Cygnus Alpha: A review

Before we start...

An apology

I apologise for taking so long with these. Busy life. Bad habit.

...that's it. You were expecting a YouTube video with a clickbait title and rambling about unrelated stuff before the apology? Clearly you don't know me very well. Oh, and if you're wondering why this one's a tad shorter than before - that's a result of said busy life. 

Right, enough of that. On with the show!

Cygnus Alpha. A planet so desolate and barren that it cannot sustain life. Except it can, and it does. All non-believers will perish under the might of Brian Blessed, that woman from Remembrance Of The Daleks, a bald guy who apparently doesn't do much, and an illness so deadly that the prisoners forced to inhabit it pretty much become drug addicts overnight. 

Terry, it sounds like you were taking a few pills yourself when writing this episode, won't lie.

Anyway, Cygnus Alpha, the third episode of Series A. I was convinced that Nation couldn't top Space Fall, but god damn it, the bastard outdid himself yet again. I only wish he'd actually put this amount of effort into his scripts for Doctor Who. Damn it, Terry, you simultaneously impress and disappoint me. But I digress.

Initial Thoughts

Zen is possibly the best addition so far, though the line "I don't think I like the idea of a computer who has a mind of his own" from Blake has not aged well at all, what with every random Joe having some form of A.I. in their house nowadays. Whilst he doesn't do much in this episode, the little we do see of him is relevant enough to warrant a very positive first impression. I'm somewhat disappointed he wasn't used more here, as I feel he may have clashed with Avon's rather dark streak we see on display in this episode, and it would have been fun to see them interact had this been the case. 

Speaking of, we get a better idea of what it is Avon actually wants: money. I had a hunch last time, what with his speech on wealth, that Avon was the type of man to ditch everyone if he felt it bettered himself, and that was confirmed here. Sure, he's not a bad man, but this goal of his lingers with him all the time, like a temptation to the dark side. It's actually genius how Nation has Avon switch from being somewhat enthusiastic about the plan when Blake is around and then viciously vying with Jenna to leave Blake behind once he is out of earshot. Darrow executes this brilliantly, with him appearing angry, almost desperate once Blake is gone and then acting as if none of that ever happened once both of them are reunited. It's things like this that really sell his morally dubious anti-hero agenda to me, and I think it's really well done. Good job!

This episode is obviously a send-up of religion and a commentary on oppression brought on by it. Given I'm somewhat religious myself (long story), I was worried that this might just be wagging the middle finger to all faiths because Darwin said fuck you, but thankfully that's not the impression I got, so I needn't have worried. 

Notes

The prison ship London arrives at Cygnus Alpha, and Leylan gets Artix to send a message on which is our reminder of the events of last time. Sadly, the start of this episode is the last time we'll be seeing these two going forward, which is a bit of a shame given that they were one of the many highlights of Space Fall. Artix is pissed at Leylan (for some reason) but Leylan doesn't really care too much about that. Nothing ever fazes him when you're the cool guy (next you'll be telling me he shits ice cubes). When Artix mentions that he wants to stretch his legs, Leylan tells him "Not on this planet", the first indicator that something's amiss - all the talk of Cygnus beforehand had led us to assume nothing was wrong with it, and that it was a simple prison planet, but something in the way Leylan phrases this statement implies that there is more that we don't know. 

On the Liberator, Jenna accidentally activates Zen, the on-ship computer. Zen, as you'd expect, is the coolest thing about the ship. His lights flash about the place like a frenzied Dalek when he speaks (though curiously a set of lights in the formation of a number 7 remain constant. Is this deliberate? One can only wonder), though he has the richly posh voice of Peter Tuddenham, a far cry from the staccato shrieking of Peter Hawkins and David Graham. Zen is clearly hiding something, as he isn't one to answer the crew's questions directly, more content with giving vague answers and focusing on the journey ("Set speed and course") which is rather suspicious, though I'll talk more about him in later episodes given his role is incredibly minimal here.

Cygnus, it turns out, is home to a religious cult, as is found out by the prisoners after London yeets them onto the planet's surface. Said cult is led by Vargas (Brian Blessed) and Kara (Pamela Salem). Vargas, being a Blessed character, is, of course, batshit insane. No change there. There are plenty of moments throughout where Blessed looks very stoned, though that's probably down to the "mad stare" he employs for every major character he plays. His family invented the religion many years ago, and he wants it to spread to many other worlds, and Kara serves him devotedly, catching Vila's... uhh... attention, shall we say ("I like God's taste in servants!") Kara doesn't exactly have that much of an impact on the proceedings apart from.. that, unfortunately, but it was nice to see Pamela Salem in something that wasn't Doctor Who - she gives a great performance, though I wish she had more screen time.

Blake's motives in this episode are simple: find the rest of the prisoners, recruit as many as he can, and leave. This sentiment isn't shared by Avon, who still doesn't seem to trust Blake very much. Whilst Blake is teleported down onto the planet, Avon tries his damndest to convince Jenna to leave him down there so they can escape to plunder other planets and use the wealth already on board the Liberator. What was effectively a passing speech in Space Fall on the subject of wealth is now put under the microscope; Avon's desires to steal money is far more prominent, and we learn how much of a big deal a heist is to him. Darrow's performance here is great, as he manages to balance out Avon's motives to better himself as well as his chummy relationship with Blake (fake or otherwise). Sally Knyvette's performance as Jenna is brilliant here too: her loyalty to Blake is challenged by Avon, and we see her struggle to decide whether or not Avon is right in his assertion that Blake's actions are foolish and that they would be better off rich, and stealing money from The Federation. Ultimately, she decides that Blake's cause is more important, but it takes a while for her to come to this decision and it's captivating to watch.

Blake is captured by Vargas and is given the choice to hand over his ship or die with the others. Blake chooses the latter option and is thrown into a cell where the rest of the prisoners are. He rebukes them when they reproach him for not giving over the Liberator, and convinces a number of them to ambush the cult. Gan is chosen to be sacrificed and the ambush goes underway, with Gan and Vila following Blake back aboard the Liberator. Vargas is beamed on board as well and attempts to have the others obey his commands, but he is teleported into space, far from where he was picked up, and he explodes, his atoms are sent far and wide (this being foreshadowed earlier in a line of dialogue from Avon). The climactic act of the story is great, as it has an entertaining fight scene, a worthy send-off for Vargas and leaves us with six of the seven leads (Cally doesn't show up until next time). 

Let's focus on Blake himself: what can I say? Gareth Thomas is giving a stellar performance yet again. By this point, Blake has found his footing and is vehemently anti-Federation. We can thus assume this is who he was before they messed with his head, and he's really doing well here. In particular, two moments stand out to me: the moment he's brought in front of Vargas, and the scene in the cell - The scene with Vargas by far the most amount of pressure we've seen Blake be put under up to this point; here he is, stuck between a rock and a hard place: he either hands the ship over to Vargas, and allows him to spread his religion, or he is thrown in with the others and made to die. Thomas really excels in his attempts to remain reasonable with Blessed and not blow his top. You can tell that Thomas is really taking this seriously and not hamming it up for the sake of looking dramatic for the camera, and it's really great. The scene in the cell when the others chastise Blake for not handing over the ship and he then loses it is really impactful, as Blake has finally had enough. It caught me off-guard the first time I watched it, and it did that as well to the other prisoners within the episode, which made me laugh. It just goes to show how good the casting choices for B7 were and how good of an actor Thomas was (God rest his soul).

The location filming is very good at setting the mood, and blends seamlessly with the model-work by the FX department, which is particularly nice. The murky look of the film, coupled with the fact it was shot at night (as opposed to Who's practice of filming during the day) is particularly good tonally, as it creates an air of mystique about Cygnus Alpha. This practice is continued in Time Squad, which I've already seen at the time of writing. The choreography for the fight scene is great too, and it's really satisfying to watch a great big punch-up (I guess that's just the Classic Who fan in me, though, lol. HAVOC all the way!).

Thanks be to Ti

I enjoyed this one a lot. I won't pretend I haven't seen Time Squad and say "Oh, I'm looking forward to that". I have. I enjoyed it too, but not quite as much as I did with this one, for reasons you will understand once I come to review it. This time, I'd like to end in a slightly different manner and shout out a few people who help make these annoying little rambles possible: Rushy, Guykings, Lord Nimon, English Giraffe, Gilga and Peylix-Ohm. These guys are truly fantastic people, and they're a good influence on what I do, so please check them out if/when you can.

Right, that's me finished. Next time: a review of something completely different. Hint: have a peep.