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Mydas, Cilla, Ytzabub and Turnidus crash-land on Xoolian Major,
where their ship rapidly sinks into a swamp. En route to the
very same planet, Galileo Gamak searches for the missing Madame
Deephole...
Practically
all the saga's various plot strands now converge on Xoolian
Major, a world that proves pivotal to the mysterious plans
of Aaran, alias the Editor (Gareth Thomas).
Accompanying
Gamak (Mark J. Thompson) is the phonetically named broadcaster
Jake Avara (Peter Ager), who seeks clues regarding the fate
of his brother, Mydas Mydason. Despite being away from his
usual job, Jake amusingly continues to enunciate like a continuity
announcer! Also along for the ride is the Editor's camp uncle,
Hywel, played by Gareth Thomas, who sends up his own Welsh
accent to comical extremes. I'd noticed that the previous
instalment of Soldiers of Love had broken with a short-lived
tradition by not including a Uranus joke, but this episode
compensates for that by having two of them - and, as Hywel,
Thomas milks the innuendo for all it's worth!
Aside
from the celebrity voices (Keating, Courtney and Jan Chappell
all reprise their roles), this instalment holds additional
interest for Blake's 7 and Doctor Who fans.
The former are treated to a hilarious trailer for Jake Avara's
new drama series, Jake's Heaven, featuring the exploits
of a band of fashion rebels. Can you guess the smutty name
of the freedom fighters' awesome spaceship? Meanwhile, within
the main narrative, Jake, Gamak and Hywel are menaced by a
rather familiar sounding, electronically voiced alien foe.
New
additions to the pantheon of characters include a precocious
child, Panakol Floorunner (Mark J. Thompson again), who will
seem eerily familiar to Star Wars fans. The equally
versatile Alison Taffs (who also plays the vastly different
characters of Maureen Mydason and Violet Goodgrip) creates
another distinctive voice in her role as Stellar Network Radio's
food-fixated cookery expert, Mrs Blubber.
Concluding
the CD, one of the customary musical tracks is in this instance
a groovy club-style mix of the main theme. This makes for
easier listening than many of the songs that have thus far
graced this eccentric serial.
As
the double entendres carry on getting filthier, and the sci-fi
spoofs grow sillier than ever, there are plenty of pleasurable
passages in this particular part.
Richard
McGinlay
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