Avenue 5: seasons 1 & 2 (blu-ray TV series review).
Pursuing ‘Slow Horses’ through the Chinese link in the auction website, I came across ‘Avenue 5’ and thought I ought to have a look at it considering its SF and I hadn’t heard of it. I did a little more research and discovered it was also a comedy, which is also a rare combination in our genre.
Avenue 5 is a tourist spaceship due to use Titan to gain some cheap thrust to return to Earth. Joe, the chief engineer, is outside doing an inspection for the ship’s owner, Herman Judd (actor Josh Gad), to try to increase the speed of the 26-second delay with contact to Earth, knowing it’s impossible but having to go through the motions. The thing is, the gravity lock is dropped prematurely, throwing the tourists and crew in one direction and causing the spaceship to be off a few degrees in its course. Instead of getting back to Earth, it will take 10 years or 6 months, depending on who you ask. So much is a spoiler. I did recognise a few British actors using American accents. One voice sounded awfully familiar, and I wondered why Neelix was on board and then realised actor Ethan Philips was in a human role.
All the usual problems happen, like a discharge from their waste containers ending up with a literal ring of shit rotating around the spacecraft. Judd finally decides to run it into a laser show to amuse the guests. Probably one of his better ideas, when you consider that so much of the spaceship is shown, including the bridge, and the real spaceship work is done by engineering.
One that makes little sense is a bleep suggesting an oxygen leak that turns out to be a miscalculation, without going too spoiler-y, of people on board. When you consider that four people have died, surely such a calculation would be done automatically.
The same also applies to a rescue mission from Earth, provided that 500 people are killed. Unless the rescue ship has limited space or supplies, that shouldn’t be a consideration. Once in space, mass is immaterial, and certainly the cost of a rescue ship should take that into consideration. Don’t forget, Avenue 5 is heading in the direction of Earth even if it passes close to the sun, so you have to wonder why this kind of trajectory is on and how two space shuttles can rendezvous with it so easily, even with a lithium shortage on Earth.
The merge over into the second season is easy to mark by the number of casualties after some of the passengers disbelieve they are in space, think they are in a reality trap, and learn their mistake the hard frozen way. Actually, they don’t learn because they die in the process. Did I say there was a bitter edge?
There’s also a broadcast from Earth enacting life on Avenue 5, which they can see on their own televisions but doesn’t match reality. It can be a little confusing at first, although pay attention to the screen as they aren’t the same actors. Well, not until towards the end.
The problem is that Avenue 5 needs to dock with a space station because it needs to reduce its velocity, even if they are in close proximity to each other. All that needs fuel, something they are short of, or they wouldn’t be 8 years from getting back to Earth. Again, it’s also a bit questionable how a space shuttle was able to rendezvous twice with them to deliver supplies considering how far out they must have been from the Earth. Distance seems to be variable, and a spaceship’s size shouldn’t have that much of a difference in getting there anyway. Oddly, releasing junk from the wrong airlock to change its thrust was classified as wrong when, really, it might have been the right thing to do.
The interesting thing about this show is that you’re thrust into it with little in the way of opening credits, and what appears to be a professional organisation quickly falls into chaos. Many of the crew roles aren’t what they seem, and Joe was actually the true captain until he died. From then on, it turns totally into comedy.
Oddly, it does get some of the science right. The writers know that if you jettison coffins or even evacuate shit, unless they are given enough thrust, they will orbit the spacecraft. From their other mistakes, it might have been them looking at the real science and seeing the humour in it.
Rather frighteningly, for a show that runs in 25-minute episodes, it has eleven producers, so you do have to wonder what they are all doing. It looks like over-management.
Only two seasons, a lot of comedy and suspense, and totally engaging. Presumably, it’s still out there on digital channels, hence the difficulty in getting a Blu-ray version, let alone a DVD version. More importantly, it is funny.
GF Willmetts
February 2024
(pub: 2023 Productions, 2022. 18 * 25 minute episodes. ASIN: B-25)
cast: Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad, Zack Woods, Ethan Philips, Rebecca Front and many, many others
