Chief Designer Korolev thwarts Colonel Raskova in her attempt to thwart his scientific endeavours, while Irina is determined to thwart Valya Mirinov’s treachery. However Sasha is unthwarted in his burgeoning love for Anastasia who herself is feeling extremely thwarted in her ambitions to fly again.

Catching up with the opening episodes of Star City last week, I was impressed that, dramatic licence accepted, this Soviet set spinoff from For All Mankind had enough of a toe on planet earth to be at least vaguely plausible and felt true to the spirit of the time.

Sitting down to the fifth installment, however, I wondered whether the episode title ‘Bite Your Elbow’ was an oblique refence to the (miserable) Soviet shark the writers have decided to launch the show over at the series mid-point. Cosmonaut Valya is in trouble, marked as a traitor by ambitious Irina (Agnes O’Casey) desperate to impress Rosa Klebb/Colonel Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin). Valya will be lucky to avoid a bullet in the back of the head. Simultaneously, we’re supposed to believe that Rhys Ifans’ Chief Designer’s plan to smuggle three cosmonauts into a diving bell bound for Venus without anyone, including the KGB, noticing is anything other than laughable parabolic shark food. But then, about two-thirds of the way through the episode it dawns on the audience how the two storylines are about to intersect. ‘Surely not!’ we cry. ‘Oh yes,’ comes the narrative response. ‘Buckle up, peeps, it’s going to get sillier and sillier. You’d be advised to leave your brains at the door.’

And then there’s all the thwarting. There’s so much thwarting going on, I’m waiting for one of the characters to actually say: ‘Bah! Foiled again!!’

Verdict: Having said all this, and for all its weapons grade silliness, I’m still very much enjoying Star City – thwarts and all. 6/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com