Truth and Lies has a solid narrative at its core, but it's scuppered by poor dialogue and direction.
WRITTEN BY
Justin Richards, who brought us the one-trick pony Fractures. This is a marginal improvement at best.
PLOT
The Liberator crew track Dayna to a facility on Appallon Five where they are met by her mother, held captive by the psychostrategist Kramer. Intent on delivering the crew to Servalan, Kramer traps them in a room designed to be inescapable by their talents. The sole exception is Vila, who has only one chance at saving them all...
ANALYSIS
The first half-hour or so was excruciating, quite frankly. Series 2 of the Classic Adventures has been so good up to this point that it's a crying shame to finish on such a dud. But it was really that bad. Everyone were constantly bickering about everything. It was difficult to picture what was going on. Kramer's mockery of the crew's entrance killed any sense of suspense. I hated it. It only got better towards the end because Richards randomly turned it into a comedy, with Kramer fanboying over Vila due to a case of mistaken identity. The absurdity of it did make me laugh. Careen's storyline had some promise and was well acted, but the whole "is she or is she not a traitor" feels derivative of Anna Grant. It's also just rather bizarre to have an emotional arc about Dayna without the character of Dayna present. There's no emotional impact, particularly since the crew choose to keep it a secret from her.
In retrospect, this 'quest for Dayna' storyline seems to have been nothing more than an excuse to explain her absence (as Josette Simon would not reprise the part). It doesn't make sense why Dayna would be so adamant to stop the crew from finding her, and it doesn't make sense why the crew would be so adamant to find her. Poor Blake and Jenna never got half as many episodes dedicated to looking for them. Besides, it's not like there's any real sense of accomplishment when she's finally found, given that there's still no actress. All in all, a nice wild goose chase. Fortunately, all of the episodes before this were very good on their own merits.
CHARACTERS
Given the truly dreadful writing, it's hard to feel attached to anyone, but Chadbon was really hit the hardest. All he does in this is patronise Vila to the point where I was getting PTSD to City at the Edge of the World. And for some reason, he sounds possessed at one point. Who let that take slide?
Kramer (played by Nigel Carrington) is as smug and conceited as his predecessors Carnell and Bracheeni, except he's more of an idiot. I like that not all psychotherapists are carbon copies of one another, but this idea is not developed enough to be more than just mildly interesting.
Orac is barely in it, but somehow he's by far the best part of the story. His decision to edit the Federation records on the Liberator crew to make himself look like a hero is extremely funny, as is Kramer assuming that he must be another psychostrategist.
Beverley Hills (lol at the name) gives a heartfelt performance as Dayna's mother, for what it's worth. She sounds similar enough to Josette Simon to be believable as a relative and it's nice to finally meet someone relatively naive to the schemings of the galaxy, someone who genuinely blundered into the tragedy she's in now. It's very believable. That being said, I do wish her backstory was a bit more straightforward. She should have just run away in shame after realising she betrayed Hal's rebellion, instead of the nonsensical excuse of "keeping them safe by not letting herself be used again". I mean, how would the Federation have used her against Hal and Dayna on Sarran? The whole point of going to Sarran was getting away from the Federation for good.
NOTES
- This episode currently marks the final performance of Tom Chadbon as Grant. And sadly, it was also his worst. I don't think Richards really understood the character. But leaving that aside, Truth and Lies was very clearly not written to be Grant's exit. There's no finality to his scenes at all. I wonder what happened. Did Big Finish hope to get Chadbon back at some point, and deliberately left the Grant era open for further adventures? Whatever the case may be, it never happened. Grant's story was later concluded by Paul Darrow in his novel Lucifer: Revelation.
- The photo of Michael Keating used on the cover art is very obviously a reversed image. It looks awkward.
- There's a major editing error early on in the story, when Cally contacts the Liberator by teleport bracelet and there's no static on her voice. She sounds like she's sitting in the bay.
- Vila has somehow gone from being willing to let Dayna go to being the most concerned for her, somehow. Maybe he misses having eye candy on the flight deck.
- The early scenes imply that the planet's defense grid is activated when something comes too close (hence why it destroys Dayna's ship and forces her to land in a capsule). But later on, it's made clear that the crew can teleport anywhere on the planet except for Kramer's facility, as that would trigger the defense grid to kill them. So does it surround the planet or the facility?
- Always good to hear the Dudley Simpson teleport cue. I hope it becomes a permanent fixture again.
- 'Nugatory' is the word of the day.
- I really have no patience for when Vila's written to be an idiot. That's all I'm saying. It's particularly bad in this. Not quite Ultraworld levels, but not far off either.
- The exposition gods look proudly on the crew chatting about the minutiae of Kramer's loading bay design, and Careen and Kramer constantly telling their names to each other.
- Why does Kramer insist that the crew drink water before taking them to Dayna? I thought it might be hinting (""hinting"") at drugs, but the story never seems to go back to it.
- I know Kramer's a bit thick, but given the obsessive security measures at the base, how can he leave an enemy unattended (especially one that he thinks is almost as smart as he is)?! Vila's just allowed to hang in a room alone, apparently uncuffed.
- Kramer references the departure of Blake and Jenna from the crew. He doesn't recognise Grant as a member, which might be a continuity error with Defector (where Tarrant and Grant are both paraded around as criminals on a high-class Federation world).
- Vila is referred to as "the eminence grise", a subtle callback to Voice from the Past.
- The entire concept of a psychotherapist using missing crewmembers to lure the crew into a trap is painfully derivative of Incentive.
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