Mercury Falling

[Serena Lewis]

Didn't particularly like this one, on the first few (hundred) viewings. Now I've watched it again, I can't really see why I didn't like it. Okay, I'll be honest, the lack of Green did put me off it slightly (I'm just like that...)

Pros

1. Launching. Beautifully done, all that smoke and stuff...
2. Scarlet. I'm not that bigger fan of Scarlet usually, but in this episode, to me, he's looking kind of...lush, with that new hair-do...
3. The vidicom. Well done.
4. Kowpalski or whatever the heck her name was. She made me laugh, especially with that 'I'd never have guessed' line. Also, I liked her because she seemed a little larger than the other women in the series. Not that I really have anything against thin people, but it's a relief to see someone who's not stick thin for once! That said, Green's pretty curvy and a regular character. Good!
5. The bullets through the door when Black shoots it. Cool.
6. The brief hand holding between Adam and Destiny. Nothing going on between them, we know, I just thought it was awfully symbolic to have the hands silhouetted against the Earth.

Cons

1. Scarlets rather queer running when he's been half blown-up by Black. That might explain it though...
2. Scarlet showing off on those satellite disk things. It was definitely impressive, and good animation, but he was just doing it for the sake of doing it. Swinging around like a hyperactive monkey.
3. Blue's Speech. Drone drone drone. It was good in a way because it sort of makes you think, but it is a bit sickly.
4. Missing Black in the desert. He was buried in the sand that's all! Get an eye test, Scarlet!

Bloopers

1. Bald Harmony is back!

Little Things

1. The names on the space suits. 'Svenson' and 'Giraudoux'. Blues shows up a lot clearer than Destinys because it's written in Blue...
2. The little bit of graffiti in 'Prosperity'. The sign says 'Welcome to Prosperity. Population: 150', then the '15' of '150' have been crossed out to read '0'! I liked that.
3. Blue is messing with his fingernails in the shuttle. Heehee…

Rating: 7/10

xx

[shadokp]

The Story - I have always liked this one mainly for the visuals. The story is pretty good and simple although I still find it odd that Blue and Destiny accept their fate and should be at least seen tearing apart the pilot room in an attempt to gain control or escape. Where to Kopalski find a brief case that looked exactly like the one that was suppossed to have the diamonds in it? Love the Fireball XL5 like launch and the destruction of the radar dish - I remembered cheering as this was a very Anderson like ending - blow it up!!

The Animation - All the space stuff with Earth as a backdrop are beautiful. The destruction of the dish as it breaks apart and comes toppling toward the Rhino is great detail.

Other Points - The action scenes with Scarlet and Black are all great in this one. Love the shooting and diving out the door by Black. The humor level is pretty good in this one.

The Ongoing Tally

Someone falling off ledge or cliff - 2 (Kopalski, Black)

On screen Death Count - 1 (Kopalski)

This is actually my favorite so far of this new viewing. Oh and I had the 5.1 Surround going and what a great job the production did with the sound. I could feel the Falcon's flying past me toward the end.

KP

[James. C]

This is the episode that really got me going on NCS during the first viewing And nice to see Captain Grey getting a few lines.

[Father Unwin]

A fast paced episode with a really good plot. Having said that, it would have had much more impact if we had seen screaming crowds, breaking news bulletins and the President telling people not to panic. After all, this did not start out as a Mysteron attack.

This time around I want to focus on the superb motion capture scenes that took place on the satellite dish. It was just mesmerising to see Captain Black crouched down tapping the keys on the laptop - the posture, weight distribution and every mannerism was perfect.

I loved it the way Scarlet knocked out Black the first time around and yet, just as Black fell, he still managed to break his fall with his hands. I guess this was a natural reaction of the motion capture artist to protect himself. For me, this kind of motion capture and the subsequent transfer to CGI characters was the greatest achievement of the whole series.

Plot Accelerators. Well, there was nothing subtle about Conrad's investigations. It certainly gave me a thrill when Kopalski mentioned the 'other guy' as being a 'Captain Black'. It ramped up the action with Black's terrific escape by shooting through the door.

It seemed to me that Scarlet and Black still had some mutual affection! After all, Scarlet seemed to shoot downwards when Black escaped from the Records Room and Black never aimed at Scarlet with his pump action gun but blew up the car instead so that the blast would delay him.

A second, really obvious plot accelerator was that Kopalski gave Scarlet full details of how she had hacked into the systems with her laptop and also told him where she had hidden it. While still 'herself' she was even going to give him the secret access codes.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would say that Kopalski didn't realise at first that she had been taken over by the Mysterons and was exercising her own will. This was very similar to the behaviour of Conrad in Dominion and in that episode the Mysterons actually said that Black, himself, believed he was free of Mysteron control.

[gojohnniegogo]

Hmm.. not one of my particular favourites. My first question being what was behind the decision of Blue & Destiny being sent up there? I wasnt a big XL5 fan, but seeing that launch was cool enough!

Excellent MC for the fight scene on the dishes, definitely my favourite part in the episode. And a bonus to see Black back in uniform! I liked the moment between Blue & Destiny almost accepting their fate (even if it is somewhat out of character with Blue's "if I'm gonna go down fighting" line in previous ep.) And no, I didnt like the pole-hopping Scarlet did, that was just plain showing off!

[Skybase Girl]

Sorry it's taken me a while to comment on this one. I liked it the first time and liked it even more this time around. The visuals were stunning and the story pretty good, although as everyone has noticed, there were the usual loopholes.

I agree that the purpose for the space shuttle being up there in the first place didn't seem to warrant all the secrecy. In any case, I couldn't imagine Spectrum would have had the co-operation of the ISA in the way they did if they hadn't been kept informed. Unless, of course, they'd been fed some ruse that the viewer wasn't told about !

Blue's corny " Uncle Sam" stuff was a bit tedious, but he seemed to work well with Destiny. I noticed though, that she made a comment about what happened to the shuttle happened to her falcon. That took place in "Circles of Doom", which hadn't been broadcast at the time and also appears later in our running order. Perhaps this is the first of the time-frame loopholes !

Black, as usual, was first class, and yes, perhaps there is some kind of Gentleman's Agreement between him and Scarlet as to the damage they're willing to inflict on each other. Neither really seems interested in bumping the other off !

The scene on the satellite dish was graphically very clever, but from a plot point of view, was definitely Scarlet showing off- although there wasn't really anybody else there to appreciate it !

It's a bit worrying that when the chips are down, Colonel White seems very ready to sacrifice his staff. Harmony's half-hearted "Sorry", as she prepared to blast her friends into oblivion seemed to re-inforce this. Even Destiny and Blue were quite cheerfully resigned to their fates, which is taking their duty to serve a bit too far.

It's a pity that Scarlet's so-called sixth sense seems to desert him around Mysteronised women. If it hadn't, they could have saved a lot of time and effort !

[Serena Lewis]

Actually, Skybase Girl, Destiny also lost control of her falcon in IoD Pt 1, so she could be referring to that, which would, of course, have been shown at that point in time.

xx