It's called Ultraworld. Show of hands for reversing course?
Written by Trevor Hoyle. Directed by Vere Lorrimer.
Airdate: 10 March 1980.
The Liberator encounters an artificial planet that turns out to be a vast computer system. When Cally teleports across to it without explanation the crew have to rescue her.
This episode has the following tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: You'd think after the last episode the crew would keep well away from any mysterious alien structures floating in space.
- Aliens Made Them Do It: For some reason the Ultra's have little knowledge of human mating procedures, and insist that Dayna and Tarrant demonstrate for them.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Averted. While the Ultras try and make them do it, Tarrant is noticeably more reluctant than Dayna, and doesn't start playing along until she practically jumps him (albeit as part of a Fake Out Makeout).
- Backhanded Compliment: Avon to Vila. "Orac is saying that a logical, rational intelligence is no match for yours."
- Body Horror:
- The Ultras have external veins running over their bodies.
- As the Core collapses, the final Ultra's face starts to disintegrate.
- Brain Uploading: Happens to Cally and Avon, with their bodies due to be absorbed into the Core. Fortunately Dayna and Tarrant are able to rescue them and retrieve their memory cylinders, though at the last minute Tarrant worries he might have accidentally loaded them into the wrong bodies.
- But I Would Really Enjoy It: During their Fake-Out Make-Out, Dayna has to tell Tarrant to go ahead and kiss her. "I can't be that repulsive."
- Butt-Monkey: The episode goes out of its way to present Vila as a frivolous moron.
- Call-Back: Dayna deploys the same type of wheeled drone bomb that she used in "City at the Edge of the World". And she still isn't carrying a pouch for it!
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: The line is delivered verbatim when Vila is alone on the Liberator and aliens start sending Mind Control waves onto the ship.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: An unconscious Cally is strapped onto a conveyor belt to be assimilated into the giant brain running Ultraworld. She is saved at the last minute, the other characters having to contend with zombie-like baddies, who switch the machine back on each time they switch it off — cue lots of fake fighting.....
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Avon really wants to check out the artificial planet; the others less so. They compromise on orbiting at what they assume is a safe distance.
- Cut Phone Lines: The teleport bracelets get smashed.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Or in this case — brain rupture, then explosion.
- Designated Victim: Cally has her mind taken over by aliens twice in a row!
- Did the Earth Move for You, Too?Tarrant: How was that, darling? More comfortable?Dayna: Oh yes, much better! Thank you, darling.(Throws a microgrenade. Ultra monitoring room shakes from an explosion)
- Don't Explain the Joke: Orac keeps doing this to Vila's horror.
- Empty Shell: The Menials
- Eternal English: Vila's puns reference parking meters and tin tacks, which apparently still exist in the future under those names.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Tarrant overhears what the Ultras are really planning.
- Face Palm: Vila does a double face-palm when Orac is more interested in riddles than the Core trying to brainwash him.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Dayna doesn't have a pouch to hold the drone-bomb she uses to rescue Tarrant. Though justified with the microgrenade she has hidden in her mouth.
- Hypocritical HumourTarrant: I still don't see why [Cally] went down. It doesn't make sense.Dayna: That's what we're doing.
- Ill-Timed Sneeze: Dayna sneezes causing a Menial to turn to face her... only to do nothing, even when she waves her hand in front of his face.
- Inside a Computer System: The entire planet is a computer-brain and its support system.
- Insignificant Blue Planet: Earth is unremarkable, though apparently humans are still of interest.
- The Internet Is for Porn: Apparently not in the future, as the Ultras know everything about humans except their mating practices.
- Invisible Aliens: Averted; the Ultras have recorded millions of species.
- Lame Pun Reaction: The first time Vila tells a riddle, Orac switches itself off in irritation.
- Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Vila, presumably because no-one else finds them funny.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Tarrant and Dayna want to rush to Cally's rescue. As they point out, how can you plan when facing an Outside-Context Problem?
- Lured into a Trap: With a fake Distress Call from Cally.
- Mechanistic Alien Culture: The Ultra are blue-skinned humanoid creatures either summoned or created by Ultraworld (a living, artificial planet/giant computer centered around an enormous brain) to interact with captured starship crews, whom Ultraworld intends to absorb into its gestalt. They walk with a jerky gait and speak in odd, robot-like cadences. The "menials," assimilated humanoid servants, are also examples of this trope: their identity, memories and emotions are recorded on a tube and stored in a library. They behave mechanistically as they toil about, maintaining Ultraworld.
- Moment Killer: Dayna and Tarrant are snogging when a camera lowers down from the roof.Ultra: Has the bonding ceremony begun?Dayna: You could say so, but we do better without interruptions. (pulls Tarrant down onto the bed)
- My Brain Is Big: The Core is a huge brain at the heart of Ultraworld.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Cally looks apprehensive the moment she lays eyes on Ultraworld. Then she has a hallucination of a glitter ball and covers her face in horror.
- Never Sleep Again: Avon struggles not to fall unconscious so his mind can be wiped, but eventually succumbs.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!Tarrant: It's a calculated risk.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: Lampshaded by Tarrant when Dayna turns out to have a bomb in her tooth!
- Not So Above It All: Orac finds it's interested in Vila's riddles after all.
- Our Doors Are Different: Triangular doors open in the artificial planet to admit the Liberator.
- Planetville: Justified as it's an artificial construction with a single purpose.
- Psychic Static: Vila resists the brainwashing with limericks. Orac feeds this nonsense back to the Core as a Logic Bomb.
- Ramming Always Works: The Liberator is held in the capture hold with enormous metal pylons. Our heroes turn the ship against the pylons and maintain thrust until they snap.
- Resistance Is FutileUltra: They struggle. They fight against it. But none can resist the power of the Core.
- Right Through His Pants: Justified as Dayna and Tarrant are just doing a Fake Out Makeout until they can escape. They'd want to keep their clothes on so they can move quickly, and the Ultras don't seem to understand the 'bonding' anyway.
- Series Continuity Error: The Ultras say that Avon attempted to embezzle 500 million credits, whereas in "Space Fall" it was said to be five million. Still, as this information was taken from Cally's memory, perhaps he was boasting?
- Sleight of Tongue: During their Fake Out Makeout, Tarrant helps remove a microgrenade Dayna has hidden in a tooth. She then primes it with her teeth and throws it over her shoulder after quietly counting down the timer with Tarrant.
- Stompy Mooks: The Menials tramp in formation.
- TechnobabbleUltra 2: There is another process involved. Nucleoplasmic absorption.Tarrant: Oh, well that’s a relief. I thought it might be something complicated.
- This Cannot Be!
- The Ultras response when the Core starts collapsing.
- Avon's response when Vila says he's teaching Orac (about riddles)
Avon: Vila is teaching Orac? No, it doesn't make sense. - Violence is the Only Option: After being frozen in place the first time he draws a weapon on the Ultras, Tarrant fires the moment he encounters them again.
- Weak-Willed: The Ultras use this exact term to describe Vila, whom they attempt to brainwash so he can hand over the Liberator.
- World of Snark: "Ignore him. That's what passes for wit on our ship."
- You Won't Feel a Thing!Ultra: You will feel nothing. Ever again.
