The Flying Bomb (1982) Review

The Flying Bomb is a bit less eventful than its colorful title would suggest, but it's an amusing little caper.

WRITTEN BY

No specific credit.

PLOT

The Scorpio lands on the infamous ship graveyard planet Kantak for repairs. Whilst there, Vila ignores Avon's warning of caution and scavenges several containers of an expensive gas. Little does he know that Kantak metal corrodes fast upon leaving the planet's atmosphere...

ANALYSIS

It's a pretty straightforward story - Vila gets the crew into trouble, they deal with it and move on - so there's not much to say about it, but I do want to point out there's quite a few silly highlights. By far the most notable being the krytomite gas itself, which supposedly has the ability to create BLACK HOLES when coming into contact with air and fire. A black hole, I'll remind you, is mass that's so super-condensed that it warps space-time around it. So somehow, the metal molecules within the krytomite become unstable within an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and harden to that insane point when fire removes the atmosphere again.

Very interestingly, we get a similar effect with the Federation ships that enter Kantak's atmosphere and then return to the vacuum of outer space, suggesting that something about the planet's environment induces the chemical process for krytomite(Orac mentions a "magnetic attraction from the core"). It's all technobabble of course, but it's such insane and weirdly thought-out gobbledegook.

Another aspect worth noting is the ship graveyard. The show subtly referenced the Bermuda triangle in Killer, but here it's really brought to the forefront, and I like it much better. The concept of the crew crawling around the insides of old ships is extremely evocative and fitting of the grimy survivalist Series D aesthetic.

I'd also like to mention that the artwork for this story is particularly... oddball. Tarrant appears mad as a hatter with spiked-up hair on several panels, and Vila looks especially shady and grumpy(it's the Jack Nicholson hair).

CHARACTERS

The relationship between Vila and his fellow crewmembers resembles Series C more so than D. Whilst there was certainly always bickering between them, seeing Tarrant pull a gun on him and for Vila to try to one-up the crew on his own oppurtunistic initiative feels like a throwback to the days where it seemed that Vila had to prove himself every day to avoid Tarrant's unwarranted wrath. I feel bad for him.

If you needed any proof that Avon has gone completely insane, look no further than the ending of this comic, where Avon straight-up destroys Kantak by turning it into a black hole, purely to illustrate a point to Vila. The old logic may be there, but it's blown completely out of proportion.

I can kind of understand why Tarrant snapped at Vila(after all, he did need Vila's help), but man, he just has zero patience. Even Avon would at least try to get through to Vila, but no, Tarrant just resorts to violence every time. He really is a Warg Strangler.

NOTES

*This comic was published in the Blake's 7 Marvel Monthly issue 7.

*Avon actually compliments Tarrant on his repairs! That's a first.

*The Federation ships are "two spacials and closing" from the Scorpio. Now, granted, I have no idea how long a spacial is, but given that the crew usually talk about millions of spacials, I feel like two spacials would be rather too close.

*At one point, the Federation captain orders a laser sequence with the second patrol ship. What exactly is a "laser sequence"?

*Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin all breathed in krytomite. How exactly their bodies process something that can create black holes, I don't know. (I imagine the Xenon toilets have a lot of work ahead)

*Dayna is familiar with the Bermuda triangle, even though she's only visited Earth briefly(in Rumours Of Death). She also talks about it in present tense, meaning the triangle still exists, which is a bit surprising given the advanced technology.

*Avon insists on going to Kantak, but as they land, he also points out "we're not certain of damage to the ship yet". I don't get it. Maybe he's saying they're not certain which part of the ship is damaged? It's a very weird wording.

*I'm not sure what causes Vila's containers to melt anyway, given that they're not exposed to the vacuum of space as far as I could tell(in fact, they should be within the radius of Avon's anti-Kantak device, so protected). I can only theorise that the Federation attack punctured the hull or something, briefly exposing the cargo hold to space- ohh wait! Only the flight deck is pressurised in flight! Damn, I figured that one out whilst writing this. The writer really made sure this crazy story made sense.

INFORMATION

*The story is set sometime between Power and Blake.

*Avon seems to use the same stasis equipment on the Scorpio to freeze Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin as was used on Muller's android in Headhunter.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

VILA: "Do I stay here forever??"
AVON: "A tempting thought, Vila, but I need you for the moment."

CONCLUSION

It's a bit silly, but it's entertaining.