Heroes: Contagion (2017) Review

 

Contagion is a claustrophobic thriller. 

WRITTEN BY

Trevor Baxendale, his contribution to the Heroes anthology. So far, he's done the best in nailing the atmosphere of the era. 

PLOT

The Liberator answers a distress call from the Federation research base on Mallorbis. Hoping to take advantage of their development of a new computer supervirus, Avon, Tarrant and Cally teleport down only to find themselves trapped and betrayed... 

ANALYSIS

Seems almost designed to be the kind of story I'd read over and over again. It only features the main characters, there's a clear objective, I love the isolated setting, and there's several neat concepts featured that kept the old gray cells intrigued. Baxendale's descriptions paint a vivid picture of the miserable, eerie environment - metal walls, dusty computers, a lightning storm raging outside, rain splattering against the windows - I could practically see it before my eyes, and that's no small achievement. 

I like that there's no villain. Orac does sort of take on a creepy HAL 9000 role, but just like in Dawn Of The Gods, there's nothing nefarious about his motivations. I think the fact that both major threats(Orac and the virus) are unthinking manmade creations run amuck makes for a rather eerie tale. Human cynicism seems rather quaint when compared to the truly heartless machine mind. 

CHARACTERS

Dayna is a little left out of the proceedings, but I feel like just about everyone else get to shine. Vila goes up against Orac in a battle of wits(Avon's confidence in the former presumably stemming from the events of Ultraworld), and gets to save the day. Always lovely when that happens. 

Tarrant's terrified breakdown is one of the most interesting parts of the story, because we've never really seen him lose his cool. He's certainly shown anger and bitterness, but usually faces overwhelming odds with a kind of bemused resignation. Here, however, Tarrant's about to die an unheroic death, rather than go out in a blaze of glory. He's not even defeated by an enemy, but by a slowmoving accident that he can do nothing about. It's one of the best insights we've had into what makes this 'gallant knight' tick. 

Cally's role as the crew's conscience is very strongly felt here, as she alone mourns the scientists of Mallorbis(after having insisted on trying to rescue them in the first place). In a great scene early on, she clashes against Avon's immediate instinct to ignore the transmission. The fact that Avon assumed authority without debate is a good setup for Series D, as is Cally's steadfast refusal to accept his commands just like that. She was the last stopgap to the crew's moral degradation.

Avon doesn't have the biggest role, but he is the most meticulously recreated - Baxendale lovingly describes all of Paul Darrow's vocal tics and unique little reactions. Avon in this story is one of the biggest reasons that I wish this could've been a real episode. 

The use of Orac as an obstacle reminded me of Drones. However, the relatively nebulous threat of Fedorac doesn't quite hold up to the more immediate silicorn virus, not to mention that Orac doesn't suddenly demand to be given legs to run away - here, he simply refuses to do anything. And I think that's a bit more believable for this character(not to mention that the idea of Orac on legs is hilarious).

NOTES

• This is the only place I've heard the term 'planetologist' outside of the Dune novels.
  
• I wonder how many sectors are there. The TV series had it go up to 12, now we have at least 17.
• Prevaricating, recalcitrant... how often did Baxendale snoop into the Oxford Dictionary to maintain that legendary BBC English vocabulary?
• How exactly is the Mallorbis base supposed to be "clinically clean" as someone put it, if everything's covered in dust?
• The concept of the silicon virus appears to have been appropriated from the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Observer Effect". 
• Neat Doctor Who reference with Orac's 'timelock' mechanism.
• Given that Avon praised Vila for defying logic, should we have been worried when this is followed by a scene of Vila deciding to think like Orac?
• "I'm a computer expert, not a virologist!" is a spin on the classic Dr McCoy line "I'm a doctor, not a-" from the original Star Trek series.
• Tarrant nearly swears! That took me offguard.
• Despite his meticulous attention to detail elsewhere, Baxendale seems to have forgotten which character is supposed to man which console, unless the crew play musical chairs.

INFORMATION!

• According to Keating's narration, Contagion is set between Moloch and Death-Watch.
• The crew initially suspect that the Mallorbis distress signal could be coming from Blake or Jenna.
• Vila points out(with a good deal of sarcasm) that the computers on Mallorbis presumably have a tarriel cell designed by Ensor, which the crew learned in Orac.
• The silicosa necrosis disease was postulated by Ensor and Muller(his student from Headhunter) five years ago. This also means that the two kept in contact during Ensor's exile, and that Ensor may have even assisted in the creation of Muller's android.
• Auron trains "telepathic killers". I want to hear more about that!

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

AVON: "Are you going to shoot yourself?"
TARRANT: "I can hardly expect either of you to do it for me!"
AVON: "Well now... you didn't even ask."

CONCLUSION

It takes true talent to make a Blake's 7 short story feel like a complete, real episode of the series. Hats off to Trevor!