Wolf (2012) Review

 

Wolf is quite an audaciously complex script, but lacks thematic focus. 

WRITTEN BY

Nigel Fairs. Still overconvoluted, but at least this time, there's entertainment value. 

PLOT

Servalan captures Gustav Nyrron with the intent of exploiting his reputation to get access to the Liberator. After Nyrron's unexpected demise, she herself is caught and interrogated by a vengeful Cally over the murder...

ANALYSIS

Can I just say how much I hate the in-universe narration? This bizarre need to sit two characters down for storytelling hour is easily the most bothersome part of the Liberator Chronicles thus far. It's unnatural writing and in most cases, a distracting framing device from the actual, important story. 

Much like Fairs' previous adventure Solitary, Wolf is designed to be a puzzle for the audience to work out what's going on and why. However, there's some notable differences too. The fact that the mystery is fabricated by characters within the story as a game and isn't just a matter of filling in holes gives the final dramatic reveal more impact, plus adding relisten value. I also find the plot points more engaging in general - there's quite a powerful torture sequence, followed by fun escapades in space and on a desolate ice planet. Plus, whilst Solitary isn't really tooled for Vila(the narrator could be anyone), Wolf is most certainly a Servalan story, that takes advantage of the POV aspect to explore her personality like never before.

The downside is that it's not really made clear what Wolf is actually about. A Servalan story, yes, but about what? What am I supposed to take away from this other than there's a lunatic fighting another lunatic? It's not like she changes as a result of these events or that we delve deep enough to change our own perspective of the character. Another major focus is on Nyrron and his relationship with Servalan, but this character is both not an integral part of Blake's 7 and just far too bland to really have much of an opinion about. 

So yeah, all style, no substance. 

CHARACTERS

Jacqueline Pearce is solid, although her performance does have a "recorded in a comfortable studio" vibe that clashes a bit with stuff like the snowy blizzard that Servalan's supposed to be forcing her way through, and other such physical encounters. The window to her youth and motivations were shallow, seemingly boiling down to "I do what it takes to survive in this universe"(which seems to contradict Sand, where she's fully self-aware of her corruption, but admittedly that is much later in the timeline), but intriguing still due to the rarity. It's just not often that we get to see this much of Servalan, and I appreciated the unique moments it provided, like her ridiculous smug vengeance against her childhood friends, and vulnerability on the ice world. 

Nyrron really drives me up a wall. He's perfectly cast. Anthony Howell has an awesome presence and really sells the character's madness(the last scene where he confronts Servalan was actually quite unnerving) and his earnestness, yet we know absolutely fuck all about him other than "he's a genius"(which I swear they repeat at least seven-eight times in this). What is he even a genius of? They say he's a geneticist, but he can also build teleporters? Granted, his existence actually has point now, so there's that, but as a person, he's still a complete enigma. You can't just make a nice guy in a dystopian environment and have that be it. Blake's a nice guy aaaand he's also got his passionate hatred of the Federation, his relationships with Avon and Travis, his idiosyncratic love of vests etc. 

To be fair, the fact that he gets tortured by Servalan and driven to insane rage does provide the fundament of an interesting character, but it's not like it can go anywhere now. He's axed at the end of the story in the most unceremonious way possible(imagine if Jigsaw just dropped dead at the end of Saw, and there you have it).

It feels like Fairs wanted to show off some of that backbone we saw in Cally originally in Time Squad, which is commendable, but not only does Chappell's performance not match that gritty intensity(she plays it like Cally's pushed to the absolute limit and about to fall apart, as opposed to the original coolness), it's not consistent either. Her guntoting and threats aside, Cally's not very competent in the story, allowing Servalan to get the better of her on several occasions, not to mention saving her life at one point for... some reason. 

NOTES

*Servalan pointing out the dead troopers and workers that Blake's crew have left in their wake is a nice insertion of fans' perspectives. 

*How does Nyrron know of Servalan's childhood game and why is "wolf!" the last thing he cries out? Furthermore, I wish Fairs had made the game itself clearer - it's obviously some form of complicated hide and seek with wolves, saboteurs and hunters, but what role is good for what?

*I fail to see the point of interrogating a sociopath over his reasons for killing Nyrron. Or did Servalan just want to exposit about how cleverly she outwitted him? I don't see what Cally's supposed to get out of this.

*Like most of the Series C writers, Nigel Fairs doesn't know the word "Auronar". 

*How dumb is that Federation trooper who rejects Servalan's orders out of loyalty to Nyrron? Does he not know how the Federation federations at this point?

*Cally's telepathy is given a strange echoey effect here. I don't know what that's about. 

*The narration reaches peak insanity when Servalan and Cally start reminiscing about how Cally and Servalan ran into one another the day before. 

*I genuinely thought Subcommander Quinch was called Grinch the first time I heard his name. Kinda wish he was, to be honest.

*You really feel the show's refusal to use any swearwords with Cally's venomous "you unfeeling monster!!"

*For all her talk about survival, I'm surprised Servalan didn't try to steal Cally's bracelet to teleport to the Liberator when her own ship was about to blow, and try to kill them all - if they weren't expecting it, she could have very well succeeded.

*The fact that Fairs wrote Servalan to clutch her gun in the middle of a blizzard tells me that this author has never held a freezing weapon. 

*I have to compliment him on colourful descriptives, though...  the escape pod scene, Servalan's struggles in the snowstorm and her isolation on the planet were beautifully prosaic. Honestly, if Nigel Fairs had written this as a book, it'd probably have turned out a lot better.

INFORMATION!

*Wolf is a sequel to Solitary, expanding on Gustav Nyrron's visit to the Liberator and his presence on Dulcimer IV as seen in that story. Vila's near-death experience is briefly mentioned.

*It's not clear when in the show's timeline the story is set - Nyrron transmitted his summons to Servalan from the Liberator, suggesting he was still on it, but unlike Solitary, so is Orac. One can only assume that he left the ship before the events of Deliverance and then returned some time during Series B.

*As this is Jacqueline Pearce's first performance as Servalan since The Syndeton Experiment, Fairs marks her return by having her deliver the words "maximum power!", a callback to her famous declaration in Terminal. 

*We learn from Servalan that the Auronar once existed as an empire. 

*Nyrron paraphrases the Bible, proving that some form of Christianity persists. 

BEST QUOTE

"I do enjoy a big bang!"

CONCLUSION

I found it quite enjoyable and interesting, but also headscratching at the same time.