Vienna

#1.00. The Memory Box ~ 7/10

◆ An Introduction

It’s been a while since I was consistently uploading reviews, because my PC decided it wanted to become scrap metal, but I’m back in business now. What better way to welcome in the Autumn than by diving head first into a new range?

It’s a shame that I rarely see people online discussing ‘Vienna’, as the eponymous bounty hunter has been brilliantly written in almost all of her appearances; she’s given bundles of personality too, thanks to Chase Masterson’s star-studded performance.

Every adventure has to start somewhere, and Miss Salvatori’s begins with a memory box…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Berkeley Silver, one of the richest men in the Earth empire, lies dead in the Penthouse Suite of the Galileo space-hotel. Law Enforcement Officers Detective Captain McGinnis and Detective Sergeant Mead are called in to investigate – but it seems to have been the perfect crime. Even when subjected to a memory scan, everybody in the space-hotel has an alibi for the murder.

Which means it can only have been the work of one woman. The most accomplished – and the most glamorous – bounty hunter in the galaxy. Her name is Vienna Salvatori. And she has a little rule; nobody gets to hear her name and live…

◆ Vienna Salvatori

Vienna felt somewhat one-dimensional in her debut adventure; something Morris has rectified by giving her a bit more depth. A definite improvement over ‘The Shadow Heart’, simply because she feels more like an anti-hero than a straight up villainess.

Chase Masterson has delivered a great performance in this episode, and proves that she can hold her own in a spin-off series.

She spends the first ten minutes escaping the Galileo under the guise of an eccentric Italian guest, though you could easily mistake the accent for Romanian; she sounds more like Count Von Count! No one is allowed to hear Vienna’s name and live. She’s a bounty hunter who mostly kills people for money: it’s a line of work where trust issues are common.

◆ Story Recap

Berkeley Silver is one of the richest men in the Earth Empire, with over half a dozen planets purchased under his name. You don’t get to be as rich as him without making a few enemies, which means looking for his murderer is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Detectives McGinnis and Mead have been dispatched to the scene of the crime: a luxury space hotel called the Galileo.

Unfortunately for the two rozzers, it’s clear that Silver’s death was carried out by a professional hitman. The Galileo also has no kind of CCTV in any area of the premises.

Vienna Salvatori, the impossibly glamorous assassin responsible for the hit, is eventually caught by the law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, the three of them soon become part of a conspiracy, with Silver at its heart!

◆ Secure Knowledge

Memory Boxes are a fantastic concept: they provide you with the ability to place an entire day into a secure sub-folder within your brain. Those memories cannot be detected by scanners, nor can you recall them yourself, unless the box were to be opened with a specific key phrase.

It’s why Vienna manages to escape a murder charge; her target actually killed himself to make sure she could track down a militant group named Flaming Sword, though she wasn’t aware until the group’s name – coincidentally the passcode for one of her memory boxes – was mentioned. The memory boxes give a whole new perspective to the idea of a puzzle box narrative, and it works really well.

◆ “Poor, Blind Slithergee”

Jonathan Morris has included a couple of callbacks to some of his earlier scripts, which is great for someone like me that adores his work.

The Galileo is operated by a slug-like race known as Slithergees, who you may remember from the experimental festive adventure, ‘Flip-Flop’. They naturally give off an aura of guilt and unease that allows them to get easy tips from guests at the hotel. It’s a small bit of world-building, but an interesting one.

◆ Sound Design

The bombastic soundscape is highly effective, and isn’t afraid to be in-your-face with some grandiose set-pieces.

Police sirens on a law enforcement vehicle that’s heading into warp drive. The bubbling voice of a Slithergee working at the Galileo. I think it says a lot about Vienna’s ego when you realise that her ship’s computer uses her own voice! Laser weaponry being charged, as police attempt to stun our eponymous bounty hunter. The snarling of the mechanical zombies known as Revenants. Bubbling lava lakes on the planet Volcana.

◆ Music

This score manages to match the rapid pace of the episode. I’d also like to commend the excellent use of the electric guitar and saxophone throughout.

The ‘Vienna’ theme tune is also quite good. It feels distinctly American, reminding me a lot of the remixed Torchwood theme used for ‘Miracle Day’.

◆ Conclusion

“No one is allowed to hear my name and live.”

The pilot of a new series tends to be a bit rough around the edges, and ‘The Memory Box’ is no different. It showcases how much potential there is in exploring the adventures of an impossibly glamorous bounty hunter, which was its whole purpose.

I can wholeheartedly say that I’m looking forward to giving the rest of this range a listen.