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When Gan's (David Jackson) inhibitor, that prevents him from becoming a
raving psychopath - a device only infrequently hinted at in earlier
episodes - malfunctions & turns him into a raving psychopath, Blake
(Gareth Thomas) & crew - Avon (Paul Darrow), Jenna (Sally Knyvette),
Vila (Michael Keating) & Cally (Jan Chappell) - decide to take him
to the nearest neurosurgeon in their spaceship The Liberator - once they
have detained him, of course. But on their way to spacestation CK 72,
where the surgeon resides, the ship's computer deliberately turns itself
off, claiming they are passing a forbidden zone. And what do you know,
the ship really has to pass some anomalies like a Black Hole-like
vortex, & even Gan manages to free himself & roam the ship as a
raving psychopath once again, but is restrained once again, too.
The spacestation CK 72 meanwhile proves to be neutral ground (&
Avon even considers leaving his friends for a peaceful life on the
station), but the neurosurgeon Kayn (Julian Glover) himself is rather in
cahoots with the federation & betrays Blake & crew, at the same
time watching emotionless as Gan gets closer & closer to death, even
though his assistant Renor (Christian Roberts) begs him to help the man.
Only when, independently from one another, both Vila & Avon - the
latter being tipped off by the station's co0mmander (Ian Thompson) - get
behind Kayn's evil scheme, is he forced to operate on Gan, & The
Liberator can leave CK 72 just before the federation's ships arrive for
the kill.
Obviously disappointed they missed Blake by a hair, they blow up CK
72 instead, rather spoiling Avon's plans to spend his pension there.
This episode falls into 2 narratives that are only very loosely
linked to one another - the passing through the forbidden zone & the
betrayal of the surgeon. & apart from obvious problems concerning to
keep up the suspense while having one story following the other, the
main flaw of this episode is that neither of the stories is really
interesting: The forbidden zone is presented as merely a fun
concept where the problems that arise can be solved rather by
coincidence (when they are pulled into the vortex they decide to just
fly straight through it to see what happens - & nothing happens),
the subplot of the treacherous neurosurgeon just fails to explore its
own potential, effectively leaving the man's motives in the dark, rather
just claiming he is a tad evil - which doesn't help the story at all.. |