Project Avalon is nothing we haven't seen before, but it's strongly executed.
WRITTEN BY
Terry Nation, inevitably repeating his own material.
PLOT
After Travis kidnaps the valuable resistance leader Avalon, it's up to the Liberator crew to mount a rescue. One that proves to be eerily easy...
ANALYSIS
Honestly, Avalon is just a remake of the second half of Seek-Locate-Destroy, with a few mildly interesting changes. It's not bad - the ice world has a lot of atmosphere to it, and the attack on the Federation facility has the right amount of urgency to it, especially since the writer expertly teases us with clues about Avalon's nature. We know just enough to be worried for the crew.
The ending is probably the highlight of the whole episode, with Blake leaving egg on the villains' faces in a very satisfying fashion.
CHARACTERS
Once again, Jacqueline Pearce and Stephen Greif are dazzling together. Greif in particular is just endlessly watchable, and really sells the personality of a dedicated, slightly deranged battle commander. I love the moment where Travis is just working on his notes and he barely even pays any attention to the Mutoid's report on the Liberator's arrival, because he's already so confident in his scheme working out. It's just a matter of fact to him at that point.
Servalan, having survived recent offscreen assassination attempts, is clearly starting to take the Blake matter personally, as his continued presence both upsets her own validity and in her own words, inspires hope. So Travis is doomed to become her whipping dog until he's managed to kill Blake. And as for Travis himself, he is clearly becoming more and more unhinged by the humiliations Blake has heaped on him.
The rest of the crew are pretty much as usual. I did notice Jenna showing more morality than usual, as she is the one who insists on rescuing Avalon to prevent people dying. I think Jenna's always been a very caring person and Blake's inspiring presence has stripped away the veneer of selfishness that a hard life had built around her.
I must commend David Jackson for really giving the fight scene against Avalon his all - he was all red-faced and sweating, and you really felt it when Avalon knocked his breath out. That being said, having Gan act like he had a childhood crush around her otherwise felt pretty awkward. I miss the cool, dry Gan from Cygnus Alpha.
NOTES
*Travis finds the ice planet unnerving, another example of him not being just an Evil Villain. That being said, he does dress himself exclusively in black, in direct contrast with the grey-furred rebels.
*Why doesn't Zen zoom onto the planet's surface like all the time? Or was he showing an archive clip of what the planet looks like?
*Travis's chief Mutoid in this episode is played by Glynis Barber, who'll join the crew as Soolin in Series D.
*The rebels don't make good soldiers - that guard must've heard the Mutoid jumping on a cliff before landing on him!
*I like the implication that the Mutoids are joined together mentally, or share some kind of binary code that enables them all to act simultaneously given the right order. It drives home their cybernetic nature.
*The crew still insist on putting on their iconic anoraks over the thermal suits! At least it comes in handy when they have to dress Avalon later(speaking of which, why was she naked anyway?).
*In this episode, teleport coordinates must be calculated on some iPhone looking thing(I thought Avon was on Twitter), even the voice fix, which can be done without using the teleport console screen they used in Seek-Locate-Destroy. Also, Avon's approach to teleporting people down this episode is getting Vila to operate one side of the console whilst he rams a few buttons and then pulls two levers.
*Half of the teleport bracelets have already vanished. We must've missed a few adventures.
*I love how the sets are so tight that the Mutoid has to move zig-zag in a straight corridor to avoid the guards.
*Avon and Cally pranking Vila by sending him down early was cute.
*Unlike Travis, Servalan is accompanied by male Mutoids. I guess they both like to feel dominant. I especially love the bit where Servalan drops her coat for them to pick up.
*The screen reacting to the virus containment room seems to be malfunctioning or something, because it shows mostly randomness(the nr 23 repeated ad infinitum, for starters).
*This episode marks the first time that Avon barks "let's get the HELL out of here!", which always catches me offguard given his usually reserved attitude.
*What's the deal with Servalan's goggles?
*How did Blake locate Avalon's cell? Just picking at random? That should've taken hours based on what we heard.
*Why does Avalon drop the vial on her tunic and not make sure to crush it?
*I love Travis's shocked reaction to Blake threatening them with the vial. The way he shouts "it's not a pleasant death, Blake" sounds like he's trying to get the dude to just chill out.
*Avalon's insides are accomplished via a terrible CSO effect. Not good at all.
INFORMATION!
*Avalon is placed within the brainwashing machine seen previously in The Way Back and Seek-Locate-Destroy.
*Travis mentions two previous occasions where he could've captured Blake, but didn't, because he was tasked to get the Liberator as well(it doesn't entirely match up with what we see in Seek-Locate-Destroy and Duel, but I believe Travis doctored the reports in his favor).
*We see another Federation guard robot, just like the one in Seek-Locate-Destroy.
BLAKE: (about the ice world) "Does it support any intelligent life?"
AVON: "Does the Liberator?"
CONCLUSION
Not bad, but could've used some more imagination
I must say Project Avalon is the 2nd episode in which the arch-enemy Servalan appears and this time she has left her HQ it shows Servalan is becoming a bigger character than in her debut episode and she is the best of the 2 regular villains and she outlives and outlasts Travis
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