but she turns against him for no real reason as she takes on Cally's original part in the script.
I jeered when Dorian was revealed as the villain, honestly, because I really did think he'd make a great addition. But no, he let himself be hijacked so he could bring the crew home so the monster in the basement could absorb their life force and give it to him. He's functionally immortal and "cleansed" of sin, possibly has the skills of all his victims too, but his dark side requires more and more sacrifices - however this is supposed to work. I got it late in the game, but obviously, it's a riff on The Picture of Dorian Gray. Duh. I can't explain the mechanics of how the "creature" was created and what hold it has on Dorian, but I do like that Avon seems interested in cleansing his own soul. It's also interesting to see how he reacts to Cally's death - he's cold and detached as ever, but he does go back to find her in the Terminal base, and is quick to outrage about Cally's "murder" (Servalan doesn't show, but she self-destructed the possible new status quo as soon as she left Terminal). That's as much love language as we're gonna get from him. And speaking of darkness, they really lay it on thick with Vila's alcohol abuse, except that he never acts drunk no matter how many bottles of wine he drinks. It's a subplot that has been brewing for a while; Series D may be when they take it to another level.
NOT MY FEDERATION: Dorian has pointy sideburns, just like Starfleet - but he takes it farther and pointier. The Creature being a repository of someone's evil is much like Armus - the Skin of Evil.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: The Scorpio's design is at least partly inspired by the Millennium Falcon - the front prongs, the satellite dish - and Dorian is a bit of a Han Solo, at least until he turns to the Dark Side.
WHO?: Dorian calls Soolin his "companion". The Creature is a reused Sea Devil costume, and I wouldn't be surprised if you told me the volcano footage used for Terminal's destruction is part of the same stock used in Inferno.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High: Despite my personal disappointment about the new regular cast, this is a pretty cool course change as we head into the final, final series.
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