I fail to see the point of Lucifer: Genesis.
WRITTEN BY
Paul Darrow, who has spent decades transforming Blake's 7 from a sci-fi Robin Hood series into his personal vehicle for western skullduggery.
PLOT
There really isn't one. Genesis is kind of a haphazard book equivalent of a clip show, depicting various events throughout the show's (Darrow-fied) run from the perspectives of Avon and Servalan, until it culminates with Avon's last stand against the Empire of Cathay following the events of Lucifer: Revelation.
ANALYSIS
For once, it's genuinely hard to understand who this was meant for. Was Darrow really so blind as to think that a book that constantly and blatantly contradicts the episodes it's designed to call back to would appeal to the fanbase?
Lucifer: Genesis opens with an author's note:
"Although written in the third person, these books are, in a sense, Avon reminiscing. A sort of diary, if you like. There are always discrepancies between so-called eyewitnesses, and, of course, the victor – or survivor – decides how ‘history’ should be written…"
Fair enough. I can accept Avon being an unreliable narrator, and I don't even mind the concept of him looking back on his life - his greatest hits, if you will - before the inevitable demise. Maybe, at a stretch, I can excuse the Servalan chapters as Darrow's attempt to pay tribute to his co-star and to the significance of the Avon/Servalan relationship.
But Darrow takes unreliable narration to a whole new level by casually reinventing whole swathes of established series lore, not to mention an innumerable amount of smaller details. It gets to the point where we're not seeing Avon's perspective so much as an attempt to twist the work of other writers to suit Darrow's own whims. And as for the flashbacks themselves, none of them seem to be particularly significant. We don't learn anything new about Avon or how he felt about other members of the crew. Avon's not really the nostalgic type to begin with, making this creative decision even more baffling.
Servalan's story doesn't seem to tie into anything Avon does, leaving her half of the book practically unfinished. Since the character's death was already depicted in the first Lucifer, her role here can only exist to comment and reflect on her similarities to and effect on Avon. However, the two only meet once and Darrow refuses to acknowledge Servalan(or anyone else) having any emotional impact on Avon whatsoever. Avon does return to her place of birth at the very end, but it's only more irony for its own sake. He never even finds out. As far as this book is concerned, Avon and Servalan are merely two similar people whose lives briefly intersect to no particular consequence.
Even if you happen to be a fan of the Lucifer trilogy in its own right, Genesis does not work, because it depends on the reader having seen the show. Major plot elements like Zen, the Liberator, the crew, Blake etc. are left completely unexplained. So as a fan of the show... what am I supposed to make of this?
The only reasonable (or unreasonable, depending on your point of view) explanation I have for this book's existence is that it really is nothing more than Darrow's ultimate vanity project, an attempt by him to justify his understanding of his character by bending the entire series into a shape that suits it. Of course, one could argue that that is true of all of his writings and I couldn't really disagree. But to me, there is a huge difference between telling new stories whilst breaking the pre-established norms of the setting, and actually going back to rewrite the stories that gave you an audience in the first place. It's just too arrogant for me, not to mention grossly unimaginative.
The climax is... fine. It's basically just two extra chapters of Revelation. Of course, as a final send-off to Avon's character, it doesn't come close to the powerhouse that is Blake. With practically everyone else being dead already, it was hard to feel any pathos in Avon's downfall, but that was surely part of the point. Darrow would hardly part with his fatalism at this hour, and indeed, Avon simply runs out of luck. Still, at least the book ends with an entertainingly ludicrous last stand involving nitroglycerine being fired out of a rocket launcher and Avon blowing apart whole trucks with machine gun fire. It doesn't redeem the rest of Genesis, but it is a fitting conclusion to the Darrowverse.
CHARACTERS
Lucifer: Genesis is the only Blake's 7 story Paul Darrow wrote that features Blake himself(save for a minor cameo in Avon: A Terrible Aspect) and it quickly became obvious why. Much like Avon himself, Darrow seems to be aware of Blake's importance on some level - he can't bring himself to just mock the character or reveal him as a turncoat as he would with any of his own creations - but is also incapable of truly understanding why Blake is so charismatic or why Avon holds any affection towards him.
It's difficult to describe, but all the scenes featuring Blake have this awkwardness about them. He exists as a strange indecipherable entity whose presence Avon inexplicably maneuvers around as opposed to bulldozing over in his usual fashion. Of course, the ideological conflict between them is retained, but Blake's side of it is lacking in thought, as if Darrow sincerely believed that Blake wasn't introspective at all("Blake is an idealist, Jenna, he cannot afford to think!") or was himself unable to reconcile with a less than pragmatic point of view.
Avon himself is just always the same, no matter what point in time we see him in. Even as far as as his early 20s, he's already killed people. Interestingly, Darrow never touches on his birth or childhood, perhaps not wishing to retread A Terrible Aspect(which suggests that despite keeping it out of canon, he still respects his earlier work).
The rest of the crew are barely touched on, disappointing potential fans even further, some of whom may have wanted to see Darrow's perspective on Avon and Vila's relationship, or that of Avon and Cally. If he has any at all, he doesn't reveal it here, beyond a few obligatory(and forgettable) interactions. Perhaps the most amusing misstep is that of Tarrant, who is characterised as being no more than a wannabe Blake, to the point where Darrow sees him as the power behind the throne when it comes to the freedom fighting attempts in Series D.
Despite the pointlessness of the Servalan/Travis chapters, I did probably get the most enjoyment out of them. Brian Croucher's incarnation of Travis is cut from the same cloth as Darrow's other characters anyway, so I could easily see him delivering the lines, and Darrow had already perfected his writing for Servalan in the first book. Not that their relationship wasn't out of whack as well with what we see in the show, but they were clearly Servalan and Travis.
NOTES
- I'd love to hear why Paul Darrow thinks that Europe will one day have the most powerful military and resources on Earth, in comparison with America, Russia and China.
- Apparently, nobody knows what fuel crystals are apart from the fact that they fuel starships. You'd think somebody would work on figuring that out.
- America "dealt with the pirates of the Caribbean", did they? Did Servalan frame their lead captain for domestic abuse?
- Darrow doesn't half go on with his fake history, does he? Get to the point!
- Why is Kyril Alan part of the European Federation? Kyril is the most Russian name I've heard.
- Writing down all the new words I learned for future use: sundry, bearding, insouciance, insalubrious, gaily, proffer.
- I like the idea that the Federation deliberately made itself totalitarian out of fear of another societal collapse. It'd have been good to hear more of their original benevolent intent, and perhaps how some of the old-timers feel about Blake.
- Servalan hasn't even met Avon, and knows nothing about him beyond his credit fraud. Why would she think he's a "disciple of the devil". Does she just hate white-collar crime?
- Similarly, there's no reason for Avon to bring up Servalan and Travis in conversation before he's even heard of their promotions to Supreme and Space Commander, respectively.
- It's rather telling that Avon forgets the crew's existence at one point.
- I know Blake can be rather cold at times, but surely someone should have given him a time-out after he snapped a guard's spine.
- Someone must have told Paul how often he had his characters drinking champagne, because it's a running gag now in Servalan's scenes.
- Apparently, movies have survived to the Blake's 7 era. Avon's definitely a "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" fanatic. Vila strikes me as more of a "Pink Panther" fan. The original with David Niven, that is.
- Blake accidentally flying the Liberator into Earth's solar system and out again purely from being distracted by Cally is completely daft, but I kinda love it.
- Servalan claims to be on a "war on terrorism", indirectly referencing 9/11.
- The whole section about Avon fighting drug kingpins in China wouldn't have been out of place in "Scarface". Push it to the limit!
- Servalan mentions the 1973 James Bond movie title "live and let die". Fu Ti also later orders the ship to go "north by northwest", a reference to the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film.
- How can Servalan possibly be on the High Council at the same time as she is President? Was the previous President not on the High Council when he became one? How do they vote Presidents then?
- Ensor planting explosive color-coded Chinese puzzles into Orac is perhaps the most ridiculous scene of the whole thing. What was he going to do when the Federation retaliated?
- You'd think that the Chinese eventually caught onto Avon's habit of subverting the subversion of expectations and did something to genuinely catch him offguard.
- Malachi Doyle must be the worst boss ever. "No, don't kill Avon and destroy Orac! Capture Avon alive until he spills the beans about Orac, then kill him, but if you can't, then kill Avon and destroy Orac!"
- Travis's non-chalant dismissal of his repeated failures to kill Blake almost got a chuckle out of me. He's like an annoyed schoolboy who hasn't done his homework.
- I'm astonished that the rivalry between Avon and Gabriella Travis is never resolved. She apparently just went on to live as a lackey for the Empire of Cathay.
INFORMATION!
- The book's narrative is spread throughout the show's timeline:
- According to the prologue, the Federation depicted in the show was in fact a coalition of three superpowers - Russian, American and European.
- Servalan is revealed to be the daughter of an Arabian pirate and her Somali wife, and named originally as "Seraph Alan" by her foster family.
- Whilst the book is not in canon with Darrow's previous Avon: A Terrible Aspect, he does carry over the concept of "the Wars of Uranus", a conflict between rebels and the Federation over its fuel crystal mining operations.
- Servalan and Travis discover an assassination attempt in progress on the former whilst investigating Avon's embezzlement scheme. His conviction came largely out of their attempt to cover their own theft of the assassin's money.
- Avon is at some point previously arrested, but let loose to operate as a Federation spy in China by Anna Grant's father, who is a senator(a direct contradiction of A Terrible Aspect, where he is a medical doctor). Servalan was a guest of honor in the Chinese government at the same time, and lost her virginity at the age of 16.
- Servalan does not ascend to the rank of Supreme Commander until the events of Time Squad. She is specifically appointed to lead the hunt for Blake.
- One of the reasons Jenna was arrested was because she flew on a raid with Avalon.
- Blake has visited the Federation's cache of weapons on an asteroid before. The reason is never explained.
- Travis is put on trial for the mass murder he ordered on the planet Zindal before the events of Series A. The blame was carefully shifted away from him by Servalan to ensure his continued presence by her side.
- The Chinese are aware of the Liberator's teleport system, and in the process of devising something similar.
- Sun Huang reports to his Empress that Avon was betrayed to the authorities by a loved one, who was revealed to be Anna Grant in Rumours Of Death. How he got this information given its absolute secrecy is unknown.
- The image Travis observes of Avalon features another woman bowing to her, which may be a callback to Cassandra from the first book(she's the only female follower of Avalon's we know).
- Whilst their names are never stated, the assassins who take out the American gangster Angelo Genoa for Servalan appear to be the Fisch family from Lucifer: Revelation.
- The Liberator picks up the transmission between Travis and the Andromedans at Star One. The conversation is actually depicted in The Mark Of Kane.
- Avon reassures Orac that they can safely land on Earth by gliding along the crosswinds, as they have done so before(Darrow either forgets that Orac wasn't there when he did it in Lucifer, or I am personally forgetting another occasion).
BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE
ORAC: "The enemy is at the door!"
AVON: "Well, open it and let them in!"
CONCLUSION
There are more things in heaven and earth, Paul, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment