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The Stranger (Colin Baker) and his companion Miss Brown (Nicola Bryant)
find themselves on a supposed paradise planet, where nature is as of yet
undisturbed by human influence - or so the ads say, as the planet has long
be marketed as a holiday resort, with a few special rules though. When
wandering off on her own, Miss Brown stumbles upon student Nick (Nigel
Fairs), who has just lost his friend (Mark Trotman), and before you know
it, he's accidently shot by a hunter, Darton (Peter Miles), who seems to
be more bothered by what has happened than really sorry for what he did.
Anyways, he and Miss Brown take Nick to his cabin, where Darton's wife
Charlotte (Barbara Shelley) shows way more compassion. Darton on the other
hand starts to think Nick and Miss Brown are spies. The background for
this is that Darton, a former land developer, was just laid off by his
company, and now he has crazy plans to develop the planet into an urban
paradise on his own but thinks that pretty much everybody, including the
apes on the planet, wants to steal his ideas. This almost turns him into a
homicidal maniac when Miss Brown leaves the cabin to fetch the Stranger
... The Stranger meanwhile has made the acquaintance of a mysterious
girl (Sophie Aldred), who promptly falls in love with him, and he feels a
strong affection for her as well, even suggests her to accompany him. When
the girl learns about his other companion Miss Brown though, she tries to
kill her via mind-control and is only held back in the very last minute by
the Stranger. Thing is, she has never felt jealousy before ... Eventually,
the girl shows a slightly mad streak, at least in the Stranger's eyes,
when she claims to be the soul of the whole planet, no, the planet itself.
Then though Darton shows up, and by now he has really lost it, and he
shoots the girl to make the planet his - but with the girl dead, the whole
planet starts to disintegrate and Darton is killed in a resulting cave-in.
The Stranger wants to stay on the planet to die with the girl he only now
finds out he has really loved, but he's dragged away by Miss Brown and
Nick, and somehow (don't ask how), the three of them save themselves. Very
obviously based on popular TV series Doctor
Who not only in casting, More than a Messiah is
nevertheless an interesting piece of (slightly esoteric) low budget
science fiction, which might take its time to kick into gear (especially
considering its running time of less than 45 minutes), but then crams
loads of fresh ideas into its plot that nevertheless stays exciting and
suspenseful. No masterpiece perhaps, but well worth a look.
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