Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's |
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Challenger - Peter McCauley Roxton - Will Snow Veronica - Jennifer O'Dell Marguerite - Rachel Blakely Malone - David Orth 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 OTHER LOST WORLDS The Lost World (UK miniseries) OTHER DINOSAUR SHOWS Primeval Terra Nova
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ALL OR NOTHINGMarguerite and Veronica go in search of the lost men, but as the survivors come together, they are threatened by both men and monsters. This opening episode of the show's second season throws everything at the screen in an attempt to be bigger, bolder and better than before. It certainly has more going on, but that doesn't necessarily make things better. The storyline is episodic and serves mainly to showcase improved creature effects (pterodactyls and sea monsters), more action and less sense. The creatures are certainly more impressive than before, though the quality of the effects varies dramatically from appearance to appearance. They are certainly better than the writing, which comes up with little in terms of plot or dialogue to impress. TopAMAZONSThe man aid a woman in distress and Challenger is injured. A tribe of women warriors, closely resembling Amazons, offer to save Challenger, but are they really as friendly to men as they seem? If there is even a single surprise in this episode then it lies in Margeurite getting all dressed up in Veronica-style warrior woman garb. The plot is predictable from start to finish and deeply unconvincing. The script does little to improve matters and the humour is too juvenile for words. There are some nice action moments, all swordplay, and lots of pretty ladies to look at, but that's pretty much it. TopTOURIST SEASONA strange storm brings a flying machine from the year 2000 to the plateau. As the family of tourists inside bicker and fight, Marguerite looks for a way to use the machine to get off the plateau. The show has done people from the future already, but having them be pretty ordinary types from present day is a nice twist. Challenger's wonder at the simplest of technological toys and his dismay at the news that they are all forgotten in the future can't make up for the otherwise predictable story that relies on there happening to be a bunch of zealots nearby who can decide they want to worship the helicopter at all costs. Roxton having to deal with the attentions a confident woman from the future provides the best moments, though coming so soon after the Amazon's it is the show repeating itself. TopSTONE COLDThe group find themselves replaying a deadly game in a mysterious castle with living gargoyles. There have been some outlandish plots in the show to date and this one stands up proudly with the most ridiculous. The living gargoyles are actually quite impressive, suggesting advances in technology or a bigger effects budget, but the rest is pure nonsense and has little to no point. TopDIVINE RIGHTRoxton rides a horse and finds himself king of a small tribe. The only catch is that he has to face off against a giant dragon. Considering the plots and creatures that have appeared on the show to date, it is rather amusing that the characters are all so astonished at the appearance of a dinosaur-like dragon as though that was somehow beyond silly. In fact, the stuff leading up to the dragon's appearance is stultifyingly dull. The bad guy is so obvious that everyone ought ot be able to see it, but that's the level the show is acting at. TopSKIN DEEPA cave contains a light that gives skeletons the power to mimic humans. Exactly why remains something of a mystery. Marguerite's death in this episode comes as something of a shock since there is no way of bringing her back from it. When it is revealed a short time later that it wasn't really her, the audience feels cheated. The skeleton effects are the only reason for this episode to exist. The story is contrived around that. As a result, the shock tactics are wasted on a plot that makes very little sense. TopLONDON CALLINGA way off the plateau is found and everyone leaves, bar Veronica. Back in London, the group starts to crumble and the dinosaur egg that Challenger brought back hatches. This is a clever and fun episode in the way that it depicts the return to London. It all seems a bit too easy and obvious at first and there is a reason for that, a rather disappointingly mundane reason as it turns out. The idea of people dying in their dreams and in real life and of one person entering a dream to save another are genre staples that have been treated more originally than they are here, but the script is fun and the dream scenario spins out of control in a fun way. It's great to see the characters acting and reacting in a new setting and being not quite their true selves. Yes, we've seen it all before, and better, but it's the most fun that the show has been this season. TopTHE PRISONERVeronica is tricked by a shapeshifter into releasing a giant from his eternal imprisonment. The only chance to save the world from his domination is for Marguerite to seduce him down to size. Women are often the undoing of powerful men and a woman's sexuality is often her most potent weapon. At least that is the message behind this story. Still, it did give Rachel Blakely a chance to really pour on the seduction, even though it was so obvious what she was doing that the giant had to be incredibly stupid of incredibly horny to fall for it. The 'meanwhile back at the ranch' story of Summerlee and Veronica discovering a baby being chased after by ape people is more tedious right up until the point where it pulls the rug out from everyone with a surprising revelation. TopTHE GAMESTribune the Lizardman comes to the treehouse begging for help. A female has taken over the race and he must unseat her. Unfortunately, he and Roxton are captured and have to fight together in the arena whilst Malone pretends to be able to make gunpowder. Tribune is the most fun character that the show has produced, so delightfully duplicitous is he and he certainly enlivens this particular tale. Quite apart for the chance to ogle Roxton without his shirt on for a while (making a change from Veronica's weekly displays), there is some fight action and Marguerite being almost as sneaky as the lizards. TopTHE SOURCEThe group meets a woman who claims to have found the fountain of youth. Unfortunately, her supply of its water is running out and she needs help to get back to the source. You would have thought by now that the gang would have learned never to trust any new person that they meet. Ana might be beautiful, but she isn't telling the truth and is only leading them all into danger. Being the search for the fountain of youth, the episode has some points to make about how power, especially in women, can be linked to their youth and their beauty. None of this is memorable or makes any real impact. TopTROPHIESA group of hunters who claim to have come in search of the expedition are welcomed by all but Veronica, who suspects their real motives, and Marguerite, who seems to have a past history with the leader. When someone has saved your life as many times as Veronica has, then you listen to her when she says not to trust someone. That wouldn't help the plot, of course, and so it's ignored. What follows is a game of cat and mouse between the vicious, but charming leader of the villains and Marguerite. They are each as sneaky and dangerous as the other, but is Marguerite cold-blooded enough to sacrifice her friends in order to survive? This is actually a thriller plot that could be set anywhere, but just happens to be set in the jungle. The similarities between Marguerite and the bad guy make it more interesting and the result never feels quite as predictable as it must inevitably be. For once, the plot actually is as strong as the likeability of the cast. TopVOODOO QUEENRoxton is seduced by a beautiful woman who charms all the men and then controls Roxton through a voodoo doll that she has made of him. In her village, she has a whole army of zombies ready to take over the plateau. Is there any of the gang that hasn't been taken over by someone's magic? Challenger perhaps. Nobody thinks that the men's reaction is not natural despite all that has gone before and the setup with the Queen and her army seems rather ridiculous. TopTHE GUARDIANThe group find themselves trapped in a village of young people where one person every day must be sacrificed to a giant man-eating plant. It's not exactly THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS. The plant here has only one power over the village and that is its ability to release a poisonous smoke wherever it wants. How it can do this is never explained. Nobody ever thinks to get everyone together and take a bunch of axes to it, though, until right at the very end. The musings on the link between responsibility and sacrifice are lost in the nonsense. TopUNDER PRESSUREMarguerite and Veronica are drawn to a man they come across, until they learn that he is a troll from an underground realm. A scientist from Challenger's past is working with the trolls to give them the ultimate power they need to rise above the ground. This is one confused episode! Taking liberally from JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, the story has a race of underground dwellers who are living rock monsters, but have the ability to transform themselves into the semblance of humans and almost hypnotise human females. This, apparently isn't enough for them to be able to take over the world, so they are working with a scientist who just happens to be a friend of Challenger's to master nuclear power. As if they need it. They do have one weakness, though, and that is water. Which makes their decision to set up camp right alongside a major underground sea rather bizarre. The episode is really about Challenger's seduction by the chance to make scientific discoveries far beyond him and to change the course of human knowledge. Everyone has their price and this, it seems, is his. Or not, since the plot is pretty predictable from there on in. TopTHE OUTLAWThe group pass through a cave in the mountains to find themselves in a village from the past. There, a female outlaw is fighting against the owner of the mines and Marguerite decides to lend a hand. There are only so many times that someone can escape from captivity before someone should get the idea that they haven't quite got the hang of the locking people up just yet. The constant round of captures and escapes makes this one of the least interesting stories in a while. The BRIGADOON element, whereby a crystal deposit opens up the access only once a year, and always to somewhere else doesn't liven things up too much either. TopQUALITY OF MERCYThe group is faced with its strangest foes yet, aliens who have created a race of androids, androids who are starting to feel real emotions. It was only a matter of time before aliens showed up on the plateau, but it is a shame that the story should so shamelessly steal from other places. The most obvious inspiration is IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE with its crashlanded aliens who need an emotionless slave workforce to fix their damaged spaceship, but then there's the emotional robots, a staple of science fiction since FRANKENSTEIN. There's plenty of running and jumping, but the Victorian adventurers are outmatched from the beginning and so are almost observers to the fates of the participants, having to rely on their ability to reason and argue, rather than just shoot things. The spaceship effects are pretty good and the alien makeup is fine, if a bit obvious, but otherwise, it is an average episode. TopMARK OF THE BEASTChasing a thieving monkey, Marguerite comes upon an amulet that soon starts them on transformations into their inner animals. Challenger's a goat, Marguerite's a snake and Roxton's a wolf. All of these seem pretty reasonable and there is a certain amount of fun in the dialogue between them as they slowly devolve into these animals, but Malone as an eagle seems a bit of a stretch, especially as the feathers that first appear on him are more like duck feathers. Quite apart from that, it's all nonsense and well will these people learn not to mess with other people's places and stuff? TopSURVIVORSMarguerite is injured in a cave temple and meets a dead woman from her past. Challenger is also injured and meets a man who died before the expedition began. Who are these people and what relationship do they have with the three indestructible guardians of the cave? The souls of criminals locked away in eternal imprisonment, reborn in the shape of people from our heroes' minds? Is there no old and overdone science fiction trope that this show will not mine? The again, the characters seem intent on making the same mistake time and time again. It's a temple people - stay out! Just another average, unmemorable outing. TopTHE PIRATE'S CURSERoxton and Marguerite find a pirate's treasure at the bottom of a pit. Challenger and Malone find some pirates who want the treasure. Pirates? Perhaps if they are the Keystone Pirates. The episode doesn't know whether it wants to play the bad guys as straight evildoers or light comic relief, which undermines the whole thing and leaves it as a series of witless runarounds. TopTHE VISITORAn old flame of Veronica's shows up and wants to get it on with her, but he is accompanied by some strange wolf creatures. Malone is slashed and starts to turn into one himself. Werewolves. It's pick a tribe of people or a kind of mythological creature and throw a plot at it. There isn't a lot of plot here. It takes everyone an incredibly long time to figure out that it's werewolves and neither the threat to Malone or Veronica are convincing for a minute. At least the werewolf changes are OK. TopA MAN OF VISIONVisions of Summerlee come to the group and he seems to be beckoning them to some place, a place that might risk the life of one of them. This is almost the 'flashback', let's make an episode up of old bits because it's cheaper than filming new bits episode. The visions of Summerlee are all old clips that don't always match up to what is being said of them and the reasons for them appearing at all remain unclear. Whilst Roxton and Marguerite do show signs of developments in their relationship, Malone's character is once again revealed as one that the writers don't really know what to do with. TopINTO THE FIREAn airship lands on the plateau, badly damaged and with a strangely evasive captain. At the same time, Malone disappears. Is this the way off the plateau that the group has been looking for. Considering how many times the strangers that the group have encountered have turned out to be untrustworthy rogues, it is ridiculous the way that Marguerite falls for the line that the airman spins her. Roxton's overreaciton is equally not plausible. The characters are twisted in order to fit into the tortuous requirements of the plot. There's a nice concept at the heart of it, and it leads to a hell of a cliffhanger, but the plot is laboured and stretched more thinly than it deserves. Top |
