WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:02:44

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Maximum power.

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Hello and welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast that can't find that piece of paper where we wrote down the address for Groff's wife and kids.

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I suppose it matters.

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I'm Nathan.

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I'm Adam.

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I'm James.

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And I'm Peter, and I'm in hell, and it's full of dawn of the gods.

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Are you telling us you don't like this episode, Peter?

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So many dogs.

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I'm not telling you that.

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So few gods.

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So I think this is really incredibly weird.

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And one of the things that I was doing the whole time was just checking the clock and not because I was bored, but I just wanted to see how completely lopsided it is.

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It's kind of got an A plot and then a B plot, basically.

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It's very odd.

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And it's like a bottle episode and then, oh, no, we'll go to a different studio.

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We'll do it all in the one studio in the week.

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No, we'll do another one.

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Then get someone to paint weird flowers all over the black walls.

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It's super bizarre.

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When where do we go?

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Where do we go for the film?

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Is it healing or something?

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we know?

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Some kind of warehouse.

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Yeah, it's very strange.

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Wherever they could fit in the dodger, basically.

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But I have to say that I have a very strong memory of watching this for the 1st time, and I don't think it was when, like, we were watching it as kids.

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I think it might have been just before they started all coming out on video and I had a friend who had them all and stuff.

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And I remember this episode being quite scary and I've never actually shaken that and I know it seems ridiculous.

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But I actually really quite like this one.

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And it's like 25 minutes of kind of space cramp, space non-spatials, and then spatials. and then 20 minutes of growff and that guy and then 20 minutes of playing dress-ups in the BBC historical cupboard.

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Great, too.

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I mean yeah, yeah.

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And like, I like the space stuff.

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I think that you can't really be a Blake 7 fan and not like just ludicrous space stuff that goes on for hours and hours.

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And we talked about that last week, didn't we, in volcano where the space stuff was there and was more successful than the rest of everything else.

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I think those early scenes, which start off with the space monopolies and then sort of the gathering tension.

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Why the liberators going off course.

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They're really pretty good, I think.

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You get a sense that this crew has a bit more fun than they had when that martinet Blake was around.

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I know.

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I do love that they've given Terrence all Blake's old shirts.

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So we at least think he's like, if you weren't paying close attention.

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It's like, he seems to have lost weight.

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But anyway.

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They've all been taken in.

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So Blake used to keep the space monopoly lock. so that they would concentrate.

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No adrenaline and so my cocktails for them.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So, I mean, it looks pretty great.

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I like to think of his spemnopoly.

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Bemopoly.

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Yeah.

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I like those early things.

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I think they work pretty well, actually.

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In fact, I watched Dawn of the Gods last night, followed by Schindler's list.

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So it was a night of soj drama.

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Wow.

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But you know, I don't dislike this.

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It's not very good, but it's unusual enough to be diverting.

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And I don't think I don't generally mind when Blake 7 goes into fantasy rather than sci-fi.

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So I like the web.

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I don't mind Gambit sarcophagus, so it's not a problem for me, really.

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I just, I'm quite tired of Blake 7 having an ending which is like, oh, we'll probably see that monster again.

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No, you wouldn't, you won't.

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No.

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This is a 3 series we've had of this, and none of them have come back.

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It's like all of those people who Blake promised to come back and help.

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How did that work out?

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It's like stop putting that in the script. wondering what the fuck happened and sitting on morphenial going, where is everyone?

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So I think the space stuff is sort of properly tense.

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It does rely on the computers being stupid, which, like whatever, this is Blake 7.

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And so, you know, he, it's acting as normal if there's a big ass black hole nearby, but we don't mention that bit.

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You know, we just say it's acting as normal and all of that.

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And it sort of implied that what Aurak, as usual, is kind of getting them into this scrape so that he can analyse.

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He gets data and stuff.

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Isn't that kind of what they're terrified that AI is going to destroy the world with by just not being upfront with what it's doing because you haven't asked the right questions.

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It's going to be writing substandard science fiction television scripts at the press of a button.

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It's Orac GPT.

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Or activity.

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Yes, whatever AI does.

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I think it's going to steer the earth into a black hole.

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Good dry.

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Anyway, or I didn't steer it into a black hole.

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They just went in a slingshot.

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Yes.

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And they were fine.

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But I, do you know, one of the things that I love too.

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And I don't think Blake's ever gets enough credit for this.

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But all of the sort of yell, the nonsense that they yell, like the commands, you know, they clear the neutron blasters for firing and put up the radiation flare shields.

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Which Dana doesn't do.

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And so Zen has to step in and do it for her.

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I love all that.

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And the force wall and like all of that stuff is so superb.

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Like just the words that are chosen.

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But she's also pushing lots of buttons whilst telling him what to do.

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It's like either push the buttons or tell the ship to do it for you.

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But why are you pushing buttons whilst the ship is, is, doing the auto, the auto sort of attack thing?

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It's bizarre.

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Is it a game of breakout that she's got going on the console or something?

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Like what?

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Yeah, I think she's she's still in the middle of the space Monopoly game.

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Totally making her move while no one else is looking.

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But also, have you noticed that when they do put up the, put up the force wall, they no longer have to go round to that little bit at the front and press the button, like Avon used to.

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It's just something which is done.

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Oh, you could have voice control it.

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They created a Siri shortcunt and it just sort of operated.

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Oh, forgotten.

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When they instructed Sen to recognise all of their voice prints at the end of Star one before they evacuated.

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They said, also, can you do this little thing so that we don't have to walk around the front and turn on the force wall all the time?

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Yeah.

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We have to keep pressing buttons going over to places and pressing buttons like a fucking animal.

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Like, just do it. climb across a couch to get to the button for the force wall.

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So they invented they invented Siri like 35 years early.

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Yeah.

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Well, the talking computer, I guess that's in Star Trek, but the genius of Blake 70s, that it has a sort of stupid character, which is really terrifying.

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I just think that's awesome.

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Actually, the genius of Blake 7 has not one, but 2 talking characters.

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And so in an episode like this, they can talk to each other and it's really great.

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It'll be much better.

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It'll be much better than in series D where spoilers.

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They just bitch at each other.

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And are they still all played by the same people in series D?

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Yeah, they are.

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I like those early scenes.

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I think they're pretty good and I like the way the mystery develops and I like all the technobabble that's being thrown about.

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I like the fact that Terrence started to be an asshole, which he hasn't really been up to this point.

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I think we need to create some frames of reference here because I know there's a black hole that's part of the story, but we also need to, you know, make sure we're not talking about the black holes in the plot.

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And the personality that Tarrant seems to have developed.

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He's doing a little minor Blake, and it's this very, very strange scene where I don't know what's going on.

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So we, we're flinging around what we, we think, we're slingshotting around what we think is a black hole, but isn't.

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And even putting on a space suit because he thinks that will protect him from the effects of gravity, perhaps.

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Like, I don't know.

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I think he can... pop out of dealership or something?

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don't know And why why does Terrence kill the need to lie on him, like a man blanket?

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We all go.

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We're all going.

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Like, it's just the most kind of limp and pathetic excuse to get some drama happening.

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And then we just sort of shrug it off because we're mad and we forget about it.

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They have a little bit of a laugh with each other about it afterwards.

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But I mean, is Terrence Motto really, if not everyone can be saved, then no one should be saved.

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I mean, I can see why he flunked out of officer training.

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And like eventually we just say, I'll leave Cal.

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Just leave her.

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It's too slow.

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So like it's clearly not a very firmly held principle.

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I don't quite know what's going on One of the things about these early scenes, which I like is that they don't trust each other.

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The dynamics have not been set yet. and so Tarrant and Dana both have a go at Cali and everyone's having a go at Tarrant.

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It's quite interesting.

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I like this new diamond.

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I love them being suspicious of Kelly because, you know, we do see her using her powers not for good.

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And I'm like, oh, yeah, you should have been suspicious of her for at least 3 seasons now.

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Like, why just now?

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They should have been, they should have been suspicious of us since she clunked Villa over their head with that spanner in the web.

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Yeah, they forgave that pretty quickly.

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So are we on our way to Aron?

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Because children of Aron's coming up sometime soon.

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And it sounded like we were on our way to our own, but that was just because we have an hour on thing happening kind of later.

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And it seemed to me that that children of our on effect of the dialogue here, because you remember, like when they're in the, when we hear the uh, backstory for whatever the farm is and it's a sort of fairy tale.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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It's like 7 gods came and then they came back and they liked everything.

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Then there were 1000000s of years and yes, and whatever.

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It just felt like 1000000s of years.

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Not just a really dull backstory, but all told in MCU by Jane Chapel, who looks like she's about to fall asleep, sorry.

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Wearing an ostie frog.

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It's great.

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I love the outfit.

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It's so good But she, she, um, she says, and telepathy was promised, and because then, of course, we're going to get children of our own, which radically alters the kind of backstory.

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And so that, I think, has affected that dialogue.

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Like the voucher's gone, actually we need to change that.

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It's quite weird, I think, because one of the things that I like about this episode is the fun.

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I mean, it's not very artfully done, but it adds to the mystery of our and it feels like it comes from the same backstory that gave us Kelly's alien origins and those pithy little proverbs that she kept coming out with.

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But it's another example of how this season, which is my favourite season. doesn't really stay very focussed because then you get children of our on, and this does not square at all with that kind of airport control tower clones from that story.

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It's quite it's quite odd.

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I mean, we've observed before that the show can't get a kind of consistent take on the Federation and that's the chief feeling.

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So it's unsurprising.

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But I agree with you, Peter.

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I did like, like, I don't think Terry Nation quite knows what he's doing when he says we can have an alien character and stuff like that and she's an alien.

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Like why?

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And she just looks like everyone else and she can sort of talk inside people's heads.

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And like that, that's a sort of high concept thing that they actually rarely use and probably didn't actually need.

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Um, But as we said last week, like as a child, it was kind of like, oh, that's right.

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They've made Kelly do her voices on that thing that's so exciting because we know she can do that.

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And, you know, it kind of spoils it a little bit because then, you know, we have, 0 my god, there are actual aliens at the end of series 2 and they kind of beat the shit out of us.

186
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And then in series 3, we just find out they're not really aliens after all, but they're just another group of people in kind of white...

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Yeah, like humans that have been in space for a long, long, long, long time.

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I mean, that's the weird sort of setting of these stories, isn't it?

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It's like, what is it?

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the 3rd calendar or something like that.

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Second century, but...

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Yes, undefined kind of future time, which, you know, might be, you know, might be sort of 200 years in the future, might be next Thursday. 10,000 years in the future.

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On a week next Thursday.

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It's, yeah, I found the whole thing a little too, I don't know, too bitsy, like, it's, it's kind of like you're like, oh, cool, we've got a momentum going on and then it's like, oh, no, we're going to drop that.

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Like, you know, there's the whole thing with Avon putting on the spacesuit and you're like, ooh, this is a dramatic moment and then it's like, oh, let's have a little funny scene about how Villa won't ever put on a space set, oh, now he's in the space.

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It's like, was it just like, oh, it's a space story.

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I better have spacesuit, and then I'll just pop another spacesuit referencing.

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They can chop one out.

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It's really kind of badly done, isn't it?

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Because that joke, that fucking joke that has, you know, needs to be done.

201
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I think they need to be kind of international treaties of some kind because it's really been done quite a lot even by kind of 19.

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Oh, look, it's a huge, like, I feel like it's a staple of the Marvel cinematic universe, that joke, isn't it?

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But you have to do a quick cut.

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The thing is that he just blathers on and then kind of fades out and we crossfade slowly to him in the like there's no surprise.

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Yeah, no one understands that it's supposed to be a surprise.

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It's an analogue for the momentum of the episode, yeah, being aware. over the top of him putting on the helmet.

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They haven't mixed the sound properly.

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Oh, wow, this is, how did you mess that joke up?

209
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So it's poor old Des from last week.

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It's Desmond McCarthy, who directed Volcano and nothing else, apart from this.

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Didn't even direct Volcan.

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Well, no.

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And then this is by James Follett, who will come back next year to write Star Drive.

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Hooray.

215
00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:11.820
We have a massive soft spot for because it's so terrible.

216
00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.120
Has anyone ever heard of search?

217
00:16:15.179 --> 00:16:16.080
Oh, yeah, he did that.

218
00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:17.399
Isn't James Follett?

219
00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:22.259
Oh, but doesn't didn't he write like airport novels or something or did I dream that?

220
00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:23.879
I think if you're thinking the other followed.

221
00:16:24.179 --> 00:16:27.360
There's another one. follow it did.

222
00:16:27.419 --> 00:16:28.559
Yeah, followed it.

223
00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:29.100
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

224
00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:31.259
Ultra World.

225
00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:32.940
Yeah, no, that's James Follett.

226
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.639
This is James Folly based off. his kicks and work.

227
00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:39.299
He actually changes his name by deed pole.

228
00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:46.259
He's so embarrassed by this episode and comes back as Jim follows in Star Drive.

229
00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:52.080
So this is the sort of, this is the sort of backstory that you don't get in the Blake 7 fandom.

230
00:16:52.139 --> 00:16:54.720
Because we made it up like chat GPT.

231
00:16:56.220 --> 00:17:06.059
There's also a point there where you've got to wonder whether anyone was doing the Foley.

232
00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:22.920
But maybe they got confused and so nobody did the additional sound because there's there's bits where there should be like footsteps and, you know, dropping of equipment, which is just blank, blank, dead sound.

233
00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:25.859
Even in the ship, even in the ship.

234
00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:40.079
I think it's deliberate because there's, there is actually a really good moment where he's hanging from the, the ship and he goes, I don't know how far I have to fall, and then he drops a spanner, which just stops immediately.

235
00:17:40.140 --> 00:17:46.259
Like, it just, you know, demonstrates that he's, and then he just sort of drops to the ground. don't even see that.

236
00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:51.000
And there's no sound because I think that we're supposed to think there's no air.

237
00:17:51.059 --> 00:17:53.579
And they think that there's no air.

238
00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:54.839
So it's cheating, right?

239
00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:57.960
But, you know, you can see why they're doing it.

240
00:17:58.019 --> 00:17:58.619
Yeah.

241
00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:01.019
I was following logical progression there.

242
00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:03.960
I love that Tarrant has to tell him to drop something.

243
00:18:04.380 --> 00:18:07.619
I'd love to know which bit the Liberator landed on.

244
00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:12.059
Is it actually sitting on its bottom themselves, in which case, where does Villa drop from?

245
00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:13.140
Is it sitting on its end?

246
00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.460
Is it sitting on the prongs?

247
00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:14.819
Who knows?

248
00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:16.319
Yeah, that is weird.

249
00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:20.880
Or does black space grow out at angles to the ship?

250
00:18:20.940 --> 00:18:25.019
Maybe it's balanced on the green orb at the end, which does Kelly's hair.

251
00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:37.500
We sometimes see, because we sometimes see it, like, isn't it in, like, in a thing in redemption, like, in that space station thing.

252
00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:41.519
Isn't it like held by, there's some episode where it's held by Prong.

253
00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:42.900
It's in Ultra World.

254
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:44.759
Oh, it's in Ultraworld.

255
00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:45.539
Of course it is.

256
00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:47.940
Looking forward to that. awesome.

257
00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:49.140
Don't, Nathan.

258
00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:53.819
Yeah, so yeah.

259
00:18:53.880 --> 00:19:03.480
I mean, that's the cool thing about it is that it is an like an undefined space that looks just like an unlit film studio.

260
00:19:04.140 --> 00:19:06.660
And like, and I'm loving that.

261
00:19:07.019 --> 00:19:09.000
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

262
00:19:09.059 --> 00:19:11.279
Yeah, no, that is absolutely the right way to go.

263
00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:17.519
This episode could only have been made worse by having Villa CSO onto that. of the liberator in the background.

264
00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:22.500
Do you remember the drawing in voice from the past?

265
00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:25.079
brought the drawing back.

266
00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:28.140
No, I think that's fantastic.

267
00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:30.119
And I think the thing with the lights.

268
00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:37.680
The thing with the pulsing lights, like it's cheesy, but you don't know what it is and you've got...

269
00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:39.900
Until you do it, then it's stupid.

270
00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:52.259
And then and then and then that fabulous bit too, where something like a, it looks like something quickly bites the scanner, you know, and and again, you don't see what it is properly.

271
00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:54.720
And like all of that, I thought, was really striking.

272
00:19:54.779 --> 00:19:57.720
Maybe like I was, I don't know.

273
00:19:57.779 --> 00:20:00.359
I just think that's pretty cool.

274
00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:05.460
And I like Blake 7 like you said, Peter, when it goes weird.

275
00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.759
And now that the Federation is destroyed.

276
00:20:08.819 --> 00:20:12.000
I think they've decided they're just going to do that a little bit more.

277
00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:20.279
There's going to be a little bit less going to centero or phosphoron or whatever and, you know, getting a new kind of communicator thing.

278
00:20:20.339 --> 00:20:23.039
We'll just go to kind of weird places and see weird things happen.

279
00:20:23.099 --> 00:20:24.180
And I think that's really great.

280
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.619
I mean, when the thing comes in, it's got a painted mouth with lips and things on it.

281
00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:30.240
Like later, that's just a little bit.

282
00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:31.680
I love that too.

283
00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:46.859
And the little, the little, the little sort of um, yellow antenna on top, fix it, special quick one, those are deep, deep sea fish to connect to the little, the, you know, the grid of electricity on the top of the door.

284
00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:47.579
The dodger.

285
00:20:47.579 --> 00:20:49.319
The dodger.

286
00:20:49.380 --> 00:20:50.819
Nathan, I think you're right.

287
00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:59.759
I think they're sort of doing adventure of the week at this point, which is a bit of an odd decision because they had such a strong and confident start to the season with aftermath and power place.

288
00:20:59.819 --> 00:21:02.880
So to quickly fall into this is a bit like, what are you doing?

289
00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:04.079
And they will come good.

290
00:21:04.140 --> 00:21:08.220
The season starts to get a really good through line as you go on.

291
00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:10.200
But I'm with you.

292
00:21:10.259 --> 00:21:16.920
I think those images are actually pretty arresting and I'm not sold on Desmond McCarthy's direction in general.

293
00:21:16.980 --> 00:21:23.640
I think whatever the script is going for, it's more weird and oddball than what we get on screen.

294
00:21:23.700 --> 00:21:28.740
Um, but I think some of those images pretty good and they are, they are interesting.

295
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:30.839
They're kind of like the stuff of nightmares for kids.

296
00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:34.380
I'm concerned about the costuming issues.

297
00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:37.740
Have you watched Blake's side?

298
00:21:37.799 --> 00:21:41.940
I have seen many weird costumes in Black 7 and I'm more than happy for them.

299
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:49.380
But it just, like, there was, it's almost like there's nothing in the script that says, this is why the caliph should be dressed like this.

300
00:21:50.339 --> 00:22:01.319
And also, I don't know if it was a choice on the actor's behalf, but Groff being dressed like an accountant from, you know, gringots or somewhere.

301
00:22:01.619 --> 00:22:04.319
Why has he chosen to do that accent?

302
00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:09.359
It feels like the most weirdly anti-Semitic moment in the history of Blake 7.

303
00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:10.980
Oh, dear.

304
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:12.720
Who's the guy?

305
00:22:12.779 --> 00:22:14.039
He's Terry Scully.

306
00:22:14.099 --> 00:22:15.240
He's from the seats of death.

307
00:22:15.299 --> 00:22:16.500
Yeah, he's Fuchsia.

308
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:16.859
Yeah, yeah.

309
00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:17.700
Seeds of Death.

310
00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:18.839
Oh, my God.

311
00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:20.460
Also, so he is doing the accent.

312
00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:22.980
Adam, can you call him by his proper name, Jonathan?

313
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:26.579
Jonathan Groff.

314
00:22:26.579 --> 00:22:28.259
Space, John.

315
00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:30.420
I mean, he's the space travel thing.

316
00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:39.599
Yeah, it is, like, so we get, like, we turn up and we decide that we're going wacky for this, um, space.

317
00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:48.720
And I mean, it's a pretty limited, the script has 3 guest parts and one of them's a voice for most of the time.

318
00:22:48.779 --> 00:22:50.279
And then there's...

319
00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:52.440
Turns up in baggy pants and shoelaces.

320
00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:55.559
Which is meant to be terrifying.

321
00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.259
Oh, yeah, yeah.

322
00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:05.220
I don't know what's going on there, but there is something that I like about it, but I think I preferred him in Star Trek is the cage.

323
00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:08.460
Yeah, he's a bum headed alien.

324
00:23:08.579 --> 00:23:12.539
I preferred him as the creature in colony in space.

325
00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:18.000
I mean, speaking of Star Trek, for good or for badge.

326
00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:20.940
You can't imagine Star Trek ever attempting something.

327
00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:22.680
I'll make you 60s.

328
00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:23.460
I'm not sure about that.

329
00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:31.500
Yeah, because I think both 60 Star Trek and some of the modern stuff, like I think 90 Star Trek is determined to look more.

330
00:23:31.559 --> 00:23:35.700
But like the other versions will do silly things.

331
00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:41.700
I have, you know, President Lincoln in space and and the big hand that Graham's the Enterprise.

332
00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:45.359
And you know, actually, now that I think about it, the Thor in Voyager.

333
00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:46.980
Yeah, yeah.

334
00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:48.539
Yeah, that's pretty good.

335
00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:51.359
So this, I mean, we don't I don't know what this is.

336
00:23:51.420 --> 00:23:53.039
It's pretty undercooked.

337
00:23:53.099 --> 00:24:01.140
But it looks like the Than is taking Herculaneum from ships because he needs it to do a thing.

338
00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:03.359
What's the thing?

339
00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:04.259
I don't know what the thing is.

340
00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:08.460
He wants to be president of the universe and everyone has been promised spoils and riches, apparently.

341
00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:11.880
Okay, but the Herculaneum, we need that for one.

342
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.819
Well, there is a line where he says, I'm going to build a new unit.

343
00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:15.480
Oh, that's right.

344
00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:16.259
Okay, good luck.

345
00:24:16.380 --> 00:24:17.220
Out of Herculaneum.

346
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:19.559
It's an indoor universe.

347
00:24:20.039 --> 00:24:24.180
It's like one of those indoor farms. like an indoor pig unit.

348
00:24:25.259 --> 00:24:29.640
And it's the hardest substance in the universe, which I like.

349
00:24:29.700 --> 00:24:34.079
I love a somethingist substance.

350
00:24:34.140 --> 00:24:41.819
I'm worried about the subtext of this, that they've gone into a black hole to find the hardest universe in the... substance in the universe.

351
00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:47.700
It just, I'm just, you know, just write, write your poem somewhere else, James Folland.

352
00:24:50.819 --> 00:24:59.579
So so it's super undercooked, but I have to say that I really like the caliph and his stupid hat.

353
00:24:59.640 --> 00:25:00.960
His punishment.

354
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:01.619
He's a magician.

355
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.759
Yeah, his punishment wand. his neuronic whip.

356
00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:07.559
Yeah, it's so great.

357
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:11.700
It's not a whip, but we don't give a shit because we can't do a whip anyway.

358
00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:16.319
And so it's just a lot... all really great. that's right.

359
00:25:16.380 --> 00:25:22.200
And also, Adam, going back to what you were saying, what is the hardest substance in the universe in a black hole unless you have a whip.

360
00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:24.720
That's it.

361
00:25:24.779 --> 00:25:28.920
So, but I love how he just sort of sidles in when Dana's in there.

362
00:25:28.980 --> 00:25:32.759
Like he meets them on film and it's kind of like, oh, he's an on film kind of guy.

363
00:25:32.819 --> 00:25:35.700
And then suddenly he's in the in the fly.

364
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:37.079
That's a really great scene.

365
00:25:37.140 --> 00:25:38.880
Yes, really good.

366
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:39.599
It's really good.

367
00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:49.619
And actually, it's one of the clever points of this episode that that clever thing where Dana and then Tarrant keep avoiding saying what all that is. actually quite neat.

368
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:55.559
Yeah, I liked that stuff and I loved the, you know, oh, no, there's no such person as already.

369
00:25:57.059 --> 00:26:01.259
A ball should be hard to try.

370
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:09.660
Unfortunately, we're then into a whole bunch of scenes about dynamic flux mathematics, which doesn't matter.

371
00:26:09.660 --> 00:26:10.619
On paper.

372
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:13.140
Yeah.

373
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.420
Yeah, what's what's that?

374
00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:16.859
Like, I don't know what's happening there.

375
00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:19.799
And that is all sort of super boring, but it is over quite quickly.

376
00:26:19.859 --> 00:26:28.920
Like, there's not, we don't spend a lot of time on it, to be fair, because we did have sort of 25 minutes of faffing about before we even got here, and that stuff was sort of fun.

377
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:36.299
And then we got some top quality exposition from Jan in the in the prison cell.

378
00:26:36.359 --> 00:26:41.940
And so the whittering, like, and everyone remembers the the line about this is a finger.

379
00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:43.259
It's for pressing buttons.

380
00:26:43.319 --> 00:26:44.640
It's not for holy pencil.

381
00:26:44.700 --> 00:26:45.900
Like, I just remember that.

382
00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:50.940
I think we, you know, like that was the most memorable thing when I was a kid, I think.

383
00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:54.660
The dialogue between them is all spectacular.

384
00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:59.700
Like, you know, the moment where Terrence says he's going to kill Avon is like, no, yeah, many have tried.

385
00:27:01.079 --> 00:27:05.099
Like they have such lovely bitchy dialogue with one another.

386
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:08.099
That's so great.

387
00:27:08.220 --> 00:27:09.960
I mean, nothing can possibly beat.

388
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:12.839
I mean, hell, it's all about events, but so good.

389
00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:14.099
That is so good.

390
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:14.940
But yeah.

391
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:20.460
Chris Boucher can take his pay home. satisfied, but he's earned it on that.

392
00:27:20.519 --> 00:27:21.359
So delightful.

393
00:27:21.420 --> 00:27:23.460
But yes, you were saying people...

394
00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:27.539
I really like the fact that this follows Bleak 7101.

395
00:27:27.720 --> 00:27:30.839
So it's like redemption in that you have all of a setup on board ship.

396
00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:41.039
Then you arrive at the place where you're heading to, and everyone gets split up and most of the crew gets put in a cell while someone else is taken off to meet the owners of that world.

397
00:27:41.099 --> 00:27:43.680
So it says, you know, he's obviously seen redemption.

398
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:48.539
He's obviously seen space fall with the with the greater flight.

399
00:27:48.539 --> 00:27:49.619
The return of that thing.

400
00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:50.759
Yeah, the defence.

401
00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:51.240
Yeah, yeah.

402
00:27:51.420 --> 00:27:53.220
That's pretty great.

403
00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:58.500
And look, I also think it gives us a wonderful moment where the BBC tries to realise lightsabers.

404
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:00.359
Oh, man, which is so great.

405
00:28:00.420 --> 00:28:04.559
Because it's like 980. of we can do those on our budget.

406
00:28:04.619 --> 00:28:10.799
You look and it's like a stick that they've paid us blue and that they're sewing things onto.

407
00:28:10.859 --> 00:28:11.880
It's so cool.

408
00:28:11.940 --> 00:28:13.559
It's so tremendous.

409
00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:16.500
Does it not kind of hurt to see them cutting up the concept?

410
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:18.119
I was like, stop, stop.

411
00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.579
But yes, that is pretty great.

412
00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:41.640
That blob thing and the blob thing is back and it was pretty good in space fall because, I mean, the fun thing about space fall was that we'd only just met the liberator and there was a real kind of attempt to make it weird and alien rather than just the sort of tasteless light fitting that we've since grown to love.

413
00:28:41.700 --> 00:28:45.779
And, um, yeah, yeah.

414
00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:48.599
So that's back to that sort of weirdness again.

415
00:28:48.660 --> 00:28:52.319
And that's what Follett's going for in the script generally, I think.

416
00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:58.140
Do you think that Farnworld Guard one saw his brother and Thineworld Guard 2 saw his mother?

417
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:15.000
Again, they had a handy, unlit film studio just with black walls to have all of those little flashbacks happening, just nearby.

418
00:29:15.059 --> 00:29:22.380
I like to think that James Follett, all he'd seen of Blake 7 was obviously redemption and Spacefall and Time Squad.

419
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:24.900
So how do you get a through line from Space Fall to this?

420
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:26.279
I'm not quite sure.

421
00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:34.440
Well, he did a better job of whoever wrote Voice from the Past who clearly just watched the way back.

422
00:29:34.500 --> 00:29:36.059
Watch Parks.

423
00:29:36.180 --> 00:29:40.380
I'm surprised we didn't end up with the people in the black hole wearing nappies.

424
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:47.700
He's always watched his Times Squad Space 4.

425
00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:49.859
Oh, yes, of course.

426
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:51.779
Top quality.

427
00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:53.819
Blake 7, Abby. bit.

428
00:30:04.619 --> 00:30:08.099
So I guess we should talk about the Than.

429
00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:33.480
But before we do that, I so I talked last week about that particular type of mid-blake 7 era set where it's sort of kind of it's shiny walls and and like, do you remember the cave that Shrinker is in and the cave that Dana takes, um, even into in, in um, aftermath.

430
00:30:33.539 --> 00:30:36.420
And what was it last week in Volcano, just under the volcano.

431
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:53.400
They had, it was sort of vaguely reminiscent of the, um, the houses of the kids. you know, like the kids from school and you would go to their house and that they would have like shag carpet and conversation pits. conversation pit.

432
00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:56.519
Yeah, all of that, all of that sort of stuff. 70s man cave.

433
00:30:56.579 --> 00:30:57.960
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

434
00:30:58.559 --> 00:30:59.640
Mary Tyler Moore's apartment.

435
00:30:59.700 --> 00:31:00.660
She had a conversation.

436
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.700
I've always watched a conversation.

437
00:31:04.859 --> 00:31:07.859
You should have taken that job on the sandmark.

438
00:31:12.359 --> 00:31:30.000
So, so, um, I loved seeing Callie lying flat on her back in that fabulous outfit on what my uncle used to line the back of his van when I was watching this as a child.

439
00:31:30.059 --> 00:31:36.779
So it seems to me that you loving Callie flat on a back on some shagpile carpet is playing into all of Adam's... from earlier.

440
00:31:37.980 --> 00:31:40.319
It's so great.

441
00:31:40.380 --> 00:31:44.640
And somehow makes you even gayer, Nathan.

442
00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:53.700
I'm telling you, that was probably a very specific direction in the script in between the hardest substance in the universe.

443
00:31:56.759 --> 00:31:59.220
Also, one of those weird like little draperies.

444
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:01.859
I like just like, we'll just have some wall hanging.

445
00:32:01.859 --> 00:32:03.240
With the flowers painted on them.

446
00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:04.200
Yes.

447
00:32:04.619 --> 00:32:17.339
It's really good because it's complete, like it's dark. and so you can only sort of vaguely see the details of the walls apart from the screens. and the screens are just CSOed on, aren't they?

448
00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:17.880
They're not.

449
00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:18.599
That's just a thing.

450
00:32:18.660 --> 00:32:25.799
It's like everyone compares it to, you know, Zoan on at the end of Face of Evil, part three.

451
00:32:25.859 --> 00:32:32.099
But I think it is different and there is some nonsense going on in the walls, but it's all kind of underlit.

452
00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:34.859
So again, it's like lots of negative space and stuff.

453
00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:36.900
And I just think that's memorably weird.

454
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:40.920
It's not like the usual science.

455
00:32:40.980 --> 00:32:45.900
It's not like our on, the planet our on, you know, which is a, what is it?

456
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:48.839
It's a is it an air traffic control tower?

457
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:54.539
Yeah, and like a dam in Leeds or something, isn't it?

458
00:32:54.599 --> 00:32:57.299
I think it was just...

459
00:32:57.539 --> 00:33:09.599
I'm I'm sad that this, you know, black hole has not been decorated in the way that the uh, the offices were in uh, the last time I did this show, Weapon, which was with dust and upturned tables.

460
00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:16.680
That's not a very nice way to talk about.

461
00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:18.240
Who is it, John Bennett?

462
00:33:19.619 --> 00:33:30.119
I have to say that I do think that it's the little things in Blake 7 that always matter because those 3 screens, those 3 face of evil screens behind actually make that set work.

463
00:33:30.180 --> 00:33:36.299
Without them, it would just be negative space and a dais with some plush carpet on it.

464
00:33:36.359 --> 00:33:40.500
But they kind of add that element that you need and they've got the images CSO'd onto it.

465
00:33:40.559 --> 00:33:41.759
It kind of sells it for me.

466
00:33:41.819 --> 00:33:49.740
Although, Nathan, I have to say that with some assuredness, when Chris Boucher received this script and read it, he would not be comparing it to the face of evil.

467
00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:55.440
He'd already cribbed bits of it for early in the season.

468
00:33:55.500 --> 00:33:57.420
Maybe Follett was sucking up to him.

469
00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:01.680
Power play rips off bits, basically.

470
00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:06.119
But so there's that.

471
00:34:06.180 --> 00:34:12.539
And then, and like it's the usual thing where he's lonely or something.

472
00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:13.260
Oh, yeah.

473
00:34:13.260 --> 00:34:16.619
Like, and he's been speaking to her throughout the episode.

474
00:34:16.619 --> 00:34:21.000
And so he's lonely and he needs a woman.

475
00:34:21.059 --> 00:34:23.820
If he got off his chair and did anything, he might not be so bored.

476
00:34:26.940 --> 00:34:29.699
So it's really funny, isn't it?

477
00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:30.900
I don't know what's meant to happen.

478
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:31.980
I tell you what I think, though.

479
00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:37.199
I like that final shot and it's absurd.

480
00:34:37.260 --> 00:34:38.039
It's ridiculous.

481
00:34:38.099 --> 00:34:56.699
And I can't imagine what the script was actually asking for or why we were doing this, but we see him and he's like the direct. goes, like increasing, like jump cuts closer and closer in, which is so cheesy and so ridiculous.

482
00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.400
And then what we see is so absurd.

483
00:34:59.460 --> 00:35:01.739
Like, it's his alien with tiny ears.

484
00:35:01.739 --> 00:35:06.780
And like, well, I don't know why his ears are so tiny, but he has very tiny ears.

485
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:09.659
That's very sensitive.

486
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:11.639
That's very insensitive of you.

487
00:35:11.699 --> 00:35:14.519
Nathan. actor did have very small ears.

488
00:35:15.300 --> 00:35:17.579
Very small ears, yeah.

489
00:35:18.119 --> 00:35:26.039
I think in the in the American remake of Blake 7, he would absolutely have to be played by Karen's nemesis from Will and Greys.

490
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:32.460
Yes, Beverly Leslie.

491
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:35.880
I really like the film.

492
00:35:35.940 --> 00:35:47.340
I think he's another in those long line of bleak 7 villains, which includes Moloch coming up and Samon of the Decimas Planet, which are just kind of these weird small aliens.

493
00:35:50.460 --> 00:35:54.000
I think it needed to be like more gross or something.

494
00:35:54.059 --> 00:35:58.139
Yeah, because I don't know why Kelly then says...

495
00:35:58.199 --> 00:35:59.159
Oh no, I never saw the thumb.

496
00:36:00.840 --> 00:36:02.760
I never saw him.

497
00:36:02.820 --> 00:36:10.079
No, because she's she actually, she's wandering around with a gun and she's going to kill him and she says, I'm here to kill you.

498
00:36:10.139 --> 00:36:21.360
And then she sees him and is so horrified that not only does she let him go and we see that he goes away on that reciprocal course.

499
00:36:21.420 --> 00:36:27.900
And, um, so and then she denies ever having seen him.

500
00:36:27.960 --> 00:36:32.159
And I and that thing, the price is high.

501
00:36:32.219 --> 00:36:38.579
I mean, everyone gets kind of bald and shrivelled and...

502
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:45.300
I was I wasn't sure. balls have dropped to the ground.

503
00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:46.559
That's it.

504
00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:49.559
My cats have got so bad.

505
00:36:49.619 --> 00:36:50.639
He's so baggy.

506
00:36:50.699 --> 00:36:52.619
I can barely look at these sneakers.

507
00:36:52.679 --> 00:37:02.400
I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to read that as, you know, he used his mind powers to blank out that she'd seen him.

508
00:37:02.519 --> 00:37:03.539
Oh.

509
00:37:03.539 --> 00:37:11.159
Oh, no, I think I, because what I like, because she doesn't kill him.

510
00:37:11.219 --> 00:37:12.719
Does she decide not to kill him?

511
00:37:12.780 --> 00:37:14.159
When she sees him?

512
00:37:14.159 --> 00:37:15.239
Yeah.

513
00:37:15.300 --> 00:37:15.840
We don't see.

514
00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:17.880
Because what I assumed.

515
00:37:17.940 --> 00:37:28.260
So what my brain filled in was that she saw him and had pity for him for some reason because we have survived, but the price has been high.

516
00:37:28.260 --> 00:37:33.480
And so she kind of goes, yeah, I'm letting him go and then she lies about having seen him.

517
00:37:33.539 --> 00:37:34.559
But yes, maybe you're right.

518
00:37:34.619 --> 00:37:37.920
Maybe he's made her forget using his enormous mind bound.

519
00:37:38.039 --> 00:37:40.139
Or maybe you're just supposed it's supposed to be vague.

520
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:42.119
Or it's badly directed.

521
00:37:42.179 --> 00:37:42.960
Yeah, yeah.

522
00:37:43.559 --> 00:37:49.559
But it's that thing, like, should he be like, should he have a bigger head?

523
00:37:49.619 --> 00:37:51.900
Should he have like brains going everywhere?

524
00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:53.460
Should it be more gross than that?

525
00:37:53.519 --> 00:37:56.519
It's a bit like the Mekon from Dan Dare.

526
00:37:56.579 --> 00:37:57.900
It does look like the meat on.

527
00:37:57.960 --> 00:37:58.559
Right.

528
00:37:58.619 --> 00:38:01.079
He needs to be sitting on a little floating chair.

529
00:38:01.139 --> 00:38:03.179
Like, oh, the rest of me so withered away.

530
00:38:03.239 --> 00:38:07.079
Mikon had the big dome head because he had mental powers as well.

531
00:38:07.139 --> 00:38:09.719
He was really brainy, but he had no physical strength.

532
00:38:09.780 --> 00:38:12.420
Like his little arms and legs like, oh, I can't get up.

533
00:38:12.480 --> 00:38:13.860
What is it?

534
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:20.400
What is about people who have been, uh, ostracised by by the hour and hour having big heads and little bodies.

535
00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:21.900
Like Kelly.

536
00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:25.559
Wow, that's really weird.

537
00:38:25.619 --> 00:38:27.420
Love seeing that dress.

538
00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:29.219
Big hair.

539
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:32.039
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

540
00:38:34.739 --> 00:38:46.199
I love that this entire episode, like the thrust of the plot all turns on Kelly just going, oh, how do I know it's not happening unless you turn it all off?

541
00:38:48.599 --> 00:38:52.860
He's like, all right, I'll turn it all off and everyone's like, quick, everyone, get out.

542
00:38:55.199 --> 00:38:59.519
He's so paranoid, he won't let me use computers.

543
00:38:59.579 --> 00:39:02.639
They have to use graphite writing sticks.

544
00:39:03.360 --> 00:39:07.619
But he's falling, turning off the power.

545
00:39:07.619 --> 00:39:10.139
So she could shoot him.

546
00:39:10.199 --> 00:39:15.059
Well, but he hasn't been laid in like ages like 1000000s of years, right?

547
00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:19.619
And a woman comes along and she says lies on his shag pile carpet.

548
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:24.059
Yeah, if you won't turn the things off, how will I ever trust you?

549
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:33.179
And I actually thought I liked that line because I thought it was actually a clever thing to say to sort of weird mind powers guy.

550
00:39:33.239 --> 00:39:36.300
Yeah, there's a whole Murdoch, Jerry Hall thing.

551
00:39:37.019 --> 00:39:39.179
We are a few on from her.

552
00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:43.199
It sounds like someone trying to talk you into having sex without a condom.

553
00:39:43.260 --> 00:39:46.380
It's like, oh, how will I know you love me if I can't actually touch you inside?

554
00:39:49.980 --> 00:39:52.559
I have to say, I didn't mind that.

555
00:39:52.619 --> 00:40:03.119
I sort of bought the fact that the Than Trust Callie and Kelly kind of lets the Than go just because of that long association between the hour and hour and the Than. buy that.

556
00:40:03.179 --> 00:40:09.059
Yeah, I just think there's pity too, but I think that it would be clear.

557
00:40:10.019 --> 00:40:11.820
Like if, do you know what I mean?

558
00:40:11.880 --> 00:40:15.179
Like, he just looks like sort of my grandfather, really.

559
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:22.920
And, you know, we're just kind of a terrifying portent of things to come.

560
00:40:23.639 --> 00:40:25.980
Nathan grandson.

561
00:40:25.980 --> 00:40:29.340
He doesn't look he doesn't look gross enough, I think, is the problem.

562
00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:32.039
I think you're right. not gross enough.

563
00:40:32.099 --> 00:40:34.199
He does need to be horrific.

564
00:40:34.380 --> 00:40:36.719
Yeah, more like Samon.

565
00:40:36.780 --> 00:40:42.659
You absolutely needed Callie to draw back those curtains and say, yes, that is...

566
00:40:43.860 --> 00:40:54.719
But like, think about sarcophagus and like how the thing that dies and ends up having horrible teeth and is sort of scary and stuff.

567
00:40:54.780 --> 00:41:08.099
Like, psychophagus is sort of comparable in that it's another one where, you know, having Kelly on boards are massive liability because, you know, aliens like shadow again, you know, like they speak in ahead and everyone gets in trouble.

568
00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:10.800
I guess that's why...

569
00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:28.559
But, yeah, like that's done, that's obviously written by someone vastly better. and is done better, but I think, you know, there's like Blake 7 will show weird and gross.

570
00:41:28.619 --> 00:41:32.940
It's not that it doesn't shy away from it at all. can't do that for no.

571
00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:35.880
But it never really delivers on its aliens.

572
00:41:35.940 --> 00:41:40.619
They're always kind of men in blue suits with old heads or sea devils or whatever.

573
00:41:40.679 --> 00:41:43.739
And the one time that it does deliver on it is Star one.

574
00:41:43.800 --> 00:41:48.840
But also one of the times it doesn't manage that is Star one with all the spaceships at the end.

575
00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:52.679
No, but the pizza.

576
00:41:52.679 --> 00:41:53.219
Oh, they're great.

577
00:41:54.059 --> 00:41:55.559
Yeah.

578
00:41:55.559 --> 00:41:56.400
Yeah.

579
00:41:56.460 --> 00:41:58.199
And they're properly alien.

580
00:41:58.260 --> 00:42:03.480
And did you notice actually in the scene with the mathematics flux equations or whatever they were working on?

581
00:42:03.539 --> 00:42:06.360
There's actually an alien looking extra.

582
00:42:06.360 --> 00:42:10.679
Like it looks like a fogan mask on and you think, okay.

583
00:42:10.739 --> 00:42:12.179
Oh, I wondered what that was.

584
00:42:12.239 --> 00:42:17.940
I thought, yeah, I thought, like, maybe it was like a burn victim.

585
00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:21.659
Yeah, I thought Terry Terry Walsh should let himself go or something.

586
00:42:21.780 --> 00:42:27.000
Maybe we were meant to think he was secretly the Than hiding in plain sight the whole time.

587
00:42:27.059 --> 00:42:28.440
Who knows?

588
00:42:28.500 --> 00:42:29.820
Maybe.

589
00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:34.199
There's some weird things like that happen that you go, do they explain this?

590
00:42:34.260 --> 00:42:40.380
Like I've watched it twice and gone, I don't think we ever find out why Villa's the only one that's hypnotised by the Dodgem car?

591
00:42:41.940 --> 00:42:43.980
I think he's dumb.

592
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:46.500
Like, is that what the script's saying?

593
00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:47.519
He's like just...

594
00:42:47.519 --> 00:42:49.860
Kelly's a primitive life, Paul.

595
00:42:49.860 --> 00:42:51.480
You can always from danger.

596
00:42:51.539 --> 00:42:53.159
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

597
00:42:53.219 --> 00:42:56.460
Because he's, yeah, he's under instructions from Taryn.

598
00:42:56.519 --> 00:42:57.599
Meet him run.

599
00:42:57.659 --> 00:42:58.380
Oh, okay then.

600
00:42:59.400 --> 00:43:06.480
Yeah, you can always tell the quality of a Bleak 7 script by if it makes Villa clever, it makes him just stupid.

601
00:43:06.599 --> 00:43:07.380
Yeah.

602
00:43:07.380 --> 00:43:11.940
Yeah, it's stupid drunk villa. that's the problem isn't it?

603
00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:17.280
Like, because that's someone who hasn't really got what the characters about or hasn't watched enough of the show.

604
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:21.059
And he does scull a bottle of something suspicious.

605
00:43:21.659 --> 00:43:23.820
Tabasco, isn't it?

606
00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:25.079
Tabasco sauce.

607
00:43:25.079 --> 00:43:27.719
I thought it was Tabasco as well.

608
00:43:27.780 --> 00:43:31.139
I thought that it was very definitely he was getting into it.

609
00:43:31.199 --> 00:43:31.739
Chilli sauce.

610
00:43:31.800 --> 00:43:35.940
I thought it was a tomato sauce bottle, but then the liquid wasn't viscous enough.

611
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:42.659
Put me in mind of Pat's...

612
00:43:42.659 --> 00:43:50.400
Charles Mortry just judging himself on the neck and then having a sweak. carry on a brook.

613
00:43:50.639 --> 00:43:53.159
When are we doing the carry-on podcast?

614
00:43:53.219 --> 00:43:54.539
Oh, don't even.

615
00:43:54.539 --> 00:43:57.659
I'm here for Bernard Wrestler and drag as a nurse anytime.

616
00:43:58.559 --> 00:44:01.559
I'll talk you after the podcast, actually.

617
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:18.780
So does anyone have any final statements?

618
00:44:18.840 --> 00:44:23.159
This is the Shawfire way of killing an episode. putting it.

619
00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:28.440
Well, speaking of putting it to sleep gently.

620
00:44:28.500 --> 00:44:35.280
I watched it twice in the daytime and I'm still convinced I noted off, but times and dreamed a lot of it.

621
00:44:35.400 --> 00:44:36.960
I'm like, did that really?

622
00:44:36.960 --> 00:44:39.239
I think the best Blake 70s like that, though.

623
00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:40.440
You know?

624
00:44:40.500 --> 00:44:41.219
Yeah.

625
00:44:41.219 --> 00:44:48.659
You're not sure if you've slept through it and you've dreamed it or whether it really happened. like animals, yeah.

626
00:44:49.380 --> 00:44:52.139
You know, at the end of the day, I like this.

627
00:44:52.199 --> 00:44:53.460
I don't think it's very good.

628
00:44:53.519 --> 00:45:03.480
But it touches on a lot of bleak setting things like Kelly's hour on heritage and there are vague stabs at kind of vouchery, quippiness.

629
00:45:03.539 --> 00:45:12.900
But it's just the tone, which I think is odd and nicely odd sometimes, but also... at odds with the rest of the series.

630
00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:19.079
It feels like it feels like it's written by someone who's been told about the show rather than having watched it.

631
00:45:19.139 --> 00:45:21.840
So it just it doesn't quite land.

632
00:45:21.900 --> 00:45:24.539
But for all of that, I quite like it.

633
00:45:26.099 --> 00:45:28.079
You say something, James.

634
00:45:28.139 --> 00:45:33.360
Say something nice I just finished watching season now, series eight.

635
00:45:34.800 --> 00:45:37.920
Yeah, my...

636
00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:39.119
Don't tell me finish that.

637
00:45:39.179 --> 00:45:40.559
Don't tell me.

638
00:45:40.619 --> 00:45:42.300
You did sleep and dream it.

639
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:47.820
Yeah, I think you, this is the problem.

640
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:50.039
I think actually summed up the episode quite well.

641
00:45:50.460 --> 00:45:52.019
Just then.

642
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:54.900
I think that we I think we end here.

643
00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:58.320
I think, but I do think that these following things need me.

644
00:45:59.219 --> 00:46:03.599
Here is my list position coma from Callie.

645
00:46:03.659 --> 00:46:05.159
We get an exposition coma.

646
00:46:05.219 --> 00:46:07.860
Basil tied into the X. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

647
00:46:07.920 --> 00:46:09.599
The exposition black hole.

648
00:46:09.659 --> 00:46:10.739
We get...

649
00:46:10.739 --> 00:46:15.000
Yeah, she's her exposition is kind of like horse tranquilliser.

650
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:17.639
I went into a full K hole.

651
00:46:17.699 --> 00:46:19.260
I was like, oh, I'm in a Cali hole.

652
00:46:23.099 --> 00:46:28.320
The K-hole was what they ended up in when they got pulled off course.

653
00:46:31.380 --> 00:46:34.860
Like the rest of the episode, just the okay hold.

654
00:46:34.860 --> 00:46:39.719
We have we have the hatch space welded shut.

655
00:46:39.780 --> 00:46:42.780
Space welding that's new.

656
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:45.000
That's completely.

657
00:46:45.059 --> 00:46:54.480
Avon is wearing the lobster outfit again, but he doesn't put the top on until later, so it actually the pants are quite good.

658
00:46:54.599 --> 00:46:55.679
They're quite flattering.

659
00:46:55.739 --> 00:47:00.480
But the moment he puts the thing on, he's suddenly all pigeon chested and deeply unattractive.

660
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:10.199
Also, I love that everyone's wearing space clothes on the ship except Avon, who's just wearing blacks because he's taken the lobster shirt pop off, you see.

661
00:47:10.260 --> 00:47:11.219
That is the lobster.

662
00:47:11.280 --> 00:47:12.780
That's the lobster.

663
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:15.599
Tarant didn't need to stop him putting on that spacesuit.

664
00:47:15.659 --> 00:47:17.400
He just could put on the lobster anyway.

665
00:47:17.460 --> 00:47:18.420
It was too hot in the studio.

666
00:47:18.480 --> 00:47:20.820
Now, I've been to Herculaneum.

667
00:47:20.880 --> 00:47:28.139
I've been to Herculaneum, but I haven't been to Cobar, so I don't know what a 1000 cubic cobars of Herculaneum.

668
00:47:28.199 --> 00:47:30.179
But you've never...

669
00:47:30.179 --> 00:47:37.619
When you went to Herculaneum, when you went to Herculaneum, when it was all flimsy because Herculaneum, it'd been drained out of that.

670
00:47:37.739 --> 00:47:38.760
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

671
00:47:38.820 --> 00:47:40.619
They crumbled at a touch.

672
00:47:41.639 --> 00:47:43.800
I love Herculaneum.

673
00:47:43.860 --> 00:47:45.780
It's up there with unattainment, actually.

674
00:47:46.260 --> 00:47:47.219
It is really great.

675
00:47:47.340 --> 00:47:50.760
And I also thought interspiral space was a nicely weird place.

676
00:47:50.820 --> 00:47:56.699
So, like, it's not the edge of the galaxy, but it's a bit in the middle of the galaxy, which is between the spiral alarm, so there's nothing there.

677
00:47:56.760 --> 00:47:59.400
And I thought that was kind of like super new and weird.

678
00:47:59.460 --> 00:48:01.739
Yeah, it must be in the 5th quadrant.

679
00:48:01.800 --> 00:48:03.780
Yeah, the 8th quadrant.

680
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:10.380
I'm I'm just, I feel like we have to kind of take some points off for some quite blatant anti-Semitism.

681
00:48:10.440 --> 00:48:17.400
Like it was, we have to go, oh, that would, that's a bad call on that action.

682
00:48:17.460 --> 00:48:20.579
It's not sort of Horns of Nimon bad, but it is kind of bad.

683
00:48:32.699 --> 00:48:34.260
All right.

684
00:48:34.320 --> 00:48:38.460
Well, in that case, I think we're done.

685
00:48:38.519 --> 00:48:45.719
That's all we have time for this week, and we'll be back next week to annoy Clive James in Harvest of Kyros.

686
00:48:46.019 --> 00:48:48.539
Until then, good night.

687
00:48:48.599 --> 00:48:49.860
Ta-ta.

688
00:48:49.920 --> 00:49:01.980
Bye. good night You can find us online at maximumpowerpodcast.com, where there are our bios and attractive photos of us and links to our other podcasts.

689
00:49:02.039 --> 00:49:09.179
You can always star or review us on iTunes, and we're very grateful for that, even though I don't think I've ever seen.

690
00:49:09.239 --> 00:49:10.860
Oh, no, they were really mean about me.

691
00:49:10.980 --> 00:49:12.179
Let's not do that.

692
00:49:12.239 --> 00:49:13.500
Why don't just plug the other podcast?

693
00:49:13.559 --> 00:49:13.920
Anyway.

694
00:49:16.980 --> 00:49:23.219
Don't encourage... horrible about Nathan iTunes. really mean about me.

695
00:49:23.400 --> 00:49:25.619
Nice, I like the show.

696
00:49:25.739 --> 00:49:26.519
Like what?

697
00:49:26.579 --> 00:49:27.059
Shut up.

698
00:49:30.119 --> 00:49:32.219
No, no, no, no, no, that's right.

699
00:49:32.280 --> 00:49:32.760
That's right.

700
00:49:32.820 --> 00:49:33.360
Yeah.

701
00:49:33.420 --> 00:49:34.739
Okay.

702
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:36.300
That's it.

703
00:49:51.360 --> 00:49:52.380
Switching to manual.

704
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:54.420
Maximum power on all drives.

705
00:49:57.539 --> 00:49:59.519
Maximum power.

706
00:50:09.420 --> 00:50:11.760
Did Marcus Powell have a career?

707
00:50:11.820 --> 00:50:13.380
Before or after?

708
00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:14.639
Well, at any point.

709
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:15.300
Not really.

710
00:50:15.360 --> 00:50:16.679
Even during.

711
00:50:16.679 --> 00:50:17.159
At all, ever.

712
00:50:17.219 --> 00:50:19.199
Oh, he played a decima in the web.

713
00:50:19.260 --> 00:50:22.019
Oh, there you go, little alien.

714
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:25.079
Also, his brother ended up as controller BBC One.

715
00:50:25.139 --> 00:50:25.860
That's true.

716
00:50:26.460 --> 00:50:32.400
Yeah, that's also... another thing that you don't, like, Pixley wouldn't know that.

717
00:50:32.460 --> 00:50:34.380
Because it's false.

718
00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:37.500
Yeah