WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 21:54:34

1
00:00:03.299 --> 00:00:05.879
Maximum power.

2
00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:18.899
Hello and welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast, loosely based on EM Forster's, a passage to India.

3
00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:20.100
I'm Nathan.

4
00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:21.059
I'm Peter.

5
00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:22.440
I'm sorry.

6
00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:23.820
And I'm Simon.

7
00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:30.780
So this week we're talking about series two, episode four.

8
00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:32.100
No one's leaping into correctly.

9
00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:34.979
It's really disappointing. because I silently agree with you.

10
00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:40.200
Oh, it's all coming out now. heresy.

11
00:00:40.259 --> 00:00:49.320
So it's Horizon written by Alan Pryor and directed by Jonathan Wright Miller and guest starring the beautiful Darian Angardi.

12
00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:51.420
Let's talk about him first.

13
00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:57.780
In fact, that's Roe. who is our chief guest character for the week.

14
00:00:57.840 --> 00:00:59.700
How do we feel about him?

15
00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:03.659
I think it's the anchor of this episode, his performance.

16
00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:14.340
It's really an intelligent and dignified performance and very subtle, and I think that if he wasn't cast so well, The episode would probably be a bit lesser for it.

17
00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:16.200
He's really pretty too.

18
00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:18.000
Oh, God, yes.

19
00:01:19.859 --> 00:01:22.560
It is a very smooth performance.

20
00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:26.340
You can tell that he's not long done, I, Claudius.

21
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:29.579
Yeah, he's done BBC Shakespeare productions.

22
00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:34.019
It's a very TV, Shakespeare, TV, sort of like Claudia sort of performance.

23
00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:39.180
He gets so much subtext into the delivery of a lot of his lines.

24
00:01:39.239 --> 00:01:43.200
It is absolutely beautiful and it's one of the reasons why I really rate this episode really highly.

25
00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:54.359
And you know, he's a really interesting person as well, because doing a little bit of reading on him, he was a boy treble, and you can find some of his performances on YouTube, and they are really astounding.

26
00:01:54.359 --> 00:02:01.920
And he sort of grew up in this really artsy environment with sort of George Harrison and people like that dropping in for dinner.

27
00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.819
And so it was, yeah, it was really interesting background.

28
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:10.379
But also, unfortunately, he took his own life 2 years after this.

29
00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:11.340
Yes, I was very sad.

30
00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:13.560
I was really shocked to read that this morning.

31
00:02:13.620 --> 00:02:18.360
His mother introduced the Beatles to Ravi Shankar.

32
00:02:18.419 --> 00:02:19.259
Wow.

33
00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:20.460
Cool.

34
00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:22.439
These are really cool things.

35
00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:23.939
Yeah, yeah.

36
00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.919
Like it was a very, very wild and sort of exciting household, I think.

37
00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:32.340
And he's the youngest son, the youngest of 4 children.

38
00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:46.620
I just think it is an extraordinary performance and I think it's striking too that you've got those 2 leads who are non-white in an episode that is just largely about colonialism.

39
00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:48.180
Oh, absolutely.

40
00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.060
It's a really fantastic episode, I think.

41
00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:54.599
And Darian just gives such a brilliant performance.

42
00:02:54.659 --> 00:02:55.620
He's so vulnerable.

43
00:02:56.219 --> 00:03:07.080
You could see him thinking through how he should react as a federation officer and also as the leader of this planet, and there are so many moments so well judged.

44
00:03:07.139 --> 00:03:15.419
The bit I always think about is the bit where he loses his temper almost with the commissar, where he says, you're always telling me to act like a leader.

45
00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:17.039
And then when I do, you tell me I'm wrong.

46
00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:20.340
And yeah, it's just so, so brilliant.

47
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:29.280
He's treading such a fine line with the character and everything, you can see it on his face all the time, all the conflicts that he's the character is going through.

48
00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:31.259
Yeah, that's what I thought as well.

49
00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:32.400
Everything's written on his face.

50
00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:36.780
Everything that's happening in that character you can see on his face.

51
00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.060
Yep, without a doubt.

52
00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.780
So he's in the same uniform as the commissar and the assistant commissar.

53
00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:43.860
Very nice uniforms, by the way.

54
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:44.400
Yeah, yeah.

55
00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:49.379
Good old June Hudson. how to use quilting.

56
00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:51.240
What would we do without it?

57
00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:57.479
And so he is very, very much a sort of federation person.

58
00:03:57.539 --> 00:04:02.340
He's like someone who has gone and been educated with the Federation.

59
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:07.740
And so he's in complete support of what the Federation is doing on his planet.

60
00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:18.959
And we discover throughout the course of the episode that what they're doing is using his population as a slave labour force, exposing them to deadly radiation.

61
00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:28.920
And one of the things that I thought was really amazingly interesting is the idea that it's this. what monopasium 239 or something like that.

62
00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:34.199
Yeah, Madronine. 239 today.

63
00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:48.120
It's being used to launch the Federation into other galaxies is the idea that they're going to sort of head out from here.

64
00:04:48.180 --> 00:04:53.819
And it is this thing where the Federation basically is reinvented every episode.

65
00:04:53.879 --> 00:05:00.300
So last week, the Federation was sort of a lot of fun camp nonsense and stuff like that.

66
00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:07.319
Yeah, yeah, you know, the week before that, the Federation and the Koza Nostra.

67
00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:08.040
Is that what they're called?

68
00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:09.899
No, they're nostra. nostra.

69
00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:10.500
Of course they are.

70
00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:11.879
Coza was last.

71
00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:21.480
You know, like every episode we see a new face or a new facet of the Federation that never really gets followed up.

72
00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:26.160
But here it is very much, you know, the British in India, isn't it?

73
00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:29.160
Yes, or maybe not India.

74
00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:36.959
Well, India and anywhere else where there was a native population that not enslaved is not the right word, but Exploited.

75
00:05:37.019 --> 00:05:55.560
Yeah, exploited, especially the idea, as you say, you know, the young Indian prince or whatever goes off to Cambridge and seems the education comes back and is has his ear whispered into by Nigel Hawthorne or someone. about how they should be doing and he's the one rather than wearing the traditional Linden costume he's wearing a suit.

76
00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:56.819
Do you know what I mean?

77
00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:57.300
Yeah.

78
00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:02.939
It's, that's why I think, you know, Rowe is wearing the, the, the purple or maroon or whatever it is.

79
00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:03.839
What colour is that?

80
00:06:03.899 --> 00:06:07.500
Yeah, it's a beautiful sort of velvety thing happening.

81
00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:09.060
Yeah, quilting.

82
00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:09.600
Quilting.

83
00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:14.160
As much as I would have loved to have seen Nigel Hawthorne in the role of the Commissar.

84
00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.740
William Squire is really good as well.

85
00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:21.240
And those 2 hander scenes between Rowe and the commissar are the best of the episode.

86
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.759
And I didn't realise he's the shadow in Armageddon.

87
00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:27.899
Which is on concurrently with this episode.

88
00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:28.860
Wow.

89
00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:32.399
So you just, it's on everything.

90
00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:33.540
He's in everything.

91
00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:35.819
And in fact, we had that last year as well, didn't we?

92
00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:40.319
Because Arctics from Spacefall and Signus Althur was concurrently in Underworld.

93
00:06:40.379 --> 00:06:42.300
Yeah, is slightly better.

94
00:06:42.540 --> 00:06:44.519
Only slightly.

95
00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:56.279
But if I can go to those scenes between the Commissar and Row, it's not just the performances which are both spectacular, it's also the way the sound is treated, it's silent and you have this lovely echo.

96
00:06:56.339 --> 00:06:58.139
It is a real sense of space.

97
00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:00.060
I don't think it's just the performances.

98
00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:04.379
I think it's the way they've made it as well, which really makes it so fantastic.

99
00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:06.720
Everything's very quiet in those things.

100
00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:07.500
Yes, quiet.

101
00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:08.100
Yes, quiet.

102
00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:21.660
We were saying this when we were doing shadow that Jonathan Wright Miller is actually a bit of a find for Blake 7 and it's such a shame he only does the 2 episodes because they're both really startlingly well directed.

103
00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:22.800
He tells stories visually.

104
00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:31.860
Those shots at the start of the episode where you have Villa and Jenna superimposed onto the Starfield just to give the idea that they're really, you know, running out of steam.

105
00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:36.120
I don't know if that was in the script or not, but it's like Kelly in shadow.

106
00:07:36.180 --> 00:07:41.519
It's a really impressive piece of visual storytelling working within the environment of the studio.

107
00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:46.560
It's a beautiful set too.

108
00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:51.300
That set where, you know, he's in a throne, like he's on a throne.

109
00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:52.680
He has a throne.

110
00:07:52.740 --> 00:07:58.560
He's the leader, but he really, really only properly becomes the leader at the, at the very end.

111
00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:02.339
It is like that TV Shakespeare thing.

112
00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:16.319
You know, Shakespeare is obsessed with the king and, you know, what the king's role is, um, and we see Rowe assume that position sort of at the at the very end.

113
00:08:16.379 --> 00:08:23.279
And maybe it's partly, you know, that Shakespearean or stagey thing too, that the set is quite modest.

114
00:08:23.339 --> 00:08:25.920
It's quite simple with that throne.

115
00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:29.160
It's quite empty and it doesn't really feel like there's a 4th wall.

116
00:08:29.220 --> 00:08:31.980
Yeah, there's only room for a throne and a couple of torture chairs.

117
00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:36.480
If you really look at it, you don't really get a sense that it's a real place.

118
00:08:36.539 --> 00:08:42.480
Yet somehow because of the performances and because of the way it's shot, you just accept it and it all, it all works consistently.

119
00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:48.299
I think consistency is something that makes these things successful and lack of consistency is often why they fail.

120
00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:49.320
That's right.

121
00:08:49.379 --> 00:08:51.480
And the location work, which is also amazing.

122
00:08:51.539 --> 00:09:02.759
It's beautifully filmed and lit with that sort of all of those high shots looking down into the gorge and the dry ice and everything, sort of feels as one with the studio sets, moving on from that as well.

123
00:09:02.820 --> 00:09:04.559
The performances are all on the same page.

124
00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:09.539
And so the director has been completely across this production, like he was in shadow, I think.

125
00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:10.740
Oh, absolutely.

126
00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:20.700
It feels like it's a planet with a proper culture and it has existed before Blake and his crew arrive and will carry on after they've gone.

127
00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:22.980
It doesn't always feel like that in Blake 7.

128
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:28.740
And also the way they've dressed the exterior with those plants to make it feel like it's a bit tropical.

129
00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:39.179
It's a bit South American and that sort of South American flavour is what informs the, you know, the tribal outfits that they're wearing at the end and the stone and everything.

130
00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:41.279
It's very, you know, misoamerica.

131
00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:43.080
Is that location work?

132
00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:44.279
The gorge?

133
00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:44.639
Yeah.

134
00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:46.620
Well, it's not in the studio.

135
00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:51.419
I thought that might have been a, you know, on film at...

136
00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:52.019
No, no, no.

137
00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:57.299
I think it's proper rock that they're chipping app. which makes a change, like in the rock chamber.

138
00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.519
Yeah, no, no, I think that's on the case.

139
00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:00.120
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

140
00:10:00.179 --> 00:10:03.480
I just think when they arrive, it didn't seem like locationate.

141
00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:06.360
The reason it doesn't seem like location is that it looks too good.

142
00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:10.679
Yeah, it doesn't look like they've gone to kind of Black Park for that.

143
00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:15.659
They found a really interesting location and dressed it well and made it look quite alien.

144
00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:27.059
So I wasn't sure whether it was night filming as well, again, because there are shots with Avon where you've got sort of daylight behind him, but as soon as you're in the mines, it all feels very dark.

145
00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:30.299
Could just be the fact that there was little natural light.

146
00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:39.120
In fact, that's why maybe it makes it feel like some of those shots, like when they arrive, that it could be a set because it does feel like it's been lit.

147
00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:47.220
And also if we think about the time of year that this would have been filmed in, they did all of the filming for the 1st 6 episodes ahead of the studios.

148
00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:51.480
And so it would have come right at the start of the production block, which would have put it like March, April.

149
00:10:51.539 --> 00:10:53.100
So not a whole lot of natural light.

150
00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:54.179
Okay, okay.

151
00:10:54.240 --> 00:11:04.379
But it's all those things on the planet where you've got the plants with the little cameras popping up and turning round all the time and the little sound effect that they make as they turn round.

152
00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.139
It's all just really yeah, really spectacular stuff.

153
00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:29.820
And I was struck particularly by a really good piece of editing, which you don't tend to get in 70s, mainly studio bound television, which is where Avon is shooting the guards, when he comes down at the end, and Blake pops out from behind something, not realising it's Avon, and Avon fires at him, and like ducks back as it explodes, and it's really tightly shot.

154
00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:30.779
It's a great moment.

155
00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.179
And then he says missed.

156
00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:38.399
So good.

157
00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:47.700
Let's go back to the beginning of the episode because the episode starts with something that I actually really like about Blake 7.

158
00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:55.919
Maybe in spite of myself. which is 10 minutes of just them in the liberator talking.

159
00:11:55.980 --> 00:12:02.100
Yeah, I think if you're doing 50 minute self-contained episodes, I think that's 10 minutes we can ill afford.

160
00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:06.240
It does take a while.

161
00:12:06.299 --> 00:12:10.799
That's my one, the one thing I don't like about the episode is it takes a little bit too long to get going.

162
00:12:10.860 --> 00:12:20.039
But you know, this is why we think of this as an ensemble show because even if you have episodes which concentrate on one or 2 characters, everyone plays a role in the group scenes and there are plenty of them.

163
00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:22.860
You know, they've all got, what, space?

164
00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:25.440
They've been in too many space crises.

165
00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:28.200
Yes, we get...

166
00:12:28.259 --> 00:12:30.720
I did Terry Nation right now.

167
00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:34.679
We're adding to the list. space crises.

168
00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:40.139
Yeah, she says, oh, yeah, we've been in space flight and space crisis for far too long.

169
00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:43.919
Here's some space adrenaline and so much.

170
00:12:43.980 --> 00:12:48.059
Okay, when I was watching this this morning, Brianton asked, when did Callie become a doctor?

171
00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:48.960
Yeah, yeah.

172
00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:50.039
Well, isn't that interesting?

173
00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:51.480
Because she's taken over Gan's role.

174
00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:54.240
Gan was the medic in series A, Nathan.

175
00:12:54.299 --> 00:12:54.659
Okay.

176
00:12:55.139 --> 00:12:58.559
And now they've given it to one of the female characters.

177
00:12:58.620 --> 00:12:59.820
I don't know.

178
00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:02.220
They only had to wait another week or 2 and she could have just taken it anyway.

179
00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:04.620
She was in preparation.

180
00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:13.379
I mean, it is a little bit sort of tragic the way that she starts as a sort of terrorist and ends up as ship's nurse.

181
00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:15.480
Like that is a bit of a shame.

182
00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:19.620
And she's got sort of much girlier hair this season as well, I think.

183
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:25.620
I think we said last week that she'd stuck ahead in the green orb at the end of the liberation and it'd come out perfectly perfect.

184
00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:39.360
But it is funny with Gan as well because I watched this out of sequence to record this and I was happily watching the episode and then suddenly old Ganza voice in the teleport room.

185
00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:41.820
Oh, yes, Gan is still...

186
00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:44.700
And then, you know, when they move location to the teleport room.

187
00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:45.899
He then goes somewhere else.

188
00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:48.720
Like it's almost like he's not where the action is.

189
00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:51.120
Well, a little bit of background on this episode.

190
00:13:51.179 --> 00:13:53.820
It was meant to come later in the season after Gan had died.

191
00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:54.419
They moved it back.

192
00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:57.720
Spoilers, Peter. time squad.

193
00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:04.860
So yes, they had to move it back and they had to put him into the episode and I think it shows.

194
00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:08.879
Ah, yeah, because he spends heaps of time unconscious strapped to something.

195
00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:20.220
But he's also bizarrely being given lessons in how to operate the teleport or something or how to repair the teleport.

196
00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:23.639
Yeah, just lessons from Aurac in general, which is just bizarre.

197
00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:24.659
What is already?

198
00:14:24.659 --> 00:14:25.200
Lessons in life.

199
00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:29.759
Well, that'll do him good for another couple of hours.

200
00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:34.080
Good luck with all that learning, Gan.

201
00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:41.519
It does give rise to one of my favourite moments, which is when Gan is in the teleport and Kelly comes in.

202
00:14:41.580 --> 00:14:52.200
And we said that Kelly's getting girlier and she is. but she's still, Jan Chappel still has this really interesting component to her performance where she doesn't react sometimes and it's totally a performance choice.

203
00:14:52.259 --> 00:14:54.000
So Gan cracks a joke.

204
00:14:54.059 --> 00:14:55.919
She says, Orac's not a great teacher.

205
00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:57.360
And he says, I'm not a great pupil.

206
00:14:57.419 --> 00:15:02.279
And before he's even finished the line, she's turned around without acknowledging these talking and walked away.

207
00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:06.059
It just, it's a really interesting choice and it reinforces that she's alien.

208
00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:07.320
Ah, yeah, okay.

209
00:15:07.379 --> 00:15:28.500
Well, I mean, for me, I think that this scene was kind of what I wanted when I was watching it as a child, and I actually have really, really strong memories, I know exactly where I was, you know, which of my parents' friends' houses we were at when I commandeered the television and we watched Horizon for the 1st time.

210
00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:30.360
I thought you were going to say you were down the mine.

211
00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:40.860
And it is just the crew interacting and, you know, seeing what they do and what their sort of days are like.

212
00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:44.820
And I just love that stuff, even though it is completely marking time.

213
00:15:44.820 --> 00:15:52.860
And, you know, they're going through the field thing and they're tired of running and all of that sort of stuff.

214
00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:53.879
Like, I love that.

215
00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:57.299
It just makes the show feel a bit lived in, I think.

216
00:15:57.419 --> 00:16:21.419
Yeah, there's some very interesting character work all the way through this episode, and it's really surprisingly for Alan Pryor, a really sparky script, so I don't know whether this is one that Chris Boucher has again had his hand in, but there's a lot of really snappy and brilliant dialogue all the way through this, and the attention to detail of all the all the characters get really good moments all the way through.

217
00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:27.480
But I think the focus is particularly on Avon this week.

218
00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:30.899
He is superbly characterised.

219
00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:31.980
Hmm.

220
00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:37.980
So this is the kind of B plot in a way.

221
00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:46.320
So we have our crew go down to Horizon, and you know, initially it's Blake and Jenna.

222
00:16:46.379 --> 00:16:57.600
And what, Blake says that he's taking Jenna because he doesn't want to leave Avon with a pilot because he suspects that Avon's going to run off.

223
00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:00.480
He's watched Signus Alfa and those tickets and the telephone.

224
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:08.279
Probably on the same screen that they watched redemption.

225
00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.660
Yeah, and and then Cali wants to go down.

226
00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:20.700
And the interaction between Avon and Callie, who I think are a great pairing.

227
00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:25.440
That's really good because he's all reason and she's all kind of intuition.

228
00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:33.480
And so that's not the focus of the Avon plot, but it is really good character work for both of them.

229
00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:40.079
It is all about Avon, that the plot, and all of his interactions with other people, reinforce his character.

230
00:17:40.140 --> 00:17:43.319
When Kelly comes to him and says, I feel that there's a problem.

231
00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:48.119
He calls her on it and says, you don't feel it, you know it because they haven't called in.

232
00:17:48.180 --> 00:17:49.019
And so...

233
00:17:49.019 --> 00:17:51.900
It's perfectly rational to feel, yes, uncomfortable.

234
00:17:51.900 --> 00:17:52.619
You've rationalised it.

235
00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:52.980
Yeah.

236
00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:56.579
And so that's that's reflecting Avon's character and setting him up for the scenes later on.

237
00:17:56.819 --> 00:18:06.599
Also, though, Callie is convinced that they're not dead and she has no reason to believe that she does simply feel it.

238
00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:18.779
And so there is this sort of thing where Ava doesn't know that they're still alive and even when he eventually goes down to the planet, he's sort of surprised to see that they're still around.

239
00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.059
Does his best to shoot Blake missed.

240
00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:26.279
And so what, Callie goes...

241
00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:29.039
Oh, what Gan goes down with...

242
00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:32.940
Written into those scenes at the last minute.

243
00:18:32.940 --> 00:18:44.039
I like the fact that they're going down in pairs or one by one down to the planet and exploring and things happen to them and on the ship they don't know what's happened.

244
00:18:44.099 --> 00:18:46.380
I think it just adds to that tension.

245
00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:57.720
It's something slightly different to what we've had before where they've gone down on the mission as a group, but we've never seen them sort of go down and investigate what's happened to the others in small, small blocks like this.

246
00:18:57.779 --> 00:18:58.319
I love that.

247
00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:12.720
That's why this episode, and I really do think it's very good. doesn't strike me as your regular Blake 7 episode and it doesn't even strike me as a particularly great example of Blake 7 because the interest in the plot is not about the crew going down and exploring.

248
00:19:12.779 --> 00:19:14.099
They actually don't do very much.

249
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:18.539
They sort of go down one by one, get picked off in the same way, one by one and end up in the mines.

250
00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:25.140
And yet it does add that kind of interesting uncertainty to it where you don't think this is going to be an episode about Blake.

251
00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:26.220
It's an episode about Rowe.

252
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:36.059
Yes, they're putting the minds as a kind of a holding pattern to sort of get rid of them while we actually have the story that we're interested in seeing, which is the one between Rowe and the Commissar.

253
00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:38.039
And yeah, that is unusual for Blake 7.

254
00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:43.259
There aren't very many episodes which are kind of more about the guest cast than they are about the regulars.

255
00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:48.119
In fact, in fact, the regular cast member who gets the most to do is Avon.

256
00:19:48.180 --> 00:19:49.559
You call it a B plot.

257
00:19:49.619 --> 00:20:03.240
In some respects, I mean, Paul Darrow makes it an A-plot. an equal A-plot because he's got, yes, and partly because the sequences where he's rationalising it all out are so beautifully played, but also because you're actually genuinely interested in what's going through his head.

258
00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:04.740
I'm not expandible.

259
00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:06.359
I'm not stupid and I'm not going.

260
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:08.400
Yes, that's brilliant.

261
00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:09.059
Oh, yeah, mine.

262
00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:10.559
Very good one.

263
00:20:10.619 --> 00:20:15.900
But it is outside the normal black 7 comfort zone, and I don't think we see anything quite like this again.

264
00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:22.200
No, and I mean, the name Alan Pryor will become synonymous with like 7 fans with fear and yawning.

265
00:20:22.259 --> 00:20:24.059
But I think...

266
00:20:24.059 --> 00:20:25.980
This is actually...

267
00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:29.880
I think this is actually a really good 1st effort.

268
00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:31.259
I don't recall those 2 episodes.

269
00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:36.779
He goes on to do hostage, the keeper, volcano and animals.

270
00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:37.799
Oh my god.

271
00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:39.539
Goodness me, that's quite a repertoire.

272
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:42.839
That's a plummet down the slope.

273
00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:45.660
Does that mean it's been saved by the director?

274
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:52.859
No, I think it's genuinely a good script and it's also light years away from the show that gave us something like Time Squad last series.

275
00:20:52.920 --> 00:21:01.079
Yeah, I mean, there's a real sort of concern to say something worthwhile politically, I think.

276
00:21:01.140 --> 00:21:04.440
I really like the scenes.

277
00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:13.740
There are 2 things that happen in the mind scenes, which are otherwise just sort of terrible. and, you know, like Michael Keating and...

278
00:21:13.740 --> 00:21:15.539
I don't need to... they both...

279
00:21:15.539 --> 00:21:17.160
Garrett Thomas's torsos.

280
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:20.940
That was unnecessary.

281
00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.460
Unfortunate, isn't it?

282
00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:26.640
Unfortunate choice.

283
00:21:26.759 --> 00:21:28.980
So like Jenna had to show her midrip.

284
00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.859
And you thought that those wings were in his costume.

285
00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:37.259
But the 2 details that I really like.

286
00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:58.200
When the other people, the primitives, stand aside to let Selma get her food first. because you do get a sense of her being important or royal or having some special status that they recognise.

287
00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:01.019
She says almost indignantly.

288
00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:02.339
I'm not one of these people.

289
00:22:03.299 --> 00:22:05.220
Yeah, incredible.

290
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:06.240
Yeah, really brilliant.

291
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:07.799
Drawing on a caste system, yeah.

292
00:22:07.859 --> 00:22:08.880
Yeah, absolutely.

293
00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:18.359
And then you get the scene where Blake stops them grabbing food and orders them to take food one at a time.

294
00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:32.579
And that's slightly awkward, I think, because, you know, this is a people where lots of white people have descended from the sky and started telling them how to run their lives and he's...

295
00:22:32.579 --> 00:22:34.740
Now, he's just going to do the same thing.

296
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:35.880
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

297
00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:37.259
But it is a character moment.

298
00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:43.259
I mean, it's clearly intended as a character moment because Blake is interested in fairness.

299
00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:50.940
He has, you know, a political goal that is to do with, you know, fairness and equality and stuff like that.

300
00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:55.859
And so I think that's actually quite a good character beat, even though it is slightly awkward.

301
00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:57.539
It would have been lovely if she'd have done it.

302
00:22:57.900 --> 00:22:59.279
Yeah.

303
00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:00.420
That would have been a better choice.

304
00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:01.019
Yeah.

305
00:23:01.079 --> 00:23:02.880
Or even just one of the other characters.

306
00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:04.740
One of the other regulars might have been nice.

307
00:23:04.859 --> 00:23:11.579
No, it's still the thing what Nathan was saying is someone coming from off-world and telling you how to, you know, run your mind.

308
00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:16.019
But also it's consistent because Blake loves nothing better than to tell everyone what to do.

309
00:23:32.339 --> 00:23:35.880
So when Callie finally goes down.

310
00:23:35.940 --> 00:23:45.599
So she's the 3rd kind of landing party, I guess, and she's going down because she's discovered something, and we don't find out what it is, do we?

311
00:23:45.660 --> 00:23:49.380
It's something written on some cellophane or something.

312
00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:50.819
That's right.

313
00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:55.380
She says it's something which Aurak has dug up, but she doesn't tell you what that is when she's on the ship.

314
00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:55.980
Yeah.

315
00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:56.640
Yeah.

316
00:23:56.700 --> 00:23:59.039
And so we get a rare moment.

317
00:23:59.099 --> 00:24:06.240
And again, watching this as a child, you are always desperate. for Callie to do some telepathy, I think.

318
00:24:06.299 --> 00:24:09.839
And it's really, really well used here.

319
00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:26.940
So she's strapped to the chair, you know, the torturing chair and she warns Roe in a way that the commissar can't hear that the commissar killed Roe's father and that he will kill Roe if he has to.

320
00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:29.819
And I think it's really, really terrific.

321
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:42.599
And one of the things that's terrific about it is, it's the 1st indication, I think, that Roe values his own culture because he recognises her as a mystic.

322
00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:56.339
And although the commissar is dismissive of this as sort of superstition and as a sort of throwback to his own sort of primitive culture.

323
00:24:56.400 --> 00:25:01.980
He doesn't push back, you know, like he demands that she's treated properly and so on.

324
00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:23.460
I do wonder whether it's a nice character beat as well for Cali, where she works out that she can use her telepathy because she's got a glimpse of this civilisation so she could use that in a really interesting way to make her point in a way that maybe she wouldn't just as an alien teleporting down onto the planet.

325
00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:33.420
She really utilises her skills sort of very cleverly, the way she's sort of saying, oh, Movo knew you for what you were and things like that.

326
00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.799
She's, yeah, she's, it's really phenomenal, it's a great bit of character writing again.

327
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:39.779
Yeah, she's smart.

328
00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:54.059
She does exactly the same thing that Blake does because Blake uses the story of poorer, and I really like the kind of the slightly muddy storytelling where, like, we were talking about with Callie on board on the liberator having the information, but us not being party to it yet.

329
00:25:54.119 --> 00:26:00.960
We didn't see Pora in Space 4, and I went back and had a look and there was no one who looked like they came from Horizon on London.

330
00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:05.039
But it's a really interesting backstory which has been woven in.

331
00:26:05.099 --> 00:26:12.539
And I think coming from a writer who was not a regular writer from the series, that's intriguing, because he's obviously watched it and worked that in.

332
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:17.700
And so Kelly hits upon the same strategy as Blake. she's got a couple more tools in her toolbox.

333
00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:21.720
I did think that the poorer thing was just a little bit too convenient.

334
00:26:21.779 --> 00:26:24.180
Yes, I thought so too.

335
00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:34.920
And I'm wondering whether that's a grafting on, given the fact that, I mean, I know Blake says Horizon at the beginning when, you know, Zen or whoever it is announces the planet.

336
00:26:34.980 --> 00:26:38.819
He does say it in an interesting way, as if that's familiar.

337
00:26:38.940 --> 00:26:43.079
But then I think there's too much of a leap to when he's telling them about poorer later.

338
00:26:43.140 --> 00:26:46.259
There needed to be something to bridge those 2 things together.

339
00:26:46.619 --> 00:26:47.940
Yeah.

340
00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:58.440
Like he maybe needed to tell one of the crew something rather than just telling Rowe for the 1st time because it just seems a little bit too convenient.

341
00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:00.660
Even something like what I'm saying, you've heard of it?

342
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:01.559
Possibly.

343
00:27:01.619 --> 00:27:02.759
Or something.

344
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:05.220
There just needed to be something to make it look like.

345
00:27:05.339 --> 00:27:05.940
Yeah.

346
00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:09.960
Perhaps you could have just said, oh, it bobbed back into my memory.

347
00:27:11.640 --> 00:27:13.680
Yeah, yeah.

348
00:27:13.859 --> 00:27:16.019
You're coming back to me. yeah.

349
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:19.079
If only they hadn't cast Tom Kelly as Nova.

350
00:27:19.140 --> 00:27:20.039
They could referred to him.

351
00:27:20.099 --> 00:27:24.000
Yes, Nova told us all about it, and then he died of shaving foam.

352
00:27:24.180 --> 00:27:26.279
It would have been quite a movement.

353
00:27:26.339 --> 00:27:33.299
It would have been a nice conversation for him and Jenna to have when they're coming down to the planet because they were both on the ship.

354
00:27:33.299 --> 00:27:35.940
And it could have said, oh, do you remember?

355
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:37.920
Yeah, I've got this feeling about, yeah.

356
00:27:37.980 --> 00:27:41.640
Yeah, yeah, yeah. that's right Blake wasn't the only one on the London.

357
00:27:41.700 --> 00:27:42.359
No.

358
00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:44.220
We see the London.

359
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:48.299
Do we have a sort of spot the London segment in...

360
00:27:48.299 --> 00:27:50.099
We should do because we'll be seeing it again.

361
00:27:51.180 --> 00:27:53.400
I thought I recognised it.

362
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:09.660
So we get this sort of backstory that kind of is gradually revealed that basically the commissar has killed everyone that Roe has ever kind of spoken to or loved or anything.

363
00:28:09.720 --> 00:28:10.920
You know, his best friend, his dad.

364
00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:13.140
He wasn't iClaudius.

365
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:19.200
Used to it. cynically, cynically installed himself as a father figure.

366
00:28:19.259 --> 00:28:19.980
Yeah, yeah.

367
00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:21.359
Absolutely. yeah.

368
00:28:21.420 --> 00:28:25.680
He sent his girlfriend to the mines because she's obviously a danger to him as well.

369
00:28:25.740 --> 00:28:39.299
Anything that is going to corrupt his federation view of the world is quietly removed. there's that chilling moment, isn't there, where the commissar turns to his aid and says he's not the man his father was.

370
00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:44.819
Yeah, isn't that aide played well as well by Brian Miller.

371
00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:47.039
Yeah, Mr. Elizabeth, yeah.

372
00:28:47.099 --> 00:28:54.240
In a very sort of in not a very minor role, but a role without many lines, but he's really on board with everyone else in making those scenes work.

373
00:28:54.299 --> 00:28:55.859
Yeah, not hamming it up.

374
00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:56.819
No, not at all.

375
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:02.039
It is kind of lack of draft ISIS with that discussion of poorer.

376
00:29:02.099 --> 00:29:13.680
It's like they suddenly decided they needed something to make that scene work so that Roe would start to believe Blake and the others that his future is not safe there, that he is in danger from the commissar.

377
00:29:13.740 --> 00:29:22.740
And so I think the, so I think that poorer story is kind of just laid in there and then they don't worry about going back and fixing it elsewhere.

378
00:29:22.859 --> 00:29:23.640
Do you know what I mean?

379
00:29:23.700 --> 00:29:26.039
They drop it into that scene to make that scene work.

380
00:29:26.099 --> 00:29:27.960
I think, if you know what I mean.

381
00:29:28.019 --> 00:29:28.740
Yeah, yeah.

382
00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:42.299
The fact the fact that both Callie and Blake have different news that they've got from different sources that's directly relevant to Rowe is a little bit of a coincidence and it doesn't quite work.

383
00:29:42.359 --> 00:30:02.279
And I kind of think the fact that Roe really kind of has his change of heart when his life is being threatened, that's not as good a reason as perhaps in realising that his, you know, the population of the planet is slowly kind of being killed and stuff.

384
00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.480
I have a similar, but slightly different reading of it.

385
00:30:06.539 --> 00:30:09.960
And I think it's, it is a more realistic.

386
00:30:10.019 --> 00:30:18.000
I think they are trying to do it relatively realistically because it's quite clear all the way through that Roe is uncomfortable with what's going on.

387
00:30:18.059 --> 00:30:23.279
You know, he doesn't like all the things he's having to do, but he sort of talks himself into doing it.

388
00:30:23.339 --> 00:30:28.619
So it's just the fact that but he keeps doing it, I think.

389
00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:39.000
Well, there's a sense I get the sense that he's still playing along because he can't see another way out because he doesn't want, you know, the population to be wiped out or he doesn't want even more enslaved.

390
00:30:39.059 --> 00:30:40.019
He doesn't want thing to get worse.

391
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.240
Kind of like, you know, what's his face in Day of the Daleks.

392
00:30:42.299 --> 00:30:47.579
He sort of has this view that I'm saving my people from what could be a worse fate.

393
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:55.079
And it's when he finds out that his life is under immediate threat that he realises, well, what am I really doing that for?

394
00:30:55.140 --> 00:30:57.720
There's no point because they're going to get me in the end anyway.

395
00:30:57.779 --> 00:30:58.319
Yeah, yeah.

396
00:30:58.319 --> 00:30:58.920
Do you know what I mean?

397
00:30:58.980 --> 00:31:00.839
And if I'm not here, they're going to get my people.

398
00:31:00.900 --> 00:31:01.920
Yeah, exactly.

399
00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:03.000
And if I'm not him, yeah.

400
00:31:03.059 --> 00:31:03.240
Yeah.

401
00:31:03.299 --> 00:31:08.579
So I don't think it's as heartless as it's only when his life's under threat, only then will he act.

402
00:31:08.700 --> 00:31:12.240
I think that's just when the penny drops that there is no other way out.

403
00:31:12.299 --> 00:31:22.500
Or it's worth it's worth the risk of killing them, of getting rid of the federation. because it's going to happen anyway. where, you know, my people could be killed anyway.

404
00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:46.200
It kind of happened simultaneously in the storytelling that Roe loses his faith in the commissar, and it sort of chipped away out all through the episode, but there is that moment around about the same time where I can't remember the line, but the commissar says something and all over Rose Face, a great moment from Darian Angardi is just hurt and betrayal that the commissar was thinking of taking this course of action.

405
00:31:46.259 --> 00:31:51.059
And I think that's the point where he realises this wasn't the man he thought he was.

406
00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:55.019
And so the Federation is not the future he thought it was for his planet.

407
00:31:55.140 --> 00:31:58.559
It's also that thing, the colonialism thing.

408
00:31:58.619 --> 00:32:11.339
I mean, there's that altruistic part of it where you're trying to, you might be absolutely trying to bring a better life to, you know, the people you're colonising or, you know, you want them to have, you know, better healthcare, better education, all these sorts of things.

409
00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:18.839
And so I think Roe sees that in the Federation, that opportunity because he does acknowledge that his people are, you know, very primitive.

410
00:32:18.900 --> 00:32:21.359
They don't have all of those things.

411
00:32:21.420 --> 00:32:23.759
And I think that's why he's conflicted by it.

412
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:31.019
It's funny how little the Federation gets compared to the British Empire.

413
00:32:31.079 --> 00:32:34.200
Like it doesn't happen all that often, does it?

414
00:32:34.259 --> 00:32:38.519
The only analogue I can think of is in traitor.

415
00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:40.920
Traitor is the other one, really, isn't it?

416
00:32:40.980 --> 00:32:42.420
Where they're very colonial.

417
00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:49.859
The way the Federation leadership team are behaving is, yeah, incredibly colonial, isn't it?

418
00:32:49.980 --> 00:32:50.400
Yeah.

419
00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:55.980
And of course, that's the only federation-based episode that Robert Holmes writes and he was always going to look at it through that lens.

420
00:32:56.039 --> 00:33:01.500
Yeah, of course, because he has a problem with the aesthetics of colonialism, I think.

421
00:33:01.559 --> 00:33:04.079
He thinks colonialism is ridiculous.

422
00:33:04.140 --> 00:33:10.079
And so he makes ridiculous federation officers in that episode.

423
00:33:10.140 --> 00:33:21.779
But it is played very straight, and it is interesting, I think, because we see so many different sides of the Federation, and we see it.

424
00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:31.019
They never attempt to pin down what the world is like in Blake 7, I think.

425
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:37.380
I don't think the federation that you see in the way back is ever seen again.

426
00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:43.799
I don't think, you know, the federation that was depicted in shadow we ever see again.

427
00:33:43.859 --> 00:33:57.900
I think it is really striking how the show doesn't want to create a consistent world and it doesn't want to tie anyone down to writing the show in a particular way.

428
00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:00.779
I don't think, though, that it's because they don't want to.

429
00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:03.119
I just think it's because they just don't.

430
00:34:03.180 --> 00:34:17.579
No, I think there is a difference because, you know, in the modern era, you know, there are these 87 volume Bibles that the showrunners put together to make sure that the universe that they're creating is entirely consistent from episode to episode.

431
00:34:17.639 --> 00:34:19.739
Back in those days, they didn't do that.

432
00:34:19.800 --> 00:34:21.599
They just kind of made it up as they went along.

433
00:34:21.659 --> 00:34:24.659
So different writers had different ideas of what the Federation was.

434
00:34:24.780 --> 00:34:34.679
So Terry Nation will be portraying it as Nazism and Alan Pry, he is portraying it like the British Empire and then Robert Holmes does a different kind of British empire. know what I mean?

435
00:34:34.739 --> 00:34:38.340
And so, but I don't think they think about that is the thing.

436
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:40.559
I think you're giving them too much credit by saying that they don't want to.

437
00:34:40.619 --> 00:34:41.639
Maybe you're right.

438
00:34:41.699 --> 00:34:43.199
I do love it though.

439
00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:48.000
I mean, I love that this every episode is like a little corner of the universe.

440
00:34:49.139 --> 00:34:50.760
Oh, yeah, I'm not saying it's bad.

441
00:34:50.820 --> 00:34:54.300
I actually like it because it means you can imagine so many more possibilities.

442
00:34:54.360 --> 00:34:56.940
And you can experience so many more little facets.

443
00:34:56.940 --> 00:35:14.880
And I don't care whether this doesn't quite fit in with that bit over there and this bit here because you can kind of, if you really want to, you can sort of create a little bit of head cannon and make it work because audiences in the late 1970s are seeing these once. and they're not given the opportunity to worry about that sort of thing.

444
00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:25.260
I always think of the Federation as sort of this multi-stranded thing where there's all different bits doing different things, but they're not talking to each other because of bureaucracy.

445
00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:26.699
And so...

446
00:35:26.699 --> 00:35:27.539
Star one broke down.

447
00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:28.619
Yeah, exactly.

448
00:35:28.679 --> 00:35:34.320
But you've got the strand of the Federation that is trying to leap into the next galaxy to take that over.

449
00:35:34.380 --> 00:35:36.960
You've got the military bit that is trying to chase Blake.

450
00:35:37.019 --> 00:35:40.679
You've got the administration on earth keeping the populace drugs.

451
00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:48.599
And because it's so big and unwieldy because they've got such a huge empire, there's no way you could keep all of those strands all consistent.

452
00:35:48.659 --> 00:35:50.940
It feels quite real in that way, I think.

453
00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:55.619
I really like the messages that the Commissar sends out.

454
00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:01.260
You know, that he sends a message to Flotilla 9 or whatever, Flotilla 13.

455
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:02.880
Isn't Flutilla 13?

456
00:36:02.940 --> 00:36:03.599
I may be wrong on this.

457
00:36:03.659 --> 00:36:07.800
The same flotilla that is sent by Servoland to intercept the aliens in Star one.

458
00:36:07.860 --> 00:36:09.960
Yeah, well, they only have one flotilla.

459
00:36:10.019 --> 00:36:12.780
They do call it 13, so it seems like.

460
00:36:12.780 --> 00:36:14.280
There's a lot of them.

461
00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:18.659
It's like when they talk about the 5th quadrant, I have that.

462
00:36:24.119 --> 00:36:25.500
Yeah.

463
00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:28.860
So there's there are distance away.

464
00:36:28.920 --> 00:36:35.820
And this sort of weird thing where the assistant commissar has never heard of Blake, like just doesn't know about him at all.

465
00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:40.380
But the commissant does.

466
00:36:40.440 --> 00:36:46.679
And, you know, he sends a message to the flotilla, but the flotilla can't tell anyone because they're too distant.

467
00:36:46.739 --> 00:36:53.280
And it really kind of sells the idea that this is a strange outpost in the middle of nowhere.

468
00:36:53.340 --> 00:37:02.099
Yes, we forget the idea that the Liberator is so well connected because of Aurak, whereas I think the idea is that the Federation is not well connected with itself.

469
00:37:02.219 --> 00:37:07.559
It's like sending messages by pigeon and horseback and all of that.

470
00:37:07.619 --> 00:37:15.059
It's that old communication thing that it's going to take days to get a message back to London about what's going on and then days to get the message back.

471
00:37:15.239 --> 00:37:16.679
Yeah.

472
00:37:16.739 --> 00:37:19.559
Yeah, days to get a message from the London to London.

473
00:37:19.619 --> 00:37:23.280
Yes. to London on the London.

474
00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:30.000
I really like the fact that there's the 4 iterations of the Federation just in consecutive episodes here.

475
00:37:30.059 --> 00:37:35.159
So in Weapon, it was all about Servlan and Travis, and that's operatic villainy.

476
00:37:35.219 --> 00:37:37.980
That's sort of, you know, the Federation is the big bad.

477
00:37:38.039 --> 00:37:45.420
In pressure point, we'll return to Earth and we'll see more of kind of the Earth side of the administration. faceless one.

478
00:37:45.420 --> 00:37:46.019
That's right.

479
00:37:46.079 --> 00:37:48.300
In trial, following that.

480
00:37:48.360 --> 00:37:50.880
We'll see kind of the more noble side.

481
00:37:50.940 --> 00:37:58.860
So there's a suggestion that there's officers who are trying to do their best for their men and who are following procedures and putting people on trial, not just saying eliminate them.

482
00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:15.599
And in this episode, it's the banality of evil, because so much of what the Commissar and the Assistant Commissar talk about is kind of, you know, toying with people's lives and sort of smirking over things behind Rose Back and, you know, having knocked off his father and stuff like that.

483
00:38:15.659 --> 00:38:18.659
And to them, it's just a day's work in advancing the cause.

484
00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:20.699
Yeah, yeah.

485
00:38:20.760 --> 00:38:24.239
I think that the Commissar is astonishingly evil.

486
00:38:24.300 --> 00:38:29.340
Like he's an amazingly good villain, but he underplays it.

487
00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:33.239
You know, he's got a very sort of posh accent which he needs to have.

488
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.579
Yeah, he wouldn't have been allowed on tailing otherwise.

489
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:40.619
1979.

490
00:38:40.800 --> 00:38:46.139
But yeah, William Squire had done a kind of similar role in Callen.

491
00:38:46.199 --> 00:38:56.219
He was one of the hunters in Callen, and he'd been the slightly bureaucratic leader who'd sent Callen on his missions and it's a very similar thing.

492
00:38:56.280 --> 00:39:00.659
He's doing things behind the scenes that you're not quite sure of, his motives all the time.

493
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:05.579
So it's a good piece of casting sort of from television history, I think.

494
00:39:05.639 --> 00:39:06.599
So...

495
00:39:06.659 --> 00:39:14.519
He did seem very familiar, but then when I looked up that he was the shadow in the Armageddon factor, you can just see it, even though you can only...

496
00:39:14.579 --> 00:39:16.739
Although you don't get the laugh, unfortunately, in this one.

497
00:39:17.460 --> 00:39:20.099
He's hamming it up somewhat more.

498
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:20.820
Yeah he is.

499
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:22.260
He's got a great voice, though.

500
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:23.820
I mean, it really is.

501
00:39:23.820 --> 00:39:24.719
He's very distinctive.

502
00:39:24.780 --> 00:39:26.400
Yeah, it's a great performance.

503
00:39:29.460 --> 00:39:35.519
So let's talk about the way that the 2 plots dovetail and kind of resolve themselves.

504
00:39:35.579 --> 00:39:41.579
So we mentioned Flotilla 13 before, and Avon has done the calculations, hasn't he?

505
00:39:41.639 --> 00:39:42.960
That he doesn't need them.

506
00:39:43.019 --> 00:39:44.940
He can fly around in the spaceship.

507
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:47.940
He can put a new outfit on every few hours.

508
00:39:47.940 --> 00:39:53.460
He can roll around naked in jewels.

509
00:39:53.519 --> 00:39:55.199
He's got enough food for a 1000 years.

510
00:39:55.260 --> 00:39:56.880
Enough.

511
00:39:56.880 --> 00:39:58.619
It's a size series.

512
00:39:58.679 --> 00:39:59.639
It doesn't sound very appetising.

513
00:39:59.699 --> 00:40:01.380
By series D, you will have eaten most of it.

514
00:40:03.059 --> 00:40:06.900
It's all impossible burgers, I think.

515
00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:21.599
That's probably what it means So he's done the calculation that the only thing that he can't withstand, you know, on his own without the other people around is an attack by 3 pursuit ships.

516
00:40:21.659 --> 00:40:22.679
It always 3 pursuit ships.

517
00:40:22.739 --> 00:40:24.539
It is, yeah, it's the stock footage.

518
00:40:24.599 --> 00:40:26.699
You should have given up then and there.

519
00:40:26.940 --> 00:40:29.579
She said 3 words. always got to be three.

520
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:36.119
Well, one of the things that I thought was, when we hear about Flotilla 13, they're still...

521
00:40:37.260 --> 00:40:41.280
When we hear about Flotilla 13, they're still 2 hours away.

522
00:40:41.340 --> 00:40:44.400
So I'm not quite sure why he just doesn't decide to fuck off at that point.

523
00:40:44.460 --> 00:40:47.460
You know, it's just like, all right, they're here in 2 hours. going to go.

524
00:40:47.519 --> 00:41:02.519
But instead, and I think it's really wonderful, is he's amused by the fact that he's kind of been outmanoeuvred by fate and he just goes down to rescue them.

525
00:41:02.579 --> 00:41:05.159
And the thing...

526
00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:06.900
It's so good.

527
00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:11.579
There's that interplay between him and Aurak too, about questions.

528
00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:13.500
You know, I didn't ask a question.

529
00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:14.340
That wasn't a question.

530
00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:15.119
Is that a question?

531
00:41:15.179 --> 00:41:17.460
And that's really properly funny.

532
00:41:17.519 --> 00:41:21.179
And, you know, it's just even talking to a box of flashing lies.

533
00:41:21.239 --> 00:41:22.800
Look at it.

534
00:41:23.820 --> 00:41:28.679
It's so much fun and he's really, really good in it.

535
00:41:28.739 --> 00:41:35.099
I'd almost be prepared to just watch the version of the show where he left all those bozos down.

536
00:41:36.179 --> 00:41:38.159
Avons won.

537
00:41:38.219 --> 00:41:40.440
It talks to TVs.

538
00:41:40.500 --> 00:41:42.239
Yeah, absolutely.

539
00:41:42.300 --> 00:41:43.739
It's really nice.

540
00:41:43.800 --> 00:41:56.699
I really love that it establishes that relationship that we'll get now through the rest of the series between Avon and Aurak, which we haven't seen before, and all those interactions between the 2 of them trying to outsmart each other.

541
00:41:56.760 --> 00:41:59.159
It's just fantastic stuff.

542
00:41:59.219 --> 00:42:01.079
It's really good, isn't it?

543
00:42:01.139 --> 00:42:07.679
And then he goes down and just shows that he is the most competent person on the crew, like the rest.

544
00:42:07.739 --> 00:42:15.539
So why haven't they worked that out when, you know, Gan and Villa go down and when Callie goes down to take the little zappy thing to neutralise the...

545
00:42:15.539 --> 00:42:16.619
Yeah, no, they're useless.

546
00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:20.219
I couldn't quite, I shouldn't rewound.

547
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:22.500
I couldn't quite understand when he got down there.

548
00:42:22.559 --> 00:42:23.880
He's like, well, how did he know to do that?

549
00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:29.159
But Aura, he got Aurak to do a bit more digging about what was on the planet, hadn't he?

550
00:42:29.219 --> 00:42:31.019
I think that was what sort of the implication.

551
00:42:31.079 --> 00:42:32.400
Yeah, but that's my point, I suppose.

552
00:42:32.460 --> 00:42:34.860
It was like, well, why didn't the others do a bit more digging before?

553
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:36.719
Because they're not as small.

554
00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:37.619
Comrades had been killed.

555
00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:41.400
Because they're not as smart and cool as Avon is.

556
00:42:41.460 --> 00:42:42.480
That's the thing.

557
00:42:42.599 --> 00:42:43.619
I entirely agree with her.

558
00:42:43.679 --> 00:42:44.760
Avon was prepared.

559
00:42:44.820 --> 00:42:45.719
He'd done more digging.

560
00:42:45.780 --> 00:42:51.239
So if he got captured by row, he could have told another story to row, which would have moved him a bit further along.

561
00:42:51.300 --> 00:42:52.980
That's right.

562
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:54.480
The commissar killed your dog.

563
00:42:56.940 --> 00:43:00.599
You wouldn't find Paul Darrow in a mine without his shirt on.

564
00:43:00.659 --> 00:43:01.679
No thank God for that.

565
00:43:01.739 --> 00:43:08.219
But you also get that great bit where we talked about where Avon almost shoots Blake.

566
00:43:08.280 --> 00:43:14.760
And again, he does the thing that he does in Aurak, where you've got the very blank face that you can project anything onto.

567
00:43:14.820 --> 00:43:19.739
So you can see whether he's really thinking that he's going to kill Blake or not.

568
00:43:19.800 --> 00:43:22.980
It's such a great performance again from Paul Darrow.

569
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:23.699
It's so good.

570
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:27.900
I like to think the fact that he almost hit Blake is just amusing to him.

571
00:43:27.960 --> 00:43:29.579
Oh, well.

572
00:43:30.539 --> 00:43:37.619
Well, in the same way that sort of discovering that he actually needs the others is amusing to him as well.

573
00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:42.179
And so he goes down, he shoots 4 guards and doesn't miss anyone.

574
00:43:42.239 --> 00:43:44.400
He blows up a whole bunch of cameras.

575
00:43:44.460 --> 00:43:47.159
He really is so much better than anyone.

576
00:43:49.019 --> 00:43:53.340
It's what you were saying earlier, Simon, about the soundscape in this episode.

577
00:43:53.400 --> 00:43:58.139
The location filming has really good sound, like episodes like Terminal Will later on.

578
00:43:58.199 --> 00:44:03.239
And all of those shots from Avon's gun have this echo to them which make those scenes really effective.

579
00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:05.880
Yeah, that really helps.

580
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:15.539
Even the way it's shot too, that we just sort of, it's quite quick cutting for Blake 7, which tends to be directed in a more stately way, I think.

581
00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:18.539
This is the antidote, pennant Robert Sitis.

582
00:44:18.840 --> 00:44:21.539
I think I think I think you're absolutely right.

583
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:22.380
Exactly right.

584
00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.260
Because if Penet Roberts was doing this episode, it would be very dull.

585
00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:26.760
Very dull.

586
00:44:26.820 --> 00:44:28.619
It would be dull.

587
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:40.860
So let's then talk briefly about that final confrontation between Rowe and the commissar that wraps up the A plot.

588
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:43.079
He comes in with his shirt off as well.

589
00:44:43.139 --> 00:44:46.199
He does rather. don't mind that scene at all.

590
00:44:46.559 --> 00:44:48.420
More of that, please.

591
00:44:49.139 --> 00:44:58.619
I mean, Blake 7 is not known for its hotness, but on the on the Blake 7 scale of hotness from Agrarian through to Nova.

592
00:44:59.579 --> 00:45:02.280
I think Row ranks quite highly.

593
00:45:02.340 --> 00:45:02.699
Yeah.

594
00:45:02.760 --> 00:45:06.900
Yeah. he's got beautiful eyes Very extraordinary eyes.

595
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:07.320
Yeah.

596
00:45:07.380 --> 00:45:08.519
And so expressive.

597
00:45:08.579 --> 00:45:09.719
There's so much going on in there.

598
00:45:09.780 --> 00:45:11.099
The eyes are acting as well.

599
00:45:11.159 --> 00:45:12.840
Yeah, he's he's really good.

600
00:45:12.900 --> 00:45:26.940
And then just when he comes in. and he is in this tribal thing where he's completely rejected the federation and the wonderful blow dart that he just kills him with.

601
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:27.840
It's so wonderful.

602
00:45:27.900 --> 00:45:28.559
Very slowly.

603
00:45:28.619 --> 00:45:30.300
So you think the commissary would be able to get out of the way.

604
00:45:30.360 --> 00:45:34.920
Ah, well, I'm so surprised that they're blaring that ceremonial garb.

605
00:45:34.980 --> 00:45:36.119
Yeah, yeah, that's it.

606
00:45:36.179 --> 00:45:41.340
Or by his chest hair. can't take his eyes off for his chest hair and doesn't notice.

607
00:45:41.400 --> 00:45:46.860
One of the things we didn't mention before because the blow things are established, aren't they?

608
00:45:46.920 --> 00:45:54.239
Because, you know, we have federation guns, but I guess they don't have a stun setting and so we want to stun them and so we use the blow darts.

609
00:45:54.360 --> 00:46:03.480
But the moment where Villa gets shot with the blow dart and he just sees it in his chest and goes, It's so funny.

610
00:46:03.719 --> 00:46:05.219
So great.

611
00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:06.539
Oh my god.

612
00:46:06.599 --> 00:46:13.679
I really like when Jenna gets done with the blow dart in the back because she does this really great fall into the camera.

613
00:46:13.739 --> 00:46:14.579
It's quite impressive.

614
00:46:14.940 --> 00:46:18.059
And of course, you need to take Gan down.

615
00:46:18.119 --> 00:46:18.840
Yes, yeah.

616
00:46:19.679 --> 00:46:22.440
But no, I really love the way going back to the execution scene.

617
00:46:22.500 --> 00:46:30.119
I really love the fact that, you know, just the way he delivers that line when he comes over and says, it's the, it's the death serum.

618
00:46:30.179 --> 00:46:34.500
You're going to die and it's completely calm sort of rational way. very nice.

619
00:46:34.559 --> 00:46:35.940
So well.

620
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:36.659
Oh, he's so good.

621
00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:40.739
Yeah, and that scene is shot really well because it's all done in close-ups.

622
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:42.539
There's no wide shot in that scene.

623
00:46:42.599 --> 00:46:50.340
So when Blake teleports down, big close-up on him, big close-up on the assistant commissar being shot, close-up on row coming in.

624
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:53.460
So you can only sort of see from basically his nipples upwards.

625
00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:57.599
And then a close-up of the commissar being shot with the dart.

626
00:46:57.659 --> 00:46:59.159
It's really very effective and taut.

627
00:46:59.940 --> 00:47:05.519
But I think, because the director knows that if you did all that in Longshaw, it just doesn't look like anything.

628
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:06.480
It looks boring.

629
00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:11.880
You do all that, because it's a very simple, quiet act of shooting someone with a dart.

630
00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:22.559
It's a really impressive shot when Roe does enter in the headgear because you know exactly what's going to happen and it rounds off that A plot in the episode really nicely, visually.

631
00:47:22.679 --> 00:47:23.460
Yeah.

632
00:47:23.519 --> 00:47:26.940
Yeah, I mean, it had the potential to look silly, didn't it?

633
00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:35.099
Um, because it's, you know, uh, traditional costume designed by the BBC and it could have looked ridiculous, but it doesn't.

634
00:47:35.159 --> 00:47:38.219
He looks really impressive, I think.

635
00:47:38.280 --> 00:47:41.639
I'm very surprised that Romana wasn't wearing it in Megloss.

636
00:47:43.920 --> 00:47:52.380
I love the bit where Blake says, oh, still Horizon, and he says, we can't go back to the whole of the past.

637
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:53.699
We've got to keep moving.

638
00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:59.400
So they're reimbracing their past, but only sort of within reason, within certain parameters.

639
00:47:59.460 --> 00:48:01.800
He is going to move this planet on.

640
00:48:01.860 --> 00:48:04.679
Yeah, he's embracing their culture.

641
00:48:04.739 --> 00:48:06.840
He's not rejecting the culture.

642
00:48:06.900 --> 00:48:08.940
He's embracing the culture, but he's not rejecting the future.

643
00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:12.059
Yeah, embracing the past has not been rejecting the future.

644
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:13.440
I think that was quite a nice little message.

645
00:48:13.559 --> 00:48:19.260
It's another planet where Blake says, you know, I'll check in and see how you're going.

646
00:48:20.579 --> 00:48:22.739
No, that'll have been an annihilated.

647
00:48:23.099 --> 00:48:30.719
The next fleet of spaceships come back. to defend themselves with darts, for God's sake.

648
00:48:30.780 --> 00:48:38.039
I do think it's the most beautifully named planet in Blake 7, not Horizon, but Sil Marino, which is the original title.

649
00:48:38.039 --> 00:48:41.579
And I just, the ages sat there thinking, what does that remind me of?

650
00:48:41.579 --> 00:48:43.500
Sil Marino, Sil Marillion.

651
00:48:43.559 --> 00:48:44.159
Yeah, yeah.

652
00:48:44.460 --> 00:48:51.900
And then, of course, it's one of those Blake 7 episodes that ends with a joke. beats work.

653
00:48:53.039 --> 00:49:02.099
So Villa Villa, earlier on when he gets told he's going to be put to work, goes work as if he doesn't know what that is.

654
00:49:02.159 --> 00:49:04.079
And then he's been working.

655
00:49:04.199 --> 00:49:09.960
And then they all come back up and they all have a shower before going down. apart from him.

656
00:49:10.320 --> 00:49:15.059
He's got into a fresh new uniform, but hasn't washed his face.

657
00:49:15.179 --> 00:49:21.420
Jen is still in her grubby uniform, which I like to think is why she's in such a bad mood throughout the whole episode.

658
00:49:22.199 --> 00:49:28.679
Although that explains because Blake was the only one who had time to shower and he was hogging it for the rest of them.

659
00:49:29.219 --> 00:49:32.219
Yeah, he'd used all the hot water, hadn't he?

660
00:49:32.760 --> 00:49:37.619
That shower is placed right next to the telepath section on the floor.

661
00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:42.659
Yes, they may have a 1000 years of food that they only have...

662
00:49:42.719 --> 00:49:45.539
You would have thought Aurak would mention that actually earlier.

663
00:49:46.139 --> 00:49:47.639
Section leader Clegg in the future.

664
00:49:47.699 --> 00:49:48.840
So, did you check the shower?

665
00:49:50.460 --> 00:49:54.659
No, I can imagine that, you know, Row and his girlfriend.

666
00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:55.199
I can't remember.

667
00:49:55.260 --> 00:49:55.980
Who's your girlfriend's name?

668
00:49:56.039 --> 00:49:56.460
Selma.

669
00:49:56.460 --> 00:49:56.880
Selma.

670
00:49:56.940 --> 00:49:59.460
Row and Selma are able to Selma?

671
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:00.420
Selma.

672
00:50:00.420 --> 00:50:01.019
Selma.

673
00:50:01.019 --> 00:50:01.800
Selma.

674
00:50:01.860 --> 00:50:09.539
I like to think that afterwards, Row and Silma are able to, you know, sell this, uh, Monopeys him 239 or whatever it is.

675
00:50:09.539 --> 00:50:12.480
Yeah. at a fair price, you know, 20 credits per unit or whatever.

676
00:50:12.539 --> 00:50:13.079
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

677
00:50:13.139 --> 00:50:17.579
And, and, and they all, they'll, uh, heavily ever after, but I suspect no, they get shot.

678
00:50:17.699 --> 00:50:18.719
Yeah, probably.

679
00:50:18.719 --> 00:50:21.780
Well, maybe when the aliens invade at the end of the series.

680
00:50:21.840 --> 00:50:24.300
Oh, yes, yes, yeah. the 1st victim Star Wars.

681
00:50:24.360 --> 00:50:26.400
Or maybe maybe that's all happening in the other spiral.

682
00:50:26.460 --> 00:50:27.659
The other spiral.

683
00:50:28.619 --> 00:50:30.719
A little noose as well.

684
00:50:30.780 --> 00:50:32.760
I'm not sure how to say the actress's name.

685
00:50:32.820 --> 00:50:34.320
I think it's Suard for us.

686
00:50:34.380 --> 00:50:37.679
A little note for her performance as well because she doesn't have many scenes.

687
00:50:37.739 --> 00:50:41.639
She doesn't have any lines, but she really lends a lot to that role, I think.

688
00:50:41.699 --> 00:50:42.300
Yeah, absolutely.

689
00:50:42.420 --> 00:50:51.599
Well, when the 2 of them appear, finally, you know, in their traditional outfits, I think it's a wonderful moment of triumph.

690
00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:59.039
But she manages to carry that sense of she's an aristocrat all throughout, even in the mind.

691
00:50:59.579 --> 00:51:02.519
All right, so we've reached the end of the episode.

692
00:51:02.579 --> 00:51:06.360
Do any of you have final statements, perhaps?

693
00:51:07.019 --> 00:51:12.059
I just think this episode deserves so much more love than it ever gets.

694
00:51:12.119 --> 00:51:16.380
I think people see the name Alan Pryor on the credits and instantly write it off.

695
00:51:16.440 --> 00:51:24.000
But there is a reason why the Blake 7 Fan Club called themselves Horizon, and that's because this is a really good episode.

696
00:51:24.059 --> 00:51:46.980
It's somewhat overlooked now, and I'm pleased to have found 3 other people who really like it as well, because this was one of the 1st episodes of Blake 7 I saw after I saw series D back in the 80s, and then in the late 80s, I saw 4 episodes of series B bizarrely on cable TV before the channel got wiped off.

697
00:51:47.039 --> 00:51:49.679
So this was one of the ones I saw then.

698
00:51:49.739 --> 00:52:01.380
And I just loved it from that moment on, I thought this was always a really strong and interesting episode and it explores really interesting things that Blake 7 doesn't touch on very often.

699
00:52:01.500 --> 00:52:10.679
I had a different experience where I had thought that this was a sort of fairly middling episode of Blake 7.

700
00:52:10.739 --> 00:52:18.000
Um, and it certainly, you know, wouldn't be one that I would have sort of put myself forward to talk about on the podcast or anything like that.

701
00:52:18.059 --> 00:52:26.519
And then just watching it again yesterday, just being astounded by how much better it was than I remember.

702
00:52:26.639 --> 00:52:33.179
And I think it is a really, really solid, you know, I think it's a top tier Blake 7 episode easily.

703
00:52:33.239 --> 00:52:37.079
It's probably interesting, serious storytelling.

704
00:52:37.139 --> 00:52:44.219
And I think it gets overlooked because it's a one-off episode. not one which involves kind of our regulars from the Federation.

705
00:52:44.280 --> 00:52:52.679
So no serverland, no travers, but it just tackles things from an interesting point of view, and it also finds time to really build on Avon's character.

706
00:52:52.739 --> 00:52:55.619
And so, you know, it's all you could ask for from an episode, really.

707
00:52:55.679 --> 00:52:56.880
Yeah, no, I agree.

708
00:52:56.940 --> 00:52:58.980
It's one of my top tier episodes.

709
00:52:59.099 --> 00:53:01.679
It always has been since the 1st time I saw it.

710
00:53:01.739 --> 00:53:11.099
But I think the 1st time I saw it was a late pickup because Peter, I don't think it was one of the ones that you had on tape all those years ago because that was how I experienced Blake 7.

711
00:53:11.159 --> 00:53:15.360
It was this selection of a significant selection, but nevertheless, a selection of episodes.

712
00:53:15.360 --> 00:53:17.940
And for some reason, I don't think it was part of it.

713
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:20.880
But I just keep coming back to those performances.

714
00:53:20.940 --> 00:53:34.980
The performance of Row is just so beautiful and and those scenes are so quiet and it just reminds me of those, you know, BBC period dramas, things like iClaudius, which I was watching as a sort of similar time. drew me in.

715
00:53:35.039 --> 00:53:37.380
Now, do I want every episode of Black 7 to be like this?

716
00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:41.400
No, because much of what we like about Black 7 is not in this episode.

717
00:53:41.460 --> 00:53:48.059
But having said that, it is so great that they tried this and it is so great that it was so successful.

718
00:53:48.119 --> 00:53:50.219
Yeah, cheers to Darian and Gardi.

719
00:53:50.280 --> 00:53:51.659
We own him and we're very happy about that.

720
00:53:59.460 --> 00:54:02.280
That's all we have time for this week.

721
00:54:02.340 --> 00:54:08.519
We'll be back next week to mount an attack on central control on Earth in pressure point.

722
00:54:08.760 --> 00:54:11.099
I have a good feeling about that mission, I think.

723
00:54:11.159 --> 00:54:12.659
Yeah, it's going to go well.

724
00:54:12.719 --> 00:54:14.219
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

725
00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:14.699
Yeah.

726
00:54:14.760 --> 00:54:15.659
So we'll see you then.

727
00:54:15.780 --> 00:54:16.739
Good night.

728
00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:17.760
Good night.

729
00:54:17.820 --> 00:54:18.840
Bye for now.

730
00:54:18.900 --> 00:54:19.739
Bye bye.

731
00:54:25.800 --> 00:54:27.780
Switching to manual.

732
00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:29.760
Maximum power on all drives.

733
00:54:32.820 --> 00:54:34.739
Maximum power.