Moloch (1980) Review

 

I don't know what the hell Moloch was trying to be. 

WRITTEN BY

Ben Steed. Brace yourselves. 

PLOT

The Liberator pursues Servalan to the cloaked planet Sardos, where the vicious Section Leader Grose plots to overtake the Federation using the Sardoans' advanced technology. Getting mixed up into it all during recon, the crew find that Grose is a puppet for the genetically engineered future being Moloch. 

ANALYSIS

Moloch has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. It's like Ben Steed couldn't come up with a story and so just plucked out a bunch of ideas that interested him and went on autopilot for the rest. It's an irritating mess of plot points that go absolutely nowhere and have little to do with one another. 

As with his previous episode The Harvest Of Kairos, Steed's strongest virtue is his imagination. He's a wonderful ideas man - the cloaked planet, its renegade Federation forces, the way that the Sardoans' transmutation technology crops up in various forms. He's clearly put thought into his own original concepts. The problem is that he seems incapable of fitting them into the context of Blake's 7. He's obligated to write about the established characters and has been given a general idea of who they are, yet they always just seem to bumble around in his scripts, simply there for the sake of being there.

I can't entirely blame Steed for this, because he is supposed to work under the eye of a script editor. Where was Chris Boucher when all of a sudden, the Liberator was chasing after the Federation again for the first time since Blake left, with no build-up or apparent motive? It's even funnier, because it's not Avon or Dayna, who might reasonably be pushing for revenge against Servalan - Tarrant and Cally just seem to be curious about what she's up to. But then Cally mans the teleport, so it's mostly Tarrant. What is his deal? Is knowing the basic fundamental drive behind a main character's actions really that much to ask for? 

It all seemed to make so much more sense in Blake's era - most of them owed their lives to him, and Avon wanted the ship to himself. Now, we're two episodes away from ending the season and still have been given no clue as to why Tarrant is onboard. The Federation is gone, or maybe it isn't. Servalan wants the ship, but there was that one time she didn't. I get that they wanted to do an anthology, but that doesn't mean you can just let the guest writers do whatever and completely change what the characters are all about just so their scripts can function. 

Anyway, Moloch. We have the trademark Ben Steed sexism, although this time he doesn't really bother to make any kind of message about how the genders should behave. It's just there. I actually don't think the special effects are too terrible. Moloch and Colonel Astrid look goofy, sure, but they're both surreal characters anyway. 

I cannot emphasize enough how nobody has a reason to be on Sardos, not even Servalan. She's merely bait and buggers off without ever bothering the heroes. I just talked about Tarrant, but he also drags Vila down there, even though Tarrant proves to be entirely capable of slicing open the door he got trapped behind. Vila, for reasons known only to himself, just never bothers to teleport back even though he has the bracelet. 

Avon and Dayna teleport down to find them, only to sit down and chat about the history of the planet in the midst of the Federation laboratory. It's just dumb. I was completely fed up with this episode about halfway through and it just kept going on these stupid tangents. I'm so sick of this season, guys. 

CHARACTERS

There's a pretty amusing sequence where Vila is forced to team up with Servalan. Keating and Pearce have brilliant comic chemistry and it's a pity that we only ever really get to enjoy it here, and not for very long either. 

I really like the villains in this episode. That's probably the one true success. Sure, Grose and Lector are just gluttonous thugs, but they're independent, fearless and have established their own way of life. It's quite interesting. If Steed had streamlined the episode, they would've made for great main antagonists. As it is, they get unceremoniously mowed down in favor of Moloch. Deep Roy is awesome too. He barely gets to do anything, but I just love the weird accent he has. It's like he pronounces everything without vowels, somehow. "Uh 'm Mlch. Uh wnt th Lbrtr." 

We only get to see three Sardoans. They're not great actresses, but they're terrific eye candy. 

Doran... meh? I mean, I'm happy with Vila making a true friend for once, but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to find him funny or creepy. I found him plain weird most of the time. 

How much will it take them to just ditch Tarrant already? If your crewmate pulls a gun on you, newsflash! You ditch the traitor. He's probably be happier with the Sardoans anyway. GIVE HIM TO YOUR WOMEN. 

At least Paul Darrow looks like he's having some fun with this. Or maybe he realised how terrible the script was and ramped up the ham to make up for it. His delivery of "Why don't you laaaaaaaaand it right on top of their monitoring station" has to be heard to be believed. I also adore the bit where he gets upset over Dayna taking his apple. 

NOTES

*Why does the "Outer Darkness" look so oval? It seems like it's supposed to be the end of the galaxy, so wouldn't it just be a straight line?

*What's a 'modular time shift'? Why can't Ben Steed use technobabble that at least sounds like it means something?

*Michael Keating's somersault is amazing.

*I'm surprised the Federation troopers have enough restraint to not all run to Lector when he shouts "gift for two men" without any specification. 

*If the Sardoans fear genetic muddling, does that technically make them white supremacists? Are those Nazi women?

*Why is Orac just chilling in the teleport room with Cally? Did she bring it along because she knew she'd be spending the whole episode there?

*Coffee officially exists in the Blake's 7 universe. But fortunately, it's only drunk by fools like Grose. I hate coffee. Give me adrenaline and soma any day. I don't know how it tastes, but it can't be worse than coffee.

*So what becomes of Grose's fleet without him? Do the Liberator crew just leave it to Servalan along with all the duplication machines? Is that why the Federation makes such a big comeback?

*Servalan gives Vila such a seductive grin when they're tossed together that I almost expected her to seduce the thief there and then. Vila should've been the new Travis. They definitely missed an oppurtunity there. 

*Paul Darrow's WTF expression at the dead mouse is priceless. 

*Apparently, Servalan has slasher villain powers of teleportation, because she disappears the moment Vila turns his back.

*There's a nice moment between Avon and Dayna as both of them motion for the other to enter the room first. The classic "after you.""No, after you.""No, after you!" gag.

*How did Tarrant even find out about the computer and that he got turned into a card? Did Servalan tell him about it? He seems to brush off the fact that she let him live too. Something must've happened. 

*And then it ends, with Avon deciding to run and hide again, making this entire episode even more pointless than it already was. Facepalm.

INFORMATION!

*According to Vila, the crew have been following Servalan for exactly 27 days. 

*Grose recognises the Liberator as "Blake's ship". 

*The T-16 troop carrier is represented by reused footage of the London from Cygnus Alpha. Incidentally, it is also used to transport prisoners from a penal colony and the design is recognised by the crew so we could consider this the third appearance of the design(also counting Horizon)

*The Fifth Legion was stranded on Sardos during the events of the Intergalactic War. 

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

"If interrogation were simply a way of satisfying your sadistic whims, you would cut the chat and get on with the torture."

CONCLUSION

There's some really good bits here and there, but you really gotta turn your brain off for this time, or it will get fried.