WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 21:50:27

1
00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.120
Maximum power.

2
00:00:12.179 --> 00:00:14.580
Hello and welcome back to Maximum Power.

3
00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:21.300
The Blake 7 podcast, which is starting to wonder if our three-week camping holiday on the planet Cephlon, was such a good idea.

4
00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:23.280
I'm Nathan.

5
00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:24.059
I'm Brendan.

6
00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:25.379
I'm Colin.

7
00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.839
I'm Pete And I'm Si.

8
00:00:27.899 --> 00:00:31.980
So this week, we've finally reached the end of series one.

9
00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:34.439
No one's going to leap an incorrectly.

10
00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:40.320
Hey, series thing.

11
00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:48.479
Which is episode 13, Aurak, written, as always, by Terry Nation on the back of a napkin and directed by Ver Lorimer.

12
00:00:48.539 --> 00:00:55.380
So let's just see how we thought the episode went, and so I might go around the table, if that's all right.

13
00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:57.960
I'm starting on my left with Brendan.

14
00:00:58.020 --> 00:00:59.820
Look, I think this is perfectly fine.

15
00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:17.159
I think it suffers a little bit from Blake and Kelly possibly being not a particularly fun pairing and they're who we spend most of the story with, especially seeing as the pair they're up against, us Servolad and Travis being rather fabulous.

16
00:01:17.219 --> 00:01:21.299
But look, I think lacklustre is better than actively terrible.

17
00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:22.980
Wow.

18
00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:26.519
Put that on the DVD cover.

19
00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:32.280
What did you think of it, Colin?

20
00:01:32.340 --> 00:01:36.299
I, again, I think it is lacklustre as well.

21
00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:37.980
I think it is, it is.

22
00:01:38.099 --> 00:01:40.439
I mean, for the want of a thesaurus.

23
00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:44.280
It's just a kind of, well, it's part two.

24
00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:55.980
It's the only kind of part 2 they've done up to this point and they, I think we'll talk about it when they do their, their recap, but it really doesn't have a much material to stretch out that far.

25
00:01:56.040 --> 00:02:06.180
And it just feels like a lot of wandering through underground caves for no reason, which, of course, is you know, it's totally impenetrable and the security fuel will get them.

26
00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.719
And they won't get that far, and of course, they get that far.

27
00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:15.659
So it's full of the usual kind of tropes of saying something won't happen and then it happens.

28
00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:18.419
So, um, yeah, it's all right.

29
00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:22.259
Pete, you're actually well known for your ability to enjoy things.

30
00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:26.340
Only very particular things.

31
00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:29.039
How did you find this?

32
00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:34.620
Well, now, yeah, it is interesting because someone who apparently was me reviewed this on IMDb a few years ago.

33
00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:37.740
Didn't like it much at all.

34
00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.919
I thought it completely failed to be a grand finale, yada, yada.

35
00:02:40.979 --> 00:02:50.520
But coming back to it now, I feel I don't like that person as much as their opinion anyway, because it was just, I thought it actually was quite fun.

36
00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:59.520
If you don't go into it, expecting a grand finale, which Blake 7 later on becomes the high watermark of providing with more of a last day of term.

37
00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:02.520
Oh, thank God, we've nearly finished kind of feel to it.

38
00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:16.500
It's got that stuff that can be called padding, but it's also, but it's, it's at least mainly, the characters are so good and the, the actors are all so comfortable, that it, it's padding, it's luxuriant padding.

39
00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:19.379
If it's padding when they are doing their character bits.

40
00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:27.840
So, um, yeah, I, I found, I found things to like about it in this one, which I, which we can go into in a bit, but yeah, I think it's maybe given a bit, a bit of a bum deal.

41
00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:29.639
And what about you, Si?

42
00:03:29.699 --> 00:03:32.280
Oh, God, it's a thin episode, isn't it?

43
00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:35.879
What you say, Terry Nation's watching this on the back of the napkin.

44
00:03:35.939 --> 00:03:40.500
I think the 13 episodes are just are really showing now.

45
00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:42.120
He's he's really struggling.

46
00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:44.520
So we've got his old ideas.

47
00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:45.900
Oh, an acid C.

48
00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:51.719
Oh, radiation sickness, but there's no pills available on the ship, the ship that's got everything.

49
00:03:51.780 --> 00:03:57.360
And it's, um, radiation gloves is the one thing it's not got.

50
00:03:57.419 --> 00:04:01.620
That's what they were looking for. come with those down on Cephlon, couldn't I?

51
00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:06.659
But basically, it's just a race against time, isn't it?

52
00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:08.219
It's a chase story.

53
00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:12.900
It's who's going to get to the prize 1st and the price being a big specs box.

54
00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:14.819
Which is super fun.

55
00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:23.879
But it, I mean, I don't think there's any ambition to do anything more than get 50 minutes of story onto the screen here.

56
00:04:23.939 --> 00:04:25.319
And that's fine.

57
00:04:25.379 --> 00:04:25.860
That's okay.

58
00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:29.339
I mean, that achieved more than Bounty did, for instance.

59
00:04:30.540 --> 00:04:34.560
Yeah, to be fair, it's a stroll against time, really, isn't it?

60
00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:39.300
I was going to say 30 minutes of story onto the screen.

61
00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:42.660
I was late for the podcast.

62
00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:47.040
I was late this morning, so I had to watch it at one. 5 speed on the disc.

63
00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.620
How was that?

64
00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:50.100
Great.

65
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:51.300
It's...

66
00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:52.920
It's really pasty.

67
00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:54.180
It's really pacy.

68
00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.060
They all sound like the mice from hitchhikers, but it's...

69
00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:01.620
That bloke at the end actually moves like Stephen Grife.

70
00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:03.360
Holy crap.

71
00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:08.339
No, I don't think even one. 5 speed will get back. absolutely will get to that.

72
00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:10.319
That's a high point.

73
00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:18.660
So, well, let's start with the A plots or maybe the 1st of 3 B plots.

74
00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:20.040
There's A plot.

75
00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:22.319
There is an A plot.

76
00:05:22.379 --> 00:05:23.100
There maybe three.

77
00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:28.079
So Callie and Avon are getting to Ensor on the base.

78
00:05:28.139 --> 00:05:31.680
They're, what, the only ones who don't have radiation sickness?

79
00:05:31.740 --> 00:05:35.220
Sorry, why didn't I say...

80
00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:37.319
Because it would have been far more interesting.

81
00:05:37.379 --> 00:05:38.220
Yeah, I know.

82
00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:39.600
I love Callie and Avon together.

83
00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:40.800
No, Blake and Kelly.

84
00:05:40.860 --> 00:05:42.240
That's super tedious pairing.

85
00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:47.100
Heading down to the planet Aristo with its stock footage acid C.

86
00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:56.160
Yep. which was really had never been sort of quite so obvious to me before as it was this time. that no one's anywhere near the sea in this episode.

87
00:05:56.339 --> 00:06:01.259
I have to say, much like you, Nathan, that I felt the same.

88
00:06:01.319 --> 00:06:07.379
This was the 1st time because Rod said, oh, it looks like they're in a quarry and it suddenly occurred to me, ah, that's why.

89
00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:14.279
They're in Rickmansworth, which is not really very close to the sea as far as I understand.

90
00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.139
No, really not.

91
00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:26.579
But yeah, Blake and Callie have come down with blocking syndrome, which is what happens when you're not required for the filming of the previous episode, so you can be the leads in the next one, I think.

92
00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:29.459
I think that's a new Terry Nation space disease.

93
00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:32.639
That's actually super clever.

94
00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:34.379
That's exactly what's happened, isn it?

95
00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:35.220
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

96
00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:36.839
So they've just sort of divided them up.

97
00:06:36.899 --> 00:06:40.620
Is it like a, you know, like a doctor line episode in New Doctor Who.

98
00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:58.980
Yeah, and and so, yeah, we've got the the A-team and the B-team, but there's this that thing of, hmm, I think I know which one is the A-team, and it's not the one with the lead actor in. across these 2 episodes, but it shows that the show can work really well with different characters taking the lead each week.

99
00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:00.899
Wonderful film in hand.

100
00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:01.379
Yeah.

101
00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:12.120
That's worked really well throughout the season because we have built up different relationships between the different characters, not just with one central character all the way through.

102
00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:16.500
So you can see there's different interactions depending on who they're paired up with.

103
00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:22.379
And unfortunately, as you say, these are the 2 dullest ones to care of, which is a shame.

104
00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:32.519
I actually wonder why Avon and Callie work better than Blake and Callie because like it's not like the relationships are sort of explicitly sketched out.

105
00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:38.879
Like I don't think you could write a paragraph about the relationship between any pairing of the characters at this point.

106
00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:41.220
So it is something.

107
00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.379
It has to be something about the performers, I think.

108
00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:49.620
Yeah, or the fact that they're both characters who sort of got very rounded edges, whereas Avon's got those really rough edges.

109
00:07:49.680 --> 00:08:06.120
And so, because Villa, they can be spiky. whereas Avon, sorry, where Blake, Blake and Callie are the 2 nice teachers who aren't going to be sarcastic to you, or to each other, and so there's just a lack of that spark.

110
00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:07.860
That's it.

111
00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:16.199
She really has gone from like, you know, a gorilla to, you know, the ship's nurse or something at this point, hasn't she?

112
00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:23.699
Yeah, it's completely forgotten about. her history and um who she was supposed to be and and she's being nice to Jenna.

113
00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:26.100
They've finally bonded there.

114
00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:35.100
I think the other thing we get, you know, before they all sort of teleport down is Blake forces Avon to listen to his podcast.

115
00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:37.799
Oh my goodness.

116
00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:40.019
Worse than that, it's a vlog.

117
00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:41.820
They're awful.

118
00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:44.639
It's written in a style of Enid Blyton as well.

119
00:08:44.700 --> 00:08:51.840
Why don't you sit down, Avon, and watch what you did last week and let me...

120
00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:55.200
Is that just padding?

121
00:08:55.259 --> 00:09:01.860
Could that have been a I mean, literally, did they have time left, so they put that in, because they could have just scattered that through the dialogue of this episode?

122
00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:03.600
No, I think it's just ineptitude, isn't it?

123
00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:10.740
I mean, it is just like, if we had previously on Blake 7, that's what we would do.

124
00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:21.600
It reminds me of, you know, Encounter at Farpoint, the Star Trek, the Next Generation Pilot, where they make Will Riker sit down and watch the episode so far.

125
00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:28.440
Retrieval. pictures confirm is there's a bit of dialogue I wrote down, retrieval pictures.

126
00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:29.279
That the thing apparently.

127
00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:32.039
That's the BBC cameras.

128
00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:42.179
For me, it does that thing we've already mentioned of, you know, Terry's gotten to the end of 13 weeks and he's just wanting to get this out.

129
00:09:42.240 --> 00:10:01.259
So he does this. he does this recap scene in the most perfunctory manner possible, whereas a logical way to do it, as people would actually talk to each other, would be Blake saying, okay, Avon, tell me what happened on the planet, and Avon's saying, well, Blake, you tell me what happened on the ship. they tell each other the things they don't already know.

130
00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:21.000
Because Blake's recap of the planet completely leaves out the people who were on the planet and the gene bank ship and everything, but also leaves out the fact that Ensor's son bloody held a gun on Blake and Callie to get them to try and go to Aristo.

131
00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:26.159
Oh, it's like the sanitised version of the episode without all the interesting bits.

132
00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:36.240
Yeah, it's like, it's like Terry Nation was saying, I think in 9 years time, there might be some BBC video releases, and they'll probably cut that bit out, so let's make sure this narration makes sense.

133
00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:47.759
Yeah, it's just utterly perfunctory and I understand the need for it because I think you don't need it in space fall because anyone who's watching Space 4 watched the way back last week, most likely.

134
00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:52.860
But by this point in the season, they could be worried that people are dropping in and out.

135
00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:55.139
You do get it in Signus Alpha, don't you?

136
00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:59.399
Actually, yeah, and there it makes sense because it's a captain's log.

137
00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:01.799
Yeah, but I mean, this is the ship's log.

138
00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:03.419
Do you know, yeah, but it's just crap.

139
00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:04.320
Yeah, it's terrible.

140
00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:07.559
I never mentioned again.

141
00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:12.899
Yeah, but the 1000000 extra people who watched this week, you'd haven't watched the previous week.

142
00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:13.679
Probably thought it was great.

143
00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.460
Because there was a big rating spike for this episode.

144
00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:27.419
Do you know, I actually like it slightly, and that is just because I'm here for scenes of them sort of on the ship doing their stuff.

145
00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:31.440
And it's like when I was a kid, I always wanted there to be Tartar scenes.

146
00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:39.179
And so, like, so when Doctor Who sort of reached the 1980s and it was basically all Tartar scenes, they barely left the ship.

147
00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:40.740
I was super excited.

148
00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:55.860
And so there's something about them just sort of sitting around talking about what they need to do next and stuff that I'm actually weirdly on board for, even though I kind of realise that those scenes really have nothing really very much going for them as far as big drama is concerned.

149
00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:00.539
There's at least a minute of Gan realising he's got a headache and pouring it off.

150
00:12:01.139 --> 00:12:04.320
I've seen that before at the moment.

151
00:12:04.379 --> 00:12:05.159
You know what?

152
00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:10.620
These days, people keep saying, particularly my line of work, that, oh, yeah, artificial intelligence is coming along, machine learning.

153
00:12:10.679 --> 00:12:17.100
Don't worry, it's not going to steal your jobs and I just see Gam pouring himself a glass of water and just thinking, and you enjoy that glass of water, mate.

154
00:12:18.059 --> 00:12:20.940
We're just I'm getting your replacement.

155
00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:34.740
Well, to top it all off, I'm pretty sure David Jackson doesn't actually speak until that scene in the teleport room where Avon discovers him hiding behind the teleport.

156
00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:38.460
He's watching everything, but he doesn't have a line until then.

157
00:12:38.519 --> 00:12:45.120
Yeah, I wonder if this is the one where he slid Chris Boucher, the piece of paper saying four.

158
00:12:45.299 --> 00:12:48.240
That's how many lines I've got, Chris.

159
00:12:48.299 --> 00:12:49.980
Is that the story?

160
00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:51.600
That's the story.

161
00:12:51.659 --> 00:12:52.139
Yeah.

162
00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:54.179
It just had the number 4 on it.

163
00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.259
Boucher said, what's this?

164
00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.539
And P Jackson's like, that's the amount of lines I have.

165
00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:02.100
It's really kind of a bit tragic, isn't it?

166
00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:10.559
Because he's, that's the, he's actually good and I know I'm getting way into the episode, but when Avon sort of snaps at him.

167
00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:14.700
Like, David Jackson plays it really well of actually being a bit hurt.

168
00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:18.419
You know, he doesn't look like he's about to smack Avon across the face.

169
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.179
You see, he looks like, mate, I am in as bad a condition as you.

170
00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:22.620
Don't be an...

171
00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:23.580
Yeah, yeah.

172
00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:25.559
And Avon looks a bit guilty then, doesn't he?

173
00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:27.179
Well, he stops himself.

174
00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:28.440
Yeah, that's right.

175
00:13:28.500 --> 00:13:35.700
Yeah, he at least accepts that maybe he shouldn't have under the circumstances, which is an interest, which is an interesting thing for Ivan to do.

176
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:39.899
Yeah, rather than to just sneer even harder, which is what he might have done in a later series.

177
00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:46.080
One of the best things about all the scenes on the ship is Paul Darrow's ill acting.

178
00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:48.419
His ill acting is brilliant.

179
00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:51.720
It's a masterclass of, oh, I'm feeling something.

180
00:13:51.779 --> 00:13:53.399
Oh, this is not quite right.

181
00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:58.740
Yeah, because otherwise, ill acting can just come across as looking tired and bored if you don't quite nail it.

182
00:13:58.740 --> 00:14:00.179
And he did not look tired and bored.

183
00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.940
He's definitely unsettled by it at the same time, isn't he?

184
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.460
Where Jenna just looks tired and bored, to be honest.

185
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:07.500
And they're sprayed for that.

186
00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:12.779
Have they forgotten what happened to them last week?

187
00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:16.799
They all do seem to be sort of suddenly quite surprised that they have radiation six.

188
00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:22.379
And they set off at standard by 6 quite happily. trundling along in the slow lane at the end of the last episode.

189
00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:25.679
And suddenly now it's like, oh, we're all dying. wish we'd got somewhere more quickly.

190
00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:28.259
Yeah, no, it's all a little bit miserable.

191
00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:33.840
Well, let's leave them on the ship for a 2nd and go back down to the planet Aristo.

192
00:14:33.899 --> 00:14:43.259
And we have our one really proper guest star for the week, and that's Derek Parr as Ensor.

193
00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:45.539
How do people feel about his character?

194
00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:46.860
He's terrible.

195
00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:48.120
Oh really?

196
00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:50.519
Wow.

197
00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:59.340
Well, let's just write like a really cantankerous guy feeding his fish has a computer.

198
00:14:59.580 --> 00:15:02.039
Um, that's it, really?

199
00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.559
He's colourblind.

200
00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:05.460
He has layers.

201
00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:07.860
Yeah, I wrote down.

202
00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:15.480
Now, okay, he's a scientist who can't tell the difference between green and red and everything in his room is coloured. his green and red button, his green and red radiation detector.

203
00:15:15.539 --> 00:15:17.580
Clearly, this is going to come up as a major.

204
00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:18.659
Oh no, no, it didn't.

205
00:15:19.379 --> 00:15:25.139
Oh, but was so is the fact that he can't tell green from red?

206
00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:26.519
mean that he's wrong?

207
00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:31.980
And in fact, that his heart thing is actually quite well charged?

208
00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:33.779
Then why does he die?

209
00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:36.419
Yeah, just boredom, I think.

210
00:15:36.539 --> 00:15:39.480
I bet there was definitely a draft where he did.

211
00:15:39.539 --> 00:15:44.940
And then someone probably said to termination, hang on, Terry, this needs a little bit of work on it because and he was like, oh, fuck it, crisscross.

212
00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:48.539
I'm guessing there.

213
00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:52.200
But he's a very experienced actor.

214
00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:58.080
He's got a huge CV of, you know, stuff like Bergeracs and...

215
00:15:58.139 --> 00:15:59.519
It was a regular in crossroads.

216
00:15:59.580 --> 00:15:59.820
Yeah.

217
00:15:59.940 --> 00:16:03.840
So he's a familiar face, if not a big name to the viewers.

218
00:16:03.899 --> 00:16:10.559
I was glad, the reason, so the reason Colin, I was surprised that you were so took against him, was because not remembering what he was going to be.

219
00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:15.419
I was just going thinking, oh, I hope he's not going to be badly aged up to be like 120 years old.

220
00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:22.139
Uh, and and the fact that he wasn't, and he is just a guy in his 60s, who's a bit of an old grouch, came as a relief to me.

221
00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:24.120
So that's why I was maybe a bit more positive towards him.

222
00:16:24.179 --> 00:16:27.960
I think I'm just comparing it to getting ahead of ourselves.

223
00:16:28.019 --> 00:16:28.919
To what, sorry?

224
00:16:28.980 --> 00:16:30.240
TP McKenna.

225
00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:32.100
Oh, or Tice.

226
00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:44.399
No, when there are a bunch of scientists on another planet in another episode called Orbit, featuring Fred Elliott from Coronation Street, it's really, really kind of intense.

227
00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:45.539
They've got characters.

228
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:46.679
They twist and turn.

229
00:16:46.740 --> 00:16:48.120
They've got some stuff to do.

230
00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:53.519
Whereas this guy seems to like turn on the BBC shower of the plants.

231
00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.159
Imagine all the safety precautions that went on there.

232
00:16:56.220 --> 00:17:05.039
And then, and then says, can you get that sort of plastic crate, there it is, and have you got these pills and, okay, well, I was going to die now.

233
00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:09.059
It's just, it just, didn't feel very useful to me.

234
00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:13.019
I mean, I liked his performance.

235
00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:17.400
He is a character that, like, as you say, Colin doesn't have very much going for him.

236
00:17:17.460 --> 00:17:29.940
And he's given some sort of nice quirks and I do, I really, um, bl- like the way that he reacts to his son's death, even though it's sort of massively underplayed.

237
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.900
But, you know, we're never going to do that properly on Blake 7.

238
00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:41.400
But there's, you know, he sort of goes, well, I wonder if you'll ever know how much I loved him or something like that.

239
00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:42.299
It's like, what?

240
00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:50.579
Yeah, but he sort of drops the sort of cantankerous bastard thing and we get a little sort of extra laities performance, I think.

241
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:55.079
And he gets the information, he gets the information from the universe's most insensitive telepath as well.

242
00:17:55.140 --> 00:17:58.259
Yeah, yeah, Ali, I guess you, this is now a thing with her.

243
00:17:58.319 --> 00:17:59.940
Oh, yeah, some people came to our ship.

244
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:00.720
They both died.

245
00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:01.859
Oh, one of them was your son.

246
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:02.759
Yeah.

247
00:18:04.259 --> 00:18:17.759
Also, I do love the, um, yes, I think we really got the idea of how much he loved you from the fact that he was pointing a fucking gun at us in the last episode.

248
00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:22.019
Demanding that we rush to rescue you, but we said no.

249
00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.839
We will not go any faster than standard by pick.

250
00:18:24.900 --> 00:18:26.460
Here we are.

251
00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:27.359
And have you got any drugs?

252
00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:30.000
Please save our lives.

253
00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:37.680
From that point on, I actually really like Ensor when he starts being silly about the plants and, you know, the fish and what have you.

254
00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:41.880
But that whole thing of breaking the news from about his son's step.

255
00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:43.740
Yeah, it's it's it's not underplayed.

256
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:45.420
It's just not played.

257
00:18:45.420 --> 00:18:48.660
Because Terry Nation is not interested in that.

258
00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:51.960
Yeah, Ter Nation's not interested in human emotions generally.

259
00:18:52.019 --> 00:18:53.400
No, no.

260
00:18:53.460 --> 00:18:54.180
Exactly.

261
00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:56.039
And I have to wonder.

262
00:18:56.099 --> 00:19:05.940
Anyone else in the cast, any other character who's not Callie or Blake would have actually said, yeah, he loved you enough to shove a gun in our face.

263
00:19:06.059 --> 00:19:09.779
Imagine Villa. responding to that.

264
00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:17.519
He is one of a huge number of these kinds of people that we're going to meet, isn't it?

265
00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:22.259
He's a sort of Justin Hellmelon B, what's the guy who Mueller?

266
00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:24.000
You know, just these...

267
00:19:24.059 --> 00:19:26.880
Yeah, yeah, just these...

268
00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:32.700
These sort of people who live underground and don't talk to anyone and sort of behave oddly.

269
00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:40.740
I think he's probably one of the slighter examples of that genre, say, but I think he's sort of fairly agreeably played.

270
00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:53.640
When he pulls orac out for the 1st time, I just wanted to say, you fool. you know, that's just a box of flashing lights, but a 100000000 for that.

271
00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:58.920
Yeah, it is digetically a crappy plastic box for the background.

272
00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:00.240
I think is that the word we can use?

273
00:20:00.299 --> 00:20:03.299
Yeah, yeah, yeah. podcast.

274
00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:06.420
They could go full on Austin Powers with this, isn't it?

275
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:11.880
Several times it's, oh, and it's worth 100000000 credit.

276
00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:16.740
And then someone always says, actually, it's worth 10 times that.

277
00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.420
And that's what Servolan kept.

278
00:20:18.539 --> 00:20:19.559
They're very precise about this.

279
00:20:19.619 --> 00:20:22.799
People who haven't met are all agreeing that it's worth 10 times that.

280
00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:23.819
Not nine.

281
00:20:23.940 --> 00:20:27.240
Yeah, not 8 times or 13 times.

282
00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:29.880
It's because they just can't work out that what that would be.

283
00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:35.759
It would be 10, 100 million. 1000000 years.

284
00:20:36.420 --> 00:20:48.960
It's like one of those things that gets listed on Amazon, like, you know, it's a 10 page pamphlet that's been listed on Amazon for 3000 quid in the vague hope that somebody's going to accidentally buy it when it's only worth worth pennies.

285
00:20:49.019 --> 00:20:50.700
Algorithms will do that.

286
00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:54.180
It wouldn't go for 100000000 in an open bidding auction, I do not think.

287
00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:55.799
Or 10 times that.

288
00:20:55.859 --> 00:21:02.460
I will say that one thing I do like about Gareth Thomas this week is the few times where he gets really exasperated.

289
00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:03.720
Like that.

290
00:21:03.779 --> 00:21:08.880
And when the transport tube comes up and he's trying to say, there's no door.

291
00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:11.880
And his voice actually goes up an octave.

292
00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:13.440
And it's like, that's acting.

293
00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:16.019
Please keep doing that, Karen.

294
00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:22.500
In the face of that door, that interminable scene that goes for about 15 minutes.

295
00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:23.400
How does an elevator work?

296
00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:24.900
Yeah, that's right.

297
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:25.319
Amazing.

298
00:21:25.380 --> 00:21:26.039
Incredible stuff.

299
00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:31.380
And and then and then when they come down and he notices the hatch in the wall and we look at that for 20 seconds.

300
00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:34.380
Actually, when I saw that, I thought, that is super weird.

301
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:35.279
What the fuck is?

302
00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:39.480
And well, Rod said, well, I hope that becomes important later.

303
00:21:39.900 --> 00:21:46.019
I thought I'd seen this episode and I didn't remember why it was important later, but it will be and we'll get to that.

304
00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:46.559
Yeah.

305
00:21:46.619 --> 00:21:48.900
This is the episode Rod gave up on Blake 7, by the way.

306
00:21:49.019 --> 00:21:49.440
Right.

307
00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:50.640
We'll discuss that at the end.

308
00:21:50.700 --> 00:21:53.579
Well, he's going to have to watch and listen to all of it now.

309
00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:55.319
I know, I know.

310
00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:56.039
I keep telling it.

311
00:21:59.099 --> 00:22:02.339
So how do we feel about the relationship between Aurak and Ensor then?

312
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.079
Well, it's fascinating, isn't it?

313
00:22:04.140 --> 00:22:17.400
I, I, I do like the Tony Nation idea here of uh, computer taking on the personality of its creator and I think the personality really crystallises actually after Ensor has died, which is kind of odd.

314
00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:23.880
Because before that, it's almost not quite Auraky, as we know Aurak.

315
00:22:23.940 --> 00:22:25.980
But as soon as they're up on the ship.

316
00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:32.759
He's really sounding a lot more like the cantankerous Ensor that we've known and been indifferent to through the episode.

317
00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:35.819
Exactly.

318
00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:38.339
But I do wonder whether that was a conscious thing.

319
00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.779
And also, the sound effect changes when he gets up on the ship.

320
00:22:42.779 --> 00:22:46.440
And I know that's a very small point, but it really does.

321
00:22:46.500 --> 00:22:51.059
If you listen, is, is, is worrying, has changed by the time he's gone up there.

322
00:22:51.119 --> 00:23:01.440
So I wonder if there's supposed to have been something, maybe there was something in the script that says Aurac has changed while this has happened or something, or maybe that's just my head reconning it or I don't know.

323
00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:06.240
I think that there's 110 vaults down on Aristo.

324
00:23:06.299 --> 00:23:08.579
It's 240 in the Liberator.

325
00:23:08.579 --> 00:23:11.339
That's probably doing it.

326
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:15.480
Yeah, or it's being asked hard questions and its fans have started to work out.

327
00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:21.180
It's probably decoding some large MP things.

328
00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:23.400
Yeah, it starts downloading updates.

329
00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:24.599
That's what it does.

330
00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:25.799
Yeah, in trouble.

331
00:23:25.859 --> 00:23:30.599
It's connected to every single...

332
00:23:30.660 --> 00:23:42.839
Great if whenever Aurac started to speak, the clippy paper clip from Microsoft Office just popped up on Zen's screen, like you're trying to outrun the Federation, would you like something?

333
00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:48.359
In those 1st scenes where we 1st see him, Blake is also or reading up to a scene.

334
00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:51.240
Blake is smiling for the 1st time in quite a while.

335
00:23:51.299 --> 00:23:54.779
Ensor getting the green and red mixed up, like, oh, yeah.

336
00:23:54.839 --> 00:23:55.920
He doesn't know what he's doing.

337
00:23:56.099 --> 00:24:01.440
And they just play along with it and yes, before telling you actually, we're not going to operate on you.

338
00:24:01.500 --> 00:24:04.200
That is actually quite an interesting reveal.

339
00:24:04.259 --> 00:24:06.960
Like it's perhaps the one surprising thing that happens in the episode.

340
00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:08.519
It's super, super linear.

341
00:24:08.579 --> 00:24:16.380
But then when they arrive, We discover that the cells are going to require surgery to be replaced.

342
00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:19.440
And, you know, like, I think that does come as a surprise.

343
00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:25.440
Yeah, but it still makes sense with the episode last week where his son was being sent back with the surgeon.

344
00:24:25.500 --> 00:24:27.480
Ah, yes, a space service.

345
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:30.420
He's expecting a space surgeon, yeah.

346
00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.279
Specialising in space medicine.

347
00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:36.119
Not medicine, by the way. space medicine.

348
00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:36.900
Medicine.

349
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.220
Well, they're super posh.

350
00:24:38.339 --> 00:24:39.960
Everyone's posh in space.

351
00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:40.799
Yeah.

352
00:24:45.180 --> 00:24:55.380
So I was going to identify as the B plot, everyone kind of lolling about on the ship sweating and kind of being cross with one another.

353
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.980
But have we drained that well, do you think?

354
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:00.960
It's not much the way plot for them, is there?

355
00:25:01.019 --> 00:25:01.500
They are just waiting.

356
00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:02.160
Yeah.

357
00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:09.299
I'd also like to call out the fact that I don't feel much jeopardy from that at all from them just sitting around being a bit tired and sweating.

358
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:24.180
And I do have to put it down to the direction because if you look at other times, Terry Nation has used this, particularly in the 1st Dalek story, the Daleks, that is very effective because of the performances and because of the direction.

359
00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:30.839
Whereas here the scenes are quite flat and it's just kind of, oh, we're a bit tired and someone's turned the heating up.

360
00:25:30.900 --> 00:25:41.400
Well, but also like in the Daleks, they're in the Dalek city and they're under threat, whereas these people are just lolling about at home, you know, like it's really kind of super boring.

361
00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:42.539
It's like taking the day off.

362
00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:45.900
Blake does tell Jenna effectively to take the week off.

363
00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:47.099
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

364
00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:52.559
Go back to your cabin, put it on automatics and have a lie down till we get to 52 minutes in.

365
00:25:54.119 --> 00:26:02.640
We do get one of Avon's greatest lines that, to one of the greatest Avon Villa lines anyway, that, yes, dying, the one talent we all share, even you.

366
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:08.460
But even so even then they're in they're in quip peril rather than actual.

367
00:26:08.519 --> 00:26:11.279
There's no reason to believe that any of them are really going to die.

368
00:26:11.339 --> 00:26:15.180
This is all about the race between Servolan and Blake to get Aurak, isn't it?

369
00:26:15.240 --> 00:26:16.140
Well, really, yeah.

370
00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:22.140
I mean, they're so, they're well enough for Avon and Villa to go down to the planet and do some shooting and stuff.

371
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:26.220
Yeah, of their facing speed, though.

372
00:26:26.279 --> 00:26:28.859
He gives, he gives Bill of drugs.

373
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:32.160
At the end of this whole episode of, oh, we're dying.

374
00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:34.440
We've got no drugs, but we have got these drugs.

375
00:26:34.500 --> 00:26:35.279
Yeah.

376
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:36.599
Okay.

377
00:26:36.660 --> 00:26:38.400
That's just party drugs though.

378
00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:41.220
Like, I mean, that's not medication, right?

379
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:41.640
or anything?

380
00:26:41.700 --> 00:26:43.559
He's just taking speed to keep going.

381
00:26:43.619 --> 00:26:44.640
Oh, so jumping, jumping ahead.

382
00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:46.559
The Avon's line at the end was meant to have been.

383
00:26:46.619 --> 00:26:48.059
It's blown my head off.

384
00:26:51.660 --> 00:26:53.160
Dear.

385
00:26:53.220 --> 00:26:54.660
So well, let's leave them.

386
00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:55.500
They're boring.

387
00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:58.799
And um, let's go to...

388
00:26:58.859 --> 00:27:09.660
Yeah, the 3rd of our B plots, which is Servolan and Travis, of course, in a chase for the, what are we looking for?

389
00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:10.619
Aurak.

390
00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:12.900
Forak, and they have a map.

391
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:14.160
They certainly do.

392
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.000
And it came free with a packet of Wetabix this week.

393
00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:35.759
It's scrawled by the assistant floor manager using a Sharpie on a piece of paper that's lying around, and it is only slightly worse than the other map, which Ensor has left lying around his room sort of handily as well.

394
00:27:35.819 --> 00:27:44.220
Upstairs lab, that way to the tunnels, that way to a big hatch to the transporter.

395
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:45.359
That's it.

396
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:47.640
There is no map of the tunnel.

397
00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:52.740
No, the best part of it is, they consult it. have to look at it again later.

398
00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:55.500
Like they haven't memorised that fucking thing.

399
00:27:55.559 --> 00:28:00.359
There's like 3 places on it and then they're consulting it later on.

400
00:28:00.420 --> 00:28:02.160
Oh I think we might be nearly there.

401
00:28:02.220 --> 00:28:03.359
It's unbelievable.

402
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:06.420
We're in the tunnel that goes up.

403
00:28:07.259 --> 00:28:09.119
And that's it.

404
00:28:10.859 --> 00:28:12.839
Oh, dear.

405
00:28:12.900 --> 00:28:13.500
Yeah.

406
00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:13.799
Yeah.

407
00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:28.859
I think the one, the one particular bit of praise I can heap on the, um, on the server land and Travis subplot, such as it is, is that Jackie Pierce actually gets to show a bit of emotion.

408
00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:36.539
When Violorama very wisely directs the Fibian creature as a series of fleeting close-ups.

409
00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:44.880
And after it's dead, you know, you get a bit of, you get a bit of acting from Jackie there that I don't think is inconsistent with someone we've just seen behind a desk all season.

410
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:47.339
How do we feel about that scene?

411
00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:49.980
It always takes me by surprise.

412
00:28:50.099 --> 00:28:52.680
Because you don't expect it from her.

413
00:28:52.799 --> 00:29:01.920
Yeah, but I love the way how Servolani she is about it, and I guess I'm imprinting that on it, knowing more about Servolani than anyone watching at the time does.

414
00:29:01.980 --> 00:29:04.619
But that she doesn't scream in terror.

415
00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:05.819
She's furious.

416
00:29:05.880 --> 00:29:13.859
She is furious at this thing, is that she's yelling at Travis, like, Travis, get this thing off me, is her basic tone rather than just, she's not going, help.

417
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:15.599
She's going, Travis, you idiot.

418
00:29:15.660 --> 00:29:18.240
Why are you not protecting me from this disgusting thing?

419
00:29:18.299 --> 00:29:29.400
And at the end, she just looks disgusted and shaken, and then she gets that moment of, no, Travis, you will follow me, which is like, yeah, I'm not getting top billing if you stay for another year, and how's your uncle?

420
00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:34.019
Because he's still got top billing and the chief baddy in the end credits of it.

421
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:41.819
She's surprisingly shaken though, and it is a moment of vulnerability that it's not a direction that the character ever goes in again.

422
00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:46.259
And she does recover, but it takes her just a few seconds to recover.

423
00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:52.740
I think it's an astonishingly good choice by Jackie, the way that she plays it because she is properly shaken.

424
00:29:52.799 --> 00:30:05.279
But when Travis starts to express sympathy for her and tries to kind of be the person in charge, that's when she sort of just says, nope, I'm going first.

425
00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:07.140
And I think it's great.

426
00:30:07.259 --> 00:30:08.339
I think it is a great moment.

427
00:30:08.460 --> 00:30:13.259
And maybe we're not going to see anything like that, again, until series three.

428
00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:15.599
I think you're right.

429
00:30:15.660 --> 00:30:19.440
Yeah, I don't think there's certainly no tears again until that season.

430
00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:20.880
I'm not wrong.

431
00:30:24.299 --> 00:30:35.700
But also in an unexpected piece of character development, she's wearing trousers and she's wearing something practical while she's out on a space mission, which it's never really, again.

432
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:39.059
She's underground in a quarry and she's wearing white.

433
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:47.400
None of the, none of the mud sticks to her because it wouldn't dare as somewhat...

434
00:30:47.460 --> 00:30:52.319
I think Nathan or Brendan may have said in time in the Rani when it doesn't fix to Kate O'Mara.

435
00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:53.700
It doesn't stick to Jackie either.

436
00:30:56.759 --> 00:30:58.740
Oh dear.

437
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.380
I think that there are some very weird things going on with those tunnels as well.

438
00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:08.640
I just want to say that before the 2 of them get into Ensor's base.

439
00:31:08.700 --> 00:31:15.839
So there's been a Styrofoam fall at some point that Travis has to be...

440
00:31:15.900 --> 00:31:17.940
It's a photophone mine.

441
00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:23.099
It's it's really strikingly.

442
00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:27.059
Like it is as if the people making them have not seen rocks before.

443
00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:28.319
Do you think?

444
00:31:29.099 --> 00:31:32.759
That's very odd. are very odd.

445
00:31:32.819 --> 00:31:37.019
And then, just to go back to our A-plot for a second.

446
00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:45.180
There's that scene later where Blake is trying to pull hunks of Styrofoam foam out of the ceiling, which like...

447
00:31:45.180 --> 00:31:48.660
If only had some kind of advanced energy weapon with which to do that.

448
00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:49.920
Nope.

449
00:31:49.980 --> 00:31:53.220
He's just using his hands, like a fat middle-aged man.

450
00:31:54.359 --> 00:32:00.779
And the thing is, the thing with that is he turns around and says, I'm going to try and bring the roof down.

451
00:32:00.779 --> 00:32:07.799
And then he does all that digging up when there is a pit prop right behind him.

452
00:32:07.859 --> 00:32:10.259
You just think you could have knocked it out.

453
00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:10.920
Yeah.

454
00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:13.980
You know, I think that is what you go for first.

455
00:32:13.980 --> 00:32:21.059
Rather than standing underneath the roof, you want to cave in, pulling this roof, bits and roof down.

456
00:32:21.180 --> 00:32:30.599
It does, I can say, it does give him one of the most patronising minds in the whole of the show where he says, let me do it my way, Callie.

457
00:32:32.700 --> 00:32:33.599
You're a woman.

458
00:32:33.660 --> 00:32:34.680
What do you know?

459
00:32:34.740 --> 00:32:35.519
I'm a man.

460
00:32:35.579 --> 00:32:37.680
I'm to do this kind of thing.

461
00:32:37.740 --> 00:32:38.819
That's right.

462
00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:43.140
I was born to pull rocks from the ceiling. directly above me.

463
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:46.920
It's a stupid plan, Callie. but I'm a man.

464
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:58.019
I did read that as him maybe implying he was about to make a noble sacrifice, but it's really, but it's really only implicit.

465
00:32:58.079 --> 00:32:59.160
It's not at all there.

466
00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:05.880
Yeah, it's like, so go ahead in the Holy Grail, sort of running in and ruining that wedding because he's in his idiom.

467
00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:15.299
So Serverland crawls through the big pile of polystyrene rock-like objects, vaguely rock-like objects.

468
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:23.220
And then we reach the door and suddenly burst in and then Travis disappears at that point.

469
00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:31.200
Stephen Crife is still really furious about that extra even to this day.

470
00:33:31.259 --> 00:33:32.400
Is he?

471
00:33:32.460 --> 00:33:33.240
Yeah.

472
00:33:33.299 --> 00:33:36.180
He says, oh, God, he said, he had a squash injury.

473
00:33:36.299 --> 00:33:36.900
Tennis, right?

474
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:39.420
I thought it was squash because it was the 70s, you know.

475
00:33:39.480 --> 00:33:41.039
Oh, no, you probably...

476
00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:48.480
Yeah, Torah is tendon, so he couldn't walk. or something. we'd shot all the stuff on location 1st and now we're suddenly in the studio.

477
00:33:48.539 --> 00:33:52.920
And so we have to have a scene of Servoland and Travis's legs talking to one another.

478
00:33:52.980 --> 00:33:57.180
And then we see Travis briefly through a fish tang.

479
00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:03.480
I mean, he could have been in the studio and they could have just only shown us the top half of him.

480
00:34:03.539 --> 00:34:06.240
He could have been leaning on something, unless he was literally in bed, I guess.

481
00:34:06.299 --> 00:34:07.440
Oh, yeah.

482
00:34:07.500 --> 00:34:09.300
No, I'm sure he just said, fuck it, I'm staying home.

483
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:18.539
He has said about it that he had to have immediate surgery and then couldn't walk for 3 months.

484
00:34:18.599 --> 00:34:20.940
It's not just that he wasn't as nimble as usual.

485
00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:22.199
Yeah, yeah.

486
00:34:22.199 --> 00:34:23.280
But I want to see that.

487
00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:29.880
I don't want to see that leather clinging to anyone else's form, but here's after this season, I've got to say, I've become quite a fan.

488
00:34:29.940 --> 00:34:31.380
It's an age thing, isn't it?

489
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:33.539
He was a middle-aged man last time I watched this.

490
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:34.800
Now he's almost a twink.

491
00:34:34.860 --> 00:34:35.760
That's...

492
00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:42.119
Rod does describe him as best arse in show.

493
00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:46.019
Though the competition is not firm.

494
00:34:48.420 --> 00:34:53.699
Jacqueline Pierce is going to oust him from that too. her mindset to it.

495
00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:59.099
But it does it does just make it look in that scene as if this actor is just missing all of his marks, doesn't it?

496
00:34:59.159 --> 00:35:02.159
Because the camera's all cuts the way he ought to be and he's not there.

497
00:35:02.219 --> 00:35:04.559
Oh, his, yes, his, his hand.

498
00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:06.179
And bless Via Laura.

499
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:09.119
When Blake and Kelly take Aurak out into the corridor.

500
00:35:09.179 --> 00:35:15.900
He starts on their feet to pan up to introduce us to the idea that, no, this is a perfectly normal shot that happens in drama.

501
00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:18.480
It's style.

502
00:35:18.539 --> 00:35:19.440
Style.

503
00:35:20.699 --> 00:35:23.099
As rescue jobs go.

504
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:28.800
It's you can't really say they should have done something differently because what else what on earth else could they have done?

505
00:35:28.860 --> 00:35:32.460
And it is really it's over in minute moments, isn't it?

506
00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:39.179
Yeah, yeah, we yeah, we make a big deal of it, but imagine the alternative where he couldn't do the location filming.

507
00:35:39.300 --> 00:35:41.880
Oh, yeah, no, they would have had to have a rewrite.

508
00:35:41.940 --> 00:35:45.539
They should have brought they would have brought Jerry Air in from games to do it, I think.

509
00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:49.199
And everyone in the cast after this point, I don't know if you know this.

510
00:35:49.260 --> 00:35:51.599
Everyone in the cast after this point was banned from sports.

511
00:35:53.460 --> 00:35:55.860
That explains a lot.

512
00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:58.619
They all turned around and they all had broken ankles.

513
00:36:01.260 --> 00:36:06.059
To be honest, I can't imagine Gareth Thomas playing any kind of sport ever.

514
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:10.079
God, no. from a beer bomb, maybe.

515
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:16.440
You can't play rugby with your arms flailing around like that.

516
00:36:16.500 --> 00:36:17.639
You'd never hold on to the ball.

517
00:36:21.900 --> 00:36:23.940
It takes 2 to carry Aurak.

518
00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:28.139
But later on, Avon's just sort of waving him around by sort of one thing.

519
00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:30.659
And he's very delicate as well, isn't he?

520
00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:32.699
Well, he's very careful.

521
00:36:32.820 --> 00:36:34.920
I mean, we're pre-canine in here, aren't we?

522
00:36:34.980 --> 00:36:36.659
Canine, all right, comes first?

523
00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:41.099
No, no, came on already, I think, by the time.

524
00:36:41.159 --> 00:36:41.820
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

525
00:36:41.940 --> 00:36:42.539
Yeah, yeah.

526
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:56.219
But what I like is they've got 3 people who have got to get to the surface with Aurak, and what we're going to do, Aurak is very heavy, and there's a man who is very, very, very sick and on his last legs.

527
00:36:56.280 --> 00:37:01.559
But I know, let's let him hold Aurak with Callie.

528
00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:06.539
Because that's not going to end badly for him, is it?

529
00:37:07.320 --> 00:37:11.880
Blake has lots of lines and stuff at this point, you know, like he can't.

530
00:37:11.940 --> 00:37:12.420
Oh, that's true.

531
00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:14.159
He's the leading.

532
00:37:14.219 --> 00:37:15.539
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly it.

533
00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:19.079
He's got to dig out the Sylvester McCoy title sequence from the roof.

534
00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:30.900
So we get to the surface and Travis has done his usual thing and he has been waiting for Blake all along.

535
00:37:31.019 --> 00:37:34.500
Yes, but just how we get to the surface.

536
00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:35.099
Remember?

537
00:37:35.099 --> 00:37:36.300
How do we?

538
00:37:36.360 --> 00:37:36.840
Cali.

539
00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:38.099
Well, it's easy to Yeah, exactly.

540
00:37:38.159 --> 00:37:42.719
Cali, it turns out the point where she said to Ensor, you just rest here.

541
00:37:42.780 --> 00:37:43.920
I'll go back and check.

542
00:37:43.980 --> 00:37:44.820
She goes back and check.

543
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:46.079
They come back, oh, he's dead.

544
00:37:46.139 --> 00:37:47.219
Oh, yeah, and there's the staircase.

545
00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:50.579
It was actually just like 2 feet in front of where we were sitting.

546
00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:51.300
He would have died.

547
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:54.420
I mean, he would have died halfway up the staircase. doesn't really matter.

548
00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:58.320
And it's fine because it was off the screen, so you can't see it.

549
00:37:58.440 --> 00:38:01.619
It's not there before those 3 paces.

550
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:05.940
It's the Peter Moffat school of goodness me.

551
00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:07.139
The charges.

552
00:38:09.059 --> 00:38:12.360
The death is actually slightly affecting, I think.

553
00:38:12.420 --> 00:38:13.920
I think it is actually pretty good.

554
00:38:13.980 --> 00:38:20.039
And sympathetic telepath actually does seem slightly sympathetic, at least.

555
00:38:20.099 --> 00:38:27.599
Although, she does, she does take it on herself by saying, doesn't she say like, oh, like a few...

556
00:38:27.599 --> 00:38:29.760
A few more minutes and we might have saved you.

557
00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:34.019
If Blake, you hadn't been screwing around with the goddamn roof.

558
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:36.960
Well, they're not even behind us, Blake.

559
00:38:37.019 --> 00:38:42.659
Yeah, if they just got by 6.5 last week or whatever.

560
00:38:43.860 --> 00:38:45.659
Nobody cares about his poor goldfish.

561
00:38:45.719 --> 00:38:48.000
Yeah, very feeding in the last scene.

562
00:38:48.059 --> 00:38:50.099
The Phibians have probably eaten them.

563
00:38:50.159 --> 00:38:52.079
This is the point where, yeah.

564
00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:54.480
I thought, amphibians.

565
00:38:54.539 --> 00:38:57.360
Oh, a planet of people who tell lies, but no, it's not.

566
00:38:58.260 --> 00:39:00.539
It's amphibians.

567
00:39:00.840 --> 00:39:20.460
Jimmy Nation. come on Something I've just got in my notes at this point, although I don't think it was maybe happened here, but just observing that Serverland is definitely referring using the pronoun they to refer to the Federation, not we or us, and that's that's picking up from her conversation last week.

568
00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:32.579
Uh, she, you know, just emphasising this woman, she's already supreme commander, but she is, she is still wheeling and dealing and trying to outwit the Federation, uh, and get her hands on Aurac to secure her power over it.

569
00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:35.219
She is not doing this for the glory of the Federation at all.

570
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:36.239
Which is just a nice touch.

571
00:39:36.300 --> 00:39:38.280
And that's why there's only 2 of them there.

572
00:39:38.340 --> 00:39:40.260
They didn't bring a bunch of mutoids even.

573
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:55.500
I mean, it's like you could probably trust some mutoids because they have to obey, but it just feels like, well, let's just the 2 of us take this little map and go through here and hope hopefully we can get through all these security systems that apparently we can't get through but can.

574
00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:58.679
And, you know, you feel like they'd bring a few more people with them.

575
00:39:58.739 --> 00:40:00.719
And that one may raise the stake a little bit.

576
00:40:00.780 --> 00:40:06.599
You could, I don't know, have a bunch of mutoid on the planet's surface at the end, um, or with guns as well.

577
00:40:06.659 --> 00:40:07.380
Yeah.

578
00:40:07.380 --> 00:40:10.559
And you could have some cybermen and a yeti.

579
00:40:11.519 --> 00:40:14.340
And a Ruston robot.

580
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:15.840
Hey, hang on.

581
00:40:15.900 --> 00:40:16.619
What have I just done?

582
00:40:16.679 --> 00:40:22.260
Yeah, no, they can barely, barely think up things for the people they already have.

583
00:40:22.380 --> 00:40:23.280
Yeah, no idea.

584
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:24.840
It's a good thing I don't write.

585
00:40:24.840 --> 00:40:25.619
I wrote right there.

586
00:40:27.780 --> 00:40:34.440
What we have to remember is they've done 13 weeks now and there's bugger all left in the budget.

587
00:40:34.679 --> 00:40:37.139
So you put your contracted regulars.

588
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:43.320
You can have one guest star, one crappy monster, and that's it.

589
00:40:43.380 --> 00:40:44.159
That's your lot.

590
00:40:44.280 --> 00:40:45.059
Yeah.

591
00:40:45.059 --> 00:41:01.559
I guess this is why I meant, I think, did I mention before, the movie Silent Running comes to mind with a lot of these Blake 7 episodes about there's this one reasonably affordable, quite familiar faced character actor who everyone goes and meets and sees them at their end of the world outpost.

592
00:41:01.619 --> 00:41:14.880
And yeah, it's not exactly, it's not the same gister or story of silent running, but that's that setup of that one person holding out with their one, whatever it is, the last plant in the universe or the best computer in the universe or the last collection of jazz records in the universe.

593
00:41:17.699 --> 00:41:21.239
Terry Nation's like, I can do infinite variations on this.

594
00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:23.880
Chris Fouch is like infinites.

595
00:41:24.659 --> 00:41:27.239
No, we're done with that now, Terry.

596
00:41:27.300 --> 00:41:27.599
Thank you.

597
00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:30.239
I'll write some next year.

598
00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:32.880
Yeah, they give it a good go.

599
00:41:32.940 --> 00:41:35.519
I mean, they're still doing it in series 4.

600
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:38.460
BD, whatever.

601
00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:41.219
A question I have.

602
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:44.219
I don't remember when I 1st saw these.

603
00:41:44.280 --> 00:41:45.780
Actually, I tell a lie.

604
00:41:45.840 --> 00:41:49.079
I 1st saw this episode after I knew what Aurak was.

605
00:41:49.139 --> 00:41:52.679
Does anyone remember when they were watching it on 1st broadcast?

606
00:41:52.800 --> 00:41:55.980
Did you think Aurak might possibly be a plant?

607
00:41:56.099 --> 00:41:59.340
Because when he's talking to Aurak, you can't see the flashing lights.

608
00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:01.500
You just see a light in the middle of the plants.

609
00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:05.039
So you thought it was like a, like, Megloss or something?

610
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:11.159
Well, I didn't think that, but I wondered, is the script leading us to believe this?

611
00:42:11.219 --> 00:42:17.400
It does lead us to believe it's a person, except that it's clearly Derek Farr's voice, isn't it?

612
00:42:17.460 --> 00:42:22.440
Because, you know, they call each other Derek Farr's character calls him old friend and stuff like that.

613
00:42:22.500 --> 00:42:26.579
Like, yeah, no, I never... might have thought it was a goldfish.

614
00:42:27.599 --> 00:42:29.940
The camera implies that.

615
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.079
Yeah, no, I knew what all right was before I saw this too, so I can't comment.

616
00:42:34.139 --> 00:42:39.420
No, it was interesting because we asked Mark this, who was watching Blake 7 for the very 1st time last week.

617
00:42:39.480 --> 00:42:47.400
Well, he was sort of thinking about it in terry nation terms and he was thinking, what would anyone pay a 100000000 for in Terry Nation World?

618
00:42:47.460 --> 00:42:51.659
And he thought it was a virus of some kind that they could use against the Federation.

619
00:42:51.719 --> 00:42:52.739
It's a good game.

620
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:54.719
Also, it was wrong.

621
00:42:55.739 --> 00:43:00.360
Also, though, Terry Nation World sounds like a theme park.

622
00:43:00.900 --> 00:43:03.239
Oh, I'd like to visit.

623
00:43:03.300 --> 00:43:05.820
But I've come out with radiation sickness.

624
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:11.579
Not accidentally step into the acid sea and my foot would dissolve.

625
00:43:12.900 --> 00:43:28.980
And then they'd just be sort of curiously jaded people who'd kind of lost their faith in everything and they'd be kind of like letting you onto the roller coaster or whatever and, you know, like I think the whole thing would just be a little bit kind of uninvolving, probably.

626
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:31.739
I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't trust that roller coaster.

627
00:43:31.800 --> 00:43:33.480
Something's bound.

628
00:43:33.539 --> 00:43:41.519
The fight or work that should have gone in beforehand wouldn't have worked. crawling with monsters.

629
00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:45.000
Get that line, don't we?

630
00:43:45.059 --> 00:43:50.699
It's crawling with reptiles, that ter nation line. places are always crawling with Daleks in Doctor Who 2 and something.

631
00:43:50.699 --> 00:43:52.920
Something is crawling with amphibians or...

632
00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:53.639
Yeah, that's right.

633
00:43:53.699 --> 00:43:56.280
Those tunnels are crawling with phibians.

634
00:43:56.340 --> 00:43:57.059
That's it.

635
00:43:57.119 --> 00:43:58.139
Two quid, please.

636
00:43:58.199 --> 00:44:04.019
The old the old ladies who sell you the fairy floss ship you to the security forces while you're eating it.

637
00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:04.860
Yeah, yeah.

638
00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:06.960
No, it's not fun, not fun at all.

639
00:44:07.019 --> 00:44:21.780
So I think that we do get the best exchange in this sort of final confrontation that happens on the surface of the planet Aristo, where our 2 B plots, dovetail, 2 of our 3 beef plots, dovetail, sort of suddenly at the end.

640
00:44:21.840 --> 00:44:26.099
Well, every plot sends 2 representatives. very, I think it's very fair.

641
00:44:26.159 --> 00:44:26.940
Yeah.

642
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.539
And it is that absolutely superb.

643
00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:33.239
Oh, yeah, all 3 of the plots, don't they, don't they?

644
00:44:33.300 --> 00:44:33.840
That's beautiful.

645
00:44:33.900 --> 00:44:36.179
Six people. symmetry.

646
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:36.960
Delightful.

647
00:44:37.019 --> 00:44:39.599
It's Aristotelian, really, if you think about it.

648
00:44:39.659 --> 00:44:41.099
Aristotle.

649
00:44:41.219 --> 00:44:43.019
There we go.

650
00:44:43.079 --> 00:44:45.900
There we go, ladies and gentlemen.

651
00:44:45.960 --> 00:44:47.579
Terry Nation.

652
00:44:47.579 --> 00:44:50.639
Job of determinism, bingo strikes again.

653
00:44:51.059 --> 00:44:54.239
It's the, I was aiming for his headline.

654
00:44:54.300 --> 00:44:59.760
I think it might be the best episode of the best line of series A. It's incarnatively great.

655
00:44:59.820 --> 00:45:02.400
It's got to be Chris Boucher, hasn't it?

656
00:45:02.460 --> 00:45:03.599
Oh, of course.

657
00:45:03.659 --> 00:45:05.280
Oh yeah. without a doubt.

658
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:06.119
Without a doubt.

659
00:45:06.179 --> 00:45:06.960
Yeah.

660
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:09.480
So terrific.

661
00:45:09.599 --> 00:45:10.800
Oh dear.

662
00:45:10.860 --> 00:45:13.619
And Paul Caro delivers it perfectly.

663
00:45:13.739 --> 00:45:17.579
With just the amount of the right amount of relish.

664
00:45:17.639 --> 00:45:19.619
Yeah, it's absolutely spectacular.

665
00:45:19.980 --> 00:45:30.840
And I guess one of the things about it that's so great is that he was being praised, you know, he was being praised, you know, good shot, and it looked, we think it's great.

666
00:45:30.900 --> 00:45:39.960
It's visually a great thing to watch the hand blow up and then to have him kind of, you know, make fun of himself, essentially, or say the line is his own expense.

667
00:45:40.019 --> 00:45:40.860
I think is wonderful.

668
00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:45.000
And it reveals something about Avon's character. character revealing.

669
00:45:45.059 --> 00:45:49.500
He would kill Travis if he could shoot straight.

670
00:45:49.559 --> 00:45:53.400
And that's something that's kind of worth knowing.

671
00:45:53.940 --> 00:45:58.440
All that's missing is for Avon to, it's for Villa to say, but you can't kill them.

672
00:45:58.500 --> 00:46:00.719
They're the breakout character successes of the season.

673
00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:03.840
That's it.

674
00:46:03.900 --> 00:46:07.079
Secretly, Villa knows that it's a TV program.

675
00:46:07.139 --> 00:46:10.500
And so he's actually thinking all of those things all the time.

676
00:46:10.559 --> 00:46:13.920
I love the way the blown up hand is actually bigger.

677
00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:17.219
Well, it blew up, Colin.

678
00:46:17.280 --> 00:46:18.420
It's in the description.

679
00:46:19.980 --> 00:46:22.019
And why at the end?

680
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:25.860
Why doesn't Travis just kill Serverland?

681
00:46:28.679 --> 00:46:31.320
Because he's in a lot of trouble.

682
00:46:33.179 --> 00:46:41.340
That's rabbit. absolutely adore his forlorn look after she says that line.

683
00:46:41.460 --> 00:46:42.780
It's wonderful.

684
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:43.980
It's so funny.

685
00:46:44.039 --> 00:46:47.519
You're in so much trouble, you're going to come back as someone different next week.

686
00:46:47.940 --> 00:46:53.699
And you're going to be mopping out the space toilets for the next on our space station.

687
00:46:54.059 --> 00:47:03.719
I actually want to give some props to Stephen for the, his very, very final uh, scene, his very final thing where he smiles.

688
00:47:03.780 --> 00:47:06.239
You know, she walks off, he smiles to himself.

689
00:47:06.300 --> 00:47:15.900
He drops the hand which just sort of falls into shot, sort of blown up, and then he sort of walks off, and he's a little bit unreadable, I think.

690
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:17.579
I think it's very good.

691
00:47:17.639 --> 00:47:21.239
And I think we will probably miss him next year.

692
00:47:21.300 --> 00:47:22.320
Yeah, spoilers.

693
00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:23.280
Absolutely.

694
00:47:23.340 --> 00:47:25.679
He's he's been superb throughout the series.

695
00:47:25.739 --> 00:47:27.599
Yeah, yeah, it really has. yeah.

696
00:47:28.139 --> 00:47:30.420
Superb is definitely the word.

697
00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:32.159
The word.

698
00:47:32.219 --> 00:47:33.360
The word.

699
00:47:33.420 --> 00:47:34.500
Sorry.

700
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:36.239
Getting ahead of myself.

701
00:47:36.420 --> 00:47:40.860
No, no, I really, I really like him.

702
00:47:40.920 --> 00:47:47.280
And obviously Big Finish now diversifying their Blake 7 due to... not being dead.

703
00:47:47.340 --> 00:47:47.639
Yes.

704
00:47:47.699 --> 00:48:02.760
But I think it's a great indication of how good he is in that one of those new ranges, he's the sort of really the lead from the series, who's still in that, the Avalon series.

705
00:48:02.820 --> 00:48:08.519
Ah, he, you know, he's, I know Sally Nevette's in the 1st one, but he's in both of them so far.

706
00:48:08.579 --> 00:48:12.659
Do you think we'll get a big finished story about how he turned into Brian Groucher?

707
00:48:12.719 --> 00:48:17.159
Yeah, I think that's coming in the clone masters set because they've got both of them.

708
00:48:17.219 --> 00:48:19.380
I was joking.

709
00:48:19.440 --> 00:48:23.880
No, no, they've got both Travis's in the past with a story together.

710
00:48:23.940 --> 00:48:25.440
Oh my god.

711
00:48:25.500 --> 00:48:26.820
Like seven and two, Travis.

712
00:48:27.900 --> 00:48:31.619
I'm looking forward to the science of same on boxing.

713
00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:37.380
You're laughing.

714
00:48:37.380 --> 00:48:38.820
Really, you don't know if I'm joking.

715
00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:39.480
Yeah.

716
00:48:39.480 --> 00:48:41.340
I'd buy it.

717
00:48:41.400 --> 00:48:47.159
I'd buy it, it would sit on my phone and I would never, ever listen to it. what I do.

718
00:48:50.639 --> 00:48:56.099
Now we all go back to the liberator and suddenly they realise, hang on, we've got 5 minutes left.

719
00:48:56.820 --> 00:49:00.000
It's so leisurely, isn't it?

720
00:49:00.059 --> 00:49:01.860
And they're so dumb as well.

721
00:49:01.980 --> 00:49:05.039
All right, what is a cliffhanger?

722
00:49:07.619 --> 00:49:10.079
I've never heard the term.

723
00:49:10.739 --> 00:49:20.820
And you know how if you're accidentally casting something to the big telly and you suddenly really, I wanted to be on the big telly, so you start turning off everything on your computer and the telly just keeps playing it anyway?

724
00:49:21.179 --> 00:49:23.219
if someone's walked in the room.

725
00:49:23.340 --> 00:49:25.679
That is actually Chris.

726
00:49:25.679 --> 00:49:26.219
Tell some more.

727
00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:30.960
No, I hadn't watched all.

728
00:49:31.019 --> 00:49:31.199
No.

729
00:49:31.260 --> 00:49:35.159
I haven't watched Orphan 55 for a fortnight and I told my partner I was cutting back.

730
00:49:37.199 --> 00:49:44.579
But just turning off the casting device does not make the premonition that's on your screen, stop appearing.

731
00:49:44.760 --> 00:49:46.559
Well, that was it.

732
00:49:46.619 --> 00:49:49.320
It was like, oh, we've switched it off now.

733
00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:51.179
And everyone's sort of happy.

734
00:49:51.239 --> 00:49:52.019
Oh, well, that's fine.

735
00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:52.980
That's all act done.

736
00:49:53.039 --> 00:49:54.179
Villa says.

737
00:49:54.300 --> 00:49:56.699
And then they go, but wait a second.

738
00:49:56.760 --> 00:49:58.079
We've forgotten one thing.

739
00:49:58.139 --> 00:50:00.059
He still made the prediction.

740
00:50:00.119 --> 00:50:04.500
Like, I just, I don't know, like who, what these people are.

741
00:50:04.559 --> 00:50:06.780
You know...

742
00:50:06.840 --> 00:50:08.280
It's it's very strange.

743
00:50:08.340 --> 00:50:14.280
Yeah, they're fascinated by the notion of a talking computer as they sit in front of their massive talking.

744
00:50:14.340 --> 00:50:15.360
Their big talking computer.

745
00:50:15.420 --> 00:50:30.780
It's like, and to be, and marks observe, you know, calculation that Aurac was most likely to be some kind of space play, it was very sensible because, I mean, literally the last thing you would expect it to expect or act to be, really, is another supercomputer, a super rural computer.

746
00:50:30.840 --> 00:50:32.579
And we get the last ever.

747
00:50:32.639 --> 00:50:33.960
I can't do it.

748
00:50:34.019 --> 00:50:35.400
You go, I know, I can't.

749
00:50:35.519 --> 00:50:37.079
That's the one.

750
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:40.500
He's cheaper than David Jackson.

751
00:50:40.500 --> 00:50:42.780
He's the best player, is that it?

752
00:50:42.840 --> 00:50:46.440
I mean, they do ski to Tottenham to voice him.

753
00:50:46.500 --> 00:50:46.920
It's fine.

754
00:50:46.980 --> 00:50:48.059
He's already on the contract.

755
00:50:48.119 --> 00:50:50.699
He'll just do another one Yeah, yeah.

756
00:50:50.760 --> 00:50:52.500
So he's cheap, essentially.

757
00:50:52.559 --> 00:50:55.559
Computers turns out sort of particularly cheap.

758
00:50:55.619 --> 00:50:58.739
And like, I mean, we don't get him to do anything.

759
00:50:58.800 --> 00:50:59.760
Do you know what I mean?

760
00:50:59.820 --> 00:51:10.860
Like they don't ask him how old Betty White is or how many films Adam Sandler has made or like anything, you know, like how many days will it be until I die?

761
00:51:10.920 --> 00:51:15.119
All the things that you would ask Siri when you get a new sort of thing.

762
00:51:15.179 --> 00:51:15.659
Nothing.

763
00:51:15.780 --> 00:51:18.840
How much longer does my contract last?

764
00:51:20.579 --> 00:51:29.639
But come to think of it, the particularly astounding thing, sort of in universe, is, you know, Aurex says, I can take data and prognosticate the future.

765
00:51:29.699 --> 00:51:33.239
And Blake doesn't immediately say, how do I defeat the Federation?

766
00:51:33.300 --> 00:51:34.380
Yeah, yeah.

767
00:51:35.099 --> 00:51:40.500
It's like, just, oh yeah, show us. that never goes anywhere.

768
00:51:40.559 --> 00:51:43.019
Like, he never tells the future again, does he?

769
00:51:43.079 --> 00:51:45.539
And it's in his name, isn't it?

770
00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:47.219
Yeah, oracle.

771
00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:48.119
Yeah, yeah.

772
00:51:48.179 --> 00:51:49.500
But he never does that again.

773
00:51:49.559 --> 00:51:52.320
They kind of decide that that's not what they're going to go with or something.

774
00:51:52.739 --> 00:51:57.360
Yeah, and I guess for plot reasons it would just be, it would make scripting.

775
00:51:58.019 --> 00:52:02.460
But it's the epitome of one of those cliffhangers that isn't real.

776
00:52:02.519 --> 00:52:07.980
It's the thing where you can just, you can snip out, snip it out, and doesn't really affect what happens in the rest.

777
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:16.199
I'm hesitating here because I'm about to start using grammar to describe the 1st episode of the next series as the rest of this story and I don't know if that's right.

778
00:52:16.260 --> 00:52:18.239
It's sort of it is, isn't it?

779
00:52:18.300 --> 00:52:20.400
Is it passing next year?

780
00:52:20.460 --> 00:52:30.420
Well, I mean, it does start with another one of their brilliant previously on Blake 7 scenes where they're always sitting around in that room talking to one another for a long period of time.

781
00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:33.539
And isn't it like, we just saw the ship blew up.

782
00:52:33.599 --> 00:52:34.980
Yes, we just saw the ship blow up.

783
00:52:35.039 --> 00:52:36.719
Play the footage of the ship blowing up again.

784
00:52:36.780 --> 00:52:38.760
Yep, that's the ship blowing up.

785
00:52:39.420 --> 00:52:41.940
Kids at home want to see that.

786
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:43.380
They love that click.

787
00:52:43.380 --> 00:52:44.699
That's true.

788
00:52:44.760 --> 00:52:45.239
That's true.

789
00:52:45.300 --> 00:52:52.199
There's yet there's yet more mishmash of some really good brand new shots of the liberator in this story.

790
00:52:52.260 --> 00:52:56.880
It looks really, it looks very silvery in some of these shots, particularly when it's in front of the blue planet.

791
00:52:56.940 --> 00:53:01.199
And then back to the 2D cartoon of the yellow version coming back with the balls again.

792
00:53:01.260 --> 00:53:02.699
That's strange.

793
00:53:02.760 --> 00:53:03.059
Yeah.

794
00:53:03.059 --> 00:53:07.019
Either would be fine, but the 3D ones are much better.

795
00:53:07.199 --> 00:53:12.480
It's, I mean, this is a very low effort cliffhanger, isn't it?

796
00:53:12.539 --> 00:53:13.800
Yeah, it's really tagged on.

797
00:53:13.860 --> 00:53:20.639
They've kind of gone, literally, yeah, we have got 5 minutes and it doesn't really succeed in anything.

798
00:53:20.699 --> 00:53:26.579
It just sort of goes, and they do, okay, how do we make this more interesting?

799
00:53:26.639 --> 00:53:29.340
I know, let's snap Zoom onto Gareth Thomas's face.

800
00:53:29.400 --> 00:53:31.320
It's still doesn't.

801
00:53:31.320 --> 00:53:36.420
Oh, Sally calls out Blake, which I think does add to the tension.

802
00:53:37.739 --> 00:53:44.159
I was trying to watch it with the perspective of like a 10 year old watching in 1978.

803
00:53:44.340 --> 00:53:45.539
I reckon it works.

804
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:52.739
Well, I wonder if a kid would have been confused as to whether the ship really blew up or not.

805
00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:59.099
Well, and I think that's intentional insofar as anything that inept can be said to have reflected its intention in any way.

806
00:53:59.159 --> 00:54:00.900
But that's the thing.

807
00:54:00.960 --> 00:54:04.380
I don't think they're actually intending for that ambiguity to be there.

808
00:54:04.440 --> 00:54:05.039
Right.

809
00:54:05.039 --> 00:54:07.679
But I think that ambiguity comes into it.

810
00:54:07.739 --> 00:54:09.059
And you know what?

811
00:54:09.119 --> 00:54:12.840
If you were a parent and your kid was watching this and you didn't like that your kid was watching this.

812
00:54:12.900 --> 00:54:16.619
This would be the perfect excuse to say, oh, well, that show's over now.

813
00:54:16.679 --> 00:54:18.960
And even when the radio times comes out next December.

814
00:54:19.019 --> 00:54:20.579
You just hide it from him. hide it.

815
00:54:20.639 --> 00:54:21.659
Yeah, you just hide it.

816
00:54:23.099 --> 00:54:26.340
Whatever night Blake Seven's on was the Wednesday.

817
00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:28.980
Oh, it was a Tuesday.

818
00:54:29.039 --> 00:54:29.340
Thank you.

819
00:54:29.400 --> 00:54:30.719
Kid wants to stay up on Tuesday.

820
00:54:30.780 --> 00:54:32.039
No, there's nothing on the television.

821
00:54:32.099 --> 00:54:34.860
Go wash your face. teeth, bed, off you go.

822
00:54:34.920 --> 00:54:37.980
I'm going to watch Paul Darrow says mum.

823
00:54:38.340 --> 00:54:40.800
Sorry, I'm just got a crush on Paul Darrow.

824
00:54:40.860 --> 00:54:46.260
I think that's kind of a good point in the, were there really such a thing as end of season cliffhangers around this time?

825
00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:50.460
I mean, Doctor Who wasn't really doing end of season, cliffhangers.

826
00:54:50.519 --> 00:54:59.340
No, even US, so Star Trek wasn't on and Star Trek didn't really end with season cliffhangers until season 3 of Next Generation.

827
00:54:59.400 --> 00:55:09.300
So it's actually pretty, I mean, when you get to stuff like episodes like Terminal and so on, it has some of the best cliffhangers in TV.

828
00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:11.219
So, well, they're trying.

829
00:55:11.280 --> 00:55:14.340
Well, I mean, terminal's not a cliffhanger, but Star one definitely is.

830
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:15.719
Absolutely is.

831
00:55:15.780 --> 00:55:19.199
And so good that Star Trek, the Next Generation nicked it wholesale.

832
00:55:19.260 --> 00:55:22.199
Yeah, it's amazingly good, I think.

833
00:55:22.260 --> 00:55:24.659
But this is not, really.

834
00:55:26.280 --> 00:55:31.139
But it is, but this is a sign that the series has already been recommissioned, hasn't it?

835
00:55:31.199 --> 00:55:38.340
And, and, uh, we, the BBC have got a hit on their hands and it will be back next year because it will.

836
00:55:38.400 --> 00:55:38.760
It is.

837
00:55:38.820 --> 00:55:43.079
I think it got recommissioned a few weeks before the end of filming for series one.

838
00:55:43.139 --> 00:55:44.760
I've got it in my head. not in my notes.

839
00:55:44.820 --> 00:55:47.280
I'm just that's a vague impression I have.

840
00:55:47.340 --> 00:55:54.420
But this was definitely not the usual BBC thing of we will make one year of this program and then it will end.

841
00:55:54.480 --> 00:55:55.679
Oh, all right, we'll do one more.

842
00:55:55.739 --> 00:55:59.039
It was a going concern as they end it.

843
00:55:59.099 --> 00:56:00.780
So they're not doing it with a view to getting them back.

844
00:56:00.840 --> 00:56:02.400
What will bring the punters back next year, quick.

845
00:56:02.460 --> 00:56:02.940
Yeah.

846
00:56:02.940 --> 00:56:03.900
Terry.

847
00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:11.699
That's a good point, Pete, because, you know, here am I saying, you know, a 10 year old at home might have been confused and believed his favourite show was gone.

848
00:56:11.760 --> 00:56:17.940
But on the other hand, they would have been a continuity announcement straight away to say Blake 7 will return in the new year.

849
00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:19.139
So, yeah.

850
00:56:19.260 --> 00:56:21.420
And now some others do have them.

851
00:56:21.480 --> 00:56:34.079
You've triggered 2 things with me of watching 2 very similar series, up to Blake 7, Tenko, and Cagney and Lacey, both of which every year ended with a continuous answer just saying, and that was the last episode.

852
00:56:34.139 --> 00:56:39.119
Now. as far as their crib sheet says, it's just the end of the series.

853
00:56:39.179 --> 00:56:46.440
And the Constitution House doesn't care, there would be no selling to you, that it was ever coming back again, unless you wrote a letter to BBC.

854
00:56:46.500 --> 00:56:47.760
Maybe for Blake 7 they did.

855
00:56:47.820 --> 00:56:52.679
But and also, particularly Cagney Lacy, it did tend to get axed every year and then brought back due to letter writing campaign.

856
00:56:52.739 --> 00:56:54.599
One of my favourite...

857
00:56:54.659 --> 00:56:55.800
Don't we hate it when that happens?

858
00:56:55.860 --> 00:57:12.840
My favourite example of that is the end of season 2 of Twin Peaks, where I was obsessed with it, and my sister and I were watching it, and the announcer says, that was the very, very, very, very final ever, ever episode of Twin Peaks that will ever, ever be.

859
00:57:12.840 --> 00:57:18.539
Little did they know, 27 years later, they would make season three. brilliant.

860
00:57:18.599 --> 00:57:22.019
But yeah, that's the thing, context, looking back at this stuff from decades later.

861
00:57:22.139 --> 00:57:24.300
It's doing a different job, isn't it?

862
00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:24.659
Yeah.

863
00:57:24.719 --> 00:57:34.199
And I just want to chip in with my thing that's started to obsess me to an unhealthy level, which is the way the way that the camera pans over the Starfield and the end credits being different every week.

864
00:57:34.260 --> 00:57:41.340
Oh, this week, the credits start rolling and the camera's zooming in and I'm like, they're going too fast.

865
00:57:41.400 --> 00:57:42.179
They're going too fast.

866
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:44.579
They going to run out, zooming and zooming and zooming.

867
00:57:44.579 --> 00:57:47.760
And it gets to the end of the cast and it just stops.

868
00:57:47.820 --> 00:57:59.340
After all the production crew, it's just a stationary, fully zoomed in picture of some stars because the whoever was cranking that handle, it was nearly 10 o'clock or whatever and it's time to go home. crank, crank, crank.

869
00:57:59.400 --> 00:58:00.420
Oh shit, we're running out of stars.

870
00:58:00.480 --> 00:58:03.599
That seemed quite fitting again to the series in a way.

871
00:58:04.079 --> 00:58:09.420
And I remember on mission to destiny, they realise they've zoomed in way too quickly.

872
00:58:09.480 --> 00:58:15.599
And so they start going to the right and then they start going to the left, but they realise, oh, no, we can't go over there.

873
00:58:15.659 --> 00:58:17.460
Oh, wait, maybe we can zoom in a bit more now.

874
00:58:20.099 --> 00:58:22.860
Wuthering Heights is still number one.

875
00:58:22.920 --> 00:58:24.000
That's the other thing to say.

876
00:58:24.059 --> 00:58:33.239
So you could imagine these graceful stars whizzing past to the sounds of Kate Bush out on the heath and how's that for a zeitgeist?

877
00:58:33.300 --> 00:58:37.739
I fully expect to make that into a GIF for...

878
00:58:38.039 --> 00:58:46.739
I'll see what I can do I said earlier that this is the last episode of Blake 7 that Rod's seen and he refuses to watch the rest.

879
00:58:46.800 --> 00:58:52.920
And during the credits of this, he said to me, I thought there were more series.

880
00:58:52.920 --> 00:58:54.179
And I said, no, there are.

881
00:58:54.239 --> 00:58:55.380
That's just a cliffhanger.

882
00:58:55.440 --> 00:58:57.239
And I said, do you want to watch series B?

883
00:58:57.300 --> 00:58:59.400
And he said, no.

884
00:58:59.460 --> 00:59:03.239
They're all dead and that's how I want to remember them.

885
00:59:04.440 --> 00:59:09.719
Because he thinks they are all incredibly stupid people except for Avon.

886
00:59:18.900 --> 00:59:23.099
Well, so I think that that's all we have time for this week.

887
00:59:23.159 --> 00:59:29.880
And will we be back next week for a retrospective of some kind, Brendan?

888
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:36.900
Yes, yes, and with retrospective next week, and I'm very honoured to have been asked to do the hosting duties for that.

889
00:59:37.019 --> 00:59:51.780
And so there's going to be a bunch of us on there and I'm going to be subjecting you all to horrific arousing and informative questions about series A slash one slash alpha of Blake 7.

890
00:59:51.840 --> 00:59:52.679
Brilliant.

891
00:59:52.800 --> 00:59:53.639
I can't wait.

892
00:59:53.699 --> 00:59:54.300
Well.

893
00:59:54.360 --> 00:59:57.000
Well, in that case, we will see you then.

894
00:59:57.059 --> 00:59:59.159
Thank you very much for listening and good night.

895
00:59:59.219 --> 01:00:00.480
Good night.

896
01:00:00.539 --> 01:00:01.079
Good night.

897
01:00:01.139 --> 01:00:01.860
Good night from me.

898
01:00:09.360 --> 01:00:11.579
Switching to manual.

899
01:00:11.639 --> 01:00:13.739
Maximum power on all drives.

900
01:00:16.800 --> 01:00:18.599
Maximum power.