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Having learned of the apparent demise of her husband, Maureen
Mydason takes the first available space flight to visit her
lover. This is a decision she will regret. Meanwhile, Mydas
Mydason is actually very much alive, though he might not be
for much longer...
Mydas actor Michael Keating is joined in this instalment by
some of his old Blake's 7 chums. The unavailable Colin
Baker is replaced by Gareth (Blake) Thomas by means of a cunning
plot device which has the villainous Editor adopting a new
guise, that of his long-lost father, Nermal Hammond. Thomas'
performance is every bit as arch as Baker's was.
Meanwhile
Jacqueline (Servalan) Pearce is introduced as brothel proprietor
Madame Deephole, purring exotically like Elke Sommer in Carry
On Behind. Not a single line is uttered during her scenes
with security agent Galileo Gamak (Mark J. Thompson) that
is not drenched with innuendo.
Also
joining the cast are Sarah Sutton (alias Doctor Who's
Nyssa) as Space Patrol Colonel Franklyn and one-time EastEnder
Peter Dean playing Padrioli Jadra, one of Maureen's fellow
passengers. Sutton provides a valuable straight foil amongst
so many overtly comic characters, although she does get a
few dry gags of her own. Dean (who previously guest-starred
alongside Sammie Winmill in the Mark J. Thompson-penned BBV
audio drama Only Human) will delight many a soap fan
as he reprises his East London accent. The surly Maureen (Alison
Taffs) provides apt company for Dean, as her character is
revealed to be an escapee from the East-end gutter.
Accompanying
Maureen and Jadra on their ill-fated flight is a very odd
character indeed: a camp space-travelling dentist called Teddy
(Mark J. Thompson again). With an unnaturally close friendship
with his ever-present ventriloquist's doll, Mr Pubus (a close
cousin of South Park's Mr Hat or Red Dwarf's
Mr Flibble) Teddy is as bizarre and disturbing a character
as any of the weirdos in The League of Gentlemen.
With
so much attention being paid toward the passengers of the
space cruiser, the main cast members of the previous instalment
- Keating, Nicholas Courtney, Mark Preston and Sammie Winmill
- are somewhat sidelined. Mydas and Cindy are unconscious
for much of the story, although Keating (sounding like a cross
between Leonard Rossiter's Rigsby and Kenny Everett) does
feature in a flashback to the whirlwind romance of Mydas and
Maureen. This sequence contains the best joke on the entire
CD, when Mydas suggests that the pair of them slip back to
his villa. "Yes," enthuses Maureen, "Your villa!"
Although
this is a comedy drama, the drama aspect of the equation has
not been overlooked, and genuine intrigue is generated by
the many and various plot strands that twist and turn like
twisty-turny things. It's a little early in the series to
expect these loose threads to make much cohesive sense, but
in the meantime the bawdy comedy should keep us amused.
Richard
McGinlay
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