Thursday, January 03, 2008

CULT TV BLOGGING: Star Maidens: "Nemesis"

The second episode of the 1970s war-of-the-sexes space opera Star Maidens opens with the thought: "space holds no fury like a female planet scorned." This comment drew a roar of laughter from my dearest Kathryn, but no matter.

This story involves the Medusan pursuit ship Nemesis following Adam and Shem to Earth. The two escaped "domestics" have fled their space-age parachute (a giant bubble of sorts) and head across the English countryside looking for food. The men are happy to be "free at last," (they actually speak those famous words...) and walking around on a world where no woman can "command them." They soon encounter a cow pasture and see cows grazing...so decide to eat the grass too. This doesn't speak well of their intelligence, I think. Later, Adam and Shem happen across a farm and find apples to eat, but not before a little Earth girl chases them off the grounds. They flee the property by jumping over a tall brick wall in a single bound, pointing to the fact that Medusa and Earth have different gravity. Or something.

The women from Medusa - Fulvia and Octavia - land on Earth and meet with Liz and Professor Evans. They demand the return of Adam and Shem, and bark orders at the local police chief. When he tries to explain what is happening, Octavia curtly tells him to "be quiet." In the same sequence, Octavia utilizes superior Medusan weaponry to immobilize another police officer. Their weaponry is a kind of "paralysis" or "freeze ray," which is the equivalent of turning a person to stone and thus the perfect weapon for a citizen of Medusa, I guess.

More genuinely humorous is the device that Fulvia uses to track down Adam. It's called a "man finder" (I'm not joking...) and it hunts down a man by his "scent." The theory being that each man has his own specific scent. I swear, I'm not making any of this up.

The episode culminates with Adam and Shem riding around dirt roads in a computer-controlled police car, and sending the Earthbound police on a merry chase. It all happens to the tune of a groovy seventies musical score. It's like Doctor Who meets Smokey and the Bandit.

It's pretty clear from this second installment of the series that Star Maidens has descended into outright camp in record time. It may not be intentional, but something in the presentation of "Nemesis" is skewed towards the absurd and laughable. I could mention again the moment wherein the none-too-bright man-folk from Medusa sample grass along with generous cows. Or the moment wherein the Nemesis ship lands in a wide-open field, two gorgeous alien women disembark and none of the gathered earth people bat an eye, gasp, or react with surprise or shock. Nope. A conversation immediately begins about the Medusans wanting their men back. It's like a conversation officials from two countries might have over the subject of extradition. But officials from two planets?

And the scene in which the caped, futuristic women from Medusa enter a police station and start issuing orders...it's more of the same. It plays as comedy, and it's difficult to tell if it is intentional or not.

Still, since (according to Fulvia in this episode...) "most of outer space is very boring," I guess I can be grateful that Star Maidens is as entertaining as it is.

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