The
fifth episode of Otherworld is called “Village of the Motorpigs” and it strives
for a real Mad Max/The Road Warrior-type production design and vibe. Underneath that sort of scruffy desert look,
the episode is actually an anti-drug narrative, one that reinforces the human
being's need for purpose, and the value, of course, of family. That last bit is a recurring theme in the
program. No matter how bad things get,
the Sterlings can always depend on one another.
In
“Village of the Motorpigs” the Sterlings have chartered an old ,broken-down bus
(driven by an old, broken-down driver…) to cross the Forbidden Zone.
The bus stops at a Zone Trooper check-point, and the Sterlings attempt to hide in a smuggler’s compartment in the back of the bus, but are captured.
Before the family can be taken to Kroll (Jonathan Banks), a motorcycle gang led by a guru called -- I kid you not -- “Chalktrauma” (Marjoe Gortner) rescues them, and takes them to his biker commune in nearby caves.
The bus stops at a Zone Trooper check-point, and the Sterlings attempt to hide in a smuggler’s compartment in the back of the bus, but are captured.
Before the family can be taken to Kroll (Jonathan Banks), a motorcycle gang led by a guru called -- I kid you not -- “Chalktrauma” (Marjoe Gortner) rescues them, and takes them to his biker commune in nearby caves.
As
the Sterlings soon find out, this isn’t much of a rescue at all.
Chalktrauma
doesn’t permit family units to remain together, believing that such traditional
social units only divide loyalties. Furthermore,
Chalktrauma maintains control of his society by keeping all his people “stoned”
on a drink called “the Chalk.” High on “the
chalk” all the time, nobody questions the guru’s authority.
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To prove it, he shows Hal a U.S. dollar bill. Anyway, Tango reveals that any one of the bikers can issue a “challenge of rule” to de-throne Chalktrauma. Hal resolves that this is the course he must take.
Hal
and Chalktrauma joust on bikes for supremacy, but just as Hal is about to lose,
Zone Troopers raid the weird commune, and the Sterlings, with Tango’s help,
slip away to safety.
If
Chalktrauma’s “challenge of rule” sounds somehow familiar to you, it may be
because it is an apparent law of many, many cult-tv cultures. It appeared in The Starlost (“The
Goddess Calabra”) and The Fantastic Journey (“Children of
the Gods”) before being resurrected here for “Village of the Motorpigs.” It’s a convenient way to easily vet regime
change, I suppose: challenge the leader, and usher in a new way of life. That way, your characters don't need to
have an army at their side, or wage all-out war.
For
an episode about a colony of rough-and-tumble, desert-dwelling motorcycle riders, Otherworld’s “Village of
the Motorpigs” certainly tows the conventional, traditional line. Not that there’s anything wrong with that,
however. But teenage Trace gets scolded by
his mom, June, when he samples the chalk and “tunes out,” for example.
Meanwhile,
Gina teaches Chalktrama’s lustful son (Jeff East) that people should fall in
love, or at least get to know each other before having…relations. Mom, meanwhile,
refuses the chalk and pines for Hal, while he attempts to find a way out.
So,
in short, “Village of the Motorpigs” = don’t do drugs + don’t have premarital
sex + promote family values.
Again, nothing at all wrong with any of that, but it’s just kind of…square.
Just once, I’d like to see a sci-fi show where inan altered-state isn’t depicted a priori as a totally negative thing. Star Trek’s “This Side of Paradise,” Space: 1999’s “The Guardian of Piri” and Farscape’s “Thank God it’s Friday, Again” all push the same agenda: that any substance which alters your mental state will also kill your sense of purpose and desire to produce, to do good work. It’s not that I disagree with the premise, just that a little variety in storytelling is nice. At least Spock does admit that the spores made him happy in “This Side of Paradise,” but that’s as far as cult-tv goes…
Again, nothing at all wrong with any of that, but it’s just kind of…square.
Just once, I’d like to see a sci-fi show where inan altered-state isn’t depicted a priori as a totally negative thing. Star Trek’s “This Side of Paradise,” Space: 1999’s “The Guardian of Piri” and Farscape’s “Thank God it’s Friday, Again” all push the same agenda: that any substance which alters your mental state will also kill your sense of purpose and desire to produce, to do good work. It’s not that I disagree with the premise, just that a little variety in storytelling is nice. At least Spock does admit that the spores made him happy in “This Side of Paradise,” but that’s as far as cult-tv goes…
“Village
of the Motorpigs” starts out as a clips show, with Gina relating to their bus
driver the story of the family’s arrival in this world, and in reaches its
zenith in a well-written, well-performed scene between Hal and June.
He instructs her to run away with the children if he doesn’t survive the “rule of challenge” (also known as the “blood clash.”) June is understandably reluctant to leave her husband, but understands his point. The motorpig culture is toxic to family units, and so the children must be free of it. It’s an emotional scene, and well-done. Both characters come off well.
He instructs her to run away with the children if he doesn’t survive the “rule of challenge” (also known as the “blood clash.”) June is understandably reluctant to leave her husband, but understands his point. The motorpig culture is toxic to family units, and so the children must be free of it. It’s an emotional scene, and well-done. Both characters come off well.
So
far, I’d have to declare that I like “Village of the Motorpigs” least among the
series’ first five episodes. The pilot
featured that great discussion of souls and artificial life, the second episode “Zone Troopers
Build Men” had a great character arc for Trace, “Paradise Lost” was a nice handling of an
adult topic (marital infidelity) and “Rock and Roll Suicide” was just
balls-to-the-walls nuts…and fun. “Village
of the Motorpigs” isn’t exactly bad, I’d conclude, just a bit less inventive
(and more clichéd) than the other episodes.
Next
week: “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar.”
I like "Mansion of the Beast" the least, and not far behind are "Motorpigs" and "Paradise Lost". I wonder what else we would have seen had the series continued? If it had gone five seasons, would we have seen the Sterlings reach Emar and find their way back to Earth? Or trigger such social and political change that this planet BECOMES their home?
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