Devon (Keir Dullea), Garth (Robin Ward) & Rachel (Gay Rowan) are captured and chained up then brought before dictatorial President Smith (Ed Aames) of biosphere colony Manchester - a polluted city environ sealed off from the rest of the ship. Convinced they are spies Smith orders his subordinate Trent (Patty Galloway) to torture them and find out who they really are in league with.
Devon asserts the fact that the course of the Ark - the massive spaceship they are all on, is headed for the heart of a sun unless they can stop it. Smith - still unsure how they got in, proposes they form a united front offers to help Devon facilitate the course change. Of course that will mean Devon will have to show Smith's people how they breached the door into Manchester.
Manchester - founded by the armament manufacturing specialists aboard the Ark had been sealed in for hundreds of years before Devon and his friends showed up. The crew of the Ark didn't trust them. Trent suggests Devon shouldn't either. The war-like paranoia of the colony and its leader could cause war throughout the Ark.
The cheap sets and cheesy attempts at special effects hit a new low at the beginning of this episode. We see a polluted cityscape that is obviously a miniature model made from pieces of scrap metal. How convincing is it when a building looks like an upside-down toaster or a cookie tin turned on it's side? The smoke and steam they funnelled through it couldn't mask what was really there. Did they honestly think that was going to fool anyone at all?
At very least the makers of the show tried to address the fact that audiences were not seeing very many people in each episode. The Ark is meant to be home to dozens of biosphere 'worlds' but we in the audience usually only see a handful of people in each episode from each biosphere who hint at what the biosphere 'world' they are from is like. As bad as it is the cityscape at very least shows us something that gives the illusion of civilization.
The wardrobe department also came up with some solid apparel appropriate to the staging. But the consistency of what Devon, Garth & Rachel were wearing was not explained. Most episodes had them wearing colonial 1800s frontier style costumes native to their home biosphere Cypress Corners.
Circuit of death had them in silver lame track-suits with no explanation why. Gallery of Fear showed them being given funky orange outfits to wear. They had every reason to change costumes between episodes but no reason to change back unless they found a dry-cleaners they didn't shown us.
Devon asserts the fact that the course of the Ark - the massive spaceship they are all on, is headed for the heart of a sun unless they can stop it. Smith - still unsure how they got in, proposes they form a united front offers to help Devon facilitate the course change. Of course that will mean Devon will have to show Smith's people how they breached the door into Manchester.
Manchester - founded by the armament manufacturing specialists aboard the Ark had been sealed in for hundreds of years before Devon and his friends showed up. The crew of the Ark didn't trust them. Trent suggests Devon shouldn't either. The war-like paranoia of the colony and its leader could cause war throughout the Ark.
The cheap sets and cheesy attempts at special effects hit a new low at the beginning of this episode. We see a polluted cityscape that is obviously a miniature model made from pieces of scrap metal. How convincing is it when a building looks like an upside-down toaster or a cookie tin turned on it's side? The smoke and steam they funnelled through it couldn't mask what was really there. Did they honestly think that was going to fool anyone at all?
At very least the makers of the show tried to address the fact that audiences were not seeing very many people in each episode. The Ark is meant to be home to dozens of biosphere 'worlds' but we in the audience usually only see a handful of people in each episode from each biosphere who hint at what the biosphere 'world' they are from is like. As bad as it is the cityscape at very least shows us something that gives the illusion of civilization.
The wardrobe department also came up with some solid apparel appropriate to the staging. But the consistency of what Devon, Garth & Rachel were wearing was not explained. Most episodes had them wearing colonial 1800s frontier style costumes native to their home biosphere Cypress Corners.
Circuit of death had them in silver lame track-suits with no explanation why. Gallery of Fear showed them being given funky orange outfits to wear. They had every reason to change costumes between episodes but no reason to change back unless they found a dry-cleaners they didn't shown us.