Time Squad (1978) Review

As an introduction to the last member of Blake's crew, Time Squad is great. But everything else is a bland slog.

WRITTEN BY

Terry Nation, still going like the Energizer Bunny.

PLOT

Blake chooses the transmitter relay base on Saurian Major as his first official strike against the Federation. En route, the Liberator picks up an unidentified capsule containing aliens in suspended animation. As Blake engages in his attack, it's up to Jenna and Gan to make first contact with the thawing strangers...

ANALYSIS

Seeing the crew undertake their first offensive was really exciting, and I was thoroughly invested in the events on Saurian Major. But as for the mystery of the capsule, it almost feels like another jealous script slammed into this one, doing its best to slow the pace down and waste time without adding anything of real substance until at the very end.

On the positive side, Pennant Roberts is a good director and did her best to inject all the many extraneous sequences(like Avon's dragging the capsule onboard and Jenna's many wanderings around the corridors) with energy and tension, but the episode as a whole is less than the sum of its parts.

The stuff on Saurian is a completely different matter - the red filter gives the planet a nice, unique look(Vila's meaty plants are less successful). We also establish one of the great Blake's 7 tropes - running around deserted power stations. This one actually looks pretty great, and I was sold on it being what the episode claimed it was, even if it was a bit suspect that there were so few Federation soldiers about.

CHARACTERS

Seeing Blake engage the Federation makes for the best Blake episodes, and he is on top form here. I loved his interactions with Cally, and the way he managed to ingratiate himself to her by proving to be almost as zealous over the cause. His decision to abandon the alien cells in space is a bit cold, though. Surely he should be giving them a chance to thrive somewhere? But then I suppose he's becoming cynical enough to leave it somebody else's responsibility.

There's more indication that Avon isn't naturally a violent person(yet) - during the capsule collection, one accidental twitch on his part could've killed Blake and Jenna, and given him command of the Liberator. But he is clearly not willing to resort to cold-blooded murder to accomplish his goals nor is he willing to go up against the other, loyal crewmembers. Instead, he ends up joining Blake's mission in order to get it done and over with as quickly as possible.

Keating is still working out how to make Vila endearingly daft and not overplay it to the point of obnoxiousness.

Not a great story for Jenna. She's left dealing with the tiresome B-plot and comes across remarkably incompetent given her Han Solo-esque profession. The ending also suggests an odd case of xenophobia.

I'm not a fan of Gan's limiter either. I can't imagine anyone working on the show did either as it only serves to drag the episode longer and also make Gan look stupid, because he has to resort to gurning and wheezing every time there's an action sequence.

Jan Chappell makes a great first impression as Cally. Like Jenna, she's loyal and tough, but is more enigmatic and worldwise than the former, who is more about showing off and proving something.

NOTES

*I'm assuming the Saurian Major base was a vital link in the Star One system, given that its destruction is supposed to "blind, deafen and silence" the Federation. Obviously, it will be replaced later on.

*There's a lot of limiters in this episode, actually. Apart from the one Gan has on his head(the zipper in his hair is a great practical effect btw), it's also implied Zen has one to... I dunno, avoid telling the crew too much? The fact that he can't tell them if there's a threat, but still does almost everything they ask is a bit convenient. And then of course there's the limiter on the Saurian facility's "paraneutronic generator".

*The teleport controls have gone from "fiddling about with the console randomly" to pulling two levers and then pushing a button either on the left or right side of the console.

*I must assume the teleport system naturally adapts to avoid phasing people into solid objects. It's the only way to explain why Blake and Jenna arrive on the capsule in wildly different poses.

*Why is there air inside the capsule if it's supposed to have been adrift for hundreds of years, and why does it suddenly run out when Blake and Jenna teleport there?

*Nice bit of subtle acting from Darrow - he rubs his hands in the background nervously before initiating the complex manuever to bring the capsule onboard.

*I don't think much of Avon's dirty apron this episode. Vila's patchwork suit is cool, though.

*Where did Vila get picklock tools, and why does he hold them in a thermos container?

*Shouldn't Blake have left three crewmembers on the Liberator? One to check the thawing aliens, one to be ready to fly the Liberator away and one to teleport the rest up at a moment's notice?

*When Jenna sealed one of the cryogenic chambers and opened another, I was under the impression that one was dead. Why else would she seal it and leave the other open? I mean, they're thawing!

*Why does Jenna just abandon the dude who grabbed her hand? Shouldn't she be like, rousing him up?

*Gotta love the alien who just randomly throws a wrench at Jenna's back. And gotta love Jenna, who claims it broke her arm even though she barely flinched.

*How was the wall communicator damaged and singed without Jenna hearing it?

*I was about to point out that Vila should've noticed Cally attacking Blake on top of that mountain, but then I realised he probably did and just didn't bother to intervene.

*Why would Cally reveal her telepathy to Blake before knowing he can be trusted?

*How did Jenna not notice Gan lying unconscious right in her eyesight when she went to the capsule?

*The explosion effect in the Saurian facility was very lame.

*Why does Cally think she failed in her mission? Wasn't destroying the facility the whole point of her being there?

INFORMATION!

*If what we surmised from Avon and Jenna's conversation in Cygnus Alpha is correct, then taking the lives of the alien guardians was Jenna's first kill.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

VILA: "I'm harmless!"
AVON: "He's useless, as he said."
VILA: "Harmless was the word I used."
AVON: "And you couldn't even get that right."

CONCLUSION

Two halves, vastly different in quality.