Indestructible

Gold!

Gold is a leading contender for Paul Darrow's hammiest performance as Avon.

In the presence of guest actor Roy Kinnear, playing "old friend" Keiller (chances of making it to the end of the episode alive: none at all), Darrow ups his performance to OVER NINE THOUSAND levels of ham.

Keiller is essentially a main character in this one, with more to do than any of the regulars except Avon and, maybe, Soolin. He calls Soolin "pretty one" several times, leading me to wonder if there was not some last minute rewriting of the script going on, and it was originally Tarrant doing Soolin's bits.

Here Avon has found Keiller's photocopier and is using it to do some space photocopying. From it he finds out that Keiller may have worked for Servalan, so maybe this is a trap.

Vila has the least to do in this episode, even though it is a heist, but this is probably because he has noticed that their heists have always seemed to go wrong in the last couple of seasons.

Tarrant is pretending to be happy on catnip. Steven Pacey is great in these bits - his delivery of his "happy" lines manages to be funny while fitting into the story perfectly.

There are some good action scenes in which Paul Darrow hams up his every gesture to help make them even more exciting.

Servalan turns up for one scene at the end because of course she does.

Although Servalan is also in Orbit and Warlord, she does not meet or interact with any of the other regular characters in them. This means that this scene is the last time she meets Avon and the others. Is that why Avon and Servalan look so happy about it?

Avon and Servalan stand very close to each other and nearly kiff, but don't.

The episode ends with Avon's ultimate moment of ham as he laughs manically at their heist having gone wrong.

Gold is a really good episode, fast-paced with many twists and turns of the heist plot that, the first time you see it, will keep you guessing as to what is going on. And Paul Darrow is a joy to watch in every scene... er, as usual. Mew.

A couple of years after this episode was made, some mannys wrote a song about it. Once you know the song is about Gold, it becomes obvious that the lyrics are about Avon, listen: