Mini-review - Shadow
Finally yay! I haz laptop. ‘Cuz it was taking too long to write out my notes while watching and then transcribe them, but now I can watch and type. Whee! And I screwed up taping Stargate: Atlantis last night (eek!) and only got 17 minutes worth of the show, so this seems as good a time as any to get restarted with my reviews.

And Shadow opens with a lovely model that I could swear is the innards of Orac (I typed Vila first – Vila’s innards I would not like to see) taken out of the box and flipped around a bit. And possibly it is… the BBC effects department are creative guys. Or one of the early model Oracs?

And now there’s a guy in a brown velvet suit with a frilly shirt sitting cross-legged, named Largo and two weird people with bad hairstyles in plain grayish clothes… Largo’s sarcastically calling them ‘dream heads’… druggies! Will there ever be a future without drugs? A good beer and bittersweet chocolate are my choices. Now he’s taunting them with their drug, which looks a whole heck of a lot like bath gels, the kind that you put in the bathtub and it melts leaving a gelatinous mass behind… which it may be, given the creativity of the BBC effects departments.

Ah, Largo guy is a member of the mafia, the Terra Nostra, and he’s a bit too nasty. Dream boy pulls a gun and they steal from him, leaving behind a tape recording so he thinks they’re still holding a gun on him. (I’m suddenly reminded of the same trick being used in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” which is a hysterical goofy film and I must watch it again.)

I’m still reeling a bit from the thought of a mafia guy sitting cross-legged. Doesn’t that seem a wee bit less than macho for the leader of a gang of criminals?

Dream heads are escaping, they’re siblings, she’s hooked on Shadow but he’s not, little back story told while they talk about how to escape, and ta da! The Liberator approaches the space station. Cool shot, with it in the background. Quite sophisticated really.

On board ship, Vila’s all in cream now. What a good color for a rebel. I’d always wear white if I was likely to be running around shooting people and breaking into places. The crew discusses the space station they’re approaching, the typical bit of exposition to establish location. Space City, the “Satellite of Sin,” run by the Terra Nostra. Blake is ready to use the mafia to invade Earth. Gan objects, but Blake’s starting on his obsessiveness. It’s okay to sleep with criminals to overthrow despots. Good attitude, Blake.

Cally has a new outfit… a white dress and a drapey cape thing, another good style choice for a rebel, but I like the front panel. We get back story that Jenna knows Largo; he tried to get her to smuggle Shadow, and she refused. Blake and others go off to the teleport room, leaving poor disappointed Vila behind.

Back to dream head siblings… the sister has found their other brother dead from Shadow use. Non-junkie Brother decides to abandon drug-addicted sister, but it’s too late. Largo has recaptured them.

Now Vila and Cally are talking about the wisdom of working with the Terra Nostra. Vila takes Gan’s side, that it’s bad business. Vila was in the juvenile detention wards and grew up in the service grades. Blake was an alpha and doesn’t understand the utter badness of the Terra Nostra. Ah! Of course, it’s a ruse to get Cally to work the teleport and send him down, but she refuses. (Erm… oh! Okay, Vila has finally remembered that Orac can run the teleport. Good. I was getting worried.)

Blake, Avon and Jenna are meeting with Largo. Gan is listening outside. Largo’s playing coy. “I’m just sentimental about money.” I love Avon. The three decide to leave but a gunman comes in. Gan also is captured. Oops! So much for doing business with the mafia. Blake needs to learn to listen to other people.

Cally’s learning that Vila has beamed down to the space station, after hiding Orac, at Orac’s request. Orac silences Zen. Cally gets hold of Vila, who sounds like he’s enjoying some substances stronger than beer and bittersweet chocolate. Orac threatens to destroy the life support systems if Cally tries to find him.

Avon and Gan are locked up with the dream head siblings, learning more about Largo.

Blake is being forced to ask Cally to bring the money down, instructing her to send Zen down with it. They use Cally’s telepathy! Yay, we remember that we have an alien with abilities! Cally then instructs Zen to do a bunch of things that I’m sure Avon ran around doing in another battle. It’s funny how sometimes the full crew is needed but other times one person can do everything with Zen’s help.

Cally contacts the city’s central control threatening to fire on the station unless Largo releases her friends. Cally has to destroy a gunship.

Avon, Gan and the dream head siblings knock out the guard and head off to rescue Blake and Jenna from Largo. The Terra Nostra needs a few more guards. Blake congratulates Avon on his timing. “I have always admired your patience.” How is that man so splendidly sarcastic with every word? *loves on Avon*

Central contacts Largo to tell him to release the prisoners, though gets Blake without realizing it, as Largo is knocked out. The dream head siblings ask Blake to take them with him. Blake refuses and the four teleport away, but then he returns with bracelets. Yes, thank you Blake. It’s good to rescue the little people while you’re overthrowing the government.

Back on the Liberator, Vila has been retrieved but is recovering from his imbibing. The others have been looking for Orac. Gan even called his name. Avon’s sorry he missed that. “It’s the kind of natural stupidity that no amount of training could ever hope to match.” I love that man. He knows Orac won’t be found.

And now Blake is ready to return to the Terra Nostra. He’s going to use force instead of persuasion by attacking their drug trade. Sometimes Blake is too stupid for words.
Cally’s got a bad feeling and Orac turns out all the lights on her before locking her in a box. With friends like Orac…

Largo is ingratiating himself with the head honcho, claiming that the dream head sister is working for him. Another close-up shot of Shadow – I swear it’s bath gel.

Zen is analyzing Shadow. It was created by moon discs, which are supposedly extinct. Blake orders a course for the origin planet of the moon discs, presuming that they’re still there and that if he controls the drug trade, he can control the Terra Nostra. Oh Blake… you’re really going too far these days. You can’t seriously want to *control* a drug trade and let criminals keep people junked up so you can pursue your own crusade? Gan objects. Thank you Gan. Jenna supports Blake, who claims he’ll cheat on the deal and destroy the drug trade anyway. Avon doesn’t object, except to suggest they found the source of Shadow too easily.

Vila has recovered from his imbibing and finds Cally and Orac in a corridor. Cally is in a catatonic state. Orac has apparently managed to get himself from wherever Vila hid him to the corridor. I’m having a funny vision of Orac flipping from end to end through the Liberator.

Some snappy conversation about what happened to Cally but no conclusions. Orac claims he didn’t do anything, and Avon thinks he can’t lie. They arrive at the planet of the moon discs.

Back at Space City, Largo’s gunman is talking with the head honcho, revealing that Largo’s been lacing the shadow with a substance that allows him to track addicts, so they know where Blake’s ship has gone. That’s quite some substance to leave that good of a trail. Oh… gunman is talking to head honcho as he’s killed Largo. Oh well, I wasn’t fond of the brown velvet suit.

Blake, Avon and Jenna are all spiffy in white outfits. Normally I prefer black, but white’s a good color on them. Blake’s all snarly. It’s the bad-tempered exposition scene! The three beam down and right away find some moon discs, hanging out and whispering to each other.

Gan and Vila chat on the Liberator, which leads into the camera zooming in on Orac, who is torturing Cally mentally. Yes, he is keeping her in the catatonic state. He lied to Avon! Betrayal! Now there’s something to use in an Avon/Orac OTP fic… *snerk* Hysterical, Cally runs to the teleport room and Orac sends her down.

Blake, Avon and Jenna find where the Terra Nostra are growing the moon discs. They split up to plant sensors so the ship can put together a perfect picture of the surface. Erm… not that the ship has ever needed sensors before, but what the hey.

Cally’s running through the desert and collapses. The moon discs come crawling to her.
Gan, Vila and the dream heads are fretting over Cally. Vila tries to turn off Orac before heading back to the teleport, but Orac has electrified his key and is muttering about completing a bridge. Lordy bob, how many abilities does this computer have? Answer: As many as the scriptwriters need him to!

A guard interrupts Avon planting sensors, and he fires at one and knocks the other down a cliff. He’s becoming quite the action man.

The Liberator is being taken over, losing power, and the ship is heading toward the atmosphere. Dream head sister tries to take out Orac’s key, and he kills her. Vila stops dream head brother from repeating her mistake.

Blake is sneaking around guards but he manages not to kill any, while Cally is having mental chats with the moon discs, and then with Orac, who… ta da! Is not Orac but some alien being that is taking over Orac’s carrier waves. Bolstered by the strength of the moon discs, Cally reaches out across space and telekinetically disconnects the key from Orac, halting the alien invasion. Go Cally!

Too many guards are appearing, so Blake, Avon and Jenna beam up. Cally finds her bracelet (‘cuz the damn things never do stay on – duct tape, people, duct tape) and asks to beam up.

Last little chit chat on the Liberator’s flight deck… “The Plain Man’s Guide to Alien Invasion” is how Avon describes Vila’s summing up of what the alien had tried. Wouldn’t that make a good book title? Or has it already? Avon’s put a bomb inside Orac so that a similar invasion can never threaten them. Blake and Avon reveal that Avon took an ID from one of the guards he killed. The guard was a member of the President’s personal security, so the Federation actually runs the mafia. Why is it so believable that a corrupt government would run a criminal organization? Ah, what a world we live in. Kinda puts paid to Blake’s plan to use the Terra Nostra against the Federation.

Seven Federation pursuit ships are approaching… Blake lets the dream head brother destroy the moon disc gardens as they flee.

I like this episode. Lots of action and complications. Blake’s beginning to go overboard. Gan is the moral center… though also a good example of why actors always say it’s boring to play the hero. Quite a bit of snappy dialogue and Avon quips. It’s good to be back watching again.