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Games (408)
This is my favourite season 4 episode despite the crap science and the confused end. It's a return to the clever Vila that Nation created, the plot is fun, and everyone's dialogue sparkles.
First up, the science (which once again is based on crystals; this universe runs on 'em. However no matter how good those Feldon crystals are, they aren't going to create energy from nothing. They won't multiply the light of distant stars into the incredible amount of power needed to terraform icy planets unless they're sucking the energy out of another universe.
There are too many great lines for me to quote, but they're all on form. Vila is enthusiastic and bouncy about the chance of a heist (and I think he likes the challenge more than a huge profit he can't spend) and Avon's amused by this--yet still keeping his cards close to his chest, not bothering to tell his crew about Gerren till he is forced to. Nice way to get their loyalty and trust.
When Tarrant throws a guard into the pressure reduction plant, Vila jokes, "Nasty way to go, all that dust, very bad for the chest". He mentioned having a weak chest back "Project Avalon" so I suspect he does have a problem. Poor Vila.
Of course Servalan turns up again. [rolls eyes] The guys can't get away from her which leads me to suspect that 1) Tarrant was a mole--an unwitting programmed one planted on the Liberator--whose task was to find Blake and failing that, inform Servalan if the crew was up to anything that would threaten the Federation; it fits the facts well, or 2) that Avon had a tracker installed on Terminal. That's not so likely since she'd have mopped them up a while back. But really, she turns up far too often. In fact once in this season would have been too often; she should have died with the Liberator.
I wish Vila had removed more than one of Gambit's modules (circuit can't be right) as she would have been a nice companion for him and a very useful computer especially compared to that testy old curmudgeon Orac.
As for that scene where Vila shoots a guard, it seems so gratuitous--Vila even attracts his attention first--and out of character, I think he just stunned the guy. The body's not there later so I think he revived and left. I sort of imagine Soolin inducing Vila to learn to shoot people by starting off with a stun charge, which he can't even deliver without squeezing his eyes shut first.
I liked the games and how Soolin, Tarrant, and Vila were too good for them. After that the plot doesn't make sense. Drawing power from a black hole (which is must be a quasar to emit anything) makes the crystals themselves exert gravitational pull? Huh? Also Stratford Johns flubbed Belkov's last lines about locking his controls into black hole or the Orbiter when it was meant to be "Lock the Orbiter panels into Cygnus XL", and the scene showing his ship blowing up was deleted so we're left puzzled about Belkov's fate. And of course Vila didn't get any real crystals. This is probably a good thing considering season 4 Avon who doesn't say what he intends to do with them.
It's still a damned good ep, especially for season 4.
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I think by now, even he may have realised he is not a natural leader...
It's a lousy plot, but maybe best seen as a sort of metaphor: no matter how many games they win, they won't win the final standoff. I think it was around this time that I got a Pte Fraser feeling about the whole season (doomed, we're all doomed. Doomed, I say!) Interesting too which one doesn't get to win a game...
Not all that long since Stratford Johns passed on. Good actor. The ep seems to have had an odd effect on the writer (Bill someone?); years later he was still referencing B7 in soap episodes and other stuff he wrote.
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The plot would have been a lot better if the ending hadn't been messed up and someone had actually been consulted about science. As it was, I did like the games, everyone being crooked, and Gambit rebelling against Belkov (who was admittedly regretful) though we don't see him killed as he was meant to be. The dialogue makes up for a lot.
There are also mistakes like Gerren being shot in one shoulder, then the other, and two Oracs (though Avon may have already made his replica) but it still stands out (for me anyway) in this season for wit and dialogue.
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When I mentioned this, someone told me there were other examples, but I can't recall them offhand. His one ep must have stuck in his mind!
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Re: trust. Avon doesn't want to be trusted. It's almost like he hopes he can shake a sense of responsibility if he can just tell himself that they weren't friends, they didn't trust him, it was all business and being thrust together by chance. Or something like that. Remember how he got both angry and oblilgated at Star One when Blake told Avon he trusts him.
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But I agree about Avon wanting to distance himself from them. To me he's preparing himself to lose them or be betrayed by them, and convincing himself he doesn't care so it won't hurt when it happens. Of course he doesn't realise that others might be hurt, but he's not big on empathy.
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Just wondered if this was going up on the B7 rewatch comm?
I'm happy to discuss here, but I've been trying to stick to using just the comm for that.
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