Orbit (1981) Review

 

Orbit has the single best script of the entire series. 

WRITTEN BY

Robert Holmes, whose loyalty to established television series remains both a massive credit to him, and the thing that robbed him of his rightful legacy as one of the great British writers, as others have said before. For Blake's 7, he previously penned Traitor, Gambit and Killer. 

PLOT

The Scorpio crew are drawn to Mah-lo-daaar Command on the promise of making a deal with the notoriously talented physicist Egrorian, who is offering them mastery of the galaxy. The crew say thank you, yet upon hearing of the man's disreputable background, Avon can't help feeling Egrorian might be leading them by the nose, a fear soon proven true when Servalan enters the scene...

Not that she had to, mind you, I think John Savident's hair was proof enough.

ANALYSIS

I dare anyone not to like Orbit. The actors are positively gnawing on the rich dialogue and look as peppy as toddlers on Christmas. Excellent zingers are thrown out every other moment, replaced occasionally by feverish tension. As a result, 45 minutes flies by at a speed to make Superman(that meteoric bovine!) greener than kryptonite with envy. 

Orbit is a sublime example of television theatre - it's shot in only three sets, really(four, if you count Servalan being tucked away in some mop closet), with scenes that go on for a vast amount of time, counting entirely on the ebullient performances to carry them. I can't tell whether there was much improvisation involved or if we should thank Holmes for an incredibly layered script. Frankly, I don't care. I had the time of my life watching it so I'll just bury both in praise and give the flowers to whoever did the CSO this week. Best use of it that I've seen. You could practically feel the shuttle fly up and down over the hills. The direction is just generally top-notch, with some brilliant lighting and modelwork to point out as highlights.

Whoever came up with the incredibly ballsy hunting sequence, hats off as well! I suppose they figured the show was nearly over so they might as well go for it. But it's such an incredible place to take the relationship between Avon and Vila, who at this point are the longest-running characters. It wouldn't hurt nearly as much if it had been anyone else. Though we have seen Avon callously risk Vila's life before, I think that physically doing the deed himself made it much more real for him. He's not using Vila as a pawn and hoping for the best, or even sacrificing him on behalf of the others like he did with Dr Plaxton. He's trying to murder a man who never even wanted to come, purely for his own unscrupulous self. Regardless of his increasingly dark actions lately, Avon's always had some semblance of a moral code, the violation of which makes him visibly sick. 

CHARACTERS

I'll start off with the weakest link - Servalan! 

*dramatic Simpson sting* *zoom-in to shocked facial expression*

Don't get me wrong, Pearce's scenes with John Savident are as priceless as anything else in the episode, but from a storytelling perspective, the character really isn't necessary and I'm pretty sure she wasn't in the first draft, seeing as how Egrorian is set up as an egomaniac, only for that aspect to completely wilt in her presence. Plus, Holmes pokes some fun at the whole Commissioner Sleer dynamic as well, so I suspect he was forced to include her, and did his very best of course. Personally, I can't help feeling that they should have had a better look at Pearce's contract and make sure she got into the series finale instead for a proper send-off. 

Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin aren't in the episode for long, but it's interesting to see Holmes handle them regardless. Dayna and Soolin seem to have been paired off and given relatively ditzy personalities, judging from their giggling at Vila's boasting and the way they hang off of Tarrant's sides, who is clearly the dominant male in Avon's absence. Maybe they dragged some sand in...

This is Michael Keating's best performance, it just has to be. Even leaving aside Vila's terrified weeping at the prospect of being killed, there's so many great moments for him. I love the subtle way the episode foreshadows the ending. Vila is quite confident in the early scenes, snapping back at Avon in a way that he never would have in the old days when the latter's presence was enough to scare him.

He seems to have grown comfortable enough with Avon's particular brand of pragmatism - not that he doesn't know that Avon could try and kill him if pushed hard enough(that's obvious from the way he flees as soon as Orac says the magic words), but he's grown so lax that he doesn't expect it to happen. And when it does, poor old Vila's back on Cygnus Alpha, only this time there's no Gan, no Blake, no Cally, no Jenna and no Liberator. Just a very antisocial bunch - murderers, liars, cheats, smugglers... and they're the nice people!

John Savident's awesome. That's pretty much all I got for him. He plays an authority figure so well that I could never have anticipated the sheer flamboyance in human form that is his turn as Egrorian. Undoubtedly one of the best one-off villains we've ever had. It's a style of performance that could have very easily become grating and overbearing if misjudged ever-so-slightly, but Savident maintains the character's lack of self-awareness with consummate skill. Another pro is Larry Noble, whose innocent senile antics complement Egrorian's loudness perfectly. That being said, I wouldn't feel too bad for Pinder, considering his glee at the prospect of killing off some random strangers and the fact that he ended up and stayed in the company of a maniac to begin with.

Oh, and then we have Paul Darrow, who can barely keep the Cheshire grin off his face. It's episodes like this where it really hits you how much he's changed the way he plays Avon in this final year. And legend has it that it's all because he was grumpy at David Maloney for overruling his criticisms on Avon's heroism. 

Well, whatever the reason, it really was a stroke of genius. In this last run of episodes, I'm pondering over his motivations on how he behaves in practically every scene. Let's detach ourselves from the reality of Darrow just having fun on set and consider... why is Avon so giddy at the prospect of meeting Egrorian? His old passion for science? Astrophysics don't seem to be his area. Yet this behaviour continues well into the episode, with Avon even chuckling at the thought of risking himself and Vila unarmed. 

"He must be crazy, staking his life."
"If you're a gambler, that's the biggest gamble you can make. That's the real kick."

 Somebody suggested that Darrow's faux-innocence in the climax is Avon subconsciously persuading Vila to hide, unable to commit to his intent to murder. Or perhaps he's having some kind of breakdown over the massive stress. Either way, he obviously plays it as a huge mental struggle for Avon.

NOTES

*Glynis Barber is rocking that farmgirl pigtail. Jacqueline Pearce needs to fire her barber already. There is short and then there's ready to join the army.

*Interesting that Avon should point out the crew's actions have been made "in the pursuit of liberty". It's a very Blake thing to say. Though perhaps he wants to stand on a moral high ground above the slovenly Egrorian.

*I love the way both Avon and Servalan patronisingly slap Egrorian and Vila on the cheek, respectively. 

*Given that Pinder aged 50 years in a billionth of a second during his exposure to Hoffal radiation, Egrorian must be near-immortal for how long he holds out.

*The game pieces that Egrorian and Pinder use to play chess seem to be the same ones Belkov used in Games, though on an entirely different board.

*In order for Orac to control Fake Orac, it must have been a rudimentary computer with its own tarriel cell. I wish they'd made that clearer, because Avon's computer engineering skills haven't been brought up in ages. 

*Egrorian correctly guesses that Orac must be on the shuttle, which would imply that it has a much more limited range than has been shown thus far, or that the atmosphere of Malodar perhaps interferes with computer function. 

INFORMATION!

*Egrorian is somehow aware of Orac as well as Scorpio's teleport capability, and refers to Avon and Vila as "ruthless desperadoes of legend", implying that their celebrity status has grown fairly huge. 

*The small gun that Avon uses to hunt Vila appears to be the same one Keiller used in Gold, which Tarrant confiscated from him.

*Vila fantasizes about living forever, just as he did in Time Squad. 

*Avon reminds Vila that Servalan wants to get her hands on Orac. She's previously made explicit attempts to steal it in Orac, Aftermath, Volcano and The Harvest Of Kairos.

*10 years ago prior, Egrorian was part of a conspiracy to overtake the Federation. Apparently unaware of this, Servalan(who appeared to be Supreme Commander already at that point) assisted in his escape so he could continue developing the tachyon funnel. Tarrant joined the Space Institute shortly after Egrorian's departure. Presumably this is not the Space Academy where Tarrant was said to study in Series C.

*Tarriel cells are mentioned. These are the crucial components of every modern computer in the Blake's 7 universe, invented by Ensor as established in Orac.

BEST QUOTE

http://www.hermit.org/b7/Episodes/scripts/Orbit.html

CONCLUSION

You know you are safe... with Robert Holmes.