indeed of a very primitive kind, unsullied by any problematic complications
like cultural awareness, ideological consciousness or a sense of
historicity.
Meegat has a minor problem that needs sorting out, and since it permits Avon
and his chums a chance to flaunt their technological knowhow (they come from
civilisation, after all) this must obviously take precedence over other
matter (like, say, rescuing Jenna). Fortunately it doesn't take too long,
because decent chaps like these are hardly going to be flummoxed by a stack
of antique hardware. The fact that it's hardware of any kind is way beyond
Meegat's comprehension, because she's primitive, and primitive people have
no concept for such things. Nor do they feel any compulsion to try and
understand what's going on, even if it's intimately tied up with their
entire purpose in life.
And then it's off to rescue Jenna, or at least see if there's anything left
of her (they could be cannibals, you know).
Meanwhile, Blake and Cally are up against a genuinely serious adversary.
This is Ensor, who is of a bit of a decent chap himself, just a bit
misguided. But he's technologically savvy (insisting that the course to
Aristo is confirmed by the ship's computer, putting the energiser on his gun
to automatic) and hence a genuine threat. Cephlon's brutish thugs might go
down with a single whack of a big stick (and they don't stand up too well to
fisticuffs either), but Blake and Cally are essentially helpless against one
of their own kind. Only the toll of his injuries saves them.
What we have here, then, is a pernicious piece of colonialist nostalgia,
wistfully dreaming of the good old days when the sun never set on the
Empire. It is glib propaganda for armchair adventurers who need to be
reassured that civilisation amounts to supremacy and that technological
sophistication is the only kind worth a damn. Ultimately, it endorses a
self-granted mandate to invade the lives of so-called inferior peoples,
prove one's superiority and promptly walk out again without care or
consideration for the consequences.
If you enjoyed this episode, may I also recommend Triumph of the Will and
Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. They should be right up your street.
*
Whew. Didn't know I still had it in me...
Neil