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 2 OTHER LOST WORLDS The Lost World (UK miniseries) OTHER DINOSAUR SHOWS Primeval Terra Nova
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OUT OF THE BLUEWhen the airship equivalent of the Flying Dutchman crashes, Challenger, Roxton and Marguerite find themselves in a strange version of 1915, just as the airship is about to launch. There have been some very strange stories in this show, but few of them have been as intriguing as this trip through the looking glass, as three of the gang find themselves in some strange alternate reality, looking for a way to prevent themselves from having to live the last day of the airship over and over again. The pocket reality that they find themselves in is interesting, as are the roles that they have to play, though the arrival of Winston Churchill (not a good likeness) is almost as absurd as Marguerite's having had (going to have - you have to hate time travel) a situation with him. By contrast, Veronica's hunt of the man who caused all this trouble is positively prosaic. TopTHE TRAVELERSMarguerite falls in with a trio of bandits who seem out of time, but they are more than they seem and can offer her a way off the plateau. Will she take it? After the intriguing opener, this is a dull and rather uninspired episode in which a lot of the previous tropes of the show (people out of time, rogues who are more than they seem, promises of a way home) are all trotted out to very little effect. There is never any doubt as to which way Marguerite will go and so there is no tension to be had either. TopAN EYE FOR AN EYEAfter killing a Triceratops in a dinosaur graveyard, Roxton finds himself being hunted by an indestructible creature made up of the worst parts of himself. Will Snow gets a change for a change of pace by playing a silent, dark version of Roxton with almost no dialogue to play with and he makes a very good job of it. Sadly, the rest of the story is a little bit thin and both versions of Roxton seem to take enough of a pounding to kill a dozen dinosaurs, making it less than memorable. TopTRUE SPIRITThe ghost of Malone shows the group a way to bring him back, but something more deadly wants to come back first. Marguerite turns out to be a medium in this story, which at least goes in a different direction with its focus on ghosts and seances and ouija boards. The threat from the nasty ghost is disappointingly flat, but at least Malone is back from the spirit world and that thread is dispensed with. One question that the story does raise is just how many temples in caves can one dinosaur plateau possibly have? TopTHE KNIFEA knife that belonged to Jack the Ripper gives Malone visions of the past, but will it reveal the Ripper's true identity? Ah yes, the almost inevitable Jack the Ripper story. The character shows up in so many science fiction and fantasy shows that it comes as no surprise to find him here. At least the plot manages to posit a more interesting theory than many, which is not the same as meaning that it is any better than many others. The London scenes are fun and not least for allowing the main cast to play some new characters, but also for the accents, which are not necessarily funny for the right reasons. TopFIRE IN THE SKYThe group discover that Pierson-Rice, a man who mentored and then betrayed Roxton, is on the plateau and plans to use his hold over a tribe to take over the whole place. It's amazing how many people known to the group somehow end up on the plateau. It's the lazy way of creating personal peril even though it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Expecting sense from this show, however, seems to asking for a bit too much. The story has lots of failed escapes and the villain is too unbeatable for his own good. We all know how it's going to end and as soon as the meteors start falling we know how. TopDEAD MAN'S HILLRoxton is magically transported to the Wild West, where he faces off against the villainous Challenger and gunfighter Malone, with Marguerite and Veronica stuck in the middle. Why does this happen? It really doesn't matter because this western tale is about the most fun that the show has had in a while. It plays with all the tropes of the genre within the mythology of the show, but then plays everyone against type. Roxton remains the hero, but Challenger is the bullying bad guy, Malone is the excitable killer, Marguerite the helpless, but fiesty widow and Veronica the world-weary saloon owner. There are duels and hangings and shoot outs and it's all much more fun than it has any right to be and you can tell that the cast are having a blast making it. TopHOLLOW VICTORYThe balloon is sucked into an underground land ruled over by warriors who are scorned if they do not achieve their kills. Two such fight over the balloon and threaten the group's chances of getting back to the surface. Quite apart from the fact that the show is going underground again (though this does allow for some rather excellent settings to be used) this story is as dull as its lead villain. There are few surprises and Ned is required to fall in love almost instantly despite being in love with Veronica, something that is explained away by them 'always meaning a lot' to each other. If the show was to stop making the characters act stupidly just to fit the episode plot then it might be a lot better. TopA WITCH'S CALLINGTwo apprentice witches try to seduce Ned and Roxton from their search for the missing Veronica, whilst their mentor sets about destroying Challenger. There has been more than enough inexplicable events on the plateau for Challenger to have a more open mind about the subject of witches than he has here. Mind you, it is pretty fair of him to be sceptical considering the level of unbelievable ham acting that Jane Badler throws at him. The two would-be witches are just as bad and the dialogue they are given is overripe at best. Add to this the fact that Challenger is building a radar station out of the technology he can fashion in the jungle and it becomes clear very early on that this is going to be one of the worst episodes that the show has ever come up with, which is saying something. TopBROTHERS IN ARMSA deadly drug causes Ned to hallucinate a traumatic past event from World War I. Just when you decide to give up on THE LOST WORLD, it goes and produces an episode like this one. This is perhaps the most powerful episode that the show has ever produced and displays what might have been possible had it not been going for the least-demanding audience most of the time. The wartime scenes are excellently-produced on the TV budget and the plot that runs through these scenes is pleasingly brutal and unforgiving, making it a memorable episode indeed. For once, David Orth is given something to do in terms of acting and the trio of British soldiers that he is teamed up with provide some of the most real and interesting characters that we have ever seen on the plateau. If only the other episodes could have had even half of the quality of this one. True, the framing plot device makes very little sense. The drug takes so long to kill a person, but the antidote cures them instantly? Seems unlikely in the extreme. It also seems unlikely that the attacking tribe would choose to rely on such a rubbish poison in the first place. None of which matters a whit because the strength of the war scenes carries this to the top of the pile. ICE AGEA meteor crashes to Earth and brings with it a change of temperature. The mini ice age is much to liking of the aliens inhabiting the meteor who decide that they like our planet enough to take it. More aliens and more ridiculousness in the shape of the plan to freeze all of the planet to make it more like their home. The dinosaurs disappear and the vegetation is wiped out, but following the resolution it's all back in a couple of minutes. There is some nice banter between the principles, most especially Roxton and Marguerite, but nothing else to make it stand out. TopTHE END GAMERoxton is forced to undergo a series of tests by Death herself, who just happens to be a beautiful woman, in her quest to take his life or those of his friends. So, Death is a peevish woman who decides that not being able to take Roxton to date means that she has the right to take all his friends and keep them in a burning hell, though to be fair they only ever look mildly uncomfortable amongst the badly-matted flames consuming their souls (or not, as the case may be). The tests set for Roxton are mildly interesting (well, the second is surprising and the fourth involves some actual acting from Will Snow), but it all makes so little sense that none of that actually matters. Is this Death? Why should we care when the writers don't seem to. It might be, but then again, it might not. The god news is that Jennifer O'Dell is back as Veronica, though she might as well have not bothered. Where has she been? What adventures did she have? How did she survive? Nobody cares. She's just back because the plot needs her to be back, what with Ned off on walkabout. Which brings us to Rachel Blakely as Marguerite. She is given the most ridiculous scene in which the self-composed and selfish woman literally dissolves after being left alone for a few minutes. It's hardly believable, but after she's acted her way through it, it's even harder to believe. TopPHANTOMSVeronica follows piano music through a mystical mist and finds herself in a village in Germany a century before her own time and meets a driven composer with whom she falls instantly in love. Roxton and Marguerite also wander into the village and the quartet start to replay a deadly scenario. With Ned only a few days gone, Veronica fills the void with the first vaguely attractive man that she comes across. Ah, so much for true love. We could put it down to the influence of the lovers' tale that is being played out, but everyone else seems to be acting with free will, so why should she be the only one affected? It is nice to see both Rachel Blakely and Jennifer O'Dell dressed up for a change, but the story is hackneyed and ridiculous all at the same time. Of all the silliness that has happened on the plateau, this is some of the silliest. TopTHE SECRETA ninja assassin tracks down Marguerite, forcing her to reveal the secret of her purpose in funding the Challenger expedition to the plateau. Marguerite's backstory finally emerges and includes ninjas, shanghai gang lords, theft, treachery and unknown parentage. It's all rather fun in a pulp fashion, though the arrival of a ninja assassin is as farfetched as anything else that has taken place on the plateau to date. Surprisingly, only a couple of episodes after arriving back, Veronica finds a new reason to leave. TopFINNChallenger uses local energy fields to fashion a matter transporter, but the attempt to return to London delivers the three explorers in a post-apocalyptic far future. Challenger uses whatever he can fashion in the jungle and comes up with a time machine! There are times when this show gets beyond the limits of all ridiculousness. Once in the future, however, it settles down into a sub-MAD MAX chase sequence in which everyone gets caught by someone, everyone escapes and a new friend is found. There's more than a hint that Veronica isn't coming back in the introduction of Finn (Lara Cox), a pretty blonde fighter in a hot pants combo. If she's going to be a regular then what need is there of the jungle's female Tarzan? With Malone out of the picture, it's hard not to think that this show is coming to an end and everyone's looking for, and finding, other work. TopSUSPICIONA group of archaeologists release a demon that can transfer itself from body to body whilst it murders them all. Who is it in now? In the last scene of John Carpenter's THE THING, two men were left facing each other, knowing that one of them was an alien killing machine in disguise. This whole episode is like that as each move, each statement is examined for proof that someone is, or isn't, the demon. After a while, it gets a bit tedious, not least because it is obvious exactly where the demon is hiding. Exactly why a group of archaeologists would come to the plateau in the first place is open to question and the ending requires at least one person to act in a fashion that is contrary to his behaviour right up until that point, a familiar failing of this show. The spaceship effects are pretty good and the alien makeup is fine, if a bit obvious, but otherwise, it is an average episode. TopTHE IMPOSTERSThree demons swap places with Roxton, Challenger and Marguerite. One of the plans to use Challenger's notes to bring about the end of the world a century earlier, but Finn's not about to take that sitting down. All three principles disappear from this story for almost its entire length, handing the reins over to the newcomer (Lara Cox). This is further fuel to the fire that this will be the show's last season and people are becoming less and less available. That said, at least it feeds into a mini-series arc in which Finn and the future apocalypse are explained a bit. That aside, it's the usual running and jumping and capture and escape. It seems that the three principles are that necessary after all. TopTHE ELIXIRChallenger determines to end hunger by creating a substitute for food. He ends up drugging himself out of his mind and the battle between the two sides of his nature threatens to destroy him. Where would we be without scientists testing out their formulas on themselves without the proper precautions? There would be a lot fewer episodes of science fiction and fantasy shows, that's for sure, and this would be one of them. It's actually a nice change of pace from the usual 'visitors from elsewhere' schtick that has become the show's staple, but that's all that's nice about it. There is a string of repetitive close up, tilted angle shots of Peter McCauley's sweating face to show how he is poisoning himself and that's about it. Finn can easily take care of herself against the scientist and Marguerite and Roxton are off on another lovers' banter quest, so it's just one man ranting on about whether the importance of his quest for scientific answers was worth the loss of human companionship. Short answer - no. Move on. TopTAPESTRYDuring the Great War, some iridium meant for a project being run by Professor Challenger was stolen. Marguerite and Roxton were amongst the suspects. The survivor of a downed plane brings all of this back to them. There has been some complete nonsense going on in this show, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise to find that a downed pilot has been living only a few hundred yards away from the treehouse unnoticed for the past three years. That he has links to Challenger, Roxton, Marguerite and Malone just adds to the ridiculousness of the idea. That said, the flashbacks to the various interrogations are fun and the constant twist and double-twist in deciding exactly who was a traitor and who wasn't has a magnificence in its lunacy. TopLEGACYVeronica uses her mother's necklace to find out what happened to her parents all those years ago. A good deal about the plateau is revealed in this storyline. It is the source of life itself, a place where nature's planes intersect and great power rules. There are two great houses that battle over it, one for good and one for evil. Those that would protect the plateau are led by blonde warrior women... see where this is going? The Ouroborus storyline is concluded here and Veronica gets a little bit of closure, though not all of it in a good way. Sadly, the audience gets all of its information in a less than remarkable fashion as well. The flashback story is unremarkable, other than filling in the blanks in Veronica's past life, and the rest takes what has been set up and throws it away on a whim. There really ought to have been more to it than a bad guy with a cut on his face. TopTRAPPEDA natural gas explosion leaves Roxton and Marguerite trapped in a cave with the air running out and Challenger, their only hope, has lost his memory. After all this time on the plateau, the group has yet to learn that playing strange caves is a really, really bad idea. Roxton and Marguerite finally get around to declaring their undying love in the face of death, but we've been there so many times before that it really doesn't mean that much any more. Challenger's amnesiac routine is little more than comic relief, only it really isn't that comic. TopHEART OF THE STORMA new phenomenon leaves Roxton battling conquistadors, Finn being run over in the future, Challenger being dissected in the year 4,000, Marguerite being sacrificed by druids and Veronica holding salvation, or destruction in her hands. This season finale puts everyone in a life or death situation separately in an attempt to keep interest going into a fourth season. Veronica's destiny as the saviour of the plateau and Marguerite's as a druid witch queen/leader are at the forefront of this, but no explanation is given beyond the fact that the plateau is coing apart at the seams and only Veronica can save it. It's a nice set of cliffhangers, but there is a very definite sense of desperation about it and that 'To Be Continued' at the end holds less promise than it would like. Top |
