This is a tour de force episode. The characters don't discover what it's about until the very end, but when they do, it seems inevitable that things were leading there, as it always does in a good tour de force. Up to the nihilistic finish, it is enormous fun, and let's each of the main characters perform a party piece. I didn't see this episode the first time round, and it was a surprise (and a delight) when I finally did get to see it.
This episode is part of the Servalan sequence which forms the main drift of the final series.
4 Reviews
Twisty Turning Tale
Theo Robertson31 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The Federation have found the Planet Mecron to be a natural source of feldon crystals . The mining system is controlled by computer genius Belkov knowing that he will be killed by Commander Sleer ( Servalan ) once she has access to the crystals contacts the Scorpio crew requesting evacuation in return for the crystals
Bill Lyons one and only script for the show is very much a twisty turny thing involving double cross , triple cross and quadruple cross . It also illustrates a rather subtle running thread throughout the season that wasn't entirely obvious on first transmission and that is the protagonists of Avon's crew devoid of The Liberator have to work harder to stay ahead of the Federation if they want to stay alive and can only achieve this by finding resources that make their survival more likely . Unfortunately human nature being what it is the people offering these resources invariably have an agenda of their own
This episode is like so many in the series enjoyably mean but is one of the very few instances where I felt sympathy for the Federation troopers as they're dispatched by both the native Mecron cult and the Scorpio crew including one hapless trooper who gets pushed in to a mining shaft and turned in to a puff of pink smoke and one wonders if this type of demise would be shown if the series was produced in 2013 . It's certainly a cynical and nihilistic programme even if it's not held in too high regard for those who never watched the show
Bill Lyons one and only script for the show is very much a twisty turny thing involving double cross , triple cross and quadruple cross . It also illustrates a rather subtle running thread throughout the season that wasn't entirely obvious on first transmission and that is the protagonists of Avon's crew devoid of The Liberator have to work harder to stay ahead of the Federation if they want to stay alive and can only achieve this by finding resources that make their survival more likely . Unfortunately human nature being what it is the people offering these resources invariably have an agenda of their own
This episode is like so many in the series enjoyably mean but is one of the very few instances where I felt sympathy for the Federation troopers as they're dispatched by both the native Mecron cult and the Scorpio crew including one hapless trooper who gets pushed in to a mining shaft and turned in to a puff of pink smoke and one wonders if this type of demise would be shown if the series was produced in 2013 . It's certainly a cynical and nihilistic programme even if it's not held in too high regard for those who never watched the show
A pretty decent episode.
Sleepin_Dragon6 September 2022
Servalan, still under the pretence of being Sleer is on Mecron II investigating irregularities with the books, the main target, Belkov is a keen gamer, and a fine speaker.
Once again, it pains me to say it, but it's just another average episode from series four, one that somehow just lacks any wow factor. I think it's well imagined, nicely made and well acted, it's just a little bit dull.
The sets here actually look really nice, I think it'd very well produced, it looks good.
Servalan just felt as though she were there for the sake of it, she didn't really offer anything to the story, compare that with her performance in next episode, Sand.
Stafford Johns is excellent as Belkov, there is no denying that, I just feel that the character had a lot more to offer than the script allowed.
Not a bad episode, 6/10.
Once again, it pains me to say it, but it's just another average episode from series four, one that somehow just lacks any wow factor. I think it's well imagined, nicely made and well acted, it's just a little bit dull.
The sets here actually look really nice, I think it'd very well produced, it looks good.
Servalan just felt as though she were there for the sake of it, she didn't really offer anything to the story, compare that with her performance in next episode, Sand.
Stafford Johns is excellent as Belkov, there is no denying that, I just feel that the character had a lot more to offer than the script allowed.
Not a bad episode, 6/10.
A decent episode but not a great one, I'm afraid
GusF8 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I don't have much to say about this one. While I enjoyed the verbal interplay between Servalan and Belkov, the erstwhile President and Supreme Commander gets little to do besides that. It's one of the few episodes where I felt that Servalan was utterly wasted. Belkov had the potential to be a great character but I found his obsession with games to be rather distracting. For that reason, I didn't find the plot too engaging or exciting. However, I liked Belkov's interaction with Gambit and the fact that his goodbye scene comes across as touching rather than unintentionally comical is a credit to Stratford Johns' performance. I appreciated the fact that it was left ambiguous whether Belkov was killed or not as it suggested that they may have brought him back if there had been a fifth series and he would have been treated a bit better.
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