Rock Star is basically a condensed version of Avon: A Terrible Aspect. Don't get too excited about the title.
WRITTEN BY
Paul Darrow, the maestro. This is his entry into the Heroes anthology.
PLOT
The Liberator crew receive a distress signal from the planet Rock(bear with him), where popular musician Pandora has been captured by Federation forces following a daring concert. Unbeknownst to them, however, Pandora is in league with the head of the secret police, and intends to seduce the crew to destroy the Liberator and Avon once and for all...
ANALYSIS
The pacing is very strange. There's a full 25 minutes of setup in this 30-minute story, the majority of which takes place over one lengthy interrogation scene on the flight deck. The details of Lazarus's plot against Avon aren't made terribly clear - Pandora's(you gotta love these names) trap is supposed to send some kind of poetic message to him, but what that message is is left open to interpretation. So the audience is kept completely in the dark about what's actually going until some clarity comes at the very end.
Using something as flamboyant as rock music for a premise is pretty great just for how ballsy it is, but it's nothing more than a distraction - Pandora could literally be any femme fatale. And that's where the A Terrible Aspect comparisons come in. Avon outwits and manhandles a dangerous lady, there's some flying around the universe, a few references to Julius Caesar and finally he confronts someone of his own blood in a quiet, isolated setting. It's practically Paul Darrow's greatest hits!
CHARACTERS
There's a very peculiar absence of Dayna. I'm not a Dayna fan, but... I guess neither is Darrow? Her name is literally mentioned once, in passing, as she's sitting on the flight deck. Clearly, she is with the crew, but reacts and says absolutely nothing throughout the whole thing.
To Darrow's credit, he does more or less get the personalities of the rest of the crew right, though Tarrant's not quite as gallant as he could be(or maybe he is, who knows with this writing?). Like in Series D, Avon completely dominates the proceedings. Unlike in Series D, he's also unquestioned in his leadership.
Pandora, whilst likable insane at first, quickly devolves into simpering putty at the sight of the manly man Avon, and reminded me a lot of Cancer from Assassin. Except at least Cancer had her moment to shine and a hilariously kooky actress to play her.
Finally there's Lazarus, or as I should rightly call him... Rogue Avon(?). We never learn all that much about him, so there isn't a significant amount to talk about. I get that Darrow probably wanted to make the story as atmospheric as possible, but when the details and motivation are so fuzzy, it's hard to feel like there's any real stakes. Him even being Avon's father is, after all, my own speculation. All we know is that he is *an* Avon. And he likes cognac, being shady and flirting with women. Well, he's an Avon alright.
NOTES
*Unlike Separate, this story has chapters. For some reason.
*Between the Federation's "giant helicopters" and the Liberator's shuttlepod, I'd say Paul Darrow's been listening to the B7 Productions audio reboot.
*To give him some credit, I do like the idea of a planet with a permanent light and dark side(an idea possibly inherited from The Harvest Of Kairos).
*I'm surprised two concerts were enough to send a whole rebellion off. You'd think it'd take at least two and a half to liberate a planet.
*How would Lazarus know that the Liberator picked up his message? Even if he were to somehow know that it's around, the communications could be smashed for all he knows.
*And his entire scheme to draw the crew in by appealing to their heroic nature is a bit silly, isn't it? The galaxy must be full of damsels in distress, why would they chase after this one? Are they really so vain as to want to save a celebrity? Actually, never mind, that's the most realistic thing about Rock Star.
*Avon consults Orac every 30 seconds to avoid Federation detectors. Whatever happened to the detection screen? Or anything less embarrassing?
*Why would Pandora be moved to Earth? Assuming that she was a criminal and not an operative, wouldn't she be executed or sent to a penal colony specifically away from Earth? Like our heroes?
*Poor Dayna is so ignored that Orac has filled in the role of Q, who's provided Tarrant with silent grenades.
*Avon ordering Pandora to strip as his "usual" method of interrogation is um... well, it's something.
INFORMATION!
*The setting is... unclear. It's clearly after Powerplay and seems to be before Terminal, but Tarrant also mentions Avon's threat to kill him from that episode. Which doesn't seem to fit into the continuity at all. We simply have to assume that Avon threatened to kill him some other time as well, ignoring the obvious fact of Darrow forgetting what episode that moment's from.
*Lazarus is the person who organised Avon's arrest before Space Fall(the man who is mentioned as "the number one computer man"). He's also a family member.
*Tarrant tries to appeal to Avon's conscience by suggesting that Blake would have gone to Pandora's aid.
*Cally judges Avon's interrogation methods by reminding him of the cold greeting she got from the rest of the crew in Time Squad and The Web.
BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE
"A fool rushes in where an angel might fear to dread."
CONCLUSION
Let's not go to Rock, tis a silly place.
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