Kaldor City
Story 1: Occam’s Razor
Magic Bullet
 
 
Story 1: Occam’s Razor
Written by Alan Stevens and Jim Smith
Directed by Alistair Lock and Alan Stevens

Paul Darrow (Iago), Alistair Lock (Voc Receptionist), Russell Hunter (Uvanov), Trevor Cooper (Rull), Brian Croucher (Cotton), Scott Fredericks (Carnell), Robert Lock (Voc 31), Alan Stevens (Voice 1), Mark Christian (Pull Buggy Voc), Patricia Merrick (Justina), Peter Miles (Landerchild), David Bickerstaff (Kyle), Bruce McGilligan (Voice 2), Fiona Moore (Lift), Tracy Russell (Computer Voice), Annabel Leventon (Devlin), Andy Hopkinson (Security Man), Matt Symonds (Voc Server), Peter Tuddenham (Strecker), Robert Edwards (Guard).


“You are dealing with a professional. Probably a hired killer. Resourceful, highly intelligent. A computer specialist.”

Kaldor: A city of robots on a world of robots.

The Board runs the Company, and the Company runs the planet. Nothing happens in Kaldor City without the Board’s approval. So how is it that its members are dying?

Company Chairholder Uvanov is faced with an escalating problem: political allies and enemies are being killed and nobody knows who will be next or why. Even Carnell, the ex-Federation psychostrategist, is at a loss to provide an explanation.

One man may hold the answers -- a man who crossed the border into Kaldor City six hours ago: Kaston Iago, a man with a past and maybe an agenda. A man with the skills to set everything right.

Kaldor City: Occam’s Razor uses characters and concepts from Chris Boucher’s Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker to tell a dark, aggressive tale of ultraviolence and political intrigue.


Notes:
  • The first in a series of original CD drama which use the characters, situations and settings from Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who.
  • Released: September 2001
 
 
Synopsis
(drn: 55'59")

Someone has been killing Company Firstmasters and delivering them to Uvanov’s office and home. The Voc robots programmed to make the deliveries have then exploded, leaving no evidence behind. Uvanov goes to the psycho-strategist Carnell for help, but Carnell refuses to make any deductions or predictions without sufficient information. Offended by Carnell’s smugness, Uvanov takes matters into his own hands and sends his security forces to arrest the chief suspect in the murders, an assassin named Kaston Iago who claims to be in town on holiday. Iago escapes, and in the confusion the two security teams accidentally open fire on each other. Nineteen guards are killed in the ensuing firefight.

Iago contacts Uvanov to inform him that he does not appreciate having his holiday interrupted, and Uvanov, realising that Iago is not responsible for the murders after all, offers to hire Iago as his bodyguard and security consultant. As Iago scouts out Uvanov’s home -- and becomes intimate with Uvanov’s personal assistant, Justina -- Uvanov attends a board meeting, and, at Carnell’s suggestion, has them pull all of the most recent voting records for analysis. As Carnell had predicted, this offends Uvanov’s bitterest enemy, Firstmaster Landerchild, who believes that Uvanov is accusing the board of setting up the murders themselves.

After perusing the voting records, Carnell visits Uvanov at his home to discuss his conclusions. There, he meets Iago, who has just ordered a number of expensive security upgrades -- and who reacts oddly when he meets Carnell, as if he knows what a psycho-strategist is. More Firstmasters have been killed, both allies and enemies of Uvanov, and although there appears to be no pattern to the murders, Carnell suggests that this is an attempt to subvert a forthcoming vote sponsored by Uvanov. Though this planet is isolated, its inhabitants are aware of the existence of life on other worlds, and Uvanov wishes the Company to make contact with them, with an eye towards future interplanetary trade. This will eventually destabilise the balance of power on the planet. Both Uvanov’s enemies and supporters have been killed in order to confuse the issue; however, when their replacements are voted onto the council, the vote will be stalemated at best.

If Carnell is correct, the mastermind is either Landerchild or Devlin, depending upon who is murdered next; Landerchild hates the upstart Uvanov, and Devlin has a personal grudge against Firstmaster Maco. Uvanov hides out in his home and sends Iago and Justina to a reception which both Landerchild and Devlin will be attending; while they are there, Maco is poisoned, presumably by Devlin herself. Uvanov takes immediate action by sending his security forces to Devlin’s home with orders to plant any evidence they need to justify their attack. In the confusion, Iago slips ahead of the other forces and assassinates Devlin.

The matter apparently having been resolved, Iago takes his payment for services rendered and prepares to leave Kaldor City. However, Carnell privately contacts him and reveals that he knows the truth; like Carnell, Iago is a fugitive from the interplanetary Federation, which is how he knew what a psycho-strategist actually is. Iago was the killer all along, and the murders were committed entirely at random simply to frighten Uvanov into hiring Iago as his bodyguard and paying him a great deal of money. Carnell invented the conspiracy in order to bring the matter to a close, and chose the future vote as an explanation because it is not in his interests for this world to establish contact with the Federation he has fled. Carnell and Iago part on reasonably amicable terms, understanding that neither has anything to gain from exposing the other... yet.

Source: Cameron Dixon (with thanks to Fiona Moore for corrections!)
  
 
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