Warship (2013) Review

Warship does an admirable job of plugging a gap between two vastly different eras of the show.

WRITTEN BY

Peter Anghelides, so famous that he doesn't have a Wikipedia page.

PLOT

Drawn into the Intergalactic War, the Liberator holds the line against the Andromedan fleet as Blake investigates a mysterious Federation base on the dwarf planet Megiddo to ensure that no weapons fall into alien hands.

ANALYSIS

I really enjoyed the submarine film aspect of Warship and honestly would've loved to see more of the tactical side of things. Spaceship vs spaceship in the cold stillness of space, I adore that stuff. But I suppose we can't have an entire story of the crew at battle stations, so we get the slight detour to Megiddo.

The idea of Megiddo as a failsafe doomsday device is perfectly in line with the Federation's modus operandi, but there's a few things about it that doesn't make sense to me. What is the exact purpose of the humans in stasis? It's an oddball addition that just seems to exist so Cally could exposit about the station's purpose by reading their minds.
However, the fact that they've apparently been there for 200 years doesn't at all seem to line up with their actual purpose of safeguarding Star One(which, as we know, has only been there for 30 years). Anghelides draws attention to the sheer age of Megiddo Base and its occupants, but it's never explained what exactly the station was for before the Federation Central Control was moved to that system. Assuming Central Control operated the minefield even before Star One was built, why have only one bomb in one specific part of the minefield? Megiddo only makes sense if the Federation knew the aliens would specifically target that solar system, but there was nothing there for them to target before Star One was built.

Those minor questions aside, Warship is an entertaining final stand for the original incarnation of Blake's 7, that quite rightfully focuses on(and introduces, since this is the first full cast audio drama) the crew and their particular attributes, giving everyone a moment to shine in the battle.

CHARACTERS

For Blake and Avon, Warship marks a certain passing of the torch, and I liked how subtly it was handed. It's not a formal acknowledgment, or even an acknowledgment at all. Power and relevance just naturally slips away from Blake and ends up with Avon, and the two embrace it subconsciously.

I loved that Cally insisted on travelling to Megiddo with Blake to look after him, letting us enjoy the underrated chemistry between Thomas and Chappell for the last time. I've always found Blake and Cally to be a really effective pair - they have similar motivations and are the most empathetic crewmembers.

Unfortunately, I was not impressed with Servalan. Jacqueline Pearce retains her vivacious charm(with her age adding a vulturish element), but the characterisation was poor. Servalan would never agree with the destruction of Star One - in fact, she seemed determined against it("I will not be president of a ruined empire!"). And the fact that she went anywhere near Megiddo knowing that it was going to blow to smithereens is tactically stupid of someone who's usually astute.

Jenna displays her courageous, selfless spirit with her attempted smuggler's trick. It's almost a shame that Cally had to rescue her, given that it's probably the most initiative Jenna's ever shown and I would have loved to have seen her fly an alien ship to the Liberator's rescue.

The sequence between her and Vila on the ship's hull was quite tense and thrilling. Jenna and Vila aren't often paired up in stories, but it was nice to see Vila display obvious care for her, to the point of risking his life to keep the door open for her.

NOTES

*Why did Zen not detect Megiddo's existence during the events of Star One?

*Do the freelancers know what the Liberator looks like? Given its alien design, I'd say the crew should consider themselves lucky that both sides didn't start shooting at it.

*I like Anghelides's subtle jab to the randomness(read: cheapness) of the alien fleet design with Orac's "there are too many variables".

*Avon using Blake as a pawn to find out what's up at Megiddo was a really clever bit of writing.

*The alien ship just hanging around for Jenna to board it before the radiation wall fried her was a bit too convenient for my liking. Besides, how did she get in without the Andromedan noticing?

*Having heard this story twice, I had a bit of a Mandela Effect with the final conversation between Avon and Blake regarding the ship. In the actual story, the conversation goes
AVON: "You won't let her get her hands on whose ship?"
BLAKE: "Our ship."
AVON: "That'll do for now."
In my mind, however, Avon finished with the far more appropriate "wrong again".

*The spidery Andromedan limpet mines seem to be designed exactly like the Replicators from Stargate.

INFORMATION!

*Warship is set neatly between Star One and Aftermath(with certain scenes overlapping with both).

*Blake keeps a log, as previously seen in Orac.

*Some of the freelancers who come to assist in protecting the minefield are from Palmero, a planet briefly referenced in Star One.

*Orac is unable to access both the Andromedans and Megiddo due to their absence of Ensor's tarial cells, which were established in Orac to be in every modern human computer.

*Blake points out that Megiddo's technology predates that of his project work on Earth. Blake's involvement with the Federation's teleport project was established in Cygnus Alpha.

*Servalan mentions how Blake seems to have become a "regular correspondent". The two previously met in Project Avalon, Orac, Weapon and Pressure Point. She also recognises Cally from their meetings in Orac and Pressure Point.

*Jenna is unable to receive Cally's telepathic transmission due to being too focused, a problem that is also depicted in Volcano.

*The suicide run that Cally thinks Jenna embarked on is an obvious reference to her eventual death mentioned in Blake.

*Jenna tells Blake about three planets where his escape pod might end up at - Sarran, Morphenniel and Epheron. These are all from the TV show. Avon and Servalan crashed on Sarran in Aftermath, Jenna and Blake found themselves on en route to Morphenniel and Epheron respectively in Powerplay.

*Blake swears that he's "coming back" to the Liberator, a callback to his original claim to return to Earth in The Way Back.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

"The people you choose as allies don't have to be your friends. They just have to be the enemy of your enemy."

CONCLUSION

It's a nice smorgasbord of almost everything you can expect from a Blake's 7 adventure.