The Scapegoat (2018) Review

The Scapegoat has something to say about the hold of the mainstream media over the populace, but it meanders far too much. 

WRITTEN BY

Steve Lyons. I wish he experimented more. I loved what he did with Velandra. Everything else ranges from pretty good to forgettable. A very hit and miss writer. 

PLOT

The Liberator crew travel to the planet Astra Valadina for a spot of arms dealing, but find themselves ensnared in the President's plan to embarrass Servalan politically. The crew are framed for a mass murder, and Vila and Tarrant are seemingly lost. 

ANALYSIS

I really want to love Blake's 7. I want to listen to an audio and have an experience that is not only just as well-crafted and thrilling as the original series, but elevates it in some way. I want this because the audios have set a quality standard, with adventures like The Armageddon Storm, Spoils, Logic and The Hard Road being some of the best experiences I've had with the franchise. Or, if we're talking exclusively about the Classic Adventures range, Mindset, Devil's Advocate and Close Enough stand as examples of Blake's 7 firing on all cylinders. 

We're not in that era anymore, and I have to address that. I've been struggling since the Spoils of War box set to maintain my enthusiasm for the audios. Pretty much everything seems to be be on a downward trend. The actors are getting older and wearier, and seem to be getting no direction whatsoever. The sound design is not nearly as good as it used to be. And the scripts feel oddly aimless. 

This week, Steve Lyons stumbled on the idea of doing a commentary on the political use of a phenomenon where popular media (primarily television) influences the views of the general public. It'd be a pretty cool idea if it wasn't a little kernel at the end of the episode, while the rest of the time is spent meandering on:

1) Tarrant trying and failing to develop a relationship with a media-following sheep. 

2) An inane plotline about Vila meeting an actor pretending to be him. All part of the President's convoluted plan to discredit Servalan.

3) Avon trying to buy guns or something. 

I mean, it's like Coronation Street at this point. This whole 'war' between Servalan and the President might as well be an old married couple having a passive aggressive spat over the color of the curtains. "How dare she change them! I am the man of the house!" sneers Hugh Fraser's increasingly one-note character. Avon either acts like a complete psychopath or a curmudgeon with a heart of gold depending on the writer's mood. Vila does Vila things. It's predictable and dull. I wish we could see the President and Servalan struggle to maintain their power, get into their heads and see how they cope. What they think of each other and how they react to each other's choices on the battlefield. We have very little idea of how the war is even developing! 

As for the main characters, there's surely more facets of them left to explore given that we still know next to nothing about their personal lives before they were introduced! It doesn't always have to be the same old beats is the point I'm getting at. 

CHARACTERS

It's an uncomfortable truth that Paul Darrow's health was very poor by this point. I wish the writers had thought of that before giving him action scenes. The result is both unconvincing and barely audible.

Hugh Fraser is hard to hate in anything, he's got such a lovely voice. And the oily demeanour he brings to the President made me consider him an even better villain than Servalan when he was introduced. But at this point, I'm dying for them to do something -anything! -with his character that isn't just him grumbling about how he's the real deal and Servalan isn't. I want the President's version of Sand. I want to know about his past with Tarrant. I want to know how he ascended to power. Anything!

I don't care about anyone else in this.

NOTES

• As I feared, that disc that Eve gave to the President in Erebus has no payoff whatsoever. Nor does the President's plan to send the Liberator against Servalan. 
• I like the name Kurt Lockwood. That's it. Just a cool name. Very western-like.
• "Candy Lou has an artistic set of pixels."
• The tapes of the President narrating about the crew's crimes gave me horrible flashbacks to those clumsy framing devices in some of the Liberator Chronicles. 
• Given that Vila is one of the most recognised criminals in the Federation, why would anyone think that Lockwood was him? Isn't Vila's face on all the wanted posters and the like? 
• Conversely, why would disseminating information about Lockwood through the Federation security computers change anything? Surely only the law enforcement would receive that information. Would it make that much difference? Apparently it does, because Zheanne inexplicably believes the crew at the end despite being fully on the Federation's side up to that point.

INFORMATION!

• Astra Valadina was pacified with drugs until the Galactic War broke out and the drugs ran out.
• The President repeatedly refers to Blake being dead (presumably his fake death on Jevron), even in a public speech. For some reason Orac does not report this to Avon. 
• The Liberator crew are trying to get a shipment of guns to Saurian Major, which apparently has a whole new rebel faction operating on it after everyone died in Time Squad. 
• After seeing his actor get shot down, Vila treats it as a premonition of the future, most likely foreshadowing his own eventual death in Blake.
• Lockwood was rescued from the Calcos penal colony, which was mentioned in Moloch. Someone finally dared to reference a Ben Steed episode.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

AVON: "We're talking about people who aren't used to thinking for themselves. Most, I suspect, will do what they've always done. What most of us do, for that matter, when our opinions are challenged."

TARRANT: "Which, in your opinion, is?"

AVON: "They'll weigh up the evidence, then choose to disregard it and believe exactly what they wish to believe."

CONCLUSION

Very tired.