After turning in "Moloch" in double-quick time at the end of Season 3 it was no surprise to see Ben Steed roped in to get a script up and running for the frantic process of preparing Season 4. The episode nominally forms the second section of a two-parter with "Rescue", handling the crew actually getting access to Scorpio and Soolin joining up. However, while most of the plot does indeed take place on Xenon (one of only two episodes to show more of the planet than the base) it feels a bit like Chris Boucher's rewritten it so that some nebulous sealed artifact is replaced by the Scorpio landing silo.
If "Rumours of Death" and various other Servalan scenes across Season 3 suggested her empire was constantly at risk "Moloch" (a second story of the year from Ben Steed, this one being a late replacement for a Bob Holmes story that fell through) outright confronts it. After two episodes all but Federation-free it's nice to get back to the meat of the conflict. Jacqueline Pearce appears in nine of the year's 13 episodes; it's only one more than in Season 2 but whereas some of those were effectively cameos (e.g. "Hostage", "Voice from the Past") this year she's more central - and clearly being banked upon to help ease the show past Blake's departure (in Season 4, more sure there are legs in Avon as a lead, she'll only be in eight). This would be in danger of breeding overfamiliarity (think the Roger Delgado Master in Doctor Who, an excellent villain you're sick of the sight of rapidly) but the roving format means she can be put in a variety of situations, with most of them coming off well, compared to when she was always sat in her office at Space Command yelling at Travis.
After two set-up episodes and two absolute dogs Season 3 was looking rather wobbly; thinking through the rest of the year's stories I can actually only pick out four or five that are good, which makes it odd that I count it as a favourite. Unconscious contrarianism and a nature of rooting for the underdog? Maybe, but I think it's more that Season 3 is a state of mind; the crew's rapidly growing resentment of each other and their listless lives makes up for a lot of the weekly plots being poor, while Avon and Vila, the two best characters, get a lot more to do. "Harvest of Kairos" isn't a great episode but it is finally a step in the right direction despite a few huge problems.
