Cygnus Alpha
With Artix dosing the air with suppressants there must be an antidote for the crew? What about "health and safety in the workplace" regulations for the London's crew? Are they unionized?
We get more portrayal of "every day" federation citizens when Artix is worried about his promotion prospects, and the captain says he can live it down because he is so young (compared to the captain for whom it will be the end of the road?). But our "good" captain makes a mistake when recording the log. He says five London crew died in the rebellion. They didn't. Teague and Wallace died on the Liberator, not during the takeover. Krell went insane on the liberator and Raiker died when the ships separated. This leaves one and maybe two unaccounted for (OR another five died during the rebellion and the captain thinks noone will noitce the other missing crew?). Later we find this is Artix first prison planet run. He is surprised that the planet looks so inhospitable, and that he cannot go down to the planet and stretch his legs.
And now a real bone of contention: the HOT Liberator guns. One explanation is that you only get the hot reaction when the guns are in the storage compartment, that's why Blake can hand his gun to Jenna and she doesn't get burned (but Blake could have been a little more careful/thoughtful - he wasn 't to know this). In other words, the storage compartment detects that you have another gun in your hand - not the gun itself. But what if you had a gun in a holster, not touched by skin - would that be OK?
The "lost religion" is too cliché for words. With language like "New bounty has come from the darkness." Sheesh!
So Blake, Jenna and Avon are on a new and strange ship. The survival priorities should be air, water, food, heat & light, but they don't even discuss these things. In other episodes we know they don't take these things for granted, so what is going on here?
Jenna names the ship "Liberator", too bad she isn't in charge of the whole operation. At least she would tell everyone what is going on more than Blake does, and she can certainly stand up to geeky old Avon.
Even when they are stuck on the planet, Vila is still telling jokes - does he take nothing seriously?
There have been many SFX criticisms of B7, but one of my favourite things is the "white outline" teleportation trick. BUT why does Blake say to bring him back in four minutes and not a shorter time. Oh, I know, it is just enough time for "Mr. Bumble" to get into trouble. When "the followers" see Blake they are told "A deserter, kill him". How do they know? Isn't it more likely he is a new prisoner? Blakes first LIE. He doesn't tell Jenna and Avon about being assulted. Grrr.. And when being interviewed by Vargas he says "No way am I ordering the ship to land ". Why not just tell the truth (as far as we know) it can't land on a planet?
More hysterical dialog from the followers: "I am the servant of your god, Neil." So who is this Neil, and why is he god? :-). And why oh why is Gan kissed? Baffling. Another S.F. religion cliché - Medieval Chanting. Why not have a tele-evangelist? I know - no T.V. on this planet and they couldn't get the suits or whores. Why do they use sharps extra strong mints in the sacrament ceremony? Is this the religion that refreshes? More than a religion - its petty beurocracy too. there are chances for the faithful to rise in the priesthood - doing as you are told brings you into favour. Where did Vargas gun come from? I can't see the federation allowing armed prisoners to be shipped, can you?
Jenna asks Avon about killing face to face. He says he doesn't know. I guess he shot the visa seller in the back then :-). Once again forgetting about food/air/water Jenna concentrates on fashion - but Avon is not impressed. Also - why are jewels so valuable? Apparently there is enough to buy a planet - equivalent to a whole banking system. This just makes no sense - you would need more minerals than are in a planet for starters.
And I won't even mention the tennis shoes or the time differences between the liberators trip and the london. Rats - I just did.
We have now gone three full episodes into the show and not one mention of football. Now, I can believe that religions have been wiped out, everyone lives in a dome, FTL space travel and BUT it is incredible that we are asked to believe that there is no organized sport (ask any facsist dictator about this way of getting people to let off steam) :-^. Surely Vila would have a replica shirt - probably Man City :-).
- Iain
On the substitutes bench we have Time Squad warming up!