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Governor-General Sir Henry Routledge assigns Captain Roger
St John Ffolkes to cross the savage wilderness known as the
Steppes of Thoth to find the wreckage of the downed ether
ship Perbindesh. The official reason: to locate and
rescue any survivors. Unofficially, Ffolkes must recover a
precious Martian artefact that was being secretly transported
aboard the vessel...
And
so the adventure that is Space 1889 continues, taking
Victorian-style colonialism and derring-do to the planet Mars.
"It's just like India," sighs Sir Henry Routledge (Ivor Danvers),
in case any of us hadn't picked up on the symbolism.
In this version of history, the canals that the astronomer
Percival Lowell fancied that he saw on the surface of the
red planet are very real, and they play a vital role in the
treacherous journey that Captain St John Ffolkes (Simon Williams)
is called upon to undertake.
Upper
lips don't come any stiffer than that of Simon Williams, star
of Upstairs Downstairs and the Doctor Who adventure
Remembrance of the Daleks, and he is absolutely spiffing
as Ffolkes. His Victorian propriety finds a good foil in the
spiritedly modern female form of Georgina Golightly (Jo Castleton),
though even she feels somewhat ill at ease when a disaster
on the waves leaves her undergarments exposed to the gaze
of men. Fortunately they are all gentlemen, so they avert
their eyes to spare the lady's dignity.
In
my review of the previous instalment, Red
Devils,
I commented upon the large number of "English toff" characters,
which sometimes made it difficult for me to tell them all
apart. This time there is considerably more variety in terms
of voices, as Ffolkes is accompanied on his journey by his
plain-speaking batman, Sergeant Carstairs (Toby Longworth),
and by an American, Lucas H Tyler (Jon Weinberg).
Add
some fiendish Hun to the mix and what do you get? A right
ripping yarn, what!
Richard
McGinlay
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