High Decibel Villainy

[00:04]

Maximal power.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Maximum Power, the only Blake 7 podcast that puts a Danish flag outside our space settlement, to tell you we might be coded as Goths.

Before we start, though, let's take a moment to store all of our bank passwords in a court jester.

I'm Colin.

I'm Pete.

I'm Cy.

And I'm Una.

So now that we're all nicely pair bonded.

I must speak to you all in my tent.

We're all here to talk about the keeper, the penultimate episode of series B of Blake 7.

So, Una, what did you think of this episode?

So, obviously, any rational, same-minded person would go?

This is an absolute stinker.

But I really like it.

I think there's the thing about Blake Stone, there's a transaction, isn't there, that you kind of go in and you think, you know, I'm not going to get Edge of Darkness here.

[01:06]

Yeah.

I'm not going to get I'm not okay, the best television program ever made.

Um, but once you kind of admit to that transaction, then I think there's loads to love in this episode.

And um, and some of it, some of it is loving the kitch, but some of it is a little bit unexpected.

Um, so I kind of like this one.

Sorry.

I don't think you need to apologise.

I mean, like some of it are, you know, do repeat the idiom that there is no bad episode of Blake 7.

It's all great, even the bad ones, do you know?

Yeah, yeah, even animals, I think has... has moments.

Oh, thank God for that.

We need someone for that episode. though you're back.

I'm back for that one.

It's one of those ones where you can, on a 1st watch, I was noticing there's lots of that wasn't there, and that made me, oh, there's none of the, there's none of the fabulousness.

There's none of the sort of big interstellar stuff.

But then on a 2nd watch.

I was noticing much more about what the actors were doing with their very limited little pocket that they're in.

[02:11]

And it's much more enjoyable when you get your head into just rolling with what it is instead of looking at what it isn't, maybe. mentality for this one, I think.

I think the 1st 10 minutes are a bit of a slog.

It's always a problem with bike 7 because, you know, they've got 51 minutes to fill.

And actually, actually what we want these days is 21 minutes.

Yeah.

So, you know, we're all the, we're used to faster cutter television now.

So that 1st 21st 10 minutes where they kind of go down and lots of sort of savages beat them up.

That's quite dull.

But then after that, I think it just gets crackers.

Uh, and there is a bit.

I think Severland's furs are pretty um, high camp.

That's true, buddy.

I had watched Gambit immediately prior to this, so I guess what I was I was having to recalibrate.

That's I guess that's what it is, isn't it?

Yes, because she's...

There is a certain degree of fabulousness in that, I think.

But yeah, I sort of, I think it's, yeah, it suffers from being in between to just absolutely stalkingly good episodes.

[03:15]

But I think it has its charms.

Yeah, and I think it shows that it's written fairly last minute to replace the Terry Nation 2 or 3 parts depending on which rumour you believe.

And I think some of that shows it's quite hasty. none of the arc bits quite fit how they should because after last week where Servolan and Travis weren't working together and were and they're now very pally and working together again because of expediency in the plots.

So, yeah, I mean, but it's all, I think it's saved by a lot of the really over the top performances that really make this, don't they?

So I, Bruce Purchase is just reprising the pirate captain from, um, the Pirate Planet in Doctor Who, um, and Shout to you and wonderful and booming and one, yeah, and just having a great chime.

[04:18]

Yeah, he's got an immense TV.

And I want to know, is he like that?

These are the only things that I've personally seen him in.

Was his Hamlet the same as this?

I really want to know Can you imagine?

would be incredible.

He's probably one of these people.

I mean, these are the sort of things that, you know, if you got, if you got anyone else, uh, they would go, oh, I have, I have tracked down his 11 minute appearance in Crown Court or something, but I never do that kind of thing.

So probably he was, it'll turn out to be one of the most respected, like he'll have done 8 years at the Royal Court or something.

Yeah, it'd be one of these real theatre actors.

That's why they got him so he could shout.

So I think the um, the, the kind of uh, high decibel villainry is very high quality in this episode.

The boah haing is very, very good.

There's a lot of laughing.

There's a lot of...

Yeah, and you've got a full range.

But also some...

Cackling, the cackling is high quality.

There's another thing that this episode does really well, which is, uh, I bag noted about this a lot, but it's one of the ancillary pleasures of watching Blake 7 these days, which I watch this on our massive HD widescreen.

[05:25]

She's not what Play 7 was made for.

And you could see every single piece of makeup and I just think this adds immensely to the pleasure of Blake Stone.

You can see all the slap they've layered on Paul Darrow.

Obviously, the line where it stops is beautiful.

Because are they meant to be?

And then the other thing I like about the keeper.

Oh, I, well, in my head, I kind of reckon it that they're all in space for so long that they've all gone really pale and so they're...

Yeah, because they're all yellow down on the planet, aren't they?

And they could they do that for the sulphur.

So that's a nice touch.

They're a bit shaundist, yeah.

Yeah, and of course, Blake 7 is a high kitch universe anyway.

So I like the idea that they just go around putting loads of slap on, that they, um, you know, the space rats do all that face makeup and so do so do all the alpha grades, yeah.

In the in the dome cities.

They never see the sunlight, so they kind of, it's like famous people painting themselves orange these days because, you know, they want to, like, they've been on the beach or whatever.

So that's what I think.

[06:27]

But then the thing I really like about the keeper is that, uh, it's a really good episode for women characters, bizarrely.

I mean, I don't think this was designed.

I think it just happens.

But I think this is actually a Bechdel passing episode.

I think there are scenes between like Kara and Jenna, and okay, they kind of mention, but the point is not that they're discussing the man.

It's that they're discussing the politics or the, you know, the the quest for, so that they're discussing the men around them, but they're not talking about the, it's all high level policy.

So inadvertently, I think this is probably one of the most feminist episodes.

That is not the take I was expected.

I know.

When you told me about this.

I really want to do the keeper because it was what made me a feminist or something like that.

Oh, no, power is the one that made me a family.

And that was, I mean, that was rage.

That was just...

We'll do that, wouldn't it?

Don't worry.

I can't watch the power even...

[07:27]

I can't even watch power even now.

It just makes me it makes me too angry.

And I'm about to get sensory into sort of fury and rage.

But this one is sort of, I mean, yes, obviously we've got Jenna prancing around and, you know, all the innuendo and the pawing ear and everything.

But she's totally in charge of that situation.

And, um, Her faces to villa are just um, priceless all the way through.

Obviously, I'm not saying that this episode is feminist.

Just part of the Bechdale test.

Okay.

Is there a special that?

It's pretty good for Blake 7.

Yeah.

There is a special Blake 7 Bechdell test subclause about 2 women talking about beaming people down to a planet. doesn't count.

That's an additional.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But at the end of the episode, Kara's sitting on that throne, cattling like a queen, you know, the queen that she is, she totally runs rings around her and her ambitions are limited.

You know, she doesn't want to, she doesn't want to capture Star one or rule the galactic empire.

She wants to get high.

[08:27]

She wants to get high and sit on her throne as child of the Goths and she gets to do it.

She outplays everyone in that room.

Yeah, she's much cleverer than everyone else, particularly the 2 brothers who are just really, really.

Do we read it that she really has got mystical powers or is she just quite clever and they're all idiots and it's the same difference because I don't know whether she's bluffing her.

She's quite clever and they're all idiots.

She's quite clever.

Yeah.

And they're all idiots.

And, you know, she just waves her hands in it, because it's all observation, what she's doing.

It's my theory.

Yeah, she's just running rings around.

There's a certain character that always pops up in sort of 70s sci-fi and you get this character a lot.

It's in um, Doctor Who.

And to some extent, it's um, it's also the sheriff of Nottingham in in Robin of Sherwood.

And it's it's somebody with a with a modern understanding of the world.

Plonked into.

Just this sort of terrible, terrible mediaeval dump, yeah?

[09:32]

See, you've got like Binro the heretic is, is, you know, well, in Ribos operation.

And he, you know, he's like Galileo.

He understands the stars and all these sorts of things.

And then I think Kara is probably one of these.

Um, though she's, though she's completely focussed on her own power.

And then like I say, I think the sheriff, Nicholas Grace's sheriff in Robin of Sherwood.

He just can't believe.

I kind of just at the back of his manner, just at the core of his, of his eye.

You see, this is a man who should be living in a world with penthouse suites and a Jacuzzi.

And an espresso machine and instead he's living in um, 11th century.

Whatever it is, 12th century Britain.

And I think Nicholas Christ puts that in the performance and I love that kind of character.

Because so much of British 70s, science fiction fantasy relies on just doing cod medievalism.

[10:32]

Uh, that you you get you get a lot of mileage at it.

But, um, I think of them as Rod, Jane and Freddie.

Rod and Freddie are not.

And not inhabiting any other kind of nuanced space at all.

All right, well, in that case, who is Bungle in this episode?

The cool or Blake?

Just really do, mate.

I think it was Blake.

You just gave Blake.

Yeah, I haven't mentioned it.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting with Blake because I noticed in Gambit and in this, they're sidelining him into the B plot of the story.

He is really out of the action in both of those stories while everyone else gets to do the fun adventuring and do the smart stuff and he's just there in the background wandering around meeting the brother and meeting the king and that's about all he manages to achieve.

Jenna has done the bulk of the work to get the information that they need.

[11:33]

Yep, absolutely.

And I don't know if that's, I know she really struggled, didn't she, Sally Nevette, to just try and get them. to give her some lines.

Yeah, yeah.

That's that's why she left pretty much, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And she's great.

You know, she's...

Yeah.

Yeah. and Jan Chappell as well, who's just fantastic.

I mean, that gets, that does get better.

But ultimately that's why she goes, isn't she?

You get, you just get sick of standing there going, um...

Yeah, I'll clear the neutron blasters for firing, but she's quite good in this one as well.

They sort of mildly give her something to do. even if it's just quarrel with Avon.

Yeah.

Yeah, and even I like that little that little pocket bit that they get where they spot the spaceship going past with the, I don't know, number plate, TRAV 15 or something.

That's him.

Let's go.

No, we haven't even got time to send them a quick message that we're buggering off.

Let's just bugger off.

I'm sure they'll be fine.

And then they bug off to kill it.

But the interplay between Avon and her in that section. is so nice because he's really got trying to persuade her if she, that he doesn't, he's not, he doesn't order it to do it or he doesn't act like he's the boss suddenly.

[12:44]

The 2 of them have a proper conversation about whether or not they should do it and pressurise each other.

That sort of thing, which fills up 5 minutes, but it fills out very nicely.

It's good.

Yeah.

What do we think Avon's real motivations are for going after Travis?

Is it that simple?

Um, I think it is that simple.

I think they, don't they allude to something that he, that he did before that he, he, he, that he sells them in, sells them out in.

Is it, which one is it?

Horizon. isn't it?

hostage. hostage.

Thank you. where he pulls up Purbland to say, oh, Blake's on this planet and Travis is here.

You better get over here quick.

And I think he's trying to do something to sort of apologise to Blake.

And of course, this being Ava, Ava lives in a cursed universe.

So it goes wrong.

And then the one they don't go after, that would have been the one they roast.

Right.

It's just the one.

Yeah.

Well, we are left with the double bill of the tropes, liberator leaving orbit and bad guy getting the teleport bracelet tropes in one episode.

[13:54]

That's for the bingo card, isn't it?

It really is.

We get full bingo on that one.

So what would the what would the world be like if Avon controlled the Federation?

Oh God, it would just be dreadful.

Like I say, he's got this he's got this cursed touch.

It's a, it's a, it's a man living in a universe for, I don't know, I don't know how, um, well, you guys know Tolkien, but there's a, there's a character in the Silmarillion called Turin Turin Bar.

And he's he's got a curse on him.

And literally everything he touches, like he'll pick up a tool to make something.

Uh, and it, the tool will snap and then the thing he's making will kind of break and everything he does just sort of is warped in some way because he's got this, this curse by the uh, the evil overlord on him.

And this is the universe that Avon inhabits.

Everything he does just goes incredibly wrong.

So, it's, it's not really anything he does.

It's just the it's just the way that the universe has walked around him.

[14:54]

So, you know, the Federation would be.

Well, I I mean, what would happen is he'd take office and a pandemic would hit.

Yeah.

Just thinking that.

Yeah, that's exactly what would happen.

And then, you know, there'd be hyperinflation and then they'd, I don't know, an alien.

I don't know, the kind of volcano would go off or something, you know, it's just all goes badly wrong.

There'll be these 20 mile queues to the teleport room.

Exactly.

Nothing goes wrong.

Nothing goes right for it, ever.

And we're picking up, almost in the last act with Evan, are we?

You know, the 1st time we meet him, his running off with his girlfriend with a 1000000000 credits in his pocket has all gone to crap because his girlfriend's shopped him in.

So it's all just cursed, yeah.

And that gets worse next year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's a lovely little touch and it almost feels like the sort of thing that Darrow might have changed himself.

[15:54]

I don't know. at the end of that reprise scene where they all very efficiently give us a summary of what's happened so far and where we're going.

And then Avon and Villa have a little aside, and Villa says something about what they're all going to do.

And everyone's replies are, you don't have a chance.

And he means you as in the 6 the others, not him.

It's not, it's not, we don't, we wouldn't stand a chance.

It's you wouldn't stand a chance to them. unless it's one of those little touches about him being, I'm not part of your gang.

I just happen to be here kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I've got nowhere else to go, and no friends other than you, but...

Yeah, I mean, he's really just biding his time, isn't he, to get the liberator because he's sure he's going to get the liberator because Blake is going to do something so big.

That means Blake is going to be out of the question, like leaves the series, get to the end of his contract and bugger off.

So, yeah, and he's just hoping against hope still that he gets that.

And then, of course, next week he does get it.

[16:55]

And then has to fight a great big alien war.

And then when he, well, we won't go to immediate spoilers, but then even his sort of taking over the liberator is all spoiled as well, isn't it?

So again, that coerced universe warps everything that he touches.

So, um, well, you know, it's all right, I quite like seeing him suffer.

Some kind of monkey's poor incident in his distant past, isn't there?

There is, yeah.

Yeah, is this our 1st mention after they've done their thing and blown up that ship?

Callie says, take us back, standards by 12.

Is that our 1st 12?

Maybe I've not been paying attention, but it seems like suddenly standard by 12 seems like a big deal for getting back again, where previously they've rushed off to try and give people life-saving operations at standard by 6 or whatever.

It's like.

Pete, don't try and make sense of it.

Well, there was only, it was only Gan, wasn't it?

So, you know, there's no particular haste.

[17:56]

Cost of space petrol these days.

Can we can we stop off and get some chips on the road?

Pete, if you think about this too much. you'll be in the same zone as like the master destroyed half the universe in Lagopolis and the other half, the other half got knackered in flux. but next week it's fine.

You know.

You're quite touchingly looking for consistency across these scripts, which I think is an admirable thing.

I think they're really giving it. they're really giving it a stab, aren't they, with this stal one narrative?

They really are trying to do a kind of miniarch.

And for the 70s, I think they did.

I think they do all right.

Okay, it's not.

Yeah, it's key back a key to time or something, isn't it?

And this does really feel like a key to time story to me.

It could so easily be that the king's. so why do they keep saying thong?

It upsets me at the start.

It's on a thong.

Don't call it that.

It's just particularly the Bruce bloody purchase.

It's just not where my brain wants to go.

[18:57]

But I know the word has other meanings.

But um, it could just as easily be the key to time, couldn't it?

And Jenna could be remana.

That would just be a really coast.

You'd have to give the doctors something to do, some pad out to 4 episodes, bring it up to 4 episodes.

But, um, yeah, it's it's.

Do we think the king's, um, the child, I guess that's child Mangya shortened, is, um, his his skull was, has he been lobotomised?

Is that why he's like he is?

Was he always like that and he's just had a brain operation unrelatedly to save his life?

I wasn't sure about that, whether we were meant to be taking that he'd actually been changed by his brain operation and that's why he's so.

Now he is.

Oh, I'd never thought of that.

I'd never thought of that.

Um, uh, you mean, um, You mean the Brian Purchase character?

It's Freddie.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

That really does that wear.

[19:58]

Frantically search.

Oh, that's interesting.

I'd never I'd never thought that.

That scar is great, by the way.

When you can finally see that on kind of ADM.

Yeah, lovely crisscrossing.

Yeah, he does a very good way of revealing it, doesn't he?

He sort of, like, plays with his hair and sort of does his posh voice a little bit and then moves it out of the way and he's sort of like, what is that?

What's going on under all that yellow, you know?

And then it's proper kind of Frankenstein or Morbius. really, it's really, it's really quite nasty.

It's a little bit of goth.

Gothic stuff there, but um, Yeah, I hadn't thought of that, but I, I mean, they, all they really need it.

I mean, the, the, the, way that regime change seems to happen is just by punching someone, isn't it?

But then, but then Kara just...

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Kara just lets them all kill each other and then and then, you know, a sense of throne, which is by far the most sensible thing to do.

Yeah, because she poisons Gola, doesn't she?

Because he survives and then she gives him the wine with the poisoning, so she has done exactly what they did to their father, all, well almost, and deposed them both and got the power.

[21:06]

Yep.

And doesn't do much to get her father back on the throne.

No, no, nothing at all.

She just, she wants her brother's dead.

Her father dead and everybody, uh, all these uh, weirdo, um, aliens off the world.

Thank you very much.

Happy with these tents.

I wonder if she has her full back.

Yeah, she's quite fond of that fool isn't she?

So...

Yeah, you'd see her reinstating him as like a prime minister under her under her rule.

Because she, um, Frida Jackson, that was her name, and she's, uh, she's got a really, um, prestigious CV, like things like Henry, she's in the Olivier Henry V, uh, but also gets a real good sideline in doing witches around this time.

She's in Clash of the Titans.

And do you remember Valley of Grangi, is it?

Or Grangi, the Dinosaur Valley movie with Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs from the 60s.

She's a witch in that too.

So she's perfected that smoky cackle.

She's really worked that up. great.

[22:07]

I bet if you look up her age, though, she's probably, this always happens with that.

She's probably something like, yeah, like 47 or something.

Younger than me.

The meetings with the agent now, can't you?

So we've got these crone rolls coming up.

39.

We'll give you a good week.

Come on, free love, you got that cuckle jam, Pat.

I can't put it to waste.

The other thing I like about, I always like about watching 70s television, um, that was, it's something we touched on before, is about them taking the um, taking the liberator off, uh, station, uh, and doing that is, um, uh, I always feel like they haven't, they haven't had the benefit of watching uh, a 90s onward science fiction.

So...

It's like they don't know how the plot of television science fiction works, yeah.

Because obviously the writers and producers are still kind of working out what you can do.

[23:10]

You see this particularly in the 60s, um, in Doctor Who, and it carries solid blokes 7.

We are going to, uh, we are going to take this capsule on board, fill 18 minutes of the episode.

We're going to fly through a mortex.

Literally something that would take, you know, you wouldn't even see it on something like the expense now.

Yeah, you'd cut that.

Because we all know how that happens.

Um, but you don't.

They they don't.

Like so, which is really touching.

Um, so they've, they've not watched, uh, uh, Deep Space 9, uh, Babylon 5, um, BSG, the nooces, or the X-Fence.

They have not watched any of that.

They live in a very slow Analogue.

Science fiction future.

They're trying to reenact the actual moon landings. with every scene, you know.

Yeah.

Which is probably more true to life.

I think what something like the expanse does really well.

I'm quite obsessed with the expense.

You do get the feeling of the boredom of space. but not as a viewer.

[24:16]

Well, I mean, the expanse does just digression because I could talk about this for hours as well.

The expanse spends ages slowing ships down.

They're coming towards planets the wrong way round and firing thrusters because they're slowing down.

Whereas the enterprise just goes, stop.

Got really good breaks.

Well, I mean, it's something, I guess, is something we picked up on before is um, why is there not someone permanently set, sat in the teleport bay waiting for them to get into danger, because every week they get into danger and need teleporting as an emergency, and even if they've gone off station, just have someone just, oh, Kelly, just pop over to the teleport.

Yeah, get ready because they're probably in trouble.

Why can't they just get a cable?

But Aurac.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because that's what they usually do, isn't it?

They never quite think that out because you've got the teleport station nowhere near.

Not, not, it's still quite clear, is it?

[25:18]

And sometimes all rights operating it, and sometimes Auracs operating it from the flight deck.

And sometimes I think some of them are operating it from the flight deck, it's all very shady, and then sometimes you've got filler sitting there on the spot.

And the plot light in rumours, the plot hangs on him, not taking the uh, rival coordinates.

You go, I've never heard of these in...

2.5 years of meticulously over watching this show.

Did that?

When did that pop up?

They love a bit of movement, don't they?

when a call comes in when they're on the flight deck.

I would not call it the console room.

We're all on the flight deck.

And when the beaver goes and someone's sending them a transmission, someone has to run from behind their big chairs at the back and run down the front to get it before the answer machine kicks in.

It's like, but it creates movement, doesn't it?

And that's what they'd tell us.

That's what they're producing.

It's the same with the neutral masters.

Everything is one of those cream sofas.

Well, you want to be firing in a wall in comfort, don't you, on the sofa rather than the very uncomfortable liberated chairs.

[26:23]

And the, what you try and do is when you, when you spend far too much imaginative space in these places, you try and wreck on it so it works like so the, all the slap and that kind of thing.

Um, and you think, well, something happened that means that they're, uh, that their technology has kind of retrode in some way.

Did, did something.

Why have they got these giant?

Oh, you know why they've got these giant 60s computers and no internet?

Of course we know why.

But is there a way that it's, people talk about the kind of, when you're explaining a problem in a text.

You go for a doilist explanation, which goes, well, that's because X hadn't been invented.

Yeah, because you're in the real universe.

Or you go for a Watsonian explanation, which is where you try and explain it within the parameters of the universe.

Yes.

Doyle would explain it one way, but Watson is in frame.

Um, so I try and think, well, what happened?

whatever apocalypse, did it, did it wipe out?

Did it wipe out?

Every, was it like the burn or something and they couldn't?

[27:25]

They had to completely reinvent computing technology.

Uh, and and they didn't have any digital stuff.

I don't know.

I don't know enough.

You saw me trying to fix my headphones earlier.

I don't know.

But you try and you try and re- why have they gone back to valves, basically?

A really big chunky car phones in the case of Travis.

I mean, Chloe's underground, but that phone is amazing.

It's something from Calhoun Warehouse, 1979, isn't it?

But of course, but anyone watching at the time would see it as like a World War 2 field radio, really, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly that.

So, yeah.

Battlestar Galactica do that in real time, don't they?

But in the reboot by having it in the plot that we can't use radio communications or none of our computers can be networked.

So that means you've got shots of people clutching phones, talking to people at the other end of the ship on the big chunky ship phone, a bit like Travis's.

It will be really interesting to see how when and how quickly and in what way something like the expanse dates, actually.

[28:27]

Uh, Will we go, whoa, that's so 2021.

Exactly.

If you look at if you look at some of the 1st season episodes where they had a little bit less money, it's like, oh, that is a green screen, you know, or something, but, uh, well, we still, you know, could they could still do the last 3 books. never know.

But particularly, I'm thinking of the, because I really love them, like they've got, they've got things like tablets, something between a mobile phone and a tablet, haven't they?

They're beautiful and see-through, and they're really, I think they, and they look fantastic now.

But 5 years, what they're going to look like.

And it's always those little personal devices like the pads in DS9 that they've got a great big stack of them.

It's like one book is on every single thing or one report.

Here are my reports.

Yeah, exactly.

No, because it is 1995.

Where's the expanse of, as you say, have gone, well, let's make these screens that sort of pop out and project into air.

[29:28]

So that when that is invented, it looked like we did invent, like all this stuff's popping out of the rice and stuff like that.

Whereas, as you say, you've got Travis with a giant phone he shouts into.

Um, uh, yeah, I'm not sure about some of the delivery of his lines in this episode either.

He feels a little bit worn out.

It's like he's trying something different every week.

This week he's sort of trying to be more Jacqueline Piercy almost. but shoutier.

I don't know where he can, he can go with it because there's a bit where he, in his 1st scene, he walks up to the king and he literally says, ha, ha, ha, like just saying the word, the word ha.

And it's like, did the script say he laughs?

But Jacqueline Pierce has got that vamp energy, which, bless him, he just doesn't really have in his DNA because I think that's something that very few of his really got.

He's criminally underdirected, isn't he, in his 1st Yeah, doesn't doesn't he and the director have got a real beef against each other.

[30:30]

So he's, he's criminally underdirected in stuff.

I think the director is pretty much ignoring him, wasn't he?

in his in his 1st appearance.

So it's a bit of a rocky, a rocky starts for Brian because he's great in other stuff.

I seen him in other stuff and he's brilliant.

He pops up in Andy Robinson's memoir.

Uh, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mates at Lambda in the in the 60s.

So there you go.

I bring everything back to you.

Very good.

There you go.

Um, Well, I assume it's a, a, a, you know, I assume it's the same Brian Croucher.

So, it's a common name.

We should ask next time, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But he's some...

Yeah, so I think it's because because Stephen Griff has got this sort of um, Feline, uh, energy, hasn't he, sort of, um, sort of, uh, he's, he's sort of coldly, um, silkily amoral.

Um, and poor O'Brien.

I think has to come in and shout.

I mean, it's ridiculous making it the same character.

Yeah. for one thing.

[31:30]

It's just, it's just, I don't know what they were thinking.

Um, And then I think he never, uh, uh, I mean, I really love his speech and trial.

I think it's, you know, Yeah.

Yeah, that's his finest moment, really, isn't it?

Yeah, and he's got that kind of shouting lunacy.

You've got burning, heck, this, you wouldn't put this guy.

Anywhere near weapons, would you?

There's going to be a massacre.

Um, I think he's really great in that, see.

I love that. love that speech.

But he never quite finds it, does he?

It sort of hovers between that sort of dangerous, quiet voice and the big shouting scream.

Well, there is the other voice from voices from the past.

God, why do we watch this program?

No, you just said that with the exact tone that Jacqueline Pierce has a couple of her lines in this episode.

And it exactly resonates with what you were saying earlier about there being a character who has that modern mentality of, oh my god, why am I putting up with all this?

[32:32]

And that is very much where Servesland is.

So I guess he can't, Travis can't do that too.

So what can, yeah.

Yeah, he's trying to move around it and find a way to lock into it that doesn't, then there just isn't anything to do because she's just owning it so much.

Because, well, I've always, so going back, so for me, this rewatch has been the, I don't know seasons one or 2 very well at all.

I didn't see them when I was a kid.

I saw them once in the 90s, and so this is me revisiting them properly, quite freshly.

And seeing how Servoland develops from this steely politician to, by this point, she knows she's the star of this show.

She knows she's in it because everyone wants Servoland to be in this episode.

Soverland doesn't really have much to do in this episode.

Um, and and at the end.

Where is she?

She's just still there, isn't she?

She just has a, she has that final scene with Jenna, about 10 minutes before the end, telling her that she, she doesn't think Travis will betray her, although she doesn't care if she does.

She's still in that tent waiting for Gola to show up.

So I'm sure that'll all be a drink next week.

Yeah, yeah, where's my ship?

[33:33]

Where are my grapes, Sonny, more grapes.

Yeah.

Yeah, me too.

I mean, she's, we know where she is at the start of the next episode, don't we?

She's, uh, maybe it's like at the adventure game.

She's waiting for the bus.

The space bus to take her home.

Like the cat bus in tottero or something.

A little huge Blowfell's white cat kind of rocks up and takes several, I know.

I can picture her face.

Exactly.

We do need to do a podcast on Paul Darrow's adventure game episode.

Yes.

Yes, that is trippy as far.

He's really sweet in it.

Does he do a real A on turn at one point?

He's very sweet in it.

I love that show.

It stands out surprisingly well actually.

We watched summer a couple months ago and it popped up on Britbox, didn't it?

Yes.

Yeah.

And it's, uh, it's, it's, I, I think it probably went incredibly dated and now it's kind of, they're quite good puzzles and they're, they're really good fun.

[34:41]

Yeah, you need to watch that after school.

Take me back.

But it took me a while.

I watched a couple when they came up on when they on BritBox. and um, they uh, it took me a while to realise that one of the contestants each week is just a member of the public.

I was like looking these people up on IMDb and being like, well, who is this person?

Why is she there with a blue Peter presenter and just write this random woman or man?

It's just some random, yeah.

So I was reading, I think it was Neil Perman and Sue Perman's book, um, and Sue Perman's idea that, um, Could Avon be the new Travis and team up with Servilan?

I thought that was a nice, what would that, an interesting twist, even for a while.

We get it.

We get it teased, don't we, in a couple of episodes when they're on Sarin, don't we?

Um, so we get that, we get the 1st of a series of clinches.

Imagination my only limit, yeah.

Um, I think they've got a real, um, there's a, there's a wonderful picture, photograph of um, Paul and Jackie when they're a little bit older.

[35:45]

I think they're both in their, um, They're both in the early 50s, I think, and they're doing a servilan and even clinch.

Um, And they've got, I think they've got a real Anthony and Cleopatra energy.

Yeah.

Right.

That's a real, you know, if you're making Blake 7 now, you'd maybe, you'd maybe play it like that with, um, Blake as, you know, Octavius or something, you'd probably go for something like that.

But I think they could have.

It's a wonderful photograph if I've got it somewhere.

Um, but uh, they're just a little bit older, but they're still really glamorous. yeah?

Um, But they're not Hollywood glamorous.

Yeah, you can kind of see lines and age.

It's a, it's a bit sort of um, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Cain.

Yeah.

Burton.

Someone else, I think, was saying, Rich, like he does play it as Richard Burton.

And so every time I watch where Eagles Dare, I'm just expecting, you know, Richard Burton to sort of do the thing with the gun that Avon does. teleport now, you know?

[36:47]

Yeah.

Um, so I would have, I would have been up for that.

But of course, they weren't really writing like 7 like that, were they?

They weren't they weren't writing these long arcs.

Holy cow, we've got a gap where tearing us together these scripts and Chris is already written 15 and he's not allowed to do that because we're not supposed to do that on BBC because of union rules.

So got a quick ring up Alan Pryor, see what he can do next week.

Cliff and Jane Baker must have been the next choice.

They were they were plan eggs.

I mean, it's amazing really that we get so much character work as it is, which is quite rare for series in the 70s.

The characters do change and develop and that Chris, you do feel Chris Boucher is keeping an eye on where they all are and what's happened to them all. even in a sort of vague way and the actors are obviously playing on this as well because there is continuity between them and their relationships.

So that's always something I feel lifts Blake 7 up above the other shows of the time, really.

[37:51]

That's the theatre training they've all got, isn't it?

that they're all, that they, what they've been trained to do is to be part of a company.

Um, and to work this together in rehearsal.

So, um, which must have been so frustrating for people like John Chappell and and selling Ivette to not really.

You, you, there's, there's some, there, uh, if the lines aren't there, there's really nothing you can do, and both of them get so much out of, uh, reaction shots, you know, they're, they're really putting the work in.

Uh, to have some presence there.

But I think that theatre training and that reaction, um, that kind of another rehearsal time is very brief.

But that must be really what's putting that energy on screen, I think.

Um, and can we just have a shout out for Michael Keating, who I think is like a criminally underrated accent.

It's just amazing.

He's always great.

He's always great and they give him some real, you know, rubbish sometimes.

But he always brings it, but there's always brilliant.

[38:52]

They're definitely darning up a bit more of the humour as well, which is good to see, even with the magic tricks and stuff.

And you've just reminded me of one of one bit where the court jester perfectly imitates his voice and I was like, wait, is he an, is he an Android of Tara?

Or, you know, it was that was like...

No, but it's cool. yeah you're right.

And they work together really well.

Villa and the guy playing the fool really have worked things out together.

Like there's the bit where and where they both get carried away.

I mean, it's done very over the top, but where they carried away and taken down below.

Uh, and that they both shout, oh, I did nothing wrong.

I did nothing wrong in exactly the same tone of voice as the other one does.

Just, yeah.

Yeah, and I like, I, I liked the sort of little attention to detail that Villa's magic tricks call back to Space Fall, and then I pull forward again, when, when we get to sarcophagus.

That's his big skill is the conjuring tricks.

So it's all that just that tiny little thing that they're just playing on that he does have this skill.

[39:54]

So actually he would work well as the fall here.

So yeah, it's probably inadvertently done and you just making connections that weren't made at the time, but it's all there.

Yep.

And or Alan Pryor remembers something, wasn't he?

Oh, isn't there something in a script?

there's a script somewhere.

There's a draft of a script somewhere, which is, or did it, did it get to the, um, The syndeton experiment or something that Villa's constantly eating?

Somebody's, somebody's latched onto that as a.

Yeah, that's a big thing in the radio plays, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Somebody's kind of.

Someone's misremembered.

Yeah, it's not, it's not eating.

It's drinking.

It's Midori in the 1st few seasons and then it's like rosé wine from series D. He gets that Villa gets that lovely bit of the interplay between Villa and Jenner is really good, isn't it?

Because they know that the 2 of them are stranded here and they're not and they're separated and she will do everything to get him back.

So she's got an ally and sets up the, you know, pretend fakes being poisoned so that the real the fool will be taken away.

[40:58]

And then he gets that lovely bit of line about the ring, the ring being liberated, with a break below and a Blake, a Blake below, right?

Blake below.

She didn't know.

Yeah, doesn't it's not subtle?

It's not subtle.

What?

Villa, what are you saying?

You've been on the new key brown again, Villa.

And there's a lovely bit that I noticed this time that I hadn't noticed before of when, when, um, Gola is asking for more wine, and Villa's holding out his goblet, and then he's passed over both times the wine goes backwards and forwards, and he just looks so, so crestfallen at that.

And I put a 1000 quid on that not being scripted.

That's something they've worked up in rehearsal.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah.

And the direct's gone.

Great.

Yeah, we'll shoot that because, you know, I didn't know how I was going to shoot this other than to make it a really rubbish and static.

I really want a drink now.

[41:59]

Adrenaline is so bad.

That's only after midday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we're all in the UK on this episode.

It's very unfair when we're recording with half of us in Australia because for them it's like midnight and they're having a lovely evening.

We're sad. at 9 AM on a Saturday.

Yeah, yeah, but their evening will be over first.

You've still got...

Yeah, exactly.

The day is young for us.

I only, I, for the 1st time, I googled Alan Pryor because I didn't know much about him at all before doing this.

And I did not know at all what a what a complete stalwart of TV schedules he was from like the 50s, right through to the 80s.

Over a 100 episodes of Zed cars written.

And, um, uh, and co-creator of Howard's Way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, he's absolutely solid BBC.

There'll be loads of stuff like softly softly as well, won't there?

But, yeah.

I went to, so the BBC have a written archive in Caversham, which is the kind of mecca for A certain type of television, afficionado.

[43:04]

And it's it's one of the nicest places in the world. and it's where they keep all the, all the bureaucracy.

All the files, all the requests for, you know, um, uh, All the contracts, yeah, uh, all the, all the requests for small pieces of um, prop and that kind of thing. all the receipts for all the sandwiches that they ate while they were filming the garlic master plan.

Pretty much, yeah.

But none of the Darlic must have done.

Yeah, yeah.

Exactly that.

We kept all the paperwork. because we'll need that. not the actual content.

And you can request it by show and there are sort of, I think there are sort of maybe 3 or 4 Blake 7 files.

Um, and then Alan Pryors is a is a massive start because there's all the stuff about the contracts and and it's just absolutely huge.

And my, my favourite treasures are um, There's the sheet music for Dana's song.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, which is I nearly cried when I saw that.

[44:04]

This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

I think it presumably it's written titanically.

Um, And then the absolute joy of Ben Steed's uh, file, which is a series of very, very, very, good god, they coach that man so hard.

Uh, it, it's sort of letters explaining why, why his stuff is really quite bad.

But in a way that will encourage him.

I taught creative writing for a long time and I recognised exactly that kind of response.

I've written that to a very, very, very nice.

Young person whom I've not wanted to discourage or upset.

But I've really wanted to kind of say you need to think very differently about how you're approaching this.

And bless them. you know, he gets some scripts on screen, doesn't he?

Miraculously.

Um, but Alan Pryors, yeah, like you say, it's, it's, it's just a, uh, an absolute stock, he'd be absolutely solid.

[45:07]

Um, he would be the person that you would drink up and say, Christ, Alan, I'm absolutely stuffed.

Um, can you do something?

And it will have, you know, um, It will have an opening fight scene of, you know, uh, cod mediaeval people, uh, running around and hitting people with clubs, and it will have some waha ha-has.

Um, But, but actually, like I, like I say, you kind of dig a bit with a keeper and um, there's, there's loads of fun stuff and and the main thing is the actors bringing it.

Yep.

I think it's missing just Ken Masters showing up in a mini metro to beat people up.

And you have now established BBC Caversham as Star One and Nadine Doris as Blake.

Oh my god, I would, I mean, there are many things I would march for, but touching the written archive at Caversham, I think there's a, there's a sort of, um, there's a subset of very quiet, very, very gentle TV researchers, who I think would come out. to protect the retinal archive at Carrisham.

[46:14]

It's the most incredible place.

I'm swinging a job.

I didn't get.

Oh no. would have been in heaven.

Just up the road really, isn't it?

It is just up the road.

It's the most peaceful place.

They've got rid of the so it's these these little sort of 40s huts, isn't it?

Yeah.

And then they used to have that huge hall as well, but I think the BBC have got rid of that.

When I went the 1st time, you kind of, you get a little piece of paper that was your permission to go into the, um, the cafe, at the big hall up the road, which was, um, I don't had BBC Reading or whatever it was, I don't know, but BBC something.

But they've got rid of that place now haven't they?

The BBC had had that for ages.

They'd had it all through the 40s, I think.

Old stately home.

Um, But it's it's an amazing place.

Use it or lose it.

I've just Googled it and it says something like BBC sells Caversham after 4 years on the market or something like that.

So, yeah, Captain Park.

[47:15]

That's the big old stately house, but the written archive.

So that would, that was a, that was a sort of broadcasting.

I think they did broadcaster and that. such a shame because it, yeah, they'd had it forever.

It's that, you know, um, but the written archive is set a little bit off and it's these sort of little huts, uh, and and they've got all the all the stuff stuff there.

I mean, it's a major um British archive.

It's, like I say, it's all the paperwork.

It's not it's not any of the sort of visual or audio stuff.

Like you say, they've torched all that.

But it's, you plenty a day out.

Yeah.

Yeah, you have to, you sort of have to, um, yeah, you've got, you've got to, you've got to write and get permission to visit and, um, sort of, have a credible reason to go.

Okay.

They're very... podcast, damn it.

We're, we're researching Blake 7, you could, we've got to try that.

That's what I tried.

When I emailed, there was, well, I was at university at the time, so it was, I was trying to do a book up like something, didn't come together.

[48:16]

Um, uh, they were, uh, I think the person who answered my email was a massive blake, 7 pound.

She said I'll get you in.

Send you a teleport bracelet.

Yeah, pretty much you could.

Just just seat your...

Well, we could definitely fit you in on that Tuesday.

She wants to go and get the files, have a good sniff through them, so they were brilliant, yeah.

It's my 1st visit to an archive like that.

You really get the bug.

So, um, that's sheet music.

Bless.

There's a little bit of a sort of mystery plot, you know, it's a, I think, if you're, if you're 7 year old, 7 years old, Monday night or whatever it was, you're in your pyjamas, you've got, got permission to stay for watch bike 7.

Completely You know, this would deliver.

You'd have enjoyed that week's Blake 7.

And the week before you'd been the best thing you'd ever seen.

And then you've got Star one, you know, you're going to be happy, aren't you?

And it's got that lovely final shot.

But lovely final shot of when they're on the bridge, the camera just sort of zooms up and dips down.

[49:18]

I can't quite describe it. a quick camera movement, but it just gives the impression of the liberators zooming off.

I don't think they're done.

They all tilts, don't they?

They'll revert to move in.

Who is the director of this one?

It's Derek Martinez from...

Oh, he's sorry.

Yeah, he's been around about 1000000 years, hasn't he?

Yeah, and he'd done trial earlier in the season.

So, yeah, he's done pretty good.

Safe pair of hands kind of is what you need, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly.

We need 51 minutes of television, please.

Everybody help.

We're all out of tinsel, but we've got a bit of nihilism left over, so that will...

It's always a bit of nihilism in the can.

Got to have your ultimate Vake 7 quote on an episode with you on, you know.

Yeah, I think I think a, it's a, it's a riff on, um, uh, it's a rice called Lois, that's Bujold.

I really like, and she talks about the, uh, the glittering, um, tinsel of space fascism or something, and then a friend of mine, um, a very old friend of mine and I kind of, we're giggling about this and sort of riff that one up together and, uh, yeah, uh, tinsel and nihilism.

[50:30]

It is what it is, isn't it?

That's that's not Doctor Who.

You wouldn't think of Doctor Who's to...

I mean, literally in sarcophagus.

Yeah.

Yeah, and Gambit, yeah.

They don't and they don't give 2 hoots about the repercussions on these people on Goth at the end, do they?

Blake, they get the information and they just bugger off.

I mean, yeah.

I mean, they don't like them anyway.

The jester guy sort of looks up and goes, oh, excuse me.

I was the main character in this story.

I'm glad you have to save the universe.

There's no prime directive operating here.

It's in and out.

Destroy them.

Get out.

Yep.

And on with luck to Star one.

That's a great line.

That's cracker, isn't it?

And it's Jenna who gets it again.

It really is Jenna week, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's just last.

Yeah, long overdue. and she's in her fantastic Susie Quattro leathers, which just are just the most kickass and fantastic question.

[51:31]

You had the whole thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is her best costume by far.

I quite, I quite like the, the, the, quilted one, the pastels one that she has right at the start.

She's got some suede trousers with that one as well, isn't she?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some great, yeah, but that's her best outfit by far.

I think I saw, I think I saw that go up for auction.

They auctioned a load of stuff off in the mid 90s and I loaded like 7 costumes, um, came under the hammer at Bonham's and um, that was one of them.

But I'm sure it's, it's been a, it must have turned up a convention or something, I'm sure.

Yeah.

Um, they're all in safe hands.

So, thank you very much for listening, everyone, and we'll be back next week with Star One.

Thank you very much for listening and good night.

Okay, bye.

Bye bye.

Bye.

[52:37]

Switching to manual.

Maximum power on all drives.

Maximal power.