Arnold
CibbuanoBlakes 7 - The Web
January 31st 2007 10:55
Michael E. Briant returns to direct the fifth episode of the series here (he previously directed the wonderful and memorable first episode). More than the other directors of the series so far, he seems to have a more recognisable touch - lending his episodes (well, the two I've seen so far) an air of creepiness, or wrongness. As such, this is one of my favourite episodes of the initial bunch I've watched.
Blake and co. are taken by surprise when Cally, under some kind of malignant alien influence, starts acting all alien and malignant (this includes planting a bomb onboard the Liberator). This, coupled with a mysterious web in space that entangles and ensnares the ship, leads to the crew being held hostage by some fabled members of Cally's race known as 'The Lost'.
Blake goes down to the planet underneath the web to investigate and negotiate, and discovers a desolate scientific base under siege from grotesque little creatures called Decimas. The Lost are holed up in the base and wish to borrow some power from Blake's ship, this will enable the Lost to fry the Decimas to death. Suffice to say, Blake is less than enthusiastic about helping the Lost commit genocide, especially when he learns about their experiments involving genetic engineering...
This is a firmly sci-fi episode, dealing with themes of genetic engineering and scientific culpability. We also get to see some decent aliens this time too... the Decimas are completely non-human, even in regards to their small stature and high-pitched language, and they don't look too b-grade. The Lost themselves are also well-designed... the creepy little guy in the tank was fairly nightmare-ish, more a creation of horror than cult-sci-fi. I was quite shocked to see something so downright disgusting-looking.
Good episode. The end scenes of frenzied attack were fairly well-directed too, a fine example of a good director overcoming low budget and typical 70s/80s BBC sci-fi production values.
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