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This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 21:48:58

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Maximum power Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back.

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To maximum power, and today we are discussing breakdown, the best episode of series A. I am Brendan.

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I'm Simon.

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I'm I'm Pete.

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So, uh, this is series A's other Gan centric episode, and so we start on the Bridge of the Liberator.

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Simon, what do you think of Gan learning to fly the Liberator by himself?

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Well, I think he's doing an excellent job, but he only flies it for a fraction of a 2nd before he has his breakdown.

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And I think it's one of the things I really like about it.

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We get on with it.

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There's no faffing around.

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He has the headache and so on and coincidentally while the ship's about to go into a meteor shower or whatever it is.

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I think it's great.

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I think he is fantastic and I actually think he does a really good job with all the breakdown stuff.

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I worry that everyone else disagrees, but I kind of don't care if they do.

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Radio Mark, do you agree or disagree?

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Yeah, I suppose the thing I don't understand about Zen and the Liberator and you probably say, this is my 1st time watching Blake 7 through.

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So if anyone's sort of joining me this episode.

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So Zen needs some instruction at that point because there's going to be a meteor shower.

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Otherwise, there's going to be disaster and to be destroyed.

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But then later on in the episode, it absolutely refuses to go somewhere because of some nebulous reason that there might be some danger there.

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There's not a lot.

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Computer says no.

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Yeah, there's not a lot of consistency with that.

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If Gan hadn't done anything, it would have just like carried on trundling into this meteor shower and been destroyed.

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I think, yeah, space peril is the real.

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There's some kind of complicated space peril thing going on.

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And yeah, just in terms of creating situation, in which Jackson finally gets to do the most quantity of acting that can possibly be done in one episode.

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He finally gets something to go for.

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And I do wonder if the previous episodes have been sort of almost really making Gan very quiet and full foregrounding his politeness and meekness just to try and set this one up as a bigger twist when it comes, I suppose.

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But does anyone feel that we've seen this sort of thing before this series?

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In terms of in a different program?

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I'm thinking in terms of the web.

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Is this different enough from Callie's possession in the web?

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Because...

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Oh, yes, I think it is.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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Well, you obviously think it's too, it's like recycling the same plot you feel.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And I do feel perhaps it's not as effective here, but it sounds like you disagree, Simon.

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So what makes this effective in a different way.

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I suppose is what I'm asking.

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Oh, well, look, okay, I accept that there are similarities there.

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But interestingly, in our kind of recent watch through, because Brian and I have been watching Lake 7 through ahead of, you know, well ahead of this podcast.

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And oddly enough, that is not something we notice.

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We did not, neither of us thought when we were watching breakdown that, oh, this is just the same plot as from the web.

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I, I, yes, I suppose it's the same sort of thing as, you know, one of the characters has some kind of breakdown slash becomes quote unquote evil or whatever you want to call it for the purposes of the episode.

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I don't see it as similar enough to be of great concern.

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I think it would probably be of greater concern if the episodes are only 2 episodes apart or something, but I think they're far enough apart that I don't think it matters.

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I think that the web was, I'm writing since Callie's only her 2nd episode as well, isn't it?

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So we haven't quite learned to trust her yet, whether she's going to become a full member of the crew.

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So it's quite plausible that she is just evil, I suppose, to begin with, whereas with Gann, he's been around from the start.

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So we know there's something wrong.

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Actually, that's a good point.

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Yeah, I actually think that that's probably what they're playing with in the web.

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It's less the loyal crew member has gone off and been possessed.

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It's more the, do we really know who this person is?

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sort of effect.

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Yeah, I agree.

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Yeah, yeah, that's a great point, especially seeing as from Cygnus Alpha, really, where no one else wants to believe Blake, Gan immediately stands by him and has been super loyal throughout.

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So yeah, that's a wonderful point.

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Pete, I'd like to ask you, what do you think of the resulting fight scene?

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I think it's it's a ballet, basically. recreated for us on the wonderful set of The Liberator.

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It's quite a thing, isn't it?

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But I think that we've been having Gan made up almost like sort of Lenny from mice and men, this gentle, it becomes this sort of gentle simpleton almost in the, in the words that they might have used back then.

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And so having him turned into someone who is actually really nasty and really violent, is rather than, and we, what we don't know as well, as viewers at this point, is whether that's actually his real personality coming out or whether he's under an external influence as, as Callie was.

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It's got and everyone to off to Ealing for the Sick Bay, which we've now built in a much bigger studio.

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So it's on film.

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But that's my sequences is one of the best studio fight sequences.

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I think I've seen, and the fact that they have a handheld camera in the studio, which I was racking my brains when I was watching it this afternoon, where we've seen that.

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Like, I don't think we've done handheld in the studio in quite the same way.

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And I was stunned at how well put together and choreographed that fight sequence at the beginning was.

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I don't know if other people have a view.

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I really love it when Blake grabs that computer bank or whatever it is and smashes it on Gan's back because sort of the tension with Blake's character is how sort of gentle he is, but when he becomes violent, it's a great shock.

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And that to me adds to the realism of the fight.

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Because his 1st words after, you know, basically he's seen Gan dragging Jenna across the flight deck by one leg and he tries to appear to him. me, it's Blake.

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Calm down and the 2nd that doesn't work, it's like, okay, I'm going to grab whatever is not nailed down and beat you with it.

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Yeah, it gives a real visceral feeling.

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He's not afraid to put the fighter into freedom fighter in these situations, which sometimes you could forget because he's so often the one having the moral dilemma.

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But yeah, he will pick something up and whack someone with it in an emergency.

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And yeah, Jenna's gymnastic bit of being flung across the console room is pretty impressive. console room.

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Sorry. forfeit for me.

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Wrong series.

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Who reverence of the episode?

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Oh, accidental one.

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And she's back in her pastal pinks again, isn't she?

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After being in her space garb for a while with her black starry night dress.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Well, then they are number one with take a chance on me at this week.

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Excellent.

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I'm also very glad that Blake is not wearing his sort of bell sleeve kaftan shirt.

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He's wearing the far more businesslike green tunic with the black over bit, which helps me take him a lot more seriously.

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Now, they basically use 2 horse tranquillizers to take down Gan and Callie very helpfully points out that, yeah, they need them because he's a big chap.

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And as you say, we are at Ealing Film Studio for the Sick Bay, and the only reason I can think of that is they thought, okay, we have a film allocation for this episode, let's use it.

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And it's very interesting that they don't use it on that fight scene and they just get it right in the studio because there is a little bit of action on this sick bass set, but it is mostly just David Jackson sort of opening and closing his hand and it makes his hand look like one of those little French pugs, I thought.

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I thought he's limited to his malfunctioning and turning him into a punch and duty operator or something.

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And that's why, no, he's going to start doing puppy shows.

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What can we do?

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But that's actually an interesting point, Brenda, that you raise.

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You'd think that with that fight sequence, they want to try and do the console room.

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What we call the flight tank.

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The control room as on film, but probably because there's just far too many sequences in there, they can't move the, have the entire set, uh, that entire set at Ealing.

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And having, having it a jump where just, just that bit, just the opening bit is on film would probably be too much.

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But yeah, your conclusion is exactly the same one that I thought of during Mission to Destiny, which is you've got these sets, which are at healing or on film or wherever they happen to have been done.

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For no apparent reason.

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There's no fire, there's no big fight sequence to choreograph.

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It must just be that there's a filming allocation that they need to use and okay, we'll put this sequence there.

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And it sort of makes sense because that is a new set.

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It's not like it's an existing set.

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It's sort of interesting to me, therefore, because usually these filming dates are sort of in addition to the studio dates and they try and keep the cast to a minimum.

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But really all David Jackson gets to do in these scenes is lie there.

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You know, easiest paycheque ever.

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Lower on Twitch.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And interesting sort of, you wonder if this script, I think I read that this script went through a few iterations and nearly came out as a sort of different story with the same basic premise, but then got got reconditioned a bit.

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And I don't know how much of this comes from that.

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They have to go to Sick Bay suddenly, and suddenly Jenna and Callie both become nurses, and Avon becomes a brain scan specialist, just because someone's got to, and that we don't have an emergency medical hologram.

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Yeah, and someone, and Avon becomes for a moment in time, Avon is a person who could conceivably perform an operation if he had to.

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It is on the table, isn't it?

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Yeah, on the table at one point.

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But the one thing that I found sort of, which occurred to me when watching it, was that there is no doctor among them, which is probably, you know, they don't want to be like Star Trek and obviously it's not a, it's not a formal crew.

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It's just a bunch of, you know, rebels who've, you know, criminals who've gotten together.

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But it is sort of surprising that one of them hadn't been some kind of, maybe they dropped out as, as a med school in their, in their younger days, so had at least a sort of a working knowledge of medicine, to get them through, obviously not to perform sort of operation.

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They still end up needing to go to, you know, the space stations to get the operation done.

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But at least to sort of fill that role because it's not indonceivable that they need a medicine someone with some medical training at other points.

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I mean, they sort of managed to get through life without too many scrapes and bruises, all things considered.

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Imagine if they had a ship's counsellor, like the enterprise in the next generation.

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They would be a very busy person, wouldn't they?

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where that was.

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Are you getting a signal sound?

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like, no, Gan's choking me again.

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What's missing was Callie's telepathic transmission to the rest of them when Gan's struggle is strangling her.

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Yes that's true.

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That's what I keep thinking that Kelly's telepathy is going to come in useful like that.

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Like it was, she was going to help to be able to soothe Gam, because I don't think we, well, I, so far, really, we haven't got a sense of what the range is, yeah.

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So like you say, I thought that's how she would alert the rest of the crew that he was on the rampage.

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It does seem to be when we've seen Callie's telepathy up until now, when Callie is in control of it.

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It's line of sight.

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When she speaks to Blake and Signus Alpha, she's looking at him, when she speaks to Jenna in the web, she's looking at her.

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Yeah, it is interesting to give her that ability, but as you say, not sort of really exploit it in a high concept sci-fi way.

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Well, it's too magical.

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And she's like 3G, maybe only a 2G telepath, basically.

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It's kind of...

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But there's an episode where she's, where they're captured somewhere and she transmits to, I think, Avon, there's 2 of them or something.

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And that, so that's not live side.

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No, no, you're quite right.

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I can't remember what that was in.

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You could always say it depends who's writing the episode each week.

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And then you remember.

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Yes.

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Because the episode where, actually, I don't know all the names and stuff yet, but the one where they leave it behind and don't notice for ages...

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Oh, seek location.

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Yes.

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And then Travis says to her, you know, if you cry, if you call out and warn them, then I'll kill you or something like that.

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And I thought, oh, well, great, because she doesn't need to call out to warn them, does she?

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But again, it's not it's not used in that way.

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Yeah.

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Maybe, maybe, maybe she sort of needs to, needs to focus.

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I just need to, you know, get it all in alignment.

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Don't distract me.

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Now I can now I can transmit.

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Got to be in the zone.

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Yeah.

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Gen's limiter is malfunctioning and we do get that little scanning thing on the head.

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There seems to be a moment in a lot of episodes.

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This season where they're like, hey, look at this incredibly advanced science, which we can now look at as sort of quaint, but it's like, yeah, you wouldn't have had handheld scanners like that in hospitals at the time.

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You know, it was sort of cutting edge for the audience.

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And we get this whole discussion with that wonderful sort of clear whiteboard with Lecraset planet written on it. as to as to all these different places they can go.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And it's really nice when they talk in terms of like how many 100 hours it's going to take to get there.

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I like that in science.

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It's unusual because the narrative of normally for plot reasons, obviously, but normally in any space show, they just want to get you there as quickly as possible.

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So to have them talking about how many 100s of hours it take to get somewhere, makes it, you know, it's a big universe.

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It's nice to be reminded of that, even in the Liberator.

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We get up to standard by 12 in this one.

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I haven't I'm meant to keep track of what speeds the liberator actually has.

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And I never understand why they don't just go at full speed everywhere, but then that's my driving.

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You're doing the fabric of the universe or something. isn't that what usually is the problem with speeding into space?

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I don't think, you know, they need to get there as quickly as possible because Gan might die.

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And yet I'm sure when they head off at first, they're already going standard by 3 or something.

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Isn't that rattle standard by 6 maybe?

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don't know Yeah, they accelerate later.

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It's like, it's already a life and death situation before it then gets a bit worse and they decide to really put the foot down.

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And of course, this introduces the concept.

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Well, you know, it gives us a bit more of Zen's sentience for want of a better word.

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It's not exactly sentience, but, yeah, he's unwilling to pass through this area because it might be a bit dangerous.

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So he, it's, whole thing of, well, I'm not going to kill myself, but I'll let you kill me.

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Because.

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Yeah, well, he's got that lovely white paint job.

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It's not there's an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine that revolves around one of the trains refusing to come out of a tunnel, which because it doesn't want to get his paint dirty in the rain.

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And sometimes I wonder if Zen is operating on a similar, similar basis to Henry the Green engine in that respect.

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I think the plot reason why...

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Well, should I say, there is no plot reason, adequate plot reason for me why Zen refuses to tell them what's there, fly through that area, whatever it is.

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And yet all it is, quote unquote, is a sort of some kind of gravity eddy thing.

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For me, if you want to have that, because there are plenty of other dangerous parts of space, which then will quite happily fly them through or allowed them to fly through.

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There needs to be something special about the distortion.

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There need to be some kind of time eddy effect or something that meant that the people who managed to get through it for some reason, for one reason or another don't remember what they experienced or something.

198
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:17.700
You know what I mean?

199
00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:21.960
Because the impression we're getting is that it's just some kind of commuter triangle of space.

200
00:15:22.019 --> 00:15:22.500
No?

201
00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:33.419
Yeah, I think that's an edit from the original version of this script, which then got transplanted into another episode, not getting ahead of ourselves and not spoilering it for Mark, but in a year or 2 maybe.

202
00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:39.600
They fly through something that was originally they were going to fly through in this episode and then that got chopped out.

203
00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:41.940
So this is on Blake 7 Wiki.

204
00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.279
I dont know how much I can how to what extent that's theorising or documented.

205
00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:52.799
But yeah, on there it says that they were going to have them flying through something really deadly.

206
00:15:52.860 --> 00:15:56.759
And then they decided to take that out and because that wasn't going to be the focus of the episode.

207
00:15:56.820 --> 00:15:58.259
That could be a fan theory, of course.

208
00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:03.240
And there's a bit when they have passed through the danger zone, they all look with delight at the monitor screen.

209
00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:04.500
And it's like, look, we've made it.

210
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:08.820
We're in the end title sequence as the end title sequence Starfield comes up.

211
00:16:10.379 --> 00:16:18.419
I do know Zen sort of just shuts down when they need a bit of padding because does the episode where he refuses to take that little shuttlecraft on board?

212
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:20.399
So they have to do it manually.

213
00:16:21.899 --> 00:16:24.899
Endless thing of trying to line it up and get it.

214
00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:26.220
Oh, then comes round again.

215
00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:43.980
Yeah, I also wonder with that because, of course, Terry Nation is very famous for having written Doctor Who, and because he was with Doctor Who at the beginning, he knows the basic structure of a Doctor Who story is that within the 1st 15 minutes, you isolate the characters from the TARDIS.

216
00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:47.100
You can't really do that in Blake 7.

217
00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:49.200
You know, you can knock off their teleport bracelet.

218
00:16:49.259 --> 00:16:54.720
So instead, he will quite often in the 1st series isolate them from Zen.

219
00:16:54.779 --> 00:17:03.360
So he's not he's not taking them off the ship, but he's but he's going, okay, really all you have now is a fast ship. which everyone else has as well.

220
00:17:03.419 --> 00:17:05.819
Zen is what makes the ship special.

221
00:17:05.880 --> 00:17:11.759
And by taking that away, It's also a matter of reminding the audience that Jenna is this crack pilot.

222
00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:14.700
And, you know, I think Sally performs that very well.

223
00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:30.660
And it takes a, I think that the shades of that old classic science fiction story, the machine stops from Ian Forster, where, which all sorts of things have been inspired by. the idea that at some point will become so dependent upon technology that when it's taken away, our society simply might not be able to function anymore.

224
00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:44.759
And that crops up in lots of science fiction, and that's an overtone here, isn't it, that yes, you are dependent on this, this computer, that is actually rather touchy and prone to having Mardy moods, uh, and that's going to create some, some issues for you as you go along.

225
00:17:44.819 --> 00:17:50.460
I do like to keep touching on the sort of ongoing mystery of Gisen's origins as well.

226
00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:52.440
I'm not sure if it's in this one.

227
00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:54.720
I've just watched like 7 episodes in 2 days.

228
00:17:54.779 --> 00:17:57.000
Some of them are running.

229
00:17:57.059 --> 00:18:09.299
But Avon says like one day, I intend to find out who programs then, and then there's another one where I think Villa speculates that, you know, he's someone behind the way that Zen withholds information from them.

230
00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:13.680
So there's definitely one of the sort of ongoing things that is keeping my interest in the series, definitely.

231
00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:15.660
Well, yeah, that's right.

232
00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:20.099
And we are sort of finding out new things about Zen and new things about the ship.

233
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:39.359
And in this episode, we discover that in an emergency, the human crew can take control of Zen's sort of self-repair and self-correction systems, which, of course, Avon manages to do, but of course, Callie has let Gan go due to her sympathy for him.

234
00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:41.099
That is a tough sell, isn't it?

235
00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:46.619
That this hard, this extremely wily and wise character that Cali is.

236
00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:48.299
But he said, no, I can't release you.

237
00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:49.559
And he goes, oh, go on, please.

238
00:18:49.619 --> 00:18:52.440
She says, oh, all right, then. promise not to do any murdering.

239
00:18:52.859 --> 00:18:55.319
Probably stopped to go on a rampage.

240
00:18:55.380 --> 00:19:07.019
It was a bit of a, um, it was a bit of a meme with me and my flatmates watching Voyager when that was 1st coming out as to whether or not each episode would be a 7 of 9 goes on a rampage episode because we did get quite a lot of that when she 1st came in.

241
00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:08.700
They were brilliant episodes, so that was fine.

242
00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.279
It's the same vibe that's being rocked here, isn't it?

243
00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:11.579
Yeah.

244
00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:20.940
Yeah, I did think that perhaps Villa might have been a more likely person to set Gan free because, of course, they know each other from the before time.

245
00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:22.079
You know what I mean?

246
00:19:22.140 --> 00:19:23.279
Yeah, that's good point.

247
00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:24.839
Yeah, yeah, that's really good.

248
00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:26.220
Yeah, but Villa seems to be...

249
00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:29.099
It just seems to be that they decided that the girls are the nurses.

250
00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:35.339
So they're the ones who are going to go in, obviously, and be there and be sub-subject to him, persuading them, I suppose.

251
00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:38.160
Once the decision was taken that they would do the medical stuff.

252
00:19:38.220 --> 00:19:40.259
I guess that's what put them in that place.

253
00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:41.099
Yeah.

254
00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:41.579
Yeah.

255
00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:42.660
Yeah, I think you're right.

256
00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.839
And that leads to another action sequence.

257
00:19:45.900 --> 00:19:51.059
As Gan attacks Avon in the computer room. do we think about that?

258
00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:53.579
We want as much of that as we can get.

259
00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:58.259
I love a bit of cast flinging each other about and I think they all go at it with gusto, don't they?

260
00:19:58.319 --> 00:19:59.519
Another good sequence.

261
00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:03.960
I kind of, because that's sort of the 3rd one by now, I've kind of tuned out.

262
00:20:04.019 --> 00:20:06.599
I sort of, it's like, it's like missing time for me.

263
00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:10.980
I mean, it's all very well done in everything, but I just wait till it's over and then the story can keep going.

264
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:14.880
Yeah, because there's even a bit where Avon shouts to him, no Gan, don't do that.

265
00:20:14.940 --> 00:20:19.619
You'll break the computer linkages and Gan does the thing that Avon said not to do.

266
00:20:19.619 --> 00:20:25.380
And 15 seconds later when Gan is subdued, Avon's like, yes, I've accessed the computer linkages.

267
00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:28.559
It's like, well, obviously he's not going to break them.

268
00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:31.200
Yes, or maybe he was pretending that.

269
00:20:31.259 --> 00:20:32.519
Oh, yes, break that one again.

270
00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:33.359
We can do without that bit.

271
00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:35.039
But, you know, Yeah, that's true.

272
00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:35.880
That one buffing.

273
00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:51.359
We do get some nice the trademark dialogue successes are still peppered through this episode still. lovely I'm from Avon about staying with you. requires a level of stupidity that I'm not capable of maintaining or words for that effect.

274
00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:53.940
Blake comes back with, you're just being modest.

275
00:20:54.539 --> 00:21:05.400
The action sequences are either the bit that really drives it for you, or like I remember when I was watching Buffy, the bits where she was actually fighting with the vampires, or like, actually, okay, they fight for 30 seconds.

276
00:21:05.460 --> 00:21:08.519
Dum, dum, dum, right, fight's finished. we can get on with the plot.

277
00:21:08.579 --> 00:21:10.259
Sometimes you can really get drawn into that.

278
00:21:10.380 --> 00:21:16.500
And other times it's like, yeah, the director's enjoying themselves. and so you have your fun and then we'll get back to the story at the end of his fight.

279
00:21:16.619 --> 00:21:28.859
I mean, that's one of the reasons why I don't enjoy, you know, big Hollywood blockbuster sort of action films because, you know, these ridiculous fight sequences or action sequences go in for like 30 minutes and I just don't care.

280
00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:34.200
I just want to I just want to get to the I just want to get back to the plot, the interesting part.

281
00:21:34.259 --> 00:21:40.259
Fortunately, these sequences in these BBC shows are, um, you know, brief.

282
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:48.539
They do sell and strength quite well, I think, especially the the 1st fight where there's the sort of 3 of them trying to take him down and he's throwing them off.

283
00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:53.640
I also like that in each of the fights, we're treated to Avon's.

284
00:21:53.700 --> 00:21:59.400
Oh no, I'm very surprised by being beaten up face that he just seems to get in every fight.

285
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:09.720
It's like Paul Darrow is like, I don't want to show extreme pain because, you know, that could be upsetting for the viewer.

286
00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:12.180
So I'm just going to show extreme surprise.

287
00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:13.619
Yes, yes.

288
00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:19.980
And then there's that pause before he then retaliates with his, you know, karate cuts or whatever it is that he does.

289
00:22:19.980 --> 00:22:26.039
Yeah, there's that sort of pause where he can't, it's almost like he's readying himself for the retaliation.

290
00:22:26.099 --> 00:22:29.880
I think it's implied at one point that he knees Gan between the legs.

291
00:22:30.779 --> 00:22:34.140
I didn't pick that up admittedly, but it may be that.

292
00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:34.859
Yeah.

293
00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:40.079
It's either the stomach or between the legs and, you know, being the BBC in 1917. don't see it.

294
00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:45.240
He got down in the go now. has one weakness.

295
00:22:45.299 --> 00:22:49.559
Well, yes. possessed by no one else in the world.

296
00:22:53.460 --> 00:23:14.279
Now, this, of course, leads us to Space Station XK7, which is populated by Count Scarlioni and his assistant cut price Michael York, and their bureaucratic boss, Farron, which is in no way just a very smudged version of a usual Terry Nation name.

297
00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:21.180
Like, I can literally imagine, you know, Terry typing out that name and then something happens to the paper and like the tea smudges.

298
00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:22.259
Oh, Farron.

299
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:23.519
Yeah, right.

300
00:23:24.359 --> 00:23:26.460
Lunch, yeah.

301
00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:34.740
So, yeah, we sort of have another episode of 2 halves, which we've had earlier this series as well.

302
00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:46.019
On board the station, we get some very very terry nation style dialogue and I'm not saying that as a pejorative, but it very clearly sets up who these 2 characters are.

303
00:23:46.140 --> 00:23:51.420
What are our 1st impressions of Dr. Kane and Mr. Farren?

304
00:23:51.480 --> 00:24:00.900
Yeah, it was immediately overjoyed to see Julian Glover because he's just brilliant in everything and particularly seeming to be a good guy and then turning out to be a bad guy.

305
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:02.339
He's one of his specialties, isn't it?

306
00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:05.099
I think for your eyes only in the last crusade and things like that.

307
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.039
And I think he does very well with the dialogue.

308
00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:14.640
As you say, it's quite sort of exposition heavy and terrination like, but yeah, he brings he brings a lot of a lot of character to it.

309
00:24:14.700 --> 00:24:16.920
So yeah, absolutely fantastic to see him.

310
00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:25.859
And it's great having a doctor named Kane named after the 1st murderer in the Bible is like, yo, I'm sure he's a lovely doctor really, and there's no reason why he's got that name at all.

311
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.740
But yeah, Julian Barber really is such a good actor.

312
00:24:28.859 --> 00:24:46.500
He, he, he choose the scenery just enough to keep sort of a, nibble, nibble. the 1970s TV performance, which, you know, as Mark was saying, you know, he becomes the villain, but he just keeps it on the right side of that to, to make it uh, convincing and, and all consistent.

313
00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:47.220
And that's the other thing.

314
00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:49.019
He's performing the dialogue.

315
00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:52.440
He's performing those scenes as if it's Shakespeare.

316
00:24:52.500 --> 00:25:00.299
I'm not meaning in terms of pretending to speak in a sort of a Elizabethan speech pattern or something, but I just mean in terms of he's treating it completely seriously.

317
00:25:00.299 --> 00:25:03.779
And he's, you know, the script is the script and we will perform it correctly.

318
00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:06.900
And I think he's just a fantastic actor.

319
00:25:06.900 --> 00:25:10.019
And I think, yeah, he's good in he's been brilliant in everything that I've seen him in.

320
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:13.319
And even little things like when he teleports over to the liberator.

321
00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:15.599
He just does a little reaction to it too.

322
00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:25.859
And that is, we were discussing that on the previous episode, that you don't, that teleporter dematerialisation effect looks quite painful, actually, when they all wobble and you seem to get splattered apart.

323
00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:35.759
You don't just gracefully fade, like on other spaceship based series. to have him landing and just saying, no, you know, I can't remember his exact words, but, you know, he just how remarkable it is.

324
00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:44.640
Yeah, yeah. they sort of play with the very beginning when Blake goes down to the planet and he comes back and sort of, I think he says something about it being an interesting sensation or whatever.

325
00:25:44.700 --> 00:25:49.619
And then, of course, then of course, we don't hear that ever again, even with people who are being teleported for the 1st time.

326
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:56.099
And yeah, and that was also nice because, you know, they're leaving the laboratory or the space station.

327
00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:02.160
And the camera stays in the same place and it's like the, you know, they they wibble and wobble out into sort of bits.

328
00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:05.160
But then they're in the same place and it's the background which has changed.

329
00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:08.880
I thought that was a nice, just a different way of treating the teleporting.

330
00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:11.039
Yeah, it takes you through with it, doesn't it?

331
00:26:11.099 --> 00:26:11.279
Yeah.

332
00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:13.619
I wondered if his joke at the start.

333
00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:16.019
Sorry, I wondered if his line, Kane's line, right at the start.

334
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:16.799
I'm a surgeon.

335
00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:20.160
I'm not interested in spaceship design, was meant to be a riff on...

336
00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:23.940
Dr. Jim, not a whatever that was Dr. McCoy's catchphrase in Star Trek.

337
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:25.559
Or maybe I was just looking too hard.

338
00:26:25.619 --> 00:26:27.000
But it made me think of that.

339
00:26:27.059 --> 00:26:31.140
Well, I think I think you might be onto something there, Pete, because I'm reasonably sure.

340
00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.259
First of all, that the BBC didn't get Star Trek until 1970.

341
00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:43.019
But secondly, that they did regularly repeat it because as an import, it was cheaper to pay for a repeat than it was for, say, a repeat of Doctor Who.

342
00:26:43.079 --> 00:26:56.700
And it also cast my mind back to something you were saying earlier, Simon, I think Marky was saying it as well, that none of the crew were a doctor, but it's a matter of if you look at Star Trek, the original series.

343
00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:04.140
The main reason that Bones was there was so they could have stories about space plagues or someone getting injured.

344
00:27:04.140 --> 00:27:11.279
And it seems that Terry Nation has essentially gone, I'm not terribly interested in those kind of stories.

345
00:27:11.339 --> 00:27:19.859
And when they do happen, the solution generally isn't medical, you know, it's just there's a poison gas here, once we get away from it, we'll be fine.

346
00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:34.019
And there are episodes of Star Trek, the original series where Bones only function is to occasionally walk onto the bridge for no reason and berate Kirk and then flounce off back into the into the turbo lift.

347
00:27:34.380 --> 00:27:41.940
I'd be hesitant to suggest that termination deliberately chose to not have a doctor on board because he wasn't going to be doing those kind of plots.

348
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000
I strongly suspect he didn't really think about it.

349
00:27:45.059 --> 00:27:46.619
No, you're probably right.

350
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:48.180
Yeah, it just crops up as a thing.

351
00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:49.500
That's been going along.

352
00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:53.759
So, so neat to have Professor Kane's speciality as space medicine, though, isn't it?

353
00:27:54.660 --> 00:27:56.940
That is a qualification.

354
00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:05.880
And for some reason, performing surgery on implants put into violent criminals is space medicine.

355
00:28:05.940 --> 00:28:06.420
It is.

356
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:08.579
Yeah, you don't get any of that nonsense.

357
00:28:09.420 --> 00:28:27.119
And I mean, Julian Glover absolutely sells this guy having a, actually, he's having a legitimate moral dilemma about these people who he considers to be murderous terrorists, and at the time this is going out, IRA bombs are going off often, and being in the news immediately before and after it.

358
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:30.359
And so, well, we can look back on it now as a sort of cosy.

359
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:31.859
Well, we know their freedom fighters, really.

360
00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:38.400
There is that, you know, Glover does, it doesn't just, he doesn't have a moustache twirl or even figuratively.

361
00:28:38.460 --> 00:28:45.900
He really does present you with a person who genuinely thinks that helping them is the wrong thing to do, which and delivers it quite believable.

362
00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:58.799
I see it, though, as a moral dilemma, because he's kind of, he's kind of that sort of, taking that line that, you know, the Federation is good because the Federation is strong and we need order and it's kind of the, you know, Mussolini making the trains run on time kind of argument.

363
00:28:58.859 --> 00:29:01.799
Blake and his gang are disorder.

364
00:29:01.859 --> 00:29:04.980
And so I don't really see him being conflicted in the episode.

365
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:06.359
He's better playing what he wants.

366
00:29:06.420 --> 00:29:07.200
No, that's true.

367
00:29:07.259 --> 00:29:07.500
Yeah yeah.

368
00:29:07.559 --> 00:29:08.039
I use the wrong word.

369
00:29:08.099 --> 00:29:09.539
Yeah, it's a moral, it's a moral stance.

370
00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:11.220
It's not a dilemma Yeah, good point.

371
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:26.099
Yeah, and for Blake's part, Blake gets him on the ship under false pretences, and despite the fact that the reason they've come here is he's neutral, Blake assumes that he's in with the Federation anyway.

372
00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:45.359
And, you know, everyone points out very sensible reasons for that, but yeah, it's like you don't immediately hate him for what he's thinking because from his perspective, All he's got to go on is not being given the full facts and being brought over to this ship, not being able to leave it because it's not docked.

373
00:29:45.420 --> 00:29:46.680
He hasn't brought anyone with him.

374
00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:57.539
So it does create an interesting situation and again gives Gareth Thomas an opportunity to play Blake's greyer side.

375
00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:02.700
I wouldn't necessarily say darker, except perhaps for one line, but certainly his morally gray side.

376
00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:04.680
Even then, I'm not entirely sure.

377
00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:12.539
I agree with that because I don't see it like has tricked Julian Glover to come onto the liberator.

378
00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:15.660
He's just not been, he's not told the entire truth.

379
00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:24.720
He, he's, he's not gone into the details of, of, um, how, who they are and why they're there and and why there might be this, this problem.

380
00:30:24.779 --> 00:30:32.220
So, yeah, I see where you what you're saying, but I'm not entirely sure I agree with the idea that it's Blake's greyer side, that's all.

381
00:30:32.279 --> 00:30:35.279
Yeah, it's a mission rather than deception.

382
00:30:35.339 --> 00:30:36.660
Yeah, exactly.

383
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:37.259
Mission.

384
00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:37.559
Exactly.

385
00:30:37.619 --> 00:30:37.799
Yes.

386
00:30:37.859 --> 00:30:38.220
Yes.

387
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:39.299
Yeah, that's a fair point.

388
00:30:39.359 --> 00:30:41.519
But I think I know which line you're referring to, Brendan.

389
00:30:41.579 --> 00:30:42.059
It is.

390
00:30:42.059 --> 00:30:42.599
It's horrible.

391
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.539
I shall destroy your hands.

392
00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:47.940
Yes, that is very dumb.

393
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:48.960
Okay Sorry.

394
00:30:49.019 --> 00:30:49.259
Yes.

395
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:49.619
Okay.

396
00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:51.359
That is very dark line.

397
00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:55.019
And I think Blake 7 rarely gets gruesome like that. does it?

398
00:30:55.079 --> 00:30:59.819
Yeah, and he delivers it just so, I mean, what are you going to do?

399
00:30:59.880 --> 00:31:03.480
You know, give that line to Brian blessed. you'll get something very different.

400
00:31:03.779 --> 00:31:12.119
Or indeed, or indeed Jacqueline Pierce, you know, both of whom are wonders and marvels, and they would both deliver that their own way, and it would be fantastic.

401
00:31:12.180 --> 00:31:23.880
But so, but Gareth Thomas has to be this, this liberal sort of fairly centrist rebel actually needing to convince, he, he just needs, and it's that thing is that we know that he just needs Kane to believe him.

402
00:31:23.940 --> 00:31:25.799
He doesn't have to really do it.

403
00:31:25.859 --> 00:31:26.819
That's a hell of a line.

404
00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:45.480
And what is really lovely about it is, we've already been subtly clued in to the importance, Kane places on his hands, and it will become significant at the end of the episode as well, because when he is refusing to start work, he's buffing his nails and checking his cuticles and every and all of that.

405
00:31:45.539 --> 00:31:51.539
So it's like he is vain, but specifically about his hands.

406
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:54.539
And they have to be in they have to be in perfect condition.

407
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:56.460
And Blake's not even there to see that.

408
00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:59.519
So, but, you know, he's a master surgeon.

409
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:10.680
And funnily enough, I wonder if Terry Nation got this idea from Marvel Comics, where, of course, Doctor Strange trains and gets his powers in order to regain the use of his hands so he can be a surgeon again.

410
00:32:10.740 --> 00:32:11.940
Strange, Kane?

411
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.539
I think I'm drawing too long ago on this I think it's a very long though. sorry.

412
00:32:18.539 --> 00:32:21.480
So yeah, and what do we think about Avons?

413
00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:26.700
double or is it treble dealings with with Farron where he's trying to strike a deal with him?

414
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:30.839
I think it's just exploring, you know, what the other options are.

415
00:32:30.900 --> 00:32:37.859
I don't really get the impression that he's ever intending to stay, especially when there's the question of, you know, the pursuit chips on their way.

416
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.019
Maybe in that initial conversation.

417
00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:46.319
And actually that initial conversation that they have where he's talking about leaving the liberation and staying on the space station.

418
00:32:46.380 --> 00:32:50.759
I actually think it's a really well performed scene from both of them, but particularly from Paul Darrow.

419
00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:54.960
He's just got the right delivery of those lines.

420
00:32:55.019 --> 00:32:56.579
It's not overplayed at all.

421
00:32:56.640 --> 00:32:58.200
Yeah, yeah, me too.

422
00:32:58.259 --> 00:33:00.839
Yeah, I don't think I really bought it that he was going to leave.

423
00:33:00.900 --> 00:33:04.200
But yeah, it was interesting for him to explore that.

424
00:33:04.259 --> 00:33:09.900
Well, I find is there's normally a bit more of a subplot from the main plot that involves more of the crew.

425
00:33:09.960 --> 00:33:12.359
This was much kind of smaller deal than that, wasn't it?

426
00:33:12.420 --> 00:33:13.500
just a couple of scenes, really.

427
00:33:13.559 --> 00:33:14.160
Yeah.

428
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:14.940
And it does.

429
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.799
I mean, in a way, Avon is made to look a bit gullible almost by simply getting Farron's word.

430
00:33:19.859 --> 00:33:21.720
I mean, it's sort of almost touching.

431
00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:23.279
You think, oh, Avon really does care for them.

432
00:33:23.339 --> 00:33:26.460
He doesn't want his friends to be killed, even though he's ditching them.

433
00:33:26.579 --> 00:33:32.099
But then when he just takes this basically evil person saying, yeah, of course I won't kill your friends.

434
00:33:32.099 --> 00:33:33.779
He's like, fine, that's good enough for me.

435
00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:39.720
I didn't really think Aaron was that evil or he seems fairly, fairly reasonable because he was, he was annoyed, wasn't he?

436
00:33:39.779 --> 00:33:41.400
that Kane had contacted the Federation.

437
00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:42.299
That's true.

438
00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:45.420
Yeah, and of course, yeah, and he's, there's the tension between the 2 of them, isn't there?

439
00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:45.660
Yeah.

440
00:33:45.779 --> 00:33:58.619
But he quite liked the rest of the crew didn't find out about Avon doing that. either like the fact that he'd tried to secure their their continued freedom because he kind of acts much more aloof than that and uncaring, doesn't he?

441
00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:10.139
Because there's a line that I thought when they're trying to, when they're working out the distances between the potential places where they could heal Gan, and he says, you haven't anything like that amount of time, like it's like it's nothing to do with me.

442
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:12.179
You know, it's kind of a problem.

443
00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:13.500
It's you're going to sort that out.

444
00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:16.500
But so that more loyal side of him, the rest of them don't get to see.

445
00:34:16.619 --> 00:34:17.820
Yes.

446
00:34:17.880 --> 00:34:25.559
And yet, he is the one who points out there is somewhere closer by that offers a better chance and we should go through it.

447
00:34:25.619 --> 00:34:36.360
It's only when his own life is threatened by the general sort of ship failure that he grabs Jenna and tears her away from the controls to try and get her to stop.

448
00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:39.300
And, you know, is, of course, stopped by Blake.

449
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:44.699
He's sort of his sort of deal of take me in and let the others go free.

450
00:34:44.760 --> 00:34:49.559
He's the one who's pointed out earlier, you know, there's a price on our heads.

451
00:34:49.679 --> 00:35:00.719
I think he's kind of realised there's not necessarily a price on my head if I'm just living a very quiet life on this comfy research station that develops big weapons.

452
00:35:01.079 --> 00:35:06.059
I think he could find himself a very nice little spinoff series there, couldn't he, if he'd wanted to?

453
00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:06.360
Yeah.

454
00:35:06.420 --> 00:35:07.320
Avon.

455
00:35:07.380 --> 00:35:07.619
I mean.

456
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:07.980
Yeah.

457
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:08.820
Yeah.

458
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:10.019
And it's great.

459
00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:16.679
I mean, you know, we're what, 10 episodes in and with a less convincing and engaging cast.

460
00:35:16.739 --> 00:35:27.900
This idea of is Avon really one of the team or not, would have burnt out by now, but it hasn't at all, if it, um, it's, it's just genuinely interesting character development ongoing.

461
00:35:28.019 --> 00:35:56.579
I do wonder if that's perhaps part of the reason that Gan is slipping by the wayside, because everyone else sort of has a little bit of their own agenda and varying degrees of loyalty to Blake, but Gan only has loyalty to Blake, and it seems to be the only thing we can do interesting with him is to not bend that the way that Avon does, but totally break it.

462
00:35:56.639 --> 00:36:06.420
I think it's fair to say that Gan isn't working in the terms of the ensemble cast, and I just like to hear your thoughts, these 10 episodes in.

463
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:07.860
Why isn't Gan working?

464
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:09.719
I think there's a couple of reasons.

465
00:36:09.780 --> 00:36:31.559
I think partly it's, dare I suggest laziness of the writer to come up with something about his character that they're going to use in episodes other than this limiter, which is basically his entire reason for being, is to to have this limiter so that we can have this episode basically.

466
00:36:31.619 --> 00:36:33.420
There's nothing else.

467
00:36:33.480 --> 00:36:34.980
There is nothing else there in the character.

468
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:40.739
He's also surplus 2 requirements in terms of numbers of characters that they've got to work with.

469
00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:43.800
And I think that it is one too many.

470
00:36:43.860 --> 00:36:48.360
And so he's the one who generally gets the gets the short straw on that.

471
00:36:48.420 --> 00:36:53.820
The other thing is that his loyalty to Blake is too puppy dog.

472
00:36:53.880 --> 00:36:57.659
It's too, you know, I will basically follow him to the end of this.

473
00:36:57.719 --> 00:36:58.860
I can't remember which episode it is.

474
00:36:58.920 --> 00:37:02.219
There's a line where he says something about his unquestioning.

475
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:04.440
He'll basically unquestionably follow Blake.

476
00:37:04.500 --> 00:37:11.099
It's one of those sequences where Avon's talking about how stupidly loyal they all are, but he is particularly loyal.

477
00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:13.920
And so therefore, there's nowhere to go with that.

478
00:37:13.980 --> 00:37:19.559
Now you think that if he was really loyal to Blake, they'd be there for tension with, say, Avon, right?

479
00:37:19.619 --> 00:37:24.000
Whereas Avon sort of belittles him as effectively being stupid from time to time, but that's about all.

480
00:37:24.059 --> 00:37:26.579
There's never actually, again, it doesn't really stand up to athorn.

481
00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:30.300
And so I just think that it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

482
00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:37.019
When you have a character that's not fleshed out, they get underused in the scripts and they get, because they get underused in the scripts, they're never fully fleshed out.

483
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:39.719
And so it just got all spirals down.

484
00:37:39.719 --> 00:37:43.500
And then they'll suddenly do an episode like this because they realised, oh, we haven't really used Gan much.

485
00:37:43.559 --> 00:37:44.760
Let's do an episode about him.

486
00:37:44.760 --> 00:37:47.820
And, and this, so this almost feels forced as a result.

487
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:49.440
Yes, yes, absolutely.

488
00:37:49.500 --> 00:37:55.260
Yeah, and I think, well, well, well, Kelly and Jenna are sometimes, you know, underserved by the scripts in terms of stuff to do.

489
00:37:55.320 --> 00:38:01.559
They do get just some general action-y stuff to do as well as having episodes that centre around them.

490
00:38:01.619 --> 00:38:12.719
Whereas Gan is so pinned to the gentle giant concept that he doesn't tend to get any just general being part of the team stuff to do apart from when that is foregrounded.

491
00:38:12.780 --> 00:38:22.980
So maybe that's why he's sort of stuck in this in this narrow place that can either be a whole episode about it or an regular episode doesn't really get touched.

492
00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:32.159
And as you say, the girls get their they get their place in the sun. even if they, as you said, they get out and utilised, they have something meaningful to do, which is a reason for them being there.

493
00:38:32.219 --> 00:38:33.239
Whereas again, doesn't.

494
00:38:33.480 --> 00:38:36.480
Mark, what's your impression of Gan as someone viewing this for the 1st time?

495
00:38:36.539 --> 00:38:44.099
Yeah, no, when you're talking them, I was trying to think what part he'd played in some of the other stories and nothing really springing to mind.

496
00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:51.179
I say, beyond the ones about the limiter, because they discover it in, again, Sorry, I don't know the name of all the episodes.

497
00:38:51.239 --> 00:38:53.340
I should have had the little booklet out of the DVD set.

498
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:55.920
No, your summaries are more informative than the title, actually.

499
00:38:55.980 --> 00:38:58.079
So go with what comes springs to your mind.

500
00:38:58.920 --> 00:39:02.159
The one where they find that the little spaceship with the people in it.

501
00:39:02.219 --> 00:39:03.000
We try and kill.

502
00:39:03.119 --> 00:39:05.699
The one with the sandal assassins, yeah.

503
00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:10.800
So they, that's when they find out about the limit.

504
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:16.079
And I can't, yeah, I'm struggling to think of anything that he did until this one, the sort of significant part that he's played.

505
00:39:16.139 --> 00:39:19.139
So yeah, he's a bit of a secondary character, isn't he?

506
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:32.280
Yeah, and it's just with, and I think 6 human central characters being taken to a completely different setting every week is an unusual structure for a series and they're just finding out there isn't really all that much, that much elbow room for them all.

507
00:39:32.340 --> 00:39:34.320
Yeah, yeah, that's work.

508
00:39:34.380 --> 00:39:41.940
For that to work, you really need to have episodes where, or each episode you have one or 2 of them who are basically barely or not in it.

509
00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:45.239
And that's the way kind of Star Trek would work, particularly TNG.

510
00:39:45.300 --> 00:39:48.179
You get episodes where, you know, Beverly is not in that at all.

511
00:39:48.179 --> 00:39:52.800
Or you get them where Reik is only in half a scene, which is actually filmed for the different episodes or something.

512
00:39:52.860 --> 00:39:53.340
You know what I mean?

513
00:39:53.400 --> 00:39:57.059
That's what they, they don't do here, really.

514
00:39:57.119 --> 00:39:58.980
And that's why you end up with the gang situation.

515
00:39:59.039 --> 00:40:10.260
Yeah, and it's part of what makes the big finish audios of Blake 7 so successful, even when they move to full cast, they're generally only focussing on 2 or 3 of the characters.

516
00:40:10.260 --> 00:40:16.380
And, you know, then the next player will focus on the other 2 or 3 of the characters.

517
00:40:16.440 --> 00:40:20.039
I agree absolutely with what you've all said about Gan.

518
00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:25.559
And I look at an episode like this, and I think it's such a missed opportunity because he spends most of it unconscious.

519
00:40:25.619 --> 00:40:30.900
The acting that David Jackson gets to do when the limiter is malfunctioning is great.

520
00:40:30.960 --> 00:40:32.760
Like that scene where he fools Calli.

521
00:40:32.820 --> 00:40:41.219
I can't fault his performance there and just the little impish grin as he attacks her.

522
00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.059
I am left wondering, wow, is this his real personality?

523
00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:49.079
Is this is this not the limiter malfunctioning per se?

524
00:40:49.139 --> 00:40:54.360
This is what the limiter was holding back and it's like, wow, that would be very interesting to explore.

525
00:40:54.360 --> 00:41:02.880
You know, the concept that one of these people that Blake has brought on board is actually too unstable to be reliable.

526
00:41:02.940 --> 00:41:07.199
But unfortunately, it's just not something they're interested in exploring, which is a great shame.

527
00:41:07.260 --> 00:41:13.739
Even if we'd seen more of a battle between the 2 sides of his personality, it would have been interesting seeing him play that as well.

528
00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:15.000
Yeah, absolutely.

529
00:41:15.059 --> 00:41:16.500
But I do agree with you, Brandon.

530
00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:25.380
I found David Jackson very, very good in this where he could have been ordinary to a bit embarrassing.

531
00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:27.420
And you sort of did wonder.

532
00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:37.380
I was kind of wondering by this point in the series, was Gan being underused because they discovered that actually they don't think he's a very good actor and so they can't give him too much to do.

533
00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:38.940
But that's obviously not the case.

534
00:41:40.739 --> 00:41:44.099
Can goes through his surgery.

535
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:44.880
Yes.

536
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:52.679
And at last, and, you know, we've sort of got the ticking clock of the Federation ships approaching on their CSO Starfield.

537
00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:01.739
The travesty of directors refusing to use the dedicated model work on this series.

538
00:42:01.980 --> 00:42:05.099
I take it we've discussed this in previous episodes.

539
00:42:05.159 --> 00:42:05.880
We all aware of this.

540
00:42:05.940 --> 00:42:06.960
Yeah, yeah.

541
00:42:07.019 --> 00:42:08.820
Does it cut to the cardboard version?

542
00:42:08.820 --> 00:42:09.539
Yes.

543
00:42:09.599 --> 00:42:21.000
Because, yeah, there was a big model session and they're like, we're going to do it like Star Trek and have these dedicated model sequences that'll be used throughout and the directors who are coming into the show objected and said, well, I'm not putting someone else's work under my name.

544
00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:23.519
Demarkation, isn't it?

545
00:42:23.579 --> 00:42:26.219
Demarkation may or may not be the issue.

546
00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:31.260
And it's it's, you know, it's such a shame.

547
00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:42.780
One thing I'm glad of is they didn't get Stephen Grife in to do a voiceover because, you know, it's one thing to have some Federation pursuit ships nearby.

548
00:42:42.840 --> 00:42:48.360
That's understandable, but if it just happened to be Travis nearby, that would have been a bit ridiculous.

549
00:42:48.420 --> 00:42:50.099
Yeah, yeah.

550
00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:54.119
Yeah, it's good to keep it that they are, they are being hounded by the whole of the Federation.

551
00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:56.219
Not just...

552
00:42:56.280 --> 00:43:01.380
And yeah, we get we get that great line we've already discussed about, you know, I shall destroy your hands.

553
00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:05.280
We get keyhole surgery, which, you know, had been invented.

554
00:43:05.340 --> 00:43:06.239
Yes.

555
00:43:08.460 --> 00:43:16.800
He's operating on the or fixing the limiter, but isn't the limiter actually just kind of staple to the top of his crown?

556
00:43:16.860 --> 00:43:18.900
Or is there kind of another piece of it?

557
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:21.599
Are we supposed to believe there's another piece of it which is well inside his skull?

558
00:43:21.659 --> 00:43:22.559
Is that the idea?

559
00:43:22.619 --> 00:43:24.179
There's like 22 ends to it.

560
00:43:24.239 --> 00:43:25.619
That's what I took from the x-ray.

561
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:31.920
Yeah, there's one at the top of the score and there seemed to be a wire going deep into his brain, didn't there, with another little printed circuit board or something.

562
00:43:31.980 --> 00:43:34.079
Yeah, that was that was the impression I got as well.

563
00:43:34.139 --> 00:43:39.360
I thought it was odd that Julian Glover is not wearing gloves during the surgery given that he is wearing a gown and mask.

564
00:43:39.420 --> 00:43:40.679
On his name, Glover.

565
00:43:42.539 --> 00:43:47.280
All of the pointers were there for some classic gloves to be used, but nobody picked them up.

566
00:43:47.340 --> 00:43:52.199
Julian Glover going, no, that joke, that joke happened to me all the time in the 60s.

567
00:43:52.260 --> 00:43:53.579
I don't wear gloves anymore.

568
00:43:54.360 --> 00:43:57.059
Yes, maybe that was with his contract.

569
00:43:57.119 --> 00:43:59.099
No clubs. sick of it.

570
00:43:59.159 --> 00:44:05.820
Then I do also very much like Julian Glover's angry permanent marker acting.

571
00:44:05.880 --> 00:44:11.460
He very angrily uses a permanent market to circle some circuits on a picture.

572
00:44:14.699 --> 00:44:19.019
I knew his motivation was to use that market used for using that market, Brendan.

573
00:44:19.079 --> 00:44:20.760
I think that's what it's about Yes, yeah.

574
00:44:20.820 --> 00:44:22.860
Vera, darling, how angry am I in this scene?

575
00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:27.960
Maybe when I was a child, I wasn't allowed marker pens.

576
00:44:28.260 --> 00:44:30.480
A repressed memory.

577
00:44:30.539 --> 00:44:32.880
That's what turned me into a space Nazi.

578
00:44:35.940 --> 00:44:37.679
Episode title.

579
00:44:37.739 --> 00:44:38.340
Space Nazi.

580
00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:42.300
Dogs, they listen to us all laughing as if it's the end of an episode in which everybody's nearly been killed.

581
00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:47.579
Oh, I actually have written in my notes here.

582
00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:51.059
The expletive Scooby-Doo ending.

583
00:44:51.119 --> 00:44:51.719
Yeah.

584
00:44:51.780 --> 00:44:52.619
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

585
00:44:52.980 --> 00:44:54.960
It's unfortunate.

586
00:44:55.019 --> 00:44:57.119
It's the word that I would choose. regrettable.

587
00:44:57.239 --> 00:44:58.500
Yes, yes.

588
00:44:58.559 --> 00:45:00.599
Isn't there a version of it on YouTube?

589
00:45:00.780 --> 00:45:08.639
Was anyone on this particular podcast episode responsible for making it where that cuts to audience applause and the new music?

590
00:45:08.820 --> 00:45:12.360
I wouldn't get past you if it was one of you who'd actually done it.

591
00:45:12.420 --> 00:45:13.920
I remember seeing it years ago.

592
00:45:13.980 --> 00:45:14.460
Not me.

593
00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:17.280
But I think it is the theme to Heidi, hype.

594
00:45:17.340 --> 00:45:18.059
That's it.

595
00:45:18.059 --> 00:45:22.139
Because, yeah, um, it's a tonal, it's a tonal ship.

596
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:24.780
Because Farron has just been beaten to death.

597
00:45:24.840 --> 00:45:30.480
Incidentally, Ian Thompson, who plays Farren, was also an Optera in the web planet.

598
00:45:30.539 --> 00:45:34.380
So I did promise you all at home that wasn't the last Doctor Who reference at the beginning.

599
00:45:34.440 --> 00:45:36.420
So he doesn't get to see the light in this episode.

600
00:45:36.480 --> 00:45:37.380
Well, maybe he does.

601
00:45:40.500 --> 00:45:49.440
Julian Glover staring at his hands after he has bludgeoned his boss to death as he explodes, pathos or pathos.

602
00:45:49.559 --> 00:45:50.340
Simon go.

603
00:45:50.460 --> 00:45:51.179
Pathos.

604
00:45:51.239 --> 00:45:52.920
Pathos, radio?

605
00:45:52.980 --> 00:45:53.460
Mark?

606
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:55.440
Yeah, I think Pathos as well.

607
00:45:55.500 --> 00:45:56.400
And Pete?

608
00:45:56.460 --> 00:45:59.880
I think Space Foss is what we're getting there.

609
00:45:59.940 --> 00:46:00.780
A whole new thing.

610
00:46:01.079 --> 00:46:11.460
Combining with pathos and pathos at the same time, like reversing the polarity of a neutron flow. because there's just a whole new emotion in that very scene.

611
00:46:11.519 --> 00:46:21.360
Ah, look, I'm leaning more towards the pathos side as well because, you know, just we've had a little bit of foreshadowing about his hand, so it makes a nice, nice little story arc.

612
00:46:21.420 --> 00:46:33.239
But also, if I can just extend that thought, sorry, because what you're trying to say, what you're trying to suggest, or trying to get us to suggest was that it was a bit rubbish, right?

613
00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:35.579
The way it sort of overplayed, right?

614
00:46:35.639 --> 00:46:41.699
Whereas I think for me, it's always something's overplayed or not overplayed in the context of where it is.

615
00:46:41.760 --> 00:46:46.920
And in the context of this program and this episode, it's entirely consistent.

616
00:46:46.980 --> 00:46:48.539
So if that's why for me it's pathos.

617
00:46:48.599 --> 00:46:58.019
Whereas if it was in a much more high calibre program of the present day, it would be very rubbish. you know what I mean?

618
00:46:58.079 --> 00:46:59.219
Yes, yes.

619
00:46:59.280 --> 00:47:00.119
Absolutely.

620
00:47:00.179 --> 00:47:06.300
Like, I was hoping everyone was going to say some degree of papers because I think it is actually perfectly pitched.

621
00:47:06.360 --> 00:47:22.440
But I think it's also a matter of if you were to watch that scene in isolation, not having seen the rest of the episode, it could be held up as a moment of, oh, this is the level of high camp we come to expect from Blake 7, but absolutely, Simon, you're right.

622
00:47:22.500 --> 00:47:28.739
In context, it totally works and is and is grounded in the truth of the character.

623
00:47:28.739 --> 00:47:40.559
One thing that's odd for me is that this space station, research centre, you know, highly qualified individuals there can be utterly annihilated by just the one plasma bolt.

624
00:47:40.679 --> 00:47:46.500
Don't you think that it's, and do we feel that the space station really needs to have been destroyed at the end?

625
00:47:46.559 --> 00:47:51.360
Wouldn't it almost have been nicer to have had Julian Glover sitting there looking at his hands and all that?

626
00:47:51.420 --> 00:47:57.059
And because he's just bludgeoned someone to death, and then he has to live with it rather than being killed 15 seconds later.

627
00:47:57.179 --> 00:48:00.179
Yeah, I'm not sure why they went with it other than it just being.

628
00:48:00.179 --> 00:48:01.079
And then everything explodes.

629
00:48:01.139 --> 00:48:02.820
I mean, that's...

630
00:48:03.900 --> 00:48:04.679
Of course, that's the blood.

631
00:48:04.739 --> 00:48:06.840
But there's no actual reason why it has to.

632
00:48:06.900 --> 00:48:08.219
I actually think it would have been more powerful.

633
00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:21.599
No, no, I agree with you because I look at that and I feel very sorry for Dr. Reynold. who's been a very nice character who doesn't care who Blake and his people are.

634
00:48:21.659 --> 00:48:23.760
He's a doctor and he wants to save Gan's life.

635
00:48:23.820 --> 00:48:25.079
You know, that's his through line.

636
00:48:25.139 --> 00:48:43.619
And, you know, even though he sort of leers at Jenna, there's no, yeah, there's no sort of threat there. like they're both charming young attractive people and he recognises that she's not impressed by his flirting and comments on it and she insults him and he smiles at her.

637
00:48:43.739 --> 00:48:49.800
And he's just this really lovely character that I, yeah, I am head cannoning jumped into an escape pod.

638
00:48:49.860 --> 00:48:52.920
I, I had him down as really smarmy.

639
00:48:52.980 --> 00:49:05.340
I thought he was horrible. mommy at the beginning, but then he's the one who takes the moral high ground and insists that they need to do the operation and and especially that line, you know, when Julie Lovey says, are you defending their behaviour?

640
00:49:05.400 --> 00:49:07.079
And he says, I can't defend ours.

641
00:49:07.139 --> 00:49:08.639
I thought that was lovely.

642
00:49:08.699 --> 00:49:17.280
And so I think the character does actually, for what it's worth, the character in inverted commas develops in inverted commas in the 10 minutes that we have with him.

643
00:49:17.340 --> 00:49:19.019
That's fine.

644
00:49:19.019 --> 00:49:19.619
And he does.

645
00:49:19.679 --> 00:49:21.539
Yeah, it does start with that.

646
00:49:21.599 --> 00:49:23.639
There's lots of pretty girls on this spaceship.

647
00:49:23.699 --> 00:49:25.800
Yeah, right.

648
00:49:25.800 --> 00:49:28.559
They're all men out there.

649
00:49:28.619 --> 00:49:31.860
Well, it's a Terry Nation space station.

650
00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:32.340
Exactly.

651
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:35.639
They might they might have one woman in a silly hat.

652
00:49:35.699 --> 00:49:39.480
But that's actually an interesting point where you mentioned that women in silly hats or something.

653
00:49:39.539 --> 00:49:42.780
When you think about it and it's so easy.

654
00:49:42.840 --> 00:49:49.619
It would have been so easy to make any of those 3 characters that we see, um, on on the space station, a woman.

655
00:49:49.679 --> 00:50:00.780
Uh, whether it's the, the, the station, uh, you know, the administrator or Julian Glover's character or this other Renault, any of them could have been a woman and yet they're just automatically nailed.

656
00:50:00.840 --> 00:50:03.119
It is quite interesting when you think about it.

657
00:50:03.179 --> 00:50:07.079
And, you know, it's what Louise Jameson talks about when she talks about Pennant Roberts.

658
00:50:07.139 --> 00:50:09.780
You know, Pennant Roberts would go, there aren't enough women in this script.

659
00:50:09.840 --> 00:50:14.340
I'm going to make some, but it just doesn't seem to occur to other directors.

660
00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:15.599
And you know what?

661
00:50:15.659 --> 00:50:21.360
These scripts probably don't have mail written next to these characters, but as you say, it is just the default.

662
00:50:21.420 --> 00:50:27.059
Yes, especially because at this time, people would have been using the expression female doctor.

663
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:34.500
Yes. as a necessary qualification to say that this doctor is a woman rather than just being, she's a doctor, you know.

664
00:50:35.639 --> 00:50:52.320
Now before we get that terrible Scooby-Doo ending, something I find very interesting is that after they have very slowly reversed away from the space station, being very careful to check both their rearview mirrors, Blake doesn't give the order to get underway.

665
00:50:52.380 --> 00:50:55.559
He turns to Avon and says, you know what to do.

666
00:50:55.559 --> 00:51:02.099
And I think that's kind of Blake's way of saying, um, I know you were over on the space station talking about something.

667
00:51:02.159 --> 00:51:04.380
Make your decision now.

668
00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:07.739
I like, are you are you with us or are you going to go off on your own way?

669
00:51:07.800 --> 00:51:10.739
And I think, I think it's, I find it a subtle moment.

670
00:51:10.800 --> 00:51:11.940
I'd never picked up on it before.

671
00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:12.960
What do we think about that?

672
00:51:13.019 --> 00:51:19.800
Yeah, that's a really nice little moment and it stops them having to have a long heart wrenching discussion.

673
00:51:19.860 --> 00:51:20.280
Should I stay?

674
00:51:20.340 --> 00:51:20.880
Should I leave?

675
00:51:20.880 --> 00:51:31.019
at that point in the story, which the story just doesn't need right then, particularly, but it nevertheless, it leaves us as viewers sort of knowing more about what happened than Blake did.

676
00:51:31.079 --> 00:51:33.420
So yeah, it's really nicely handled, I think.

677
00:51:33.480 --> 00:51:53.400
That's interesting because I don't necessarily see that as, as, as that being what that sequence is about because for me, maybe it's for me, I've already, I've already interpreted the fact that Avon was flirting with staying on the space station, but the decision has long since been made because there's no way now that he could go back there with the pursuit ships coming and all the rest of it.

678
00:51:53.460 --> 00:52:01.440
I, I, I, I, I, it may be, it may very well be what you're suggesting and maybe I just, just completely misread it, but yeah, I sort of feel like the decision's already made.

679
00:52:01.559 --> 00:52:04.739
I think because Farron had basically said they'd be able to hide him.

680
00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:13.500
So it might have been interesting if he'd had a moment there where he had to make the decision and then having decided to stay, they see the space station blow up because that's basically an accident, isn't it?

681
00:52:13.619 --> 00:52:17.400
So as far as he knows, he could have decided to stay.

682
00:52:17.460 --> 00:52:19.679
Farron said, you know, we could hide you away here till they've gone.

683
00:52:19.679 --> 00:52:21.239
And he could have stayed there.

684
00:52:21.300 --> 00:52:23.760
And it made more sense exploding as well.

685
00:52:23.820 --> 00:52:25.260
Yeah, that's a really good point, Mark.

686
00:52:25.320 --> 00:52:28.380
And maybe that does loop back to where we were saying, well, why do they blow up the space station?

687
00:52:28.440 --> 00:52:33.480
That just by blowing it up, that just leaves us that with that little thing of, what if it hadn't blown up?

688
00:52:33.539 --> 00:52:35.460
Avon could have still gone back to it.

689
00:52:35.519 --> 00:52:37.860
It leaves it as a, uh, maybe, I don't know.

690
00:52:37.920 --> 00:52:42.599
Maybe that leaves it as a little bit more doubt over Avon's commitment still.

691
00:52:42.659 --> 00:52:44.099
I actually really like this episode.

692
00:52:44.159 --> 00:52:51.179
I don't sort of, I'm not in tune with what's the received wisdom, quote unquote, think about all these episodes, but I actually really like it.

693
00:52:51.239 --> 00:52:54.719
It's not perfect, but, you know, the regulars are all in good form.

694
00:52:54.780 --> 00:53:01.019
There isn't any logical or inconsistent changes in their characters from what's been established already, which does happen from time to time.

695
00:53:01.079 --> 00:53:05.099
And David Jackson, as I said, does give a really good performance during his whole breakdown.

696
00:53:05.159 --> 00:53:08.940
And of course, you know, Julian Glover, what you can't go wrong.

697
00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:11.760
He's always an excellent character, an excellent villain.

698
00:53:11.820 --> 00:53:28.019
But I suppose my main quibble is that I wouldn't preferred a lot less of the gravity well sequence and a lot more of the internal politics and goings on at XK7, I think there's an interesting untold story there, whereas the challenge of getting through the gravity, Well, was all a bit too standard.

699
00:53:28.079 --> 00:53:34.559
Now, I suppose going through the gravity will bit gives Gan a chance to escape and cause havoc and do all that.

700
00:53:34.619 --> 00:53:49.500
But you could have had an equivalent sequence in the context of the space station as well when they're waiting for the doctor to come back from, we're waiting for Julian Glove to come back from somewhere else or where they've got to do something to him for 24 hours before they can possibly perform surgery or whatever it is.

701
00:53:49.559 --> 00:53:52.019
So if I was improving it.

702
00:53:52.079 --> 00:53:54.420
And I think I think there's much room for improvement in the episode.

703
00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:55.500
It's not it's far from perfect.

704
00:53:55.559 --> 00:53:57.659
That's what I would have wanted to see.

705
00:53:57.719 --> 00:54:02.820
And, you know, we've already said that the Scooby-Doo ending is very unfortunate and I think that lets the side down.

706
00:54:02.940 --> 00:54:07.199
It does, and yeah, I wouldn't want to live in a world where that ending doesn't exist.

707
00:54:09.179 --> 00:54:11.519
I do I enjoy it.

708
00:54:11.579 --> 00:54:18.420
I kind of look forward to it when it's coming up, despite being aware that it's quantitatively bad in air quotes.

709
00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:20.519
Yeah, do that ending, though.

710
00:54:20.579 --> 00:54:24.119
They should have actually made a joke, not just said, it's good to have you back.

711
00:54:24.179 --> 00:54:29.039
They could have said, you know, like, oh, you gave him a piece of your mind or he really got into your head or something.

712
00:54:29.280 --> 00:54:34.440
It would have been a joke, but it would have actually been a joke for them to laugh at.

713
00:54:35.099 --> 00:54:41.099
Mark, well, Chris if only Chris Boucher had you on the phone. when he was editing this.

714
00:54:41.579 --> 00:54:46.440
We need the most daddest dad joke to round off this episode.

715
00:54:46.500 --> 00:54:48.360
Get me, McManus.

716
00:54:49.619 --> 00:54:52.679
Just no joke there or even in the temple.

717
00:54:52.739 --> 00:54:54.659
That's what I found odd.

718
00:54:54.719 --> 00:54:56.519
So does everyone else like it or not really?

719
00:54:56.579 --> 00:55:01.860
I go into it thinking I'm not going to like it and then I generally do.

720
00:55:01.920 --> 00:55:05.940
I'm kind of with you except I don't want to see more aboard the station.

721
00:55:06.300 --> 00:55:07.920
I want to see Gan doing more.

722
00:55:07.920 --> 00:55:11.159
And I want to get inside his head a bit.

723
00:55:11.219 --> 00:55:18.780
But I agree with you, the space peril isn't as interesting as the mental peril gamble we're going through.

724
00:55:18.780 --> 00:55:27.179
And there will be later episodes of Blake 7 that do manifestations of what is going on in characters' heads better than this one.

725
00:55:27.239 --> 00:55:32.039
But in a way, maybe we wouldn't have had those without this exploration.

726
00:55:32.219 --> 00:55:40.559
So I think it introduces ideas that are done better further on in the series, but it is a qualified success.

727
00:55:40.619 --> 00:55:52.619
Yeah, I mean, it's probably one of my preferred episodes of the 1st series, and the 1st series would be my least favourite of the four, but nevertheless, it is one of my preferred of this season.

728
00:55:52.679 --> 00:55:52.860
Yeah.

729
00:55:52.920 --> 00:55:56.219
The ones I've seen so far, I'd say it's kind of mid-table.

730
00:55:56.280 --> 00:56:04.320
I think the ones where they, they sort of usually have a subplot that takes up half the crew and those ones are kind of a bit more, bit more interesting, I think.

731
00:56:04.440 --> 00:56:08.280
Yeah, I've got it. as in the lower toward the lower end.

732
00:56:08.400 --> 00:56:10.679
But at the same time, it's perfectly watchable.

733
00:56:10.739 --> 00:56:12.119
And you've got that there.

734
00:56:12.179 --> 00:56:13.800
You know that Julian Glover's turning up soon.

735
00:56:13.860 --> 00:56:20.219
And it is odd that you don't that he doesn't get dropped in until past the half hour mark.

736
00:56:20.280 --> 00:56:22.800
It's a story of 2 halves quite literally, isn't it?

737
00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:46.139
Well, that is all the time we have for breakdown, dear listeners, I'd like to thank you all for tuning in and hope you come back next week for some absolute seriousness and not at all any campery for the episode bounty.

738
00:56:46.199 --> 00:56:50.760
Until next time, may you need as many horse tranquillizers as you like.

739
00:56:50.820 --> 00:56:52.559
Thank you very much for listening and good night.

740
00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:53.219
Good night.

741
00:56:53.280 --> 00:56:54.239
Good night, tonight.

742
00:56:58.860 --> 00:57:01.019
Switching to man.

743
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:03.059
Maximum power on all drives.

744
00:57:06.179 --> 00:57:08.340
Maxim, power.