Mission to Destiny (107)

[vilakins]

Or as kerravonsen called it, 'Murder on the Ortega Express'. :-) I know a lot of people don't like this one because it's a mystery rather than SF, but I quite like it for the insights into various crewmembers' characters.

Characters
Blake is willing to drop everything and risk his (and his crew's) life to hare off to Destiny through a meteor storm. I note however that he first established that Destiny wasn't Federation; would it have made a difference if it was?
Cally nobly offers to be a hostage and Avon is suitably annoyed. I also love the way Avon smiles when Vila says he isn't awake: the first sign of their strange, snarky, "don't ever admit it" friendship.
Gan serves drinks to the crew; a nice touch of everyday life on the Lib.

Time distort
Rafford says, " Log entry one forty three. Flight time zero one zero, elapsed nine zero," which implies time distortion. It's not however enough to cover going at anywhere near light speed, but they'd have to be doing a *lot* more than light to be travelling to the edge of the galaxy. [shrugs]

Cleverness and stupidity
Avon figuring out the code, and Cally that the flight-deck ventilation was closed so that Rafford wasn't asleep and had to be killed are one; Blake not bothering to either open the box or to check that it was locked is the other.

Plot holes (and my theory about those)
Ah yes, great big gaping ones.
1) How did Sara stand the body up behind the door, and get Dortmunn up on that high shelf? She'd need an accomplice, wouldn't she?
2) Why was Sara happy to stay on the ship to meet her accomplices in the other ship when she didn't have the neutrotope? That would hardly have impressed them. I think it was someone she knew well enough that even without the neutrotope she'd still be picked up. In a story I wrote filling in all these plot points, it was her brother and a friend.
3) Kendall tells Blake, "It's impossible to open the safe without a molecular key and combination, and I'm the only one on the ship that has those." Surely, if it's the most valuable object in the galaxy, he puts the box back in the safe after he shows Blake the neutrotope, but he later tells Sara to get it. So he lied and she also knows the combination, or he deliberately left it out of the safe, or he left the safe unlocked. In any of those cases, he looks like her accomplice.

OCs
Actually I always find the number of people on the Ortega hard to keep track of and put names to faces. Levett stands out though and makes me want to know more about her. I liked the hints that she wasn't liked and that she really didn't give a damn about that; I get the impression that she's the most intelligent person on the ship and could rival Avon in cutting wit.

In general, a fairly enjoyable episode with some great crew moments and memorable quotes, but not a favourite.

Comments

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

I've always liked this episode although there are plot holes big enough to fly the Liberator through. My biggest beef is why they're willing to trust Blake to begin with - why didn't someone from the Ortega go with him?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yes! For all they know, Blake's a particularly nasty criminal and a rebel who wants the most valuable object in the galaxy to fund his rebellion and is quite willing to sacrifice Avon and Cally.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I must say I convinced myself when I wrote a story in which Blake really does want to steal the Neutrotope and sell it FBO The Cause, but is frustrated by Cally's efforts and the fact that the box was empty in the first place.

Downthread: I think that Avon's attitude toward Vila is basically feudal--he thinks that noblesse obliges him to take care of his vassal (except when things look particularly rocky for the Feudal Lord himself, of course).

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Avon's attitude toward Vila is basically feudal

That's rather better than my own metaphor, which I started to dislike the instant I posted it (not least because I realized that domestic animals probably weren't allowed inside the cities on earth, at least for Deltas like Vila, so he'd probably have no idea what a cat is).

The Federation does somewhat reproduce a feudal system--its status categories aren't unlike the medieval system of "estates." Avon, I must say, strikes me as a social climber rather than someone who's always been on top. But he might have fostered a sense of noblesse oblige--a rather limited one, since it only extends to people he likes--as a way of enhancing his own status.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Vila does talk about pets in canon, and I have him taming rats as a kid and possibly in prison. He also burgled some rich apartments in the course of his profession. ;-)

Avon, I must say, strikes me as a social climber rather than someone who's always been on top.

YES! I get this impression too, and actually have him as a Beta who was promoted. You wouldn't believe how much this upset a couple of fans though, but I think they regard grades as earned, not inherited and only changed if someone is very intelligent or stupid, which is my theory.

I also think that Avon's amused by the Delta being much brighter than expected: Vila plays chess, has a very extensive vocabulary, and regards himself as an equal of the others. So he's rather an anomaly too.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

replying to kindkit and vilakins:

I always assume they must have had grammar schools in the Federation for Avon to be an oik of. However, I don't think there has ever been a society with a clear stratification by intelligence. As Jenny says in "Love Story," "No, Preppie: I'm poor and smart, you're rich and dumb." And I don't think anybody--even Servalan--would say that Servalan's rise to power established her as the most intelligent person in her 'Verse.

I don't even think that Avon *ever* got promoted--nobody ever says in the series that he's an Alpha (much less the Alpha Elite classification fanon sometimes creates to assign to him), and, in effect, he thought that five million credits would buy a classless society for Anna and the King of I Am.

wrt chess: Vila has spent a lot of time in situations where he had time to learn to play board games!

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

he thought that five million credits would buy a classless society

*nods* Avon wants too much, and he's too set on showing off his own brilliance, to be anything but a former scholarship boy. His arrogance is a little too anxious, especially compared to that of, say, Servalan. Where Avon is convinced that the galaxy should revolve around him, Servalan knows that the galaxy already does revolve around her.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

With the mitigating factor that Servalan knows that the last few people she bumped off to get her job briefly had the Galaxy revolving around *them.*

I saw pictures from the latest Firefly con, and Morena Baccarin cut her hair very short--I thought, ZOMG Servalan!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

My theory has people born into grades, just as they into classes now (Vila mentions having the wrong parents IIRC), but they can move up or down (Jarvik picks the latter course, but then he only had muscle between his ears). The grades might have been originally set up on intelligence by some idiot government policy that didn't realise that intelligence is no respecter of class. The idea lingers though (Carnell is surprised that a Beta can have original ideas) and the tests that are mentioned in canon are to move those on the extremes of the Gaussian curve. Most Alphas would be pleased to sweep their slower than normal for aristos under the carpet, and the very bright would be given the chance to move up.

Avon does mention he had the same chances others did, so I have him promoted, but it's just as likely he stayed a Beta and decided to use people's assumptions of limited imagination against them. And he does seem more familiar with screwdrivers than Blake who I think must have been in management.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

And he does seem more familiar with screwdrivers than Blake who I think must have been in management.

It's Blake's willingness to set deadlines irrespective of input from the people actually expected to do the work that has me nodding in agreement.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wrote a story in which Blake really does want to steal the Neutrotope and sell it FBO The Cause

What an excellent story idea. I don't remember reading that.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Not that I can see any real point to schlepping the corpse on top of the closet, but I think you could do it fairly easily with a pulley, and, well, they must have had one of them around somewhere.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't see the point either--and it wasn't even used as a red herring ("Right, we're looking for someone tall and strong").

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

To your plothole list, I would add (4) How did the Liberator get back through the meteor storm when it had just had to shut down the force shield to conserve power?

I've been slogging through the bad episodes of S4, so my main reactions to rewatching "Mission to Destiny" were pretty shallow. Avon's not crazy, yay! Avon's got cute hair, yay! Avon's wearing clothes that are actually made out of cloth, yay! Avon smiled in a way that didn't terrify me, double yay!

Vila had some good lines in this episode ("I like stories!" and answering "Yes, I am," when Avon asks if he's asleep), which also makes a nice change from S4. His and Avon's strange, reluctant mutual fondness is charming--I suspect that each one thinks of the other as a kind of pet. To Vila, Avon is a rather grouchy cat that sometimes bites when petted; to Avon, Vila's an absolutely slob of dog that you wish would stop drooling but you just can't hate.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

(4) is an excellent point. I hope they went round the third time.

Avon smiled in a way that didn't terrify me

I love the way he smiles when Vila says he's asleep: amused and appreciative--and unseen by Vila.

I suspect that each one thinks of the other as a kind of pet.

Yes, Vila's very much a waggy-tailed puppy (and a droopy-tailed, sad-eyed one in S4). Rosenthal and Wortham wrote a very funny story in which those two get turned into a cat and dog respectively. I'll look it up when I get home (and probably reread it).

[hafren.livejournal.com]

My most loathed ep, because it simply belongs in a different series. It feels like a total distraction from the business in hand. Also, though Avon being the most crap detective EVAH is quite fun, neither he nor Blake strikes me as acting in character.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I suppose it was intended to show Avon's cleverness and Blake's shining idealism (and stupidity) though that was somewhat undermined by his murder of the people picking up Sara. Her contact could have been a crewmember on a passenger ship which of course would render assistance when it picked up a distress signal.

Also, it fails to hold my attention all the way through, but I can't put my finger on why.

[the-summoning-d.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite eps; I love the characterasation and interaction - especially with Avon and Vila. Levett was interesting, I wish they'd done more with her character.

And incidentally, I never thought Avon started off as an Alpha either. I read an excellent essay once about that idea here (http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Essays/Gradings.html).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yep, she's on my flist. I included that theory in my essay on grading too. BTW there's been more discussion on this above. :-)