DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (Trinity)
I needed a good one after the last few episodes had been merely passable, and though this appeared to be another mildly lacklustre story filled with techno-babbling science experiment and alien planets and names to try and keep track of, it turned into something much more before the end. A good title would have been 'Bumps In The Road' as the two plots running parallel show two people (or more in Rodney's case, but specifically two when you consider his and Sheppard's colleague status is upset), who betray trust, or trust in themselves too much, not considering their actions in the wider context, both ending on an uncertain note for what is a fairly comfortable franchise (that is until you get to 'Universe' where all the characters behave like this most of the time!). The best story is McKay's, but Ronon and Teyla's visit to an alien world to trade for something that will improve the crop yields is engaging in itself: Ronon strikes out twice when he interferes in Teyla's negotiation believing she was being treated poorly, she having to explain the art of negotiation is more complex than how he sees it, and she had things in hand.
Then when Ronon is thrilled to discover more of his people, thinking he was the last survivor of his ruined world, he uses her influence to arrange a meeting with his superior officer whom he promptly kills on sight for being a coward. However justified his actions might have been, at least in the eyes of the others working with Kell (in that they let him go free, showing it was common knowledge what a traitor to his own Kell had been), and Teyla even understand his actions, she knows the Stargate people would not approve and she fiercely condemns his use of her for his own ends. It's clear that as the two warrior outsiders, to some extent, they are drawn to each other, so Teyla's quite happy with him tagging along for an excursion, but she's not happy for him to carry his loose cannon traits into her carefully ordered world, especially as he seems to take orders from Sheppard quite effectively, so when she's in charge she expects the same consideration. But Ronon does what he thinks best, and in any modern series the secret between them of his murder of this man would come out to cause problems in future. This series isn't generally like that, though, so I wonder if it will return to cause animosity or issues as it should?
Ronon's not the only one who does what he thinks best to the detriment of the trust of others, with McKay putting himself on high one too many times. It doesn't matter how obnoxious he behaves to people, or how little he plays by the rules if he gets Weir and Sheppard a result, but if he fails then that's when the real trouble hits. The big deal is finding an Ancients' outpost on a planet with the blasted remains of at least one hive ship floating in orbit. They find out that the weapon these Ancients had developed is more powerful and energy efficient than even the ZPMs, and if they can harness it, it would make a show-stopping addition to the fight against The Wraith. If it sounds too good to be true it's because it is. The Ancients couldn't work it properly and it turns out it wiped out the inhabitants of the planet, too, but McKay is sure as sure can be that he can get it working. This after a power surge killed one of the team working on the project and putting its use in serious jeopardy from Weir. Caldwell steps in with a military interest, but it's Rodney himself who persuades Sheppard to trust him and go back for another attempt now that he knows what went wrong. But his self-importance puts them in danger too, when things don't go as he foresaw and they're forced to flee from the weapon, escaping through the Stargate only with the aid of Daedalus.
It's a humbling experience for him to be proved so wrong when he was so sure, and sets back his stock in the eyes of his superiors, not to mention the closest thing he has to a friend among the scientists, Dr. Zelenka, whom he outright insults and bulldozes over the concerns raised by him in good conscience. It's not a hardboiled 'Battlestar Galactica' ending where no one will trust him again, and I'm sure things will be much back to normal by next episode, but I wouldn't want it to be doom and gloom like that series and it was hard enough for McKay to realise he was wrong and admit it in his apologies. What made it stand out in comparison to the other episodes (aside from the season opener), was how high the stakes were, the moral equation when considering the death of a man in the experiment, and how scary the level of power of this thing is that it takes out a chunk of a solar system because it can't be shut down. The balance with the more personal story on the other planet Teyla and Ronon visit works well as a counterpoint, even if the set is clearly the 'medieval' set used a few times on 'SG-1' in the corresponding season. The military versus civilian angle worked well with Caldwell always there to provide a dissenting voice against Weir's authority, and it has a good blend of all these things to make it an important story that wouldn't have been out of place on Trek. Not sure where the trinity came into it, but whatever.
***
Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Hunters
DVD, Voyager S4 (Hunters)
It's been a while since I last did some 'Voyager' reviews and the time has come to complete Season 4, which I left halfway through its run. I'm not sure it's the best way to do it since you lose the momentum of the season and it's more difficult to jump right back into it (especially after almost three years - can't believe how long it's been!). But the longer it's left, the harder it is to get back into something… Fortunately, I wisely left the season at a crucial juncture in the series, when they've finally made contact with home for the first time, previously having been able to send the Emergency Medical Hologram through to the Alpha Quadrant and back, and now they've picked up a load of letters from home. Because of that it's quite a sensitive episode full of developments, but you see the difference in the time the series was made compared to now: very few people still write letters - I know, because I was one of the people that used to write a lot, enjoying the process, as well as the anticipation of receiving a reply, but the art of letter-writing has all but died out due to the instant nature of communication that exists now. Sure, you had emails even in the Nineties when this was made, and of course phone calls, but the unique use of a letter to record a considered, personal communication was still something people understood. That has been lost as so people have been conditioned to expect immediate response and interactivity, but I'm not going to go into the ills of social media and how it's affected our society, it's just that the terminology stood out to me: who would understand what a 'Dear John' letter meant in the younger generations?
It seems unlikely that by the 24th Century people would even use the word 'letter' as referring to a written message, as other forms have effectively superceded it. This makes the episode even more precious and shows that the writer was from an older generation even back then: Jeri Taylor, co-creator of the series and bastion of character development and care for each of her people in the same manner Janeway was, was still very much a part of the series, though I believe she left at the end of the season and I get the sense that her brand of Trek was lost after that as action or weird ideas and situations rose to the fore. She and Michael Piller were responsible for a lot of what made Trek feel so real, and the characters' sense of family that made you want to see them and spend time in their company week after week. When these two left the Trek fold I think it was a great loss to the franchise and we see how Trek became more simplistic and less considered as the succeeding years went on, the final seasons of 'Voyager,' and much of 'Enterprise' not living up to what had gone before. And as for 'Discovery,' with its ability to go anywhere within the galaxy (and beyond), it makes the future tech of this series look old-fashioned - they could get home in the blink of an eye if they had a spore drive from a century in their past! A lot of modern Trek makes a mockery of the careful world-building and technological consistency that was so integral into making this a real universe, so it's wonderful to get back to familiar Trek that feels right.
Not to say this episode was incapable of creating new things to add to the canon: the Hirogen show their oversized faces, throwing their weight around, or more literally Tuvok and Seven's. The size of the inside of their ship was so big and full of trophies, weapons and strange control interfaces, that my eyes couldn't at first interpret what I was seeing. Not until you see the forms of the Starfleet captives on the floor do you get a sense of scale, and if the ship was internally huge, then the Hirogen themselves were equally monstrous in size and lack of morals! My only disappointment with the Hirogen is that they chickened out later on and showed other members of the race as more similar in size to humans and other humanoids, because they would have been better to make them all giants as one of the unique aspects of the race. But they do a great job here, featuring Tiny Ron (better known as The Grand Nagus' Hupyrian manservant, Maihar'du), towering over the childlike Seven and Tuvok, and finally able to stand up as straight as he liked after years of bending over to shuffle through the cramped sets of 'DS9.' I bet he was pleased, except for the need to wear bulky armour over the prosthetic makeup under the hot studio lights, so there's always some kind of problem, I'm sure. Tiny Ron isn't the only 'DS9' connection to be enjoyed, as with the letters for the crew comes news of Alpha Quadrant events. The first connection is Chakotay mentioning the stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, suggesting Starfleet may have found another to the Delta Quadrant, and then we hear the devastating news of their comrades, the Maquis, being massacred.
The Maquis' destruction at the hands of the Cardassians with help from their new allies, is the biggest thing to affect the crew, even if it is largely only felt by the former members of that group. But it was so good to see the series connect to the war in 'DS9,' even if only tangentially, and for those characters to experience the loss that had been so shocking. It was very important that they should be aware as we'd never get a satisfying resolve of the series where we saw them all settle into Federation life and witness the adjustments to the changes both they and the Alpha Quadrant had gone through. So seeing Chakotay and B'Elanna's reactions was as close as we were going to get to proper resolution of their characters upon returning home, and it is this that makes the episode so important. We hadn't seen the last of the Maquis influence across the series, most directly with Season 5's 'Extreme Risk' which would address Torres' buried guilt and anger at what befell her friends and comrades, and of course, 'Repression,' which was about a Bajoran Maquis member. But this episode we learn that although the organisation was wiped out, there were a few 'lucky' ones that had already been captured and were being held in Starfleet prisons, so saving their lives by not being there when the Cardassian/Dominion forces routed and annihilated the freedom fighters. We also get to hear briefly of the woman who recruited Chakotay into the Maquis, Sveta, author of his letter.
It would have been good to hear more about her, maybe even meet her in 'DS9,' but the two production teams had different agendas and were much more in competition than in sympathy. That's one of the sad things about this boom time in Trek's history: that the two series' on the air at the same time were unwilling to work together. We might have had some terrific crossovers and deeper connections, but although they did occasionally cross paths (with the 'DS9' episode 'Doctor Bashir, I Presume' where the EMH's creator, Dr. Zimmerman, pays a visit, or Mirror Tuvok's cameo in 'Through The Looking Glass'), they tended to mine 'TOS' and 'TNG' for actors, characters and plots to continue (most notably Barclay and Troi later on). One reference in this episode appeared to be deliberately included as a mistake by Neelix was when he mispronounces the Temple of Amonak on Vulcan as the Temple of Amok, recalling the Spock episode 'Amok Time.' It shows that they were willing to have a bit of fun, and the references to the wider universe were always a pleasure to see. One thing they didn't go into was how although the relay station through which they receive the letters was using a singularity as its power source, it's not a new idea: the Romulans used them in their Warbirds, so I was surprised they didn't mention this, especially considering the previous episode had been one of the biggest Romulan episodes of this series.
The relays are a bit of a puzzle. They're said to have been created one hundred thousand years ago, but it's not made clear whether from another race or by the Hirogen. This race claims the technology as their own, though being hunters you wouldn't think they'd need to be communicating all that much as they spend most of their time on the hunt. Need someone to boast about their trophies to, and compare notes with, I suppose… If they were the creators of the relay then they must have been a very different species all that time ago as the impression we get is of a violent people that care only about the thrill of the chase. Of course, as Trek invariably did, they are shown to be a broader culture than merely the type we see here, or how could they have developed ships and warp travel? I do wonder why the relay extends almost to the Alpha Quadrant, but it's best not to question something like that and just accept that this is the device that means contact is possible with Starfleet, though sadly not for long as the entire system is destroyed a little too easily for something that's lasted so long, and Voyager is once again left alone to continue the trail, a heartbreaking eventuality, but one that at least gives them hope and their families hope, as well as the reason to begin planning a way to help them which would come to fruition later.
Ensign Kim wonders if Starfleet's encrypted message had been to tell them they'd developed a whole new way of travelling through space considering how technology could have moved on since they were stranded so far away, which immediately made me think of the spore drive of 'DSC.' Whatever the latest Trek is can't fail to stick in the mind and give reason to reflect and compare, whether it was the Kelvin Timeline films or now 'DSC,' so even if they seem more to take away from Trek's coherence than add to it, at least they're a sounding board with which to appreciate old Trek again. While the modern style of direct continuation of plots wasn't something all that common in 'Voyager,' apart from arcs here and there, this episode does play an integral role in the ship's connection with Earth. For one thing it is continuing the story from the previous episode when the relay was discovered, and also to the end of the season when an apparent rescue attempt is made by Starfleet, as well as on with the Hirogen and their interest in Voyager. There are also speculations in small degree about getting home again, which had been mostly put to bed in their willingness to embrace the possibilities of being out here in the unknown, with the Doctor imagining himself the centre of attention and Seven suggesting he'd be wiped and upgraded to fit Starfleet's latest technology. It's a light scene, but a serious one because this ship is full of people that wouldn't have necessarily fitted in with Starfleet and may have questions to answer upon return, and again, something never explored because of the nature of the ending of the series.
The ending of this episode is another matter, able to conclude on an upbeat note, casting off concerns about the Hirogen or the personal sadness of the brief contact with home and no chance for more. Janeway was very much saddened by fiance Mark's moving on with his life, but unlike later when she goes into a depression, she makes an effort to understand and be thankful for what she has. There's definitely still an undercurrent of affection between her and Chakotay, but Jeri Taylor's influence being lost on the series after this season I suspect her departure played a big part on what may have been a unique situation developing with Captain and First Officer potentially the Mother and Father of the ship. It's a great character building episode for scenes like this, whether it be those two, or Paris and Torres discussing his Father, or Janeway giving Seven food for thought at the possibility of living relatives on Earth. And so it retains a hopeful impression, that now they're no longer quite as alone as they used to be, their plight is shared and their fate less ambivalent. A good way to get back into the series, really!
****
It's been a while since I last did some 'Voyager' reviews and the time has come to complete Season 4, which I left halfway through its run. I'm not sure it's the best way to do it since you lose the momentum of the season and it's more difficult to jump right back into it (especially after almost three years - can't believe how long it's been!). But the longer it's left, the harder it is to get back into something… Fortunately, I wisely left the season at a crucial juncture in the series, when they've finally made contact with home for the first time, previously having been able to send the Emergency Medical Hologram through to the Alpha Quadrant and back, and now they've picked up a load of letters from home. Because of that it's quite a sensitive episode full of developments, but you see the difference in the time the series was made compared to now: very few people still write letters - I know, because I was one of the people that used to write a lot, enjoying the process, as well as the anticipation of receiving a reply, but the art of letter-writing has all but died out due to the instant nature of communication that exists now. Sure, you had emails even in the Nineties when this was made, and of course phone calls, but the unique use of a letter to record a considered, personal communication was still something people understood. That has been lost as so people have been conditioned to expect immediate response and interactivity, but I'm not going to go into the ills of social media and how it's affected our society, it's just that the terminology stood out to me: who would understand what a 'Dear John' letter meant in the younger generations?
It seems unlikely that by the 24th Century people would even use the word 'letter' as referring to a written message, as other forms have effectively superceded it. This makes the episode even more precious and shows that the writer was from an older generation even back then: Jeri Taylor, co-creator of the series and bastion of character development and care for each of her people in the same manner Janeway was, was still very much a part of the series, though I believe she left at the end of the season and I get the sense that her brand of Trek was lost after that as action or weird ideas and situations rose to the fore. She and Michael Piller were responsible for a lot of what made Trek feel so real, and the characters' sense of family that made you want to see them and spend time in their company week after week. When these two left the Trek fold I think it was a great loss to the franchise and we see how Trek became more simplistic and less considered as the succeeding years went on, the final seasons of 'Voyager,' and much of 'Enterprise' not living up to what had gone before. And as for 'Discovery,' with its ability to go anywhere within the galaxy (and beyond), it makes the future tech of this series look old-fashioned - they could get home in the blink of an eye if they had a spore drive from a century in their past! A lot of modern Trek makes a mockery of the careful world-building and technological consistency that was so integral into making this a real universe, so it's wonderful to get back to familiar Trek that feels right.
Not to say this episode was incapable of creating new things to add to the canon: the Hirogen show their oversized faces, throwing their weight around, or more literally Tuvok and Seven's. The size of the inside of their ship was so big and full of trophies, weapons and strange control interfaces, that my eyes couldn't at first interpret what I was seeing. Not until you see the forms of the Starfleet captives on the floor do you get a sense of scale, and if the ship was internally huge, then the Hirogen themselves were equally monstrous in size and lack of morals! My only disappointment with the Hirogen is that they chickened out later on and showed other members of the race as more similar in size to humans and other humanoids, because they would have been better to make them all giants as one of the unique aspects of the race. But they do a great job here, featuring Tiny Ron (better known as The Grand Nagus' Hupyrian manservant, Maihar'du), towering over the childlike Seven and Tuvok, and finally able to stand up as straight as he liked after years of bending over to shuffle through the cramped sets of 'DS9.' I bet he was pleased, except for the need to wear bulky armour over the prosthetic makeup under the hot studio lights, so there's always some kind of problem, I'm sure. Tiny Ron isn't the only 'DS9' connection to be enjoyed, as with the letters for the crew comes news of Alpha Quadrant events. The first connection is Chakotay mentioning the stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, suggesting Starfleet may have found another to the Delta Quadrant, and then we hear the devastating news of their comrades, the Maquis, being massacred.
The Maquis' destruction at the hands of the Cardassians with help from their new allies, is the biggest thing to affect the crew, even if it is largely only felt by the former members of that group. But it was so good to see the series connect to the war in 'DS9,' even if only tangentially, and for those characters to experience the loss that had been so shocking. It was very important that they should be aware as we'd never get a satisfying resolve of the series where we saw them all settle into Federation life and witness the adjustments to the changes both they and the Alpha Quadrant had gone through. So seeing Chakotay and B'Elanna's reactions was as close as we were going to get to proper resolution of their characters upon returning home, and it is this that makes the episode so important. We hadn't seen the last of the Maquis influence across the series, most directly with Season 5's 'Extreme Risk' which would address Torres' buried guilt and anger at what befell her friends and comrades, and of course, 'Repression,' which was about a Bajoran Maquis member. But this episode we learn that although the organisation was wiped out, there were a few 'lucky' ones that had already been captured and were being held in Starfleet prisons, so saving their lives by not being there when the Cardassian/Dominion forces routed and annihilated the freedom fighters. We also get to hear briefly of the woman who recruited Chakotay into the Maquis, Sveta, author of his letter.
It would have been good to hear more about her, maybe even meet her in 'DS9,' but the two production teams had different agendas and were much more in competition than in sympathy. That's one of the sad things about this boom time in Trek's history: that the two series' on the air at the same time were unwilling to work together. We might have had some terrific crossovers and deeper connections, but although they did occasionally cross paths (with the 'DS9' episode 'Doctor Bashir, I Presume' where the EMH's creator, Dr. Zimmerman, pays a visit, or Mirror Tuvok's cameo in 'Through The Looking Glass'), they tended to mine 'TOS' and 'TNG' for actors, characters and plots to continue (most notably Barclay and Troi later on). One reference in this episode appeared to be deliberately included as a mistake by Neelix was when he mispronounces the Temple of Amonak on Vulcan as the Temple of Amok, recalling the Spock episode 'Amok Time.' It shows that they were willing to have a bit of fun, and the references to the wider universe were always a pleasure to see. One thing they didn't go into was how although the relay station through which they receive the letters was using a singularity as its power source, it's not a new idea: the Romulans used them in their Warbirds, so I was surprised they didn't mention this, especially considering the previous episode had been one of the biggest Romulan episodes of this series.
The relays are a bit of a puzzle. They're said to have been created one hundred thousand years ago, but it's not made clear whether from another race or by the Hirogen. This race claims the technology as their own, though being hunters you wouldn't think they'd need to be communicating all that much as they spend most of their time on the hunt. Need someone to boast about their trophies to, and compare notes with, I suppose… If they were the creators of the relay then they must have been a very different species all that time ago as the impression we get is of a violent people that care only about the thrill of the chase. Of course, as Trek invariably did, they are shown to be a broader culture than merely the type we see here, or how could they have developed ships and warp travel? I do wonder why the relay extends almost to the Alpha Quadrant, but it's best not to question something like that and just accept that this is the device that means contact is possible with Starfleet, though sadly not for long as the entire system is destroyed a little too easily for something that's lasted so long, and Voyager is once again left alone to continue the trail, a heartbreaking eventuality, but one that at least gives them hope and their families hope, as well as the reason to begin planning a way to help them which would come to fruition later.
Ensign Kim wonders if Starfleet's encrypted message had been to tell them they'd developed a whole new way of travelling through space considering how technology could have moved on since they were stranded so far away, which immediately made me think of the spore drive of 'DSC.' Whatever the latest Trek is can't fail to stick in the mind and give reason to reflect and compare, whether it was the Kelvin Timeline films or now 'DSC,' so even if they seem more to take away from Trek's coherence than add to it, at least they're a sounding board with which to appreciate old Trek again. While the modern style of direct continuation of plots wasn't something all that common in 'Voyager,' apart from arcs here and there, this episode does play an integral role in the ship's connection with Earth. For one thing it is continuing the story from the previous episode when the relay was discovered, and also to the end of the season when an apparent rescue attempt is made by Starfleet, as well as on with the Hirogen and their interest in Voyager. There are also speculations in small degree about getting home again, which had been mostly put to bed in their willingness to embrace the possibilities of being out here in the unknown, with the Doctor imagining himself the centre of attention and Seven suggesting he'd be wiped and upgraded to fit Starfleet's latest technology. It's a light scene, but a serious one because this ship is full of people that wouldn't have necessarily fitted in with Starfleet and may have questions to answer upon return, and again, something never explored because of the nature of the ending of the series.
The ending of this episode is another matter, able to conclude on an upbeat note, casting off concerns about the Hirogen or the personal sadness of the brief contact with home and no chance for more. Janeway was very much saddened by fiance Mark's moving on with his life, but unlike later when she goes into a depression, she makes an effort to understand and be thankful for what she has. There's definitely still an undercurrent of affection between her and Chakotay, but Jeri Taylor's influence being lost on the series after this season I suspect her departure played a big part on what may have been a unique situation developing with Captain and First Officer potentially the Mother and Father of the ship. It's a great character building episode for scenes like this, whether it be those two, or Paris and Torres discussing his Father, or Janeway giving Seven food for thought at the possibility of living relatives on Earth. And so it retains a hopeful impression, that now they're no longer quite as alone as they used to be, their plight is shared and their fate less ambivalent. A good way to get back into the series, really!
****
Tuesday, 9 April 2019
Condemned
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (Condemned)
They could have saved that poor woman, Marin, who gave them the information which made them realise what was really going on! Instead they leave the Olesians to the fate of The Wraith cruisers and hightail it out of there. You could say there was nothing they could do, and that we're supposed to despise them, so why should we care, and that they need to keep the fact that Atlantis isn't destroyed, a secret, but even so! The episode didn't quite pan out as I was expecting, but it was a fairly generic adventure like we've seen before: rather than it being two cultures, a primitive, but noble savage group, preyed on by a more advanced and cruelly 'civilised' society, it's a community that sends its prisoners to an island where the 'gate is so that when each cull occurs The Wraith will only snaffle who's on the island and leave everyone else alone (not sure why the prisoners didn't jump through the 'gate whenever it came on?). I'm not sure how long there's supposed to be between culls, but I'm sure the idea was that they slept for many years before awaking to feed again, but they make it sound like it's a fairly regular thing. It wouldn't make a great deal of sense that there would be very many prisoners on the island, not least because they have access to weapons and so would have killed a lot of each other off (the leader of the band has killed several himself). This becomes a plot point when we learn that the leader, or 'magistrate' of the civilised world has a deal with a particular Wraith that means he sends even lesser criminals than murderers to meet a quota and it's only going to get more draconian.
Wraith having the taste for the food of other races was hard to stomach (!), but there could always be one or two deviants in a society, even The Wraith (if you can call deviants the ones who are actually slightly more civilised than their brethren). You knew right from the start that it was going to be some exploitation by the rich and powerful, but the other side of the criminals is just as bad and it's a pretty messed up planet. That made it hardly a joy to be there, and for Ronon's first mission with the gang it wasn't a great one. He certainly seems to have ridiculous levels of endurance since he takes an arrow through the leg and just does a Rambo, pulling it out and never seeming to be in pain more than a little discomfort again. You don't see him limping about or worrying that the wound will become infected, it's as if he was perfectly fine. Either that says something about his regenerative metabolism, or the lack of the writers keeping track of details, though it's possible the prisoners treated him, if highly unlikely. I thought it was going to be a clever way to keep him out of the action to prevent it becoming too easy for them to escape, but he's more of a cocky guy than a brilliant asset to the team, though it was interesting to see that he's conditioned to obey an order if it's given, almost as if he wants Sheppard to phrase things that way so he has no choice, but otherwise he'll do what he wants. Which maybe isn't the best person to have along on sensitive missions?
It's really a standard runaround on an alien world, a slight bit of diplomacy, some captivity and a bit of fighting (with Teyla getting to put her stick combat into practice, pleasingly). There was nothing else really going on, so I couldn't say it was one of the better stories so far. At least the last one had the advantage of a sci-fi idea at the centre even if it didn't pull it off completely. It's difficult to see where they can go with the concept, trying to keep Atlantis hidden and secret (they even lie, continuing the illusion it's gone by telling the Olesians this), how they can get in on stories with Wraith that aren't supposed to know about them, while also servicing all the characters… It's a tough proposition and so far the season's been patchy, starting so well, but not going anywhere yet. The series lasted for five seasons so they must have turned onto a good thing eventually, I'm just left waiting to see what it is!
**
They could have saved that poor woman, Marin, who gave them the information which made them realise what was really going on! Instead they leave the Olesians to the fate of The Wraith cruisers and hightail it out of there. You could say there was nothing they could do, and that we're supposed to despise them, so why should we care, and that they need to keep the fact that Atlantis isn't destroyed, a secret, but even so! The episode didn't quite pan out as I was expecting, but it was a fairly generic adventure like we've seen before: rather than it being two cultures, a primitive, but noble savage group, preyed on by a more advanced and cruelly 'civilised' society, it's a community that sends its prisoners to an island where the 'gate is so that when each cull occurs The Wraith will only snaffle who's on the island and leave everyone else alone (not sure why the prisoners didn't jump through the 'gate whenever it came on?). I'm not sure how long there's supposed to be between culls, but I'm sure the idea was that they slept for many years before awaking to feed again, but they make it sound like it's a fairly regular thing. It wouldn't make a great deal of sense that there would be very many prisoners on the island, not least because they have access to weapons and so would have killed a lot of each other off (the leader of the band has killed several himself). This becomes a plot point when we learn that the leader, or 'magistrate' of the civilised world has a deal with a particular Wraith that means he sends even lesser criminals than murderers to meet a quota and it's only going to get more draconian.
Wraith having the taste for the food of other races was hard to stomach (!), but there could always be one or two deviants in a society, even The Wraith (if you can call deviants the ones who are actually slightly more civilised than their brethren). You knew right from the start that it was going to be some exploitation by the rich and powerful, but the other side of the criminals is just as bad and it's a pretty messed up planet. That made it hardly a joy to be there, and for Ronon's first mission with the gang it wasn't a great one. He certainly seems to have ridiculous levels of endurance since he takes an arrow through the leg and just does a Rambo, pulling it out and never seeming to be in pain more than a little discomfort again. You don't see him limping about or worrying that the wound will become infected, it's as if he was perfectly fine. Either that says something about his regenerative metabolism, or the lack of the writers keeping track of details, though it's possible the prisoners treated him, if highly unlikely. I thought it was going to be a clever way to keep him out of the action to prevent it becoming too easy for them to escape, but he's more of a cocky guy than a brilliant asset to the team, though it was interesting to see that he's conditioned to obey an order if it's given, almost as if he wants Sheppard to phrase things that way so he has no choice, but otherwise he'll do what he wants. Which maybe isn't the best person to have along on sensitive missions?
It's really a standard runaround on an alien world, a slight bit of diplomacy, some captivity and a bit of fighting (with Teyla getting to put her stick combat into practice, pleasingly). There was nothing else really going on, so I couldn't say it was one of the better stories so far. At least the last one had the advantage of a sci-fi idea at the centre even if it didn't pull it off completely. It's difficult to see where they can go with the concept, trying to keep Atlantis hidden and secret (they even lie, continuing the illusion it's gone by telling the Olesians this), how they can get in on stories with Wraith that aren't supposed to know about them, while also servicing all the characters… It's a tough proposition and so far the season's been patchy, starting so well, but not going anywhere yet. The series lasted for five seasons so they must have turned onto a good thing eventually, I'm just left waiting to see what it is!
**
Into The Forest I Go
DVD, Star Trek: Discovery S1 (Into The Forest I Go)
It's so difficult to know what to make of this series. Now would seem to be a good time to reflect, perhaps judge, because the end of this ninth episode was the 'halfway' point of the season, the place where they took a break before the final six episodes were released a few short months later. I will say again that I want to like it, that it's part of the greater Trek whole, which means I'm obligated to care because I care about what came before. But it's so tough to care about something that turns what came before on its head and struggles with my ability to make it make sense. A lot of questions or problems can be dismissed by the fact they're nitpicking details that should be of far less import than the main thrust of the episodes, or the characters, or the stories. But again, the series' style is also so at odds with how Trek works that it alienates me and makes me uncomfortable. It's like sitting on a prickly seat, I just can't get comfortable with it. This episode is a case in point. No matter how Trekky an episode can get, and the previous one was certainly along those lines, so much is un-Trek-like it takes me out of the reality. What it comes down to is that they've chosen to go a much more fantastical route, a much harder to believe style, and a much more action-oriented method of telling a story. It's not as bad as the Kelvin Timeline films in that they're not especially setting the narrative up to reach set-piece action beats, but then they don't have the blockbuster mega-budget given over to such films, as expensive as the series is.
Kelvin is still very much an inspiration, however, and as I consider the series, having given it a good, long period to bed in and see how it fits, I can tell that's its favourite inspiration (admittedly mixed in with other Trek eras to provide a hotchpotch that is almost as frustrating), that of show and effect, which is what the Kelvin films got from the earlier films themselves. The original film series went towards stereotypes and almost parody of the cast, characters and situations of 'TOS,' so much that we think of those versions as the traits each character embodies. It should be a relief that they didn't do a straight-up 'TOS' remake for this series because I can imagine it even more pronounced. The Kelvin films took what the 'TOS' films did and added a huge budget and CGI effects spectacle that failed to satisfy on many levels, and 'DSC' has done much the same. It's not entirely their fault, they're following on from 'Enterprise,' which tried to bring viewers back to the fold by making it more acceptable to the masses by focusing on more basic action at the expense of exploring ideas and fleshing out the crew. Few can argue that characters such as Hoshi and Mayweather deserved so much more than they got and were largely sidelined in favour of the trio of Captain, Engineer and Vulcan First Officer. You can even point to the end of 'Voyager' where they introduced physical shields that clunked over the ship's hull, as something that was going into the realms of fantasy, albeit rationalised by it being tech from the future.
All of which brings me to the approach of 'DSC,' in keeping with today's audience of attention-deficit viewers that don't have patience and require constant prods of excitement to get them through. I'm talking generally, of course, and this episode certainly made time for the occasional scene of two people talking in a room, which is a staple of Trek, to build the characters and create bonds. Gene Roddenberry's original idea was for a battleship of the seas crossed with a wagon train to the stars. On the one hand the Enterprise was designed to be a ship with history, the crew part of a line of crew that had served aboard her. Ever since then it seems like it's always about the latest new ship, shiny and untapped. There's something to be said for both approaches, but 'DSC' follows the latter, which means it's like the latest Apple product that the kids all want for its shiny newness. I would much rather see a ship with history, but history isn't too popular these days, unless it be the revisionist kind, it's all about the now and looking forward to the next, which we really want now. The USS Discovery had to have some unique selling point, so they came up with the ability to jump anywhere. You'd think this would have unfurled limitless story possibilities, but instead it became about using it as a weapon of war. There are hints in this episode that they're looking forward to putting this technology into practice to fulfil Starfleet's mandate of exploration 'once the war is won,' which brings in some kind of optimism, but it remains that first they have to trudge through the current problem before they can have fun.
Do your homework before you can go out and play. I don't see why they couldn't have included stories about using this tech as a means to explore ideas, planets, races, as well as contribute to the war effort. Oh, hang on, yes I do: they only had fifteen episodes to tell their story. This abbreviated season in favour of spending more money on individual episodes is necessary to bring in the audience (because no one watches twenty-plus episode seasons like 'Agents of SHIELD' or 'Arrow,' do they?), to wow them with effects and spectacle (there we go again), rather than to engage brains and imaginations. It was business decisions at the expense of creative. With long seasons you have the time to explore not just space, but the more important notion of exploring individual journeys, individual cultures, which in Trek's style has been to make each major race a facet of humanity's emotions or thoughts. In the film series' we often saw outlandish-looking aliens, more in the vein of 'Star Wars' than the relatively low-budgeted TV show, and they were there purely for the spectacle, like 'Star Wars,' to make you wonder at their weirdness and then move on to the next visual treat. They weren't there even to represent an aspect of humanity, useful as a lens to tell stories about us, just eye candy. And so it is with the increase in aliens aboard Discovery: we often see odd-looking crewmembers that we either never see again or are certainly only there as background. You can argue that even the great 'DS9' did this, with its stream of visitors along the Promenade, but it also thoroughly explored the culture and mores of the main races.
It had time to do this, and now it seems we aren't afforded that time because we need to impress the unfaithful, the ones that have grown up with spectacle in place of stage plays. And so, at this juncture in the first season I still don't feel I know any of the characters very well. It's nice to see a slow (treacle slow), raising of the visibility of the Bridge crew, with the African lady, the Asian guy, Detmer and Airiam, but we don't know them as people any more than when we first saw them. In many ways the same could be said for the main crew, to a much lesser extent, which is more worrying, in the same way that 'Enterprise' failed to really get into their cast of characters and it went down as the worst Trek series. It may have found a new audience in recent years, and I always liked it, right from the start, but I would still class it as the weakest series. That is until 'DSC.' Although I feel qualified now to discuss 'DSC' and its place compared to the others, it will still be impossible to judge it as a whole until the whole is complete: in other words, if it goes for three seasons (guaranteed now), or ten (unlikely in modern TV), there will be times it improves, just as 'Enterprise' did, peaking in its final season (though I really like Season 1 also). So I can only judge it upon what I've seen so far, and what I've seen so far has largely been a thumbs down from me. It is certainly the weakest first season, and I doubt the final six episodes can pull it back from that, with only the first episode giving me cause to appreciate what they were doing.
That hasn't changed and is worrying when you consider how far along I am now thanks to a short season. I can't say it's worse than I thought it would be, but it certainly has in no way exceeded any kind of expectation. It was a troubled season behind the scenes, with the co-creator and main creative behind the setup, being kicked out. Would Fuller's inclusion have made it more objectionable or would it have felt more Trek-like? And what of Nicholas Meyer, whose name appears to have been merely attached, with little actual contribution asked of him, sadly. Then the removal of two more of the show-runners in a troubled writers' room and it should be no surprise that the shuffle meant the series was never likely to be firing on all thrusters. The needs of a modern series competing with the set in stone requirements for good Trek have also conspired against it, and it may be that creating Trek in our current time is impossible. The time period seems to have been chosen as a cash-in rather than a good place to set a series, given the changes in technology of our time and the solid history of Trek that we know so well. It's like everything was against the likelihood of the series succeeding, at least in terms of Trekness, and with people like me, who adore Trek.
In consolidation of my thoughts halfway through the season I have drawn up a list of the positives and negatives I found so far, some are nitpicking, some are style concerns and others are just plain canon upsets. Having a Holodeck in this time period when we know 23rd Century ships did not have them would come in the latter, while not showing the episode title onscreen is a concern of style that still irks me. It also saddens me that we don't get time for much in the way of beauty shots - even 'Enterprise' took time out to present the ship gliding through space, but then there's no time for this, nor ship's logs, none of those reassuring, comfortable staples that we want. The incorrect uniforms for the period; the incorrect technology; the mechanics of plot over story; the casual way they speak; redoing old characters; elevating things like our time's pop music rather than higher forms of entertainment; no rationale for the Klingon look; lack of character focus and undefined recurring cast. That rounds up a pretty long list of discontent, but the things I like still remain the same: the Klingon language is brilliant; there is an actual title sequence and theme music; Saru; Burnham when she acts Vulcan; some of the references; the Shenzhou (though horribly disappointing we had so few flashbacks); content not being as explicit as was expected.
That last one is pertinent for this episode as we do see Klingon nakedness, though in a choppy nightmare flashback sequence. I was too busy finding interest in the exoskeleton to be too concerned about what they were showing, but we have been short on the 'mature' content talked up before the series came out. I was also interested that L'Rell does the Dr. Gillian Taylor thing from 'Star Trek IV' and leaps on Tyler's back as he's beamed away, so she can come too and escape the Sarcophagus ship's demise. The developments in the plot are certainly myriad as we see Kol blown up (which surprised me as I thought he'd be around much longer), L'Rell becoming a Starfleet prisoner, Admiral Cornwell being rescued, and Stamets bringing the ship into the Mirror Universe. At least that's what I'm expecting since it's been hinted at occasionally (Stamets' double in the mirror; he and Lorca discussing parallel universes in this very episode), even if I didn't know it as a fact from spoilers. It's not a bad way to take the entire ship there and makes sense within the internal logic of the spore drive that they've built up, though I don't really see the point of doing the MU except as more spectacle for the uninitiated to be drawn to - it's well known as a place for which streaming service content would be well suited in a negative way and maybe the talk of mature content stems from the MU stuff to come.
However they use it and whatever reason they had for doing it so early in the series, I can imagine the majority of characters we've seen coming back as twisted versions. I am interested in the politics of the MU as a whole, something that 'DS9' added to the table, but this is before all that, a point before 'TOS' but after the 'Enterprise' details… If we're talking details though, there are some that need mentioning: I'm not sure we've ever seen the Communicator specifically decreed as how the Universal Translator works. That sequence with Burnham on the Sarcophagus ship was interesting, but problematic. It shows the Klingons really did learn English (which seems bizarre, especially when you consider their attitude to outsiders), and it shows that aliens hear what comes out of the Communicator which adds clunkiness to the Trek trope that aliens understand each other. And although it made sense that Kol would accept a challenge, there was no way a diminutive human woman would have the physical strength to parry the blows of a full-sized Klingon warrior, no matter what Vulcan training she'd received! So fighting with those little daggers that could have been stunted mek'leths, was too ridiculous for me to enjoy it (I'd have loved to see bat'leth duelling, however!). The same with the central idea of the episode: that they would defeat the cloak (and they do call it a cloak this time), by finding the imperfections in it. For one thing, does this ship not have shields? Or do they have to be deactivated whenever it cloaks? And for another, if the sensors could tell them that it had come into the system then they could detect the ship, right? The logic didn't seem to make sense.
So they have to plant a couple of beacons to amplify a signal that will allow them to detect the imperfections in the cloak. The idea of having to sneak onto a Klingon Bridge in the middle of battle to plant a beacon should have been terrifically dramatic, but instead they focus on Tyler losing it to his post traumatic stress when confronted with L'Rell whom he clearly doesn't know except as his torturer. All the while the Discovery is causing a diversion by going into battle with it to draw attention from the intruders. Klingons can't detect when someone's beamed aboard? There's never any shaking so the Discovery is doing nothing to it, but somehow isn't being destroyed and they have time for Burnham and Tyler to creep around and even explain what's going on to Cornwell… I didn't get a sense of urgency about anything. Even when Burnham shows herself it seems like it's to play for time. I can get onboard if both the ship and she were playing to a 'draw' in the sense that she wasn't trying to defeat Kol, just defend herself long enough to get beamed out, and the ship was doing enough to stay clear from too much damage. But it's still hard to accept the plan. Doing all those micro jumps and almost doing in Stamets seemed like a clever idea, but in reality it makes the ship look more fantasy than ever, and it already looked pretty dodgy from the way it has to twist around at super speed (and I still can't stand the fact that stars don't go in a straight line when they're at warp - there's no reason for such stupidity!).
Lorca comes off looking like a better Captain, not wanting to leave the Pahvans at risk from the Klingons (but even though they've defeated the main ship, surely others could still come?), and refusing to leave Burnham and Tyler behind, as well as showing appreciation of Stamets' sterling efforts in the many micro jumps he had to endure. But he still goes against a direct order (just as Burnham almost returns to her mutinous past when she doesn't take no for an answer about going with Tyler - the fact they're so close would seem to be unprofessional for them to demand they do the mission together, but she convinces Lorca to let her), and if he hadn't succeeded in getting Cornwell back and destroying Kol and his ship, thus striking a grand blow for the Federation in the war, you can bet he'd have been busted. I sensed Vulcan Admiral Turrel being potentially duplicitous in his order to return to Starbase 46 (not 47, was that an in-joke by absence?), in a way that he was coaxing Lorca to return with the promise of being awarded a medal, but could possibly lock him up for his disobedience as soon as he arrives. Maybe I was reading too much into that? It doesn't matter what the intentions were anyway as they're stuck in a parallel universe from what it seems, something much worse than a cunning Vulcan superior to worry about.
The brief flashes of Trekkiness haven't managed to shine through so much that is out of place and time, and one reason it takes me so long to get around to viewing each episode is because I'm not enthused to do so. It's so strange that I have all these new Trek episodes to watch and the will to see them has been sapped. I do want to see what happens next, but I also know that each new episode doesn't have the satisfaction of past Treks. It is very much like the Kelvin films that don't give me that satisfaction so many of the older films did, and still do, and I struggle to accept any of these characters as people I want to spend time with, so different from the other Trek series' (and other TV shows as well). The truth is I don't find it to be very well written, I don't find it to be fulfilling the reasons I watch Trek in the first place, and I don't find it to be something that impresses. It's no longer a case of waiting and seeing, giving it a chance to find its voice and rhythm. It's had that chance and it did not manage to make this time period work. It was a tough assignment in the first place, so for them to now go off into a parallel universe as an avoidance of the real universe, seeking story potential in something that's tricky to pull off by its place in that era, is yet another aspect of the series that doesn't bode particularly well. I don't sense a direction that they were heading in and I'm fascinated to see how this starship wreck will play out and whether they can recover any small amount of goodwill they achieved in the first episode.
**
It's so difficult to know what to make of this series. Now would seem to be a good time to reflect, perhaps judge, because the end of this ninth episode was the 'halfway' point of the season, the place where they took a break before the final six episodes were released a few short months later. I will say again that I want to like it, that it's part of the greater Trek whole, which means I'm obligated to care because I care about what came before. But it's so tough to care about something that turns what came before on its head and struggles with my ability to make it make sense. A lot of questions or problems can be dismissed by the fact they're nitpicking details that should be of far less import than the main thrust of the episodes, or the characters, or the stories. But again, the series' style is also so at odds with how Trek works that it alienates me and makes me uncomfortable. It's like sitting on a prickly seat, I just can't get comfortable with it. This episode is a case in point. No matter how Trekky an episode can get, and the previous one was certainly along those lines, so much is un-Trek-like it takes me out of the reality. What it comes down to is that they've chosen to go a much more fantastical route, a much harder to believe style, and a much more action-oriented method of telling a story. It's not as bad as the Kelvin Timeline films in that they're not especially setting the narrative up to reach set-piece action beats, but then they don't have the blockbuster mega-budget given over to such films, as expensive as the series is.
Kelvin is still very much an inspiration, however, and as I consider the series, having given it a good, long period to bed in and see how it fits, I can tell that's its favourite inspiration (admittedly mixed in with other Trek eras to provide a hotchpotch that is almost as frustrating), that of show and effect, which is what the Kelvin films got from the earlier films themselves. The original film series went towards stereotypes and almost parody of the cast, characters and situations of 'TOS,' so much that we think of those versions as the traits each character embodies. It should be a relief that they didn't do a straight-up 'TOS' remake for this series because I can imagine it even more pronounced. The Kelvin films took what the 'TOS' films did and added a huge budget and CGI effects spectacle that failed to satisfy on many levels, and 'DSC' has done much the same. It's not entirely their fault, they're following on from 'Enterprise,' which tried to bring viewers back to the fold by making it more acceptable to the masses by focusing on more basic action at the expense of exploring ideas and fleshing out the crew. Few can argue that characters such as Hoshi and Mayweather deserved so much more than they got and were largely sidelined in favour of the trio of Captain, Engineer and Vulcan First Officer. You can even point to the end of 'Voyager' where they introduced physical shields that clunked over the ship's hull, as something that was going into the realms of fantasy, albeit rationalised by it being tech from the future.
All of which brings me to the approach of 'DSC,' in keeping with today's audience of attention-deficit viewers that don't have patience and require constant prods of excitement to get them through. I'm talking generally, of course, and this episode certainly made time for the occasional scene of two people talking in a room, which is a staple of Trek, to build the characters and create bonds. Gene Roddenberry's original idea was for a battleship of the seas crossed with a wagon train to the stars. On the one hand the Enterprise was designed to be a ship with history, the crew part of a line of crew that had served aboard her. Ever since then it seems like it's always about the latest new ship, shiny and untapped. There's something to be said for both approaches, but 'DSC' follows the latter, which means it's like the latest Apple product that the kids all want for its shiny newness. I would much rather see a ship with history, but history isn't too popular these days, unless it be the revisionist kind, it's all about the now and looking forward to the next, which we really want now. The USS Discovery had to have some unique selling point, so they came up with the ability to jump anywhere. You'd think this would have unfurled limitless story possibilities, but instead it became about using it as a weapon of war. There are hints in this episode that they're looking forward to putting this technology into practice to fulfil Starfleet's mandate of exploration 'once the war is won,' which brings in some kind of optimism, but it remains that first they have to trudge through the current problem before they can have fun.
Do your homework before you can go out and play. I don't see why they couldn't have included stories about using this tech as a means to explore ideas, planets, races, as well as contribute to the war effort. Oh, hang on, yes I do: they only had fifteen episodes to tell their story. This abbreviated season in favour of spending more money on individual episodes is necessary to bring in the audience (because no one watches twenty-plus episode seasons like 'Agents of SHIELD' or 'Arrow,' do they?), to wow them with effects and spectacle (there we go again), rather than to engage brains and imaginations. It was business decisions at the expense of creative. With long seasons you have the time to explore not just space, but the more important notion of exploring individual journeys, individual cultures, which in Trek's style has been to make each major race a facet of humanity's emotions or thoughts. In the film series' we often saw outlandish-looking aliens, more in the vein of 'Star Wars' than the relatively low-budgeted TV show, and they were there purely for the spectacle, like 'Star Wars,' to make you wonder at their weirdness and then move on to the next visual treat. They weren't there even to represent an aspect of humanity, useful as a lens to tell stories about us, just eye candy. And so it is with the increase in aliens aboard Discovery: we often see odd-looking crewmembers that we either never see again or are certainly only there as background. You can argue that even the great 'DS9' did this, with its stream of visitors along the Promenade, but it also thoroughly explored the culture and mores of the main races.
It had time to do this, and now it seems we aren't afforded that time because we need to impress the unfaithful, the ones that have grown up with spectacle in place of stage plays. And so, at this juncture in the first season I still don't feel I know any of the characters very well. It's nice to see a slow (treacle slow), raising of the visibility of the Bridge crew, with the African lady, the Asian guy, Detmer and Airiam, but we don't know them as people any more than when we first saw them. In many ways the same could be said for the main crew, to a much lesser extent, which is more worrying, in the same way that 'Enterprise' failed to really get into their cast of characters and it went down as the worst Trek series. It may have found a new audience in recent years, and I always liked it, right from the start, but I would still class it as the weakest series. That is until 'DSC.' Although I feel qualified now to discuss 'DSC' and its place compared to the others, it will still be impossible to judge it as a whole until the whole is complete: in other words, if it goes for three seasons (guaranteed now), or ten (unlikely in modern TV), there will be times it improves, just as 'Enterprise' did, peaking in its final season (though I really like Season 1 also). So I can only judge it upon what I've seen so far, and what I've seen so far has largely been a thumbs down from me. It is certainly the weakest first season, and I doubt the final six episodes can pull it back from that, with only the first episode giving me cause to appreciate what they were doing.
That hasn't changed and is worrying when you consider how far along I am now thanks to a short season. I can't say it's worse than I thought it would be, but it certainly has in no way exceeded any kind of expectation. It was a troubled season behind the scenes, with the co-creator and main creative behind the setup, being kicked out. Would Fuller's inclusion have made it more objectionable or would it have felt more Trek-like? And what of Nicholas Meyer, whose name appears to have been merely attached, with little actual contribution asked of him, sadly. Then the removal of two more of the show-runners in a troubled writers' room and it should be no surprise that the shuffle meant the series was never likely to be firing on all thrusters. The needs of a modern series competing with the set in stone requirements for good Trek have also conspired against it, and it may be that creating Trek in our current time is impossible. The time period seems to have been chosen as a cash-in rather than a good place to set a series, given the changes in technology of our time and the solid history of Trek that we know so well. It's like everything was against the likelihood of the series succeeding, at least in terms of Trekness, and with people like me, who adore Trek.
In consolidation of my thoughts halfway through the season I have drawn up a list of the positives and negatives I found so far, some are nitpicking, some are style concerns and others are just plain canon upsets. Having a Holodeck in this time period when we know 23rd Century ships did not have them would come in the latter, while not showing the episode title onscreen is a concern of style that still irks me. It also saddens me that we don't get time for much in the way of beauty shots - even 'Enterprise' took time out to present the ship gliding through space, but then there's no time for this, nor ship's logs, none of those reassuring, comfortable staples that we want. The incorrect uniforms for the period; the incorrect technology; the mechanics of plot over story; the casual way they speak; redoing old characters; elevating things like our time's pop music rather than higher forms of entertainment; no rationale for the Klingon look; lack of character focus and undefined recurring cast. That rounds up a pretty long list of discontent, but the things I like still remain the same: the Klingon language is brilliant; there is an actual title sequence and theme music; Saru; Burnham when she acts Vulcan; some of the references; the Shenzhou (though horribly disappointing we had so few flashbacks); content not being as explicit as was expected.
That last one is pertinent for this episode as we do see Klingon nakedness, though in a choppy nightmare flashback sequence. I was too busy finding interest in the exoskeleton to be too concerned about what they were showing, but we have been short on the 'mature' content talked up before the series came out. I was also interested that L'Rell does the Dr. Gillian Taylor thing from 'Star Trek IV' and leaps on Tyler's back as he's beamed away, so she can come too and escape the Sarcophagus ship's demise. The developments in the plot are certainly myriad as we see Kol blown up (which surprised me as I thought he'd be around much longer), L'Rell becoming a Starfleet prisoner, Admiral Cornwell being rescued, and Stamets bringing the ship into the Mirror Universe. At least that's what I'm expecting since it's been hinted at occasionally (Stamets' double in the mirror; he and Lorca discussing parallel universes in this very episode), even if I didn't know it as a fact from spoilers. It's not a bad way to take the entire ship there and makes sense within the internal logic of the spore drive that they've built up, though I don't really see the point of doing the MU except as more spectacle for the uninitiated to be drawn to - it's well known as a place for which streaming service content would be well suited in a negative way and maybe the talk of mature content stems from the MU stuff to come.
However they use it and whatever reason they had for doing it so early in the series, I can imagine the majority of characters we've seen coming back as twisted versions. I am interested in the politics of the MU as a whole, something that 'DS9' added to the table, but this is before all that, a point before 'TOS' but after the 'Enterprise' details… If we're talking details though, there are some that need mentioning: I'm not sure we've ever seen the Communicator specifically decreed as how the Universal Translator works. That sequence with Burnham on the Sarcophagus ship was interesting, but problematic. It shows the Klingons really did learn English (which seems bizarre, especially when you consider their attitude to outsiders), and it shows that aliens hear what comes out of the Communicator which adds clunkiness to the Trek trope that aliens understand each other. And although it made sense that Kol would accept a challenge, there was no way a diminutive human woman would have the physical strength to parry the blows of a full-sized Klingon warrior, no matter what Vulcan training she'd received! So fighting with those little daggers that could have been stunted mek'leths, was too ridiculous for me to enjoy it (I'd have loved to see bat'leth duelling, however!). The same with the central idea of the episode: that they would defeat the cloak (and they do call it a cloak this time), by finding the imperfections in it. For one thing, does this ship not have shields? Or do they have to be deactivated whenever it cloaks? And for another, if the sensors could tell them that it had come into the system then they could detect the ship, right? The logic didn't seem to make sense.
So they have to plant a couple of beacons to amplify a signal that will allow them to detect the imperfections in the cloak. The idea of having to sneak onto a Klingon Bridge in the middle of battle to plant a beacon should have been terrifically dramatic, but instead they focus on Tyler losing it to his post traumatic stress when confronted with L'Rell whom he clearly doesn't know except as his torturer. All the while the Discovery is causing a diversion by going into battle with it to draw attention from the intruders. Klingons can't detect when someone's beamed aboard? There's never any shaking so the Discovery is doing nothing to it, but somehow isn't being destroyed and they have time for Burnham and Tyler to creep around and even explain what's going on to Cornwell… I didn't get a sense of urgency about anything. Even when Burnham shows herself it seems like it's to play for time. I can get onboard if both the ship and she were playing to a 'draw' in the sense that she wasn't trying to defeat Kol, just defend herself long enough to get beamed out, and the ship was doing enough to stay clear from too much damage. But it's still hard to accept the plan. Doing all those micro jumps and almost doing in Stamets seemed like a clever idea, but in reality it makes the ship look more fantasy than ever, and it already looked pretty dodgy from the way it has to twist around at super speed (and I still can't stand the fact that stars don't go in a straight line when they're at warp - there's no reason for such stupidity!).
Lorca comes off looking like a better Captain, not wanting to leave the Pahvans at risk from the Klingons (but even though they've defeated the main ship, surely others could still come?), and refusing to leave Burnham and Tyler behind, as well as showing appreciation of Stamets' sterling efforts in the many micro jumps he had to endure. But he still goes against a direct order (just as Burnham almost returns to her mutinous past when she doesn't take no for an answer about going with Tyler - the fact they're so close would seem to be unprofessional for them to demand they do the mission together, but she convinces Lorca to let her), and if he hadn't succeeded in getting Cornwell back and destroying Kol and his ship, thus striking a grand blow for the Federation in the war, you can bet he'd have been busted. I sensed Vulcan Admiral Turrel being potentially duplicitous in his order to return to Starbase 46 (not 47, was that an in-joke by absence?), in a way that he was coaxing Lorca to return with the promise of being awarded a medal, but could possibly lock him up for his disobedience as soon as he arrives. Maybe I was reading too much into that? It doesn't matter what the intentions were anyway as they're stuck in a parallel universe from what it seems, something much worse than a cunning Vulcan superior to worry about.
The brief flashes of Trekkiness haven't managed to shine through so much that is out of place and time, and one reason it takes me so long to get around to viewing each episode is because I'm not enthused to do so. It's so strange that I have all these new Trek episodes to watch and the will to see them has been sapped. I do want to see what happens next, but I also know that each new episode doesn't have the satisfaction of past Treks. It is very much like the Kelvin films that don't give me that satisfaction so many of the older films did, and still do, and I struggle to accept any of these characters as people I want to spend time with, so different from the other Trek series' (and other TV shows as well). The truth is I don't find it to be very well written, I don't find it to be fulfilling the reasons I watch Trek in the first place, and I don't find it to be something that impresses. It's no longer a case of waiting and seeing, giving it a chance to find its voice and rhythm. It's had that chance and it did not manage to make this time period work. It was a tough assignment in the first place, so for them to now go off into a parallel universe as an avoidance of the real universe, seeking story potential in something that's tricky to pull off by its place in that era, is yet another aspect of the series that doesn't bode particularly well. I don't sense a direction that they were heading in and I'm fascinated to see how this starship wreck will play out and whether they can recover any small amount of goodwill they achieved in the first episode.
**
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
DVD, Star Trek: Discovery S1 (Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum)
As you would expect from the author of Trek novels, Kirsten Beyer gives us a traditional episode that wouldn't look out of place on any of the other series' if the Klingon element were omitted. I knew we would be getting a Saru episode at some point and I had the impression Beyer was to be the writer of it, so this must be the one. I wouldn't say we delved that deeply into his character, personality or background, but it does feature him more heavily than the other episodes have and I suppose this is the closest you're going to get to a character focused instalment on a series that has places to go and serialised development points to hit. There are actually three stories to a greater or lesser degree: that of Burnham, Tyler and Saru on planet Pahvo; Admiral Cornwell and L'Rell on the Sarcophagus ship which Kol stole; and a tiny little side story of Tilly showing some compassion for Stamets as he experiences disorientation due to his regular exposure to the mycelial network that enables Discovery to make its outlandish jumps. I found all three to be of interest where sometimes, and too often, the series feels too broad or lacking in the personal. For this one episode at least, I didn't find Tilly annoying or Stamets objectionable, and I appreciated the character work Beyer brought to it. This is more along the lines of what I'd like to see from the series - most episodes I feel like I'm merely there to spot the deep Trek references that only very familiar viewers would notice, so this one was more directed at me and at the same time had nothing of note in referential regard.
When Cornwell tells L'Rell that the Federation has no death penalty, that's not quite true - I wish she'd said 'save one,' because we know that Talos IV was decreed off limits on penalty of death after Captain Pike's experiences there, and this was ongoing even during Kirk's tenure, so unless the Federation took several years to decide on this order, then they do indeed have a crime punishable by death. However, this level of detail is splitting hairs stuff and it would be just as easy to say that Cornwell knew about this situation only it wasn't necessary to bring up in this conversation. If we're talking details I don't like (and I too often find myself doing it watching this series), then the episode began in typically battle-heavy mode. Not that I mind that in itself, and it was almost sad to lose the USS Gagarin to the unfair advantage of the Klingons' invisibility screens (which Kol is now sharing out among those Houses loyal to him), but it's often the aesthetics that bother me, and once again I cringed when the ships, especially the Starfleet vessels, were pew-pewing out laser blasts of Phaser fire rather than the powered up screech of a beam. It's the little things, always the little things. I felt pretty fortunate that nothing else in the episode got under my skin so that I was practically enjoying this little bit of planetary exploration as far as it went, as well as the other strands that played out between.
I didn't quite understand for a while what the Landing Party was on Pahvo to do, but it's clear by the end of the episode that the planet gives off some kind of signal or sonar 'beacon' that can disrupt the invisibility of the Klingons and if they could amplify it to a greater degree then it would be possible to negate the enemy's advantage. It does appear to be farfetched that one planet could cover all of space, but ignoring the more realistic side of things, it gives them a chance to show a land-based mission. I'd like to know where the security officers were. I know Tyler was along, and we know Captain Lorca isn't the type to be that careful about protocol and procedure (one reason the series has so much more of a casual attitude than other Trek), so I see he was sufficient for the protection of his fellow officers. It was good just to be out of space, and if there's something missing (alongside things such as the flashbacks to the Shenzhou that I thought we'd be getting more of), then it is strange new worlds, which makes this episode stand out all the more. We do learn a little more about Saru, that he's got a huge range for detecting danger, and that he can run really fast (which we get to see, done in a reasonably good way), and the story is fairly clever in that you're never quite sure what's going on: at first there's suspicion about the Pahvans, these energy beings that were reminiscent of the spores (and seemed to act in the same way as we see Tyler suddenly poof into sight alongside his crew mates), then they seem welcoming, if inscrutable.
Events take a sinister turn as Saru allows them inside his head during the night and communicates the war with the Klingons, but then goes all hippyish and pretends he's contacted Discovery and they've been allowed to remain on the planet indefinitely. So you assume what usually happens in these Trek situations has happened: that he's been taken over by the aliens who want to keep them for nefarious reasons. Except in the end it was Saru acting under his own will because for the first time in his life he had an absence of fear. This was the point of the episode, a small character revelation, but nonetheless important. I didn't feel it quite had the emotional weight it needed, but that's the price of making your series heavy on the action and set-pieces to the detriment of getting to know the characters. If it's an early step towards the more character-driven nature of Trek then I applaud it and certainly felt pity for Saru, who I like a lot, but there remains a long way to go, and I sense the audience isn't clamouring for this direction nowadays so I won't hold my breath. I continue to see Saru as a brother creature to Odo (when he held out the green rock for Tyler to touch it reminded me of the Female Changeling teaching Odo about being a rock in 'The Search' on 'DS9'), both coming from a species that acts most prominently from fear, both having learned the need for it to survive the ravages of predators all around them, the look, the voice and even, sometimes, the attitude helps to connect them, too.
Someone who should be in fear is Admiral Cornwell, captured by the Klingons when they tried to abduct Sarek a couple of episodes ago in 'Lethe' and got her as a consolation prize. She could have been dead already, but it turns out that Kol's holding her as prisoner. It feels like a long time since we got another Klingon-centric continuation and now more than ever I felt they were very much like the Goa'uld on 'Stargate,' the ships so reminiscent of those ancient Egypt-inspired vessels on the inside. The new Klingon ships are plain ugly on the outside, a mess of mass, bits and pieces far removed from the clean lines and sharp shapes of what we know as the Trek aesthetic. But there's nothing I can do about it, so I try not to dwell - I even thought the lower angles we saw Kol from, much of the time, made him look like a normal 'TNG' era Klingon, and it's only when you get a view above him or his head moves that you see the ugly, misshapen dome to ruin the effect. I'm still waiting to see other Houses, though I don't think there are going to be any other physical types represented as I first hoped, from what I hear. The House of Kor is spoken of again (where exactly is Kor?), which is one of the only references (along with General Order Number One about not interfering with pre-warp sentient species), but it's L'Rell that is the interesting character: what is her purpose, she's like a chameleon, jumping from friend to enemy every time? She tells Cornwell that T'Kuvma's successor (Voq), is gone forever and she's feeling alone, but she must have planned to go somewhere when they escaped.
You'd think Kol would be more suspicious of her, considering all that's happened, and now her prisoner has to be subdued to prevent escape. You can tell the Admiral still lives in spite of the extensive damage done to her, L'Rell dragging her to some morgue where she finds the bodies of other Klingon allies, I suppose, dismembered and left to rot. She already hates Kol enough to hope to blow up his ship, so revenge appears to be her only motive, though whether she was serious about her request for asylum, I can't tell. She's always seemed like an opportunist that jumps whichever way the wind blows, but you could also say she's prudent, especially for someone of her race, and particularly at this time in history when they seem more animal-like than any other period we've seen. And it was brave to share her defiance of Kol with a Starfleet Admiral who could have dropped her in it, so she doesn't seem to have the same low opinion of the ability to trust them as her former leader, T'Kuvma, did. Her storyline remains in flux. We know she doesn't have anyone else to trust so I imagine another escape attempt will be forthcoming, especially with the Admiral still kicking (you see her moving slightly when she's on the floor), and if this was a truly traditional episode it would be a two-parter since what comes next must be tied directly to the events shown here: the Pahvans have foolishly sent a signal to the Klingons in what Burnham believes is an attempt to promote harmony between the warring sides. It worked with the Organians, but somehow I don't see conflict being written out by these writers, no matter how much Trek influence Beyer's allowed to bring!
The other plot, not really a plot as such, so slight is it, about Stamets' experiences in the machine, is worth noting for further pointing to the Mirror Universe that we know is coming (Jonathan Frakes let the Agoniser out of the bag mentioning the MU before the series even started when talking about the episode he'd directed!). It seems that Tilly will be a Captain there as Stamets calls her so when he steps out of the spore drive interface and eventually admits that the knowledge he has changes when he's in there sometimes. This would seem like as good a way as any to connect with the MU, something I had wondered about, though I still don't know how they're going to get away with the knowledge of it at all since Kirk and crew were the first to discover it. I really hope they tie into the 'Enterprise' episodes that dealt with it, and although the MU isn't the way I'd have chosen to go for an aspect of Trek to explore, I'm still curious as to its purpose and usage to come. While I can't say this was a thrilling or gripping episode, it wasn't offensive, wasn't boring and a few character beats snuck in, so it actually makes me want the next part, even though I don't see how the Klingons could threaten the Pahvans as Burnham fears. I do wish the political side of the Klingon war had been played up, and the complexity and fruitful denseness of Trek could have been delved into, when the series has felt too surface and light. But it is Season 1, and that's usually the season that is weakest in a Trek series. This episode moved in the right direction - now I'd like to see a Trek expert like Beyer directed by a Trek veteran Director like Frakes to really see Trek again. And it would also be nice to have longer episodes sometimes as this is shorter than most Treks.
**
As you would expect from the author of Trek novels, Kirsten Beyer gives us a traditional episode that wouldn't look out of place on any of the other series' if the Klingon element were omitted. I knew we would be getting a Saru episode at some point and I had the impression Beyer was to be the writer of it, so this must be the one. I wouldn't say we delved that deeply into his character, personality or background, but it does feature him more heavily than the other episodes have and I suppose this is the closest you're going to get to a character focused instalment on a series that has places to go and serialised development points to hit. There are actually three stories to a greater or lesser degree: that of Burnham, Tyler and Saru on planet Pahvo; Admiral Cornwell and L'Rell on the Sarcophagus ship which Kol stole; and a tiny little side story of Tilly showing some compassion for Stamets as he experiences disorientation due to his regular exposure to the mycelial network that enables Discovery to make its outlandish jumps. I found all three to be of interest where sometimes, and too often, the series feels too broad or lacking in the personal. For this one episode at least, I didn't find Tilly annoying or Stamets objectionable, and I appreciated the character work Beyer brought to it. This is more along the lines of what I'd like to see from the series - most episodes I feel like I'm merely there to spot the deep Trek references that only very familiar viewers would notice, so this one was more directed at me and at the same time had nothing of note in referential regard.
When Cornwell tells L'Rell that the Federation has no death penalty, that's not quite true - I wish she'd said 'save one,' because we know that Talos IV was decreed off limits on penalty of death after Captain Pike's experiences there, and this was ongoing even during Kirk's tenure, so unless the Federation took several years to decide on this order, then they do indeed have a crime punishable by death. However, this level of detail is splitting hairs stuff and it would be just as easy to say that Cornwell knew about this situation only it wasn't necessary to bring up in this conversation. If we're talking details I don't like (and I too often find myself doing it watching this series), then the episode began in typically battle-heavy mode. Not that I mind that in itself, and it was almost sad to lose the USS Gagarin to the unfair advantage of the Klingons' invisibility screens (which Kol is now sharing out among those Houses loyal to him), but it's often the aesthetics that bother me, and once again I cringed when the ships, especially the Starfleet vessels, were pew-pewing out laser blasts of Phaser fire rather than the powered up screech of a beam. It's the little things, always the little things. I felt pretty fortunate that nothing else in the episode got under my skin so that I was practically enjoying this little bit of planetary exploration as far as it went, as well as the other strands that played out between.
I didn't quite understand for a while what the Landing Party was on Pahvo to do, but it's clear by the end of the episode that the planet gives off some kind of signal or sonar 'beacon' that can disrupt the invisibility of the Klingons and if they could amplify it to a greater degree then it would be possible to negate the enemy's advantage. It does appear to be farfetched that one planet could cover all of space, but ignoring the more realistic side of things, it gives them a chance to show a land-based mission. I'd like to know where the security officers were. I know Tyler was along, and we know Captain Lorca isn't the type to be that careful about protocol and procedure (one reason the series has so much more of a casual attitude than other Trek), so I see he was sufficient for the protection of his fellow officers. It was good just to be out of space, and if there's something missing (alongside things such as the flashbacks to the Shenzhou that I thought we'd be getting more of), then it is strange new worlds, which makes this episode stand out all the more. We do learn a little more about Saru, that he's got a huge range for detecting danger, and that he can run really fast (which we get to see, done in a reasonably good way), and the story is fairly clever in that you're never quite sure what's going on: at first there's suspicion about the Pahvans, these energy beings that were reminiscent of the spores (and seemed to act in the same way as we see Tyler suddenly poof into sight alongside his crew mates), then they seem welcoming, if inscrutable.
Events take a sinister turn as Saru allows them inside his head during the night and communicates the war with the Klingons, but then goes all hippyish and pretends he's contacted Discovery and they've been allowed to remain on the planet indefinitely. So you assume what usually happens in these Trek situations has happened: that he's been taken over by the aliens who want to keep them for nefarious reasons. Except in the end it was Saru acting under his own will because for the first time in his life he had an absence of fear. This was the point of the episode, a small character revelation, but nonetheless important. I didn't feel it quite had the emotional weight it needed, but that's the price of making your series heavy on the action and set-pieces to the detriment of getting to know the characters. If it's an early step towards the more character-driven nature of Trek then I applaud it and certainly felt pity for Saru, who I like a lot, but there remains a long way to go, and I sense the audience isn't clamouring for this direction nowadays so I won't hold my breath. I continue to see Saru as a brother creature to Odo (when he held out the green rock for Tyler to touch it reminded me of the Female Changeling teaching Odo about being a rock in 'The Search' on 'DS9'), both coming from a species that acts most prominently from fear, both having learned the need for it to survive the ravages of predators all around them, the look, the voice and even, sometimes, the attitude helps to connect them, too.
Someone who should be in fear is Admiral Cornwell, captured by the Klingons when they tried to abduct Sarek a couple of episodes ago in 'Lethe' and got her as a consolation prize. She could have been dead already, but it turns out that Kol's holding her as prisoner. It feels like a long time since we got another Klingon-centric continuation and now more than ever I felt they were very much like the Goa'uld on 'Stargate,' the ships so reminiscent of those ancient Egypt-inspired vessels on the inside. The new Klingon ships are plain ugly on the outside, a mess of mass, bits and pieces far removed from the clean lines and sharp shapes of what we know as the Trek aesthetic. But there's nothing I can do about it, so I try not to dwell - I even thought the lower angles we saw Kol from, much of the time, made him look like a normal 'TNG' era Klingon, and it's only when you get a view above him or his head moves that you see the ugly, misshapen dome to ruin the effect. I'm still waiting to see other Houses, though I don't think there are going to be any other physical types represented as I first hoped, from what I hear. The House of Kor is spoken of again (where exactly is Kor?), which is one of the only references (along with General Order Number One about not interfering with pre-warp sentient species), but it's L'Rell that is the interesting character: what is her purpose, she's like a chameleon, jumping from friend to enemy every time? She tells Cornwell that T'Kuvma's successor (Voq), is gone forever and she's feeling alone, but she must have planned to go somewhere when they escaped.
You'd think Kol would be more suspicious of her, considering all that's happened, and now her prisoner has to be subdued to prevent escape. You can tell the Admiral still lives in spite of the extensive damage done to her, L'Rell dragging her to some morgue where she finds the bodies of other Klingon allies, I suppose, dismembered and left to rot. She already hates Kol enough to hope to blow up his ship, so revenge appears to be her only motive, though whether she was serious about her request for asylum, I can't tell. She's always seemed like an opportunist that jumps whichever way the wind blows, but you could also say she's prudent, especially for someone of her race, and particularly at this time in history when they seem more animal-like than any other period we've seen. And it was brave to share her defiance of Kol with a Starfleet Admiral who could have dropped her in it, so she doesn't seem to have the same low opinion of the ability to trust them as her former leader, T'Kuvma, did. Her storyline remains in flux. We know she doesn't have anyone else to trust so I imagine another escape attempt will be forthcoming, especially with the Admiral still kicking (you see her moving slightly when she's on the floor), and if this was a truly traditional episode it would be a two-parter since what comes next must be tied directly to the events shown here: the Pahvans have foolishly sent a signal to the Klingons in what Burnham believes is an attempt to promote harmony between the warring sides. It worked with the Organians, but somehow I don't see conflict being written out by these writers, no matter how much Trek influence Beyer's allowed to bring!
The other plot, not really a plot as such, so slight is it, about Stamets' experiences in the machine, is worth noting for further pointing to the Mirror Universe that we know is coming (Jonathan Frakes let the Agoniser out of the bag mentioning the MU before the series even started when talking about the episode he'd directed!). It seems that Tilly will be a Captain there as Stamets calls her so when he steps out of the spore drive interface and eventually admits that the knowledge he has changes when he's in there sometimes. This would seem like as good a way as any to connect with the MU, something I had wondered about, though I still don't know how they're going to get away with the knowledge of it at all since Kirk and crew were the first to discover it. I really hope they tie into the 'Enterprise' episodes that dealt with it, and although the MU isn't the way I'd have chosen to go for an aspect of Trek to explore, I'm still curious as to its purpose and usage to come. While I can't say this was a thrilling or gripping episode, it wasn't offensive, wasn't boring and a few character beats snuck in, so it actually makes me want the next part, even though I don't see how the Klingons could threaten the Pahvans as Burnham fears. I do wish the political side of the Klingon war had been played up, and the complexity and fruitful denseness of Trek could have been delved into, when the series has felt too surface and light. But it is Season 1, and that's usually the season that is weakest in a Trek series. This episode moved in the right direction - now I'd like to see a Trek expert like Beyer directed by a Trek veteran Director like Frakes to really see Trek again. And it would also be nice to have longer episodes sometimes as this is shorter than most Treks.
**
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Duet
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (Duet)
To create an episode that doesn't necessarily go where you expect is a positive, and on that score this one certainly delivered. It may not quite have taken things to a conclusion, but it threw up plenty of entertainment. It's a very traditional structure with an 'A' and a 'B' story, the second of which is some necessary prep work to get to the point of Ronon staying in Atlantis on a permanent basis, and the other, the main thrust of the episode, a straight-up sci-fi story. From the title you can assume it's going to be about two people, and it was, just not in the way I envisaged. I thought it was going to be a more typical bottle episode with McKay and Cadman trapped as prisoners of The Wraith and talking things through. At first it appeared they'd be taken to a Hive ship, but when the dart was shot down in fairly spectacular fashion for a TV show, it seemed as if they'd be in tight quarters and the whole episode would be about getting them out of the small ship. Turns out The Wraith's technology is just like a 'Star Trek' Transporter, where the living person is held inside, a computer program rather than physically sitting squashed in the back of the ship. Again, it looks like it's going to be a hard choice, that one will be saved and the other will die, and something I did like about the episode was that it had a happy ending because on occasion it looked like it was going to be miserable. But Cadman survives - we knew McKay was, because aside from being the best character, he's also the brains of the operation and a main cast member.
Speaking of which, this episode debuts an all-new opening title sequence. The main thing to say about it is that it's very blue, but I preferred the old one. The key changes are Rainbow Sun Francks is so longer part of the cast. It was inevitable, but is still a little sad because sometimes TV shows have this happen where a character becomes redundant or fails to whip up the writers' imaginations, and it must be very hard for an actor to take on the chin, especially considering how lucrative it is to be cast in a modern sci-fi series, even more one that is part of a successful and growing franchise (as it was then), so I hope Francks was able to bounce back from it and find success elsewhere - even though he was playing a bit of a bland character you still feel somewhat protective of a cast and hopefully he'll be back to play an off-the-wall Ford as a recurring threat of some kind, or at least a meddler, an imbalance in the equation. The other big changes gleaned from the title sequence are Jason Momoa officially in the main cast and Dr. Beckett making the cut, too, which is good to see - although he's not in the episode a ton, apart from being important in a medical capacity, I loved witnessing his natural compassion come to the fore even over any military training when he sees the injured Wraith and goes from holding a gun on it to offering help. Of course a Wraith isn't going to respond to such 'weakness,' and Carson would probably have been killed, only Sheppard's quick shooting prevented it from hitting the self-destruct, but it was important to see that unrestricted desire to help even an enemy that defines doctors in sci-fi and made it a really good scene.
If it's good scenes you want, there are plenty to choose from, with McKay the recipient of an extra passenger alongside his own consciousness: Cadman. Again I was fooled at first as I assumed he had some kind of telepathic connection with her back in the ship, but she's actually inside his mind, sharing the body, though thankfully, not each others' thoughts (see 'Attached' on 'TNG' for that). They bring back Dr. Heightmeyer as the psychologist there to help Rodney deal with his situation, though she only ends up making things worse when she proposes he should allow Cadman some control, like a voice, for example. This gives the actor the chance to act out as a woman as all the great Treks have done over the years, and while it's usually body-swapping, this one was different enough because they're both inhabiting the same body. Cadman was a bit sneaky as you would expect from the brief time we have with her at the beginning, but also has a lot of joie de vivre - I felt they could have gone into more exploration of all this to make it a truly good episode, but they don't tend to make much attempt at that, the most obvious being McKay's meal with a lady friend, Dr. Beckett accompanying. I suppose it would have seemed a little crass to fool the lady by Cadman feeding him the right line or thing to do all evening and later she'd realise it wasn't his doing, but I couldn't help feeling it was something to pursue more than they did. I suppose it was the case that a lot was being dealt with, from Ronon's status, to whether they could get McKay and Cadman separated, to make it too light.
I'd have thought there might be a permanent bond between the two enforced comrades, but it remains to be seen whether she was a one-episode wonder, or a regular face as that other soldier was who'd been in the previous episode. Perhaps it was a little too pat and comfortable that she was so quick to assume the self-sacrificial role when it appears one of the consciousnesses must let go for the other to survive, but then she is a soldier who was meant to protect them, so it was partly her fault they got McKay (although she did save Beckett, who looked quite nonplussed around her), so she was accepting her responsibility. I really thought they were going to do it and she'd be lost as 'Stargate Universe' did with a couple of characters later in the series, though with the hopes of bringing them back at some point. It would have been a hard ending and would have given McKay lots to think about, but the series doesn't tend to be morose or reflective so it was in the spirit of it that she survives, but as I say, they could have made more of her coming to that decision. There wasn't much choice anyway, as McKay was too important to the mission and she'd be stealing his body, and even if she was selfish enough to want that she couldn't live in someone else's body as a man, it would be just too much, taking someone else's identity to protect some form of her own, yet not. Confusing and complicated and I suppose it would have unravelled if they'd tried to examine the situation more seriously, which probably wouldn't have been in keeping with the tone of the series.
My concern is with Teyla who once again doesn't have a significant contribution and looks a potential Ford for the future unless they can do something more interesting with her. I can see they were setting her up with Ronon in some way as they have a training fight, but apart from that it was all Sheppard pleading with Weir to let him keep his new toy of this alien warrior. I don't quite see where Ronon will fit in as he's clearly a loose cannon and isn't going to be good at taking orders, no matter the military background he came from you get the impression he's a little disdainful of humanity and knows he's superior so there needs to be something that shows our characters' qualities that make him see the importance of helping them beyond a common enemy. So far you can see him doing whatever he feels is necessary and the excitement Sheppard feels for having this new killing machine as part of his team may turn to frustration when he realises how mismatched they are, but that could create drama so I hope it pans out. It's also good to see a standalone story focusing on a character as that's really what I want for each of the main cast so we can get to know them better. Rodney's the Mr. Data from 'TNG' or EMH from 'Voyager' in that he's the breakout, so I expect he'll get the lion's share, but they need to flesh out the others more, too.
**
To create an episode that doesn't necessarily go where you expect is a positive, and on that score this one certainly delivered. It may not quite have taken things to a conclusion, but it threw up plenty of entertainment. It's a very traditional structure with an 'A' and a 'B' story, the second of which is some necessary prep work to get to the point of Ronon staying in Atlantis on a permanent basis, and the other, the main thrust of the episode, a straight-up sci-fi story. From the title you can assume it's going to be about two people, and it was, just not in the way I envisaged. I thought it was going to be a more typical bottle episode with McKay and Cadman trapped as prisoners of The Wraith and talking things through. At first it appeared they'd be taken to a Hive ship, but when the dart was shot down in fairly spectacular fashion for a TV show, it seemed as if they'd be in tight quarters and the whole episode would be about getting them out of the small ship. Turns out The Wraith's technology is just like a 'Star Trek' Transporter, where the living person is held inside, a computer program rather than physically sitting squashed in the back of the ship. Again, it looks like it's going to be a hard choice, that one will be saved and the other will die, and something I did like about the episode was that it had a happy ending because on occasion it looked like it was going to be miserable. But Cadman survives - we knew McKay was, because aside from being the best character, he's also the brains of the operation and a main cast member.
Speaking of which, this episode debuts an all-new opening title sequence. The main thing to say about it is that it's very blue, but I preferred the old one. The key changes are Rainbow Sun Francks is so longer part of the cast. It was inevitable, but is still a little sad because sometimes TV shows have this happen where a character becomes redundant or fails to whip up the writers' imaginations, and it must be very hard for an actor to take on the chin, especially considering how lucrative it is to be cast in a modern sci-fi series, even more one that is part of a successful and growing franchise (as it was then), so I hope Francks was able to bounce back from it and find success elsewhere - even though he was playing a bit of a bland character you still feel somewhat protective of a cast and hopefully he'll be back to play an off-the-wall Ford as a recurring threat of some kind, or at least a meddler, an imbalance in the equation. The other big changes gleaned from the title sequence are Jason Momoa officially in the main cast and Dr. Beckett making the cut, too, which is good to see - although he's not in the episode a ton, apart from being important in a medical capacity, I loved witnessing his natural compassion come to the fore even over any military training when he sees the injured Wraith and goes from holding a gun on it to offering help. Of course a Wraith isn't going to respond to such 'weakness,' and Carson would probably have been killed, only Sheppard's quick shooting prevented it from hitting the self-destruct, but it was important to see that unrestricted desire to help even an enemy that defines doctors in sci-fi and made it a really good scene.
If it's good scenes you want, there are plenty to choose from, with McKay the recipient of an extra passenger alongside his own consciousness: Cadman. Again I was fooled at first as I assumed he had some kind of telepathic connection with her back in the ship, but she's actually inside his mind, sharing the body, though thankfully, not each others' thoughts (see 'Attached' on 'TNG' for that). They bring back Dr. Heightmeyer as the psychologist there to help Rodney deal with his situation, though she only ends up making things worse when she proposes he should allow Cadman some control, like a voice, for example. This gives the actor the chance to act out as a woman as all the great Treks have done over the years, and while it's usually body-swapping, this one was different enough because they're both inhabiting the same body. Cadman was a bit sneaky as you would expect from the brief time we have with her at the beginning, but also has a lot of joie de vivre - I felt they could have gone into more exploration of all this to make it a truly good episode, but they don't tend to make much attempt at that, the most obvious being McKay's meal with a lady friend, Dr. Beckett accompanying. I suppose it would have seemed a little crass to fool the lady by Cadman feeding him the right line or thing to do all evening and later she'd realise it wasn't his doing, but I couldn't help feeling it was something to pursue more than they did. I suppose it was the case that a lot was being dealt with, from Ronon's status, to whether they could get McKay and Cadman separated, to make it too light.
I'd have thought there might be a permanent bond between the two enforced comrades, but it remains to be seen whether she was a one-episode wonder, or a regular face as that other soldier was who'd been in the previous episode. Perhaps it was a little too pat and comfortable that she was so quick to assume the self-sacrificial role when it appears one of the consciousnesses must let go for the other to survive, but then she is a soldier who was meant to protect them, so it was partly her fault they got McKay (although she did save Beckett, who looked quite nonplussed around her), so she was accepting her responsibility. I really thought they were going to do it and she'd be lost as 'Stargate Universe' did with a couple of characters later in the series, though with the hopes of bringing them back at some point. It would have been a hard ending and would have given McKay lots to think about, but the series doesn't tend to be morose or reflective so it was in the spirit of it that she survives, but as I say, they could have made more of her coming to that decision. There wasn't much choice anyway, as McKay was too important to the mission and she'd be stealing his body, and even if she was selfish enough to want that she couldn't live in someone else's body as a man, it would be just too much, taking someone else's identity to protect some form of her own, yet not. Confusing and complicated and I suppose it would have unravelled if they'd tried to examine the situation more seriously, which probably wouldn't have been in keeping with the tone of the series.
My concern is with Teyla who once again doesn't have a significant contribution and looks a potential Ford for the future unless they can do something more interesting with her. I can see they were setting her up with Ronon in some way as they have a training fight, but apart from that it was all Sheppard pleading with Weir to let him keep his new toy of this alien warrior. I don't quite see where Ronon will fit in as he's clearly a loose cannon and isn't going to be good at taking orders, no matter the military background he came from you get the impression he's a little disdainful of humanity and knows he's superior so there needs to be something that shows our characters' qualities that make him see the importance of helping them beyond a common enemy. So far you can see him doing whatever he feels is necessary and the excitement Sheppard feels for having this new killing machine as part of his team may turn to frustration when he realises how mismatched they are, but that could create drama so I hope it pans out. It's also good to see a standalone story focusing on a character as that's really what I want for each of the main cast so we can get to know them better. Rodney's the Mr. Data from 'TNG' or EMH from 'Voyager' in that he's the breakout, so I expect he'll get the lion's share, but they need to flesh out the others more, too.
**
Runner
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (Runner)
The main impression I had was of an uneven episode with some parts working better than others. The best of which was Rodney McKay stealing the show, as ever, his scenes with the rogue Ford putting him in an all-new situation and a highlight whenever they were onscreen. Previously he just had to worry about radiation and sunburn, now he's stuck in the middle of a forest with a maniac. It was actually great fun to have Ford back and acting like himself rather than some kind of crazy animal or monster. Perhaps he could be that way with McKay because there was no machismo to oppose, McKay's pretty weedy and posed no threat. So it was entertaining to see the Wraith-infected ex-military man acting as if everything was normal and McKay trying to humour him, yet his personality doesn't allow him to do a very good job so there's good tug of war between his usual attitude of mental superiority and fear for his life, making these scenes stand out when much of the episode was mere runaround of little consequence. I was really surprised they didn't kill off Ford, as I felt it coming, either from the new guy Ronon Dex in a fight (they do have the fight, but it's not to the death, and in close quarters and the darkness of a forest at night, it wasn't the most easily visible combat), or Sheppard having to sacrifice his friend. Caldwell cements his enmity with the good guys of Atlantis by reminding Sheppard of his duty to put down the threat if he can't capture Ford, and we're also reminded he has the military superiority in spite of Sheppard's promotion. But Ford lived to fight another day, doing the equivalent of Luke Skywalker in 'The Empire Strikes Back' and finding an escape route.
The real news is Jason Momoa joining the cast as this alien warrior, not too far removed from Teal'c. Maybe they felt they didn't have that enough with just Teyla, who I always assumed was the character to fill that spot, but she hasn't necessarily. I hope they don't lose her due to the addition because she has been less at the forefront in these first few episodes. I knew there was going to be some dreadlocks guy at some point, and I also knew it would be this season by accidentally glancing at the cast on the Season 2 DVD box, but I didn't realise he'd be played by Momoa who's gone on to big things in the film world, most notably as Aquaman in DC's cinematic universe. Not that I've seen him in anything before, so this is my introduction and he was okay, but we need more than just some warrior, as much as they go out of their way to show him as a tough nut and an accomplished fighter. His home is in ruins thanks to The Wraith, so he has nowhere to go, and it seems only logical that he'd join Atlantis in their fight against the common foe, but it'll be interesting to see where he fits into the setup. The thing with SG-1 was that it was well balanced, character-wise, with the tech boffin, the military guy, an alien warrior and a specialist (Ford wears a headscarf like Jackson), whereas this and 'Universe' both threw a gaggle of faces in to people their respective series' and it's not so clear-cut. For example, we have Dr. Beckett who's in most episodes, but isn't actually a main cast member.
He plays his part in this episode, taking out a tracking device from Ronon's back, put there by The Wraith as sport (he's the 'Runner' of the title), all reminding me of 'Captive Pursuit' on 'DS9,' but with a less focused story. Here, it's much more about running around in the woods and the episode could have done with a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve: it starts out a bit 'Predator,' as any episode can seem when it's about tracking down a powerful enemy in woods or jungle, or even a Big Foot story. Ronon's story was simply informative, it didn't hold any great resonance, but then he's portrayed as quite a reserved man, unsurprising when he's been essentially a drifter living rough for seven years since he was let loose as quarry for The Wraith to pursue. But weren't they sleeping for quite some time until the Atlantis crew woke them prematurely? I forget. I'm sure it all makes sense, and they do try to endear this guy to us, or at least make him look cool with all his pirate cowboy look and weapons, and his tough exterior, but I'm undecided about him. I almost thought from the way Ford was close to his old self that they might even be able to bring him back into the fold and, like McKay suggested, keep his 'superpowers' intact, as that would certainly make him a more interesting character, but as soon as you see that he's just brain-addled and wants to kill even his friends if they so much as look at him funny, you realise how remote that possibility is.
It's good that they leave him free to come into it again, and I can imagine he feasted on the unfortunate Wraith who beamed him up, and gave them a really bad day. He's a loose cannon, an enemy of Wraith, but also needing them to survive. As interesting as that is, the season hasn't really begun yet, there's still a long way to go and we're no nearer to finding out what the story's going to be about. So far we've been dealing with the leftover threads of last season and it's unclear what their focus is now, so I think we're badly in need of some direction and purpose to keep the series from getting bogged down, since they don't have the advantage of the many hanging stories from multiple seasons of 'SG-1' to pick up at a moment's notice, and the characters, except perhaps for McKay and Sheppard, are also in need of fleshing out and putting in meaningful situations. As it stands, this episode was merely a stopgap, an introduction for a new character rather than anything providing momentum towards a plot or goal.
**
The main impression I had was of an uneven episode with some parts working better than others. The best of which was Rodney McKay stealing the show, as ever, his scenes with the rogue Ford putting him in an all-new situation and a highlight whenever they were onscreen. Previously he just had to worry about radiation and sunburn, now he's stuck in the middle of a forest with a maniac. It was actually great fun to have Ford back and acting like himself rather than some kind of crazy animal or monster. Perhaps he could be that way with McKay because there was no machismo to oppose, McKay's pretty weedy and posed no threat. So it was entertaining to see the Wraith-infected ex-military man acting as if everything was normal and McKay trying to humour him, yet his personality doesn't allow him to do a very good job so there's good tug of war between his usual attitude of mental superiority and fear for his life, making these scenes stand out when much of the episode was mere runaround of little consequence. I was really surprised they didn't kill off Ford, as I felt it coming, either from the new guy Ronon Dex in a fight (they do have the fight, but it's not to the death, and in close quarters and the darkness of a forest at night, it wasn't the most easily visible combat), or Sheppard having to sacrifice his friend. Caldwell cements his enmity with the good guys of Atlantis by reminding Sheppard of his duty to put down the threat if he can't capture Ford, and we're also reminded he has the military superiority in spite of Sheppard's promotion. But Ford lived to fight another day, doing the equivalent of Luke Skywalker in 'The Empire Strikes Back' and finding an escape route.
The real news is Jason Momoa joining the cast as this alien warrior, not too far removed from Teal'c. Maybe they felt they didn't have that enough with just Teyla, who I always assumed was the character to fill that spot, but she hasn't necessarily. I hope they don't lose her due to the addition because she has been less at the forefront in these first few episodes. I knew there was going to be some dreadlocks guy at some point, and I also knew it would be this season by accidentally glancing at the cast on the Season 2 DVD box, but I didn't realise he'd be played by Momoa who's gone on to big things in the film world, most notably as Aquaman in DC's cinematic universe. Not that I've seen him in anything before, so this is my introduction and he was okay, but we need more than just some warrior, as much as they go out of their way to show him as a tough nut and an accomplished fighter. His home is in ruins thanks to The Wraith, so he has nowhere to go, and it seems only logical that he'd join Atlantis in their fight against the common foe, but it'll be interesting to see where he fits into the setup. The thing with SG-1 was that it was well balanced, character-wise, with the tech boffin, the military guy, an alien warrior and a specialist (Ford wears a headscarf like Jackson), whereas this and 'Universe' both threw a gaggle of faces in to people their respective series' and it's not so clear-cut. For example, we have Dr. Beckett who's in most episodes, but isn't actually a main cast member.
He plays his part in this episode, taking out a tracking device from Ronon's back, put there by The Wraith as sport (he's the 'Runner' of the title), all reminding me of 'Captive Pursuit' on 'DS9,' but with a less focused story. Here, it's much more about running around in the woods and the episode could have done with a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve: it starts out a bit 'Predator,' as any episode can seem when it's about tracking down a powerful enemy in woods or jungle, or even a Big Foot story. Ronon's story was simply informative, it didn't hold any great resonance, but then he's portrayed as quite a reserved man, unsurprising when he's been essentially a drifter living rough for seven years since he was let loose as quarry for The Wraith to pursue. But weren't they sleeping for quite some time until the Atlantis crew woke them prematurely? I forget. I'm sure it all makes sense, and they do try to endear this guy to us, or at least make him look cool with all his pirate cowboy look and weapons, and his tough exterior, but I'm undecided about him. I almost thought from the way Ford was close to his old self that they might even be able to bring him back into the fold and, like McKay suggested, keep his 'superpowers' intact, as that would certainly make him a more interesting character, but as soon as you see that he's just brain-addled and wants to kill even his friends if they so much as look at him funny, you realise how remote that possibility is.
It's good that they leave him free to come into it again, and I can imagine he feasted on the unfortunate Wraith who beamed him up, and gave them a really bad day. He's a loose cannon, an enemy of Wraith, but also needing them to survive. As interesting as that is, the season hasn't really begun yet, there's still a long way to go and we're no nearer to finding out what the story's going to be about. So far we've been dealing with the leftover threads of last season and it's unclear what their focus is now, so I think we're badly in need of some direction and purpose to keep the series from getting bogged down, since they don't have the advantage of the many hanging stories from multiple seasons of 'SG-1' to pick up at a moment's notice, and the characters, except perhaps for McKay and Sheppard, are also in need of fleshing out and putting in meaningful situations. As it stands, this episode was merely a stopgap, an introduction for a new character rather than anything providing momentum towards a plot or goal.
**
Autokill
DVD, The Champions (Autokill)
Many TV shows feature a final episode in which one of the main cast is injured and lies dying in bed (see the finales for 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'BUGS' for two examples), while the other characters have to solve the mystery and beat the villains. This can be a little frustrating as you want to see all the cast together as much as possible for one last time, but 'The Champions' judged it just right as we have a greater amount of time seeing them all at Nemesis HQ than probably any other episode, and the one among their number to be the victim is Tremayne, allowing the series' format to play out as it usually does: he gives them a briefing and they do a mission. This time it's personal, one of their own agents turns up to work one day and blows away a Colonel, then it takes at least three men to restrain him. There's no rhyme or reason in his actions because it's all part of a murderous scheme by villains intent on bringing down Nemesis from within using hallucinatory psychedelic drugs to brainwash them into killing. It's fitting that the finale, rather than being a globetrotting, impersonal adventure, should take place entirely in Geneva, and largely within Nemesis' famous building. For those of us that are insatiably curious about the organisation we see every week, and specifically the headquarters and its members, this is a fascinating chance to see more than we ever did before. For that reason alone it would be a good watch, but it's also blessed with a chilling story, sees our champions working well together, and features among the best villains of the series: an impressive concoction!
The villainous enemies of Nemesis are no mere dictators or criminals, they are bent on taking down this organisation that has stood against so much evil. And yet, as is essential in making a dimensional foil for the good guys, they have their personalities and foibles that bring them interest beyond a diabolical scheme. It should be no surprise that Brian Clemens wrote the screenplay as his episodes tended to be among the better stories and once again he comes up trumps with a chilling attempt to brainwash individual members of Nemesis into killing specific targets within the organisation in order to spread discord and distrust, everyone suspicious of everyone else. If you look too hard into this devious plot there are flaws in the reasoning of Klein and Barka, but you're too busy being swept along by the intrigue of it all, and the threat to our heroes' very centre of life - it couldn't have been more personal unless the three champions had been picked out specifically and their homes defaced and ransacked. There's pride at stake, no doubt, as their own boss is turned into a homicidal maniac, then after his bid to kill his target fails, goes into turns of comatose or violent agitation, something that kills the first victim, George Brading, and tells us that if his agents fail this time, it will be at the cost of his life!
I don't know what Barka had against Nemesis, whether they'd upset his life's work or perhaps, as his invented story made up for the brainwashed Richard to swallow goes, maybe he lost his brother to their operations. It could be a money-making device that he was being paid by criminal contingencies to get rid of their greatest foe, but I don't think so - he was far from dispassionate, he's like a tiger when roused and is a quite terrifying figure. His presence fills a room, and not just because of his wide girth, he just has this fiery belligerence under the surface that you sense could erupt at any moment. There's something unsettling, too, about a large man that can move quickly as we see him bludgeon Richard, taking him by surprise when he walks into the trap, and with his bare hands. And when Klein puts his own pressure on at one point, he turns from the drinking fountain almost a snarl on his face, the splashed water making his ill-kempt appearance more fearsome. It's also the hypnotic voice he has when he brainwashes his victims and the violence he pours into the story of hatred that turns them into his guided killing machines. In real terms we know that no amount of hypnosis or conditioning can make someone kill unless they already have that capability within themselves, but as all Nemesis agents have likely had the necessity of killing, he's dealing with charged weapons that only need the encouragement of a false history to set them off.
Klein is quite a different proposition. Thin and reedy, a touch effeminate in his regard of clothes and appearances, putting emphasis on neatness and cleanliness, quite in opposition to Barka, he has the same goal but quite a different attitude to his co-conspirator who is clearly the dominant personality in the outfit. Klein seems to enjoy his role impersonating a police officer and brazenly driving right up to the front door of Nemesis on more than one occasion. You could almost say he's a very British villain, except he's actually a foreigner, probably supposed to be Swiss from his accent. Fastidious, but also cowardly in the way you can't imagine Barka being. He'd fight to the last tooth and nail, a ferocious, driven behemoth, where Klein is immediately concerned about his face not being marked when Craig belts him in the nose - that's something else about the episode: they weren't afraid of it being bloody, as we see from Klein's bleeding beak and Richard's gushing mouth when Craig is forced to deal him crushing blows. The ferocity of the violence is actually at its most frenzied not directed at a person, but in a scene where Richard, affected by the unique drug pumped into his system, is let loose with a knife and falls on the huge poster of Craig's face, the man who 'killed his brother,' slashing and stabbing in a mania that makes me fear for William Gaunt's hand, so extreme does he stab!
A sympathetic villain is one thing, but an ominous and brooding one is just as powerful for drama, and Barka has that all over. Neither of these men are a match for the physical prowess of the champions, but their deviousness and element of surprise is what makes them formidable opponents. It's true that their plan was highly speculative if you think about it: even if they succeeded in getting Nemesis employees to wonder where the next attack was coming (a sort of microcosm of the world of terrorism we live in now), and from what friendly face, it's not like the organisation would crumble into nothing, there'd always be others, and the international community wouldn't sit back and see an important ally disintegrate. There might be some satisfaction in seeing such a successful organisation fail, but not for long, and other authorities would soon be clamping down and sending their best agents to rout out the villains. I'm not sure how far ahead Barka had planned, he seemed more intent on revenge than long term successes, but it could be that this was all a trial and if they could take down such a renowned power then they could sell their services to others.
The biggest flaw in the plan would seem to be that after a couple of attacks people would know what to expect: so they'd have security on the door (which you'd expect anyway with Nemesis, who must have had many enemies), noticing anyone that looked deadpan and ignored everyone around them. As soon as you saw someone striding purposefully along like a missile homing in, they'd have to take them down. The other issue with the plot was the whole business with the police station. Surely, as head of an international agency fighting every kind of crime and threat, Tremayne would have liaised with the local police to some degree, even if only to discuss security of his HQ. You'd think he'd know where the police station was if it was only a few minutes away, and so wouldn't be caught out by being taken to a fake building. The same should be true of the champions themselves, that they'd know Sector 13 well and have had dealings with the police at some stage. The Lieutenant that deals with them at the station does show the proper respect when they inform him they're from Nemesis and Craig produces a bright yellow ID card, so it's obviously something the local force know about. It's never been a secret organisation, that's for sure - not with a sign outside saying 'Parking Drive Pour Nemesis' and another sign above the door, too!
If you leave aside the magnitude of the villains' coverup, being able to drive a car around that appeared to be police, then convert it back into a normal car, or that none of the passersby ever found it strange that sometimes there was a police station, and other times the sign said 'To Let,' then it's a good story. And you can make an argument that it was situated down a side street so maybe people didn't notice. The fact they replicated the look of the original station so closely seemed only there for the gag when Craig states Richard was taken through 'that door,' only for there not to be a door at all. It was a bit of a typical Sixties spy drama trick and you're not supposed to wonder why they'd recreate the police station then get something like that wrong, but it really doesn't matter that much. There were a lot of people involved in their plan by the way we see people coming and going through the station, although Jason is the only named accomplice. Although he never speaks, he was quite an amusing character. His job is to drive Klein around, but when he's not doing that he keeps his nose buried in a newspaper. He finds enjoyment in playing with the rotating police car lamp and when Klein instructs him to brush his suit he's rather halfhearted about it where Klein is very serious about being in character, at least as far as his looks are concerned. When Barka and Klein bristle at each other he looks up from his newspaper then hides in it again, acting as if he's a child caught in the room where his parents are arguing, quite comedic for such a small part.
One thing I wondered about was how they were able to quick change their 'police' car from that to a normal street vehicle, but we see when Craig and Sharron track the car down Jason's about to go out and stick on fresh decals, along with the blue light, so he must have got it down to a fine art, and as seemingly his only responsibility he must have had an interest in it. It's not just the little things, like minor characters having more to them, that makes the episode stand out, as it's also one of the few episodes in which we learn a little about the main characters: for example, we hear from Barka's brainwashing sequence that Richard was born in 1938 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, that he had no brother (the trick is to give him one that was murdered by Craig to bring out Richard's hatred), and his Father was a banker. It's not much, but anything is like a gem of information when we've been so starved of anything about them for most of the series. They each had episodes where we found out a few slivers of detail, and this is Richard's turn. If we didn't suspect it already, we hear that Tremayne is a 'tough nut,' as described by Dr. Amis, who also says he's putting up a good fight against the drug in his system - we even get a rare moment of action for the old guy, a bit like in 'The Fanatics' when he got shot, as he tries to tackle the wild Brading early in the episode, and while he doesn't achieve much, perhaps he bought some time for the other, younger men to subdue George.
One of the greatest things about the episode for me, as someone that is fascinated by the inner workings of Nemesis and being able to see beyond the bounds of Tremayne's famous office, is that we do get more of the building than ever before. There had been occasional episodes that showed more than just the one room, such as 'The Gilded Cage' or 'The Interrogation,' but here we have the best understanding of the layout on that floor. They go in and out of the door directly to the left of Tremayne's desk, which has a 'Private' sign on the outer side, and which links into a main corridor. Turning to the right is the main lift to the floor through which people enter and exit several times, and turning left leads down to other rooms, such as the Cypher Room (as the door sign says), where Colonel Corston is shot by Brading. Turning left again leads to the medical room, although it's a bit confusing how the layout works around there. There has to be room for Tremayne's sleeping quarters and I'm not sure how that stacks up with the office set, plus the usual door our champions go through to his office would surely be right in the medical room, which it clearly wasn't. So unless they had some renovation done which changed the internal structure compared to the other episodes I suspect the office set didn't actually connect to these corridors and other rooms. Still, it's tremendous fun working it all out in your head and only makes you wish to see more of the rooms and where everything leads! It was great that we actually got to follow Tremayne and the others as they exit the medical room and walk round to his office.
If Barka and Klein's fake police station was busy, it was nothing compared to the volume of people milling around in or outside the Nemesis building - that was almost as packed as one of those old starships in 'Star Trek,' and I'm sure we never saw as many Nemesis employees at any other time, from military (the Colonel), to other agents (you assume the men in suits were, unless they were internal security), and most likely receptionists (women, aside from Sharron, didn't seem to have many other roles in those days). We also see some of the procedures of the place and get a sense of some of its workings - for example, Tremayne goes off to lunch about one o'clock, first informing his secretary he's going to Barbarella's, which is apparently only a few minutes away and which was accustomed to catering for him. The camera looks above the 'Private' door inside his office to show a clock, and you can just about see the blue lintel high above that. I don't remember ever spying a clock there before, but I couldn't be certain, and even if not, it's a simple thing to pop in a nail and put one up if the boss thinks it necessary. It's also good to see the champions in the office at all hours, even when it's dark outside, which they'd done before and gives a sense of the passage of time and the importance of what they're doing. Richard uses the intercom on Tremayne's desk to ask his secretary where he is and she says she'll 'code' him. I don't know if that means he wears a buzzer, but she's quickly able to identify he's not in the building. Craig also used the intercom to notify internal security that he's been missing for five hours. This would have been the perfect episode to bring back Colin Blakely's security guy from 'The Interrogation' - maybe he could have worked with them this time.
Other approaches that make the episode a standout include bringing in some emotional weight, not something often done in this, or most, Sixties genre TV. We don't know George Brading at all, he's just some agent we've never met that becomes a killing machine when he pumps five rounds into Colonel Corston and is only subdued by three of his colleagues. It's impressive, even horrifying, but we don't care about him, not until his wife Loretta arrives tearfully on the scene. It's a good moment for Sharron, who tries to comfort the distraught woman, and when they see him die later, she's the one who volunteers to break the news. But Loretta is hard hit by what's happened even before his death and you get a strong sense of the normal daily life - no longer is George a name and a face, but he's part of other lives who care what happens to him beyond scientific curiosity. It was also necessary for a womanly touch to be there for Loretta as Dr. Amis was quite cold and removed, with no bedside manner to speak of. I couldn't decide if he was just so full of pity he had no comfort to give, or whether he was disdainful of her show of hysterics when he's used to dealing with hardbitten agent types. You could even read it as he's a bit sullen because George had given him a black eye - what a great way to introduce the character, too, as you're wondering why this doctor's wearing dark glasses inside, until he takes them off and shows evidence of George's violent tendencies!
Another great idea is how the champions are able to pick up the pieces and do some investigating with so little to go on. We don't see the drudge work of going through files or any of that, but we see them put their heads together and realise the connection with the briefcases. The killer is when Richard's wallet is stolen and Craig says it's just a miniature briefcase, so they know he's going to be the next target. They do use their powers, especially in one key way to be able to narrow down the 'one thousand streets and ten thousand buildings' they believe must be the extent of the target area, but much of it is brain work. The other truly great idea is pitching the two male champions against each other in hand-to-hand combat, a pitched battle in the ultimate contest. Who hasn't wondered which would win in a fight? What's great is that, although Richard starts off with the advantage of the knife, he soon loses it and it comes down to martial arts style fighting or throwing people or things around in the 'Smallville' school of fighting, and Sharron is the only thing that can tip the balance in Craig's favour and give him the upper hand - literally, as she holds Richard's head back and Craig, in great sorrow is forced to knock a couple of bells out of him, protectively holding him up immediately after. It's a really terrific fight with stakes and personal investment all over it, and brilliant that they saved it for the last episode.
A number of times you can tell it's the stunt players doubling for the champions in this episode, such as exterior shots of the Nemesis building when Craig and Sharron go to their car and drive off, but most visibly in the fight sequence because the stuntwoman that doubled for Sharron had a slightly different hairstyle and could always be spotted looking different to Bastedo. Not that it ruins the episode, it's just more noticeable than ever because of the level of action involved, such as Sharron being hurled over a desk by Barka! One other thing that's quite different to the norm was the use of first person view when Craig rescues Richard only for his friend to shoot his hands around his neck and begin to strangle him. It puts you right in the heart of the action as we see both of their viewpoints and the shock of his friend turning on him is powerfully written on his face. You do notice the absence of technology sometimes on the series, but especially in this episode where they don't have access to CCTV to be able to track the fake police car - there are obviously no cameras outside even the sensitive Nemesis building, nor the streets of Geneva, so it's down to their powers to save the day again.
The champions don't appear at all in the pre-credits sequence where Tremayne goes action hero, so the first example comes in the post-credits sequence - being the final one I'm so glad it matched the rest of the episode by being high quality and imaginative: they're having a party, and it's in the final appearance of the stairway set. It's fitting it should be all based around somewhere that featured so often through the stories. Sharron's carrying the canapes, while Richard passes round a tray of drinks, only to share a meaningful glance from a grateful young woman. The man who was talking to her takes jealous offence and trips Richard as he descends, leading to a dramatic flip where, although he doesn't end up on his feet, he still manages to keep hold of the drinks tray, not a drop spilt! A brilliant stunt that suited the episode down to the ground. The next example of champion prowess is against Tremayne, who angrily ignores the questions of his agents as he stalks into the office - I don't know why he didn't head straight for the medical room, but he wasn't thinking straight. So creepy the way he grunts and casts off the attentions of his agents like a caveman. Craig makes an almighty leap at him when he whips out the gun and starts firing at Dr. Amis, and both Richard and Sharron become involved with the struggle, Sharron tripping her boss and the men having to use all their strength to hold him down as he writhes on the floor.
Craig does the same flying leap to prevent Barka from shooting him later in the episode, and it was almost a trademark (sadly no doors for he and Richard to jointly batter down this time, though someone does get captured!). One of the most impressive things he did was much more simple and showed resilience to pain: Barka furiously attempts to crush all the remaining vials of the drug, but Craig sees one surviving and clasps his hands over the top of it while all the considerable weight of Barka tries to crush his hands above it. It's up to Sharron to step in again and turn the tide, giving the big man a hearty punch in the back, then flinging him over the same desk she'd been thrown just previously in a satisfying reversal of fortune! Craig also gives both Jason and Klein a good going over beforehand, but apart from the fight between the two powered up agents, there isn't a lot of physical power on show. Most of the episode returns much more to their mental abilities, with characters often sensing important moments: when Barka bumps into Richard to lift his wallet Craig has a weird episode sensing something, but doesn't quite know what happened, and again when Klein, as the fake policeman, gives the wallet back to Richard. Richard's caught unawares by the surprise attack from Barka in his office, but Sharron senses his pain. Before that, Richard's able to send a picture of the 'Sector 13' sign to his colleagues since he can't speak while in the back of Klein's police car. Sharron is also susceptible to Richard's brainwashing, feeling what's happening to him.
The key use of their special powers is to be able to cast their minds back to when Tremayne was dropped off by the police before he tried to kill Amis, and from that are able to use their photographic memory to see the licence plate of the fake police car and track it down from there. I thought it might not be accurate as Craig was on the phone at the time, so how could he remember, but you do see him glancing out of the window. The only thing they really failed at was to answer Tremayne's questions about the who and the why - sure, they beat the villains, but they never learned (or shared it with us, anyway), who these people were beyond their names of 'Klein' and 'K. Barka' - Klein idly wonders what a twisted childhood his associate must have had, but we never find out the exact motivations behind their actions. I suppose it isn't essential, they were just highly motivated and had a deviousness (although you'd think Barka would have had one of the many fake police bump Richard for his wallet rather than doing it himself!), but it would have been good to find out more about them. I don't know if we knew Tremayne's initials, but if not, we certainly found out as we see his briefcase is marked as W.L.Tremayne.
The cast of guest characters was kept fairly compact, though there are some anomalies, as always. Eric Pohlman, so sinister and worrying as Barka, had previously portrayed a Minister in 'Get Me Out Of Here!' about halfway through the series' run, so they must have liked him, to remember to bring him back for the threenultimate episode filmed (if that were a word - third from last, I mean). Corston, Brading's target, is credited only as 'American Colonel,' and it's interesting that George was credited when he never spoke, although he did have an important role in the story, while both the Police Lieutenant and his Captain, both speaking roles, remain uncredited. The mechanic is credited for a tiny role, though his name, Pierre is missing and he's only marked as 'Mechanic.' It's great to have Paul Eddington as Klein, so beloved by those of us who love the Seventies comedy 'The Good Life,' and just as well known for his own comedies 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister.' Looking over the entire credits for the series I couldn't help but note that every letter of the alphabet is accounted for with surnames except for 'V' and 'X.' So there you go, it was worth making a list of them all just for that nugget…
Few sets are used in the episode, hence the joy at seeing the staircase in the post-credits, but the office gets good use and there's a bit of location shooting around the buildings or streets, which adds reality. I noticed that the warehouse room full of crates and straw where Barka does his brainwashing with the memorable large scale photos blown up on rotating poles, had elements that tied it to Nemesis: the colour scheme of the wall is the same (green with a darker green line), and the long, floor to ceiling curtain could have been right out of Tremayne's office, so either he was getting into the mind of Nemesis with the decor or they had to reuse the set and disguise it with all those boxes! I do wonder how he knew so much about Nemesis, for instance, the names of potential targets, or getting the pictures of Craig. Could he have had a mole? The same could be said about the mockup of the police station, though that would be easier to create as anyone can walk in. His chilling words that: "Nemesis will be destroyed by its own impeccably efficient agents," was a chilling statement of intent and what could be a bigger challenge than to take on the organisation upon which the series is based? If the series had come back for a second year it could have been fascinating if they'd chosen to practically scupper Nemesis and it had to be built up in the succeeding episodes, but they didn't think about things like that, and I think 'Department S' came along as the replacement, one reason I'm not enamoured of that series because I always wonder what might have been.
Again, as fitting as it was to have the final episode take place in Geneva, it's only right that it ends within the confines of Nemesis HQ, first with Craig and Sharron worriedly going to see Tremayne, finding that he's going to be alright, then going further in to the inner sanctum where Richard's resting. It represents the priorities of the series, with Tremayne part of the extended family so they needed a scene with him, but finally the special bond of the secret they share making the trio their own family, and being together, just the three of them in the final part of the scene felt right. I can't deny it would have been lovely to have them all in Tremayne's office to end the series as so many episodes ended, one last time, but there was plenty of coverage of them all in his office throughout the episode, so I can't complain. It's been a joy to rediscover the series again and view it in minute detail for the reviews. I can't say my views of individual episodes changed very much and my favourites of ten or fifteen years ago are pretty similar. My top ten, in order of best would be 'The Invisible Man,' 'The Survivors' and 'The Interrogation' equally in the top spot, followed by 'Autokill,' 'Happening,' 'To Trap A Rat,' 'Shadow of The Panther,' 'The Beginning,' 'The Fanatics' and 'A Case of Lemmings,' while 'The Experiment' and 'The Silent Enemy' just bubble under. The worst were 'The Night People' and 'Full Circle,' with 'Operation Deep-Freeze' and 'Get Me Out Of Here!' But even the worst are watchable for the most part, and it's a good series - there was some noise about a film version a few years ago, but it seem to have got stuck in development. Judging by the way other properties have been brought back with a 'modern' edge to them, that might be the best thing for it, but I'd love to see a TV series - you could have William Gaunt as Tremayne…
***
Many TV shows feature a final episode in which one of the main cast is injured and lies dying in bed (see the finales for 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'BUGS' for two examples), while the other characters have to solve the mystery and beat the villains. This can be a little frustrating as you want to see all the cast together as much as possible for one last time, but 'The Champions' judged it just right as we have a greater amount of time seeing them all at Nemesis HQ than probably any other episode, and the one among their number to be the victim is Tremayne, allowing the series' format to play out as it usually does: he gives them a briefing and they do a mission. This time it's personal, one of their own agents turns up to work one day and blows away a Colonel, then it takes at least three men to restrain him. There's no rhyme or reason in his actions because it's all part of a murderous scheme by villains intent on bringing down Nemesis from within using hallucinatory psychedelic drugs to brainwash them into killing. It's fitting that the finale, rather than being a globetrotting, impersonal adventure, should take place entirely in Geneva, and largely within Nemesis' famous building. For those of us that are insatiably curious about the organisation we see every week, and specifically the headquarters and its members, this is a fascinating chance to see more than we ever did before. For that reason alone it would be a good watch, but it's also blessed with a chilling story, sees our champions working well together, and features among the best villains of the series: an impressive concoction!
The villainous enemies of Nemesis are no mere dictators or criminals, they are bent on taking down this organisation that has stood against so much evil. And yet, as is essential in making a dimensional foil for the good guys, they have their personalities and foibles that bring them interest beyond a diabolical scheme. It should be no surprise that Brian Clemens wrote the screenplay as his episodes tended to be among the better stories and once again he comes up trumps with a chilling attempt to brainwash individual members of Nemesis into killing specific targets within the organisation in order to spread discord and distrust, everyone suspicious of everyone else. If you look too hard into this devious plot there are flaws in the reasoning of Klein and Barka, but you're too busy being swept along by the intrigue of it all, and the threat to our heroes' very centre of life - it couldn't have been more personal unless the three champions had been picked out specifically and their homes defaced and ransacked. There's pride at stake, no doubt, as their own boss is turned into a homicidal maniac, then after his bid to kill his target fails, goes into turns of comatose or violent agitation, something that kills the first victim, George Brading, and tells us that if his agents fail this time, it will be at the cost of his life!
I don't know what Barka had against Nemesis, whether they'd upset his life's work or perhaps, as his invented story made up for the brainwashed Richard to swallow goes, maybe he lost his brother to their operations. It could be a money-making device that he was being paid by criminal contingencies to get rid of their greatest foe, but I don't think so - he was far from dispassionate, he's like a tiger when roused and is a quite terrifying figure. His presence fills a room, and not just because of his wide girth, he just has this fiery belligerence under the surface that you sense could erupt at any moment. There's something unsettling, too, about a large man that can move quickly as we see him bludgeon Richard, taking him by surprise when he walks into the trap, and with his bare hands. And when Klein puts his own pressure on at one point, he turns from the drinking fountain almost a snarl on his face, the splashed water making his ill-kempt appearance more fearsome. It's also the hypnotic voice he has when he brainwashes his victims and the violence he pours into the story of hatred that turns them into his guided killing machines. In real terms we know that no amount of hypnosis or conditioning can make someone kill unless they already have that capability within themselves, but as all Nemesis agents have likely had the necessity of killing, he's dealing with charged weapons that only need the encouragement of a false history to set them off.
Klein is quite a different proposition. Thin and reedy, a touch effeminate in his regard of clothes and appearances, putting emphasis on neatness and cleanliness, quite in opposition to Barka, he has the same goal but quite a different attitude to his co-conspirator who is clearly the dominant personality in the outfit. Klein seems to enjoy his role impersonating a police officer and brazenly driving right up to the front door of Nemesis on more than one occasion. You could almost say he's a very British villain, except he's actually a foreigner, probably supposed to be Swiss from his accent. Fastidious, but also cowardly in the way you can't imagine Barka being. He'd fight to the last tooth and nail, a ferocious, driven behemoth, where Klein is immediately concerned about his face not being marked when Craig belts him in the nose - that's something else about the episode: they weren't afraid of it being bloody, as we see from Klein's bleeding beak and Richard's gushing mouth when Craig is forced to deal him crushing blows. The ferocity of the violence is actually at its most frenzied not directed at a person, but in a scene where Richard, affected by the unique drug pumped into his system, is let loose with a knife and falls on the huge poster of Craig's face, the man who 'killed his brother,' slashing and stabbing in a mania that makes me fear for William Gaunt's hand, so extreme does he stab!
A sympathetic villain is one thing, but an ominous and brooding one is just as powerful for drama, and Barka has that all over. Neither of these men are a match for the physical prowess of the champions, but their deviousness and element of surprise is what makes them formidable opponents. It's true that their plan was highly speculative if you think about it: even if they succeeded in getting Nemesis employees to wonder where the next attack was coming (a sort of microcosm of the world of terrorism we live in now), and from what friendly face, it's not like the organisation would crumble into nothing, there'd always be others, and the international community wouldn't sit back and see an important ally disintegrate. There might be some satisfaction in seeing such a successful organisation fail, but not for long, and other authorities would soon be clamping down and sending their best agents to rout out the villains. I'm not sure how far ahead Barka had planned, he seemed more intent on revenge than long term successes, but it could be that this was all a trial and if they could take down such a renowned power then they could sell their services to others.
The biggest flaw in the plan would seem to be that after a couple of attacks people would know what to expect: so they'd have security on the door (which you'd expect anyway with Nemesis, who must have had many enemies), noticing anyone that looked deadpan and ignored everyone around them. As soon as you saw someone striding purposefully along like a missile homing in, they'd have to take them down. The other issue with the plot was the whole business with the police station. Surely, as head of an international agency fighting every kind of crime and threat, Tremayne would have liaised with the local police to some degree, even if only to discuss security of his HQ. You'd think he'd know where the police station was if it was only a few minutes away, and so wouldn't be caught out by being taken to a fake building. The same should be true of the champions themselves, that they'd know Sector 13 well and have had dealings with the police at some stage. The Lieutenant that deals with them at the station does show the proper respect when they inform him they're from Nemesis and Craig produces a bright yellow ID card, so it's obviously something the local force know about. It's never been a secret organisation, that's for sure - not with a sign outside saying 'Parking Drive Pour Nemesis' and another sign above the door, too!
If you leave aside the magnitude of the villains' coverup, being able to drive a car around that appeared to be police, then convert it back into a normal car, or that none of the passersby ever found it strange that sometimes there was a police station, and other times the sign said 'To Let,' then it's a good story. And you can make an argument that it was situated down a side street so maybe people didn't notice. The fact they replicated the look of the original station so closely seemed only there for the gag when Craig states Richard was taken through 'that door,' only for there not to be a door at all. It was a bit of a typical Sixties spy drama trick and you're not supposed to wonder why they'd recreate the police station then get something like that wrong, but it really doesn't matter that much. There were a lot of people involved in their plan by the way we see people coming and going through the station, although Jason is the only named accomplice. Although he never speaks, he was quite an amusing character. His job is to drive Klein around, but when he's not doing that he keeps his nose buried in a newspaper. He finds enjoyment in playing with the rotating police car lamp and when Klein instructs him to brush his suit he's rather halfhearted about it where Klein is very serious about being in character, at least as far as his looks are concerned. When Barka and Klein bristle at each other he looks up from his newspaper then hides in it again, acting as if he's a child caught in the room where his parents are arguing, quite comedic for such a small part.
One thing I wondered about was how they were able to quick change their 'police' car from that to a normal street vehicle, but we see when Craig and Sharron track the car down Jason's about to go out and stick on fresh decals, along with the blue light, so he must have got it down to a fine art, and as seemingly his only responsibility he must have had an interest in it. It's not just the little things, like minor characters having more to them, that makes the episode stand out, as it's also one of the few episodes in which we learn a little about the main characters: for example, we hear from Barka's brainwashing sequence that Richard was born in 1938 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, that he had no brother (the trick is to give him one that was murdered by Craig to bring out Richard's hatred), and his Father was a banker. It's not much, but anything is like a gem of information when we've been so starved of anything about them for most of the series. They each had episodes where we found out a few slivers of detail, and this is Richard's turn. If we didn't suspect it already, we hear that Tremayne is a 'tough nut,' as described by Dr. Amis, who also says he's putting up a good fight against the drug in his system - we even get a rare moment of action for the old guy, a bit like in 'The Fanatics' when he got shot, as he tries to tackle the wild Brading early in the episode, and while he doesn't achieve much, perhaps he bought some time for the other, younger men to subdue George.
One of the greatest things about the episode for me, as someone that is fascinated by the inner workings of Nemesis and being able to see beyond the bounds of Tremayne's famous office, is that we do get more of the building than ever before. There had been occasional episodes that showed more than just the one room, such as 'The Gilded Cage' or 'The Interrogation,' but here we have the best understanding of the layout on that floor. They go in and out of the door directly to the left of Tremayne's desk, which has a 'Private' sign on the outer side, and which links into a main corridor. Turning to the right is the main lift to the floor through which people enter and exit several times, and turning left leads down to other rooms, such as the Cypher Room (as the door sign says), where Colonel Corston is shot by Brading. Turning left again leads to the medical room, although it's a bit confusing how the layout works around there. There has to be room for Tremayne's sleeping quarters and I'm not sure how that stacks up with the office set, plus the usual door our champions go through to his office would surely be right in the medical room, which it clearly wasn't. So unless they had some renovation done which changed the internal structure compared to the other episodes I suspect the office set didn't actually connect to these corridors and other rooms. Still, it's tremendous fun working it all out in your head and only makes you wish to see more of the rooms and where everything leads! It was great that we actually got to follow Tremayne and the others as they exit the medical room and walk round to his office.
If Barka and Klein's fake police station was busy, it was nothing compared to the volume of people milling around in or outside the Nemesis building - that was almost as packed as one of those old starships in 'Star Trek,' and I'm sure we never saw as many Nemesis employees at any other time, from military (the Colonel), to other agents (you assume the men in suits were, unless they were internal security), and most likely receptionists (women, aside from Sharron, didn't seem to have many other roles in those days). We also see some of the procedures of the place and get a sense of some of its workings - for example, Tremayne goes off to lunch about one o'clock, first informing his secretary he's going to Barbarella's, which is apparently only a few minutes away and which was accustomed to catering for him. The camera looks above the 'Private' door inside his office to show a clock, and you can just about see the blue lintel high above that. I don't remember ever spying a clock there before, but I couldn't be certain, and even if not, it's a simple thing to pop in a nail and put one up if the boss thinks it necessary. It's also good to see the champions in the office at all hours, even when it's dark outside, which they'd done before and gives a sense of the passage of time and the importance of what they're doing. Richard uses the intercom on Tremayne's desk to ask his secretary where he is and she says she'll 'code' him. I don't know if that means he wears a buzzer, but she's quickly able to identify he's not in the building. Craig also used the intercom to notify internal security that he's been missing for five hours. This would have been the perfect episode to bring back Colin Blakely's security guy from 'The Interrogation' - maybe he could have worked with them this time.
Other approaches that make the episode a standout include bringing in some emotional weight, not something often done in this, or most, Sixties genre TV. We don't know George Brading at all, he's just some agent we've never met that becomes a killing machine when he pumps five rounds into Colonel Corston and is only subdued by three of his colleagues. It's impressive, even horrifying, but we don't care about him, not until his wife Loretta arrives tearfully on the scene. It's a good moment for Sharron, who tries to comfort the distraught woman, and when they see him die later, she's the one who volunteers to break the news. But Loretta is hard hit by what's happened even before his death and you get a strong sense of the normal daily life - no longer is George a name and a face, but he's part of other lives who care what happens to him beyond scientific curiosity. It was also necessary for a womanly touch to be there for Loretta as Dr. Amis was quite cold and removed, with no bedside manner to speak of. I couldn't decide if he was just so full of pity he had no comfort to give, or whether he was disdainful of her show of hysterics when he's used to dealing with hardbitten agent types. You could even read it as he's a bit sullen because George had given him a black eye - what a great way to introduce the character, too, as you're wondering why this doctor's wearing dark glasses inside, until he takes them off and shows evidence of George's violent tendencies!
Another great idea is how the champions are able to pick up the pieces and do some investigating with so little to go on. We don't see the drudge work of going through files or any of that, but we see them put their heads together and realise the connection with the briefcases. The killer is when Richard's wallet is stolen and Craig says it's just a miniature briefcase, so they know he's going to be the next target. They do use their powers, especially in one key way to be able to narrow down the 'one thousand streets and ten thousand buildings' they believe must be the extent of the target area, but much of it is brain work. The other truly great idea is pitching the two male champions against each other in hand-to-hand combat, a pitched battle in the ultimate contest. Who hasn't wondered which would win in a fight? What's great is that, although Richard starts off with the advantage of the knife, he soon loses it and it comes down to martial arts style fighting or throwing people or things around in the 'Smallville' school of fighting, and Sharron is the only thing that can tip the balance in Craig's favour and give him the upper hand - literally, as she holds Richard's head back and Craig, in great sorrow is forced to knock a couple of bells out of him, protectively holding him up immediately after. It's a really terrific fight with stakes and personal investment all over it, and brilliant that they saved it for the last episode.
A number of times you can tell it's the stunt players doubling for the champions in this episode, such as exterior shots of the Nemesis building when Craig and Sharron go to their car and drive off, but most visibly in the fight sequence because the stuntwoman that doubled for Sharron had a slightly different hairstyle and could always be spotted looking different to Bastedo. Not that it ruins the episode, it's just more noticeable than ever because of the level of action involved, such as Sharron being hurled over a desk by Barka! One other thing that's quite different to the norm was the use of first person view when Craig rescues Richard only for his friend to shoot his hands around his neck and begin to strangle him. It puts you right in the heart of the action as we see both of their viewpoints and the shock of his friend turning on him is powerfully written on his face. You do notice the absence of technology sometimes on the series, but especially in this episode where they don't have access to CCTV to be able to track the fake police car - there are obviously no cameras outside even the sensitive Nemesis building, nor the streets of Geneva, so it's down to their powers to save the day again.
The champions don't appear at all in the pre-credits sequence where Tremayne goes action hero, so the first example comes in the post-credits sequence - being the final one I'm so glad it matched the rest of the episode by being high quality and imaginative: they're having a party, and it's in the final appearance of the stairway set. It's fitting it should be all based around somewhere that featured so often through the stories. Sharron's carrying the canapes, while Richard passes round a tray of drinks, only to share a meaningful glance from a grateful young woman. The man who was talking to her takes jealous offence and trips Richard as he descends, leading to a dramatic flip where, although he doesn't end up on his feet, he still manages to keep hold of the drinks tray, not a drop spilt! A brilliant stunt that suited the episode down to the ground. The next example of champion prowess is against Tremayne, who angrily ignores the questions of his agents as he stalks into the office - I don't know why he didn't head straight for the medical room, but he wasn't thinking straight. So creepy the way he grunts and casts off the attentions of his agents like a caveman. Craig makes an almighty leap at him when he whips out the gun and starts firing at Dr. Amis, and both Richard and Sharron become involved with the struggle, Sharron tripping her boss and the men having to use all their strength to hold him down as he writhes on the floor.
Craig does the same flying leap to prevent Barka from shooting him later in the episode, and it was almost a trademark (sadly no doors for he and Richard to jointly batter down this time, though someone does get captured!). One of the most impressive things he did was much more simple and showed resilience to pain: Barka furiously attempts to crush all the remaining vials of the drug, but Craig sees one surviving and clasps his hands over the top of it while all the considerable weight of Barka tries to crush his hands above it. It's up to Sharron to step in again and turn the tide, giving the big man a hearty punch in the back, then flinging him over the same desk she'd been thrown just previously in a satisfying reversal of fortune! Craig also gives both Jason and Klein a good going over beforehand, but apart from the fight between the two powered up agents, there isn't a lot of physical power on show. Most of the episode returns much more to their mental abilities, with characters often sensing important moments: when Barka bumps into Richard to lift his wallet Craig has a weird episode sensing something, but doesn't quite know what happened, and again when Klein, as the fake policeman, gives the wallet back to Richard. Richard's caught unawares by the surprise attack from Barka in his office, but Sharron senses his pain. Before that, Richard's able to send a picture of the 'Sector 13' sign to his colleagues since he can't speak while in the back of Klein's police car. Sharron is also susceptible to Richard's brainwashing, feeling what's happening to him.
The key use of their special powers is to be able to cast their minds back to when Tremayne was dropped off by the police before he tried to kill Amis, and from that are able to use their photographic memory to see the licence plate of the fake police car and track it down from there. I thought it might not be accurate as Craig was on the phone at the time, so how could he remember, but you do see him glancing out of the window. The only thing they really failed at was to answer Tremayne's questions about the who and the why - sure, they beat the villains, but they never learned (or shared it with us, anyway), who these people were beyond their names of 'Klein' and 'K. Barka' - Klein idly wonders what a twisted childhood his associate must have had, but we never find out the exact motivations behind their actions. I suppose it isn't essential, they were just highly motivated and had a deviousness (although you'd think Barka would have had one of the many fake police bump Richard for his wallet rather than doing it himself!), but it would have been good to find out more about them. I don't know if we knew Tremayne's initials, but if not, we certainly found out as we see his briefcase is marked as W.L.Tremayne.
The cast of guest characters was kept fairly compact, though there are some anomalies, as always. Eric Pohlman, so sinister and worrying as Barka, had previously portrayed a Minister in 'Get Me Out Of Here!' about halfway through the series' run, so they must have liked him, to remember to bring him back for the threenultimate episode filmed (if that were a word - third from last, I mean). Corston, Brading's target, is credited only as 'American Colonel,' and it's interesting that George was credited when he never spoke, although he did have an important role in the story, while both the Police Lieutenant and his Captain, both speaking roles, remain uncredited. The mechanic is credited for a tiny role, though his name, Pierre is missing and he's only marked as 'Mechanic.' It's great to have Paul Eddington as Klein, so beloved by those of us who love the Seventies comedy 'The Good Life,' and just as well known for his own comedies 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister.' Looking over the entire credits for the series I couldn't help but note that every letter of the alphabet is accounted for with surnames except for 'V' and 'X.' So there you go, it was worth making a list of them all just for that nugget…
Few sets are used in the episode, hence the joy at seeing the staircase in the post-credits, but the office gets good use and there's a bit of location shooting around the buildings or streets, which adds reality. I noticed that the warehouse room full of crates and straw where Barka does his brainwashing with the memorable large scale photos blown up on rotating poles, had elements that tied it to Nemesis: the colour scheme of the wall is the same (green with a darker green line), and the long, floor to ceiling curtain could have been right out of Tremayne's office, so either he was getting into the mind of Nemesis with the decor or they had to reuse the set and disguise it with all those boxes! I do wonder how he knew so much about Nemesis, for instance, the names of potential targets, or getting the pictures of Craig. Could he have had a mole? The same could be said about the mockup of the police station, though that would be easier to create as anyone can walk in. His chilling words that: "Nemesis will be destroyed by its own impeccably efficient agents," was a chilling statement of intent and what could be a bigger challenge than to take on the organisation upon which the series is based? If the series had come back for a second year it could have been fascinating if they'd chosen to practically scupper Nemesis and it had to be built up in the succeeding episodes, but they didn't think about things like that, and I think 'Department S' came along as the replacement, one reason I'm not enamoured of that series because I always wonder what might have been.
Again, as fitting as it was to have the final episode take place in Geneva, it's only right that it ends within the confines of Nemesis HQ, first with Craig and Sharron worriedly going to see Tremayne, finding that he's going to be alright, then going further in to the inner sanctum where Richard's resting. It represents the priorities of the series, with Tremayne part of the extended family so they needed a scene with him, but finally the special bond of the secret they share making the trio their own family, and being together, just the three of them in the final part of the scene felt right. I can't deny it would have been lovely to have them all in Tremayne's office to end the series as so many episodes ended, one last time, but there was plenty of coverage of them all in his office throughout the episode, so I can't complain. It's been a joy to rediscover the series again and view it in minute detail for the reviews. I can't say my views of individual episodes changed very much and my favourites of ten or fifteen years ago are pretty similar. My top ten, in order of best would be 'The Invisible Man,' 'The Survivors' and 'The Interrogation' equally in the top spot, followed by 'Autokill,' 'Happening,' 'To Trap A Rat,' 'Shadow of The Panther,' 'The Beginning,' 'The Fanatics' and 'A Case of Lemmings,' while 'The Experiment' and 'The Silent Enemy' just bubble under. The worst were 'The Night People' and 'Full Circle,' with 'Operation Deep-Freeze' and 'Get Me Out Of Here!' But even the worst are watchable for the most part, and it's a good series - there was some noise about a film version a few years ago, but it seem to have got stuck in development. Judging by the way other properties have been brought back with a 'modern' edge to them, that might be the best thing for it, but I'd love to see a TV series - you could have William Gaunt as Tremayne…
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