Brother is a confusing anti-religious diatribe which struggles to continue a storyline no one seems interested in.
WRITTEN BY
Nigel Fairs, aficionado of eccentric backstories for established characters.
PLOT
Avon kidnaps Auronar scientist Gustav Nyrron, convinced that he holds the key to solving Hoja's Syndrome, a disease that has infected his brother Tor. Nyrron, still suffering from the effects of Servalan's brainwashing, struggles to recall the truth behind the Syndrome.
ANALYSIS
There's two kinds of writers: conformists and standouts. Conformists adapt to the wants of the public or whoever hires them, and produce content in the same vein as what has come before. In Blake's 7, good examples of this are the works of James Follett and Roger Parkes. Not saying that their episodes are derivative, but you can't really hear a unique creative voice in them. They're new stories, but they match the overall tone and style of what's come before. Standouts are writers like Ben Steed, Allan Prior and Robert Holmes, who have very specific interests and ideas about what Blake's 7 should be like, which make their works recognisable from the rest.
When you're a standout, you have a chance of becoming something of a mini-institution within the fandom. That is, if you add something of value and substance to the series. Or you can be like today's writer, Nigel Fairs, and try to subvert expectations to the point of undermining the entire narrative and become infamous for it. To be blunt, his works have never appealed to me (at least within B7). I find his episodes tend to deviate from everything I like, and tell stories that these characters have no business being a part of. And, of course, there's Gustav Nyrron, his beloved OC, whose storyline weaves through nearly all of the Fairs episodes. Not that I dislike the Nyrron character or his actor, but his existence makes it pretty obvious that Fairs cares more about the story he can tell within Blake's 7 rather than telling a new Blake's 7 story.
In this specific case, we learn about Nyrron and Avon's backstory with Hoja Syndrome, a leprosy-type disease. All infected are reviled by both the Federation and a widespread group of racist religious fanatics whom the Federation sponsors. Fairs has stated this to be an analogy of the oppression towards homosexuals. Obviously a subject that he is passionate about, and something worth discussing. I'm not disputing that. The problem is that instead of actually having the crew fight against the oppression, Fairs relies on his personal favourite trope: flashbacks in which two characters (one of whom is almost invariably Nyrron) wallow in their shared history. It's very rare that I find this type of Liberator Chronicle exciting, and this is the absolute worst execution of it. On a personal level, I dislike the fury with which Fairs blames religion for the persecution and on an impersonal level, I felt bored because not only is this backstory implausible for Avon, but we have to jump through hoops to get to the actual point Fairs is trying to make here. He is so keen on his detective novel-esque revelations, where the plot is peeled back one layer after another. It makes all of his stories slow and ponderous, and rather than genuinely explore the themes, we have to spend ages actually getting to them. Add to that the bending of canon, and you might see why I'm not a big fan of him.
It doesn't help that the rest of the audios never reference his works (save for Nyrron's cameo in Cold Fury), which means that the ideas he includes are always left awkwardly hanging. I was actually supportive of the storyline in Promises, but the Cally/Travis rivalry introduced there is never touched on again. And I can't fully blame Fairs for that. These ranges do have producers and script editors. Here, he's clearly built up to a cliffhanger with Nyrron planning to take revenge on Servalan, but it's never followed up on. Someone should have noticed and bothered to at least resolve it, if you went to the trouble of having him write this. At least respect the fans who follow these storylines.
You might be asking why I think this story doesn't suit Avon. It comes down to Occam's Razor. Avon appears to be an introverted computer enthusiast with trust issues. Simple, straight to the point, with plenty of room to evolve in the show (and he does). He does not need to be more than that until he meets Blake. It's a mistake Paul Darrow himself made when he wrote Avon: A Terrible Aspect. The part of the character worth talking about happened during the show itself. That's why Blake is such an important figure for him long after he disappears. Blake brought Avon into the 'limelight', so to speak, and challenged his worldview. Why he had that worldview to begin with isn't a grandiose story worth telling. The combination of Anna Grant and growing up in the Federation could give anyone such a worldview. Bringing leprosy and religious fanaticism into his background just muddles the waters for me.
CHARACTERS
Paul Darrow seems to be enthusiastic about exploring Avon's background, and his viciously bitter speech to Tor is the highlight of the whole thing. It even made me rethink Avon's relationship with Blake a little bit (perhaps he subconsciously replaced his brother with Blake). I don't mind this particular point, as Avon having a brother is already part of the canon, but I wish it was explored more in depth and without bringing religious extremism into things. Avon's father could have easily (and more plausibly) been a member of the Federation itself, and it would have been cool to see flashbacks of their family in the Dome, maybe even see the Federation from a child's perspective. That being said, I do like how Avon's desire to be 'clean' of Tor's legacy mirrors the attitudes of their nosophobic father. I like the subtlety in that.
Antony Byrne only appears in one scene as Avon's brother Tor, but portrays the character with a similar dark edge as Darrow. It's good casting.
I feel bad for Anthony Howell. He always brings a likable vulnerability to Nyrron, and can also rage with the best of them, but there's no escaping the fact that the whole Nyrron arc is such a vanity project. Maybe a different writer could have added more depth to the role and made his stay on the Liberator plausible, but the fact that Fairs writes all three of his stories with the same detective-novel approach means that we never get to see him actually interact with any of the crew in a casual setting. It's always him and somebody else (the alien who becomes Vila, Servalan, Avon) interrogating each other about their respective pasts. But who this man actually is outside of those twists is anyone's guess. Oh, wait, I know. "The best scientist Auron has ever produced". That settles it. That's not OC-ish at all.
NOTES
- The Nyrron clone has to actively remember sending a message to the original Nyrron's son concerning their revenge against Servalan. But how'd he forget that? Or did the original Nyrron send the message? I should mention that I have no memory of what happened to Nyrron Prime and I have no desire to go back and check.
- There's a weird moment where we only hear Zen's sound effect instead of his voice in response to Nyrron's queries. Couldn't they get Lock to record some dialogue? Or even just have Anthony Howell mention what Zen is saying?
- Darrow's performance as the crazed Father Kallas is very similar to his Cromwell in the Luther Arkwright audio drama.
- The Federation's sponsoring of Papa Avon's religious fanatics does nicely echo their support of the Terra Nostra, although it's hard to see what use they have for extremists.
- The 'thinking outside the box' joke regarding Orac is hilarious.
- 'Only a flesh wound though' is not so hilarious.
- How could no scientist figure out that Hoja Syndrome is a genetic condition, not a disease?
- Nyrron's clone seeks revenge against Servalan for the events in Wolf, and has remained a member of the Liberator crew since then.
- Avon references his tryst with Anna Grant by mentioning 'love happens to the best of us'.
- Avon mentions Vila finding Nyrron's clone at the weapons factory on Dulcimer IV, which occurred in Solitary. He also appears to be unaware that Nyrron is a clone, considering that he accuses him of not following anyone until he met Blake.
- Avon suggests he would have let Nyrron "rot with Travis". I'm not entirely sure what this means, as the only Nigel Fairs story to feature Travis was Promises and Nyrron wasn't part of that story.
- Tor Avon is the 'number one computer genius', joining the ranks of Eve Adams (Erebus), Lazarus Avon (Rock Star), Maco (Avon: A Terrible Aspect) and... Tor Avon from Afterlife.
- Avon's childhood friends included 'Eron' and 'Tarrant'.
- The flashbacks depict Avon pulling off the computer scam that gets him arrested, as seen in Space Fall.
- Avon's hatred of Tor, Tor's disappearance and Avon's subsequent shooting of him are obvious references to the relationship he has with Blake throughout the show.
- Nyrron claims that 'most' of Auron refused to be corrupted by greed. In Voice from the Past, we see the results of some Auronar scientists making a deal with the Federation.
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