Lords of Misrule
(US title: Against the Rules)
pilot: Deus ex Machina
VHS recording
Act 1
Black fades back up to space once again; the quasi-familiar red-orange image of a planet: Mars.
Detail: a richer, rusty belt of craters and scars about the equator, darkly shadowed criss-crossing lines that were once mistakenly called canals, wisps of frozen icy poles.
Two moons appear near the top of the picture: Phobos and Deimos, no more than tumbling rocks really, probably larger than life size.
Space is silent, so incidental music teases us with a brassy mock-heroic theme.
Zoom in on a point above the planet in a series of jump cuts, each a magnification of the last, revealing a space station in orbit, then expanding it into visibility; a deliberate echo of the cold open.
Caption: Helium Shipyard – Mars Orbit.
Detail: the space station, or space dockyard, is a five-armed structure, each of the arms a roughly square tube meeting at a central hub, starfish-like and thus another echo of Terminal Haven, but regular and metallic, human in form.
Cut to…
A woman is leading four other people, three more women and one man, in a half-lit companionway.
The woman in the lead has a blonde bubble-perm – in fact a wig, over her natural short dark bob, substantially altering her appearance – frizzed up like a halo about her head. She wears a very white, very short dress that reveals a lot of her skin. She looks fearful, determined, resolute – the air of an undercover agent, or a resistance fighter, which in a way she is.
Three of the others wear cream-beige flight suits: one woman, tall, elegant, black; one man, surly, alert, Mediterranean; behind them, a younger woman, holding back, her hair covering her face. When she looks up, we see she is Peta Quinn.
Yes, the same Peta Quinn. What, you may ask, is she doing here? Well, imagine my surprise when Monkfish… but I get ahead of myself.
The other woman wears a flight suit in a slightly different style: faded yellow, patched, it looks natural on her, and lived in. She is small, white-skinned but heavily tanned, short dark hair; when she speaks her accent is antipodean.
"I said this was never gonna work!"
"And I told you we have a plan," the tall woman replies calmly.
Cut to…
A meeting room.
Detail: frosted glass walls make a space around a conference table, inset with an illuminated flatscreen currently displaying an image of the Helium dockyard.
The people from the opening scene are sat around the table. The tall black woman and Peta Quinn are on one side, dressed here in civilian business suits; the man and the smaller white woman are on the other, he is in fatigues, she is wearing her yellow flight suit, but without the jacket.
Standing at the head of the table is a man in a skullcap and robe, like a religious.
Caption: "forty-eight hours earlier."
"Introductions, I think," says the man. "You know me as Mr Loong. I represent certain interests and have been asked to facilitate this meeting.
"Dr Gray," he indicates the black woman, "is a professor in the engineering department here at the Void University; Peta Quinn is a student in the computer sciences department. They have a particular proposal to make.
"Mr Shayde, here," now Loong gestures to the man, "is a professional with a number of shall we say qualified personnel on his payroll..."
"I know a few guys," says Shayde.
"…and Captain Moon owns and runs an independent space shuttle."
"G'day," says Moon.
"And," Loong continues, "the interests I represent have agreed to bankroll – quite substantially – Mr Shayde and the Captain's services. So, Dr Gray, would you introduce your proposal."
He steps back to stand unobtrusively, as she unfolds gracefully from her chair.
"For fifty years," she says, her voice deep, classy, English, "the human race has been subject to the Argai Protectorate, limited by their laws, restricted to our own system of Earth and Moon, or indentured service on Argai ships and colony worlds. Our freedoms have been unnaturally curtailed, and the time for liberation…"
"Lady," interrupts Moon, "I ain't that interested in yer politics."
Gray's messianic look fades and she regards the captain wryly.
"Very well then, here's what you don't know: five years ago, the Order granted permission in secret for the construction by and for humans of a spaceship. That ship, the D1, named the 'Valiant', has now been built, built here…" she points to the image on the table "…at a space station in orbit above the planet Mars."
"In three days, the 'Valient' is due to be launched at a ceremony in the presence of the Imperial Argai legate and representatives of the appointed Earth governing council.
"Before then, we intend to steal it."
Shayde and Moon exchange sceptical looks.
"It ain't gonna work," says Moon, bluntly.
"It can be done."
"OK," says Shayde, "one question: how?"
"A project on this scale cannot be entirely secret. My department is the one of the foremost in space engineering. I have connections, through the department, to people on the project. And I have… obtained… an invitation to visit, ahead of the launch."
"Obtained from who exactly?"
"Earth has many friends."
"And," adds Loong, "we have an 'inside man'."
"M'kay, I'll buy it," says Shayde.
"Very good," says Gray, and she taps the screen.
The image of the Helium dockyard is replaced with a wireframe outline of the station, with a stylised old-fashioned rocket ship occupying most of one of the five arms.
Intercut: FX shot: a delta-winged space shuttle flies into view and approaches the space dock.
"Typical of these expository sections in heist-type dramas," hissed Monkfish, "They add action by cross-cutting between narration and flash-forward scenes of how events are meant to play out. The then-fashionable editing technique of ramping, that is speeding up or slowing down the replay, is used for, I believe 'rule of cool'."
Gray, voice over: "First, Captain Moon's shuttle will fly us in using our password…"
Intercut: interior spaceship docking port: close-up on the bubble-permed woman before the camera spins round to reveal she is opening a heavy airlock door. Gray and Shayde, followed by others, emerge to board.
Gray, voice over: "We will split into two parties."
Intercut: the power deck: a Japanese woman and a larger black man enter, the camera zooming and holding on the woman's backpack for a moment, before the get out equipment which they begin to attach to two huge generators…
Gray, voice over: "Mr Shayde, your team of engineers will proceed to the power deck and cold-start the generators…"
Intercut: the flight deck: Gray and Shayde stand at control positions, Peta is stood next to Gray, working on the console.
Gray, voice over: "Peta and I will take the flight deck and take control of the ship's computer systems. Control the computers, control the power, and we control the ship."
In the table screen, the schematic zooms back out, and the rocket exits out of the station and off the side of the screen.
"It ain't gonna work," says Moon, again. "Seriously. Ye'll need a crew, fer starters, a ship that size. And she'll be crawling with a crew of 'er own. Not t'mention guards. Loads o'guards."
Gray counts off Moon's points:
"First, the ship has an extremely sophisticated computer control. A skeleton crew – pilot, navigator, engineer – will be sufficient for the flight we intend…"
"What about weapons?" interrupts Shayde.
"No weapons. The ship is unarmed while in space dock."
"No weapons. I don't like it," mutters Shayde.
"I'm not asking you to," replies Gray, before turning her attention back to Moon.
"Second point," she continues, "ahead of the launch, there is only a minimal engineering crew aboard. They can be dealt with. There are scheduled briefings on board the space dock, giving us windows of opportunity. Or, in extremis, they can be incapacitated.
"Third: there are, it is true, also a – limited – number of security patrols. If we act quickly and quietly, our small parties can avoid them and secure the flight deck and power deck, and then take the ship."
"I still say it ain't gonna work." Moon shrugs. "But the money's good and I ain't got anything better to do this week."
"Okay," agrees Shayde, "I'm in. Let's talk details."
Fade to black and cut to…
Exterior space. A more familiar computer-generated space-scape: the comforting blue-green arc of the Earth.
Voiceover: "Shuttle Oxon Emm Kay Niner Niner 'Pentallion', you are now clear for d-gate to Mars high orbit."
In the centre of the frame: a winged space shuttle, conventional-looking for the nineteen-eighties/nineteen-nineties. Behind it: space is busy with the movement of other small spacecraft.
Detail on the shuttle: heat-scored delta wings, battered cockpit-like bulge above the flat, back-sloped octagonal plane of the truncated nose, and a yellowing hull covered in irregular welds and patches, it looks beaten-up and old.
Contrast this with the shiny, futuristic insect, tugging segmented cargo containers that is retreating from the shot.
"But," Mr Monkfish nodded at me, "if you look closely, you can briefly glimpse a rocket-missile under each stubby wing!"
The voice-over continues, uninterrupted, "Proceed on green light. Over."
Cut to…
A cramped interior: the lived-in cockpit of the space shuttle, ambient sound effects of rattling and electronics.
Moon is sat at one of four mismatched, padded acceleration chairs, a console and steering column built up around it, clearly the command position. She is bent over a microphone, clearly tense, but replying calmly:
"This is Captain Moon of the 'Pentallion'," she says. "Clearance to Mars acknowledged. Awaiting yer green for go."
She cuts the mic with a switch on the console and turns to her passengers.
"Ye better be right about that password, Gray."
Gray, stood holding the back of one of the passenger seats, replies.
"I am right. And you're being paid enough to find out, Captain."
"Hey, I'm just driving the coach. You ready to do this?"
"I told you, we don't need her," snaps Shayde, slouched in the next seat. "I can fly us there without kvetching about the details."
"Sure," replies Moon smoothly, "but fly what? You need 'Pentallion' and I sure ain't letting you take him along without me. Even if that ego of yours was pressurised, you'd still need rockets to get out of orbit."
"You piece of—"
"Peace, Shayde," interrupts Gray. "Let the Captain do her job. I'll let you fly us home."
Shayde slams himself back in his chair with a snort, but at least obeys.
Gray turns to the last person on the flight deck, the young woman curled up in the last chair, her head down so her dark hair hides her pale, white face, as though she's trying to wish herself somewhere else.
"And what about you, Peta? Are you ready for this?"
"I don't think I'll ever be ready," says Peta Quinn, "so we should do this anyway."
Gray nods sharply with something like pride. Shayde rolls his eyes and spins his chair. Moon, crouched over the control board, looks at them, but her face shows no reaction. A green light on her board illuminates her from below.
"Green for go," she announces, and the sound effects convey to us the powering up of her shuttle.
Cut to…
Another computer-animated exterior: the 'Pentallion' from a reverse angle, rocket thrusters beginning to glow. This angle reveals a flat-looking black disc in the near distance ahead of the space shuttle, matt against the more colourful space-scape and the white-grey moon that make up the background. Lights, winking like buoys, mark the perimeter.
This is a D-Gate.
"The D-Gate!" Monkfish suddenly expounded enthusiasticially. "The discontinuity-gate, colloquially the dimensional-gate, although, of course, there's no evidence that the passage goes from one continuum to another; a surface between two otherwise-distant locations where extreme curvature of the Einstein-Lorentz space-time permits them to be adjacent. The theory says that there is no distance between one side of the gate and the other, and yet most human travellers insist that they experience a sense of passage as they pass through…"
Effects shot: 'Pentallion' approaching the D-Gate.
Our imaginary camera follows the space shuttle towards the disc and at the last moment it becomes apparent that it is, in fact, a tunnel, and the shuttle enters. We "fly" in behind.
There is a momentary strobing of colour at the edges of the picture and then a new vista expands from the centre of the shot: the view of Mars, as established at the top of the act.
We cut back to the cockpit.
The same rainbow-strobe effect plays over the occupants. Peta Quinn sits upright, her eyes widening, an expression of awe or horror.
"First time?" asks Gray, sympathetically.
"So many voices..." Peta replies.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh they're... just for a moment, I thought I heard... but it's gone."
"Great Gaia!" declares Shayde. "She's gone space happy! I said we should never have brought her. Vital personnel only, I said—"
"She is vital," Gray snaps back. "Just as vital as you, Mr Security Consultant. Maybe more so." She lays a hand on Peta's head. "Quinn? Peta? Are you still with us?"
"I'm fine. I... I'm fine. I'm sorry. It was just a moment there in the gate. I was... I'm sorry. I'll be fine."
"She had better be, Gray. You know the stories."
"We've all read stories. They are just stories. No one goes mad crossing the—"
"Hey!" Moon interrupts. "Can you all cut the chat for five minutes. I've gotta talk to Mars Orbital."
The others fall silent, but not without Shayde continuing to glare at Gray and cast wary glances at Peta. Peta has curled up into her chair again.
We cut to another establishing effects shot of the shuttle exterior as we hear Moon's voice over, as if on a radio.
"Mars high orbit traffic control, this is shuttle 'Pentallion' we have clearance to Helium Spacedock under password 'Nevermore Extra Superior Temporal'—"
The scene cuts back to the interior, seeing Moon from in front, concentrating, intense, trying to will the radio to accept their codes while the passengers hover behind her, Gray's calm contrasting with Shayde's nervousness and Peta's withdrawal.
Moon's dialogue continues, "— 'Matador Injunction Superior Truth'. I am transmitting our code-clearance and awaiting orbital path and permission to approach. I repeat 'Nevermore Extra Superior Temporal…'"
A beat of dead air, the silence winding the tension tighter.
"Shuttle 'Pentallion', password 'Nevermore' is a university clearance—"
"That's a confirmed, Mars Orbit. I have seven passengers from Void University Engineering Department en route for an academic inspection tour."
Another beat.
"Thank you, 'Pentallion'. Your code-clearance checks out. Transmitting your orbital transfer now. Proceed on course to Helium."
"Cheers, Mars Orbit, over an—"
"'Pentallion', be advised: we have the Imperial Argai Defender 'Banner of Glory' in close orbit with Spacedock Helium."
"Yer bloody what?!" Moon looks shocked.
Cut to…
FX view of the space station. A second large object emerging, almost half as big as the station itself: an alien starship.
This is the Argai Defender 'Banner of Glory'.
Detail: the warship is a flattened rhomboid, its surface scaled and ribbed, with a pair of large, triangular wings or sails or fins attached to its lateral vertices. Its colours, mainly shades of blue from steel to royal, are threatening, giving it the look of a cadaverous shark, circling the shipyard looking for prey.
Contrast the industrial, manufactured, familiar look of the space station with the inhuman, biological, alien appearance of the Defender.
Voice over continues: "Say again, 'Pentallion'?"
Cut to…
Interior shuttle cockpit, close on Moon lit from below by the control lights.
"Ah sorry, Helium. Just slipped out. Wasn't expecting our lords and masters being gracing us with their presence. All good."
"The Argai have taken full charge of the station's security. You'll need to retransmit your clearance to them before making your final approach."
"Ri-ight. Okay, roger that, Mars."
"Roger and out, 'Pentallion'."
"Ta ta for now."
Moon slams a palm down on the controls to close the channel before turning on Gray again.
"Argai! You didn't say nothing about the bloody Argai!"
"This is a change, I admit. They've clearly increased their security. No doubt because of the launch ceremony—"
"Well hoo-bloody-ray for the pomp and circumstance, but where does that leave us when their bloody great big battle cruiser points its bloody great big guns at us?"
"Please, Captain. The codes are completely legitimate and will get us to the space dock. You and your ship will be quite safe."
"Yeah, right up to the point where you steal that bloody starship and your codes go straight to hell! I said this wasn't gonna bloody work, didn' I? I want out!"
Suddenly everyone is very tense.
Cut quickly between close-ups of each passenger in turn. Everyone is looking at Moon now, even Peta.
"Please, Captain. If you think they are suspicious now, how will it look if we turn tail and run? Please, just get us to the space dock."
"Now look—"
"If you want to part company there, you can remain on Helium station."
"Oh, and leave me to the Argai? No thank you very much!"
"Of course we won't leave you to the Empire. After all, we're doing this to liberate ourselves... the Protectorate... the whole human race from the Argai. They've held us back for years, decades, and by what right—"
"Lady, I told you I'm not interested in the politics."
Gray nods, slightly chagrined, remembering.
"Well then, I guess we'll just have to drop you off later."
Moon just shrugs, turning back to her board, the moment of tension passing.
"Fine, fine. Just don't get me shot in the meanwhile, all right?"
"All right," agrees Gray as, behind Moon's back, she surreptitiously slips a pistol back under her flight jacket.
"Fine, okay," says Moon again. "Right well, here comes our bloody transfer window, all right. So here goes bloody nothing."
And she depresses the controls once more.
There follows another short montage of visual effects shots, as if we are watching the shuttle passing a series of cameras as it makes its approach to the space station.
We see the Helium dock – and its orbiting shark, the 'Banner of Glory' – first become visible, if distant, presences. Then they become the centre of the panorama, and then, like giants, they blot out the background. The shuttle appears to become tiny as it recedes towards them. Finally, the 'Pentallion' appears to fly right under the jaws of the looming Argai Defender.
A brief insert shot of the cockpit sees Moon and her passengers looking upwards with visible trepidation, as though they can see the Defender imminent above them.
The effects montage continues, the shuttle passing out of the shadow of the battleship, scuttling towards the questionable sanctuary of a darkened, rectangular opening at the end of one of the space dock's arms. Within can be seen the shadow of an outline.
The virtual camera now trails the shuttle once more and we approach the opening together. The shadowed space grows, blotting out the backdrop of the space dock and the few stars remaining visible beyond until, right at the threshold, there is a sudden change of lighting to reveal the starship within, gleamingly brand new.
At first glance she resembles a classical space rocket, a long cylinder broad in the middle and tapering to a point at the front end.
In three places, this cylinder is bisected by a horizontal wing or fin.
At the furthest end, from our point of view, from about two-thirds of the way back to almost the tail, there is a crescent wing, easily equal half the ship's length across from tip to tip. This wing in turn supports two vertical sails, also curved and broader where they meet the wing, but longer below than above.
Slightly forward of the cylinder's midpoint is a second wing, not more than half the span of the larger one at the back, and not so curved. Rather than tapering to a point, the wings on either side here curve down and support long narrow arms on either side, parallel with the main cylinder, tight-wound with power coils and arrayed with focussing crystals.
The function of these curious devices is revealed later in the episode.
Closest to the ship's front end, there is a broader, flattened near-disc, it's diameter roughly half the span of the middle wing, a row of portholes framing the deck line.
Girders and gantries and cranes form a nest around the ship. Parts of the hull appear missing revealing the inner workings of the vessel, apparently still being worked on.
The director gives us plenty of time to take all this in, holding the shot for seconds to emphasise the importance of this moment, the moment we meet our starship, the ship herself appearing to swell before our eyes as our viewpoint moves in closer.
The name "VENTURE" is clearly visible on her prow, stencilled in an unimaginative regulation font.
"In the future," Monkfish interjected, yet again, "The crew go outside, and hand paint the prefix 'Ad—' but that has yet to be added."
"It doesn't look very ready to launch, " I said, and added: "And wasn't the ship supposed to be called 'Valient'?"
"Ah ha!" Monkfish responded. "Ah ha!"
Cut to…
Shuttle interior: a passenger area clearly in the nose of the shuttle, recognisable from the flat, octagonal plate of the back wall, an airlock door prominent in the back of the set.
Gray sweeps into shot from a slightly elevated position behind the camera, to indicate descending from the cockpit, trailed by Shayde and Peta.
The other passengers, the rest of Shayde's crew, are waiting for her here: Lin, a Japanese woman of medium height carrying a rucksack almost as large as she is; Jacques, a burly black man with a face made for laughing; and Karter, a Sikh doctor in a turban and a neat smock.
It's a big wide shot, and necessary to establish the entire crew, but even with the men sat as out of the way as possible against the side wall it's crowded with all the actors present.
We cut to a final establishing shot: the 'Pentallion' settled in a cradle inside a partially-lit hangar. Clamshell doors can be vaguely seen closing behind, and a docking corridor is gently pressing forwards, nuzzling up to the airlock in the shuttle's nose. The upward curve of the walls gives the clear impression that this is somewhere within the lower half of the spaceship's main rocket hull.
"A classic continuity clanger for the fans," whispered Monkfish, still excited to impart more inside knowledge. "I understand that they'd run out of money for more of that expensive CGI. So, the creators never establish just where within the ship the hangar deck is supposed to be!"
We cut back to a much tighter shot of the 'Pentallion' airlock with Gray stood at the controls. Shayde and the woman Lin loiter in shot but everyone else is now "behind" the camera.
There is a muffled clang as the docking arm connects, followed by a short toccata of clunks and hisses as the ship and shuttle do the mechanical necessities of docking, mostly played under the dialogue that follows.
"Where's our inside man to let us in?" Shayde is grumbling.
"They'll be here," Gray reassures. "Let's be sure we're all prepared when they get here – Lin, you're ready to jump-start the engines?"
"Well, I'm not dressed for the Emperor's ball."
"Keep it professional."
"I'll get it done."
"Good. Take Jacques with you. Once the power's on you'll need him to help uncoupling us from the dock."
"You got it."
Gray looks over Lin's shoulder to the Sikh.
"Dr Karter, please check out the life-support. It's supposed to be running for the test crews, but we'd better make sure."
"Running out of air is a hell of a way to find out they've not switched on the scrubbers."
"So, let's not do that."
Now she looks back to the jumpy Shayde.
"You and Peta are with me. We're going for'ard. We've got to take the flight deck before the security finds us and shuts us down. That's where Peta comes in—"
Moon's voice snaps on, booming a little over the shuttle's public address.
"Heads up – we have company. Someone in the access tube."
There's a moment of silence, everyone exchanging glances. Only Gray looks calm. Then there is a bang, metallic, hollow, and then another. Someone is knocking on the airlock door.
"Want me to let 'em in?"
Gray touches a plastic strip in the collar of her flight suit and it lights up. It's clearly a comm-link of some kind. She speaks normally.
"Open the hatch, please, Captain Moon."
"I hope you're right about this..."
There is another hiss as the seals round the airlock door depressurise. It shudders inwards several centimetres, revealing its thickness, and then rolls smartly aside to admit a woman: the woman in the short white dress and blond perm – or wig – from the top of the episode.
"Call me Cassandra," she says. "There's been a change of plan."
"I told yer this wasn't gonna bloody work," says Moon.
