Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Kathleen Bryon, John Bennett, Scott Fredericks, Jacqueline Pearce, Brian Croucher, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham
Written by Chris Boucher
Directed by George Spenton-Foster
IMIPAK: the most deadly weapon in the galaxy. And stolen right from under the Federation's nose...
Blake and the crew of the Liberator are also interested in recovering IMIPAK. Orac has traced the prototype, and it's creator, and now Blake wants the weapon. But the Federation have plans: dangerous ones for Blake...and it will involve himself.
But that's not the only person Servalan intends to kill...
Weapon is an episode that, on the surface, seems to be quite a strong concept. However, look too deep at Weapon, and it turns into a talky, floundering piece, that keeps the Liberator crew apart from the action for massive chunks, and discards such good ideas as a clone of Blake off hand, with little development. It's an example of chucking everything, even the kitchen sink, at it, and seeing how well it comes out, and I'm sorry to report that Weapon very much falls on the side of not succeeding.
There are just too many disparate strands for the story to focus on any. Instead, it juggles each of them, meaning that each idea never gets the focus that it should. Now Boucher's normally a very focused writer, his TV Doctor Who scripts in particular, but I do feel that Weapon lacks the coherence that most of those Who scripts do. It just doesn't come together as well as it should. I think that several of the plot threads should have been lost, because the story just doesn't come together. For example, Carnell is a character who should have had an episode all to himself, however he instead ends up with about 10 minutes of screen time, because he's trying to push in with all those other elements. It's a pity, but true, and the cramped nature of the script means that nothing gets more than that time. The Liberator crew are also another example of this: they only get involved in the action for about ten minutes, and then depart never to be seen again. Some of the Liberator crew are given literally about four lines, and then never heard from again. The whole story certainly doesn't reflect the crew very well at all, and even Travis is sidelined for massive parts of it. In fact the only person who comes out of it relatively well is Servalan, who manages to get some real moments of cunning and charm. But sadly, while it's clear the writers are giving her greater focus this year, it's not anything that we haven't seen before or since.
Certainly the cast are trying there best, but most of the parts are so paper thin that it's simply impossible to really make something of them. With Shadow, Chris Boucher managed to show how good he was at creating deep characters who were believable people, however with this episode, a lot of that goes out the window. As I mentioned earlier, Carnell is an exception, and Scott Fredericks plays him perfectly. However, the rest of the guest characters fail to impress. John Bennett gives another standout performance in what is a paper thin role, however, but apart from that the rest of the cast are dull, especially the mysterious Clonemasters. The regulars are as good as usual, but they don't get a great deal to do, apart from the aforementioned Servalan, which Jacqueline Pearce delights in. Brian Croucher certainly impresses as the recast Travis, but Stephen Grief will always be 'the' Travis. However, from this initial outing, Croucher could be just as good. George Spenton-Foster's direction isn't too bad either, it's just a shame that Dudly Simpson's music isn't as strong as it usually is.
Weapon has so, so much potential, however it seems lost in it's complicated plotting, it's mediocre performances and a general feeling of unhappiness that come with the story. It doesn't come together like it should, and even great ideas like a clone Blake are discarded easily. It's a pity, because it could have been so very, very good.
Liberator Rating - 6/10
Comments
Post a Comment