Thoughts & Epilogue
AFTERMATH ***1/2 Written by Terry Nation,
Directed by Vere Lorrimer
After the big-build up in last season's nail-biting finale, the pay-off
depicted here is pitiful. The biggest single event ever portrayed in Blake's
7, the Intergalactic War, is cobbled together from very poorly chosen stock
footage. The effects shots themselves are very good, some of the better
effects shots with no wobble at all but the sourcing leaves a lot to be
desired. With same opening shot as Star One, the cruise-liner Nova
Queen, resurrected from the dead, collides with another freighter identical
to the one it originally collided with. Why? Space City (?!) attacks the
Liberator, and a Federation pursuit ship seemingly self destructs. The
only effects' sequences we don't see again are the prison ship London,
the Spacemaster, the mini-Liberators, the damaged Liberator from Countdown
and the destruction of station XK72 which we may well have seen if one
idea was carried through and the Liberator was destroyed during the battle.
Curiously enough, we don't see anything of Star One itself. This is all
so galling when we see lots of footage of life- pods and the like but no
decent battle shots. Did we need to see the Federation ship (a new design)
dock with the Liberator when we had to watch the quivalent of a gun battle
between Ceasar's Palace and the Love Boat? In isolation, the intergalatic
war gets only 1/2 an asterisk for being slung together in such a cynical
fashion. Even the explosions on the Liberator flight deck seem to have
come from Countdown. The shot of Zen was probably filmed during the studio
days for Powerplay and the one new shot of the battle is a video image
of the Liberator model superimposed over an explosion (the same shot is
used later on in the episode). I expected a lot more from Vere Lorrimer.
As for the rest, it's great. It's an Avon and Dayna episode with Vila
and Cally making what amounts to film insert cameos at the beginning. Servalan
proves that she doesn't need Travis and what a bitch she makes. Good performances
all around, apart from Lauren who's more wooden than certain stars of Captain
Scarlet. The actress has been seen in other shows doing a decent job so
what gives? This being Josette Simon's first acting job (She was still
at drama school and a deal had to be done with Equity to allow her to join
the show ahead of more established actresses such as Marina Sirtis), she
does a fantastic job when she has to run the gamut of emotions here. And
in what was Avon's first spotlight episode, the first with Paul Darrow
as the star, we get a powerful performance. You don't get the feeling that
he was the co-star only last season.
There is a major change in this episode with Blake and Jenna
being written out without it sounding like they're being written out. You'd
expect that Cally and Vila would have made contact with Zen and for whatever
reasons, Blake and Jenna were lost. But if you listen to Zen, the two departing
characters made contact but their whereabouts were unclear.
After the initial disappointing start, the episode turns about to be
a good start to the season with a new style set, even if it is a somewhat
unique episode with format similarities to The Way Back. The new opening
titles start off well but become monotonous after the first pass of the
pursuit ships. It's almost as if they didn't have any more ideas after
seeing the Liberator being chased. Personally, my first vague memories
of Blake's 7 are of this episode. In the years before I became a fan, my
early memory of this became fused with an early memory of episode three
of Hitch-Hiker's guide to the Galaxy on ABC Radio in about 1980.
...
POWERPLAY ***1/2 Written by Terry Nation,
Directed by David Maloney
Stephen Pacey's first (and penultimate) good showing this season for
he isn't given Blake's lines. The three separate storylines dovetailing
into one is handled well enough if you can believe the Liberator's life
capsules have such long range for Vila to land such a long way away from
Sarran. Avon's determination to regain control of the Liberator is interesting
given the remarkable lack of a search for Blake and Jenna this season.
"This is my ship.' A little premature considering he had no idea Blake
would be lost at the time. The search for Blake in season three was so
subtle as to alienate people who expected him to return. Had be been more
forcefully put out of action, the third season might have a chance to find
its own direction.
From here, Tarrant has promise. Dayna, also works well, especially
with Avon, with little sign that Simon would end up spouting Jenna's lines.
The frightening premise of the slaughterhouse makes you wonder about the
sincereity about those Medibank Private ads. Terry Nation stories always
worked better with some sort of Nazi characters and this is no exception.
Good direction, engaging story and better than usual performances from
all with a few little problems such as the fact Vila and Cally are allowed
to keep their teleport bracelets on during an operation and where the hell
is Orac? Thankfully, hiccups don't detract from a good installment like
this.
...
VOLCANO ** Written by Allan Prior, Directed
by Desmond McCarthy
The first of a run of duds from a writer not suited to the series,
Volcano is an oddly unengaging runabout, particularly after the two strong
opening episodes. The story is aimless with lots of coincidences and a
lack of consistency when it comes to handling Cally's telepathy. The Liberator
is taken too easily, and regained even easier with way too many plot short
cuts to be believed. The dialogue, apart from the odd joke, is terrible
and unbelievable. No one puts in a very good performance in this one. Servalan,
Michael Gough- they all suck. It really is a bad episode.
The post-war Federation is a real bone of contention. With even cheaper
looking ship- interiors than last season and a horrendous whale-like design
for the hitherto-unseen heavy cruisers, we see what happens when designers
with no idea about sci-fi try to make their mark in a sci-fi series, though
the interiors of Obsidian are an improvement on what we are used to in
the series. The space-battle scene is handled slightly better than the
war in Aftermath with the effects sequences better than we are used to
and it is the first time we see an encounter in which both the Federation
and the Liberator fire at each other- the only time in fact we see this
in the series.
Despite the low grade film stock and unhelpful lighting on the new
model footage, the editing ensures an exciting atmosphere free of obvious
wobbles. Much better than the so-called Galactic War (as it now referred
to). The hand-gun battle on the Liberator could have used a few cuts to
tighten things up though works well- enough.
A rather pointless story without the inter-crew antagonism soon
to be the norm, although a sense of distrust between the old and new crew
memebers would survive another few eps. Blake's whereabouts and why his
recovery is such a low priority is explained away in a few throwaway lines.
Avon has finally gotten his shot at the Liberator, he's hardly going to
be motivated enough to go out of his way to look for the man he tried so
hard to get rid of in the first place. In the only proper allusion as to
why they don't look too hard with rumours of Blake's whereabouts being
akin to sightings of Elvis in McDonalds, it's just a pity that this wasn't
reinforced a few more times, as it would have given some badly- needed
direction to the season. With a better director it might have worked. Just
look at his next story...
...
DAWN OF THE GODS **1/2 Written by James
Follet, Directed by Desmond McCarthy
A slight improvement with the most metaphysical story elements seen
since Shadow, Dawn of the Gods is a weird story by a new author with the
Liberator landing(!) and lots of speculative science about black holes.
Although rather Star-Trekky, the ep is at least more logical than Volcano,
if the first half is not as engaging as the second half. The Tharn isn't
much of a threat with the Caliph doing all of the moustache-twirling, an
all-too-easy escape which comes all too quickly after arriving on Crandor.
While not a Cally episode, only Dayna seems to get shortchanged in the
lines department. I do like the idea of Crandor looking for a person named
Orac and the reuse of Zen's security device from Spacefall, even though
it was missing when Klegg's men boarded in Aftermath. The slide show the
Tharn treats Cally to in order to win her allegiance reminded me of the
Planetarium, or this guy who did a Blake's 7 slide show at Conquest '85.
It doesn't advance anything. The characterisations of Avon, Vila and Cally
in this sp, as well the one before and after, are rather lame with Vila's
stupidity in this episode mixed in with some good lines. During the low
points he's a a cross between Dr Smith and Muffet from the Battlestar Galactica
pilot.
...
HARVEST OF KAIROS **1/2 Written by Ben
Steed, Directed by Gerald Blake
Not as bad as its reputation makes out and certainly not worse than
the two preceding episodes and perhaps seems terrible compared to the next
few episodes which are some of the series' best. Flaws are manifold: Every
scene set on Servalan's badly- redecorated space-station is amateurishly
written, acted and directed; Just when did Tarrant become the ship's leader
(Who substituted 'Tarrant' for 'Blake' in the script); Whose idea was it
to make Jarvik such a mysogynist when he's supposed to be a nice guy as
opposed to a typical Federation thug and who thought the Kairopan spiders
looked that frightening? Oh, and the way the Federation gets control of
the Liberator again is also worthy of major ridicule.
On the other hand, the rather distracted Avon becomes the comic relief
rather than Vila for perhaps the only time in ther series, and has to be
for Steed's premise that 'Tarrant is the leader' to work. Whilst Sopron
was merely the way to regain the ship, it seems a pity that the idea was
never mentioned again. This being episode five, we have already seen three
major space battles, which considering Liberator only fired in anger five
times last season (Three times on-screen and twice underneath the end credits),
the show was becoming more and more like Star Wars as the budgets slowly
rose. Better than the reputation would suggest but it's still rather average.
Steed is so obviously unable to have healthy relationships with women based
on his three Blake scripts. Here it is just words but later...
...
CITY AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD *****
Written by Chris Boucher, Directed by Vere Lorrimer
A big jump in quality all round with the season's first 'classic' and
also the first 'perfect' Blake episode. Also, the first show where a romance
would play such a big part, that and the fact that Vila so obviously gets
laid in this episode, one that has similarities with its Trek 'almost'
name-sake. The 'Vila' episode, we get to see Michael Keating shine for
a change- he doesn't have to play the fool and be the butt of everyone
else's jokes. It's that same old story of boy being meets girl being, etc
although the rather tough Kerril's IQ drops the second she gets into a
dress. Lady gunfighter? Sound familiar? It will be.
Accomplished direction from Lorrimer and a fine script from Boucher
serve the show like no previous episode with all departments of the production
pulling their weight here with no duff effects (other than the light-up
Liberator guns, which are endemic to the series), good-looking sets and
decent lighting for a change. I can't praise the episode enough, and good
reviews are notoriously dull to read (and write!). Gush, gush, gush, gush,
more gush (enough of the gush! you've done the gush to death. no more gush).
The best episode of the season. See ya next time...
...
...
Rescue *** Written by Chris Boucher Directed
by Mary Ridge
With last season's ratings being so good, there seemed little point
in canning the show as planned, so a late decision was made to make a fourth
season to be broadcast some 18 months after season three. Vere Lorrimer
became producer and Jan Chappell decided against returning (recording two
words for a voice-over), leaving Soolin as the replacement character although
it would be three episodes before we saw much of Glynis Barber. For the
most part, she is good, although in the rather poor scenes in the cave,
she along with everyone else comes across as being wooden. Geoffrey Burridge
as Dorian starts off all right but as soon as the menace creeps in to the
story, the dialogue becomes less Dorian Grey (a little obvious, isn't it?)
and a lot more Frank N. Furter. The scenes where Dorian speaks of vice
and corruption sound more like Dorian is about to ask Avon out on a date,
the Vincent Price mode kicking in the minute they leave Scorpio. Direction,
acting and script are excellent- until we get to the climax in the
tunnels. From then on in, it's all dire (or to quote Tarrant from Terminal
"It's all downhill from here" but unlike DWB who chose to ascribe the remark
to mean the fourth season, I only mean the rest of the episode). Director
Mary Ridge's comments on the appearance of the Sea Devil are ambiguous
although it sounds as though she denies it is a Sea- Devil. The costume
designer apparently left it to the last minute and took the head from stock.
Another man in a suit, the Link, makes a cameo appearance as it destroys
(yet again) a Spacemaster (from Weapon) in what is one of the last appearances
of stock footage from the first seasons. The modelwork takes a quantum
leap forward with poor shots not making it into the series anymore though
why Terminal is now round is glossed over- unless the camera is in a different
orbit than the Liberator was. The glossier look all round is critised by
many who claim the season to be lightweight (Animals, Stardrive and Assassins,
maybe) but compared to some of the previous years' more misjudged episodes
(Harvest of Kairos, Moloch, Horizon) it stands up pretty well. Scorpio
makes it's first appearance, even though it is very similar to early drawings
of the Liberator (as was what would the design that became the pursuit
ship). The ship has come under a lot of criticism but anything after the
elegance of the Liberator, especially an intentionally functional cargo
ship like Scorpio, would have a hell of a fight in breaking the emotional
relationship between viewers and the Liberator. The new opening titles
(though still with the same version of the theme since 1978), make their
debut here, a little bit more interesting than the last season, even if
a bit samey until the ship switches to "deep space" mode. I like the new
logo and love the end credits, which are a whole lot more satisfying than
a camera wobbily panning over a piece of cardboard with a few white spots
on it. The new arrangement to the end theme is a nice change without diminishing
the impact as would happen in the late 80's when the freelance composers
bumped off the BBC Radiophonic workshop. Though the Blake's theme wouldn't
require as much effort as the Doctor Who theme, a weedy rendition could
have dulled the effect. So why does every BBC release of the theme contain
a weedier version than the three versions (Look at Timesquad again)
used on the series? One last musical note, for several episodes in the
first half of the season, the two distintive chords that close off each
episode are slightly different each time. I would say that an attempt to
emulate the rather distintivechords failed and the originals edited in
...
POWER ***1/2 Written by Ben Steed, Directed
by Mary Ridge
This is the episode that made me a fan back in 1984, the first full
episode I ever watched. I had become a full-time Doctor Who fan a year
earlier with The Five Doctors, and had been bemoaning the ABC's
rather strange running order all year. "I'd like to see what this Blake's
7 thing is all about," I'd think during the second half of the year. I
missed most of Rescue but I was determined to catch the rest and
decided to tape it, like I had with Doctor Who. But unlike 90 per cent
of Doctor Who's I taped when I was at school, I actually watched this back
several times. For me, Power is the episode I've seen most (in its
complete form, rather than butchered video release) more times than any
other. Enough self-indulgence. It's a pretty good episode, especially when
you considering Ben Steed's involvement, with action and exposition a plenty
and some very snappy dialogue. Many of the early scripts for this season
where either written hurriedly or written before details of Cally's replacement
were known. Steed gets around this by leaving Soolin out of the frame until
the end, although this works in the context of the story. Pudgy Paul Darrow
piled on the kilos in between seasons, as evidenced by his double chin
in the kissing scene, a fact accentuated by the heavy winter costumes.
The acting complements the dialogue with the best thought out and realised
primitive tribe in the series' history. Dicken Ashworth plays Gunn Sar
for all he's worth without the over top histrionics of someone like Brian
Blessed. The Seska are well realised and you can tell the writer has thought
about this society very carefully while there are a few slip-ups as far
as the Hommicks are concerened (How does Gunn Sar know what a Petrascope
is let alone how to identify one?)
For a story that deals with a war of the sexes, it manages a certain
coyness reminiscent of the original Star Trek. Not for the crew of Scorpio
to be concerned with the chronological order involved with buttoning and
zipping, nor will you see Dayna and Soolin in bed together (though you
can see both actresses nude elsewhere, Jackie Pearce too, though that's
another story). The word 'virgin' (spirits are broken?) and its derivations
are carefully avoided although 'seminal' manages to get through.
Perhaps they didn't realise is comes from semen. Ben Steed's misogyny (or,
as I'm sure he'd put it, 'chick-bashing') comes through, though at least
it is a major part of the script. But what is this "the black woman must
win" shit? How many other women are there in the pit during the fight for
Pella to bring race into it? What if she had been gay as well (The black
dyke must win), or Soolin (the fat girl must win), etc. Steed must find
it difficult to get much work these days. "Mr Steed, we can tell you're
a talented writer but we don't think you're right for Prime Suspect."
To continue the B5 analogy, before details of the end of season where
known (the decision not to make a fifth season was known before Rescue
had aired), it was thought that a possible season ending being that the
new crew member would turn out to be a Federation spy.
I like the new Teleport effect, even if the actual effect is less electronic
than it would appear (i.e. there is a lot of perpex, glitter and chromakey
involved).
...
TRAITOR **** Written by Robert Holmes,
Directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot
No more running away from the Federation, it's time for action. And
there's quite a bit of it with some very nice location work- the advantage
of filming in a quarry is that it's easy to set off a really big bang.
Tarrant and Dayna show the spark between them as a good team down below
while Avon and Soolin have the first of their many conversations, with
a different dynamic to the Avon -Cally relationship- Soolin rarely criticises
him to his face (at this stage, anyway). A nice observation by Vila with
regard to Avon's new found risk-taking- "Blake would have been proud of
you."
The return of Servalan is handled nicely too, with the whole purpose
of the story being to set the tone for the rest of the series now that
the new ship/crew has been established. 1) begin to find a way to lift
Scorpio's performance to something close to that of the Liberator, 2) Re-introduce
Servalan and establish her new circumstances, circumstances which give
her a better motive for her actions and in effect turn her into Travis,
3)re-establish the threat of the Federation- once everybody though it was
finished, they all stopped fighting them, allowing the Federation to re-establish
itself quickly and lastly, 4) establish the mission of the Scorpio- to
destroy the Federation, bypassing the inaction of the previous season.
An ambitious episode with lots of stunts, fights and exposition, Traitor
is a very good epiode and definitely the best show of the first batch of
episodes. The only things that lets it down is the climactic battle in
the concourse, a little stagey and when did everyone disarm?
... The story is impressive with a good
guest cast and fine direction. It's interesting to see Tarrant in
one of Avon's old outfits and likewise Dayna in a Cally creation. You can
see some of the other Helots walking around in old crew costumes (there's
Blake's second costume from season one if you look closely).
Wasn't there a scene where Vila is trying to make toast? I'm sure there
was. I only ever saw this on TV once and this wa sbefore I read the novelisation.
I'm sure he was trying to make toast and talking about germination. I was
11 at the time so my memory could be playing tricks but then this has happened
quite often at BBC Video with supposedly unedited features. The Five Doctors
originally featured the First Doctor taking a nipple on a pastry after
the 5th Doctor, Tegan and Susan set off for the Dark Tower but this was
removed for some reason from the mid-80's video though I didn't notice
if the special edition reinstated it (it probably was with all the outtakes
that made it back. . So what gives? If anyone else remembers this scene,
email my by clicking the logo at the top. Glynis Barber was the butt (pun
intended) of many jibes about her weigh in the early part of the season.
She's not fat by any stretch, but her hairstyle here does her no favours.
. ...
STARDRIVE ** Written by James Follet,
Directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot
Stardrive is actually a good story, but there are a few elements which
dull the shine to such an extent as to make parts unwatchable, namely,
the Space Rats. Cliched, hackneyed and just plain embarrassing with a silly
stereotype of bikies. Many people claim the 'ancient sect of unspeakable
brutality' is meant to be the Hell's Angels, probably because Trevor Hoyle's
novelisation of the episode said so, but the Space Rats seem to have a
lot of characteristics of the punk movement- more likely considering the
episode would have been written when the punk movement was winding down.
The first half of the episode is very good with some above average modelwork
depicting the collision with the asteroid. I'm more ambivalent about the
use of quantel to animate the pursuit ships in all but one shot (discounting
the very crappy use of red (saucer- shaped) blobs in some scenes) where
the ships actually explode. More impressive than some of the wobbly motion
from, say, Volcano, it has a flat look with unrealistic movement,
rather like some shots of the Enterprise from the titles of Star Trek in
the 60's. The same effect used to simulate lightning speed in the next
episode works much better. Also, making such a deal about not being able
to repair damage in a space-suit when all they have to do is hold-up a
torch to fix the gaping hole is silly. That and the fact the same scene
in reverse is used later one when Tarrant cuts a hole in the wall. It reeks
of padding, or at least, an economical imagination. Far nicer, though still
padding, are the scene of the Scorpio as it makes its way home, with all
30 seconds of the ship descending on the hydraulic lift inside the launch
silo.
As I said, I like the first half for its' acting, dialogue and effects
and I hate the second half, for the same reasons. There is no characterisation
once Scorpio lands on Caspar and apart from a fun gun battle/ chase, there
isn't much to recommend apart from a marvellous display of Avon's callousness.
There's also the bad scream.
......
ANIMALS * Written by Allan Prior, Directed
by Mary Ridge
...
SAND **** Written by Tanith Lee, Directed
by Vivienne Cozens
Beautifully written acted and directed installment with Jacquline Pearce's
best ever performance as Servalan. Touching and without the over-the-top
meanness of Season Three. Stephen Pacey doesn't come across so much the
thug of season three or even the hero of this season but as a thinker,
for the first and only time, this season, getting two romantic episodes
in the space of four episodes (leaving Sally Knivette as the only series
regular who never got kissed on screen). A class act all round, even if
some of the filmed sequences in Virn's desert don't look any more convincing
than Vortis did in 1965 in Doctor Who.
The looks from the crew after Tarrant reveals he didn't kill Servalan
are some of nastiest directed his way since City at the Edge of the
World, though I can't think why Soolin hates Servalan as much as Dayna
or even Vila. Servalan killed Hal Mellanby and caused Cally's death as
well as Tarrant's brother but Soolin never has a single conversation with
Servalan. Soolin would be unknown to the Federation.
...
GOLD **1/2 Written by Colin Davis, Directed
by Brian Lighthill
Another entertaining romp, even if some of the design could be a bit
less cheap- looking. The docking sequences are some of the most impressive
in the whole series and compared to the similar sequence back in Spacefall
they show the quantum leap the series' modelwork took in four years. But
apart from that, turning the crew back into the pirates of season three
seems to be pointless so late in the season, particularly when things are
heading towards Avon as the mastermind of the revolution rather than the
master-criminal (Games had an excuse, it was good). Apart from the
rather clumsy handling of Avon and Soolin's disappearance, the story is
engaging enough with Roy Kinnear as the clown with underlying menace a
strange choice of bedfellow for Avon, particularly when Scorpio's expert
on stealing things is sidelined for the proceedings.
The location work on Zerok is the poorest with some loose editing in
the battles and in a series which usually manages to turn ordinary factories
into futuristic installations quite successfully, this is a disappointment.
The interior design of the Space Princess is in a style I would call 'busy
season two.' That is too say avant garde designs but plastered with foam
box tops and foil trays. The caper story would have worked but with the
crew using next to no subtelty, blasting away at anything when a pistol
whipping would have sufficed. Tarrant and Soolin's berating of Keiller
is a bit rich when they shot first and forgot about asking questions.
Fluff, but decent fluff.
...
ORBIT **1/2 Written by Robert Holmes,
Directed by Brian Lighthill
John Savident's performance reeks of bacon, so much so that I hear
he's been banned from the Middle-east. A cheapie, economical in every way
although the effects and production values don't suffer. It's just, it
seems like a little story for a 50 minute episode. Robert Holmes, a giant
in Doctor Who circles, submitted two stories each for season two and four.
And one of his stories for each season was a clunker with silly characters
(usually his strong suit) with hammy performances to suit (And no, Traitor
was
not Holmes' 1981 stinker). John Savident overacts, Jackie Pearce hams it
up and Paul Darrow follows their lead. Crap. We knew Avon was ruthless
but I really think having Orac suggest Vila be ejected lacks credibilty.
Even less believable, and reminiscent of Tarrant and Soolin's faking of
being doped on the Space Princess is the scene where Tarrant expresses
his disbelief (Well, I'll be damned). Paul Darrow's interpretation in the
first half is more akin to Tarrant early on in season three. He's way too
cheery. but then it's laid on a bit thick so the effect later is more dramatic.
One thing you never have to complain about in a Robert Holmes script is
the dialogue, but again (as in Gambit but not quite to the same extent)
some of the acting is a little too... broad?
...
WARLORD **** Written by Simon Masters,
Directed by Viktors Ritelis
Forget the cheapy predecessor, from here on in, it's big(ger) budget
thrills for the penultimate episode with every viewer-friendly concept
thrown in with a disaster movie, gunslinging western and romance all in
one. Viktors Ritelis provides the series with some stylish (if somewhat
surreal and possibly silly) direction with 95 per cent of the rather ambitious
effects coming off pretty well. From this story you could have had the
basis for a whole new season of the series with so many plot possibilities
opening up that the BBC's short-sighted attitude to renewal still grates.
Viewers were happy, the cast was happy. Ratings were still good (unlike
Doctor Who for its' last few seasons). The BBC hierarchy decided (as they
did for last season) that the series should end whilst still highly popular
rather than a long, drawn-out death. Though It's a pity many American series
don't follow the same route (ie Roseanne). This sort of thinking however,
is just the BBC's excuse to axe a show from a genre that most people working
there thought beneath them. The same thing scuttled a second season for
Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tripods, Star Cops and any new seasons
of Doctor Who.
Back to Warlord. With some good performances all round, including
Jackie Pearce's last turn as Servalan in what amounts to a cameo, we get
to see Tarrant's tender side, this time with a more-appealing-to-the-friends
squeeze, but also one with a deadly dad. Wigs aside, both Zeeona and Zukan
are intersting characters with Roy Boyd's guilt-ridden portrayl of the
President of Betafarl (since when did Douglas Adams get to name the planets
in Blake's 7?). But perhaps he overdoes things a little in the early stages?
(2000 update- I watched it recently and I found it a bit goofy in places
with some of the stylised stuff unwelcome: the sparks from the drinking
cup being OTT)
...
BLAKE ***** Written by Chris Boucher Directed
by Mary Ridge
Never before has a simple misunderstanding caused so much carnage.
Blake's little testing procedure costs the lives of six, count 'em- six
of the series regular characters from the series, seven if Blake was telling
the truth about Jenna, (whether it was a lie or not, Blake only mentions
it in order to gauge Tarrant's reaction. Out of all the regular humanoid
characters, only Servalan definitely survives. Gan, Jenna, Cally, Blake,
Dayna, Soolin, Tarrant, Vila and Avon are dead (discounting the Blake clone).
Orac is nowhere to be seen, so it survives, the only goodie left. In fact,
only Gan, Zen and Travis are not mentioned in this story.
As for the 95% of the episode that doesn't involve the killing off
70% of the series' main characters, it's great. Scorpio is destroyed in
a familiar fashion, with the studio- bound destruction looking shot-for-shot
the same as the first time around when it was called Terminal, though
still highly effective. In fact, the model work is still more impressive
than the big-budget finale of Star Trek Generations. Why couldn't we have
had more episodes this good instead of Horizon, Volcano and Animals?
Though we don't know it until it's too late, Blake has already started
to groom another Avon in the form of David Collings (Silver from Sapphire
and Steel, though's wasted in this less than pivotal role) shot dead, as
is Paul Darrow's future wife. Gareth Thomas' new version of Blake seems
very creepy, right up until the point you realise it was all a con, and
about two seconds before you realise it's all going to end in tears. The
whole episode is misunderstandings and paranoia, and not just by Avon.
On a more personal not, the last scene was my second childhood memory
of Blake's 7 when, in 1983, I tuned in for Patrol Boat a week early. But
by the next time I saw the episode, in early 1985, I was a fan.
To cut a long story short, This is the best episode of Blake's
7 bar none- the B7 equivalent of Doctor Who's Caves of Androzani,
Red Dwarf's Back to Reality, Star Trek's City at the Edge of
Forever, Sapphire and Steel's final adventure. With the exception of
Red Dwarf, they all end on a tragic note. Blake may have been the
last episode made but there has never been another series ending like it.
The inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha never stopped wandering, Sam Beckett
never stopped leaping, Kirk never croaked (and probably never will), The
Tripods were never defeated by the Free Men (on TV), the Triffids never
encountered a Zero weeding wand and the Doctor keeps on Vworping but at
least Blake's Seven had closure. The most closured closure.
Over the years, it has become apparent that many people subscribe to
one or all of the following theories regarding the crew's survival and
my refutal.
.
.
1: Vila faked his fall to avoid the gun shot.
(Look at his fall, he's been shot)
2: Tarrant's injuries from the crash of Scorpio meant he was liable to collapse at any time. (Look at his fall, he's been shot, if not he died because he lost too much blood, was concussed, etc)
3: The sound effects used for the weapons fired at the falling heroes are different (Look at their falls, they've been shot, they are in obvious pain)
4: The four of them may have been stunned. (Look at their falls, they've been shot)
5. Avon is seen standing at the end of the episode. (Listen to the sound effects, he's been shot, though with that many guards, he wouldn't get more than one shot out before being blasted by two dozen Federation Guards. The soundtrack suggests he fired, was shot a few times, managed to let off another volley before being shot again.
THE SEVENFOLD CROWN
It is Blake's 7 except the characters aren't
all at the mercy of Avon as in season 4. He's not as much of a prick as
he was in the TV series but the rest of the crew seem a little dummer and
less aggressive also.
The story is an interesting diversion that lacks
some of the series edge with more silliness in the characterisations but
more than made up fro in technobabble in the last quarter.
Still all in all it's great to hear the cast,
even with Angela Bruce and Paula Wilcox taking over roles we know so well.
Even on radio Blake's 7 has poor production values with poor acoustics
of the recording area to blame (everything sounds like it it's been recorded
by a schoolboy in a cupboard. Compared with the original Hitch-Hiker's
Radio series done without the availability of digital equipment available
today it still sounds a million times better than these late 90's jobs.
They even got the sound effects for the hand guns and the Scorpio's teleport
totally wrong, despite the fact that they have been commercially available
since 1982! The story contains more technobabble than has ever been seen
in Blake's 7 but is better than Letts previous radioplay- the excreble
Doctor Who story Ghosts of N-Space.
Peter Tuddenham seems to enoy the fact the rest
of the cast see what things were like for him on the series. The first
one also contains an interview with Paul Darrow.
THE SYNDETON EXPERIMENT
The sequel is much, much better and very Blake's
7. It shares the same problem of forgettable guest characters but is more
in keeping with the spirit of the original series (it seems Barry Letts
had managed to get through all 52 episodes before writing this). This is
a Blake's 7 episode and a very good one. Vila is a fool who annoys the
others, Avon is a bastard again and all is right. The sound effects are
still wrong but I doubt anyone other than me cares (I'm a sound engineer
and musician for Krome Studios)
