Disorder (2014) Review

 

Disorder is a mildly interesting heist adventure.

WRITTEN BY

Eddie Robson, who gave us the tedious False Positive. Not particularly inspiring. 

PLOT

Avon and Vila infiltrate the white-collar environment of Division Three, a space station containing the offices of multiple Federation corporations. As the contents of the station are in the process of being moved, it is the ideal time to steal valuable information about rebel activity in the sector right from under their noses. But when the Liberator is apparently destroyed, Avon and Vila must plan their next move very carefully...

ANALYSIS

The Odd Couple dynamic between Paul Darrow and Michael Keating was always one of the trump cards of Blake's 7, particularly as the rest of the show's ensemble cast changed over the years. There's an inbuilt comfort and familiarity to their interactions. Avon would always play the straight-man to Vila's exaggerated comedy routine, and Vila would prevent the latter from becoming too morose. It's a winning combination that became etched into the hearts of Blake's 7 fans. No matter what happened, they'd always know that at least Avon and Vila would wriggle out of it somehow, usually with a lot of booze, insults and a yellowing plastic box. 

Now, the purpose of my pontification on this matter is to say that Eddie Robson basically rigged his story to be a winner. It doesn't matter if there's no effort anywhere else. So long as Darrow and Keating do their shtick, there's automatically some merit to be found. And that's mostly how I feel about Disorder. It's nowhere near as excruciatingly pointless as False Positive, but it's still lacking in passion and creativity. The classic Dilbert-esque office setting initially amused me and for a while, I wondered if Robson had some personal experience working in a cubicle that he was using as a template for this. Combining Scott Adams's bureaucratic satire with Blake's 7 sounds like a hoot, no? However, after a few early gags, this angle is entirely abandoned so Vila can have his little minecart adventure. And this isn't the leading, clever Vila of Spy, but the traditional version that's led by the nose by a pretty face. 

Still, I hadn't lost hope. Avon and Vila running two thefts simultaneously as opponents was also an idea with considerable promise, and the longer Darrow was absent, the more I wondered how the two would reunite. You can imagine my disappointment when I learned(via an extremely lengthy and convoluted exposition scene) how the entire operation was micromanaged, meaning that neither Avon or Vila were in any considerable danger and pretty much everything that had happened was preplanned. 

In short, the entirety of Disorder is basically one huge practical joke on Vila. Had he(and by extension, the audience) been privy to basic need-to-know information, the plot would've fitted into a short story. Now, it could be possible that this is just my problem. In all fairness, I was never outright bored. But to me, stories are fun when things don't go according to plan. When the characters are in real danger and we get to see their ingenuity as they have to improvise to survive. Or alternatively, if we must have micromanagement, it's interesting to see how said manager manipulates the characters to do what he wants. Games is a great example of this, where Avon spends the entire story onboard the Scorpio directing his crew like pawns against Belkov.

Now imagine if Games took place solely from the crew's perspective, and Belkov wasn't in it, and in the end it turned out that every problem the crew faced was engineered by Avon, who stole the Feldon crystals offscreen while they ran around like headless chickens. That's Disorder for you. 

CHARACTERS

Paul Darrow acts like he's a low-battery version of his Series D self. All the familiar inflections and vocal tics are there, just slowed down and very carefree. It's like Avon is so confident in his plan that he's going through the motions. Or maybe Darrow was just disappointed that "space heist" didn't involve him blowing up a safe with a giant red stick of dynamite whilst mowing down enemies with a machine gun like Tony Montana. 

Michael Keating gets the meat of the action, and probably my favourite part of the story was just listening to him describe Vila's daily life at the Federation office - going to the vending machine, tapping away at a computer, arguing with petty rivals. The domestic things that, much like in Spy, are easy to relate to and something we haven't seen much of in Blake's 7. To his credit, Eddie Robson has a knack for capturing Vila's voice and perspective in the narration, complete with comic pratfalls mid-description. It helped to keep the pace lively, and was pretty much the only aspect of Disorder with any real spark. 

NOTES

• I really liked seeing some of Vila's kleptomania. There's a big difference between breaking locks and actually stealing things, and I think a lot of writers forget that. 
• There's always something amusing to me about Blake's 7 audios referencing or being inspired by real world events that took place after the television series. Things such as "the Commercenet" being an obvious analogue for the internet, as well as Vila's habit of looking up things to purchase that he never will. Not to mention the sly Nigerian prince joke. It's not out of character for the series, but there's just always something so... alien about it, you know what I mean?
• The Federation can't be all that dystopian if they sell sugar nuts from vending machines. Why do I always get the shitty salted nuts?
• Avon's deadpan reaction to the Liberator's destruction had me cracking up. Especially in retrospect, when I realised that he was just pretending. Avon is a terrible actor. 
• I had an even bigger laugh when Avon put forward his plan to defect to another rebel group the minute Blake seemed to be out of the picture. He is the least non-partisan non-partisan I've ever seen. 
• The Liberator produces some sort of "protein food"(a la that goop they eat in The Matrix). And tea, let's not forget that. Zen is a master teamaker. 
• Listening to Avon and Vila sit down and intelligently discuss the pros and cons of their respective plans to survive without the Liberator put a big smile on my face. At the risk of sounding bitter, these Blake's 7 audio dramas are a constant positive reminder that intelligent scriptwriting hasn't died out. I have an extremely low opinion on what passes for science fiction television these days(looking at you, Star Trek: Discovery and Doctor Who). 
• I don't know whether the director or the writer is responsible for that modulated voice nonsense, where they try to pretend they have more actors than they really do, but I'm glad that Disorder was spared of it. Automatic plus.
• I've never related to Vila more than when he talked about "early morning fit freaks".
• Vila murdering an innocent clerk in cold blood is a little difficult to imagine(given his stunned reaction to blood in Cygnus Alpha), but it is Blake's 7, so... 

INFORMATION!

• At this point, Vila hasn't known the crew for very long, presumably placing the story in Series A. 
• Vila notes that he has a lot to be grateful for, specifically mentioning his being rescued from Cygnus Alpha. 

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

"We've been here for five days, and you're already succumbing to feeble workplace tribalism."

CONCLUSION

Very, very average. Did not impress at all, but didn't really bother me either.