Ministry of Peace promises eerie intrigue, but all the interesting stuff seems to happen off-screen.
WRITTEN BY
Una McCormack, who previously brought us the rather tepid Risk Management. Queen of excitement, she is not.
PLOT
The Liberator travels to the recently freed world of Speranza, where Blake's assistance is requested to weed out government corruption. Avon and Cally end up separated from the rest of the crew and placed into a mysterious labour camp, where the dark secret of Speranza becomes clear...
ANALYSIS
Like its direct predecessor Retribution, it's written in a very straightforward and sincere form of prose. Perfect for an old-fashioned runaround. And that's fine by me, I enjoy a good action-adventure. Stories like Project Avalon and Redemption are hardly deep, but they don't have to be. Sometimes we just enjoy seeing our heroes tweak the baddies' noses and win the day. But Ministry of Peace threatens to be more interesting than that. As soon as the crew lands, Darrow describes Avon's dislike of the planet's sour atmosphere in great detail, giving the proceedings an uneasy vibe. This increases exponentially when we meet the Speranzian government and learn how delicate the new leadership is, and the struggle it has to escape the Federation's shadow even in their absence. We're not sure who to trust, and there's even hints that the Federation might still be controlling the planet incognito. It's great stuff, very Orwellian.
The result is that I was focused more on the mystery surrounding Speranza rather than the immediate threat of Avon and Cally being trapped in a labor camp. Their storyline isn't uninteresting - in fact, it's a rather good example of the two working together - but it can't compare to the political drama established before. McCormack built up Speranza as a doomed world and I was eager to see how the Federation will devour its heart and soul... or whether it had already done so. In the end, both storylines fall flat. Avon and Cally are saved by deus ex machina, and the truth about what was going on comes out off-screen, revealed in passing by Darrow's narration at the end. It's very unsatisfying, especially since the actual collapse of the government isn't even explained (and appears to be unrelated to the conspiracy we spent most of the runtime on).
In the end, I'd rather Speranza had simply been a Federation world all along, and Avon and Cally became trapped trying to liberate it. It'd be less interesting, but if they somehow escaped on their own and had to abandon the notion of stopping the Federation there, it would at least be a solid hour of Blake's 7. As it is, it's only okay.
CHARACTERS
Paul Darrow is the narrator here, although it feels like he replaced Gareth Thomas at the last minute. Avon being willing to go to the planet in the first place doesn't ring true, and his subsequent concern over the lost lives on Speranza and the futility of the revolution would suit Blake much better. It sort of works in the same way as switching the two around worked in Deliverance (by creating some unintentional parallels between Blake and Avon's behaviour). I guess I'm just used to Darrow giving colder performances on audio. I did enjoy his dynamic with Cally. Chappell's absence was felt, but I still liked how vulnerable Avon seemed around her. Her being the better fighter between the two must've grinded Darrow's gears a bit!
Jacqueline Pearce is the secondary narrator, but she's barely in it. To be honest, I have no idea why she is. Her only role is to occasionally remind the audience that the Federation are going to invade the planet (which in the end happens months after the Liberator leaves). It would've worked far better to ditch her and cast Chappell instead, to give Darrow someone to play off of. The scene of Avon and Servalan communicating on the Liberator flight deck was particularly strange and didn't suit their Series A characterisations at all.
NOTES
- You have to love the names. Lev Emmett, Drett Irving, Esto Bellis. Bring back Robert Holmes and his Wazis, all is forgiven.
- Nice to see the President pop up in a cameo. Even if we can't hear him. But I love that dude.
- Emmet's inability to rule without relying on the previous dictatorship's habits brought Spoils to mind. Perhaps that's why I felt so disappointed in the ending.
- After all the stories glorifying Avon's skills as an action hero, it's very amusing to see him be a complete prat on the field in this. It's not inaccurate to Series A either.
- You'd think Avon would keep quiet about being with Blake inside the prison, considering that he doesn't want the guards to know it. What if there were cameras, concealed recording devices?
- Why does Avon assume the Mutoid serum is being made for an invasion force? Is it out of the realm of possibility for Speranza to have a made a deal to produce it for the Federation purely for financial reasons?
- Yakov stops the Federation's conquest of Speranza purely because they've stopped producing Mutoid serum? That seems... arbitrary.
- How could Renton be unaware of Servalan's planned invasion of the planet given that she literally made a speech about her intention to do so? Does he somehow not know she told the High Council she'd do it?
- I love the idea of the crew watching the Federation's TV for news. I want to see more of that.
- So Gareth Thomas has to pretend to be Zen's voice, but when it's Darrow narrating, we just get sound effects? Come on, give me his Zen impersonation dammit!
- Avon compares Speranza to Cally's rebellion on Saurian Major, much to her fury. Their first meeting in Time Squad is also referenced.
- The labor camp reminds Avon of the prison cell he was in before being put on the London to go to Cygnus Alpha, as seen in Space Fall.
- Sonovapour is used to drug Avon, Cally and the rest of the labourers. It was featured in Mission to Destiny and Pressure Point.
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