Former resistance leader Roj Blake witnesses a massacre and is subsequently framed for a series of fictional crimes by the totalitarian Federation.Former resistance leader Roj Blake witnesses a massacre and is subsequently framed for a series of fictional crimes by the totalitarian Federation.Former resistance leader Roj Blake witnesses a massacre and is subsequently framed for a series of fictional crimes by the totalitarian Federation.
- Prisoner
- (uncredited)
- Citizen
- (uncredited)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the only episode of the series in which Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon) does not appear.
- GoofsBlake shouldn't have been found guilty of the allegations of abusing children. When the federation faked the evidence, they took the children out of school and processed them the same day. Since the federation didn't decide to do this until after Blake was in custody, it had to have taken place when he was held in jail, and the lawyers confirmed that the dates the children weren't in school were the dates the alleged incidents took place.
- Quotes
[Blake is under treatment after witnessing a massacre]
Dr. Havant: Reality is a dangerous concept. Each one of us interprets it in a slightly different way. Every sense impression is filtered by the brain and altered, sometimes just a little, sometimes completely, to fit our individual model of what the world is about. If that model should be challenged...
Blake: [chanting over and over to himself] I am *not* insane. I am *not* insane...
Dr. Havant: No. You must put that thought completely out of your mind. You've had a shock.
Blake: [stops chanting] Yes.
Dr. Havant: We must work together to uncover what that shock was. I'm going to prescribe a mild sedative ...
Blake: No drugs!
Dr. Havant: A mild sedative to help you to sleep. You must rest.
Blake: No! No drugs.
Dr. Havant: All right, no drugs. Now try not to think an more. Don't worry, we'll get it sorted out.
Terry Nation has created one of the most terrifying of possible tyrannical futures, and explicated its suffocating fearfulness very effectiveness: this Administration has the will and ability to massacre groups of people and repeatedly brainwash individuals in layers and layers of deception to hold on to control. Starting with the establishment of a group of rebels who are trying to remind our protagonist of his revolutionary past and who are then murdered en masse is at once a fascinating way of drawing readers into the plot and a devastating set piece that establishes the brutality of what the revolutionaries are fighting. Not to mention the upsetting perversions of justice we witness when people who find bits of truth discover that no one else is interested in what the truth is.
The decision to begin the story of the series somewhat in media res -- with much of the background about how the characters have been involved in the past -- seems to be a good one. It allows a big plot to hit the ground running and build tension as more details are revealed.
Gareth Thomas immediately establishes himself with a very strong performance as Blake, by turns confused, frightened, and enraged. The direction as well is extremely well done. While the dialogue is excellent, this allows the story to be told almost entirely visually for many sequences, and there are plenty of effective psychologically disorienting shots. Perhaps best, direction-wise, is the self-conscious use of several repeated shots -- Blake's mouth and eye, him being brainwashed, and him in a cell, for instance -- which eventually come to function like an affecting leitmotif.
Then there's the end -- one of the few instances where a single dramatic final line out of the blue has done its job and pulled of a cliffhanger so nicely. This episode did its job: without question I'll be coming back for more of the series.
- hte-trasme
- Jul 11, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Monkton Farleigh Ministry of Defence Tunnels, Corsham, Wiltshire, England, UK(Rebel meeting place/Blake's nightmare flashback)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro