Discussion Post for 4.04 - Stardrive - General
This is the general discussion post for the episode 4.04 - Stardrive. Spoilers for the whole series are allowed here. ( Summary )
We had a hearty cry of "exposition alerts!" on learning why we need a new Stardrive *and this has never been mentioned before.*
Also why does Avon spend the early part of the episode with one foot on a chair, hero stance akimbo?
And the first aid box at the front of the deck is BLOODY MASSIVE.
I'm conflicted by Vila; cunning, and cowardly. So charming and offensive at the same time. He's more useless than usual when they go down to the planet. But Tarrant and Avon sending him down blind is plain shitty. Just another example of their characterisation - well, Tarrant especially - fluctuating wildly week to week. IS there some debate on wheher Avon (so far a bit rubbish with women) is pretending to be more badass than he is in order to impress Soolin? Misguidedly, obviously. She's going to recognise bluster a mile off. But is the entirety of season 4 about Avon showing off badly to impress a girl he likes but doesn't have the sophistication to engage with properly?
Also, I don't know why Tarrant needs to stand beside Avon when he's doing cavity wall insulation on the ship walls.
In S4 recycling, I note the sofas the space rats are sitting on are familiar - I think the ones in chambers from the trial episode wayyy back at the beginning, I remember lawyers having them!
The Space Rats are broadly ridiculous. I think they were going for clockwork orange and it hasn't worked at all - there's a lack of sophistication in the way they are drawn. I'm not sure the rat who wants drives to shoot down the Federation adds anything to the plot.
Question: if Plaxton hadn't spent 10 seconds staring out the window vapidly at ships, would she be alive today?
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You're right that he seems unusually inept down on the planet. I wonder if it could be another instance of how sometimes having company (i.e. Dayna in this case) actually seems to make him less competent and more fretful in dangerous situations than when he is on his own - perhaps because he either relies to heavily on the other person or subconsciously assimilates their judgement of him? (or, well, inconsistent characterisation, obviously. But trying to translate that into Watsonian explanations...)
But is the entirety of season 4 about Avon showing off badly to impress a girl he likes
Ha! It certainly looks like it often enough... But my guess would be that it's a more generalised case of Avon trying very hard to be something that he is not (Fearless Leader, basically) and having only very vague ideas about what that thing actually looks like ...
Question: if Plaxton hadn't spent 10 seconds staring out the window vapidly at ships, would she be alive today?
For a moment I thought she was waiting for them to come into focus in order for them to get hit by the, um, photonic rocket exhaust (eh, whatever) as she connected the drive, but then, there was no evidence in the form of melted ships, so... *shrug*
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Vila is much more on form on the ship, he's got ideas and ways to minimise his own risk from those ideas!
I couldn't work out Paxton staring into space at the end either. I wondered if we were supposed to think she suspected something was up. Or maybe she'd just had a sudden moment of "Did I really connect those in the right order".
In any case she must have been racing team pit crew as well as scientist to get the engine changed that fast - I can't swap out the tiny 2-stroke on the microlight in less than two hours with all three of us working on it..
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