Oracle's desire to finish the first Jupiter Moon DVD on a strong cliffhanger meant that we got eleven episodes instead of ten, with the knock-on effect that we only get nine episodes this time around.

Fortunately, the series' storylines are really starting to get going now so the lower episode count isn't that noticeable. However, I do think that Oracle might have been better off including the extras from volume one on this one instead to balance things up a little.

With the girls' accommodation jettisoned, things are getting cramped aboard the Ilea. Herlinde finds herself sharing with Anna Bergani, and the fact that Finbow is only a couple of doors down doesn't improve her mood. (The fact that Finbow might have more important things on his mind - such as the ship itself - has to be pointed out to her.)

The loss of Naiad 14 means that the stores situation is critical, so Rosie limits everyone to 900 calories a day. Even so, there's only enough for sixteen weeks - although Alex has talked Timmy into stealing a box of supplies.

While the students squabble about who's sharing with who, others are trying to ascertain just what's going on outside the ship. However, Eliot's intention to do nothing except get drunk isn't really an option when the CO2 extractors stop fully functioning and the ship starts to run out of air, leading to mutiny on the Ilea...

The nine episodes here serve up a good mix of soap opera and science-fiction that never resorts to technobabble.

The series' budget means that characters are liable to disappear for a recording block, but they are referred to by the others, which provides for some continuity.

This volume really sees the series finding its feet, with the battle to free the ship from the plasma ball providing some good cliff-hangers in the final few episodes.

As I said earlier, I wish that Oracle had put some of the extras from volume one on this set to make up for the lower episode count. The Design of the Ilea feature with Bob Parkinson is a prime example. Part 2, which is what we get here, barely runs to four minutes, making it seem fairly inconsequential, whereas shifting Part 1 over from the first set would have made for a more substantial feature. A minor quibble is that the volume on this feature is ludicrously low - I had to have it at about 75% of the max in order to hear it.

A couple of text features and a German language of episode 11 round out the extras. The latter is worth looking at once, if only to hear how each character is dubbed, but you're unlikely to bother with it again (unless you can speak German, of course). It would also have been nice to know just why this is "the 'lost' German episode".

My only complaint about volume 2 is that it makes the viewer want more, and Oracle's release schedule seems too slow. I can appreciate that Jupiter Moon is very much a niche product, and that they wouldn't want to have too much tied up in stock, but 3-4 month gaps between volumes of ten episodes seems an awfully long time to wait. Oh well, I've got a stack of other series I can watch in the meantime, but the long gaps mean that some of the series' ongoing momentum is going to be lost, particularly with the first couple of episodes per volume.

The ongoing nature of Jupiter Moon makes reviewing each volume a bit pointless. If you're hooked after 20 episodes, chances are you'll pick up subsequent volumes, and if you haven't got into by now, you're unlikely to dip into a future volume, regardless of the quality of those episodes. Therefore, I've decided not to put up any further reviews of the series, even though I, for one, am hooked. back to the top

EPISODES 12-20:
THE PLASMA BALL

Written by HELEN LEADBEATER, MARGARET PHELAN,
ROBERT SMITH, DIANA SOUHAMI,
JULIAN SPILSBURY,
NICK WARBURTON

Directed by CLIVE FLEURY,
KAY PATRICK, GARTH TUCKER

Starring
LUCY BENJAMIN,
CAROLINE EVANS,
ANNA CHANCELLOR,
JASON DURR,
PHIL WILMOTT


ORACLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT

REGION 2 PAL (CERT: PG)


NEXT RELEASE:
RETURN TO SPACE CITY

PREVIOUS RELEASE:
INVASION FROM SPACE