Vinni
"I told you I was faster."
Vinni appeared in the episode "Death Watch.
DEETA: Have you found out any more about their man?
MAX: Not really. He doesn't seem to have a history. He just turned up about the time the border problem was developing. He killed Rakov in a private challenge and was automatically proclaimed First Champion of the Vandor Confederacy.
DEETA: Any fights since then?
MAX: Rakov's son tried to take him. Strictly no contest.
DEETA: What do you think?
MAX: It's all been according to the rules.
DEETA: I don't know, Max. Smells like a set-up. Those two who tried to kill me on the Teal Star: they knew in advance the precise time that Vandor declared war.
SERVALAN: By all means. [Deeta bows, then turns and walks to the entrance where his way is blocked by Vinni. He steps to the side but Vinni moves to stay in front of him. They do this twice more.]
VINNI: You're not good enough to get past me, Tarrant.
DEETA: You're going to look pretty silly flat on your back with a face full of footprints.
VINNI: [laughs] My name is Vinni. I've come to kill you. [moves aside to allow Deeta to pass] You're a dead man, Tarrant.
DEETA: They're the worst kind. [exits] [Vinni crosses to bow to the Arbiters.]
[Deeta's ready room. Max is waiting when Deeta enters.]
DEETA: I've just met their man. I don't like him. [sits in a chair with a control panel attached to the right arm and an electronic, helmet-like device atop the back.]
MAX: Did you expect to?
DEETA: I don't mean personally. I mean there's something strange about him, something wrong.
VINNI: [holds up hands with his gun pointing off uselessly in the air and shouts] Tarrant! You get one free shot, Tarrant! [pause, then holsters his gun, runs across the main open area of the building into a more enclosed area and climbs up a ladder.]
VINNI: [shouting from o.o.s.] Tarrant! Tarrant! We're wasting time, Tarrant. We could die of old age chasing each other around here.
DEETA: What do you suggest we do? Draw straws?
[Combat grounds. Vinni is standing in the more enclosed area.]
VINNI: We draw guns, Tarrant. Isn't that what you're best at? Only I'm better and I'm going to prove it. Holster your gun--I'll meet you out in the open, face to face. Fast man wins. What do you say? [Deeta walks up behind him, unnoticed.] Well, have you got the stomach for it? [Deeta aims his gun at Vinni's back then holsters it] What do you say, Tarrant?
DEETA: All right. [Vinni spins around at the sound of his voice.] Let's see if you're as fast with your gun as you are with your mouth. [Vinni grins and leads the way into the larger, open-to- the-sky, area of the building. He turns to face Deeta, who has his hand on his holstered gun. Vinni holds up his empty hands.]
VINNI: After you, Tarrant. [Deeta starts to draw his gun. Change to slow motion as we see the smoke from Vinni's shot and that Deeta's gun isn't even fully aimed yet. Deeta is blown back by the impact.]
[Combat grounds. Vinni stands over Deeta's body]
VINNI: [to Deeta] I told you I was faster. [looking up as if to the audience, shouts] Deeta Tarrant is dead! [Walks off a few steps] I claim victory for the Vandor Confederacy of Planets.
DAYNA That's it. There was no instinct. No anticipation. I wai-- HE waited for things to happen and then reacted to them. But when he did react it was so fast it was exhilarating. I began to feel the other man couldn't shoot me because I could move before any shot could reach me.
AVON: Well, Orac?
ORAC: It is my conclusion that the one called Vinni is not human, but is in fact a highly sophisticated android exquisitely programmed as a gunfighter.
TARRANT: Deeta was fighting a machine?
AVON: And when that is revealed, all hell breaks loose.
CALLY: How will they find out?
ORAC: There is a little used regulation which allows any of the arbiters to call for a medical examination of the winning combatant.
CALLY: Won't it resist?
ORAC: The Vinni android will regard itself as human. It will have no reason to resist such an examination.
Vinni was a human android that was built as part of Servalan's plot to take over the United Planets of Teal and the Vandor Confederacy by making it appear as though Vandor had violated the Teal-Vandor Convention. He became First Champion of Vandor by killing the previous Champion and taking his position, and seems to have had no history before then. Meanwhile, Vandor and Teal had a dispute over borders and war was declared. Vinni faced Teal's Champion, Deeta Tarrant, in the Combat Grounds, goaded him into facing him directly and killed him. Servalan then insisted that Vinni undergo a medical examination which would reveal that he was an android, thus resulting in real war between Teal and Vandor, making both systems easy pickings for the Federation.
Before the scan could be completed, Dayna invaded the arbiter's chamber and threatened Servalan to buy time for Tarrant to challenge Vinni, something he had the legal right to do under Tealian law since Vinni had killed his brother. Vinni accepted the challenge, and the duel was held in the Combat Grounds. With Orac's ability to read tarial cells, this gave Tarrant the advantage, and he was able to disintegrate Vinni using one of Dayna's experimental weapons. War was averted because the evidence of the cheating had been destroyed.
Vinni is known to have participated in two duels besides those with Deeta and Del Tarrant. There may have been more, but they aren't mentioned. He was inhumanly fast. He was also very smug, supremely confident in his speed, and adept at using both voice and body to irritate.
There is some speculation among fans as to whether Vinni was completely mechanical or partially organic. Whatever the case, the differences from the human norm would have had to be detectable by routine medical scan for Servalan's plan to work.
(c) Tiger M, Sept. 1999
Vinni was played by Mark Elliott.
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