Episode 13: Orac

In the last episode, intergalactic delivery boy Ensor (junior) tried to bring his dad some heart-batteries, but had a little whoopsie-death in the process. And by whoopsie-death , I mean that Servalan exploded his ship, in order to save money and get Orac , whateverthehell that is. Avon, Vila, Gan and Jenna went down to the planet where Ensor Jr. crash landed and discovered it was full of lots of amazing radiation, cavemen and Meegat, a girl who lives in a slightly more modern cave Strictly speaking a bunker. . She turned to to be a massive fan of Avon, but they left her behind because she was silly.

This week starts with Avon, Jenna, Gan and Vila feeling a bit dicky. Gan gets some pills from the surgical centre and Blake asks Jenna how she is, after she looks a bit faint.

Logorrhoea

Blake has suspicions about the crash of Ensor Jr.'s ship, so plays back his own flight log, ostensibly for Avon's benefit. This means we get a complete recap of the previous episode, in case we missed it. This definitely won't happen again.

Cally checks Avon for sarcasm. The readings are off the chart.

Mandatory workplace testing

Blake realises that the explosion on board the Spacemaster was caused by a bomb, and then Zen confirms it with READINGS. Cally tests everyone for radiation with her tricorder and finds out that Gan, Vila, Avon and Jenna are riddled with the stuff. Luckily, because it's the future, there's decontamination drugs, but there ain't none on The Liberator. The upshot is, if they don't get the drugs, then everyone who went to last week's planet is going to die.

Radiation pills This is a device Nation reuses in Destiny of the Daleks. No-one ever seems to decide or explain quite what the Doctor and Romana's tolerance to radiation is (they're both Time Lords). This may be another essay in the making... But anyway the timing bleeper and pill motif adds some nice 'will they die' tension when the plot is a bit slow. Spoiler: they don't.

Empty hearted

On Aristo, Ensor Sr. is blowing kisses to the fish in his fish tank and chatting with his plants, when he gets a twinge in his heart. He plugs his heart into a battery meter and finds out he still needs a recharge. His computer, speaking in the voice of a bored civil servant, tells him that a Federation ship has landed with two passengers. Ensor's laboratory has a defence zone but can also be reached via the tunnels from the old city , which are crawling with Phibians . It turns out that Ensor's computer is called Orac.

/img/characters/ensor-sr.png Ensor Senior Techno-recluse Orac provider 11

Gareth Badger Thomas Derek Farr, who played Ensor Sr., wasn't in Doctor Who, but was in a show I hadn't heard of, until I was researching this episode: Star Maidens. It's 1970s , the twist being that a planet with a matriarchal society strays into our solar system and gets up to shenanigans with Earth. It also starred Gareth Thomas (Blake), sporting a dramatic poliosis.

Perhaps it's just a gas leak

Servalan and Travis wander along a miserable looking beach and find a hatch. Servalan has a map to Ensor's laboratory scrawled in crayon on a piece of A4. They clamber down into a partially flooded tunnel and hear NOT AT ALL OMINOUS HISSING.

Bleak beaches and white corridors go alongside quarries as staple 'this is what the future looks like' in 70s . I'm interested to notice Blake sporting an actual jacket with collar and fastenings. Normally future = polo or turtle necks.

Blake visits Avon in the surgical unit and tries to tell him about Ensor Sr., but Avon already knows, because Ensor Sr. is like the Steve Wozniak of Federation space and Avon follows him on Twitter. We learn that Ensor Sr. developed the Tarial cell, which is at the heart of every computer system in the Federation; has a mechanical heart, the micro power cells of which are running down and that Ensor is on the run from the Federation.

This one goes to eleven

Orac tells Ensor that The Liberator is in orbit, and asks him to make a decision about what to do, but Ensor is asleep so Orac selects full security procedure , from his drop-down menu. The camera ominously pans across to a sphere which bears a passing resemblance to the interrogation droid from Star Wars.

On The Liberator, Zen goes on the fritz and starts repeating himself and slowing down, then speaks with the voice of Orac, demanding that Blake explain himself. You can tell it's not Zen because rather than the warm, 1970s brown, he gets a bright fuchsia light on him.

Stop me if you've heard this one before

Blake describes the plot of the previous episode again, for the benefit of Orac and any members of the audience who aren't really following what's going on, because they're worried about The Sex Pistols heralding the end of civilisation.

At some point the plan has to be explained. This is tedious. The Doctor often has a little sit down with the villain to basically go: so, to recap, you've got bad plans right? So I should stop you? Just checking.

Orac is satisfied with the plot summary, gives them teleport co-ordinates and returns control to Zen.

The reason that Orac can control any computer is that Ensor designed the Tarial chips that underly all Terran computers, and probably put in some sort of backdoor . This is fine, but The Liberator isn't Terran and shouldn't have any Tarial cells inside it. I found this plot hole annoying, so I asked the Blake's 7 subreddit about it. @kurbside suggested that the makers of The Liberator (who we'll meet next season) incorporated Terran technology into their ships, because they're a bit like a cheeky version of The Borg.

Cally, Blake and Avon go to the teleport lounge and see the desk configuring itself to the correct co-ordinates for Ensor. They teleport down to the same grotty beach as Servalan and Travis turned up on and find an obelisk and this force wall:

Travis and Servalan are still being followed in the tunnels by that ruddy hissing thing. Travis finds the tunnel is blocked and squeezes through a tiny hole in the rubble, leaving a frightened Servalan behind. Then this happens:

As silly as the special effects might be, Jacqueline Pearce makes Servalan vulnerable and frightened. Too often in drama, villains are used simply to drive the plot along and provide a foil for the protagonist. It's much more satisfying to give all characters motivation and weaknesses.

Three dimensional baddies One thing I feel older 70s did well was to achieve a bit of three dimensionality to the characters (some might argue at the expense of pace). Even one-off baddies like the brilliant Nyder in Genesis have motivations. They aren't just 'bad because, well they are'. (I think it was?) Alan Rickman said baddies are often people who just made different life choices. The Doctor is never fully good. The Master is never fully bad. It's far more interesting in my opinion to have shades of personality.

Servalan squeezes through the gap and finds two skelington These are probably the remains of an exploratory exhibition which Zen mentioned when he was briefing Blake and Jenna about Aristo earlier. .

The floating ball of death

On the surface, Blake and Cally are approached by this cute little fellow:

It tells them in Orac's voice to remove their weapons, which they do because of warning shots.

The drone from Planet of Evil I love a remote drone. There's one in Planet of Evil (a rather excellent Jekyll and Hyde rip). Other than being a bit like an irritating, mobile I can't see why they're terrifying. Its like persistent wasps who want your ice cream. Or trying to run along a pavement dodging kids on wheels. (Trainers with wheels. On a five year old. When did that become a good idea?) Sorry, gone off track a bit here...

A black cylinder rises out of the ground It looks like the light-proof revolving door they had in the photographic dark room of the college I used to attend, which I appreciate is a pretty specific reference. I'm not very good at this. and Orac demands that they go inside the transporter . Disappointingly, it's just a lift. They find themselves in a series of white corridors.

Travis and Servalan have almost reached the laboratory too, but they encounter another Phibian, which they just sort of ignore.

Third time's a charm

Blake and Cally find Ensor's greenhouse and he grumpily greets them, under the misconception that they are medics. Cally recounts the plot of Deliverance a third time, because it's possible that some of the audience weren't following what was going on, because they were thinking about Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. Ensor points Cally toward the decontamination drugs.

The power of perspex: Orac is finally shown.

Blake encourages Ensor to teleport to The Liberator with them, in the hopes that they can use the surgical unit, plus instruction from Zen, to change his ticker-battery. Ensor agrees and fetches Orac. He looks like a fish tank full of fairy lights.

Travis explodes through a hatch in the corridor where Blake and Cally arrived in Ensor's laboratory. Travis immediately spots Blake rounding a corner and blasts at him, with his Swiss Army Hand. Blake legs it round a corner.

All of Travis and Servalan's scenes in this episode have been shot on 16 film, even though only some of them have been on location. Everything else in the laboratory has been shot on video. But for some reason, the brief gun fight between Travis and Blake is shot half in 16mm and half on video, even though both take place on the same set. The version of the episode has been colour graded, to make the video footage more film-like, which reduces the jarring effect of the two mediums somewhat. But the original broadcast and releases of the episode had no such treatment. I think younger readers will be confused by this comment, because they've only lived in a world where video can be made to look nice with a press of a button. But originally, this scene was the visual equivalent of wearing a pair of wooden trainers or eating a birthday cake made out of garlic.

Ah the days of . I still have a player because I can't bear to shell out to replace horrors like Keeper of Traken but I might want to re-watch them in fuzzy glory. In the old days, you had to tape things you didn't want to miss. Like on that family holiday to Australia when I was followed around by tapes of The Invisible Enemy, posted ahead to each location so I didn't miss an episode. Yeah I know. My parents were thrilled too.

Hatching a plan

Ensor, Blake and Cally escape the laboratory through a different hatch, which leads to the same tunnels which Servalan and Travis have just used. Travis breaks through the door just in time to see Ensor shutting the hatch behind him. Servalan immediately finds a map and realises that they can cut them off in the tunnels. She explains her plan to Travis like he's five years old, even though Blake and co. are scampering away while she speaks.

Blake tells Ensor and Cally to take Orac ahead, while he tries to bring the roof down behind them, because he doesn't know about Servalan's amazing maps.

Getting cold feet

On The Liberator, everyone's still ill. Avon thinks Blake has been gone too long and decides to teleport down with Vila. Vila takes too long getting his boots on and so ends up with a soggy foot, from beach-water.

In the tunnels, Ensor needs to rest so Cally returns to check on Blake. She gets grabbed by a Phibian, so Blake clubs it to death with a rock. They both return to Ensor and Cally spots the way out, but it's too late: Ensor has died, while Cally was away. They carry Orac to the surface.

Ensor's death happens off-screen, with no speeches, no gurning, no theatrics at all. Cally and Blake's reactions are along the lines of what a shame , rather than we shall not see his like again and yet it still feels poignant. I think it's the grim, pathetic nature of it, which is moving. Or possibly, I'm just getting Stockholm syndrome. Either way, Charlotte and I have written a eulogy of sorts, for Ensor.

Travis' weird hairy hand

Pointing fingers

For some reason, rather than immediately teleporting away, Blake closes the hatch behind them, places a rock on top of it and spends a long time dusting off his hands. This gives Travis enough time to jump out from behind a rock and hold them both at gunpoint. Fingerpoint. Whatever.

Travis wants to kill Blake immediately but Servalan wants to take him prisoner, for some reason. Blake goads her and she changes her mind, ordering Travis to let loose with his laser-jewelry. Blake, you so silly!

Avon gets in their first, and shoots off Travis' Swiss Army Hand. Travis expects to be killed but Blake's plan is to tell the Federation that Servalan allowed them to take Orac, because he's curious to see what will happen. Blake and his crew teleport away.

Servalan reminds Travis that he's in a lot of trouble. Travis' hand looks all hairy and weird.

Swiss Army hand The Astronauts from The Android Invasion They loved a bit of this in the 70s. Not Nation's invention, but the Autons were possibly the best example. What can be more terrifying than a limp-wristed shop dummy? In The Android Invasion Nation used Astronauts with gun fingers. (Is that finger loaded or are you just pleased to...wait. That doesn't work. Forget it.) One can't help wondering whether, if the Daleks had tweaked their design to include hands rather than the plunger / egg whisk combo they might have actually conquered the universe. They whip up a mean pavlova though.

Back on The Liberator, Avon boots up Orac. His voice has changed to that of Ensor and he's right grumpy.

Nostra-damn-us

They try and establish the parameters of what Orac is capable of. He claims to basically know everything, and to be able to predict the future. They demand a demonstration, so after avoiding the question for a bit, he shows them footage of The Liberator and claims it will be destroyed. Then he won't tell them when it might happen, so Avon gets annoyed, and pulls off his switch, and throws it across the bridge. The episode ends with footage (from the future) of The Liberator exploding.

The assumption here seems to be that with sufficiently detailed information of the starting conditions, Orac will be able to predict the future. This concept has been discredited since 1880, when Henri PoincarÃ© noted that even with a gravitational system as simple as one sun, one planet and one moon, tiny differences in the initial starting positions can lead to wildly different end results. In layman's terms, this is why long-term weather forecasting is impossible, regardless of how many measurements we take and how accurate they are. It's a similar idea to the Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a computer which makes measurements of a fairy cake to extrapolate a complete model of the universe, and show the user their position within it.

The Captain from The Pirate Planet I love Douglas Adams. In The Pirate Planet there is an explanation so complicated I had to rewind the twice and make notes before I understood it. There's isn't even a target novel like there is with Warriors' Gate. I think the Doctor sort of dematerialises the interior of a planet, then drops another shrunken planet in the middle of it, which expands to fit the hole. Boggling.

Watch Orac on YouTube