Ministry of Truth had some potential as an attempt at meta comedy - it's not a genre I associate with Blake's 7, but I will admit to having a few laughs early on - only to descend into tripe.
WRITTEN BY
Una McCormack. I feel like her heart's in the right place, but I've sadly never been keen on any of her Blake's 7 stories. They meander a lot, and there's hardly ever any tension. The same is true here.
PLOT
The Liberator crew strike an 'info-tainment' facility used by Servalan to spread her propaganda, as they believe it conceals a secret transceiver that allows her to communicate with her fleet in space. Someone on the facility, however, has sold out to the Old President... and he has his own plans for the place.
ANALYSIS
I take issue with the most basic plot points here. Someone on the station has sold out to the Old President, and Servalan learns this and sends Zeera Vos to find out who it is. So far, so good. But then inexplicably, ships arrive to attack the station. Now, to McCormack's credit, we never actually find out what's going on, but our heroes operate on the assumption that it's the Old President. Which just makes no sense to me.
Why would he care if the traitor is discovered? Avon mentions something about tying up loose ends, but what could an informant possibly have to say about the Old President that would threaten him? McCormack also implies that the President wants the traitor alive, because they're not blowing the base to smithereens. Why would he want the traitor alive? What possible value could the traitor have alive? It's not information, because that would already have been broadcast.
Another inexplicable thing is the traitor's attempt to buy a place on the Liberator with a missing episode of the TV show that shows the Federation in a bad light. Who cares? Servalan would just say the actors were being forced to record it under duress, or that the whole thing is faked (which it was actually, they made a point of establishing that the lines were edited). It's scarcely got any value even as a propaganda piece for the Liberator.
All these questions I have are raised over the course of an excruciating hour of airtime in which the characters sit in two rooms pondering over what they should do, where they should go, why they should go, what the President might be doing and why, and whinging about it too. It was like being trapped in a Beckett play.
It is unfortunate, because the story at least started out... well, maybe not promising, but it did start out as a somewhat interesting and unique parody, very different from the episodes around it. Instead of just imitating typical Blake's 7 tropes, there's a lot of fourth-wall breaking humour about the production of television, similar in style to the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 when they had the team write a movie about themselves. It doesn't at all feel like something Blake's 7 would actually do (this franchise mostly takes itself seriously, with most of the comedy being very dark and dry), but there's some good bits.
I liked that Steven Pacey seemed to be doing a Gareth Thomas impression for the main fictional terrorist. I'm pretty sure the reference to "Series C, episode 11" is a slight burn on Ben Steed's Moloch. Avon comments on troubling actors. Tarrant points out that the Avon equivalent character is not the lead. The 'missing episode' is obviously a nod towards Doctor Who. Little things like that.
But as the story progresses, this comedy is cycled out in favor of... well, just sitting around and talking. Much ado about nothing, as they say. When even the characters began to comment that they wasted a trip, one can't help feeling like listening to anything other than this. Beyond a few nudge-nudge-wink-winks at the audience, what are we really here for?
CHARACTERS
After being introduced as a vaguely intriguing past acquaintance of Vila's, Zeera Vos has been quickly reduced to serving as Servalan's latest Travis replacement. I really don't see the point of her.
I do appreciate that I wasn't able to guess who the traitor was despite the limited guest cast. Verner and Bowkan are both fleshed out and given enough reason to support either side while also appearing harmless at the same time. So harmless in fact that I did consider the traitor might be Zeera herself, or someone we hadn't even seen yet.
I don't want to sound mean towards Paul Darrow, who was obviously in ill health and at the end of his life, but listening to his performance is just a bit sad now. Especially when there's an action scene going on and he's seemingly zoned out and reading his lines as if it was any old audiobook (unless Avon is trying to be intimidating, in which case he lowers his voice until he's barely audible). Maybe I wouldn't notice as much if some of his earlier audio drama readings hadn't been downright masterful.
NOTES
- You'd think a dramaturg like Bowkan might at least bother to give the renegades slightly original names. 'Kerrvon'? Really?
- I love the image of Servalan being addicted to her own propaganda shows. I wish that hadn't been fake.
- Ironically, Big Finish would edit the actors' lines just one year from now to produce a conversation between the deceased Gareth Thomas and Paul Darrow.
- The Liberator's temporary absence is never explained.
- Avon tells Bowkan that he was never "Blake's person". What an odd choice of words.
- Why is Verner so weirdly smug about Bowkan meeting the terrorists? You'd think he'd be at least a little concerned for his life instead of throwing out snarky remarks all the time.
- Why in the name of Vila's thermos box do Cally and Tarrant stop in the middle of a heist to watch Servalan's propaganda TV show?
- They could've just shot Zeera. She has as much value as the traitor (i.e. none) and she is very obviously a liability with how much she keeps interrupting the crew.
- Avon putting his gun away because a dangerous prisoner demanded it is the most out of character thing I've ever seen Avon do.
- It was nice to see Cally casually using her telepathy during an action scene.
- Tarrant and Cally show remarkably little interest in rescuing the civilians from being blown up by the Federation.
- The title and the mention of planet Speranza in Bowkan's propaganda films are a reference to Una McCormack's previous story, Ministry of Peace.
- There are repeated references to Servalan's ongoing Civil War with the Old President. Apparently there is starvation in the Dome Cities seen from The Way Back.
- Zeera invites Verner and Bowkan to visit Servalan's Residence One (seen in Rumours of Death).
- Cally and Zeera met before in the episode Fearless.
- Avon jokes that the situation is as clear as Feldon crystals. The crew tried to steal Feldon crystals in Games. (I love that episode, and I love the Series D nod)
- The propaganda film misquotes the episode Blake by having the lead state they'll be labeled as "thieves, killers, murderers, psychopaths".
CONCLUSION
Feels very much like purgatory.
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