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