An Outrageous Failure

[00:03]

Maximal power.

Well, now, welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast that is so enfeeboard.

It's forgotten the rules of the game.

I'm Cy.

I'm James I'm Peter.

And I'm Simon.

So, here we are, ready to talk about voice from the past.

This is quite an incredible episode of Blake 7, like no other.

So, James, is this the worst episode of series B or quite possibly of the entire show?

I have always thought that, but on rewatching it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

It's not great, but there's actually quite a lot of enjoyment that I found in it.

The plot is not great.

I love the acting is not great, but it was enjoyable.

Obviously my tone oscillation has got to you, James, this week.

[01:04]

I would heartily reject the premise of that question about it being the worst episode of League 7 because even though it is not very good in many and varied ways.

It is very enjoyable in a lot of other ways.

And the worst episodes, Blake 7, the Cardinal Sin of being boring, which I don't think this is.

Yes, this is certainly not dull or boring.

And I was coming into it again, thinking, oh, this is not a very good one, is it?

Thinking.

And then when I came to watch that, I thought, well, actually, I've really enjoyed that.

I was really pleasantly surprised.

I'd say at a bare minimum.

I would call it a perfectly fine episode, frankly.

Yes, I think that was the reaction that I had to it.

Having growing up watching like 7 repeatedly.

And, you know, the perceived fan wisdom that this is shit.

Did colour, the opinion going in, but when I watched it, I, I like you, Simon, found it thoroughly enjoyable.

It was just entertaining.

It wasn't, you know, it was, it was a mess.

But it wasn't bad.

[02:05]

No, it's definitely not bad.

I think it's fairly well made in some aspects and very badly made in other aspects, but it's never less than watchable and quite often you're just laughing along at it more than anything else because some of it is just so incredible.

I have a real soft spot for this one.

Yes, there's not even the worst episode this season, is it?

I would give that accolade to hostage and it's crimose.

I love the cremos.

Does anyone feel like they're having a flashback to breakdown in the early parts of it where you've even got the whole scene with, well, you've even got the scene where Blake tricks Villa into letting him go. sort of exactly what Gan does to Cali, was it?

Was it Jenna?

I can't I can't remember.

It feels like so long ago.

Yes.

With another example of one of the regular characters being extremely curriculous.

Yes, exactly.

The, um, the eye acting in that scene is really just concerting.

[03:06]

The way that Blake's eyes just dart left and right, left and right, left and right, is almost as if he's hypnotising villa as he's saying it.

It's really intense.

Yes, he's obviously playing the man-possessed role.

I quite like Gareth Thomas's performance in those scenes because it feels like Blake, but not quite Blake, and from sort of the earlier episodes of series B where Blake is a bit of a bastard taking charge of everything, not listening to the rest of the crew.

It actually feels like it belongs with that earlier version of Blake that we've seen.

So it's not very far off what he's normally like, but it's just that little edge that Gareth Thomas, where he brings it right down and he plays the scene with, particularly with Villa very calmly and very, his voice is not sort of modulated a lot. is really good.

He's obviously made conscious decisions as an actor to do something specific with that.

[04:09]

He's certainly not voting it in in this at all.

You can always tell a good performer in sort of BBC science fiction at the time, late 7, Doctor Who, by how well they do with possessed acting.

So the people who are the very best at it, like Elizabeth Slayton in Doctor Who, just, you know, you can hand them anything and they'll do a credible job of it.

And I think here Gareth Thomas proves that he's not going to be all rolling eyes and, you know, evil looks.

He just, he just, like you said, so he just brings the performance down a notch and makes it a little bit colder and it's really quite interesting to watch.

Yeah, you can see why Villa falls for it. almost, I think, because it is Blake, but just not quite Blake.

And I, what I really like is the way that he's sort of throwing all these conspiracy theories at Villa like, oh, Avon and Callie, they're together.

Didn't you know?

all these things are going on and you just haven't noticed and he's using the crew against him. is really good.

And I love the fact that he doesn't include Jenner in that.

[05:09]

He makes it more credible for Villa by saying, no, not Jenna.

She's just been duped by them and that makes Philip believe it.

Yeah.

I don't understand the possession though.

I mean, if he is possessed, you know, if he's mind controlled, how is he, like, how is he being directed?

And how does that aid the, the plot of Van Glend, which we'll get you later, like having him behave in that way?

It's not possessed as in controlled.

It's not like the way I read it.

He's not like he's being sent signals from the other place to do this and then that and then this other thing.

It's more like he's been, It's like the power of suggestion that the hypnosis from years ago and the tone they're sort of pre-planted something in his mind to make him need to get to Asteroid PK 118 at any cost.

And so he's doing that to get there rather than rather than being controlled per se, the way I read it.

Yeah, no, like it's influencing his behaviour.

[06:12]

I think that is one of the big problems with this episode in that that's a good setup, having like the mind control and referencing back to the way back, but they don't quite follow through with it.

And it doesn't really make sense plot-wise because Glynd and Governor LeGron's plan.

Just seems wildly convoluted.

They use the mind control thing to get Blake to go to the place where they want him to go when actually all they had to do was just contact the liberator and ask Blake to go to the place where they wanted him to go.

So it's a good setup, but then it's muddled in the execution.

You think, why are they doing this?

It sounds like it.

That sort of, to me, reeks of an earlier draft where they were going to do something else or someone else was involved or something and then certain aspects of that changed and then they forgot to tidy that part of it up.

Yeah, and also, I think a lot of the behaviour of those characters is in service of the red herring.

It's not, it's not logical, those characters wouldn't behave that way unless you were supposed to think that they were villains, so they could be revealed not to be villains.

[07:18]

Yes.

Yes, I get what you mean.

Yeah, it's just there for effect to make it look like they're doing something dodgy.

Like, especially those scenes with Travis slash Siobhan. where, you know, it's like, I know what you're up to.

I hear you, brother.

More French, James, more French.

Yeah.

Yeah, is this going to just send the question?

It's almost as convincing as the CSO back.

It's almost as convincing as the CSO backdrop on the asteroid when...

Oh, dear.

That is one of the worst moments in Blake 7.

What were they?

someone said online that it looks like a child's drawing.

Yeah, well, well, I at least was trying to be kind by suggesting it's an impressionist painting rather than a child memory, but yes, it's like, why does he teleport onto the asteroid out on the asteroid?

why doesn't he teleport into the into the base itself?

like they do on every other occasion?

[08:19]

My notes for the filming of this were like literally just 2 lines.

Abstract CSO asteroid backdrop, and some polystyne rocks and airlock door, and some reused space sets.

Yeah, well, the door's back from trial from Travis's cell for a start, so...

And then they go to the Wembley Conference centre.

Yeah, but if we're watching 70s BBC science fiction and we're complaining about CSO backdrops, polystyrene rocks and recycled bits of set.

Yes, some might say that this is the meat and drink of Bleak Seven.

I think I think the question, the most important question here is is it better than underworld?

Yes.

The answer is yes.

At least at least it's one short scene.

It's not the whole thing.

The whole thing.

Yes, yes.

But you know, as Jenna says, wretched mining companies, no sense of aesthetics.

Another example of the brilliant dialogue. dialogue in this episode is fantastic, isn't it?

[09:20]

I was actually having flashes to Invisible Enemy, actually, in some of those sort of sequences, especially with the font of airlock or whatever it is that he walks in.

Yes.

And it's the reused space suit as well.

At least the helmet from our invisible enemy.

Yes, contact has been made after all.

Yes.

The slow moving model shots as well.

Very slow.

They're beautiful, but they are very slow.

Yes, they're desperately trying to be 2001 and not quite achieving it.

Can I ask some questions about this episode and see that if you can answer them for me?

Yeah, go on.

So why does Travis dress up as she, though?

Just so you can get that 80s master reveal, surely.

Because he's never had the chance to try out his foreign accent acting before.

So that's why he's felt it necessary.

I heard some foreign accent acting in trial where he says, if I'm guilty of murder, of mass murder, Then so are all of you.

Or is that just his normal accent?

[10:22]

You've been waiting all your life to get that out to an audience.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Can I can I tell you?

Yes, he has.

I may have performed time for many audiences.

The question is, worse slash are you on trial?

I have more questions.

Why does Blake switch off Aurak and then keep the key when Aurak has just insisted that Glyn's box of tricks couldn't harm him?

Um, plot reasons.

Shut him up.

Yep.

I have him up.

Because he would...

Because he doesn't trust the others.

Yeah, like, I mean...

Okay.

So that's a good answer.

Why does she van remain behind when the others teleport down only to reveal himself?

Wah ha ha.

And then demand to be teleported down.

So you get the reveal.

That's all it's for, isn't it?

It makes no sense because the one thing he's always wanted is the liberator.

He's only got to take out 2 of the cast, and one of them's Callie, who is not in her kickoff phase at the moment.

So she's just on teleport duty, so she'll be easy to take over.

But surely his desire to kill Blake is overriding his his need to keep the liberator.

[11:29]

Yeah, I think you might be onto something there, James.

There we go.

And it does mean we get to have 2 moments where a character gets to say, Travis in a dramatic way.

If Peter, the point of these questions is to say that there are holes throughout the episode, I think we can take that as well, but they don't stop me from enjoying it anyway.

I would entirely agree.

And I do like the fact that Travis in that scene where he's revealed.

And Avon gives a completely downplayed Travis as if he kind of suspected all along rather than, oh my god.

I do like that Travis could have said something because every day as ha ha, I now have control of you and you're going to teleport me down to the surface, but instead he says, to the teleport, which is just amazing.

I love how he lampshades the fact that he's got an eye patch by putting a googly eye on top of his eye patch eye.

[12:32]

What would they think him with the googly eye?

I mean, you could have just ignored it, but it's just that little thing that's wobbling around every time his head moves and it's really disturbing.

Is it like a Muppet eye?

Like is it like a little Muppet eye?

It's like a Muppet eye.

I know, it's got this sort of element of the grotesque about it, though.

But it's quite good.

Although I think they should have put a googly nose on him because if they put a googly nose on him, it would have put a completely different spin on the line.

You'll imagine I haven't smelt you out.

Okay, we lied that he, every line he says with Siobhan is just, I just howl, let's it. really funny.

But he's taking it so seriously.

He's giving he's all, I think.

It's great.

But going back to at the risk of picking further holes in it, you know, dressing up as Siobhan and being like terribly injured, you'd think, given that how injured he's supposed to be playing, at some point, he would have been given medical attention, at which point they'd find out that he's Travis.

[13:40]

You know what I mean?

It's very bold.

Are you saying that no one has ever thought to say, would you like us to please replace your bandages and dress your wounds?

No, I should do it myself.

I like how his bandages are so encompassing as well that they cover his mouth.

So there's no mouthhole for him to speak through.

It is.

It is rather good though. do enjoy it.

I've now just got the scene from Monty Python, the Holy Grail. scene is that?

I thought in your general direction.

Going back to the plot, if I may.

I actually quite like the fact that there's a rebel governor and a defector from relatively high up in the Federation, so you have 2 moderately, modestly senior federation officeholders who are prepared to stage a coup or, you know, realise that this is all terrible and we need to, we need to change it.

[14:40]

I don't think that happens anywhere else, does it?

Where you have actually insiders wanting to make the change.

The only other example I can think of is rumours of death.

Okay.

Yeah.

Do they know where they work?

Like, you work for the Evil Empire.

Do you're always going to die?

I just have this feeling that Feng Glend thinks he just believes in the legal system because he's part of the legal system and thinks he can expose this, despite having been part of the plot to destroy Blake's prosecuting counsel in the way back.

Despite being, yeah, being part of the conspiracy in the 1st place.

So how he thinks he's going to get away with it.

Yeah.

But it's going back to that kind of initial idea of, at the very beginning of the series where, you know, you have, it is an evil empire, but it's, there are potentially notionally good people who are involved and kind of believe what they're doing is right and they might find out at some point they will actually, actually you will know it's all terribly wrong.

It's a kind of a meshing of the 2 different kind of conceptualisations of the Federation, isn't it?

[15:43]

The federation of the early parts of series A is very much a bureaucratic sort of final evil, whereas increasingly as the show goes on, it is this sort of, you know, villainous, um, fantastic. moustache twirling kind of villainy that becomes much more prominent.

And this is this is kind of...

As a foot in both camps.

This where it really sort of flips, maybe.

No, I think it's already flipped long ago.

I think this is just a shadow. an echo of that original idea No, that was episode two.

We've seen part of this earlier in the season in trial where Surferland is using what is perceived as sort of the best part of the Federation, so bringing old Star Killer in to be the judge because he's viewed as the good part of the Federation and under his jurisdiction, guilty verdict would be sort of obeyed a letter and wouldn't be questioned.

[16:43]

Yeah, there is sort of these hints that there are better parts of it around.

That's right.

She sort of goes through the legal processors and the mechanisms that are in place rather than just using her ginka kill switch or whatever, which is what happens in series C, because in series C, she is the evil dictator.

Exactly.

It's interesting, Simon.

What you said, I think, goes to the heart of the problem with this episode, in that this feels like it actually should be an important episode.

There are big things happening in the Blake 7 universe with planets, revolting, and sort of, you know, important governors and a high level kind of betrayal of the federation.

And yet the tone is completely at odds with what you would think that would be.

And so it has the stilted grandiose feel in the performances and especially the dialogue.

And because it's all a bit confusing and thin as well, that tips it over into high camp, Rob, an interesting camp, and it's just, it's at odds with it.

And so the episode does not gel.

[17:44]

Oh, I think that was mostly Freedom was acting, wasn't it?

Well, should we talk about Frieda Nore, because she is just amazing.

This is governor...

It is Governor LeGrand herself.

Commander Summerland.

A shrewd maxim sigh.

She's yet another guest cast member who comes in and decides to have their own pronunciation of server.

Yes.

And it's like, surely the week that they spend at Acton, they've got, someone has told her, no, dear, it's pronounced Servolet.

But she pronounced it 3 different ways.

She does.

And then Travis pronounces it in other ways.

So she likes Sevalan, and Travis likes Servolan.

Sometimes there are moments that really take me by surprise because I can't understand what her motivation in her acting is.

So there are scenes where she's playing it straight down the camera at the audience at home for no reason whatsoever.

There are scenes where, like Serverland says, she is just so pathetically obvious that she's just awful.

[18:52]

I mean, that 1st conversation between Friedenor and Jacqueline Piers. is a masterclass of just every of acting in general, I think, because Jacqueline Pierce is having so much fun. this episode.

She is just off the scale.

After she hangs up in that fabulous sort of line, someday, very soon, criminotherapists are good to have their sport.

That just put me in mind of Carnell and her on the volleyball court having it go out.

I mean, really, the entire, the entire tone and sort of misplaced tone of the episode is present in Le Grand and Frieda Norse performance because it's all kind of eyes and accents and those shiny, shiny teeth of hers.

There's not a lot of realism there.

She gets a few tears at the end when it's all gone wrong.

See, that is that is the most believable part of her performance. absolutely.

She's not saying anything, so that's good.

I think I would shed a tear or 2 at 30 foot high serve land as well.

[19:54]

Yeah, yes.

But is yet another one of those examples where, because obviously the filming is all done first.

So her death scene is done first.

It's one of the 1st things she shoots.

Then she goes into rehearsal and does the rest.

So it's almost like her performance is good slash fine in Wembley, wherever it is, James, you were saying.

And then it obviously deteriorates when they get into the normal rehearsals and she decides that actually it's all a bit rubbish, isn't it?

Is that kind of what might be going on in there?

And so her performance becomes bigger and more stagey and more ridiculous.

I described it in my notes as space acting.

Yes, it's very...

It's a good example of someone who doesn't know understand how to act in a science fiction series, i.e. you just act normally.

So do we think this is down to George Spenson Foster?

Yes, as a director.

Because we've seen this earlier in the season, haven't we, in weapon, for instance, where he is favouring certain performers.

He is obviously working with them, but not looking after everyone, perhaps in the rehearsal rooms.

[20:57]

Yes, that man is an enigma, George Spenton Foster, because sometimes he delivers.

I mean, he directs pressure point, and pressure point is played for the most part very straight and is a really great episode, and I can think of image of the Fendal on Doctor Who as well, which also is very atmospheric and not particularly camp.

But then he will deliver something like this or something like weapon, where tonally, it just doesn't come together.

And mostly I think it's because the performances are too self-consciously flamboyant.

I mean, he'll do, he'll do gambit next episode and that teeters right on the edge and falls over the line quite a lot.

But it's comedy, so it gets away with it.

Whereas with this, I think there might be something in what you were saying, Simon, where you get free to Norse performance on location where they don't have rehearsals, so they've just gone into it and is a more subdued performance.

And then when you get into the studio with all of those 2 weeks at the Acton Hilton behind them, it's suddenly this heightened performance with lines delivered down the barrel of the camera and it's just a bit off.

[22:02]

So he obviously has a problem directing actors.

Like if the actors are fine and doing what they should be doing.

It works, say, image of the Fendal or pressure point.

But when they're not, he maybe doesn't know how to ask them to do it differently.

I don't know.

I mean, that's just a guess.

From what I know of George Spenson Foster, which not a lot, obviously, what I've read, is that he was quite a flamboyant man in real life, and I think sometimes his aesthetic is layered over the top of an episode which doesn't sit well with it, and I think this might be an example.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, I think you're definitely onto something there.

He's not a great fit for the script.

Or I think I agree with you on that is perhaps that his natural inclination indirecting is towards the flamboyant in the camp.

And so if someone goes, how shall I play this?

or, you know, should I play it like this, he'll go, ooh, that's, you know, a bit, a bit of John Nathan Turner.

Oh yes, that's fabulous.

Yeah, he wants to go bigger.

[23:04]

And of course, it's not helped by the fact that the dialogue in this episode is very flamboyant, very kind of very big and portentous on occasion.

So even Blake comes out with lines like Herald at Last, the Epoch of True Freedom, which is a very unblake line.

And it's interesting because Roger Parks, who writes this episode, goes on to write Headhunter in series D, which is really solid, and children of hour on in series C, which I rank amongst the series very best episodes.

So I'm not quite sure what happened here.

No, I wonder if it's a 1st time go and he's not quite sure of the series and he obviously wants to do something.

He's obviously watched series A and seen the way back and for, oh, this is really interesting and we bring this character back.

So Ben Gloom coming back should be a really big moment in the series, but it all feels slightly off.

And I don't know whether it's because they haven't got Robert James back to play him.

That doesn't help, does it?

[24:06]

It doesn't help.

It doesn't feel quite right.

I just assumed he was a time lord.

They could have just explained it by saying, well, I've had to have plastic surgery to escape the rest of the federation.

I mean it would be in character, wouldn't it?

I've been to the space cosmetician.

Yes.

Going back to the idea of the writing.

I actually think that just touching on, you know, what all the flaws slash hole slash inconsistencies, Peter, you brought up earlier in the form of questions.

I can't help thinking that combining that with the idea of it feels like it's supposed to be a significant episode, you know, when you've got like a governor assisting governors going to try and stage a coup or overthrow the Evil Empire.

Plus you've got all this other stuff going on.

It does feel like it was supposed to be more of a signature episode, an event episode.

Yeah, an event episode, and I think that the stuff with, you know, Blake having using this hypnosis, the old, the latent hypnosis to move the ship and all that kind of business is sort of like a confusion left over from a previous draft.

[25:06]

And I think it's a mush together of a couple of drafts and then they don't then go through the whole thing again and fix that all up.

And I think that's where you get a lot of the problems.

It's just like it's just unfinished.

Yeah, maybe the late season crunch hit them or something.

Yeah, it's entirely possible.

I mean, I think there were all sorts of scripting problems going on in the background at this point in the series, weren't there?

And this script also had to be shifted significantly around the season.

I think at one point it was episode 4 or 5 and possibly be because of the scripting problems, ended up being shunted to episode 10.

Yeah, and that would make more sense of the Travis and Servolan working together plot, wouldn't it?

That's right It then has to be sort of changed slightly to make it work with the context of the trial, yeah.

And also the fact that the crew are trying to get to a pleasure planet.

Like, they just found out in the at the end of the previous episode that they have to find Dockerly.

They really should be pursuing that right now.

[26:08]

It feels like this should be following horizon where they're all tired and they're all suffering from space fatigue and they need a break.

All those space crises, yes.

Exactly.

That's why they're doing stuff.

So it was.

It was supposed to be after a horizon, I believe.

Yes, I think that's absolutely right.

It absolutely feels like an episode that should have come earlier in the season.

Does that sort of mean possibly that it was rejected earlier in the season because it was like, oh, this isn't quite working, and then something else has fallen through later, so they need to resuscitate a not quite finished script.

Is that?

I mean, that could absolutely be.

We know that Chris Boucher did do a lot of work on this episode because the wonderful making Blake 7 Twitter account has posted bits of the original pre-boucher script of voice from the past and the dialogue is visible.

There's no other way of saying it.

It's dinky.

It was awful.

It has to be meteorites.

That's right.

Avon says thundering mutants at one point.

[27:09]

And when Jenna says something.

He turns around to her and says, miaow, pussy, and you think, yeah, has this person ever watched the show?

And so I think Chris Boucher did a lot of work to tidy it up, but maybe he just ran out of time.

So cracks, doesn't it?

Because it's a messy episode. it's not sure what the show is but it's got some great lines in it.

Like there's a lot of sort of those sort of voucher cutting put downs and sort of snider sides.

But that's true of every Blake 7 episode, isn't it?

Yes.

But more so this one.

It makes me wonder if Chris Belcher did that to every Roger Parks script or if Roger Parks just got the hang of what the series was because children of our on and heads hunter are full of good dialogue.

That can't be all Chris Boucher.

No.

I think it's one of those situations where he's asked to do something.

He submits it, or he fights against that because he wants to do something else, and they go, oh, no, you need to do this instead, and then nobody gets anything they want, kind of situation. a messy brief that then gets stuffed up.

[28:10]

Yes, too many cooks, everyone pulling in the wrong direction.

And so it just ends up being a bit of a mess on screen.

Yeah.

Speaking of on-screen and her colour, we have so and finest moment to date.

I feel.

Excellent eye acting.

Yes, yeah, that moment, isn't it?

Where you walk into the conference room. and there's no one there.

So you think, oh, something is going on here.

The lights all dim very theatrically.

The screen comes on and then it's only bloody server land on there.

Can you imagine my disappointment at every university lecture I walked into that didn't end up like that?

Yes.

There was that one lecture theatre at Sydney University which had the wood panelling down the walls, which looks exactly like that.

Was that Stephen Robert?

That auditorium.

The old Stephen Roberts before it was done.

[29:10]

Yeah, I think it was the Stephen Roberts Theatre.

Yeah.

I mean, that whole secret is just awesome.

And the slight pause just before she says now.

And then the shooting starts is just wonderful.

The eyes flicking from left to right as the lights flash on and there are like federation troopers.

It's like, look, to your left.

Look, you're right, you're about to die.

I think if you asked any Blake 7 fan, regardless of their opinion of this episode, they love that scene with the server face.

It's just amazing.

But it's that kind of big thing that you like about this series and it's just great.

I love that.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

And any other villain would get away with that in quite the same fabulous way.

No, if it was 30 foot high, Travis, you wouldn't care, would you?

No.

Well, depends depends what it was Stephen Kry for Brian Croucher.

[30:15]

Or whether it was Sivan.

Oh, you're falling into my trap.

But yeah, that whole climax is emblematic of the problems with this episode because it's so confusingly directed.

You have that nice moment where Servolan gets the jump on everyone and you know that she's got the winning hand.

But then it sort of goes to that conference room on the side where Villa's waiting, and you can't for love nor money follow what is going on in that scene.

So, Blake is suddenly affected by Venglyn's box again, for no reason, it just starts.

That makes him tear off his bracelet and put it away.

We're not quite sure why.

Jenna is there trying to get him to put the bracelet on and contacting the liberation, saying no, don't teleport us.

At the same time, Travis, whose teleports down a Shivan, is standing over them with his gun pointed at them, while 30 seconds of dialogue and action happened, that he should be stepping in on and saying, no, don't talk to the liberator.

[31:15]

Don't put Bleak's bracelet back on, and that just cuts away to him and Glint.

It's really confusing.

Yeah, and you've got Glind in the background going, oh, and obviously dying.

I'm not so dying that he can't throw himself at Travis and overpower him.

I think the point there is that the script needed it to happen so that's how it happened.

And I think it's just a victim of the fact that these things are shot in a multicamera studio, not shot by shot on film, and the editing is done by the Vision Mixer simultaneously to that.

And so I think you end up with these kind of flabby executions of something that needs to be really sharp.

Well, that's absolutely right.

And so I think what they've tried to do is pull the scene apart and they've, you know, they've got to pause the action on one part of cassettes so that they can cover it on the other.

But it really shows you who gets Blake 7 right, and who doesn't, because I can think of scenes like this, that Pennant Roberts, a director who we haven't been very kind to, should I say, I haven't been very kind to, a lot of the time.

[32:19]

Oh, no, I haven't been very kind to him either.

He's not able to successfully cover multi-camera scenes like this.

And like in this episode, it all turns into a bit of a mess, whereas you get someone like Douglas Canfield or Michael Bryant.

And for some reason, they are able to cover scenes like this, they're able to put them together either continuously in multicam fashion or they're able to sort of prize them apart and do them in chunks and then edit it together and it works.

It's just the difference between success and failure.

I think this episode is just one draft and one different director away from being really good.

I suspect it's possibly 2 drafts away, but yes, I, I, just, just, yes, 2.5 .

Obviously, for me, obviously, those 2 names you mentioned are infinitely superior directors to the other ones that you're mentioning.

And I think it's partly, perhaps, this is just supposition.

There's a way of shooting multicamera successfully, obviously.

They managed to do it, and yet others fail.

[33:20]

And I wonder whether it's because those people who fail.

And we've often said that pennant does okay on film.

I wonder whether it's the one who, ones who fail, are trying to think of their shots as if they were being shot by in a single camera environment.

And so trying to then make that happen where you've got these 4 or however many there are cumbersome enormous cameras being wheeled around the studio and it all happening and all the vision mixing happening simultaneously, their plan for the shots can't possibly be made by that setup.

So it's almost too ambitious, and the vision mixer can't keep up.

I don't want to, I don't want to use the word ambitious, but it's just the way of visualising it.

Like, like, there's a hack.

There's a hack to shoot multicamera drama successfully, I think, or, you know, those sequences better.

And I think Douglas Canfield knows how to do it, but Pennant Roberts and George Benton Foster don't.

And so it's okay for Image of the Fendal whenever everything's moving slowly and serenely and everyone's being mysterious.

Whereas throw an action sequence, an action-y sequence at him in the same environment and it all just becomes a mess.

[34:26]

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think he's very good if you've got an atmospheric script or a high camp script, but he's not necessarily so good at when you need a bit of action going on.

Although he doesn't do too bad in in pressure point, does he?

So there are, again, there are maybe the action is all on film, so that is a bit easier to control.

So that's kind of what I'm trying to.

There's further evidence to back up what I'm saying, I guess.

And when it comes to next episode, Gambit, he actually does craft a very interesting atmospheric world for all of that action to take place in, because it is all quite slow languid scenes, but actually the world works.

And so that's a, that's a successful production in a way that I don't think this is.

And it's slow language scenes, though, that are driven by the dialogue and the performances rather than the action.

And the dialogue is good and the performances, while they're mostly big, fit the script because it's big as well.

Exactly.

So we're just doing another avid podcast.

Yeah, exactly. getting ahead of ourselves.

[35:28]

But again, it's when he's got good material to work with.

He does fine.

So pressure point.

He does fine.

This one, a gambit, he does fine, but he's not so good when it's weapon, which is a slightly lesser crisp Boucher script.

And this one, which is just a bit of a mess of a script.

That's right.

And using another Doctor Who example.

He does the reboss operation.

The rebos operation is quite a small scale atmospheric story, and I think it's done pretty well by him.

Yeah, he does the world building pretty well there, doesn't he?

because he's got it.

It comes from the script.

Whereas there's not much in this that you can get your teeth into.

There's not much depth to this.

It's a conference centre, it's space command, it's the liberator.

PK X1 A. PK 118.

What was X18?

What was the other one?

I'm thinking of XK 72.

Oh, right, okay.

It was looking for you.

[36:28]

So maybe he just hasn't got the depth in the script that he needs to get some pull something out of it.

I think his sensibility just works better with a more comedic script.

So in the reboss operation, we're talking about in Doctor Who.

It's quite comedy.

It lends itself to big performances, and so those performances you get are very enjoyable.

Whereas I don't know how you would have saved the character of She Van, but not what we got on screen. rewriting the script.

I do like to imagine what Stephen Greif would have done with that if he'd been in there.

Terrifyingly good idea.

Well, I was going to say, I was worried that he'd say during rehearsals, I'm not doing this.

Yes.

Probably to the betterment of the story.

Can I give a shout out to Jenna, who seems to be the only one of the liberated crew who decided they were actually going to dress up to go down to the conference?

Because she's wearing the lovely Eve. she actually looks like she's dressed up, whereas the others are just, you know, it's what I put on this morning.

[37:34]

Yes, she should have been sent down as Bleak's envoy rather than Villa because she, you know, she's got her lovely blue dress on.

I can imagine her and Governor LeGron sort of eyeing each other off.

She should always have been sent down those blakes headway.

Whereas Villa looks like he's wearing a painter's smock.

I do like that Villa outfit.

He does a lot of smocks, doesn't he?

Yeah.

Can I give a shout out at the same time to Avon and Cali?

Because I think those are the most successful of the episode.

We've touched on that relationship before in episodes like Mission to Destiny and Horizon, where they're also aboard the Liberator talking things through.

But here it's definitely laying down markers for next series.

And I think this episode might be the basis for a lot of fanfic, which says that Avon and Kelly were actually together romantically.

There's never any evidence for that in the series, but there's a lot of pointers.

And I think this episode solidifies that by kind of making them birds of a feather, they work very tightly as a unit, and they kind of, they feed each other dialogue very easily, and they're just on the same page, whereas the others aren't.

[38:43]

I think it's a really interesting episode for them.

Do you get the feeling that Cali is the only other person on the liberator that Avon actually respects?

Yes.

A lot of the time.

I think he respects Jenna, but I think he understands Callie.

Yeah, interesting.

I think they find each other intellectually stimulating.

Yeah.

I think he looks down on Jenna still, even so.

I get what you're saying, Peter, but I just get the feeling that the way it's written constantly.

I keep feeling that Avon has time for Kelly, but he doesn't really have time for any of the others.

Yes, he doesn't dismiss her in the same way as he does the others.

No, and I like those scenes of the 2 of them going backwards and forwards with Aurak, trying to work out what's going on and coming up with theories and sort of working that through.

Those work really well.

Yeah, and it's because Blake is a little bit out of character in this episode.

And so there's no natural central character that we're following.

And so Avon and Kelly kind of assume that role of being the protagonists and sorting out the plot, the wider plot and also the villain's plot.

[39:45]

It's almost like we don't need Blake in the series at all.

Oh.

No.

How could you have like 7 without Blake?

I don't know Yes, I think you'll find that that will never happen.

Do a couple of episodes.

See how it turns out.

I do quite like that Servland doesn't appear until about the halfway mark in this episode.

So just when it's all getting that little bit too tedious.

She turns up with her red flower and makes everything better.

The red flower.

Always love that.

She makes every episode better.

Let's just face it.

She does.

And I think this is the 1st time we see Serbalan actually having fun and enjoying what she's doing.

I think before this, she's been very set on what she's up to and she's very focussed.

And I think this is the 1st time we get a flamboyant movement and things like that from a...

I wouldn't say it's the 1st bit of that.

But certainly it seems to be one of the few episodes where she wouldn't, she's not sort of rushing around basically saying, why am I surrounded by fools kind of thing?

[40:51]

She's in total control.

Smug serverland is always the best.

And so there'll be an episode next series called Terminal, where she has very good reason to be smug, and she plays all of those scenes with this delicious smile on her face.

And so that scene with Legrand, where hopefully she hasn't imprinted on Legrand's performance for the rest of the series.

She just plays everything with that knowing smile where she's in command and her evil plans are going to come to fruition and she's loving it.

This is her game.

She knows exactly what's going on. and is just playing with all of the characters where she can.

Like a cat.

That's right.

She's got Travis's she van.

Protocol for her property.

You're not going to have a voice left by the end of this one, Peter.

That's right, brother.

I can't I can't help but keep seeing salamander every now and again when I...

It's like salamand...

[41:53]

Yes.

If only she had a cat rather than a red flower.

I think that would just make server lane perfect.

You could have had Avon's line from the original script.

Miaow pussy.

Oh, dear.

Delivered by Jacqueline Pierce.

Oh my god.

I mean, we are sneakering about this episode because it's very sneaker worthy.

There's there's elements of a good episode here and that is what is so outer galling about it.

Oh, you had that written down waiting.

It's out a gal a place or is it a space phrase for the outer galaxy?

I think it's what Gan nicknamed his cape.

I've put on my outer guard.

That's a good point.

Yeah, there's nothing worse than seeing that there's a gem of an actually really good episode there and it just sort of ruined my stuff.

[42:56]

Yes.

I remember reading, before I saw the episode itself, I remember reading a synopsis of it and thinking, this one is going to be brilliant.

There's so much good stuff in this.

And on paper, it works.

The plot follows logical reasons just about it, but onscreen.

It just doesn't quite get there and it's so frustrating.

That's the plot when summarising 3 paragraphs, right?

Yes, exactly.

Yes.

Yeah, not line by line.

And then this happens.

And definitely not the script.

No.

And yet, weirdly, that's the essence of Blake 7 for me.

I think half of the episodes are tremendously good.

And half of them missed the mark like this one, and yet I really like how far they've missed the mark by.

I'm really drawn to it and I love it as much as the really good episodes just in a slightly different way.

It's an outrageous failure and that's fun.

You could say Blake 7 is never anything short of tremendous.

[43:58]

Sometimes it's tremendously good.

Sometimes it tremendously misses a mark, but it's always tremendous. always tremendous.

I just want to remind us that at the beginning of this, we all sort of said, oh, actually, I quite enjoy it, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, blah, blah, blah.

And then we've spent the last hour totally saying how rubbish it is.

But I just want to revisit those.

I still enjoyed it.

But we still enjoyed it.

I just want to revisit those initial thoughts, saying that I do actually quite enjoy it.

I'd say really enjoy it.

But these notions that it's the worst episode of the season are shocking. the worst episode of the entire series.

I think are completely wrong.

But I think one of the reasons, going back to what you're saying about, you know, seeing the germ of good idea, I think one of the reasons we like series like this is that you can see the potential of particular ideas.

And I think that's what I was enjoying when I was watching it this morning.

I was perhaps allowing my mind to wander off into the episode that it might have been, and that was making me actually enjoy it more rather than me being angry with what was in front of me for it not being that.

Yes, you absolutely can't be angry with this episode.

Can't be angry at it.

And there's that old maxim about an interesting failure being better than a mediocre success.

[45:04]

And this is a very interesting failure, I think.

As we said, it should work and it should be brilliant, but it's just not quite there.

And it's also brilliant.

I'm not prepared to go as far as saying it's a failure.

You know, on the report card.

It's a C minus, you know, has the ability needs to try harder.

And obviously, you know, Roger Parks takes that note because he comes back in year 3 and is a much improved student.

Thank you very much for joining us for a really interesting discussion about voice from the past, and that's all we have time for now this week.

So, until next time, know this.

The high council have been aware of your pathetic plot from the very beginning.

Goodbye.

Bye bye.

Ta- ta.

You still need me, brother.

[46:08]

I knew you were holding up to me last.

You can try something like that, Eddie. brilliant.

It's just in case the kids are giving.

I think I'm putting all that laughter at the end of the credits.

The eminent scream.

What are you talking about?

I wonder if Travis is inside that mask going, what ridiculous thing am I going to say next?

ha ha.

This'll fall, Blake.

Yeah, menace, please.

[47:14]

Can you imagine if Serblander decided to step in herself and be in the rebel she back?

That would be...

That would be good.

That would be great.

Then it would be in the rebel she.

Or sheiva.

Yes.

She would have ripped off that mask and it would have made sense when she said Avon to the telly.

But also, she still would have been immaculately made up.

Oh, definitely.

Rather than unshaved and everything.

Yeah, with a big white dress under that.

She ripped off the rest and the ball gown sort of flows out from...

Like a drag race reveal.

The gold lizard crawling up a de Calotage.