Mission to Destiny is a flat, weak Agatha Christie murder mystery, but a strong showcase for Paul Darrow as a lead actor.
WRITTEN BY
Terry Nation. I can just about imagine him wracking his brain to come up with some new formula and then his eyes resting on a worn copy of Murder On The Orient Express.
PLOT
The Liberator crew investigate an adrift ship flying around in circles and find the crew drugged, a few murdered for the chance to obtain and sell a powerful and extremely valuable antidote to planetwide fungus. Whilst Blake attempts to deliver the antidote to the planet Destiny, Avon and Cally remain on the ship to solve the mystery.
ANALYSIS
Murder mysteries in my experience are usually very character-based stories, or even stereotype-based. This is where Mission to Destiny fails the hardest. Due to its short runtime, the episode opens immediately with the murder, thus robbing us of the chance to spend some time with the crew and getting to know them.
Once the Liberator crew joins them, all we see is just how bland and uniform they all are in comparison, dressed in various jumpsuits of muted colours and blending into either pessimistic or whiny categories.
Now let's be fair, not all of the main cast are Paul Darrow, but they are still all identifiable in their own little ways, and were so from the get go. This miserable lot might as well be a bunch of extras. Does it even matter who the killer is? It's just a matter of fact, rather than us getting genuinely involved in the story and caring about motive or the relationships between the characters.
Actually, given that Avon points out early on that the motive is obvious and thus not worthy of concern, the episode is almost designed to focus on Darrow and Darrow alone.
CHARACTERS
Until now, Avon has been largely defined by his oppurtunistic nature. Now, we focus on a second facet of his personality - curiosity. He risks his safety and arguably his continued chance to be on the Liberator in order to stay on the Ortega and work out exactly what happened onboard. This thirst for knowledge, and for being the one to work out the truth can also speak of Avon's vanity and pride(as does his rough treatment of Sara).
With a character as murky in morality as Avon, it's a credit to Paul Darrow that he keeps us completely engaged throughout the entire runtime with a brilliantly enigmatic and self-aware performance. Avon is fun because he knows exactly what kind of person he is, but what that is is left up to the viewer to decide.
His cold, impartial personality allows him to fit the detective role like a glove, as it is quite similar to Sherlock Holmes already in a lot of aspects. All in all, one gets the impression that a show following Darrow's character would be quite exciting. We'll see about that.
Mission to Destiny is also the first episode to really set in stone two vital future relationships: firstly Avon and Cally(the latter serving as Avon's conscience), as well as the buddy comedy between Avon and Vila.
Gan gets to deliver drinks!
Jenna gets to drive!
Blake gets a token Federation-based reason to care about what's going on!
I'm not even gonna bothering saying a word about the Ortega crew.
NOTES
*Actually, Jenna and Vila do get one nice moment to show off their differing perspectives as Blake's advisors(with Jenna focusing on speeding their way out of the meteorite field as soon as possible whilst Vila recommends caution and keeping the shield up).
*The Ortega is a Galaxy-class cruiser, which just adds to my fan theory of Star Trek: Picard being the prequel to Blake's 7.
*I know it was probably unavoidable and related to the lighting, but I wonder if there's any in-universe reason why the Liberator randomly turns white at times.
*Given the oxygen atmosphere within the Ortega, wouldn't dust form over a long period of time? I feel like Avon's hypothesis of the ship having drifted for years would be inherently wrong.
*Another example of the lack of communication - Blake forgets to contact Avon upon discovering the sonovapour gas to check that he's still awake(to be fair, they are all sleepy from the gas).
*Dudley Simpson seems to have been particularly enthusiastic about this episode, judging from the random, loud piano score. Unfortunately, all it did was irritate me.
*The solution to the "54124" riddle is preposterous.
*How does the captain know Blake is not part of whatever's going on? Instead, he just leads him to the antidote.
*I love how Mandrian tries to slam the door shut behind him after the crew's first conversation, except that the door makes no noise whatsoever.
*Speaking of doors, Cally forgets to close the door to Mandrian's quarters after she's stolen the transmitter. That's a bit daft.
*Cally packs one heck of a lamp! I'm surprised that thing doesn't shatter simply from being put down!
*Avon looks surprised when Cally points out that he's relying on instinct, suggesting that either Blake is already influencing his perspective, or that maybe what he considers himself to be isn't quite what he is.
*Given Vila's moaning about the bumpy ride, I was surprised the ship didn't start rattling all over the place after the force wall came down. Maybe they sped past the meteorites? Or maybe the director forgot to shake the camera.
*Why was Avon "conditioned to see the wrong"? It's such a weird excuse for his lack of attention towards the obvious bloody numbers.
*The fact that Avon also didn't notice the transmitter that Cally was waving about his face was poor writing.
*Some of the fans have complained that it doesn't make sense for the Liberator to return to the Ortega so quickly, without going through the meteorite storm again. I think it did, and we just didn't see the events in the correct sequence(the Ortega and Liberator scenes don't necessarily have to take place at the same time).
*Why were they so scared of the buyers ship given the abilities of the Liberator? They could've just blasted them with cannons, no?
"It is frequently easier to be honest when you have nothing to lose."
CONCLUSION
Avon is awesome.
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