Yuku free message boards

Knowing that this script is three years old and that the whole episode was on the shelf for a year gives me certain problems as a review, especially just after listening to the polished "Dominion" and BTR volume 3. Because "Prison"'s shortcomings are partly ones that come only in comparison with later productions. Matt has already said that there are things he would do differently if he was producing it now. The soundscape is effective but a bit flat compared with "Second Sight" and "Dominion". As Trevor observed for instance, the escape attempt is mostly conveyed with a blaring klaxon and a metal hatch clang. The music may have been stock but it does give this series a definitely different identity to the "Doctor Who" series and any new music will hopefully follow this 'Hollywood' sound. Dudley Simpson's theme sounds as good as ever.

Pilot drama episodes are difficult beasts to write. Good ones can be amongst the most impressive bits of TV writing you can see. Setting up characters, a SF world and telling a story is quite a challenge. Witold deals with this by making the plot really basic. Three prisoners meet and then escape by stealing a spaceship. They steal it so easily in fact that I wonder if this is going to be a plot point in a later episode. Mind you I wonder if the reputation of the KX42 prison is rather overinflated. It is supposed to be one of the worst prisons in the Fedetation but it seems pretty easy for prisoners to contact each other during the night and have long conversations in the mess hall. True Style is beaten up, but he's molested by a warden who seems so insecure he has to explain all his motivations to his lowly victim in quite an involved conversation. In fact take away the punches and he talks to him almost like an equal. This could have made for some good comedy but I think he's meant to be a threatening character. Real prisons like this work by treating the prisoners like dirt, making them feel insecure and worthless. It might have been more effective for Style to be beaten up with almost no explanation, then hit him again for talking back. The next day he could painfully work out the whys and wherefore's of his seemingly random punishment during a conversation with Asimov.

I watched "Blake's 7" the first time around and one of the biggest impressions I was left with was the tension and arguments between the characters, something fairly unique in SFTV at the time. Most shows involve crews of professionals or close-knit families. "Blake's 7" starts out with a bunch of criminals forced to work together by necessity. Most of the episodes have the grouchy band having to be cajoled and persuaded into doing something. Egos frequently clashed. Self-interest meant that there was always a risk that Avon, Villa or Cally might betray the others for the sake their own agendas. Gradually Blake's personality wins them around and makes them into a team.

By contrast the three characters in "Restoration" get on pretty well with each other in this pilot. Even what little conflict there is between them is of a bantering nature. Are they all as reasonable and decent as they seem here? I hope not Hopefully once they start adventuring then their characters will be put under more stress and it will be interesting to see how they cope.

The three main characters have to get through some large chunks of exposition about themselves. Some of it, such as how that got to be in prison is perfectly realistic but other bits are a touch: "this is what it says in my character biog" such as Style's "I've been selfish most of my life but now I realise that I need to consider others." I'm paraphrasing a little I know.

Now that "Prison" has got the introductions out of the way, I think this series will start properly with episode 2. This is episode has been more of a prologue than the first adventure. In many ways it shows how far BTR have come in 2003 because it feels slightly dated both the aforementioned postprod and the straightforwardness of the script. I'll look forward to episode 2 now.

Gaz