Deathworld

"I remember who I am now."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: February 2014

Series: Vienna 1.03

Featuring: Vienna

Synopsis

The planet Mercator. Twenty trained assassins enter a game arena, armed only with their wits to compete against each other in a harsh environment. Twenty killers go in. One comes out.

Amongst the killers is Vienna Salvatori. This is the moment she has trained her whole life for, honing her skills as an assassin to become the best in the galaxy. 

As the killers are wiped out one by one, Vienna fights on in the hope of finally learning the truth about her past. In the last battle, only one can be the last assassin standing.

Verdict

Deathworld was an outstanding episode to conclude the first series of Vienna! I must admit I’ve been thoroughly impressed with this opener of the spin-off range and whilst we did get a pilot in the form of The Memory Box, it was really good to get a full series. I think Vienna is such a strong character and she’s really fun. The fact she’s American seems to add a strong quality and Chase Masterton really did shine in the lead role. I already can’t wait for the second series! I was intrigued with how things started here as it was implied that the first two episodes of Dead Drop and Bad Faith were actually simulations! That took me by surprise right from the start and whilst it was fun for Vienna’s memories and experiences to be mixed and used for avatar assassins, it was a big shock! I really liked it but as we moved forward I began to absolutely love what was happening. I was a little surprised by the suggestion that Vienna only had a success rate of 43% in her own missions as that didn’t seem right with what we’d listened to, but the fact she had been hooked up for three months suggests we only got to hear a sample of her mission experiences. It was fun to hear her defend herself and we got a little vulnerability from her which we don’t hear often, but she was quick to point out her own successes which I liked. Vienna was an unwitting part of the Simulacrum which had a fun connection to Death Inc as its creator and owner. Vienna realising that all of her money sent to Miracle 3 were actually sent to the company was great and they really were a villainous organisation. That was fun stuff. Canton Malrick was a really strong character and the relationship he shared with Vienna quickly became a deep one thanks to artificial shared experiences. Her reaction to his recount of her childhood and the mirroring of their experience in losing parents was magnificent. The way it was played out was brilliant. I loved the idea of the death tournament and Vienna was the perfect character for this kind of adventure. The action was frantic and Vienna and Malrick worked well together until the end. The moment where it appeared Malrick was victorious seemed confusion as it just didn’t seem right that our titular character would die. But then she emerged victorious in sublime fashion as it was actually her that was controlling Malrick’s avatar! I thought that was tremendous and just when Vienna seemed like she was down and out, she really stole the show once again. Felman Shazarel was a fantastic character as the head of Death Inc and his interactions with Vienna were just great. I loved how he was adamant that she be assassinated but he did seem frightened by the idea of her being loose as she oozed control and confidence in almost every predicament! That was until she learned that her own memories weren’t quite as she knew them. Shazarel almost mocking her about her memories and knowing the truth about her parents was powerful stuff. I loved how she didn’t want to meet her true mother because she didn’t want her to know what her daughter had become. That was emotional and really made Vienna a likeable character. That’s not to say she hasn’t been likeable, but she’s felt like a bad guy until now. I like that shift and judging by how things ended with the mysterious figure claiming Vienna had been working for him all along was a nice way to set things up for the next series and leave things quite ambiguous. The reveal that avatar assassins were being used in the real world when they thought it was a simulation was incredible. I really did think that was sublime and was such a strong moment! The memories of Crevo Finn coming into play throughout as we heard the lengthy flashback scenes was really well done and rounded out the way the previous two episodes had concluded. As a whole, I thought this finale was pretty faultless with such a strong central premise at its heart whilst leading us into the next series. I don’t think it could have been better! Overall, just fantastic. 

Rating: 10/10