Sunday 1 June 2014

Servalan's Cane de Showbizness


Here's Blake in a spacesuit giving Voice from the Past the thumbs up. To a cat 'thumbs up' is a dreadful insult (because we don't have thumbs so it just looks like showing off), but I do like Voice from the Past anyway.


Here's Avon looking handsome, as usual, and also worried about Blake who has been mind-controlled this week. That isn't usual. On the other hand, if it had been Cally...


His attempt to cure Blake with hugs doesn't work so well, neither does his karate chopping Blake (twice) solve the problem.


You can tell things are really serious because Jenna actually gets to leave the Liberator for a change. Seriously, she hasn't been off the ship since Pressure Point.


Travis makes a surprise appearance, having been cleverly disguised as Shivan with his face and robot hand covered up, and putting on a fake accent so convincing that I was completely fooled the first time I saw this episode. I'm sorry if this is a spoiler for you because this bit is a great twist.


Although she is not in it much, this story is dominated by Servalan, who has set a trap for the rebels who mind-controlled Blake, her giant face appearing to spring the trap and gloat in a very effective scene.


Her trap is very cinematic (because it seems to take place in a cinema, lol), with the lights going out and all her henchmannys appearing in spotlights to illustrate to the rebels how trapped they have been. This demonstrates that Servalan has a flair for showbizness even if she is a baddy.

Voice from the Past isn't perfect, but it is an ambitious episode with a political story which twists and turns. The failure of the coup against Servalan and the Federation is nicely placed in the season as a whole because it helps to set up the importance of the events of Star One.

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