Dead Drop

"Knowledge is a weapon."

Writer: Robert Valentine

Format: Audio

Released: February 2014

Series: Vienna 1.01

Featuring: Vienna

Synopsis

Dwarfed by the burning star of the Hyspero system, two devastating battle fleets face each other across the stars. On one side, the Dyarid Primary Vanguard, commanded by Admiral Salaron aboard the starship Custodian. On the other, a Chtzin battle cluster.

Bounty Vienna Salvatori's latest assignment brings her aboard the Custodian – but completing her mission and earning some poldaks is the easy bit. When all hell breaks loose with the Chtzin and the Custodian is left crippled and plunging towards the sun, a simple assignment turns into a battle for survival for the galaxy's deadliest assassin.

Verdict

Dead Drop was a really strong episode to kick off the first series of Vienna! After her own pilot episode of The Memory Box being a huge success, and having her make a big impact in The Shadow Heart, it’s not a big surprise that she gets her own full spinoff range. Chase Masterton is obviously a fine actress as well to anchor this ship and you definitely need that with a spin-off. It has all the ingredients to be a success and I’m really looking forward to hearing more and exploring the range in full as I move forward now! This was really entertaining and I enjoyed the use of a memory box for Vienna’s arrival on board the Custodian. She was impersonating Corinth which was fun stuff and I just liked the continuity of the memory theme to get her way on board. She passed the standard security and verification checks, and when she was called by Jamela K’lynn she figured that was going to be the end of a very quick and easy mission! She brilliantly did gain the upper hand and succeeded with her assassination, but for a moment it appeared that Primary Vanguard’s commander was going to be in full control. It placed our lead character in some serious peril early on, but I liked how she shifted the power game in being named by K’lynn to then that being the reason for her downfall. Assassination by means of psychic weaponry and control was great stuff and that’s something I enjoy exploring. I thought the futuristic setting here was utilised very well and it was so weird to get something as casual and simple as a time of 3300 hours. How would the clock have changed? I thought the expansion of the internet was good too and rather humorous for Vienna to have no connection when initially confirming the kill and a mission success. Some things never change! I was surprised that her mission was completed so soon into the episode as I thought that was going to be the whole plot, but it was actually really good to then explore the power vacuum created by the Wroth empire collapse and the Chtzin were trying to fill that void. They were referenced a lot throughout and just having the Wroth no longer powerful was a good reference to The Acheron Pulse which I always enjoy. I was a big fan of the continuity here. Some of the characters that rounded out this episode were strong with Admiral Salaron the obvious standout. His position of power was good to explore and I liked how inferior he seemed to K’lynn. The reveal of him actually being the one who hired Vienna all along after raising money with a like minded syndicate was a lot of fun, especially in the manner it happened with the speaker phone reveal that the mission had been a success and his funds were transferred. Vienna quite enjoyed revealing her true identity and the traitor in their midsts, but he wasn’t even fully aware he’d been the one to hire her! The spy nature of the episode was strong and it was fun to explore spies that didn’t even know who they were working for. There was a lot of subconscious goings on here, and that started when Vienna entered the Custodian with her mind screaming. K’lynn had felt that but she didn’t last too long. Roaig was also a decent character to fully flesh out the cast. I liked how things finished with the action of the ship breaking apart and Vienna getting information on the white haired man being Crevo Finn who she’d been searching after for a long time, and that sets us up in a nice direction moving forward with the series! Overall, a really strong opener. 

Rating: 8/10