Maximum power.
Welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast, which hopes that none of the beta class technicians at the Federation Weapons development base comes up with a gun that just kills your enemies as soon as you shoot them.
Let's introduce ourselves.
I'm Nathan.
I'm Brendan.
I'm James.
And I'm Adam.
So this week we're talking about series two...
Okay. series.
Sorry, Simon's not here.
Series B, episode three, which is called Weapon.
It's written by Chris Boucher, is it?
Chris Boucher's 1st writing credit on the show.
It is, yes.
Yeah.
And directed by the reliably terrible George Spencer Foster.
No one got bit on the lip for this one.
That's his story and he's sticking to it.
So let's just go round the kind of panel and give our sort of initial assessment of how we felt.
The episode went generally.
Is it a solid 7.5 , Brendan?
Um, yeah, I think that's, I think that's a fair score.
It's a it's a good script.
It got some good concepts.
It has some good performances and one surprisingly terrible one. more on that story later.
But look, I've said, well, we were recording series A, that series B is actually one that I had only seen, I think, like redemption and shadow previously.
So this is a whole new episode to me and I really enjoyed it.
Oh, yay.
Yeah.
What about you, Adam?
Look, I love anytime June Hudson is allowed to run riots.
Oh, my God.
With a length of wire.
And all the fabric in the world.
It is a costuming.
It's amazing.
It is amazing.
Like, it looks incredible, and I love that it's contrasted with the most the dirtiest place you've ever been in the world.
Like future workplace that oh, yeah, we don't work here anymore.
We won't clean up after ourselves.
Yeah, it's glorious to look at.
And so much like the archest dialogue.
Like, it feels like from the 1st series, you know, it's there's a bit of kind of wry, you know, observations, but this one, it's just ramped up to like 20.
It's like, oh.
This is what happens when Boucher script edits himself.
Yes.
I still would die just for Jenna's delivery of the line.
That's very keen of you.
It's all so funny.
It is, it's really terrific.
And Boucher obviously has kind of sexed up Terry Nation scripts for series A, and who did we have last week?
We had what, Alan Pryor.
So we've had Terry Nation, Alan Pryor, and now Chris Boucher gets his sort of 1st credit.
And he will go and ride like quite a few tent pole episodes as things go on.
Peter, who sometimes appears on the podcast, thinks that Chris Boucher is single-handedly responsible for the death of Doctor Who in the 1980s.
Because he went and script edited Blake 7 instead of script editing Doctor Who and he would have been spectacular on it, I think.
I think he would, but I think it's like, you know, given what happened to Doctor Who at that period.
I think it, yeah.
You think there was no saving it?
Well, I think it was like, you know, Chris Boucher can be hilarious when he wants to be, and I think it would have gone down that road regardless.
Yeah.
More so that did anyway.
I mean, you know, Douglas Adams is, you know, insane.
But yeah, I think Doctor Who was going to go there because that was that was a production thing.
That was that was gonna happen.
Yeah.
Well, I think David Maloney then is the other person that he blamed. for going to plate 7 instead of running Doctor Who.
Most of the production team of Doctor Who ends up on Blake 7, doesn't it?
I had a theory like when the Sarah Jane Adventures was on that that it was fulfilling the same remit that Doctor Who was fulfilling in the 70s in that you get the half hour show with your cliffhangers and that allows the hour-long show to be a bit more grown up and a bit more, you know, arch and fun and yeah.
So yeah, I feel like this is the same thing.
Like this hour-long show gets to do all the things Doctor Who couldn't do because it was meant to be for kids.
And it's like, so all of the talented people, of course, were funnelled into that one.
It's like yeah, this is a playground.
We can do grown-up stuff as opposed to the half hour one where it's just, you know, there's a robot dog now.
Oh, dear.
I mean, I really quite like this one.
I do think it is sort of glacially paced. and there's a fair amount of talking, but I guess that's, you know, TV at the time.
But I do think it is sort of, it is pretty great.
And it is Chris Boucher, isn't it?
And did Chris Boucher write a weapon called Imipak because he just had the idea of John Bennett just going, Immit back.
Which camera, darling?
In my pack. love that so much.
So that's in the back.
Just something about the word that it's just hilarious.
For years, I thought it was an acronym.
And then watching it and going, when do they explain what impact is short?
Oh, no, it's not.
They do, they do.
Yeah, it's like a...
Instant molecular, something, something and key.
And he holds up the box to say, and key. pointing it over.
So this is IMIP.
It goes in it.
This is...
I just think he wouldn't have sounded as good saying emipab.
I think that we will look at each sort of plot thread in turn.
And so let's start with Kosa and Rochelle.
And Adam's already mentioned June Hudson, and I do want to say that Rochelle has a bustle and you can actually see it in the location shooting.
She literally has a bustle on that dress.
It's unbelievable Like, what was June Hudson doing the week before that she's gone?
Oh, yeah.
Some of these leftovers can work in space, sure.
Speed?
It's like she's a bond slave and she has a bustle.
And he's a beta grade technician and he's got his chest hair out.
Yeah, a sort of time-lord-esque collar. giant collar.
Oh, great.
He always dresses the occasion.
At the moment on Apple TV, I'm watching Foundation.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm enjoying it, but yeah, it is a very, it is a very, it is a slow burn.
It's like 1st season Game of Thrones, but with money.
But there is an Android character in it who is a lot like Rochelle in this.
Yeah.
Um, you know, but she also has a bustle.
She also, yes, yeah, she yeah.
Yes.
She has a bustle and this fabulous collar and frock and things, yeah. and has a couple of wonderful scenes with 14th Dr. Tenia Miller as well.
Yeah, she's better, bloody well be the doctor now.
I am super keen to watch it simply for her because I think she's spectacular and she'll do such a great job as doctor.
Yeah.
It's already, it's a feta complete.
It's been decided.
Hello, Russell.
It's either her or Daisy Haggard. decided.
Yeah, so you have an issue with one of these performers, Brendan, I think.
Why is John Bennett terrible in this?
He's...
He's, it feels like he's, he thinks he's doing a theatrical performance or his microphone was broken.
It's like, just project everything.
I'm not ever back.
Don't make me the beef stock soup now, Rochelle.
I was watching the making of, you know, the like the documentaries they never finished.
Yes. making a Blake 7.
The other the other day and it's actually, I think, a response to June Hudson's costume. from the interviews.
Like, he was like, oh, there's a fabulous, do it bigger, darling.
Like, she made him this costume and he just kind of filled the costume.
I think for me as well.
It's just that he can hit sinister very easily.
Like even Invasion of the Dinosaurs, before you know that he's abandoned. he's very sinister.
So when he's barking at Rochelle, it's really quite upsetting, where I feel they almost needed a weaker actor, you know, they needed an actor who was a bit more cowardly and snivelling, sort of beta class, you know, like, yeah.
Yeah.
You know, someone like, is it Carl Howard last week who is the brother in shadow?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Carl Howard?
From bred.
From bread. yeah.
Like, I think he could have played this role really.
And he was brilliant last week, too.
But yeah, I yeah, I just feel like he's miscast and he's actually too grumpy.
There are lines lampshading that in the script about him, you know, going mad.
Yeah.
But I think I think the fact that he's like a, you know, in Planet of Planet of the Spiders, where Lupton has this sort of terrible sort of story about being in middle management and having people promoted over you and stuff.
He's kind of like that.
He's sort of a pathetic sort of Jobsworth guy, you know, who has just hit upon this thing.
And so making him so big and kind of over the top.
I think he's entertaining to watch.
Oh yeah.
I don't care that he wrecks this story.
To be fair, if that's to complain about Blake 7.
You're watching the wrong show.
The costumes are too silly and everyone thinks they're in sort of theatre.
It's almost like... like Crouch's performance as a Travis is more aimed at this character.
This is his 1st episode as Travis as well.
Yeah, so we will get to that, but anything else?
I mean, we've talked about the horrible set and just how super grimy it is.
Really, like, obviously someone's had to come in and throw dirt on everything.
It says it's in a studio.
Where do they find the macro claw lying around?
of the macrates.
Really bad.
It's astonishingly bad I think.
Yeah, and it, you know, it's just this set piece to show you what Emmett Pack can do, yeah.
I think I think you can get pills to that.
Give it back, not a brand of pills.
Copyright, Chris Boucher.
That was his side hustle.
Yeah, it just continues that the tradition of like blakes have been going, we need to do non-humanoid monsters, but they need to be a bit crap.
So, you know, we've had the phibians and we've had the decimas.
Yeah, yeah.
Now we've got this big ass claw.
Crantia.
From 7 Keys to Doomsday, yeah.
Yeah, it's pretty rough.
He's pretty rough.
I think that you're right, though, that watching him with Rochelle is a bit unpleasant because, you know, she's a young woman and it's nice when she eventually stands up to him.
But until then, like he's a bit like an abusive husband and it's just a little bit...
I mean, it is weird that he goes, oh, I've rescued you from being a slave and now I'm going to treat you like one anyway.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's like, know your place.
Yeah, he's super horrible to her.
Yeah, it's like, you're not a slave anymore.
You not a slave anymore, but don't touch that.
Don't move that.
Make dinner.
Don't talk back to me.
Yes, it's just...
Yeah.
And, you know, like he tells her off for talking like a sleigh, you know, calling him sir or all of that sort of thing.
It is very strange.
And it is a sort of strange feature of Blake 7.
We don't have that much slavery elsewhere in Blake 7, but it seems to be a thing.
And she even gives us the sort of unpleasant, you know, the unpleasant idea that a misbehaving slave can be modified, which means, you know, fitted with a big polystyrene helmet and turned into a vampire, I imagine.
They also talk about modifying Travis in this episode as well.
We'll get there.
We will get there.
To explain why he's contact.
Well, I think that that's a segue. do you think?
So we start with this very, very strange scene.
What is going on with the clone masters?
Well, they love drama.
And smoke machines.
I love a smoke machine, billowy fabric.
Diaphanous gown.
Their only natural predator is stairs.
Which they're surrounded by.
I was super worried by her coming downstairs.
Because that is a really kind of low ham on that frog.
And she's looking down and we're not coming away.
He's like cut away. just someone carry her down.
But that's why she's got her arms lifted up to get the frock off the ground so she won't trip herself over.
Just going, bloody June, Hudson.
That's going to kill me.
Stole a man back in 64.
It's it's so weird.
Like, they never come up again because it's the usual Blake 7 thing of introducing an entire new aspect to the Federation every week, which never comes up again.
Finnish can use in 40 years.
And aren't they doing like a whole series of Clone Masters?
Oh, man.
Yeah.
And the thing is, I saw that and I kind of went, okay, I understand, with Gareth gone and Paul gone, you need to find other ways to keep paying these wonderful actors.
But I'm like, Clone Masters, really?
And then I watched this episode and I'm just looking at her going, no, I want 12 episodes.
Is she still alive?
No, no, no, no.
Spoiler alert.
She's Olivia Pullett.
Toilet alert, we get a reference to the untimely demise of the clone masters, I think, in children of our on next year.
So they get blowed up by the aliens, presumably at the end of series 2.
So, like, but they're introduced as if there's something important.
Yes.
And it's just like, why?
Why are we spending this much time on them?
What going on?
I feel like this is the exact same question I had at the end of Star Wars Attack of the Clones.
Well, are these clone people?
They're gone now.
That didn't stick.
It's the same plot.
It's the same things like, we can make people that look exactly the same, but we'll never do it again.
And we had like robot Avalon last year.
I mean, it's not like they weren't and and I think Travis even says, you know, we can just make clones, don't you?
We just do that, you know, so it is, it's very odd.
Maybe Dudley Simpson wanted to choir and ask Chris to write some pointless scenes that he could have people singing over.
I don't know.
It just seems very strange.
Be very disappointed if that's not referenced in the soundtrack for the big finish audio series.
That'd be awesome.
Howard Carter going mad on a harpsichord. big finish.
Oh dear.
Yeah.
So I don't know why we have that.
And we introduced the new Travis.
And we presumably watching this, don't know it's him until he gets addressed as Travis by the clone.
He's got the funny eye and the shooty hand.
But yeah, he does have the shooting hand.
We do establish the shooting hand. fabulous hair.
Yeah, he loses that hair.
I was watching Gambit the other day and he has slightly more restrained hair. in the 2nd half of the series.
He tones it down a bit, but it is pretty fabulous here.
It's a very, very strange choice.
So they decide to recast.
Um, Like Stephen, how do we say his last name?
Right, right.
Stephen Griff looked like he'd had like half his head blown away, didn't he?
And like it was a whole sort of side of his head and and now it's a tasteful little eye patch.
Yeah, like he sort of turned it down.
Yeah, it does look like it's sort of grafted onto the skin.
Yeah, serious A. It's quite upsetting looking, I think. you know, it's like and there's lines, isn't it?
Like it was a field medic patched him up in battle and, you know, he's confident that he's fairly pretty anyway, so he never gets it fixed.
And so, and we get Brian Croucher, who is just not very good.
Is that is that fair?
Oh, he's terrible, but he's kind of hot.
In a way the previous Travis was not.
You say that in a similar way to the way that Jacqueline Pierce. has said that in interviews.
He wasn't bad to look at.
Sometimes she wanted to have sex with him.
That was fine.
It makes more sense of Servoland kind of keeping him around even though he's wildly incompetent.
And why she's always stroking him.
I think I think Greif could kind of fill out a pair of leather trousers.
And, you know, there were some, there were some pretty satisfying butt shots.
Oh, actually, I think that was the body double because he'd broken his collar.
Yeah, yeah, he couldn't be in the set.
Now, as I've said, this is my 1st time watching series B. And, you know, so I've had years of hearing that Brian Crouch is awful and watching the series beat trailer on the series ADVD, and he's pretty awful in that.
I have to say in this episode, we'll see how it is when I go on.
But in this episode, I quite liked his performance.
And what I kind of thought was, here is Brian Croucher going, I am a TV Madman, Madman. whereas Stephen Griff was, and this predates it, but Stephen Griff was, I am Jason Voorhees.
I am an unstoppable in human force.
Whereas Brian Croucher is a panto villain.
Yeah.
But I'm kind of watching it going, he plays that well and there are the moments of sudden anger where there's a bit of menace there.
Now, I'm sure there is fan opinion on him for a reason.
So I'm sure as the series goes on.
I'll go, oh, okay, no, that was it.
That was the one time.
There is the thing.
There is this thing.
I think there's one line reading that he just fucks up completely and it is the I'm not sure whether there's anything left to me now.
And like Jackie seems like she doesn't quite get what's happening in that exchange either.
It's very, it is very odd.
Um, yeah.
I mean, Greif was so sort of posh and and sort of psychopathic and calm.
And he didn't seem incompetent. returning villains have to be incompetent, right?
Otherwise, why have they turned up again?
That's it.
Yeah.
They didn't win last time.
Here they are again.
They're not going to win.
And so it's kind of an occupational hazard. that they will eventually look incompetent.
But Travis didn't seem particularly incompetent and they're re- kind of rebooting his character as someone who has, I think, Servoland blames him for Aurac or whatever happened at the end of series. one.
He's been with what's happened to him?
He's been with his, uh, he's been with the psycho, some people.
Yeah, something.
And he's had his head kind of adjusted and now...
Space psychosessions or just...
I think space psycho, certainly.
Do we have a space count for this episode?
There was nothing space in me.
No, there wasn't.
No. super disappointing.
I feel like maybe that was the only contribution Terry Nation made or the 1st series was putting the word space in front of everyone's jaw.
No, in front of everything.
We had space crises.
Imagine if it'd been called space in Epac.
Cimapax.
Because it wasn't even a space weapons facility.
There was a distinct lack of space.
Wow, that's super disappointing.
A clone, a space clone.
Clonemaker.
Normally I download the transcript and actually search for space before doing one of these and it's super like just super disappointing.
So, is Servoland's outfit, in this Romana's outfit from Rybos operation?
She does get the, I'm waving my hand around my head, which is wonderful for audio.
She does get the cloak at the end of the feather cowl.
The feathered cow is amazing.
Also, the fact she's wearing a midriff.
Well, everyone else is completely covered up.
It's like, no, I don't feel the cold.
My evil keeps me warm.
I'm supreme commander.
She seems to be wearing like barbed wire or something around her neck.
I don't know what's going on. just absolutely crazy.
It's one of her most mental output.fits I think.
It's amazing.
Well, they needed to keep the cowl up.
It's so good The other person who is in the sort of Servland Travis plot is Scott Fredericks, who we've had on Doctor Who, haven't we?
Yes, in Image of the Fendal.
And Dave the Daleks.
And Dave of the Daleks.
Day of the Dalek.
He's very pretty and he plays a character called Carnal.
Who is not a space psychiatrist.
No.
Space Psycho strategist.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's funny, he's in 3 scenes, and that character has gone on to just have a sort of life after this, hasn't he?
Like he ends up in in other things that Boucher rides.
Yeah, the Caldor City audio series, which also features Vox and Commander Uvanov.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
So he escapes from Blake's 7 into sort of Doctor Who spinoff things.
He's really amazingly good.
And the fact that Jackie and him kind of play it, they're amused by one another.
Yeah.
Also, I love the fact that they're kind of circling each other like, you know, that either of them could kill the other one at any minute.
Yeah, but I wouldn't because that's beneath you.
Yeah, yeah.
Some kind of penetration's going to happen. possibly one up to the other. seen in Oz.
That is the best way to deal with that awkward morning conversation.
I kind of, I read it as, you know, he was her gay best friend as well rather than, like, he does sort of come back on the on the viewscreen and say that she's the sexiest commanding officer that he's ever met or something and she's quite thrilled by that.
I think she stares into a flower, smiling at the at the baby. plastic flower.
Yeah, yeah.
Space flower.
That flower does have a long life.
It will be back in Gambit. lasted longer than his character.
I'm actually really disappointed that he leaves at the end.
And it does come back to that thing of, you know, how incompetent Travis is.
Like if they'd just gone after series one, you know, Travis died on the way back to his home plan and Carnel and Servolan in the office constantly and just had a different space commander each week because they keep screwing up and they get killed.
They're all called Travis.
It's a code.
My name's Paul Mupp.
You are Travis.
So good.
Oh my god.
Has someone spoken to Chris Boucher?
Let's travel back in time.
What are you thinking?
Not Terry Nation.
Because then everyone, he would be a space psycho strategist.
I think, like, you know what I love?
Like, I know you brought up Foundation before.
And I love that his kind of whole thing is like, you know, that psychohistory that, you know, oh, I would have got all this right.
I didn't realise the slave was there.
Yeah.
Like, I kind of love that he's sort of like an arch Harry Zelda.
Yes, yes.
I think it is very deliberately kind of lifted from that isn't it?
And I love the scene where the soldier brings him the bad news that means that basically he has to go into self-imposed exile.
And he's so charming and polite to the soldier, who is wearing a dress, let me just say, because Jean Hudson has done her evil work to you.
So, you know, that that soldier was the hitchhiker, the hiker in Image of the Pendar.
Got more lines in this one.
So for one, Scott Fredericks is not responsible for his death.
I don't know.
We all know Servlin loves to shoot a messenger.
That's true.
You told him and then he left?
That was an offscreen, then.
I wanted to stab him.
So because I'm a very, very professional podcaster.
I have done some research.
What?
And the chess challenger thing.
The most advanced chess program.
Very expensive.
Yeah, very expensive was actually the 1st kind of commercially released chess computer game.
And it came out in 1978 and there've been other sort of versions of it.
The budget of the whole season on it.
And so it's real.
And the great thing about it is the chessboard is completely inert, it cannot tell where the pieces are.
You have to enter, you know, like E6 to G6 on a little, one of those horrible membrane TVs. and then move your piece.
Yeah, and then it would tell you by, you know, giving you the grid reference of its move on a sort of red LED number thing.
And you had to move for it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's unbelievably crap.
But, you know, that's a thing. it's pretty incredible So there you go.
Do you know what?
I think the reason I kind of liked Brian Croucher in this is because everyone is a toff, except he's very working class.
And he, like, he, he isn't trying to do an RP accent and he's just like, yeah, yeah, I'm a space villain, mate.
I'll kill people.
And the thing is, for years, I assumed it was, they hired Brian Croucher.
That was Brian Crouch's voice and he said to them, do you want me to do Stephen Griff?
And they're like, no, no, no, we hired you, do you?
But actually, Brian Croucher is a lot more posh.
Oh, is he?
Yeah.
Like, um, he does the big finish series, B, set audios where he plays Travis again.
And it was hearing the interviews and I'm like, well, who's that?
Why, why, why, why the South London accent?
He had been reprogrammed.
I think also that's how, you know, at the time, I think that's how bad people were played.
It's like later on, they became Scottish, all bad people were had Scott's accents.
Like it just became a thing.
It's like, this is a shortcut to being a bad guy.
It's like watching really early Avengers and you've got all these posh actors who've learned RP, but they have to play the gangster this week.
Right, right.
So like Murray Melvin as a gangster.
Yeah.
Crouch, I think was in EastEnders for a while.
Yeah, if it was someone's dad.
Yeah, I mean, he's gone on to have a reasonable career, hasn't he?
Oh yeah, totally.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, let's go to our much less interesting characters, the series regulars.
I'm not there to talk about that.
Their collection of sleeves.
I even is wearing his lobster outfit.
I love it.
It's so unflattering.
It's the worst. really, really bad.
In my in my head, Avon is a leather queen. stalks the galaxy looking for Travis.
So they can go to the pub together.
So it's weird to see him in his red leather.
Yeah, it's really bad.
It's really quite, because it makes him look skinny or something or makes his head look big.
It's like absolutely horrifically unflattering.
He looks like a fucking cylinder on it.
Super bad.
It's a subconscious impression that he's going to end up in hot water.
There you go.
Oh, go.
June Hudson's playing the long game.
So this is a sort of plot that doesn't really go anywhere very much because it is just them finding out what's going to happen.
And so they, they're kind of spinning their wheels until, um, until they arrive on unnamed planet from...
Unnamed planet of strange administrative centre that no one uses anymore.
Yeah, yeah.
And child lobsters.
And the and the lights from the desks on Space 1999 ambition control.
I will say those scenes on the Liberator, George Benton Foster, the director, I think, is kind of aware that this is sort of nothing.
So he does try to inject a bit of interest in it in that.
I think it's 2 or 3 minutes before we get a wide shot.
Just everyone is in close up.
And it's so you are entirely focussed on whoever's speaking, like, and occasionally there'll be a close-up and then you're focus pull to a person in the background.
Right.
So, I think that is probably an attempt to spice up the material a bit.
Something else I'm also enjoying that's carried on from last week is that, you know, after David Jackson has obviously said, I have nothing to do.
They've sort of made him the voice of practicality and conscience.
Like, you know, Villa will say that any mission is a bad idea because it involves him leaving the ship and the bar.
But Gan will actually point out, well, this is a bad idea because this is dangerous and this is dangerous.
And actually, do we even want this kind of weapon?
I don't think it's, you know, it's not very us.
And David Jackson plays that moral sense really well.
I mean, to be fair, he gets what, 2 lines or something.
Like, is that all he gets to do?
He doesn't do anything.
Oh, no, he doesn't do anything.
He beams down to the planet.
He gets to go on a trip for one.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, he had a lot more to do last week in Shadow, but at least they're carrying on that new characterisation for him here.
I've always found Can to be like a pantomime dame.
All of his lines are done a little bit too excited.
He has a great sort of rich voice.
I'm listening to it.
Fruity.
He also, he defined his character as being working class.
They played with that way.
So weird.
I'm working class, don't you know?
I wear a large puffy slew.
It's like he's been rejected from Frankenfurt.
And it's also just this last couple of weeks that June Hudson's figured out, maybe don't put him in a dress.
Maybe put him in something that actually accentuates his upper body.
And his outfit this week is fabulous with those big shoulders, but it comes down and sort of narrows his waist instead of like, God, 2 weeks ago in aftermath.
You look like Demis Rusos.
He's going to do a costume reveal that Eurovision.
This is why I thought he was a pantomime. frequently, he was in drag.
I mean, this is nothing material, but it is funny, and there are really kind of funny lines, and the sort of conflict between the different characters, you know, do we want to go down to the weapons development base?
again, sort of doesn't go anywhere because they end up doing something else instead.
But there's banter and and that's what you kind of want Chris Boucher for.
And they like the scenes on, I could have watched the whole episode of them just bitching about whether or not they're going anywhere.
Like, that was fun.
And then you're like, oh, that's right.
Actually, we have to have a story at some point.
It's that line, that incredible line from Avon, which is I don't know how they do things on our on Cali, but on earth, it's considered ill-mannered to kill your friends while committing suicide.
So great.
So funny.
Absolutely one of the best lines of the entire series.
Like, and the thing is, that's how you know that Avon likes Cali.
Because, yeah, it is a putdown.
But it's not, oh, you're a drunk idiot, which is what he says to Villa all the time.
With Callie, it's just, I'm going to point out that what you just said was stupid in a very baroque way.
I think the next best line in the entire episode is the line from Carnell about our military intelligence, the officer call will forgive anything it can understand, which makes intelligence about the only sin. yeah It is really great, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, all of the dialogue is great fun.
And I think that's probably the tragedy of Brian Crouch is that he doesn't get that.
It gets it at him.
Yeah, but not to other people.
And I think maybe that just over time was just like, yeah, don't give him anything too complicated.
Give all the good stuff to Paul Darrow.
He's making a meal.
A bit between him and Surferland.
Yeah, it's actually...
Yeah, like he grabs her by the throat.
Yeah, but then she gets to, you know, the prime line.
With the prime line, yes.
I'll see you rotted a slave bit on a surprise. so good.
It says contempt, and she says, all respect, a man might see it as respect, you would have once.
Yeah, he's he's got quite pathetic.
And I think, don't we cut from her calling him pathetic and then maybe it's Coza calling Rochelle pathetic.
I mean, it like it gets emphasised, yeah, in dialogue.
I was wondering with that thing about you, you know, you would have once, when you're a man, like, does that imply it wasn't on his eye that went rest?
That field surgeon.
And that's why she keeps him around because it's like, well, I can't jump on it.
There's nothing there.
You refuse to get it fixed.
Well, I mean, the Federation is kind of space feudalism and noble nobility during feudalism would have eunuchs.
Yeah.
So, and it would explain why he's so angry all the time.
And very little reason.
And it's also, I mean, from the dialogue, he has been reprogrammed.
He's kind of been psychologically turned into a eunuch in a way.
Yeah, yeah.
With um, Servoland and Travis, we also have um, Clone Blake.
Yes.
Clay, Clay, who comes down to the planet.
So all of these 3 threads all kind of meet on this unnamed planet, but the 1st person to arrive is clone Blake, and we know it's clone Blake straight away, don't we?
Yeah, because he can't act.
Yeah.
And he does his shirt up as well before going in.
I'm not quite sure what's happening there.
So, yeah, he's...
Well, part of the cloning process is you don't have a belly button, but you do have a 3rd nipple.
Okay.
Yeah, fair enough.
And so he arrives and we think he's on his own and then suddenly, you know, we've got Servoland and ImiPak.
And Servlane is having a great time putting those dots on people.
A whale of a time.
I kind of wish this was the actual plot of the James Bond film, No Time to Die, which is a similar plot.
We're going to put dots on people and then press a button later and kill them.
But I wish Remy Mulloch was having that much fun going, whee.
She's really, it's so great.
Just the look on her face after she does it to Travis.
And she's about to trick him into blowing himself up.
Yeah.
It's the button.
You know you want?
But Michelle has already dotted her and we haven't, we didn't actually see that happen, I think.
There's a great moment which Spenton Foster just completely louses up where I think Travis is behind some barrels and the 3 characters who beam down.
Just, like is it, Blake Avon and Gan?
And they stop in the same spot and look around so that Travis can dot them with her thing.
It's so bad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. and it's so overdone.
Like, it's like, I'm going to stand here for about 4 minutes looking around casually.
Where's the camera?
Can you come and stand in this one spot so we can get the bling, bling, bling. really shocking.
Something I love just before that is like sort of Blake and Avon, a bit like, okay, you know, we've got to sneak in, we've got to sneak in and Gan sees a garden, just like, right, I'm going to punch you in the face.
There's only one.
I'm gonna punch him in the face again. there's one behind.
Okay, we'll shoot him.
Come on, scrappy doo.
Yeah, he did get to do something, did he?
I'd forgotten that.
He does get to punch that one guy in the face.
And it's like every, it's just like every time they're like, let's give Gan an interesting characteristic.
The following week, they're like, no, let's not do that.
Because I would totally love if Gan's whole thing was, everyone's like, now we need to have a plan. and Gan's already over there.
Okay.
It's just a loose cannon.
All right.
You know what I find frustrating is like the show feels like it's a serial, like it desperately wants to be a serial, but it's kind of trapped in series architecture.
It's like, oh, I want this all to be setting something up for paying off later.
Then none of it gets paid off.
No.
I mean, we actually do get our 1st mention of central control here, I think. and that's going to become an arc, but it's so loose.
I mean, it's really not.
Yeah, I mean, it's entirely possible that that is just when they're then doing the central control arc.
They went, oh, well, we mentioned something like this before.
Let's give it the same name and make it look like we planned it.
That's possible.
But I, isn't, like, I understand that Blake and Rochelle just start boning and producing sort of half Blake children. isn't that what's happening?
Yeah, they're doing some, you know, the hideous science fiction trope of, oh, it's an Adam and Eve thing.
We're going to repopulate this.
Yeah, this clone is a player.
Yeah, I just find it so odd that Gareth Thomas seems to interpret, like, the character note of, you know, innocent as on Kualudes.
Yeah, super weird.
All life is sacred.
Yeah, and that's what I've been told to say.
By my clone masters.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some life is more sacred than others.
So, I mean, that is kind of super upsetting.
I mean, especially seeing as the 1st clone blake who gets killed is fully capable of emoting and saying, no, please don't shoot me in a believable manner.
And the 2nd Blake is just like, oh.
Yes, I am alive.
I will now be silent for 4 minutes. before my next speech.
Yeah, he's he's terrible.
Maybe Gareth was angry at having to play 2 parts or something, having to memorise more.
On one fee, yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
I have to play 3 characters this week.
Peter Tottenham was getting 2 fees.
But enough about Jody and last episode of Floods.
The episode was originally called The Armourer.
The armour.
Oh, that's super boring.
That's terrible.
We're just lucky John Nathan Turner wasn't the producer.
It would have been called Imitpack.
Excellation mark.
So great.
So good.
If Bit Need have written it, it would have been unnamed weapons facility planet.
I can't wait for someone to tag him, it sounds like him off again.
Even though it wasn't me last time, Nathan.
They should have hired Christopher Hamilton Bidmead's ex-girlfriend Helen Mirren, TM as Doctor Who.
Yeah.
Although, frankly, if you dated Helen Mirren, I think you should drop that into conversation.
Every much is humanly possible.
And he does.
So, does anyone have any final statements?
This is an absolute surefire way to completely kill the conversation.
I'm sorry, Chris.
We love you.
Boucher, Bidmead?
Who I talking about?
I'm full of secrets.
Like Gretchen Wiener's hair.
So I think this is solidly entertaining, but perhaps not very good in places and Chris Boucher's dialogue is, you know, a good deed in a naughty world.
I think somehow, John Bennett's character is less offensive than talents of Wing Chiang.
Yeah that's true.
Oh, yeah, I, I, look, I'd agree with that.
Yes.
Well, like, yes.
He's not wearing sticky tape.
And yellowed up.
Super upsetting.
Just stick it up on his nipples to deal with them.
Yeah, the scene. on the other hand.
It is acting with a capital A. Acting.
So good.
But I totally get now, like, yeah, that he would have seen the costume and gone, oh, I have to play it like this.
This lowly B grave weapons finish.
See, maybe that is the genius of Blake 7.
You know, the idea originally was that Survland would be a man and then that she would wear like a boiler suit or something like that.
And if Coza had sort of dressed like someone from Warriors of the Deep or something, you know, the show would have been more sensible and realistic and boring.
Uh, That's all we have time for this week.
We will be back next week for a visit to the very outskirts of the Federation in series B, episode 4 Horizon.
So until then, good night.
Good night.
Ta ta.
Bye.
Switching to manual.
Maximum power on all drives.
Maximal power.
I think Travis is behind some barrels.
Yes.
And the 3 characters who beam down, just, like is it, Blake, Travis, and Gan?
They all stop in the one place.
Avon.
Like Avon...
Ava God's sake.
What side is he on?
Trevon.
And Blake Avon and Gan.
Maybe they let it that in. made me seem like less of an idiot.
And so, you know, you've got Servolan in heels and a cocktail frock, you know, striding through a quarry.
Always on her way.
With a giant silver, silver butterfly.
I don't know, with a giant silver dragonfly.
Lizard crawling up her tits.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's right.
The giant silver tit lizard.
What's my nickname in high school?
I think that's an hour.
That's an app.
Simon's gonna hate it.
Oh, and also, you get the title.
This is his 1st episode.
Oh, is that the rule you have that rule?
I think, yeah.
Okay, good.
I have to tell the boys.
So the title will be...
Something you said. something I said. last week, giant silver titlers last week.
It was from another episode. me.
So that's how it got to be Alfie last week because Jack said it several times and Jack and Joe have been on it together.
Joe got the 1st one, so Jack had to get this one.
Jack is very pretty.
Yeah, he is pretty. very sweet.
They're both pretty.
All right.
Okay, let's do an out.
You have to say that.
Your internet married to what?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Not big in the efforts on the internet.
It's a rule.
Grinder wouldn't survive.
So that's all we have time for this week.
I'm sorry.
See you, Chuckle.
You should leave that in.
I'll do it again.
We'll get a clean take and he can use either one.
Good.
Okay, that's all right.
So I'll give him separate tracks.
Like...
Yeah.
Bye.
Hi, Si. love you.
Sorry.
Or the laughing.
Or possibly my Pete.