Knife's Edge (episode)


*The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.*

Knife's Edge was the fifth episode of Season 1 of The Elysium. It was written by Matthew B. Roberts, with a story by himself and Toni Graphia, directed by Anna Foerster and it featured Mina Anwar, Esai Morales, Suzanne Packer, Pallance Dladla and Sinead Keenan.

Synopsis

With the miner's strike starting and his Vice President betraying him, Ajacos begins to feel the pressure. Meanwhile, Lea is held captive by the Rhaighrs and seem to want something from her: The Equal of the Lesser.

Plot

Twelve Years Ago: Julie walks through the mines, breathing heavily, on edge. She finds a 9-year-old girl laying in the corner, covered with blankets; her skin completely pale. She sits down with her and says, “Mummy’s here”. The girl, Collie, tells Julie that she’s frightened. Julie, on the verge of tears, asks what she’s frightened of and Collie replies telling her that she’s scared of what comes next. Julie pulls her into her arms, but when she holds her, she notices that everything has gone cold. A single tear runs down Julie’s face and she hugs Collie tighter, despite feeling the heartbeat stop.

Present Day: Julie steps into frame on the transmission. She tells them of her life story and says that being enslaved her is a fate worse than death. She hugs Jan as she tells them that she and every single other miner is on strike and until they are paid, recognised, given good conditions and the freedom to choose if they want to be a miner or not, the fleet will not be getting any Kheqren. Julie starts shouting “Strike” over and over again with the crowd.

In the Horretz village, Meithekk sits down on a log, solemnly. Eddie is next to him, filming him. Meithekk politely tells him to stop, just for a moment. He says this shouldn’t have happened – this massacre – he tells him that the Cizzauran troops must’ve been distracted, taken off guard, but the Scallatti should’ve helped out – should’ve reinforced them.

A pair of eyes. Lea’s eyes. They shoot open, as she wakes up in the Rhaighr village. Khrrasssrr approaches her, he leans over. He tells Lea that they’ve heard a lot about her… the genius of the Inferior. He grabs a hold of her and tells her that if all her people were like her, they’d be the Equal, but that is not the case. Lea asks what they want with her, but Khrrasssrr just says that her presence has been requested by the almighty, herself, and she is not one to be argued with.

Richard brushes his teeth, to go to bed, with force. He looks in the mirror as he sees himself, unlike how he was expecting. In the mirror, he sees Tena walk up behind him. She tells him that he needs to stop being so tense. She says that he needs to calm down or he’ll crack. Tena says that getting stressed about a strange message from possibly thousands of years ago, won’t help him. Richard turns around and hugs her, knowing that she’s right.

Ajacos shouts in anger as he slams his fist on the table. He can’t understand why Roddy would betray him like this. Claude tells him that it’s Roddy’s naivety and that he should never have trusted him with the position of Vice President. Ajacos tells Syd that she needs to send someone over to the mines to negotiate. Syd leaves the room to find Calem sitting outside, and she tells her to assemble a team and go down to the mines.

In the mines, Julie and Roddy speak to each other as they discuss the plan. Roddy tells her to get everyone deep down into the mine, as far as possible, in case the forces try and get in. Julie asks whether it’d be a good idea to get some of the miners to block up the entrance with a load of Kheqren, to which Roddy has a wide smile saying that she’s getting the hang of this.

Julie walks over to the miners and tells them what to do. They all applaud her as she speaks, as a smile comes onto her face, the first one in a long time. Jan gets up off the floor and asks his mother what can do. Julie responds by telling him that he needs to join everyone at the bottom of the mines and hide there in safety. Jan hugs her and tells her that he loves her before he walks off with a group of miners down deeper.

A tall Rhaighr female sits in a beautiful room, covered hundreds of Kheqren jewels as well as rich fabrics and furniture. A beautiful male Rhaighr sits down beside her, almost lying at her feet. She is Thrreodhrirr. She tells the male Rhaighr, Berzhrr, to call the Equal of the Inferior. Lea is brought into the room and is sat down, quite comfortably on a piece of furniture, not unlike a sofa. Thrreodhrirr welcomes Lea in, acting far nicer and more charming than Lea had been treated up until this point.

Calem approaches the entrance to the mines, having just come off a ship. Behind her, Jeriah and a dozen armed mercenaries. Calem takes out a megaphone and asks for Roddy to come out and speak with them. There is no response. Calem speaks again asking for Roddy to come out and if he doesn’t they will force their way in. After a minute, Calem gives the nod to Jeriah to do just that. The mercenaries attempt to break in, but they can’t. Inside the mines, Roddy smiles to the miners as they’ve blocked up the entrance with Kheqren.

Richard and Tena sit in bed. They have a conversation about work, and Tena speaks about some of her worst students. Richard tells her that it’s very unprofessional of her, but Tena just laughs saying that it's not like he doesn’t do it. After a moment of silence, Richard tells her that he is really worried about his sister. He says that Lea’s gone missing again. Tena tells him that he needs to realise that she’s one of the most intelligent people on this planet, and she’ll be able to get out of whatever trouble she’s in just fine. Richard says he knows but he wishes she’d just stay in safety instead of spending so much time with those aliens. Tena looks at him and says that to them, they’re the aliens.

Berzhrr gives Lea a strange drink. Lea takes it and begins drinking it. Thrreodhrirr tells her that she’s sorry their two peoples got off to a bad foot and she’s just really interested in them. Lea asks what she’d like to know and Thrreodhrirr begins by asking where they came from. From there point of view, the whole of their species appeared overnight. Lea chuckles, which Thrreodhrirr flinches at, and tells her that she and her people, known as the Scallatti, come from the stars, up in the sky. They come from a distant planet, that not even she knows, and they have settled on Taoter III as their new home. Thrreodhrirr asks what Taoter III is and Lea responds by telling her that she might know it as Kanonhsa. Thrreodhrirr gaps with rage, almost spitting with insult, saying that Kanonhsa is the Cizzauran word for their planet, and not to be spoken within these walls.

Julie walks down deep into the mines to join Jan and many of the other miners, but she takes a wrong turn and gets lost. She calls out, if anyone is there, and she hears a strange noise. She pursues it, before falling into a huge cavern, taking her miles below the surface, and knocking her unconscious.

At the entrance to the mines, Calem tells Jeriah to send for reinforcements. She tells him that they are putting an end to this ‘strike’ sooner rather than later. Roddy hears this, from inside and tells the miners that she better have good luck with that because it’s not going to happen.

In the Horretz village, Meithekk speaks to Seganseh in the distance. Eddie looks on at them, filming with his camera. He speaks to it, saying that Meithekk has been really hit by the attack, and even though the original estimate for the fatalities was much higher than reality, it’s really knocked Meithekk. Eddie does note that Seganseh seems to be taking it really well and has stepped up as a leader.

Richard turns on the television in his sitting room. He begins to watch the news, giving a large percentage of its coverage to the miner’s strike. Ajacos gives a statement saying that they are doing everything possible to combat the problem, however, there are expected power cuts in the coming hours. But before Ajacos can finish, the power cuts off in Richard’s house. Richard quips to Tena that he should’ve said seconds.

Julie wakes up, finding herself in the cavern. She looks around seeing nothing at first, but then something catches her eye. She’s almost surprised she didn’t see it before. A Cizzauran – all on its own, roaming the cavern.

Lea continues to speak to Thrreodhrirr as she continues her line of questioning. Thrreodhrirr asks about where the Scallatti settlements are, but Lea doesn’t answer. Lea asks if she could ask something instead. Thrreodhrirr says that she’s welcome to it. Lea explains her theory that she views her as the figurehead of her people, and she wants to find out all the Scallatti tactical information to ready themselves to launch an assault. Lea finishes by asking if she’s right. Thrreodhrirr only responds by telling Berzhrr to take her back to Khrrasssrr.

Julie sits with the Cizzauran and tries to communicate. She doesn’t have a translator, they didn’t think to give the miners one, but the Cizzauran doesn’t seem particularly keen on speaking much, anyway. The Cizzauran moves away from Julie towards the other side of the cavern.

Roddy enters the lower part of the mine and speaks to all the miners. He sees Jan alone and looks confused. He asks everyone where Julie is, but they say they don’t know. Roddy has a quick look around the mines, returning to the entrance, and scanning around the tunnels but he can’t see any sign of her. After a few minutes, he asks a group of miners to come with him to look for her.

Tena lights a candle as she brings it over to Richard. She tells him that they had a lot of this on the Barrac. Richard asks her to tell him about it. She speaks about how it was a fairly normal ship, but it wasn’t that well off. They had power shortages, quite often. In her school they didn’t have the luxury of vast electronic equipment as all of the power needed to go to the actual ship itself, so they could fly. She speaks about how the accident really shook everyone up and how horrible it was to lose everyone who didn’t make it. Richard asks if she lost anyone special before Tena bursts into tears and tells him that she lost everyone. She says that all 400,000 that died make her hurt so much every day. Richard takes her into a hug, as she weeps.

Julie walks back over to the Cizzauran and introduces herself as Julie, in an attempt to get him to say his name to her, but she gets nothing. Julie looks down in despair and confusion. She then goes back to the Cizzauran and says ‘unalii’, remembering Lea speaking about it on the news, but the Cizzauran still doesn’t respond.

Khrrasssrr walks over to a tied-up Lea in one of the huts. He smiles as he touches her, telling her that she’s nothing and worthless to everyone. He says that when the Almighty called her the Equal, she was just trying to charm her, as really, she’s just the lesser. Lea laughs at this attempt to hurt her, she says she doesn’t care about being the Lesser or the Equal, or even the Superior. Khrrasssrr tells her that if she were a Rhaighr she’d fundamentally care about whether she was Lesser, Equal or Superior. Lea says that maybe that’s what they can’t understand about the Scallatti, they simply don’t care.

Roddy and a group of the miners search the tunnels before finding the hole in the ground which Julie fell through. He looks down to see Julie and the Cizzauran at the bottom. Roddy shouts down to Julie asking if she’s alright and she responds saying yes, but there’s something odd going on with the Cizzauran. Roddy’s eyebrow raises as he has an idea, before telling Julie that they’re gonna get the two of them out.

Richard asks Tena what exactly happened to the Barrac, as the news were always a bit vague about it. Tena tells Richard that she’d rather not talk about it, as it’s a bit of a touchy subject for her. Richard says that’s alright but raises an eyebrow.

The miners pull Julie and the Cizzauran up with the mining equipment, getting them into the tunnel. Roddy then takes out some handcuffs and arrests the Cizzauran, much to Julie’s avail and shock. Julie asks what he’s playing at and Roddy says that they need a hostage, and a Cizzauran hostage will certainly give the President some headaches.

Khrrasssrr enters Thrreodhrirr’s Palace and tells her that the Lesser is not responding to any of his usual methods. Thrreodhrirr says that it’s a shame he can’t do his job properly and takes a pike from the wall, walks over to Khrrasssrr and stabs him with it. She tells Khrrasssrr that he’s had an honourable death, and he should be content with that as he is an Equal. Thrreodhrirr then tells Berzhrr that they should prepare for battle, the information won’t be far away when she turns up the heat on the Lesser.

In Ajacos’ office, a transmission begins on the screen from Roddy again. He, Claude and Syd listen carefully, but they become shocked as he reveals the Lone Cizzauran and says that either their demands are met, or they kill him. He says that before Claude thinks about just letting them do it and not telling the Cizzaurans, they are broadcasting this to Eddie Nickos Kyprianos’ television equipment, set up in the Horretz village, so they should see it and may very well see it as grounds for war. Claude looks fuming as the transmission ends, but Ajacos just sits still, not knowing what to do.

Meithekk gulps as the transmission finishes. He tells Eddie that he doesn’t know what to do. Eddie asks if he recognises the Cizzauran and Meithekk says that he doesn’t, but they surely have to do something. Seganseh tells him that they must get him back at all costs. Eddie tells Meithekk to think about that as it would mean war against his people. Meithekk stares solemnly at Eddie and says, “I know”.

The miners sit around the Lone Cizzauran looking at him, with all their hope riding on a complete and total stranger.

Cast

Starring

Co-Starring

Crew

Based upon "Doctor Who" Created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber
Created by Ronald D. Moore and Jane Espenson

Executive Producers - Jane Espenson, Ronald D. Moore and Toni Graphia
Co-Executive Producers - Matthew B. Roberts, Andy Harries, Jim Kohlberg and Anne Kenney

Writer - Matthew B. Roberts
- Story by Matthew B. Roberts and Toni Graphia
Producer - David Brown
Director - Anna Foerster

Memorable Quotes

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Background Information

Production History

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Development

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Production

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Post-Production

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Reaction

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Story Notes

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Continuity

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Home Video Releases

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