Message From Nowhere (1981) Review

 

Message From Nowhere is one of the more baffling cases of a short story starting out really well, only to run out of steam towards the end. 

WRITTEN BY

No specific credit. 

PLOT

The Liberator travels to Earth to investigate the recipient of a mysterious signal from Star One. Whilst infiltrating a Federation base, Cally and Vila are shocked to discover Servalan working to uncover the nature of the signal herself. They are more shocked to find Tarrant with her... 

ANALYSIS

Star One is easily the most important story arc in the show's history, so the notion of revisiting it in some way made me immediately excited. Pair that with a trip to Earth of all places, and I thought we had a really good setup here. At first, things get off to a solid start as Cally and Vila infiltrate enemy territory in classic B7 style. But then it falls apart. For whatever reason, the writer gave up on trying to add interesting plot beats and instead contrived a reason for Tarrant to be captured, quickly followed by Cally and Vila themselves (Tarrant's entire presence on the planet is a waste of time and doubly disappointing as the story briefly toyed with the idea of sending him to Egypt, which would've been epic). There's at least a paragraph or two where absolutely nothing happens beyond the characters fretting over whether or not a rescue is coming. When it seems impossible, there's at least some tension, but even that is wasted because Avon simply switches on the teleport and gets everyone out. Why didn't he do it before? 

I don't even mind the mundane explanation for the Star One message, as it makes sense and would make for a funny twist, but if the writer knew he had nothing to offer, he should have at least filled the space with some action sequences instead of making our heroes sit around aimlessly. Have them escape and fight their way out, only to be cornered and rescued at the last minute. It wouldn't have been original, but clearly there was no intention of writing anything original in the first place. 

CHARACTERS

To the writer's credit, everyone are more or less like themselves. Tarrant is perhaps more friendly than he should be, but as all the annuals seem to be written without access to the most recent TV season, I can forgive them for not getting him right. Dayna's sole personality trait is her hatred of Servalan. 

It's Avon, Cally and Vila who seem the most like themselves, as their identities had become solidified by this stage. Interestingly, there's no attempt made to push either Avon or Tarrant to the forefront as a leader - the crew's dynamics are purely democratic. Hardly inaccurate, but also an example of how uncertain the show's future was following Gareth Thomas's departure. 

Why the crew follows the Star One signal to Earth in the first place is left unexplained. You'd never have this in a Series A/B story. Blake would make some speech about the relevance of what the crew are doing, Avon would snipe back, the crewmembers would side with one or the other depending on how it benefitted them. The characters stood more out in that era in my opinion, in spite of the lack of character-specific stories that Series C offers. In this era, the crew may be a democracy where everyone's voice has a chance to shine, but they're also a less interesting group of people, with less natural conflict of opinion. Tarrant and Dayna are too undefined and do whatever the present writer wants them to, Cally rarely stands up to anyone and Vila almost inevitably sides with Avon. And Avon's own motivations are extremely murky in this period. 

NOTES

• This story was published in the 1981 Blake's 7 annual. 
• I like Avon's fear that the Federation might finally be able to bypass the tarrial cell. It would've been an interesting development for the show, although probably not very efficient storytelling (as Orac is almost literally a deus ex machina). 
• Avon choosing Cally and Vila solely based on their skillset is delightfully pragmatic. 
• This is immediately undercut by Cally trying to use herself as a distraction and Vila to attack a guard. Surely this should be reversed??
• For whatever reason, the artwork depicts Avon, Vila and Tarrant all wearing clothes similar to Blake's. 
• 'Before you could say "President Servalan", they were both out cold.' Subtle exposition there.
• Judging from the use of "pronto", I suspect the writer was American. 
• Cally should know better than to tempt fate by asking how their infiltration could be improved on.
• At one point, Tarrant finds a dropped Liberator bracelet, implying that either Cally or Vila lost it in the shuffle. This is never addressed, however, and none of the crew are left behind when Avon teleports back them. Were Cally and Vila holding hands?
• Why does the room overlooking the communications center even exist? It, and the console that allows them to listen in, seems to be randomly there so Vila and Cally could see and hear what Servalan is up to.
• "Poor old Del" is an honorary mention for best quote. 
• Why does Servalan care about the Star One signal so much, anyway? Wouldn't the Liberator be her first priority upon finding Tarrant?

INFORMATION!

• Star One was destroyed in Aftermath. Dayna desires vengeance on Servalan for killing her father in the same episode. 
• The crew haven't visited Earth since their previous attempt at destroying Central Control, in Pressure Point. 
• Servalan briefly suspects Blake of using Star One as a decoy for his own transmissions. 

BEST QUOTE

VILA: "After you."
CALLY: "Well, that was one occasion where we didn't need your clever fingers after all."

CONCLUSION

If you're gonna use big names, I feel like you owe it to yourself to live up to them.