President (2014) Review

 

President provides a fascinating insight into the politics of the Federation, and provides a strong introduction for one of the show's best villains. 

WRITTEN BY

Simon Guerrier. This story can be considered a companion piece to his previous work Logic, which also explored the Federation's inner workings. Whilst that one dealt with common citizens, this one is very much focused on the leaders. 

PLOT

Secretary Rontane interrogates Servalan about her involvement with the President and his charity programme over the past few weeks, specifically during an unfortunate rebel encounter on Mars, where she happened to save his life.

ANALYSIS

I believe it's no coincidence that President was released right in the middle of Big Finish's first season of full-cast Blake's 7 adventures. Those stories were the first to feature Hugh Fraser as the President, but kept him fairly enigmatic (a last-minute twist in Caged also invalidates a lot of what we learned about the character during that time) and apart from the franchise's main antagonist, Servalan. 

So here is our oppurtunity to learn more about his life, cleverly through the effect he has on Servalan and Rontane rather than his actual presence, which is minimal (Fraser does not appear). On paper, the President does not seem to live up to what has come before. As a villain, Servalan outdoes him in ambition, strength and malice. His entitlement, passion for finery and tendency to be distracted are overt character flaws that anyone can manipulate. In short, he comes off less like a powerful emperor and more like a spoiled child carefully looked after by all of his underlings. And yet, he's managed to remain in power for decades and outlived much more intelligent and powerful foes. 

The President, to me, seems to be as much of a "citizen of the Federation" as anyone else. The regime has simply molded him to be the perfect leader, just as it molds his followers to be the perfect slaves. He is just greedy and intelligent enough to make his way up the ladder and grip onto power, but not such a force to be reckoned with that it becomes bothersome to the rest of the upper class. As, most likely, Servalan is. Not to mention, he has a genuine faith in the Federation as an institution, not simply using it as an excuse to do whatever he wants. He is the ultimate safe choice for a totalitarian society. 

I must say, I did not expect the relationship between Servalan and the President to be... physical. Having listened to some of the Fraser stories, I always pictured a cat and mouse game between the two, something similar but more equal to Servalan's relationship with Rontane. That being said, I really liked how sex was used as a metaphor for power (Servalan craving it and the President demonstrating it). This could have very easily been cringeworthy, but by making it something so deeply tied to their motivations, Guerrier managed to make their dynamic more interesting. 

CHARACTERS

This is the only Blake's 7 audio to feature Peter Miles, and it's a shame as his talent is as impeccable as ever, the aging waver of his voice only adding to Rontane's fragile emotional state. Unfortunately, Rontane's role in this story is to interview Servalan, as part of my least favourite Liberator Chronicles trope: the in-universe narrating. 

What this means is that one character will sit down with another one and narrate the entire story to him as if they were having a conversation, with the other character occasionally making asides. I've never liked it, because I just don't find it believable. Firstly, because of the amount of detail that the stories go into (they are, after all, stories) and secondly, because sometimes there's not even any motivation for the characters to be talking to one another. As is the case here. Servalan has no reason to tell Rontane any of this, and that takes me out of the whole thing. I don't see any need for a clumsy framing device when we could just have Servalan describe events directly to the listener, and have it all take place from her perspective. 

But then the downside is that we'd have no Peter Miles, so... what can you do? Aside from the terrible setup, the dialogue between Rontane and Servalan is fantastic, introducing an element of mutual respect that was never apparent in the TV episodes (Rontane seemed more like a nuisance to Servalan than anything else), but given that Miles more than matches Pearce's strength as an actor, I find this to be a welcome change. I also greatly enjoyed Rontane's descriptions of his daily routine of realpolitik. Miles brings his absolute practicality to life with gusto, even at the very inevitable end of his story (which, by the way, is another flaw with President - you see the twist coming a mile off). 

NOTES

• I was greatly amused by Servalan's glorifying descriptions of the President's Hugh Fraser's physique.
• Making Rontane an ex-trooper was a stroke of genius. It just fits with his emotionfree attitude so well (and ties nicely to his famous role as Nyder on Doctor Who)
• Servalan picking "the shantytowns of Pluto" and "the child mines of Rogue" as some of the most forsaken places in the Federation makes me wonder whether Guerrier is a secret fan of Avon: A Terrible Aspect. 
• I don't understand why it's implied that Travis's trial was a secret. Surely the whole point of it was to publically shift blame for the Blake fiasco over to Travis. 
• The heartbeat score played over some scenes was a nice nod to Terminal. 
• I adore the idea that Servalan deliberately hams up her own personality as a reaction to being constantly observed by the Federation. 
• Given Servalan's insistence that she is a commander, not a politician, I wonder what persuades her to aim for the presidency and not, as Rontane suggests, to become the President's mistress. Unless that was just another lie. I look forward to seeing how the audio series depicts that transfer of power. 
• There's an implication that Servalan may have used Blake to boost her own publicity, which I don't quite agree with. I think she's far too panicked at the notion of Blake gaining popularity in the TV episodes. But then again, the wonderful thing about this audio is that so much is left ambiguous and left for the listener to decide. 

INFORMATION!

• The story is set at some point between Trial and Star One. Rontane is revealed to have survived Travis's trial. He left just before the attack to inform the President of its outcome. 
• The President's palace is described to be an ancient one rebuilt brick by brick, which is the same description given to Servalan's own presidential palace in Rumours of Death. It's possibly the same building (I can easily imagine Servalan moving it from the moon to Earth). 
• Many of the rebels spread the idea that Blake's abortive attack on Earth (as seen in Pressure Point) was a Federation lie. 
• The Federation was founded on republic ideals. 
• The parliament building's entrance has a quote: "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." spoken by a pre-Atomic Wars Earth leader. 

BEST QUOTE

"This was Blake's real legacy: ordinary people losing all sense of proportion, ready to let their loved ones die because of this newfound sense of entitlement."

CONCLUSION

It's not the gut-punch that Logic was, but Guerrier continues to expertly plot out the details of the Federation's everyday cruelty.