Ultraworld (1980) Review

 

Ultraworld was old-fashioned space cheese even when it aired.

WRITTEN BY

Trevor Hoyle, known for writing authorised Blake's 7 novelisations, one of which was the first piece of Blake's 7 media ever released.

PLOT

Cally is drawn to the computer planet Ultraworld against her will. Mounting a rescue, the crew find themselves fighting for their lives to avoid being catalogued into its living and ever-hungry encyclopedia. 

ANALYSIS

Ultraworld feels very much like an episode of the 1960s Star Trek, with its oddball concepts, colourful surroundings and indulgent technobabble. Not to mention the famous bonding ceremony. It's completely shallow entertainment that depends on the audience being awed by Ultraworld's size and scope. 

And to give the production credit, it is realised as well as it possibly could be. The choice to film the interior of Ultraworld inside the Camden deep tunnels(built under London for air raids during WWII) was a stroke of genius. They look so unusual with that cylindrical design and indentations, and are so extensive that one could easily think they've been made to an alien program's specifications. The giant brain is also well realised. I love how pulsating and gooey it is. 

Include some gorgeous use of lighting, and you've got a visual feast. The problem is that Ultraworld is mostly just an inane runaround focused on the show's least interesting heroes, and worse, it comes right after another episode about weird phenomena in space. Dawn Of The Gods isn't much further away either. I'm not a huge fan of this type of story for Blake's 7, a show that sells itself as being all about western heroics and juicy character drama. 

CHARACTERS

What makes Blake, Avon and even Vila such compelling leads is that they all bring a certain agenda to every situation. No matter what happens, you can always count on Blake to try to advance his quest to fight the Federation, on Avon to acquire wealth or other assets and on Vila to ensure he is in maximum comfort. 

They're relatable and unique characters with well-defined wants and needs, and that's why they are the most popular of the lot. I've already spoken about my dislike of Tarrant and Dayna before, but here, they really are a huge reason for why I don't like Ultraworld. All the screentime spent on them running around the place like headless chickens is a waste of time because Hoyle isn't here to develop characterisation, but B-movie pulp. In Star Trek, we enjoy seeing Kirk and co in these situations because we already know them and the fun comes from seeing how they react. And if we had Avon, Vila or Cally properly explore Ultraworld, we might get similar enjoyment. 

But Tarrant and Dayna are such uncharismatic, sketchy personalities at the moment that it's all a big fat shrug. The only scene with them that kinda works is the broad comedy bit where they have to demonstrate human 'bonding', and that's just because the concept itself is funny.

Michael Keating has reportedly cited Ultraworld as his least favourite episode, for the obvious reason that poor Vila is a parody of an already silly character. It's a credit to Keating's skill as an actor that he still manages to be the best part of the whole episode when he starts playing straight man to Orac(speaking of which, Tuddenham's utterly disinterested and broken delivery of "I don't know. Where do space pilots leave their ships?" is a highlight of his entire run). 

I do have to praise the Ultra trio, or at least the first two(Peter Richards as Ultra 1 and Stephen Jenn as Ultra 2). Ultra 1 is played as being very strong-willed and dominant to the point of arrogance, and Ultra 2 has some brilliant background reactions. Ultra 3 is a bit of a gooseberry. I mean, it's not much, but the different performances did at least add some flavor to their scenes. Ultra 2's befuddled face when Ultra 1 comes up with the bonding ceremony experiment is priceless! 

NOTES

*There's some extraordinarily poor editing in the episode - it's set up that Vila is teaching Orac tricks, but Keating seems to spend the entire first scene just standing on the flight deck doing nothing until it's his turn to speak. At one point, Tarrant seems to be under the effects of the Core, yet it seems forgotten later on. Tarrant and Dayna fail to spot menials in the middle of the room twice, and the menials can't find them standing in a very light shadow. The final scene where Tarrant shoots Ultras 2 and 3, there are no burn marks on their bodies and the camera cuts away very quickly to Steven Pacey's face, almost making it unclear what happened.

*I really like Paul Darrow's medieval corduroy jacket in this episode. It doesn't fit Avon in the slightest, but it seems very comfortable.

*Why does everyone go to sleep when they're approaching Ultraworld??

*This marks the fifth and final time that Cally is possessed in the TV series. The previous occasions being The Web, Shadow, Dawn Of The Gods and Sarcophagus. 

*We get to see Vila's quarters! Unfortunately, it seems that unlike Cally, he doesn't believe in mood lighting. 

*Why does Avon specifically call Vila to the flight deck as opposed to everyone else?

*Avon simply surrendering to Tarrant's demand to teleport over to Ultraworld with a "maybe you're right" is so out of character that even Paul Darrow looks confused. 

*Apparently, Hoyle forgot that Orac can calculate teleport coordinates, because the fact that the coordinates have been changed is treated as a huge deal even though they know Orac probably sent Cally to Ultraworld.

*Why do the Ultra even bother to explain themselves? Avon raises this question himself, but it's never resolved. 

*The 'mind tubes' bother me. Why's there just a couple of them hanging out in the Ultras' office? Why are the ones controlling the menials on some tray where they can easily break? Why are Cally and Avon's sitting on a table so Tarrant can conveniently find them?

*So... are those Ultra outfits supposed to be their skin? Is it an alien skin that looks awful costume-y?

*Serious plot hole here - why doesn't Vila notify Tarrant or Dayna about Avon losing contact? Or simply teleport the entire group back?

*I refuse to believe that the Ultra do not have information on sex. Have they seriously collected all of the galaxy's virgins?

*Whose bright idea was to make Cally a menial? She looks brittle as a Ming vase. 

*I'll never forgive Hoyle for teasing us with an Avon/Cally personality switcheroo and not going through with it. Chekhov's gun!

*Why do Avon and Tarrant scamper off like that? Dayna and Cally might've gotten lost! Terrible manners.

INFORMATION!

*The Ultras recite some of the crew's history(presumably having gained it through Cally's mind), namely Avon's famous Banking cartel theft and Tarrant's smuggler past. 

*Tarrant quips about the rate that Servalan's empire is expanding at. 

*The Ultra claim to have captured 'millions' of species. It's not made clear whether this refers to exclusively sapient kinds or not, but it does suggest that Ultraworld is from another galaxy. 

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

TARRANT: "I thought it might be something complicated."
ULTRA 1: "The process is extremely complex."
AVON: "Ignore him. That's what passes for wit onboard our ship."

CONCLUSION

It's inoffensive, but I just can't be bothered to engage with it.