Mistral wrote:
Curious, I don't see Deathwatch as being very ensemble at all. Tarrant, the Jacket, and that annoying, misplaced clinch. I could cheerfully chuck Deathwatch from canon, were I not such a purist.
Ah, must spring to the defence of one of my favourites. The reason that I think it's a great ensemble piece is that it uses all the characters *in character* to drive the plot along.
Vila sets the whole thing off by wanting to go to the pub (and then actually, explicitly gets to be 'everyman' when he puts on the disc thing).
Tarrant's past provides the particular narrative for this episode, and he has to be the 'hero'.
Dayna's vendetta against Servie provides the plot mechanism whereby we get from the first half (Deeta vs Vinnie) to the second half (Del vs Vinnie); this is the best bit since in the other (almost) successful ensemble piece, 'Sarcophagus', Lee has to invent a personality 'quirk' for Dayna (the music) to fit her into the plot.
Cally's telepathy enables Tarrant to equal the playing field between him and the android.
Avon is masterminding the whole thing, and the clinch scene with Servie acts (subtextually) as a microcosm for the big picture of galactic politics, in the same way that the battle between the two champions acts (explicitly) as a microcosm for war between Teal and Vandor.
OK, so it's deeply formulaic in several respects (one of the cast playing his own relative, the fact that it's a western, the Bob Holmes style double-act who give us the plot exposition), but that's the point, isn't it, with formula television (which an ensemble drama series is, by definition)? But 'Deathwatch' is just so smooth, it's like Boucher's pen has been oiled.
Plus the sets are cool.
Una