Well you can't say that these fearmongers can't write a comedy, understated though it is. Much like "The Trouble With Tribbles", it is pure camp yet a bit of the sinister delicately installed.
Atomic bomb aftermath on a scale far beyond Earth, the allure and danger of addiction, the drug culture (yes caffeine too >>> it is ironically sold in schools by way of soda ya know...), and the episode is taking place during the Cold War with some subtle nods. And who could have even known then, as we now do, that yes! - the Milky Way really is heading to a collision with Andromeda.
Couple all this with seeing Morse and O'Connor in really offbeat (for them) and enjoyable roles, adding in Yeoman Rand as a jilted murderer, and the murder itself so dissected it becomes amusing, and ultimately thwarted, in direct violation of the orders 'from above' - because of the newly arrived austere inspector's growing affection for we silly Earthlings, with O'Connor's now-acclimated alien's fondness being already accomplished.....folks it's a truly enjoyable yet deeper-than-expected piece of science fiction, just as the writers intended, mixing a bit of comic relief from the usual dead-serious intensity but not eschewing the deeper messages of every episode, only camouflaging them a bit. As an 8 year old, this episode was boring. As an adult, not at all.
Atomic bomb aftermath on a scale far beyond Earth, the allure and danger of addiction, the drug culture (yes caffeine too >>> it is ironically sold in schools by way of soda ya know...), and the episode is taking place during the Cold War with some subtle nods. And who could have even known then, as we now do, that yes! - the Milky Way really is heading to a collision with Andromeda.
Couple all this with seeing Morse and O'Connor in really offbeat (for them) and enjoyable roles, adding in Yeoman Rand as a jilted murderer, and the murder itself so dissected it becomes amusing, and ultimately thwarted, in direct violation of the orders 'from above' - because of the newly arrived austere inspector's growing affection for we silly Earthlings, with O'Connor's now-acclimated alien's fondness being already accomplished.....folks it's a truly enjoyable yet deeper-than-expected piece of science fiction, just as the writers intended, mixing a bit of comic relief from the usual dead-serious intensity but not eschewing the deeper messages of every episode, only camouflaging them a bit. As an 8 year old, this episode was boring. As an adult, not at all.