Episode 12: Deliverance

In last week's episode, Blake persuaded Sarkoff, the self-exiled president of Lindor, to return to his home planet, in the hopes of drawing his people together. Just before he teleported back home, Sarkoff's daughter Tyce suggested that Blake might want to reunite her warring factions, ifyouknowwhatImean.

You don't? OK, she wanted Blake to negotiate a peace treaty ... between her tits.

This week, a different member of Blake's team is on the receiving end of an ... attempted docking and manages to drift off target.

The Spacemaster Series 5. Don't get too attached to it. The Series 6 is just about to come out.

Model scale: 1:1

The episode starts with a weird special effects shot. Here's how we've seen spaceships depicted so far:

Simulated computer displays (hand-animated)

Nice, scratch-built models, shot against a star field (yay!)

Photographs of scratch-built models animated on a rostrum platform (boo!)

This shot is none of these. Remember in Time Squad, when they brought that probe into the cargo hold of The Liberator and the whole ship was built as part of the set? Well, that prop gets reused in this shot, and we see the ACTUAL ACTORS through the windows.

Next we see Servalan inside her space doughnut This is the first episode where we learn that this 2001-style space station is called Space Command . , watching the ship's progress on a tiny set into her desk.

Dutch oven

Inside the shuttle, we meet the two corduroy berks, Ensor Jr. and Maryatt. They pass the planet Cephlon and Ensor tells Maryatt how it used to be all nice, but then they only went and had a ruddy big war, so now it's dead. Probably. It's at this point the ship starts to get pulled toward the planet with a cacophony of alarms. This is signified by the camera slowly going Dutch. It looks like everything's going to be OK, but then this happens:

The Liberator spots the explosion the ship starts to break up and two life pods eject and fall toward the planet. We see Servalan looking pleased with the explosion.

Bombed back to the stone age

On the planet's surface, some poor supporting artists are playing the parts of cavemen straight from central casting. There's proper snow on the ground, and their legs and arms are bare. It looks miserable. In fact, there's so much snow, you'd hardly even know it was a gravel pit. The Neanderthals approach the crash site.

The forth Doctor either retrieves a pod from the snow, or does the washing up. Not sure. I'm never quite convinced by snow in quarry effects. One of the worst for me is in Seeds of Doom, where the Doctor hacks through the ice to discover a Krynoid pod. He sort of hoicks it out of a bunch of loose packing material as though he's taken delivery of it from Amazon.

Zen tells Blake that the planet Cephlon has higher than normal radiation. Gan, Vila, Avon and Jenna teleport down to the planet to look for survivors.

This is another scene where Jenna is used to provide exactly the sort of information which a pilot would know. She says of the life capsules They're bullet-shaped, built to be energy absorbing. Theoretically they could free fall from the edge of the atmosphere onto solid rock without even bruising the people inside . I dunno why, but I like this line.

Bunking off

Jenna and Gan search for one pod, Avon and Vila search for the other (there's a lot of splitting up in this episode). Almost immediately, Gan and Jenna get followed by one of the Neanderthals He just pops up from the bottom of the frame as they pass. It looks like he was crouching in plain sight. . They find the door to a bunker set into a hillside, but it's locked. As they leave, a panel slides open to reveal a window, behind which someone is having a sneaky peek.

Jenna and Gan find one of the life pods, with the corpse of Maryatt inside. They pinch his wallet.

Cally's listening to space jazz on a headset, while Blake tries to drown out the sound.

Vila and Avon find a badly injured Ensor Jr. spilling out of the other capsule. Vila calls Gan and tells them they're all going to teleport back to The Liberator.

Cally operates the teleport, but Jenna doesn't appear. They carry Ensor to the surgical unit.

Baggage screening

Blake tries to teleport Jenna back, but just gets wobbly static. On Cephlon, Jenna is unconscious and surrounded by Neanderthals who are poking through her belongings. Vila, Avon and Gan teleport back down and split up, to cover more ground fast.

Neanderthals from the Doctor Who story Tribe of Gum, colourised by Michael Blumenthal. Neanderthals are among the first people the crew meet in William Hartnell's era. Sadly, Tribe of Gum is a bit of a poor story, sandwiched as it is between the excellent An Unearthly Child episode and The Daleks. One mildly interesting note is the Doctor himself, who in this story is apparently not to be trusted. Hartnell got the dubious moral character of the Doctor down brilliantly. I feel we've lost that uncertainty today. The Doctor is a definite hero, even if he's being an arse.

Two and 'fro

On The Liberator, the twin Afros of Blake and Cally try and work out what Ensor's all about. From the that Gan passed to him, Blake discovers that Maryatt was a space surgeon working for the Federation, with a very high security clearance.

With micro-power comes micro-responsibility

Blake searches Ensor and find a box of micro-power cells, which look like tea-lights and make a buzzing sound, when you open their wee box.

/img/characters/ensor-jr.png Ensor Jr. Delivery boy Sympathetic kidnapper The Incredible Hulk High, with danger of gold banding

Tony Caunter as Jackson from the Doctor Who story Enlightenment Tony Caunter (who plays Ensor Jr.) falls outside my specialist era, but is a bit of a regular having appeared with Doctors 1 (The Crusade), 3 (Colony in Space) and 5 (Enlightenment). The Crusade also features the beautiful Julian Glover. Actors were often re-used multiple times without explanation, bar a couple of examples like Lalla Ward. We're left to assume that 'in an infinite universe there must be some occurrences of similarity in physical appearance' yada yada yada.

Tony Caunter also had a role in Howards' Way, a series which no-one remembers, even though it went on for six seasons, for some reason. He shares this honour with Glyn Owen, who played Commander Leylan in Space Fall.

They may not remember Howards' Way, but most people can surely hum the theme tune? It was flippin' everywhere in the 80s. I recall sitting through a performance on hand bells at a school concert. There's nothing quite as emotive as an amateur handbell. Like those panpipes renditions people went nuts for in the day.

Ensor regains consciousness and pleads with Blake to take him to the planet Aristo, where his father is gravely ill and will die in a few days time, unless her gets the micro-power cells. He also says that the Federation will pay one hundred million credits for Orac, which piques Blake's interest.

Throughout this scene, Ensor is using agrammatic speech. He says things like must - go now and you - you get to him - promise? . Cally takes the piss a bit, when she says must rest - shhhhhh .

Tommy is shocked during the Doctor Who story Planet of the Spiders Many a luckless character fell for companion Sarah Jane's feisty yet feminine charms. Two examples use agrammatic speech in a borderline offensive way. Planet of the Spiders features Tommy and an extremely dubious treatment of learning disability. Tommy is turned 'normal' by a mind-altering spider crystal (Sarah's words not mine). In this way perhaps his love is rewarded. Not so much the hapless Igor, sorry, Condor in Brain of Morbius. His loyalty is repaid by several bullets to the stomach then a monster throttling. Quite the femme fatale our Sarah. Just ask the giant robot.

Ensor the dragon

When it's clear that Blake refuses to leave his crew behind, Ensor pulls a gun and holds Cally hostage. Blake reluctantly sets a course for Aristo.

Both Cally and Jenna are held hostage in this episode. This is a shame because Cally spends most of the episode lying on the floor like a dropped microphone. Think how interesting it would be if Ensor held Blake hostage and Cally was forced to pilot the ship to Aristo, with Blake heckling all the way.

Travis turns up at Space Command, and enters Servalan's office. She does a lovely bit of passive-aggression, while he stands in front of her desk:

Trial period

Travis has lost his command, since rolling about on the floor, clutching a fizzy egg and cursing Blake at the end of Project Avalon. He wants it back, purely so he can pursue Blake, and is willing to eat humble pie in order to achieve vengeance.

Servalan does a big exposision dump all over Travis. She doesn't explain what Orac is, but it's brilliant In the literal sense of the word. By which I mean Orac is really clever , rather than Orac is really bright . Well, Orac is bright in the intelligence sense, just not like a light bulb. Oh, you know what I mean. . Ensor Jr. wanted to sell it to her for one hundred million credits, some micro-power cells and the loan of a surgen to fix his father up His father's also called Ensor, to add confusion to this situation. . Once Servalan agreed to his terms, Ensor told her where the secret lab was, and set off there with the micro-power cells and Maryatt, the surgeon.

Maryatt was the same man who saved Travis' life, after Blake shot half his face off. We first heard about him during Seek-Locate-Destroy.

There will be a small charge for this service

As Servalan doesn't have access to one hundred million credits, she had an explosive charge set on the Spacemaster, so that Ensor Jr. would be delayed or killed, his father would die, she could collect Orac without trouble and we could watch some special effects. It's a good plan.

When Travis realises that Servalan's actions have placed Maryatt in danger, he's concerned. Her plan to cover up Maryatt's disappearance is to report him as a deserter. This means Maryatt's family will go into slavery as punishment. Dark. For all his bluster about being a man who just wants to get the job done, and doesn't care about offending people, Travis does has some feelings for his fellow man.

Nuclear bunkers: built to withstand assault from club and rock

Back on Cephlon, Vila, Gan and Avon come under rock attack from a couple of Neanderthals. Avon shoots one, like it ain't no thing and they leg it, pursued by a bunch more with sticks. They find the bunker door which Jenna and Gan had passed earlier and Vila tries to open the door, but says he can't. Just as it looks hopeless, the door opens of it's own accord and they scamper inside. The Neanderthals thump on the closed door like twits.

Nuclear fear The planet of Cephlon was (presumably) destroyed by a nuclear conflict, leading to a inversion of the future world in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine: this time, the savages on the surface and the peace-lovers underground. Most people born before 1985, who were alive after 1945, have spent a significant portion of their lives worrying about nuclear war. That's just what we used to do. It was like a hobby. It's difficult to express how much worse this was than the threat of terrorism. Even if terrorist acts were as common as road deaths, a significant number of people would go through life never encountering terrorism, or knowing anyone who did. With nuclear war, it just needed to happen once, and it would ruin everyone's day. I don't miss the fear of nuclear war one bit.

Skaro from the 2012 story Asylum of the Daleks A critic might suggest these are examples of chemical warfare, but meh. Hairs. Nuclear war. It appears so many times in Doctor Who. Where to start? The obvious place is Skaro, planet of the Daleks. Who were invented by...oh yes I think Charlotte can't say Davros , in the same way as actors can't say Macbeth , the Wizarding world can't say Voldemort and Muggles can't say Trump . . The whole planet and much of its life is destroyed by the weapons used in the first centuries of a war that goes on for, well, centuries, between the Kaleds (dark hair) and Thals (blondies). Poor Skaro is reduced to a radioactive quarry. A more interesting later example is Curse of Fenric, one of the darker 7th Doctor stories. Poor Nicholas Parsons gets killed by vampires. There's a lot of adult discussion surrounding faith and war and other such weighty topics. In the climax Fenric threatens to use the ancient haemovore to poison the earth with chemicals. In a twist (spoiler) the haemovore instead turns on Fenric. It's a cracking story. Watch it.

Meegat steps from the shadows, with a flurry of flutes. She's wearing a floaty little number in pale grey. She's drawn immediately to Avon and speaks a similar sort of cod-Medieval as Kara, from Cygnus Alpha.

/img/characters/meegat.png Meegat Fan girl Deliverer of ironic religion, male fantasy figure Dusting, window cleaning Kneeling, drapery, some light prophecy

Avon can't wipe his arse, without confirming some prophesy or other, she has stored in her noggin I imagine this would go something like this: And it shall be that He will make His mark on the paper and the people will feel shame, for His mark is good . .

At the Neanderthal village Meegat calls them scavengers . , Jenna has a go at un-damselling herself, but it doesn't go well.

You call is important to us; please stay on the line

Avon finds out Meegat is alone in her bunker, and yet there are less than a hundred of them left. It's all a bit Castle Anthrax. Meegat claims to have waited for Avon her whole life. She leads them into what looks like a long abandoned mission control area, with candles placed on top of the computer terminals. The remaining people have lost the manual, and have no idea how to turn it on. Basically, they've been waiting for technical support for generations We've all been there, calling for help with our broadband, amiright? .

The rocket on Cephlon, because I likes me a scratch-built model.

Profit warning

Gan gets bored with all the Avon love, and starts cleaning a window. Through it, they can see a rocket of some description on a pad. Avon gets Meegat to recite the prophecy and it turns out that launching this rocket will somehow save the civilisation.

Gan suggests that the ship might contain brood units , like the ones Jenna and him encountered during Time Squad. Everything was in place for launch, but the one person who knew how to operate the rocket got killed.

Vila and Avon start poking about on the launch computers, because why not - what's the worse that could happen?

The Starliner from the 1980 Doctor Who story Full Circle I'm not keen on the later fourth Doctor stories, but there are interesting themes. In the E-space trilogy, it is entropy or decay. Progress is stifled by a lack of information, technology or skills. In Full Circle, the people have been preparing a space ship for lift off for generations. The Doctor reveals it has been ready to launch for decades, but no one can fly it. Often the Doctor is a sort of troubleshooter or littlest hobo. He arrives, fixes stuff, gives society the nudge it needs, then pushes off again. Or as Romana would say: he interferes.

It might just be my imagination, but this shot looks like Avon and Meegat are getting married. Excuse me: I have some fan fiction to write.

Meegat looks like she's getting a lady boner, watching Avon flipping switches and calling out technobabble.

Dead man's switch

On The Liberator, Ensor sets his energiser so that if he falls unconscious, it will blow Cally's head off. Bit of insurance.

The rule of expectations

Back on Cephlon, Avon, Gan and Vila leave to try and find Jenna. Avon's tempted to have a go on Meegat, but thinks better of it.

They quickly find the Neanderthal village. Avon and Vila infiltrate the camp. Avon finds her and knocks out a Neanderthal through the tent wall. Vila gets grabbed by another while Avon frees Jenna. Avon gives Vila's attacker a boot in the chest and the three of them leg it, chased by extras. There's an ambush at the bunker entrance, so Gan gets to do some Big Daddy style wrestling. They manage to get into the bunker, once Meegat wakes up.

Terry Nation makes an interesting point here - we know Avon has a moral compass, but keeps it, and his affection for Blake and his crew, very well hidden. As soon as Meegat starts to treat him as a better person, he begins to act like one: leading the infiltration of the scavenger camp and saving Vila from a Neanderthal.

On The Liberator, Ensor finally falls unconscious and Cally rolls out of the way of the fireworks. He has some more stunted dialogue, and expires. Blake plots a course back to Cephlon.

In the launch centre, Jenna finds a communication system capable of reaching The Liberator and calls in with an update. Avon starts the count down, which ends in stock footage of a missile launching. Disappointing.

The Apolo 11 launch footage, reused in the Doctor Who story Revenge of the Cybermen As with recycling actors, seventies Who also liked to recycle library footage. Both Revenge of the Cybermen and the Android Invasion use identical film of (according to Google) the Saturn V rocket. I would almost have preferred some dodgy model work. Revenge also features a Celtic style symbol that is later used widely as the Gallifreyan seal. (As you'll know, Gallifrey = the Doctor's home planet.) I'm sure there's a whole universe of fan theories surrounding that particular temporal phenomenon.

Back on The Liberator, everyone's reunited and Zen plots the rocket's trajectory. It'll reach a suitable planet in about five hundred years. Blake plots a course to Aristo, to see what all this Orac nonsense is all about.

Watch Deliverance on YouTube