Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Directed by James Gunn. Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Will Poulter, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji and Linda Cardellini

The Guardians are relaxing at their new HQ on Knowhere when they’re suddenly attacked by a powerful being named Adam Warlock (Poulter). Warlock almost overpowers the Guardians before being fought off, but in his wake, he leaves a critically injured Rocket (Cooper).

The Guardians are unable to treat Rocket due to a kill switch embedded inside him, placed there by Orgocorp, a bio company headed by a man known as The High Evolutionary (Iwuji) a mad scientist dedicated to creating a perfect, utopian society through the use of genetic engineering.

The Guardians travel to Orgocorp’s headquarters where they plan to break in and find the override code. They will be helped by the Ravagers, or rather one specific Ravager; Gamora (Saldaña) who is a past/alternate version of the Gamora who was once a Guardian herself, and so has no memories of her time with the others. This causes issues, not least for Star-Lord Peter Quill (Pratt) because he’s still in love with Gamora while she has no memory of this.

Meanwhile Rocket dreams about his past as a prisoner of the High Evolutionary…

And so, Gunn completes his trilogy, providing yet another hugely enjoyable film in the process. No one saw the Guardians coming in 2014 but that first film was truly wonderful, introducing us to a cast of (lets be honest) second rate Marvel comic book characters yet making us care for them, and Gunn did it again in 2017, and blimey if he hasn’t done it one final time before he heads off to DC.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been feeling a little fatigued with the MCU. Sure, I really enjoyed some of the TV shows (especially WandaVsion and Hawkeye) and quite liked Loki et al, but film wise outside of a terrific third Spiderman film the MCU’s cinematic output has been, well it’s been ok. I enjoyed Shang-Chi and Dr Strange 2 and Black Widow well enough, but Thor 4 was a pale imitation of Ragnarok and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was average at best. Maybe it was me, I thought, maybe I’ve just outgrown comic book characters?

If Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is anything to go by I’ve not remotely outgrown the MCU, the MCU has just been coasting, because I loved this film to bits. Exciting, yet mournful, a film jam packed full of thrills, yet one that’ll break your heart because, yes, Gunn will make you care about a CGI racoon more than you ever thought possible.

I’m really going to miss these guys.

It helps that Gunn dials back the stakes. It isn’t about saving the universe or fighting Thanos, it’s about saving one grumpy talking racoon, at least at first, but even when the stakes shift this is still a very personal battle.

Pratt will always be my least favourite Chris, but as generic as many of his other roles have been, he’s perfect as Quill, a very human hero who’s brave and smart but who can still be a jerk, and though they have a very different dynamic this time around, he and Saldaña still have great chemistry. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to make this final film all about Star-Lord and Gamora reconnecting, a romantic dream ending that would never make much sense, because Gamora here is very different to the one we knew, in fact in many ways compared to the first film Gamora and Nebula have switched roles.

Ah, Karen Gillan, the woman who’ll always be Amy Pond knocks it out of the park yet again as Nebula, a side character, a henchwoman who somehow Gillan imbued enough coolness into that she became a fully-fledged Guardian and it’s hard to imagine the team without her. Guess cutting all your hair off was worth it, Kaz.

It’s possible we may see Nebula again one day, but Dave Bautista has made it very clear that this is his last outing as Drax, and that is a crying shame. As ex-wrestlers becoming actors goes, Bautista must be the best of the bunch. While the Rock has mainly just played the Rock (enjoyable as that is) Bautista has taken very different roles, he’s not afraid to challenge himself and definitely not afraid to take the piss out of himself, and in many ways Drax is the MVP of the Guardians. The foolish giant with no filter yet who still has a heart of gold.

Cooper and Diesel are well practiced as Rocket and Groot, and hopefully the nature of their roles being vocal work means we might see both again. Sean Gunn’s role within the Guardians has really expanded, even though he remains something of a side character, but Kraglin is fun here and has a nice running joke with Cosmo the Space Dog.

On the Guardian’s side that leaves Klementieff’s Mantis who could have been a fairly generic character, but much like Gillan and Bautista she gives it her all and Mantis really grows as a character here, gaining the agency so long denied her.

Iwuji is great as The High Evolutionary, one of the better Marvel villains, though I guess it’s easy to hate a man who abuses animals! I’ve always been a fan of Poulter and he’s a lot of fun as the somewhat dense Adam Warlock (who by all accounts is a trifle different to the comic book version.) The only shame is that Elizabeth Debicki is underused.

The script is funny, the banter between the Guardians has always been a major selling point, but this film isn’t just about jokes. If Baby Rocket and his animal chums don’t melt and then break your heart, well you might want to check in with your physician because obviously at some point your heart’s been removed!

Funny, heart-warming, exciting and chock full of fantastic set pieces, there’s really only one negative; given how fantastic previous soundtracks have been, in this case the music feels a little more generic (outside of a few tracks) but hey, other than that it’s as perfect as a film can be.

Loved it, Loved it, LOVED IT!

Blakes 7. Series B, Episode 4: Horizon

Hey, it’s the London again!

Okay probably not, just another freighter of the same class.

Liberator doesn’t know it’s there, but then it looks like the crew wouldn’t notice the other ship if they collied with it! They all look very, VERY tired. Cally tells Blake they’re over stressed, suffering from fatigue shock, too many crises. Vila wistfully suggests they find a pleasure planet to get some R&R. It’s pointed out that they might struggle to find a place that will accept wanted fugitives.

“What’s the point in being famous if you can’t get a last minute booking?” suggests our favourite thief, right before Liberator almost does collide with the freighter.

They avoid a collision, and luckily the freighter’s sensors won’t have picked them up. Blake is curious where on earth the ship’s going given they’re in Zone Nine close to the edge of the spiral rim (which seems to be the space equivalent of the back of beyond).

No one else is curious but Blake insists they shadow the vessel. It’s heading to a planet code named Horizon, and that’s all Zen seems to know about it. (for some reason no one thinks to ask Orac at this point).

The freighter passes though some kind of energy barrier but when Liberator attempts to follow it’s almost destroyed by the magnetic field.

Blake asks Jenna to teleport down with him. He says he’s tired of running and they need a base. Jenna asks why he’s taking her, he says because he doesn’t trust Avon not to run, but he’s less likely to do this without a pilot.

Arriving on Horizon they fail to notice security cameras. They are being watched by a man of South Asian descent wearing a uniform and sitting in some kind of throne room.

Blake and Jenna find a mine, but before they can do anything a native appears, along with several Federation troopers, and shoots them with blow darts. When no one hears from them Gan and Vila go down, and they don’t notice the cameras either. At this rate Avon might find himself alone on the Liberator…

You know, if an episode of a sci-fi show was made with these kind of themes today, I suspect it would be derided as ‘woke’ but in 1979 it was just early evening telly.

Blakes 7 deals with colonialism, and interestingly handles it quite well. It’s clunky of course, references to savages and blowpipes feel a little uncomfortable, but both Ro and Selma are portrayed as intelligent people, and more importantly they have real agency. On the Federation side we have the Kommissar who treats Ro like a true friend, while deriding him behind his back and manipulating him at every turn. Educating an indigenous leader in your own customs before sending them back to rule their people is of course colonialism 101, and yes, the Kommissar does trot out the ‘we gave you civilisation’ trope.

The crew don’t come out of this well. Not only do they teleport into danger, but every time someone goes missing, someone else goes down to find them, walking straight into the same trap. We can forgive them though, as Cally diagnoses, they’re all under tremendous stress so making poor decisions comes with the territory. This is your constant reminder that Blakes 7 aired in the early evening, yet here we get PTSD, and not only that, we also get the crew effectively self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. Not for the first time our heroes are shown to be all too human, and the show is all the better for that.

After some light torture Blake and Jenna are put to work. When Gan and Vila are captured Gan is hoisted up as a warning (after taking multiple darts to take him down) while Vila immediately spills his guts. Slave labour in the mines is no laughing matter, but even here there’s some amusement to be had over the notion that this might be the first work Vila has ever done.

Blake of course assumes command of the other slaves, ensuring everyone gets their fair share of gruel, meanwhile Jenna meets Selma and learns more. There’s nice use of Cally’s abilities here as well, or rather some implied use, because she can’t really read the Kommissar’s mind, and is just going by what Orac told her about Ro’s father, but her naturally empathetic manner sells the illusion. It’s a nice touch.

Blake gets some nice lines when he starts telling Ro the truth about his planet. “They codenamed this world Horizon, it’s a Horizon you’ll never cross.” It does seem a little convenient that Ro’s old friend was apparently on the London, but it’s a nice call back all the same.

The hero of the hour though, begrudgingly, is Avon, and Paul Darrow’s great here. Early doors he gets a line so cool that, yes, I have a t-shirt with it on:

“I am not expendable, I’m not stupid and I’m not going.”

Once it’s just him and Cally he suggests bugging out, after Cally teleports down (and walks right into to some blow darts presumably) and he’s alone he can at this point leave. He tells himself he has no reason to stay, but still procrastinates by getting Orac to calculate his chances of piloting the Liberator alone and staying out of the Federation’s way, which seem to be quite good as Liberator can survive anything but a direct assault by three pursuit ships. When he realises that three pursuit ships are on their way this should make Avon’s decision for him.

Except he doesn’t leave. He goes rescue everyone, slaughtering four Federation troopers (and almost Blake) in the process. The question is, why? I mean spending the rest of your life with only Orac and Zen for company would likely drive anyone mad, but we know the Federation aren’t everywhere so surely there’s another bolthole he could find, or he could sell the Liberator or its tech? He never asks this of Orac though. Is it because Avon, that bastion of self-reliance, actually cares for Blake and the others? To me it feels like the conversation with Orac is for show, he already knows he’s going down to Horizon, he’s just deluding himself that he could flee. It’s nicely played by Darrow.

I can’t decide whether Ro returning to native garb to kill the Kommissar is a great idea, or a trifle reductive. If it’s the latter what saves it is Ro saying they’ll keep the name Horizon because they can’t cling to the past.

Cue Blake playing the odds against those pursuit ships before getting a snarky yet affectionate dig at Avon about last minute heroics being his strong suit.

“And we thought we were stressed before.” Says Cally, setting up Vila with the comedy ending…

“It beats work!”

All in all, another top drawer episode, the first written by Allan Prior and, I hate to say, probably the best written by him!

Next time: Now Blake’s Gan and done it!

Blakes 7. Series B, Episode 3: Weapon

A ship explodes on the surface of a planet. Cut to its crew who are some distance away, a man named Coser and a young woman named Rashel. Coser says the Federation will think they died in the crash, except he doesn’t really believe they’ll be fooled so easily. Rashel is deferential to Coser, calling him Sir, though Coser tells her not to call him that because he’s set her free.

Meanwhile in a curious chamber, with religious sounding organ music playing, Travis waits (I mean I think it’s Travis, he looks slightly different). Suddenly Blake appears. Despite Blake pleading for his life, Travis executes him. Suddenly there’s an explosion of dry ice and a woman appears. She is a Clone Master and that wasn’t really Blake it was a clone, and there’s a second copy.

Cut to Liberator where Avon has discovered that Blake has been secretly planning an attack on the Federation’s Weapons Development Base. It quickly transpires that this was Cally’s idea. Avon is a little put out, suggesting it’s ill-mannered to kill your friends while committing suicide. Blake is adamant that it’s the right course of action, if they’re going to attack Earth they’ll need weapons and where better to get them from but the Federation?

There’s only one problem, the Weapons Development Base is on high alert, as if someone recently broke in, or possibly out?

Just who is Coser, and what is IMIPAK.

Boucher follows up Shadow with a second story, and while nowhere near as good as his first, there’s still a lot to like about Weapon, even if large parts of it don’t make a whole heap of sense.

The idea of the Clone Masters is a great one, clearly scientists yet tradition has morphed their science into almost a religion, and the idea of the Clone Master being a clone of the previous Clone Master, who was a clone of the previous Clone Master…(you get the idea) is a good one. I like Servalan’s “The weapon guards itself” line, which will of course Travis will throw back in her face later.

Ah Travis, he’s not the man we knew, say hello to Travis Mk II, the one most people think is the lesser of two Travises, yet oddly the Travis who gets the best episode and puts in the single best Travis performance in it, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Brian Croucher is a very different kind of man. Where Greif was all cold rage, Croucher is boiling anger, he’s less of a clipped military man and more of a cockney wideboy, but I guess we could blame some of the personality shifts on the re-education he seems to have undergone. Is there any of the old Travis left, the script asks, handily lamp shading the change. He’s still obsessed with Blake of course, which is the one thing Servalan can hold over him.

Ah Supreme Commander. Cold blooded as always. Sacrifices the first Blake clone just to check it’s convincing enough, then sacrifices one of her own men just to show how IMIPAK works, and of course she marks Travis as soon as his back’s turned. Would you expect anything less?

As with Shadow Boucher gives us some great guests characters, one of whom on a ratio of coolness to screen time might be the greatest Blakes 7 non-recurring character of all time, but we’ll get to him.

Coser’s a bit of a dick isn’t he? Completely three dimensional though, and between Boucher’s script and John Bennett’s performance we see a complex man who’s cleverer than anyone thought and who has a colossal chip on his shoulder as a result. He clearly wants to be a better man, freeing Raschel and seemingly hero worshiping Blake, but his paranoia and arrogance get in the way. It’s a great little character.

Talking of Raschel here’s another minor character who gets her own arc, and again the actor is spot on. Candace Glendenning starts out as a submissive dormouse, deferential to Coser even when he’s treating her badly, but by the end the worm has turned, she’s become assertive and even manages to get the drop on Servalan, and how many can say that!

The star of the show of course is Scott Fredericks as psycho-strategist Carnell, it’s a wonderfully arch performance they stays just the right side of camp, and much like Tyce in series A he’s a character I’d have loved to see again. Suave, sarcastic, flirtatious, and his final goodbye to Servalan is the chef’s kiss.

If the characters are great then it’s the plot that somewhat lets the episode down. In part it’s great. The notion of IMIPAK is wonderful, as Coser explains, a weapon that can mark someone one day and kill them the next, and the notion of using it as a method of control to keep people in check is very scary, but everything else seems very contrived. Creating a clone of Blake just to fool Coser for a few seconds seems like a waste of resources, you’d think there’d be much better false flag operations you could do (although maybe this was the plan for after) and how could Servalan be so sure Blake would turn up? It doesn’t seem coincidence when she says “I thought you’d never get here.” I can buy that Carnell could predict Coser’s actions, but that he could predict Blake and Cally is way too farfetched.

And much as with ORAC, the Federation had the chance to get hold of a powerful tool, a chance denied them by Servalan’s greed. At least she’s consistent.

Raschel and clone Blake’s Adam and Eve style budding romance seems a trifle too contrived as well. And we get another abandoned planet, this one menaced seemingly by a giant claw that I’m guessing came from Dr Who?

So, the plot’s bobbins but the regulars are great, the guest stars are spot on, and we get some nice moments such as Travis’ surprising “My compliments” to clone Blake and Avon’s snarky “Unless you want your last words to be, ‘so that’s IMIPK.’” All this makes Weapon a far more enjoyable episode than it has any right to be!

Coming next, the loneliness of the long distance Avon…

Blakes 7. Series B, Episode 2: Shadow

Space City is an independent space station. On board a gangster named Largo, member of the criminal organisation known as Terra Nostra pays two young addicts, brother and sister Bek and Hanna, for their services. He calls them dream heads and makes them beg for the Shadow he owes them as payment. Unfortunately for Largo, Bek isn’t actually an addict, he forces Largo to give him the drugs at gun point and then he and Hanna run.

Coincidentally Liberator has arrived at Space City. Vila is excited by the idea of visiting the Satellite of Sin. Gan isn’t very happy with Blake’s plan to work with the Terra Nostra to infiltrate Earth, saying that they’re involved in everything dirty and degrading on multiple worlds. Blake doesn’t care, all he cares about is Earth. It turns out Jenna knows Largo, though he’s no friend of hers. He wanted her to smuggle Shadow, but she refused. Avon says this was a smart move, as possession of shadow carried a mandatory death sentence.

“That isn’t why I refused,” says Jenna, offering a nice counterpoint between the two of them.

On Space City Bek and Hanna have been captured again, and when Blake and co make the mistake of underestimating Largo they’re captured too. Meanwhile on Liberator Orac is acting suspiciously…

What an absolute cracker of an episode. The first episode not written by Terry Nation, and boy does it show. Nation is a great writer and has great ideas but too often had to pad them out to 50 minutes, here Chris Boucher packs in enough plot to last three episodes, and yet the multiple stories hang together perfectly, he gives every member of the cast their moment, and still manages to give us multiple guest characters who all feel three dimensional.

First off let’s again remind ourselves that Blakes 7 went out in the early evening, yet we have a plot that heavily relies on drug addiction, we have murder and criminality. Would that happen today?

There have been inklings before of Blake’s fanaticism, but this is the moment that it stops being subtle and steps out front and centre. The Terra Nostra are basically space Mafia, they’re an organisation with their fingers in everything bad, pushers for Shadow, a highly addictive drug that even the Federation president cites as the greatest threat to humanity there is (what, it isn’t Blake and the Liberator?) and yet Roj is happy to climb into bed with them. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. I’m surprised he doesn’t talk about omelettes and breaking eggs…

It’s interesting that only Gan seems dead set against this idea on moral grounds, and in just a few scenes Boucher gives David Jackson more to work with than he’s had in ages, and while still the most dispensable member of the crew (foreshadowing!) it’s nice to see him played as the voice of reason and the moral heart of the crew- a position Cally will end up taking down the line. Just a shame we didn’t get more of this from Gan.

Largo is a lovely villain, and the only real shame is that he’s dispensed with off screen, although that in itself is an interesting moment that shows just how ruthless the Terra Nostra can be. Derek Smith plays Largo with vicious relish, and you have to love his dialogue about the Terra Nostra not being real. “Like a shadow?” Says Jenna.

Yes that is Karl Howman as Bek, before he gave up space crime to paint houses, but he’s very good here, playing all of Bek’s conflicted emotions, love and disgust, for his addicted siblings, and he has a great arc, going from petty criminal to potentially a rebel leader, as Blake gives him three years to build an organisation on Space City. Adrienne Burgess is equally good as Hanna, playing all that addict’s need and self-loathing for all she’s worth.

The crew get stuff to do, Blake gets to be fanatical, Gan gets to be noble, Jenna riffs on her previous history again (and it feels heavily implied that the reason she was on the London was because Largo dobbed her in) and Vila, well Vila gets to be disappointed and hung over in equal measure. Avon gets to be cool, but then that’s every week.

Cally does really well though, from using her abilities to help Blake trick Largo, to threatening to blow up Space City if Blake and co aren’t released. Yes, she does get possessed, well kinda, but she’s also the one that fends the possessor off, with some help from a moondisc or two. Plus she gets to threaten Vila with making a necklace of his teeth!

From Space City we venture to Zonda, home of the possibly psychic plants that are used to synthesise Shadow. It may be just another quarry, but it’s lit and filmed very well and convinces as an alien world, seeing the crew in desert gear helps sell the illusion. Of course, Blake’s plan is still to use the Terra Nostra, until he realises whose garden they’ve really stumbled upon which is a wonderful touch and leads to a great interchange:

Vila: Where are all the good guys?

Blake: You could be looking at them.

Avon: What a depressing thought.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot, while all this drama and political intrigue is going on, Boucher throws in an alien invasion, and not just any old alien invasion, oh no, he goes full on HP Lovecraft and Cosmic Horror as Orac is used as a bridge to bring something across from another universe, a universe of utter darkness. Blimey it’s all gone a bit John Carpenter/Prince of Darkness/Event Horizon here!

But it works, it all works. The episode never feels crammed full of ideas even though it is, and Boucher even manages to make it so Orac can never be used in such a way again.

A truly top drawer episode. One of Blakes 7’s best in my opinion.

Coming next: So that’s IMIPAK!

Sundial

By Catriona Ward

All Rob ever wanted was a normal life. On the surface she has it, a home in the suburbs, a husband and two kids, but her life is anything but normal. When her eldest daughter, Callie begins exhibiting unsettling behaviour, talking to imaginary friends and collecting the bones of animals, Rob is worried enough to take Callie back to Rob’s childhood home, a place called Sundial in the Mohave Desert, where she knows she might have to make a terrible choice.

Meanwhile Callie is worried too, her mother is behaving strangely, and keeps talking about the past. She’s dragged her off to Sundial and Callie has an awful feeling only one of them will be returning.

After reading The Last House on Needless Street I was eager to get hold of Ward’s next novel, and while I may not have ended up loving it quite as much, there’s still a lot to like about Sundial.

One of the best talents Ward has is her ability to play with your expectations, to hide twists inside of other twists that aren’t twists at all, and she does this superbly in Sundial. This isn’t remotely the story you think it’s going to be, and as much as it’s about the difficult relationship between Rob and Callie in the here and now, it’s also about the past, and about Rob growing up with her twin sister Jack, her father Falcon and her stepmom Mia. Sundial in the past was a curious mix of hippie commune and government research lab, and though you might guess where the story is going, the chances are you won’t foresee every bump in the road. I certainly didn’t.

We see things from both Rob and Callie’s perspectives, but neither of them is a reliable narrator and it’s hard to know who to trust. It’s debatable whether this is horror so much as a psychological thriller, but the line is blurred enough that I wasn’t disappointed and there are definitely hints that something supernatural is occurring, even if it’s somewhat tangential to the story.

Ward pulls heartstrings exceptionally well, and I was genuinely worried for both Rob and Callie at times, both of whom are fully rounded characters, as is Jack. At its heart this is a story about nature versus nurture, although it ventures into some unexpected and unsettling places.

It isn’t perfect. It’s a slow burn and does drag on occasion, but does at least reward your patience. There’s also a selection of chapters written by Rob in the style of a fictional story she’s telling about a private children’s school that one part Enid Blyton, one part JK Rowling and one part Stephen King. I didn’t enjoy these chapters, and while I think there was a point to them, I’m not entirely certain what that point was. Similarly the final twist left me almost wanting to reread the book to confirm that Ward had legitimately wrongfooted me all the way through because it came out of leftfield.

Then again, a book that almost demands to be read again isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Well written, if a little slow at time, this is a very surprising story. I think your milage might vary as to whether you think this is a good thing or not, but for now at least I’m leaning towards the positive, and I’ll definitely be seeking out more of Ward’s work.

Blakes 7. Series B, Episode 1: Redemption

On the flight deck Blake is getting Zen to keep replaying Orac’s prediction of Liberator’s destruction. In the teleport bay Cally is checking bracelets while Jenna checks the teleport itself. Meanwhile Gan is checking in the computer room (at least I think it’s the computer room).

Oh and Orac has a new voice but no one seems to notice.

Avon is being smug and enigmatic, telling Blake that he’s looking for the wrong things. Avon knows the right thing, and has known for several hours, but was waiting for Blake to ask nicely because, well, because he’s Kerr Avon obviously.

After a neat conversation around the nature of prediction Avon homes in on the star configuration behind the destroyed Liberator, arguing that it provides a precise fix on where they will supposedly explode. All they have to do is avoid that spot and they’ll be fine, and given its half a galaxy away that shouldn’t be too difficult…

Should it?

And then Liberator is attacked by small craft that no one recognises (despite the fact that apart from their size they bear a striking similarity to Liberator, I’ll be kind and imagine that maybe the effects were done after the script and that the similarity wasn’t supposed to be quite so obvious.)

Anyway, the new ships are really fast, and Zen picks this point to start playing up, Liberator can’t fire weapons or raise the force wall and the next thing you know everyone’s knocked out.

When they wake up the ship is locked onto a course and they can’t change it, when they try to regain control the ship turns against them and all too soon they’re going to find themselves in a very particular stellar location…

So, if Blakes 7’s first season ended with a little bit of a damp squib it’s second season starts in the same way. On the face of it there’s a great story here; Liberator’s original owners want their ship back, it’s just not very well handled. The main fault is The System, they’re a trifle ridiculous, BBC sci-fi of this era either worked or it didn’t, and this didn’t. The guards are ok and do appear threatening, but Alta One and Alta Two don’t work. Silly costumes and sillier dialogue, and for machine controlled biological robots Alta Two seems awfully angry don’t you think?

The other problem is that the episode takes so long to get to the meat of the story, much as with Breakdown it’s ages before we arrive at The System, cue lots of exposition and characters trying to fix computers, oh and Blake being threatened by a live electrical cable that seems to have a life of its own. Luckily Avon is on hand with an explosive charge (he just happened to have in his pocket)

Frankly Nation should have junked some of this and given us more time with The System, as it is we learn very little. Three planets always at war until one devised a computer that could run all three, again a nice idea but it doesn’t go anywhere, plus we learn all this from an unnamed slave who conveniently dies moments after saying “I’ll stay here.” Sure, ‘cos why would you want the possibility of freedom with these new folks you’ve found when you can stay behind on the, checks notes, evil space station where you’ve spent years as a slave.

It isn’t all bad, I like the smaller System ships, and it’s nice to finally find out where Liberator (or Deep Space Vehicle One to give it its actually name) came from, the appearance of Deep Space Vehicle Two is a bit of a get out but it works all the same (interesting that Orac won’t predict anything ever again!). As already said the guards are cool, and the use of Oldbury-on-Severn Nuclear Power Station provides an impressive backdrop. Shocking that they’re letting off explosives inside a nuclear reactor of course! I’m not sure if this was the episode that prompted Jan Chappell to say she never wanted to film there again!

There’s some nice interplay between Blake and Avon, and as is often the case Vila gets many of the best lines.

“If it ever comes down to a showdown, my money’s on Blake. Well, half of it – I’ll put the other half on Avon.”

Speaking of Vila there’s some lovely acting by Keating after they’ve escaped, as they run through the station he slowly and surreptitiously moves to the back of the group, letting others lead the way.

And of course Orac (grudgingly) saves the day. It won’t be the last time he does that.

There’s a hint of a DSV1 vs DSV2 fight which I suspect would have been awesome, even with late 1970s budgetary restrictions, but sadly we don’t get it.

File in the drawer labelled “It’s all right.” But it could have been so much better.

Coming next, something of a shock, our first episode not written by Terry Nation. Will the sky fall in?