WRITER: Simon Tyrrell[SPOILERS] I wasn't expecting much from this third episode, mainly because I didn't see the need to return to the Samantha Willis (Nikki Amuka-Bird) storyline, which was of limited appeal last series. But now she's back for a courtroom-based sequel, as her enforcer Dexter (Anthony Flanagan) kidnaps Tom (Max Beesley) and takes him back to her compound to stand trial for murder...
DIRECTOR: David Evans
GUEST CAST: Nikki Amuka-Bird, Anthony Flanagan, Christopher Fulford, Roger Lloyd Pack, Marlene Sidaway, Gary Pillai, Al Weaver & Gary Dunnington
It has to be said, both Amuka-Bird and Flanagan were on fine form throughout this episode, both utterly despicable characters in very different ways. Samantha's convinced the fact she was an MP pre-virus means she's a natural leader, and while she appears to always have reasonable motives for her actions, they're ultimately ways for her to satisfy a despotic streak deep inside her. She may claim she's changed since we first met her (where petty thieves were executed), because convicts will now be dealt with humanely, but it's her desire to trial Tom is less about maintaining order and more about getting her own way. Only, we eventually realize she only really targeted Tom so she could manipulate him into killing her right-hand man Dexter (who's becoming more trouble than he's worth), by offering to let him escape if he kills again.
The trial idea was also a nice way to explore people's feelings towards Tom himself; Abby (Julie Graham) and Anya (Zoe Tapper) both have a strong connection with the brooding felon because he's "one of them", while Greg (Paterson Joseph) is convinced he's nothing but trouble and will eventually get them all killed. I wasn't convinced by Samantha's selection of a five-man jury (comprised of two of Tom's gang and his brazen enemy Dexter), but that was perhaps the only way to get some of the regulars more actively involved. Al (Phillip Rhys) and Sarah (Robyn Addison) were left to sleep together back at the survivors' country pile, with Najid (Chahak Patel) overhearing their love-making.
We also had the introduction of good-humoured trucker Billy Stringer (Roger Lloyd Pack), who at first appeared to be a benevolent guy happy to dispense provisions and goods to the less fortunate from the back of his lorry. But his role was actually a lot more sinister, as he proved to be allied to Mr. Smithson (Christopher Fulford), an opportunist who's reopened a disused coal mine and intends to use vagrants and convicts like Tom as slave labour. A lot of this story is just setup for next week's focused continuation, really, but I did have to wonder how Smithson intends to process the coal his workforce dig out. And is there really a shortage of coal on a planet where there's assumedly bags of the stuff unsold in shops everywhere? I guess we'll have to put questions like this to one side until next week.
Overall, I thought this episode was better than it could have been, mainly because the villains were so juicily played. You know you have villains when you want to reach into the TV and throttle someone to take the smug grin off their face. Anthony Flanagan was particularly great as the sinewy equivalent of Max Beesley's character , and their life-or-death fight towards the end felt surprisingly realistic and brutal. It was also great to finally learn why Tom was jailed (he shot two security guards dead during a raid), and it was perhaps the biggest sign yet that he's beginning to let down his barriers. I mean, there's only so long we'll be able to stomach Beesley's furrowed brows and middle-distance stares, isn't there. I think it's time the writers opened his character up a bit.
Right now, I think Survivors still has issues with its actors being stronger than their characters (if that makes sense), and it lacks a certain finesse with its ideas, but there's a raw confidence about it that I quite like. It knows it's daft hokum deep down, really, so you can kind of just go with the flow and enjoy each week's highlights. Abby's also been less annoying now they've toned down her mother hen clucking and pining for her son. And as I've mentioned before, I think the production's nicely put together and the end-of-the-world emptiness convincingly achieved on a limited budget. The final scene of a lone truck travelling across a barren motorway junction was a good example this week.
2 FEBRUARY 2010: BBC1 / BBC HD, 9PM
