Abby and her sister Zara are not real people. They were made, created by pan-dimensional beings – the Grace – to help save space and time. The Grace gave them special powers. With just a thought they can be anywhere or when in the universe. They can affect people, see into their heads, influence their thoughts… They’re still learning what they can do.
Now they’ve completed their mission, the Grace have left them to fend for themselves. The universe is dangerous, unpredictable. Abby is not so good-as-gold as she appears. Zara’s already destroyed a whole world. And they’ve only got each other.
Part One: The Sphere
“It’s great here. You can get anything!”
The Sphere is a private satellite complex and offers every kind of entertainment. It doubles in size every week. They lash new hotels and casinos to the outer skin, pinning them in place with huge girders. Zara came here by mistake and was quickly caught up in the noise and excitement. It’s got into her head. When her sister Abby comes to the rescue, Zara insists that she can’t leave. What is the secret that Zara is carrying with her? Why is Abby so ill? And how long can she resist the Sphere getting into her head as well?
Part Two: The Fog
“There’s no such thing as witches.”
Abby and Zara find themselves in the small town of Compton in October, 1912. In the local pub they meet Nan, who offers them the local beer and then has them arrested. Something is killing the town’s children, something that hides in the fog, something that prevents Abby and Zara from leaving. But Abby knows something worse is coming to the town – something that will kill them all. Can Abby and Zara prove their innocence and help solve the mystery? Or is it sometimes better not to know?
Part Three: The End
“The Grace don’t know everything. We have to do what’s right!”
Abby and Zara’s past is catching up with them. A man they did wrong by has hunted them down across all of time and space, just to sell them out. The space pirate Kreekpolt knows the sisters can save his daughter’s life – even if it burns Abby and Zara completely away. After that, ten thousand dead souls – hungry and empty and furious – want whatever is left…
GRACELESS: THE SPHERE
I admit my first reaction to Amy and Zara in the Key 2 Time series from Big Finish was not “gosh, I wish they had their own spinoff” – but on reflection, it makes sense. Two women with supernatural abilities, constrained only by their own understanding, with malleable personalities that imprint their surroundings on their moral compasses? Yes, that can definitely work. And Simon Guerrier writing it? Sign me up.
There’s a lot to like about “The Sphere,” the first story in the series. I enjoy the idea of the Sphere itself: a “private satellite complex” that is constantly building outward in an infinite expansion of hotels, casinos, and red light districts. At its center, it is the most corrupt; at the outside, only a thin floor separates you from the vacuum of space beyond. It’s a metaphor for how it shapes Abby (not Amy anymore for many reasons) and Zara: a corrupt moral core constantly building new outward appendages, with the sisters trying to escape into a neater, cleaner place. And while the story plays off the roles the sisters took in the Doctor Who range, it immediately undercuts them: “The Sphere” is all about Abby being corrupted, falling victim to her surroundings the same way her sister did. This is smart, effective writing.
Unfortunately, it’s also problematic. Here we have a science fiction series with two compelling female leads, so what do we do in the very first episode? Make one of them pregnant, of course! I rolled my eyes so far back they almost got stuck. And the sexual messaging here is deeply misguided. Zara arrives on the Sphere first, and with no money or belongings to her name, she takes up with Marek (Fraser James), who offers her lodging in exchange for sex. She agrees. Later, when Abby arrives, Marek offers her the same proposition, and only some quick thinking avoids the same outcome. If it stopped there, it would be fine – but instead, Zara ends up falling in love with Marek and having his child, while Abby comes to regret avoiding his advances and goes back to have sex with him. Then Zara makes a comment about his “talents” and… ugh. I understand what’s happening here: Guerrier is trying to show how the influence of the Sphere is changing how the sisters think. Abby, for example, initially repulsed by Marek’s advances, starts to find him attractive even as she thinks less and less of the people of the Sphere in general. But that still leaves you with the image of two women developing feelings for an unapologetic rapist, and that means something, even if those women are really pan-dimensional alien creations. The way the story tries to soften Marek really doesn’t sit well in light of this, either.
All that being said, I want to hear more. “The Sphere” is a fine opening episode that clearly establishes our two main characters while Ciara Janson and Laura Doddington turn in excellent performances. I also like that this series will be unafraid to deal with mature topics and themes – it’s very refreshing to hear something Doctor Who-related that isn’t called Torchwood acknowledge that sex is a real thing that people do with each other. I just wish they hadn’t gone to the sex and pregnancy wells in the first episode.
Deeply flawed but I’m very curious to continue.
5/10
GRACELESS: THE FOG
The contrast between “The Sphere” and “The Fog” couldn’t be greater. Gone is the wild frontier of the Sphere, with its fast pace and frank sexuality, and in comes the very Doctor Who-like country village of Compton in 1912. Instead of the morally questionable Marek, Abby and Zara are supported (after first being accused) by Daniel (David Warner), the local justice of the peace. He’s a quiet, thoughtful man, one who deeply understands the thought process of the mob and knows how to protect the falsely accused. He’s also deeply rational: the first thought that comes to his head when he sees the sisters’ clearly supernatural powers is “witchcraft” but he dismisses it in lieu of a better explanation. Unlike Marek’s sleazy opportunist, Daniel is more of a paternal, protective figure – and David Warner is great in everything so he sells the role completely.
The plot also seems more traditional at first. A mysterious, cold fog that prevents people from coming or going surrounds the village, and the people are slowly disappearing. Is a killer on the loose? Does a monster lurk in the fog? Are the two sisters responsible? The non-traditional revelation is “none of the above” – it’s not a creature or a force or anything like that, it’s merely the after-effect of a disastrous meteor strike that wiped out the village. And it seems as though Abby and Zara had nothing to do with it – they’re simply caught in the wake of the destruction, trying to solve a mystery that isn’t there and save people who can’t be saved. There’s a fatalism to this story, but it’s a kindly fatalism: the people vanish when they realize they’re already dead. In other words, accepting their fate allows them to cross over, and the story doesn’t engage with what, if anything, may be waiting on the other side. “The Fog” is more about seeing how characters react to a difficult situation than it is about the resolution, and it makes the sisters seem more and more like real people and not artificial creations. Much better than the opening act.
8/10
GRACELESS: THE END
I suppose I’m just going to have to get used to Marek being a focal point of this series despite having done horrible, exploitative things to the main characters without a hint of apology. “The End” crystallizes a lot of what this series has been about, specifically judgment and consequences: how much do you judge people on their actions compared to their intent? Simon Guerrier writes Abby and Zara as generally good people: they have a strong idea of right and wrong, they have appealing personalities, they try not to offend, and so on. And yet, they have committed horrible atrocities, whether through mistake or corruption. Are they good people? Can they make up for the pain they have caused? Should they even try? All good questions, and all questions I’m hoping will be dealt with in future series.
And yet I keep coming back to Marek, despite the fact that the series is clearly asking the same questions about him. I think the big mistake here was making his crimes recognizable: I don’t know anyone that was killed when a space station blew up and took a hundred thousand lives, but I certainly do know people who have been the victims of sexual assault. And that’s not to say that anyone who commits a terrible act is automatically irredeemable: there are many examples of people who committed crimes, then turned their lives around and became productive members of society. The common factor in their redemption, however, is a clear recognition that their crimes were bad actions that hurt people and a desire for forgiveness. This is what we see from Abby and Zara, which is why I sympathize with them. But we don’t see that from Marek, so I don’t sympathize with him. And that wouldn’t be bad if the series portrayed him as an irredeemable jerk that the sisters are simply using for their own purposes, but it clearly wants us to root for him as part of this dysfunctional team. I don’t like it, at all, and unless it changes I’m going to keep taking points off.
Apart from that, “The End” gives us another difficult character in Kreekpolt (Michael Keating), a space pirate desperate to save his daughter’s life, even though she has suffered irreparably fatal burns. He will travel the length of time and space to find treatment for her, and will do whatever it takes to get it. Some of his actions are deeply immoral, but everything he does is driven by his love for his daughter and his inability to let go. When he is finally able to save her, he gives up his life for her without a moment’s hesitation. And so we come back to the same question: is he a villain? There’s no easy answer, but the story doesn’t take a side: it simply presents a vibrant, detailed character and lets the audience make up its own mind, and that’s great writing.
I’m looking forward to the second series of Graceless. I think Guerrier has created a fascinating group of characters and I’m eager to see where he takes them. I just wish something could be done with the one misguided character in the bunch.
7/10