This starts off - very slowly - with about 5 minutes of 70s/80s BBC dramatic weirdness. And indeed the whole episode is in stark contrast to fast-moving episodes like Star One. I hope it's not controversial to say the writing has a more feminine touch - with much psychology & the most delicate of hints of fondness between 2 of the main characters.
There's the rather-too-common "Cally is taken over by a telepathic force" storyline. Apropos of nothing, really, we have Dayna playing a futuristic lyre & singing a song of the space traveller maiden; there are symbolic, other-worldly scenes of the main characters acting out little roles in bizarre outfits. This could all have ended up being a muddle, but in fact it's very effective.
An alien lady takes Cally's shape - and Jan Chappell was quite beautiful as the golden-skinned redhead who has a soft spot for Avon. Tarrant is obnoxious again
It's no bad thing to mix up the episode formats a bit. We'd just had 3 episodes dedicated to getting to know Vila, Cally & Avon in turn. There's no Servelan here; and danger but not much action. More of the crew's interactions...and it works for me.
There's the rather-too-common "Cally is taken over by a telepathic force" storyline. Apropos of nothing, really, we have Dayna playing a futuristic lyre & singing a song of the space traveller maiden; there are symbolic, other-worldly scenes of the main characters acting out little roles in bizarre outfits. This could all have ended up being a muddle, but in fact it's very effective.
An alien lady takes Cally's shape - and Jan Chappell was quite beautiful as the golden-skinned redhead who has a soft spot for Avon. Tarrant is obnoxious again
It's no bad thing to mix up the episode formats a bit. We'd just had 3 episodes dedicated to getting to know Vila, Cally & Avon in turn. There's no Servelan here; and danger but not much action. More of the crew's interactions...and it works for me.