TRANCERS 4, TRANCERS 5 (1994)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Unlike the previous entries in the TRANCERS series, each of which could more or less stand alone, the last two installments were shot back-to-back with the same characters and on the same inexpensive Romanian sets. Both were scripted by comics-writer Peter David, and though I'm sure it wasn't his decision to plop Jack Deth into a "dungeons and dragons" milieu, he should take full responsibility for producing two thoroughly boring and derivative scripts-- though still not as bad as his two OBLIVION scripts, completed around the same time-period.

The first three films, though no more than B-movie fodder, at least made a moderate attempt to establish some basic rules for their time-traveling hero, which is why I assigned those three flicks a "cosmological" function. But rules go out the window in these two entries. Deth abides in his normal 23rd century domain just long enough for two things: to establish (a) that both of his former wives have hooked up with other people, and (b) that a stunner named Lyra (Stacie Randall), a fellow employee at his cop-shop, takes particular pleasure in busting Deth's balls, metaphorically speaking. But Deth's not around long enough to see how much he likes it, for he's off on another mission.

However, his ship ends up on the world of Orpheus, where magic works and science is just a theory. Trancers exist here too, but they don't suffer from any mental impairment and they've come to dominate the human population. They also seem to be able to drain energy from humans without killing them. Their big boss is a lord named Calaban, who rules with an iron hand, though his son Prospero (groan) is a nicer guy. The tyrant's tyrannies generate a motley crew of rebels, led by one Shaleen (Terri Ivens).

Deth is of course greatly pissed off by getting stranded in a world of Creative Anachronisms, but his technology encourages the locals to think he may be some great savior. Two romantic arcs evolve. Deth meets a slave-woman who shares both the name and face of the Lyra from Deth's century, but this Lyra is a bit of a doormat, and that puts Deth off his game. Prospero rebels against his father and begins a love affair with Shaleen. Calaban's efforts to quash the rebels are foiled, but he's not defeated, since he has to return as the Big Bad for Part 5.

In Installment Five, Deth's still focused on getting back to his own time more than he is on helping the rebels. He's informed that he may be able to find a "time-diamond" at "The Castle of Unrelenting Terror," and David's script finds this pseudo-medievalism such a gut-buster that the phrase gets repeated at least half a dozen times, always with the expectation of rollicking laughter.

Before the quest for the castle even begins, David fills time with inconsequential prattle about the character's psychological hangups. Deth wonders if he can't accept the slavish Lyra because he really grooves on getting resistance from a ballsy woman, or something like that. Even when Deth and a few allies get going, the high point of the trip-- if you can call it that-- is Prospero complaining that Deth can't treat even sentient Trancers as equals. 

Deth and Prospero finally enter the castle, get delayed by dozens of alluring courtesans, and then encounter a band of robed ghouls. But there's still no action, for the ghouls just meekly give way when Deth yells at them. Meanwhile, the other characters have to deal with Lyra acting strangely-- possessed, maybe? Back at the castle, Deth fights his own mirror image, who mocks him for his shortcomings, and then Calaban shows up after having been merely talked about for the rest of the flick, and he wants to unleash some demons or something. He steals the time-diamond and teleports over to the rebel castle and starts wreaking havoc with his Trancers. It takes Deth mere moments to ride over with whatever horses he had and engage Calaban in witty repartee, though not a real battle. Prospero stabs his dad, who dies, and Deth grabs the diamond, so desperate to get home that he zaps the device. The diamond whisks both Deth and Prospero to the 23rd century-- though Deth has apparently left a bun in the oven of Archaic Lyra. Prospero gets a second chance at normality because his otherworldly Trancer nature vanishes in Deth's world, but he loses out on booty with Shaleen, while Deth finally gets another chance at romance with Futuristic Lyra.

Frankly, even the main attraction of the first three installments-- that of Jack Deth's terminal crabbiness and sardonicism-- is absent here, and the hero has a dearth of decent action-scenes. There's a little more action in Four than in Five, the main highlight being a swordfight between Shaleen and a Bad Trancer. The best I can say of this dismal conclusion to a mediocre series is that I've seen a lot of other DTV serials turn out even worse.