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This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:12:01

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Maximal power.

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Hello and welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast.

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I'm Cy.

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My name's Chris Chapman.

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My name is Chris Thompson.

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And I'm Pete, and yes, we are sticking with our podcast tradition of having fewer names than we have people just to keep people on their toes.

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We're really pleased and very thrilled to have 2 very special guests with us today in the shape of Chris Chapman and Chris Thompson.

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What are we going to do?

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Chris, did you, one of you Chris's had a nickname?

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Well, I was saying that my friends call me Chap.

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So if you'd like to do that, then you're all my friends tonight.

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And for symmetry, I can be Tom, but honestly, just refer to me as anything you'd like.

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Well, between you, you've basically got the dream jobs of pretty much all of our listeners, and I'm sure the vast majority of science fiction fans of classic things from the 20th century in particular.

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And the thing we wanted to know from you, but you both really was what led you to this pinnacle, not speaking to us, but actually finally getting your teeth into Blake 7 and doing the roles that you did do.

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Chris Champ.

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How did that how did it start for you?

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Wow.

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I mean, I guess we've been, we've been doing, I've been making Doctor Who documentaries since about 2000 and eight, I think it was when we started that and so blimey that 16 years of doing that.

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And it's always been kind of my incredibly pleasant side hustle, really, uh, the i.e. directs uh, factual and documentaries for telly uh, for ranger shows and I'd always, from an early point thought, Ooh, they make these for DVDs, don't they?

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They make special features.

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Why can't I do that about my favourite shows?

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And that eventually led to me doing Doctor Who documentaries.

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And we did like about 40 or 50 of those on DVD.

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And then Blu-ray happened and we got to go back to the well in the nicest possible way and do another 40 or so.

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And that's on going.

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And alongside Doctor Who the collection, I think that has been getting such a lovely warm response and this lovely sense of community that's kind of formed around those sets, I think, of people being excited and devouring them when they come out and giving us really good feedback. about what they enjoy and what they want.

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And I think, really, it was Russell Minton at BBC Studios, who's been the exec on all those Doctor Who collections, who is a big Blake 7 fan and just thought, actually, why can't we do this collection thing on another show as well?

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And wouldn't Blake 7 be the perfect testing ground to see if it, that can work, to give the 1st series of Blake 7, the best possible treatment we can, not just the restoration of the episodes and going back to as much of the original elements as they can to make it look and sound beautiful.

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But helping out, you know, creating special features.

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And so we've done a big, I think it's like, how long is it?

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It's like 80, 85 minute long documentary called Liberation, uh, which is very much, this is what happened behind the scenes on the 1st series of Blake 7. you know, episode by episode, chunk by chunk.

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This is what went into the show, and that's got 29 interviews from the cast and crew.

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I think 17 of which we filmed ourselves, 12 of which are, sadly, people who have passed away, that Kevin John Davis very kindly let us return to the rushes of earlier Blake 7 documentaries.

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So people like Gareth, like Gareth Thomas, and people like Jacqueline Pierce, and Stephen Griff, and song, can still be a part of it.

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So I hope that will be the definitive Blake 7 series A Doc.

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And we've also been sneaky and also thrown in a very warm, very sincere tribute to Stephen Griff because I thought this is the only place we can do that, really, isn't it?

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So we've done like a 35 minute biography of Stephen with a lot of his friends and family weighing in on why he was such an interesting man, really, and certainly deserving of a proper tribute.

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So it's been an awful lot of good fun.

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But what I'm really interested in seeing is the work that Chris T, or Tom, has been working on, which is the special effects that amazingly not just in a couple of episodes across the season, have been redone as optional versions, which I want to hear more about right now.

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Thank you, Chris.

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And yeah, just to say, I've not had a chance to see the Travis, the Stephen Grief documentary yet, because I'm currently in a move, and the last thing I've watched before sending my TV off to the new place was Liberation, which I greatly enjoyed.

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We saw some a glimpse of it at the BFI preview and yeah, talk about wetting appetites.

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We cannot wait to get our hands on it.

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But, um, yeah, so my name is Chris Thompson, I, uh, I sort of got into this by, I did about 30 trailers for Big Finish, like animated trailers and that had sort of got the interest of Pete McTee and Russell, uh, Minton, uh, who asked if I could help out with some of the trailers for like Doctor Who.

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I think the 1st one I did was, um, the Davros trailer that they did for, uh, Destiny of the Daleks.

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And that ended up leading to more and more as time went on.

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So eventually Russell was like, do you want to start doing the optional special effects release?

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And I did enlightenment and snake dance on series 20.

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During, it was at the after show for the 5 doctors where we were in the pub and we'd already started talking about season 25 at that point.

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And Russell kind of came over and was like, have you ever heard of Blake 7 before?

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And, uh, it was a show I'd grown up with.

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Um, there was uh, I used to watch on UK Gold.

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I hadn't revisited that much since.

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I've seen a couple of episodes in the interim, but because I've, like, I've been working for about 10 years on various Doctor Who, Thunderbirds, Space 1999 related projects, and I love them all deeply, but sometimes you just want something different, and Blake 7 really represented that.

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I just absolutely was ready to grab this one with both hands and it was really cool as well because I've been trying to shift the optional special effects from being pure CG to a combination of CGN models.

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So on horror fang rock.

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We had our practical rooting model puppet on season 25.

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We'd done almost all the spaceships as models, and that ended up intersecting with Blake 7 quite nicely, which they'd already planned to do it with models, I think, but I kind of came on, was able to supplement half the model shooting on over in Belfast while we had a separate shoot over in England.

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Yeah, it ended up being a pretty massive project.

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I think it may have been a bit of a bigger project than may have initially been anticipated.

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By the end of it.

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I think there was 435 shots across all the episodes and that represented spaceships, screens, teleports, other fun bits and bobs.

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Okay.

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And so for you, were you both coming on board at about the same time, because we were curious how long it took for the ball to get rolling on, ever since, was it ever since the Doctor Who one started?

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Was this always a glimmer that was slowly building momentum to do Blake 72?

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or from your perspective?

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Has it just cropped up, you know, in the past years?

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Right.

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I think behind the scenes it's probably only been a flicker, a glimmer in Russell's eyes in Russell's eye for a while.

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I mean, I certainly, I think I was commissioned about this time last year, so kind of October 2023, and Russell probably would have only got the green light earlier that year.

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It's certainly not been like part of like a master plan or anything like that.

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And, but, no, it's been, certainly about a year.

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Uh, and we did most of our filming for liberation around last Christmas and New Year, kind of certainly into Jan, we were filming, uh, and then we edited, uh, kind of springtime.

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I think.

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So the docs actually been ready for a while.

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Stephen Griff Doc was commissioned, I think, I think, I think very much that, that was the case of, of Russell realising, oh, there's a little bit of extra cash if you'd like to go and, and do something.

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And I suggested, let's do something about Stephen because he's, he's such a presence in his interviews and liberation, I thought.

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This is a chap who would be very interesting to understand a bit better.

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And so I think the Stephen Griefdock would have been done more so in the summer.

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And then it's just been waiting, really.

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I imagine for, for, uh, for Chris T's work.

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It's been it's been a kind of been perhaps a more extended extended process than for us.

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I got commissioned around the same time, like 5 doctors would have been around late.

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It was probably about September, wasn't it?

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Um, and yeah, I think the thing on my side was the fact that we basically did season 25 and Blake 7 series one together and season 25 already is record smashing a manta shots.

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So I think it was, because we had a month of pre-production, and then season 25 had to be wrapped by March, and Blake's Blake nearly had to be wrapped by May, and then ended up being quite a lot of overlap.

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Chris was very sleepy.

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Because yeah, because some people, you have seen people speculating, is this coming out instead of a Doctor Who bot set, but I imagine that's not quite how it works.

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You can juggle.

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No, I think the helpful thing here is, for instance, one of the biggest jobs on the Doctor Who collections is obviously the restoration of the episodes and that's done on the Doctor Who ones by Peter Crocker.

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And I think quite fortunately, on the Blake 7 restoration side, it's been Paul Venesis, who's been working on those episodes.

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So although Mark Ayres kind of straddles both, uh, you know, that that heavy lifting work of the visual restoration is done by different people.

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And certainly we, you know, the documentaries we make, we make them for lots of different people and for television as well.

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So it's not taking up slots in our work at least.

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So hopefully there are 2 things that can go nicely together and can play nicely with each other, I hope.

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Well, let's hope so sort of going forward.

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That could work out quite nicely.

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So, I mean, we sort of wondered, but did it make a difference with Blake 7 sort of not having been on the air for the best part of 40 years, make that easier to work with than Doctor Who?

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Was there less sort of scrutiny around the show?

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I don't know if it was necessary our side.

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I think in terms of people don't necessarily know you're working in a Blake 7 stuff, though I do, like, we sort of have to be careful about posting anything anyway, just because people are always watching.

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Uh, but, um, if, if anything, since the announcement, I'm kind of surprised how many more people remember Blake 7, that it's sort of in my casual surrounding community, then Doctor Who, which has been quite interesting, like a lot of, um, just sort of regular off the street people would be like, oh, yeah, I remember Blake 7.

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It seemed to have been quite big in the day.

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I think the pleasant thing from the documentary point of view. has been that, you know, we love doing Doctor Who stuff, but there's such a culture around Doctor Who for the people who are in it.

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So if you're, say, a companion actor in Doctor Who, you have been to, you know, 100s, possibly 1000s of Doctor Who events or conventions in your life.

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If you're like Fraser Heinz or something like that, you've been dining out quite rightly on these, on these wonderful stories about covering Deborah, Deborah Watling and foam on the beach or whatever, you've been telling these stories for, for kind of 50 years plus. and that's great.

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But that does mean that when you do the Doctor Who documentaries, sometimes you have to say to people, I know you've told the story a lot.

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You might need to tell it one more time, so this feels complete as a story and it might need to feel like it's the 1st time you've told it, you know?

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And the nice thing about Black 7 is although there was a culture, Blake 7 documentary on BBC 4, I think 20 years ago now, and Kevin Davis had shot interviews for his DVD, Blake 7 docs, not all of which were finished back in the E-shot, some in the 90s, some in the early naughties.

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Really, you know, the convention circuit around Blake 7 isn't, isn't as large, I would say, as the one around Doctor Who.

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So we've certainly found, we've interviewed a large number of people who have never been asked these questions before.

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You know, whether that's cast or crew, we're reuniting, we're refreshing people's memories with the episodes, and then saying, tell us everything you can about how this came together.

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And it kind of is the 1st time they've been asked.

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And that's really lovely.

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We've had a similar thing on the box of delights that we've just been working on a documentary for for the BBC.

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It's sometimes really, it means there's less of a framework, an infrastructure, uh, of research.

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We've luckily had Jonathan Helm on board as a consultant for the doc to kind of to keep us right with the factual stuff.

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He's done some very good books on Blake 7.

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But it does feel a bit more like uncharted waters, and that's a really exciting thing.

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I think not just for us, but for the contributors, for the people who made the show, to revisit it.

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That's been quite exciting, really.

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And hopefully for the audience, for people watching, we'll feel like, oh, wow, I didn't know that, you know, and we'll feel very fresh.

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I hope, even though, as you say, it's not a recent show, you know, it's been around in the world for a long time.

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When did you both 1st Encounter Blake 7, by the way, do you mention it was UK gold for you, Chris T?

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Yeah, it was, well, it was, it was one of those top 10 best TV shows of all time or best sci-fi shows of all time.

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And immediately it was like, Blake 7, here is how it ends.

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I think it must have been about, I think it must have been about 7 or 8 at the time. and I think that heralded being put on to UK gold. and it was on Sundays, I think, and it was, I think my little child brain was like, oh, this looks like Doctor Who.

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Like I'll I'll happily watch this.

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Um, yeah, and then the DVDs came out and my brother got all the DVDs and I remember watching some of them, but I think by then I'd sort of got into my, I need to spend all my time filmmaking so I can be a successful filmmaker one day, sort of career path.

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So I ended up not watching quite so much stuff through my youth, which is why Blake 7 sort of dropped off the radar a little bit.

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I'm probably slightly weird on this, that I've, you know, been watching Dr. Huthy is, and I've always thought, like, many people.

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Oh, Doctor Who's got a lot in common with Blake Severn, isn't it?

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Maybe I'd like that too.

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And I'd never really gotten around to actually watching it.

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You know, we didn't have UK gold.

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I never got the VHS.

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I'm born in 81, so I missed it originally.

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Wilderness years for Blake 7, but the Doctor Who ones.

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It's shame.

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Long wilderness years, yeah.

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Long time.

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And basically, I'd seen, I think, the 1st 3 episodes and got a lot out of them, but I hadn't really pursued the liberator kind of any further at that point.

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And so actually, when I talk about it feeling fresh, when I was commissioned to make the documentary, I sat down and I watched Series A for the 1st time, you know, for the 1st time.

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I watched it through and I'd never seen it, but I was watching it thinking, uh, this show's fascinating and shares so much of the DNA with Doctor Who, and with, you know, everything we know about BBC television making in the 70s.

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So to actually watch it for the 1st time thinking, I'm going to make a film about you, who's that?

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Who's this actor?

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Are they still they're still alive?

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Oh, where do they live?

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Okay, we can interview that.

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And that set's interesting.

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We should get the designer, yeah.

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And watching it with the knowledge that you're going to dissect it, you're going to explore it on telly is quite a kind of exciting thing to do.

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And I hope that means, I hope that's a really positive thing because I have no idea what the fan preconceptions are of series 8.

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I have no sense of which stories are the favourites and which stories aren't.

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I know what my favourites were, which is not really important when we're making the film because it's not about that.

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But it should hopefully mean there is no bias of any kind in the film, that it's purely how did this happen?

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You know, what went into this, the, the, the personalities that put this together, who are they and why did they do it and how did they do it?

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So I hope, again, that hope, hopefully it will feel like a really fresh take on, on Blake.

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Yeah, well, it certainly sounds like you've rounded up quite a lot of people to come and talk about the series, which was one of the things I think fans were a bit worried about because we've lost so many of the main cast, but you obviously have found sort of contributors from across the series.

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How did you go about sort of tracking people down?

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Mostly stalking, really.

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I mean, you know, as I say, we had, I think, 12 archive interviews that Kevin Davis had shot in, I think, early 90s, early naughties, with a range of cast and crew.

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And obviously that means people like David Maloney, you know, some people like David, who's such a key figure, no longer with us, amazing, lovely, lovely gentleman, that we can still have David's voice, you know, that the film can still be David's story, thanks to those interviews, and we were able to go back to the Russians so that it's very much my take on Kevin's interviews, if you so what I mean.

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So that even that should hopefully feel quite fresh.

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And then, you know, we obviously wanted people like Sally Novette and Jan Chappell to be involved and they, we brought them together in Sally's garden actually with a bit of champagne and some props and models from the show just as a kind of an interaction to act as a spine to lead you through the film to give it something real.

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Because their relationship, their friendship is really genuine and has really endured and means something.

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So that's kind of the heart of the film.

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And actually, then that's where my Doctor Who bias probably comes through because if I saw anybody's name connected to this show that I knew from Doctor Who, I was very much drawn to them.

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So, I mean, that obviously you have people like Michael Lee Bryant who directed, I think, I think 4 of that 1st year, so certainly directed the pilot.

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You know, Michael, we work with a lot on the Doctor Who's, Michael has such an amazing memory and such a vitality.

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Um, and then I would look at at the castle list and the, at the cruel list of an episode like Duel and think, oh, I didn't know Tony Virgo was the production assistant, you know, essentially the director's assistant on this show, and Tony directed the King's Demons on Doctor Who, and we'd interviewed him about that.

172
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And then I thought, oh, well, and also Isla Blair is very memorably in dual.

173
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And she's from the King's Demon.

174
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So we can have a little king's demons reunion, you know, of sorts on that one.

175
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But, you know, we'll go through people's agents.

176
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Sometimes people have an online presence themselves and you can approach them through their their own websites or through social media.

177
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Sometimes we've already got a relationship with them.

178
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You know, someone like Michael Lee Bryant, I can just email and say, you know, we'd love you to come and do this.

179
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Sometimes it's a lot of searching and people finding, and we have people like Richard Bignall, who are very good with the electoral role and the phone book and trying to track where people are moved to over the years.

180
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And so we stalk people in a very pleasant kind of we want to give you some money to come and have a nice time kind of way.

181
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But there definitely is, there's a lot of like me going, looking on Facebook and going, oh, you look a bit like so-and-so, you know, you might have got married since you were in it, so your name's different, but you know, there's a lot of that kind of stuff.

182
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And almost always we get, you know, we do tend to find the people that we're after, and then they don't think we're too weird for coming after them, I hope.

183
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Who's the hardest person you've ever had to find?

184
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Well, the hardest ones are the ones that we failed on.

185
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All the ones that you got so far, and then you thought, and then you realise, oh God, it's the worst, you know, this person's no longer with us.

186
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I know we really tried to find Henrik Hirsch on the Doctor Who range for who was the director on the Reign of Terror, and Henrik had quite famously had a had a bit of a breakdown in in the gallery during the recording of one of the episodes, and we managed to track Henrik down to Australia, and a very helpful friend of ours in Australia actually went and knocked on his door.

187
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Uh, made quite a drive, I think, to go and knock on Henrik's store, and then only to have a neighbour say, oh yeah, I think he passed away a few years ago.

188
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So we definitely had that.

189
00:21:53.940 --> 00:22:12.299
On a recent dock, I've had somebody that I tried and tried and we just couldn't find, you know, that sometimes you think, particularly if it's a younger person, somebody like under 50 or so, uh, in the modern age, You know, if somebody is just not trackable on the internet.

190
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I think it's often now because they've decided they've made that decision.

191
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You know, it's not just that you haven't looked hard enough.

192
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It's that they don't want to be found and that's completely fair and legitimate and understandable.

193
00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:29.579
So I had one of those recently where I thought, oh, we've tried everything and it's just not happened.

194
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But when you find somebody, and particularly maybe when you find somebody who's a bit nervous about taking parts and you try and explain why it's worthwhile and how gently, you know, how gently we're going to tread.

195
00:22:44.099 --> 00:22:52.079
And somebody then says, yes, you know, that can be a lovely thing that can, you know, the idea that somebody might not have contributed, but decided to.

196
00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:53.640
I mean, to be honest, on Blake 7.

197
00:22:53.700 --> 00:22:54.839
We didn't really have that so much.

198
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I think pretty much everybody that we, that we approached, had, had vivid memories.

199
00:23:00.779 --> 00:23:02.819
I know that someone like Roger Moe Leach.

200
00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:07.019
I mean if anything, The doc is probably Roger's story.

201
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I think, you know, although, although Sally and Janet there as the heart of it, I feel like it's Roger's through line, this Rogers arc, that he, you know, such an amazing designer.

202
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You're talking about somebody who created like the best sets that have ever been in Doctor Who, things like the jungle of Zita Minor on Planet of Evil, and then had this great movie career, you know, you know, designed a fish called Wonder and things like that.

203
00:23:30.359 --> 00:23:42.660
But for Roger, he designed not only the liberator set, but controversially designed the liberator model, which Ian Scones, who was on the special, on the visual effects side of things.

204
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I don't think was particularly happy about.

205
00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:47.099
But for Roger, it was such a tough year.

206
00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:59.099
And I think he really had a nightmare dealing with unions and just lack of money, lack of time, and he would be the, what he says, you know, in the film that it was the closest he's come to having a nervous breakdown.

207
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And yet I think he emerges from the film with his head held high, really, having maybe a new appreciation of that work, because I think it's stellar work.

208
00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:10.500
I think if Roger.

209
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I think if the liberator didn't look the way it does inside and out, then the identity and personality of Blake 7 wouldn't wouldn't be anything near what it is.

210
00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:27.000
Uh, and Roger only does that 1st year, but I'm so glad, uh, he, you know, he wasn't reticent to be really open and honest with us about that and take part.

211
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So I really respect that he didn't think.

212
00:24:29.339 --> 00:24:36.240
I'm not going to talk to you about this awful time in my life, you know, that he was happy to share that, which I'm very pleased with.

213
00:24:36.299 --> 00:24:47.279
I would actually say, uh, on that, the, because you can see uh, in Jonathan Helm's book, the production diary, you do see Ian Scoon's design for the Liberator.

214
00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:53.819
I do like the way that the liberator that we got is nothing like the federation stuff.

215
00:24:53.880 --> 00:25:01.500
Um, like it does, it works the fact that 2 different people designed it, which is, uh, I think it really, really helps the show.

216
00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:03.779
That said, it's not the easiest thing to film in the world.

217
00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:10.859
Did you run into all the same problems as the BBC special effects team did in 77.

218
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Oh, that goddamn pole.

219
00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:17.579
No, I love it to bits.

220
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:29.819
It is just the fact that like if you're shooting under it, you've got to contend with that poll and there's a number of ways you sort of have to get around it because like we didn't, we had Phil Stevens, uh, had graciously lent us as liberated for the project.

221
00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:36.059
But like, obviously you don't want to string it or do anything particularly precarious. make a hole or 2 in it.

222
00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:37.200
I imagine that wouldn't go down too well.

223
00:25:37.259 --> 00:25:42.900
Well, you seem pretty open to that kind of stuff, but yeah, anytime you're under the liberator.

224
00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:52.619
I've even manually painted out the pole or I've just taken that in the cell. and CG to just to kind of because you're sort of working on a bit of a timeline with this.

225
00:25:52.680 --> 00:25:55.259
So sometimes you've got to be a bit creative.

226
00:25:55.500 --> 00:26:01.079
Did you get much advice from the people who are working it back in the day, then?

227
00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:07.259
Um, so we had Matter of Vine and Mike Tucker there on the, the England shoot.

228
00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:17.759
They were great, particularly when it came to flying to London, uh, because we didn't have a chance to build a set, like, uh, I only found out that we didn't have a landing pad until a week before the shoot.

229
00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:23.220
So I tried to scratch build one, but it just wasn't logistical to get it over from Belfast, really.

230
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:34.920
So in the final version, you would have seen it in the BFI screening whenever it launches, like that is just the model on blue screen, like lifting off like a little light to simulate the lights from underneath.

231
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But that's Mike flying it.

232
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And it was really nice because, like, whenever you look back at the rushes, like, I, I, I grew up with this.

233
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Like, whenever I saw that, I was for the 1st time I was a kid and it's just incredible that he got to do it.

234
00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:11.039
But yeah, no, a lot of it was just kind of watching documentaries, but also trying to have to come up with her own sort of way of doing things because I think we have probably roughly the same amount of money. like these are Blu-ray special features, but compared to like an actual top tier shoot, because we didn't have motion control rigs and we didn't have time.

235
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So there's a lot of instances where the background will just be, I'd make a 3D model, overlay it on the actual model, not use the 3D one, but use it as a guide to work out what the background should be doing and stuff like that.

236
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:31.259
Just basically, just coming up with a new way of doing things that sort of looks like it was shot in the, in the 70s and 80s.

237
00:27:31.319 --> 00:27:34.500
I guess you're facing the choice every time about how modern do we want this to look?

238
00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:37.079
We want it to look brilliant, but we also want it to look 1979.

239
00:27:37.259 --> 00:27:44.099
Well, there is, there's sort of an element of, you have to be, you have to go in this and this sort of goes with the Doctor Who stuff too.

240
00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:50.700
You don't want to be like, oh, yeah, like I want to change all this and I want to kick it all out and like disrespect it.

241
00:27:50.759 --> 00:27:53.099
The truth is, is that we're lucky we got any effects at all.

242
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:58.740
And it's down to the ingenuity of the original model makers that they're as good as they are.

243
00:27:58.859 --> 00:28:01.500
Particularly on these Blu-rays.

244
00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:07.200
Um, like, the brief is essentially, like, just imagine what they could have done back then with slightly more money.

245
00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:25.440
So for Blake, we looked at what ILM was doing, we were looking at Star Trek, the Motion Picture, Star Wars, Alien, those things, but then you've got to bring it back to Blake 7 because Blake 7's pretty unique and you don't want it to just look like something else.

246
00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:38.579
So, and that really was sort of dictated the shot composition and how the liberator travelled because liberators always either flying at you or away from you because of the Bob Blagden effect sequences.

247
00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:43.140
So there's a lot of that, but then we do sort of reverse engineer a couple of shots.

248
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:51.960
So, uh, it was another shot that's in the, uh, the effects reel was the Liberator flying past the planet, uh, the start of breakdown.

249
00:28:51.960 --> 00:29:03.660
And, uh, I really wanted to capture something not unlike what happens with the Nostromo, whenever it's about to land on LV426, when the pursuit ships are in orbits above the planet in dual.

250
00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:06.660
The sun is literally taken from Star Trek 6.

251
00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:13.740
Like, it's a painted on sun, like, in terms of inspiration, just so that it looks like everything's practical, everything's map paintings.

252
00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:18.240
Yeah, and you're making that decision all the time about what's going to be seen.

253
00:29:18.299 --> 00:29:24.779
Well, is it a decision about what's going to be CGI or what's going to be practical or is it actually, or is that actually driven by practical?

254
00:29:24.839 --> 00:29:44.460
The hope was for everything to be practical at one point, but with the time we had to, particularly with the England shoe, we only had 2 days and we had to get through everything with the Liberator, everything with XK 72, uh, a couple of bits with the original pursuit ship, Spacemaster from Deliverance, and other stuff.

255
00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:49.559
And we didn't have, we were sort of limited on time and technology as well.

256
00:29:49.619 --> 00:29:53.460
So we could sort of only really orbit the liberator and fly around it and stuff.

257
00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:19.799
Uh, so, basically, whenever there's a shot that we couldn't have done with a model, it becomes CG, and in those instances, it tends to be like fly pasts, or if there's a particular lighting for a planet that we didn't quite get on the day, that was one of the reasons why I did the reel for the BFI screening, because the 2 episodes were quite CG reliant as opposed to the model stuff, but what you tend to find is for episodes like, uh, for bouncing, not bounce.

258
00:30:19.859 --> 00:30:26.519
Yeah, yes, bounty, breakdown, which is an absolute, like, goliath of an episode.

259
00:30:26.579 --> 00:30:29.940
It's got 60-ish effect shots across it compared to when everything else is about 30.

260
00:30:30.299 --> 00:30:36.420
Uh, yeah, the Battle and Duel, uh, Space 4 tend to favour the Practical Liberator and the Web.

261
00:30:36.420 --> 00:30:44.579
And then, uh, episodes like Seclogate Destroy and uh, Project Avalon and those ones would tend to use the CG one a bit more.

262
00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:47.880
And yeah, there was a lot of trying to keep it consistent.

263
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But yeah, again, it's also a time thing.

264
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:56.700
Like you have to remove the poll and be very careful about what angle to use on it.

265
00:30:56.759 --> 00:30:58.680
In regard of everything else, though.

266
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Like the pursuit chips are almost always practical.

267
00:31:00.539 --> 00:31:08.640
And then we got to do some completely practical shots like in camera, which was the rocket at the start of in the middle of deliverance.

268
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I built a launch tunnel out of B&Q shelves, and shot it in my backyard, and then the flying robot from Aurac, is literally just in a car park at Harlan or Wolf Harbour where the Titanic was built. lineage.

269
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That's proper lineage.

270
00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:29.400
Pretty much.

271
00:31:29.460 --> 00:31:31.859
Yeah, Blake 7 and the Titanic.

272
00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:39.900
But at a very confused people on their lunch break, looking at us with this little flying robot going like, you all could put down your weapons.

273
00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:45.119
Um, so yeah, no, um, it's pretty cool.

274
00:31:48.180 --> 00:31:51.240
Chap, when you're out on location.

275
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Do you have much capacity for taking things, like, for example, turning up with the Liberator model and as well as your champagne for Vasali and Jan?

276
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:02.400
Yeah, yeah, well, we did.

277
00:32:02.460 --> 00:32:02.940
We did.

278
00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:09.720
When we shop with Sally and Jan. I mean, I'm not spoiling too much. trying to think if this was in the trailer.

279
00:32:09.779 --> 00:32:12.359
Certainly it was in the clip that was shown at the BFI.

280
00:32:12.420 --> 00:32:22.680
Uh, you know, we, Matt Irvine has been like the custodian of the liberator model over the years and and Mike Tucker, again, was able to bring it along on the date.

281
00:32:22.740 --> 00:32:33.420
So that in the middle of this champagne garden, garden party with Sally and Jan, you have the liberator there wobbling away on its own.

282
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And the pole spider.

283
00:32:35.579 --> 00:32:38.160
I remember watching that and just that my heart was going a bit like...

284
00:32:40.019 --> 00:32:41.759
I quite like that.

285
00:32:41.819 --> 00:32:46.380
I quite like that kind of added jeopardy, but it's also honest, you know, it's just, it's just, that's what it, that's what it's like.

286
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:48.720
And it looks so beautiful.

287
00:32:48.779 --> 00:32:51.599
We had quite a sunny kind of winter's day.

288
00:32:51.660 --> 00:32:57.660
So there's a lot of like of the liberator kind of silhouetted against the winter sun.

289
00:32:57.720 --> 00:33:05.819
We had teleport bracelets and guns and a few other surprises for later in the dock, which will make an appearance.

290
00:33:05.819 --> 00:33:07.859
And, you know, it's just anything that can make it tactile.

291
00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:24.119
Really, that's not just partly that's to give us something to shoot, you know, to, you know, where we don't want to start the film with kind of 10 different shots of the flower beds in Sally's garden. you know, much nicer to start it with 10 shots of the liberator and then bring Sally and Jan into that.

292
00:33:24.180 --> 00:33:36.359
And equal, it gives them something to react to and gives them something that is provocative, that's going to provoke memories and it's going to connect them to it and make it feel like a special day for them.

293
00:33:36.420 --> 00:33:39.720
You know, I think that that's something we were really keen to do.

294
00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:43.559
So yeah, I'll always use anything, any artefacts.

295
00:33:43.619 --> 00:33:48.480
Again, in the box of delights recently, we had a lot of artefacts on that one.

296
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:56.880
And it's, I think it feels really special to think, I love that we can go back to locations and say, this location is still here.

297
00:33:56.940 --> 00:34:01.200
You can still go to this planet from Blake 7.

298
00:34:01.259 --> 00:34:02.160
It's still there for you.

299
00:34:02.220 --> 00:34:11.820
And equally, when you go, this model, or this prop, is still a concrete thing in space and time.

300
00:34:11.880 --> 00:34:15.539
I think that's quite powerful, even if it's chipped away and faded.

301
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:18.599
Uh, it, you know, you know, these things will outlive us.

302
00:34:18.659 --> 00:34:21.300
You know, we'll outlive the people who worked on the show.

303
00:34:21.300 --> 00:34:34.739
And I find that kind of remarkable when you can say, this is a piece of history, just like we might look at, like, at a Roman uniform or, like, or, or, or, or, a dagger or something that we might find in a, in a dig.

304
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:37.980
I feel like it's a modern version of that, really.

305
00:34:42.719 --> 00:34:51.239
Did you have any problem with people's memories being rusty because they haven't had that familiarity of rehearsing their anecdotes over the years?

306
00:34:51.300 --> 00:34:53.639
Or was it more like cracking open something fresh?

307
00:34:54.119 --> 00:35:00.840
Yeah, I mean, you always get some bits that you kind of, you know, it all depends how geeky you go.

308
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:09.360
I think that generally the people we spoke to had really good, vivid memories of Blake, but, you know, for every 10 questions you might have in your head to ask.

309
00:35:09.420 --> 00:35:14.880
Uh, you probably find that only 4 or 5 of those will provoke something specific.

310
00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:25.440
And what we always like in the docks is that you don't want anything that feels woolly or vague or like you're kind of regurgitating the thing the interviewer has asked you about.

311
00:35:25.500 --> 00:35:37.079
You want the memory to feel incredibly specific and to put that person back in the, in the socks and shoes that they were wearing at the time to tell you about a moment in their lives.

312
00:35:37.139 --> 00:35:52.019
So, And then inevitably, you know, I might speak to someone like Sally, uh, for an hour or so and ask her about every episode and I'm going to chop that down to maybe only, you know, kind of 5 or 6 minutes in the show.

313
00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:56.820
So I'm going to focus in on the most vivid memories that she might have given us.

314
00:35:56.880 --> 00:35:59.639
But that's always, that's always the process.

315
00:35:59.699 --> 00:36:07.619
And what you realise, what we all know is human beings, is, you know, some people you meet and they will swear to you that they have total recall.

316
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:14.820
But I think the average human goes through their life kind of realising, oh, shit, we're not very good at remembering things, are we?

317
00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:22.800
You know, I like forgetting and being forgotten, things being forgotten is such a continued creep of just being a human being, you know.

318
00:36:22.860 --> 00:36:31.500
I've got a 6 year old and the awareness that, uh, you know, all the things we did when she was three. you know, 99% of those are gone now and she's only six.

319
00:36:31.559 --> 00:36:40.739
Uh, so I think I'm used to, I I'm always delighted when a memory turns up and I'm never sad when somebody says, I don't really remember that.

320
00:36:41.159 --> 00:36:43.440
It's understandable, it's human.

321
00:36:43.500 --> 00:36:44.280
Yeah, yeah.

322
00:36:44.340 --> 00:36:51.840
It's hard to imagine somebody interviewing oneself about, you know, do you have that funny day you had at work 45 years ago.

323
00:36:51.900 --> 00:36:54.900
The fact that anyone can remember them at all is really impressive.

324
00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:03.840
It's madam, particularly when, you know, if you're, say, a cast member and you did another 12 episodes like this that that year.

325
00:37:03.900 --> 00:37:19.800
I mean, I'm always, but I am often startled that someone like Mitch Mitchell, who worked on the, on the kind of video effects on things like the teleport effect and so on in that 1st year, Mitch was a very key figure and we'd worked with Mitch on the whole of Fang Rock documentary that we did.

326
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:23.159
And Mitch, I say people don't have totally recall.

327
00:37:23.219 --> 00:37:25.320
If anybody comes close to having totally recall.

328
00:37:25.380 --> 00:37:36.659
Mitch Mitchell. who just, you know, can zoom in to an insane laser degree on this is how we achieve this particular special effect from, you know, 40, 50 years ago.

329
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:39.780
So there are people like that that are very helpful.

330
00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:45.719
Actually, with Mitch, the other trick is cutting it down is being able to say, okay, that's enough. that's enough.

331
00:37:45.780 --> 00:37:47.280
He's down.

332
00:37:47.340 --> 00:37:47.940
He's down.

333
00:37:48.000 --> 00:38:01.139
But we're so happy to have someone like Mitch on it because you just, you know, there's that precision, that specificity I'm talking about, you can't get anybody more specific than Mitch.

334
00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:01.800
So I love that.

335
00:38:01.860 --> 00:38:04.980
I suppose sort of speaking about the teleport effect.

336
00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:11.699
Chris, Chris T. This is one of the big things that has been adjusted with the sort of special edition.

337
00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:14.940
So how did you approach revamping the teleport effect?

338
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:18.719
Because that's something that's so well identified with the show, I think.

339
00:38:18.780 --> 00:38:22.679
Well, it's probably the most controversial thing we've done, to be honest.

340
00:38:22.980 --> 00:38:25.800
I've seen I've seen some of the forums.

341
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:28.139
So...

342
00:38:28.139 --> 00:38:33.599
The teleport effect and the screens are the 2 kind of like ones I zeroed in on.

343
00:38:33.659 --> 00:38:34.980
The teleport effects.

344
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:36.539
I actually, I think it's iconic.

345
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:37.260
I think it's really cool.

346
00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:41.940
What I wanted to do was integrated a bit better with the surroundings.

347
00:38:42.000 --> 00:39:06.119
So I like, I think the whole, for the planet side version, having the person form with the line around them is cool, but I'm always aware that that's very much the camera POV, so it feels a bit 2D. So for that, we just made it a bit 3D. So instead of uh, the uh, like a line, it's more of a sphere, that kind of like forms and then the person glows and then it comes together.

348
00:39:06.119 --> 00:39:11.699
In some instances, uh, we had the film for that, but half the time we uh, didn't.

349
00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:14.340
So it's got to integrate with what's already there.

350
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:23.099
On the ship side, I wanted to keep it quite faithful because I liked the way it shows the person turning into a wave and being transmitted.

351
00:39:23.159 --> 00:39:37.679
But you have the situation where the camera will always like cut back to the other side and this big, big orange light will shine on the crew and then it will cut back and there's no light and then the person wibbles away.

352
00:39:37.739 --> 00:39:41.039
Except sometimes the wall goes orange, sometimes it doesn't.

353
00:39:41.099 --> 00:39:43.980
I tried to like standardise it across.

354
00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:46.260
It's almost like every director had a different way of doing it.

355
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:56.579
But I added a little bit of orange, like, sort of orange glow transform, like, transferring between the 2 paddles, um, and that changes direction to whether they're beaming up or down.

356
00:39:56.639 --> 00:39:59.460
It seemed to go down okay on the BFI.

357
00:39:59.519 --> 00:40:03.179
I might, like, if we get an opportunity, like, for a next one.

358
00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:07.500
I might like dial it back a little bit, but yeah, no, people seem reasonably happy.

359
00:40:07.559 --> 00:40:09.360
The screens was one as well.

360
00:40:09.420 --> 00:40:15.539
I remember actually it was an Aurac whenever Aristo sort of appears on the screen.

361
00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:17.219
Somebody in the background did go, woo.

362
00:40:18.300 --> 00:40:33.719
But so in the show, they would use the sort of a portal kind of a vision portal kind of method, which didn't always line up with the screen or was sort of a bit, like it wasn't necessarily accurate.

363
00:40:33.780 --> 00:40:36.179
And I think they could only like shrink it a certain degree.

364
00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:37.380
So it didn't always come.

365
00:40:37.619 --> 00:40:39.420
It didn't always come from a small amount.

366
00:40:39.539 --> 00:40:42.360
It was like half of it would appear and then form.

367
00:40:42.420 --> 00:40:45.119
So what I did was I have it kind of wibble.

368
00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:50.699
Um, it's a bit like in the 1st season of Sequest DSV, uh, Captain Bridges hologram.

369
00:40:50.760 --> 00:40:53.099
I have it appear kind of like that.

370
00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:59.400
And it just sort of comes into, sort of a ghostly visage comes into view and then you get the traditional round portal.

371
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:03.179
And I just thought that might be quite something that's quite nice.

372
00:41:03.239 --> 00:41:08.280
You're going to start rumours that there's a sequest DSV collection coming out next now.

373
00:41:08.340 --> 00:41:13.739
The BBC just decides to go hard left to emblem entertainment.

374
00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:19.800
We have got, actually, we've got a list, actually, of what we want you to do next, but, you know, you might have your own plans, the 2 of you.

375
00:41:19.860 --> 00:41:20.699
Moonbased 3.

376
00:41:20.940 --> 00:41:31.079
Um, but um, the other thing what we did was uh, the Liberator and the Federation, both of the same vision portals thing.

377
00:41:31.139 --> 00:41:33.239
So they standardised it across the series.

378
00:41:33.300 --> 00:41:40.199
And also often the thing that it would be showing would be square, whereas the screen would be circular.

379
00:41:40.260 --> 00:41:42.599
So for the Federation stuff, I changed them to screens.

380
00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:46.920
Sometimes it'd be like a round screen just to kind of fit with the shape of the thing.

381
00:41:46.980 --> 00:41:49.440
But the idea was to show the disparity in technology.

382
00:41:49.500 --> 00:42:09.960
So I won't the liberator have these fancy holograms and then the federation are like screens with like lights and knobs and whatever matches up with the rest of the set and you would have seen that in Seaclocate the story with Travis's interrogation of Cali whenever he's in this like little glass screen as opposed to just a hologram.

383
00:42:09.960 --> 00:42:13.139
So, and there's other stuff.

384
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:15.599
Like, a lot of it ends up being quite faithful.

385
00:42:15.659 --> 00:42:19.860
Like, whenever the liberators, like, tracking screen comes up.

386
00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:23.579
It's basically the same as it was originally, it's just Roud now.

387
00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:25.139
Yeah, stuff like that.

388
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:42.659
Like, another thing that we had quite a lot of fun with was with planets, um, like when Blake will describe a planet or like ask Zen to show us this planet, it'll show us this wonderful library footage of somebody with a camera, like recording that part, that one par station that isn't all the episodes.

389
00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:57.000
Um, and obviously with what we know later in the series, like, uh, about the system, it didn't quite line up with how they, like they're much more like Borg like or like less like, they wouldn't really want to explore.

390
00:42:57.059 --> 00:43:00.300
So everything would probably be more orbital scans.

391
00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:09.659
So you see a lot of, like, I ended up building a couple of things from orbit, so you'd get, like, a nice orbital, like, satellite view of what something would be.

392
00:43:09.719 --> 00:43:11.159
It's still the same power station.

393
00:43:11.219 --> 00:43:16.679
I want all the effort of modelling it, but just from above with some Federation ship's docked around it, that kind of thing.

394
00:43:16.739 --> 00:43:19.619
In fact, that is the galactic standard power station, obviously, that's why.

395
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:20.400
It's fantastic.

396
00:43:20.639 --> 00:43:23.699
The standard design for all federation installations.

397
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:36.659
Is there anyone who sadly isn't with us that you would really have loved to interview for for your documentaries?

398
00:43:37.079 --> 00:43:48.659
I'm really happy with what we've got, really, because I think if Kevin Davis hadn't shot the interviews that he did, it would have been a really tricky job.

399
00:43:48.659 --> 00:43:57.960
I think it would have definitely worked and you would have still had a doc with 17 new interviews, which is more than, you know, we've done on most things ever.

400
00:43:58.019 --> 00:44:00.539
But I think you would have missed certain people.

401
00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:08.039
I think you would have missed not having like David Maloney involved or Gareth Thomas or, you know, and Stephen Griff and people like that.

402
00:44:08.099 --> 00:44:10.260
And I think that's all really valid.

403
00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:19.920
I would have loved to have spoken to David Maloney, just because I think he's a really interesting man, and I think he, this was his 1st producer job working on Blake 7.

404
00:44:19.980 --> 00:44:21.900
He directed before very successfully.

405
00:44:21.900 --> 00:44:44.039
And he, understandably, he gets offered this slightly poisoned chalice of, can you make this incredibly ambitious science fiction series that for some ungodly reason we've decided is comparable in budget to softly, softly task force, you know, because of course, you know, you're just going to use them in the liberator set the whole time, aren't you?

406
00:44:44.159 --> 00:44:46.199
So that's like having a police station. just the same.

407
00:44:46.440 --> 00:45:04.199
And I think the fact that David kind of kind of realises that, but knows this is my chance, this is my opportunity, and makes it work, and I think probably felt like he was walking over hot coals to bring particularly that 1st year together.

408
00:45:04.260 --> 00:45:06.300
I would have loved to have had David.

409
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:08.159
But we kind of have.

410
00:45:08.219 --> 00:45:09.719
You know, that's the thing.

411
00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:14.099
I can't feel sad because we've got such a lovely interview where it gives all the answers.

412
00:45:14.159 --> 00:45:15.119
I would hope he would have given.

413
00:45:15.179 --> 00:45:19.619
So I don't feel like there's anybody that we miss.

414
00:45:19.679 --> 00:45:22.980
I guess you always want more, but I'm very happy with what we've got.

415
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:25.440
You know, I'd love a chance to do more.

416
00:45:25.500 --> 00:45:32.519
You know, I'd love a chance if if things go well, you know, if if sales have been good, they seem to have been good.

417
00:45:32.579 --> 00:45:48.840
I think we'd all love to continue and to do more Blake 7 and to be able, you know, from my point of view to be able to go and look at episodes from series B or whatever and say, right, 1st time I've seen this, let's make a film about it.

418
00:45:48.900 --> 00:45:51.119
Or you've got some treats ahead of you.

419
00:45:51.179 --> 00:45:54.539
It'd be such a shame if like the seriousest end of the liberator exploding.

420
00:45:54.599 --> 00:45:55.019
I know.

421
00:45:55.440 --> 00:45:57.480
Like, well, I guess that's it.

422
00:45:57.659 --> 00:46:11.579
Funnily enough, one of the other people who's on the podcast, he's in Australia, his husband always says for him, Blake 7 ended with the liberator exploding at the end of all rack, because they were all obviously dead.

423
00:46:11.639 --> 00:46:13.199
So it never came back in his mind.

424
00:46:13.260 --> 00:46:14.400
Yeah, if you were just watching it on TV.

425
00:46:14.460 --> 00:46:16.980
Nobody told you that that wasn't the end.

426
00:46:18.179 --> 00:46:21.300
It's a funny, it's an interesting cliffhanger, is it?

427
00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:27.059
Because I watched it, you know, and thought, well, there's no way, you know, it's very clear that they're watching it on a screen, isn't it?

428
00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:29.340
that they're watching a vision of the future.

429
00:46:29.400 --> 00:46:32.579
But you are supposed to possibly think that they have just exploded.

430
00:46:32.639 --> 00:46:34.800
Well, I think immediately.

431
00:46:34.860 --> 00:46:40.619
It reminded me so much of, I mean, there's a lot of Blake Severn and Red Dwarf, isn't there?

432
00:46:40.679 --> 00:46:59.280
And it really reminded me of that cliffhanger at the end of Red Dwarf season 6 when they've met their unhealthy, overweight future selves, I think, and then it ends up being just Rimmer, kind of running through the ship, and then he blows up like Starbucks engine or drive or something, and it explodes, I'm sure.

433
00:46:59.340 --> 00:47:06.360
And I just, I got real red dwarf vibes from the end of season F series A and Blake 7 in a really good way.

434
00:47:06.420 --> 00:47:07.679
Very happy to have them.

435
00:47:07.739 --> 00:47:13.320
It's an interesting finale, but seeing as all the other finales for all the other seasons are so good.

436
00:47:13.380 --> 00:47:15.420
It does stand out quite a bit.

437
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:24.780
It's traditional for every interview with you, Chris Chapman, to end with someone saying, so I know you can't tell us, but can you give us a hint which season you're going to do next?

438
00:47:24.900 --> 00:47:28.079
But it's not quite like the Doctor Who ones with these.

439
00:47:28.440 --> 00:47:30.599
See, it's an key, obviously.

440
00:47:30.659 --> 00:47:32.820
But it is interesting, isn't it?

441
00:47:32.880 --> 00:47:35.159
It's weird how perverse it would feel.

442
00:47:35.159 --> 00:47:41.639
If we were to do more Blake 7 and we said, right, next we were doing series D, you know, we were going to go to the 4th season.

443
00:47:41.699 --> 00:47:43.800
And you think, well, that is what we do on Doctor Who, really?

444
00:47:43.860 --> 00:47:45.420
that we just do it like a chocolate box.

445
00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:57.539
But, you know, Blake Severn is such a serialised show. with such a kind of through line that we'd have to be pretty evil not to proceed chronologically, wouldn't we?

446
00:47:57.599 --> 00:48:02.460
You say that, Chris, but like literally day one of the England shoot.

447
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:05.519
We're sitting there having dinner and Mike's like, someone, are we crashing the Scorpio?

448
00:48:05.579 --> 00:48:10.260
It's like, no, you have to have your vegetables, which is everything else.

449
00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:12.780
Yes, then we can crash the Scorpio.

450
00:48:13.260 --> 00:48:15.059
Keep cool, Mike.

451
00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:15.599
Keep cool.

452
00:48:15.659 --> 00:48:16.920
All good things.

453
00:48:16.980 --> 00:48:18.659
Fingers crossed.

454
00:48:18.719 --> 00:48:21.179
We get there. absolutely.

455
00:48:21.239 --> 00:48:23.400
But we're hoping very much that we do.

456
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.380
Thank you both so much for making the time to talk to us this evening.

457
00:48:34.440 --> 00:48:38.460
We can't wait to get our hands on our copies, which should be dropping next weekend.

458
00:48:38.519 --> 00:48:39.719
All the best for the future as well.

459
00:48:39.780 --> 00:48:42.300
Let's hope there's many more, well at least 3 more to come.

460
00:48:42.360 --> 00:48:43.079
No problem.

461
00:48:43.139 --> 00:48:43.380
Thank you.

462
00:48:43.440 --> 00:48:44.519
Thank you for having us.

463
00:48:44.579 --> 00:48:46.260
And yeah, I hope we get to do this again.

464
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:47.400
Or let's hope so.

465
00:48:47.519 --> 00:48:49.019
Fingers crossed. you.

466
00:48:49.079 --> 00:49:02.579
So, again, we'd just like to say thank you so much to Chris C and Chris T for their time, just taking us behind the scenes of what's going to be a really exciting Blu-ray set for Blake 7 fans.

467
00:49:02.639 --> 00:49:07.800
Me and Pete are really excited and we're not, hopefully after listening to this, you will be as well.

468
00:49:07.860 --> 00:49:13.019
And if you're on the fence about buying it, I think this hopefully has sold you on it.

469
00:49:13.079 --> 00:49:25.860
Yeah, I mean, I mean, there's so much stuff that we've sort of taken for granted that we've known about Doctor Who because we've been seeing these things since we were kids, we've been seeing interviews, we've been seeing, but here we're finally getting the equivalent for Blake 7 all in one place.

470
00:49:25.920 --> 00:49:32.940
And it's been so long awaited and finally, it's getting the release it deserves.

471
00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:33.360
Yeah.

472
00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:35.699
But we would say.

473
00:49:35.760 --> 00:49:36.239
We would say that.

474
00:49:36.300 --> 00:49:38.039
Right, guys, it's in safe hands.

475
00:49:38.099 --> 00:49:39.300
That's the most important thing.

476
00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:40.440
It's very safe hands.

477
00:49:41.039 --> 00:49:42.659
Absolutely.

478
00:49:42.719 --> 00:50:01.079
And speaking of releases, I know everyone listening is eagerly awaiting series D and we can reveal we will be back at the end of December for the start of series D with rescue and we are very much looking forward to talking about series D a lot.

479
00:50:01.139 --> 00:50:01.980
Series D?

480
00:50:01.980 --> 00:50:08.579
or is that are they going to re- are they going to rename if they're going to rename the series for the Blu-rays like they did for the Doctor Who?

481
00:50:08.639 --> 00:50:11.579
Is it going to be Gareth Thomas series one?

482
00:50:11.579 --> 00:50:17.699
and then maybe if they do more, It'll end up with Paul Darrow series 2 in America. don't think so.

483
00:50:18.179 --> 00:50:20.460
Well, we can treat.

484
00:50:20.519 --> 00:50:22.139
Just making us Tom...

485
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:25.980
We've already had to put up with the series A. We never going to win that argument, are we?

486
00:50:26.039 --> 00:50:27.420
Never.

487
00:50:27.599 --> 00:50:29.880
I'm putting a sticker on mine.

488
00:50:29.940 --> 00:50:31.619
Join us again in December.

489
00:50:31.679 --> 00:50:34.860
Look out for information about when we'll actually be releasing.

490
00:50:34.920 --> 00:50:41.400
Hopefully we're not going to ruin your Christmas, like the end of series D did for so many people back in 81.

491
00:50:41.519 --> 00:50:42.239
Thanks for listening.

492
00:50:42.360 --> 00:50:43.199
And goodbye.

493
00:50:43.260 --> 00:50:43.860
Bye bye.

494
00:50:52.980 --> 00:50:55.199
Switching to manual.

495
00:50:55.260 --> 00:50:57.179
Maximum power on all drives.

496
00:51:00.239 --> 00:51:02.099
Maximal power.

497
00:51:12.179 --> 00:51:14.820
Well, that's not quite the end.

498
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:25.920
Chris Thompson very kindly gave me and Pete a bit more time to talk about the models that he created for the new Blu ray set, and a couple of other general bits and pieces as well.

499
00:51:25.980 --> 00:51:29.039
So we present that here at the end, especially for you.

500
00:51:29.099 --> 00:51:29.940
Enjoy.

501
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:32.460
You'll probably recognise this little chap.

502
00:51:32.519 --> 00:51:35.280
Oh, Spacemaster Series 5.

503
00:51:35.519 --> 00:51:38.219
Yeah, well, this is the bullet craft.

504
00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:39.539
So it's before it was the space.

505
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:39.900
Okay.

506
00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:43.440
Basically, we didn't know if we were going to get the space master.

507
00:51:43.500 --> 00:51:46.739
So I did have the windows removable just in case.

508
00:51:47.219 --> 00:51:51.960
Yeah, in the cases we need to repaint it.

509
00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:58.320
But the advantage of having Jonathan's book is that we actually, we had the specifications for the original set.

510
00:51:58.380 --> 00:51:59.519
Oh, wow.

511
00:51:59.579 --> 00:52:03.420
So this is a one-to-one of what they built in the studio.

512
00:52:04.679 --> 00:52:08.039
And then you're probably going to recognise this one.

513
00:52:08.099 --> 00:52:10.079
So, yes.

514
00:52:10.260 --> 00:52:23.579
One of the key things, uh, for me about doing this was I went to a convention, the SFX convention in Cambra Sands, like in, I think it must have been 2012.

515
00:52:23.760 --> 00:52:38.639
It was one of the 1st ever conventions I ever went to on my own, and there was a screening there of duel with Sally Nevette, Q and A. And I remember whenever the lights went down, episode started, and then you have that shot of the 3 pursuit ships in the sky.

516
00:52:38.699 --> 00:52:40.139
Oh yeah.

517
00:52:40.199 --> 00:52:42.480
Yeah, and the audience burst out laughing.

518
00:52:43.380 --> 00:52:46.559
I felt really like, oh, come on, guys.

519
00:52:48.179 --> 00:53:01.920
That's why, and you see the shot in the BFI trailer or the little reel that we did of all 3 of them, like sort of hanging and like pans up from the or tilts up from the planet.

520
00:53:01.980 --> 00:53:05.699
And that was my sort of like, screw you guys, like the...

521
00:53:06.239 --> 00:53:09.480
This was built by a friend of mine, Richard Ashton.

522
00:53:09.539 --> 00:53:19.980
It's quite a bit bigger than the original because I knew it was close to it and it's got like 2 mounting points and we made the antennas removable just for transport.

523
00:53:20.340 --> 00:53:23.519
But also it's to future proof it as well.

524
00:53:23.579 --> 00:53:32.280
So, for instance, like if we got to do season 2 or three, we could have them with different antenna and different things to kind of denote them being all different.

525
00:53:32.280 --> 00:53:34.440
And also it means it doesn't break in transit.

526
00:53:34.500 --> 00:53:35.579
Yeah.

527
00:53:36.480 --> 00:53:42.300
What was the one that you said you had a crisis with the BFI when he was Doctor Who ones?

528
00:53:42.360 --> 00:53:44.460
Did Money Doctor Who ones come a cropper?

529
00:53:44.519 --> 00:53:46.199
during your travels?

530
00:53:46.260 --> 00:53:47.519
Oh, so, um...

531
00:53:47.519 --> 00:54:00.239
I brought the cyberwarship, the Dalek shuttlecraft and the Akers Patrol shuttle to the 1st BFI thing and EasyJets baggage claim.

532
00:54:00.300 --> 00:54:02.039
They just eat their suitcases around.

533
00:54:02.099 --> 00:54:15.420
Like no matter how much packaging you get, you're going to get some casualties and they all did get broken up a bit, but they're all fixed now and we're able to bring the happiness shuttle, happiness patrol shuttle back for the 2nd viewing and it looks a bit healthier.

534
00:54:15.719 --> 00:54:19.139
This little guy, you will remember.

535
00:54:22.199 --> 00:54:24.420
So this is the flying robot tomorrow rack.

536
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:27.119
Yeah, that's a fantastic model.

537
00:54:27.179 --> 00:54:29.460
And is that, did...?

538
00:54:29.460 --> 00:54:31.260
Is that, is that done from?

539
00:54:31.260 --> 00:54:33.239
That is just a, one...

540
00:54:33.300 --> 00:54:34.079
It's just a torch.

541
00:54:34.139 --> 00:54:39.719
And again, how big, how does that compare to the original, what was the original, like, half the size of that or something?

542
00:54:39.780 --> 00:54:40.800
The was about the same, I think.

543
00:54:40.920 --> 00:54:43.800
Somebody saw a pretty good one-to-one model.

544
00:54:43.860 --> 00:54:48.059
This isn't a perfect representation of the original because the original had more of these bits.

545
00:54:48.119 --> 00:54:53.519
Uh, more of, I guess for the purposes of an audio podcast, apologies, listeners.

546
00:54:53.579 --> 00:54:55.019
Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot my podcasting.

547
00:54:55.079 --> 00:54:55.980
I'm just kicking out.

548
00:54:56.400 --> 00:55:00.360
It's got these little like hinge bits that sort of form on the side.

549
00:55:00.420 --> 00:55:03.360
This one only has them on the underside where it's supposed to have them on the top as well.

550
00:55:03.480 --> 00:55:05.039
And it's an actual little...

551
00:55:05.099 --> 00:55:06.300
Is that just an ordinary torch?

552
00:55:06.360 --> 00:55:08.400
Small metal torch you've got, Chris?

553
00:55:08.460 --> 00:55:15.239
I didn't I couldn't find any red gel or anything like that to put on the light because I think they must have had some sort of a red lamp in the original.

554
00:55:15.300 --> 00:55:17.880
So I had some leftover silicone from the rooten.

555
00:55:17.940 --> 00:55:20.280
So I just poured that in and coloured it red.

556
00:55:21.300 --> 00:55:28.619
But yeah, we just hung this from a crucifix and just out, just went on location and shot with it.

557
00:55:28.739 --> 00:55:38.579
And it ended up working quite well because in the original, I think the original one of these in Aurac, it's just on a pole and it can move like that.

558
00:55:38.639 --> 00:55:44.699
And then they use the camera to simulate its movement, but you can always tell by the lens distortion when they do that.

559
00:55:44.760 --> 00:55:45.539
It's just twisting.

560
00:55:45.599 --> 00:55:46.320
It's not actually moving.

561
00:55:46.380 --> 00:55:46.860
Yeah.

562
00:55:47.940 --> 00:55:53.940
And like Paul had the original film that they showed up the sky, but it didn't really match what was on location.

563
00:55:54.000 --> 00:56:03.780
So I just took it out to, like, like, Belfast lock and shot it there and confused some workers at Pricewaterhouse Cooper's.

564
00:56:05.340 --> 00:56:08.699
I brought these little guys along.

565
00:56:08.699 --> 00:56:11.579
To the screening.

566
00:56:11.639 --> 00:56:13.079
Oh, done.

567
00:56:13.320 --> 00:56:21.539
So, if people remember Federation Space Command, and us talking about the cat trying to knock it over and stuff.

568
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:24.300
Oh, well, we've got to tell that story.

569
00:56:24.360 --> 00:56:25.079
We got to tell that story.

570
00:56:25.139 --> 00:56:25.440
So yeah.

571
00:56:25.500 --> 00:56:27.300
I understand you had an issue.

572
00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:28.019
One second.

573
00:56:28.019 --> 00:56:29.159
I'll just go get it. one second.

574
00:56:29.219 --> 00:56:29.760
Okay.

575
00:56:29.760 --> 00:56:30.900
What, the cat?

576
00:56:33.059 --> 00:56:37.380
Federation Space Command was like the biggest thing that we made for series.

577
00:56:37.500 --> 00:56:39.300
Oh yeah, that's big.

578
00:56:41.639 --> 00:56:44.340
It's a very large sombrero.

579
00:56:46.079 --> 00:56:49.559
So, um, how big is that?

580
00:56:49.619 --> 00:56:50.760
So like a metre?

581
00:56:50.820 --> 00:56:51.719
No, rubbish.

582
00:56:51.780 --> 00:56:53.159
Maybe just under a metre.

583
00:56:53.219 --> 00:56:54.599
No, it's diameter.

584
00:56:54.659 --> 00:56:58.559
We only really ended up detailing one side properly as well, just because we had so little time.

585
00:56:58.619 --> 00:57:04.559
And are you thinking HD the whole time about better put, or have you just always worked in HD?

586
00:57:04.619 --> 00:57:07.320
So that's not something you've had to adapt to yourself. sort of.

587
00:57:07.380 --> 00:57:14.519
Like, there's an element of, obviously, time when working on these, but also, you want to be able to get as close as possible.

588
00:57:14.760 --> 00:57:21.300
So you kind of have to put as much detail in and maybe go overboard, uh, at certain times.

589
00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:31.199
But one of the things that if you look at the original Ian Scoon's concept art, it says that it's specifically supposed to be under construction, because it's modelled on 2001 Space Odyssey.

590
00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:39.300
So, There are little um, like cutouts in the side of it, where you can see they're still putting panels in, whatnot.

591
00:57:39.360 --> 00:57:43.739
I'm just being quite careful with how I hold it because there's a lighting rig inside that keeps falling out.

592
00:57:44.400 --> 00:57:52.380
And we noticed, uh, it looked I mean, it looks spectacular on the big screen. and there were little ships coming and going and things like that.

593
00:57:52.440 --> 00:57:55.380
You've got the whole busy Deep Space 9.

594
00:57:55.440 --> 00:57:58.199
So, yeah, I wanted to feel like the centre of the Federation.

595
00:57:58.320 --> 00:58:06.239
So, and also in Seatlocate Destroy, they specifically mention in dialogue that the pursuit ships aren't there because there's only 3 of them than you.

596
00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:06.900
Yeah.

597
00:58:06.960 --> 00:58:08.159
So I designed this.

598
00:58:08.460 --> 00:58:11.400
Which is like a Federation cruiser kind of thing.

599
00:58:11.460 --> 00:58:13.019
Oh, right.

600
00:58:13.079 --> 00:58:20.280
And the idea would be that we'd use these in the 1st half of the series and then we'd phase them out for whenever the Starburst client comes in.

601
00:58:20.340 --> 00:58:20.820
Right.

602
00:58:20.820 --> 00:58:29.460
And then a few people have picked up on this, which is...

603
00:58:29.519 --> 00:58:43.800
The point behind that was that we were getting through, we were coming into like the last couple of weeks and I used the CG Liberator a lot and like, I'm a proud CG artist.

604
00:58:43.860 --> 00:58:47.039
I think it's a really cool medium and it lets me do lots of wonderful things.

605
00:58:47.099 --> 00:58:57.360
But on a project such as this, I did kind of want to equalise, like see if I can get another model liberator to use as a miniature one that we can use sort of for distant shots.

606
00:58:57.420 --> 00:58:57.900
Yeah.

607
00:58:57.900 --> 00:59:02.639
And the guy on Facebook, we're selling off some model kit.

608
00:59:03.119 --> 00:59:04.800
I bought.

609
00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:07.800
It's in bits in the minute because I wanted to change the lighting for them.

610
00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:12.599
But I bought this, which is just a 3D printed kit of the Liberator.

611
00:59:12.599 --> 00:59:15.480
And not even knowing what I was using it for.

612
00:59:15.539 --> 00:59:17.159
The guy threw in a Scorpio for me.

613
00:59:17.219 --> 00:59:18.000
Oh, wow.

614
00:59:18.059 --> 00:59:19.199
Did you just give it as a freebie?

615
00:59:19.260 --> 00:59:21.840
So that liberates what, about a foot long?

616
00:59:21.960 --> 00:59:23.639
Less than.

617
00:59:23.699 --> 00:59:25.380
Oh, right, yeah.

618
00:59:25.440 --> 00:59:25.739
Yeah.

619
00:59:25.739 --> 00:59:29.760
And like, it's really basic.

620
00:59:30.420 --> 00:59:35.639
Uh, like even in terms of painting, like I absolutely just put through this thing together.

621
00:59:35.699 --> 00:59:39.599
But we use it for about 4 or 5 shots just whenever it's in orbit.

622
00:59:39.659 --> 00:59:42.599
There's a shot of the trailer of it just above Aristo.

623
00:59:42.719 --> 00:59:54.300
And sometimes when it's flying in the distance, like you, I did a shot of the pursuit ship, sort of looming on XK 72, and then you can see this little liberator just in orbit.

624
00:59:54.360 --> 00:59:55.380
Oh, cool.

625
00:59:55.440 --> 00:59:58.500
So, uh, Yeah, no that was good fun.

626
00:59:58.559 --> 01:00:01.380
And last but probably least.

627
01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:06.119
We have the most fragile of all them.

628
01:00:09.300 --> 01:00:11.760
Which is the Ortega.

629
01:00:11.820 --> 01:00:13.800
From Mission to Destiny.

630
01:00:13.860 --> 01:00:14.219
Yeah.

631
01:00:14.280 --> 01:00:15.539
Yeah, oh, look at that.

632
01:00:15.599 --> 01:00:18.780
She's definitely got eagle overtones that one.

633
01:00:18.840 --> 01:00:21.599
Well, that's because it's made from Eagles.

634
01:00:23.880 --> 01:00:32.400
So the really funny thing about so I did the Space 1999 technical manual a couple of years ago.

635
01:00:32.460 --> 01:00:37.139
So I have loads of just random space 1999 bits and bobs.

636
01:00:37.199 --> 01:00:43.980
And I have kit bits lying around and whatever, and they used eagle parts all over space 1999.

637
01:00:44.280 --> 01:00:48.360
So the spine of the Ortega is just Nigel's spine flipped upside down.

638
01:00:48.420 --> 01:00:55.800
Um, there's eagle pods all over the, or like eagle landing leg pods, all over the launch bay for deliverance.

639
01:00:55.800 --> 01:00:57.000
Oh, right.

640
01:00:57.000 --> 01:00:58.980
In the new model as well.

641
01:00:59.039 --> 01:01:17.639
Uh, speaking of which, um, So, because the original, um, Ortega used a bunch of Saturn 5 parts, I thought I'd buy a Saturn 5.

642
01:01:17.639 --> 01:01:20.460
Yeah, well, help with it.

643
01:01:20.579 --> 01:01:23.099
It meant that I had a bunch of 75 bits left.

644
01:01:24.239 --> 01:01:27.239
Yeah, that's where the rock and deliverance comes from.

645
01:01:27.300 --> 01:01:31.619
And I think the original one was made by the set team as opposed to the model team.

646
01:01:31.679 --> 01:01:40.380
So, and how they did the shot was they put a diorama in a window at the back of the set, which worked quite well, but it meant that it doesn't parallax correctly.

647
01:01:40.800 --> 01:01:44.760
But they said, it does make it look kind of small and they didn't dirty it down.

648
01:01:44.820 --> 01:01:48.179
So what we did was I put all this rust on it.

649
01:01:48.239 --> 01:01:54.840
And then there's like foliage coming in through the through the single skylight where there's a shaft of light coming through.

650
01:01:54.900 --> 01:01:58.199
It's a bit more Post-apocalyptic.

651
01:01:58.260 --> 01:02:00.780
But again, I was really proud of it because...

652
01:02:00.840 --> 01:02:02.400
Yeah, we got to do it in camera.

653
01:02:02.460 --> 01:02:03.599
Like that's always the good fun.

654
01:02:03.659 --> 01:02:10.860
But that's whenever a filmmaking becomes a bit of more of a magic trick. is what I quite enjoy.

655
01:02:10.920 --> 01:02:13.199
But yeah, so that's what I have to hand.

656
01:02:13.199 --> 01:02:21.960
And then, obviously we had Phil Stevens's XK72 and Liberator, and Matt had brought down pretty much everything else.

657
01:02:22.019 --> 01:02:22.800
Yeah.

658
01:02:22.860 --> 01:02:26.760
Yeah, fortunately, he kept so much that it was all available.

659
01:02:27.360 --> 01:02:31.679
Yeah, some of it, Mike Tucker did some restoration on it.

660
01:02:31.739 --> 01:02:32.639
They needed a bit of love.

661
01:02:32.699 --> 01:02:33.539
Yeah.

662
01:02:34.500 --> 01:02:40.199
And like, we only use the original pursuit ship in a couple of shots because it's missing a lot of the antenna and stuff.

663
01:02:40.260 --> 01:02:41.460
Yeah.

664
01:02:42.119 --> 01:02:50.880
But no, I got a really nice shot of Mike and Matt working on the original pursuit ship together and it was just a nice memory.

665
01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:52.199
Yeah, yeah.

666
01:02:52.320 --> 01:02:55.679
One of our original questions that we didn't get around to asking.

667
01:02:55.739 --> 01:03:04.500
We wondered, is there a lesson you learnt on a previous project that particularly came useful to you here with Blake 7?

668
01:03:04.559 --> 01:03:09.360
Um, I guess it all kind of accumulates, really.

669
01:03:09.420 --> 01:03:14.820
Um, Doing the season 25 special effect stuff did make this better.

670
01:03:14.880 --> 01:03:29.579
Because a lot of the lessons we learned on that project, because effectively, we did the season 25 shoot on, I think it was like the 1st week of February, and then 2 days later I jumped on a plane for the 1st Blake 7 shoot.

671
01:03:29.639 --> 01:03:36.900
And, uh, then from that. it went to more Blake 7, more season 25, more Blake 7.

672
01:03:36.960 --> 01:03:39.659
Um, and each shoot we did, we got better.

673
01:03:39.719 --> 01:03:43.139
Like we got better trying to work out where to put the lights and stuff.

674
01:03:43.199 --> 01:03:46.500
Basically, you need to make Supercar before you make Thunderbirds.

675
01:03:46.500 --> 01:03:50.219
And I think that's kind of what happened.

676
01:03:50.280 --> 01:03:56.579
Like, I think if we get another opportunity, like if we get a season two, the potential is there for it to be even better.

677
01:03:56.639 --> 01:04:07.739
Like, there's a ton of, if I could go back and do season one again with more time, I think it could look, it could get a good magnitude better, and I think I'm hoping we get that opportunity.

678
01:04:07.800 --> 01:04:11.579
So if, say, you were doing series two.

679
01:04:11.639 --> 01:04:14.880
Is there any, any, yeah, whichever.

680
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:20.159
Is there any effect shot that you'd really be excited to be working on, do you think?

681
01:04:20.219 --> 01:04:28.079
Well, the thing about Sort of the way I kind of think of it is that I don't like being like, oh, that's a really cool effect, Sean.

682
01:04:28.139 --> 01:04:29.280
I want to redo it again.

683
01:04:29.340 --> 01:04:34.920
Whenever I see stock footage, that's where I'm like, hell yeah, that's my time to shine.

684
01:04:36.300 --> 01:04:39.780
And for that reason, actually, the opening of season three.

685
01:04:39.840 --> 01:04:43.139
The big stop, I'm going to tackle with the Andromedan War.

686
01:04:43.199 --> 01:04:51.239
Because hypothetically, would probably come up with a more unified Dunjoman fleet that we'd still have for the next season.

687
01:04:51.300 --> 01:04:54.179
And then just an entirely new sequence.

688
01:04:54.239 --> 01:04:58.380
Like... plastic cutlery has advanced so far since those days.

689
01:04:58.440 --> 01:04:59.940
Things that you could make at...

690
01:04:59.940 --> 01:05:01.860
Oh, this mitry plastic cutlery.

691
01:05:01.980 --> 01:05:02.760
I know they're sports now.

692
01:05:03.599 --> 01:05:07.199
Can have a sonic spork amongst them.

693
01:05:07.320 --> 01:05:10.079
But yeah, that would be lovely.

694
01:05:10.980 --> 01:05:14.340
We would all love to crash the Scorpio one day.

695
01:05:14.400 --> 01:05:24.360
Uh-huh, but for season two, uh, I keep thinking back to uh, when Blake teleports onto the asteroid in voice of the past.

696
01:05:24.420 --> 01:05:26.940
Oh, yeah, well, you couldn't make that any worse.

697
01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:29.400
Oh, well, I can try that.

698
01:05:31.260 --> 01:05:37.079
Um, but uh, I think there's some, there's opportunity to do something cool there.

699
01:05:37.139 --> 01:05:43.739
I need to do a proper season 2 rewatch, to be honest, but I think it would just be quite fun.

700
01:05:44.699 --> 01:05:52.860
If we had more time and just inability to do more of a pre-production period to just be able to take our time with it and do some really cool stuff.

701
01:05:54.420 --> 01:05:55.920
Absolutely.

702
01:05:56.039 --> 01:05:58.260
Have you had any involvement in the Box of Delights?

703
01:05:58.320 --> 01:05:59.219
We've already talked about that.

704
01:05:59.219 --> 01:06:02.340
No, unless they need, unless there's spaceships.

705
01:06:02.340 --> 01:06:04.380
Yeah, it's...

706
01:06:04.380 --> 01:06:06.780
And that it's actual...

707
01:06:06.780 --> 01:06:07.920
Godzilla turns up in the background.

708
01:06:07.980 --> 01:06:08.519
Yeah.

709
01:06:08.579 --> 01:06:09.179
Yeah, yeah.

710
01:06:10.559 --> 01:06:24.239
No, I'm, at the minute, I'm very much limited to Doctor Who and Blake 7, though I think I'm getting a break on Doctor Who for a little bit, because I never, I never like to assume I'm always working on it because we've had so many effects artists work on them in the past.

711
01:06:24.360 --> 01:06:27.480
And, uh, like, I don't want to get pressures about it.

712
01:06:27.539 --> 01:06:29.039
I know I'm one of many.

713
01:06:29.099 --> 01:06:33.480
Our other questions were going to be around, um, what other series might be coming out soon.

714
01:06:33.480 --> 01:06:44.039
Like, have you been approached to do any Japanese fighter planes from World War 2 in a Tenko kind of vibe, possibly, or any Belgian cafes for secret army?

715
01:06:44.159 --> 01:06:49.260
I don't know, like I think like, so I've not heard anything.

716
01:06:49.320 --> 01:06:58.199
So, uh, But I think you would like to think that with Blake 7 doing quite well, they would open the gauntlet up to other things.

717
01:06:58.260 --> 01:06:59.699
Like, I would love to do Starcops.

718
01:06:59.760 --> 01:07:08.219
Um, and I think there's like, it's got great effects, but I think there's scope to do stuff with uh, the CSO and what that kind of thing.

719
01:07:08.280 --> 01:07:12.300
Tripods, put some tripods into all those episodes that don't have any tripods in them.

720
01:07:12.480 --> 01:07:15.659
I made the joke, but Moonbase 3 is always there.

721
01:07:15.719 --> 01:07:17.099
It is.

722
01:07:18.719 --> 01:07:22.739
Um, yeah, yeah, but we'd we'd snap out.

723
01:07:22.800 --> 01:07:32.400
But someone, somewhere has got to make the judgement, but apart from 2000 podcast listeners, not launching, you know, 2000 people who go to conventions and listen to podcasts, et cetera.

724
01:07:32.460 --> 01:07:36.179
How many units have we actually got a shift to make this viable?

725
01:07:36.239 --> 01:07:39.780
And Doctor Who clearly has cleared that hurdle, whatever it is.

726
01:07:39.840 --> 01:07:52.199
Well, I think it's, it sort of goes to speak of the, um, the physical media market because they need to appeal to collectors now because I think the, the normies don't really engage with it anymore as much.

727
01:07:52.260 --> 01:07:59.880
Yeah, I use the norm- the term normies, the non-fans, the, uh, but, I hope.

728
01:07:59.940 --> 01:08:00.900
Yeah.

729
01:08:00.960 --> 01:08:09.659
The reasons why Doctor Who does so well is because the team cares so much and like, I'm going to say a bunch of nice stuff about Chris while he's not here.

730
01:08:09.719 --> 01:08:15.059
But, uh, um, that you've got people like Chris that do these amazing documentaries.

731
01:08:15.119 --> 01:08:23.039
You've got people like Paul Venesis, who is an absolute perfectionist and will resupply Aurak over some interlacing issues and shot 24.

732
01:08:23.279 --> 01:08:27.779
Um because he's that keen to make sure it gets across in the best way possible.

733
01:08:27.840 --> 01:08:36.539
You've got Lee doing like his incredible artwork and the amount of thought he goes that goes into those, like he does.

734
01:08:36.600 --> 01:08:39.239
He makes it look easy, but I know it's not.

735
01:08:39.300 --> 01:08:45.960
You've got Russell that's constantly trying to work out how to make these things better, but also absolutely take takes care of all of us.

736
01:08:46.020 --> 01:08:54.840
Uh, this whole thing and you've got Pete, who is an absolute perfectionist and it's very has very strong opinions on what space looks like.

737
01:08:57.359 --> 01:09:01.560
The most common node is like, can we make the stars look a bit more like Star Wars?

738
01:09:01.619 --> 01:09:04.680
But not like new Star Wars, like old Star Wars.

739
01:09:04.739 --> 01:09:13.199
And funnily enough, I had the chance my local cinema showed the original Star Wars trilogy in their like 1970s forms.

740
01:09:13.260 --> 01:09:15.300
Oh, wow, this rather sneakily.

741
01:09:15.359 --> 01:09:16.560
Illicited versions, yeah.

742
01:09:16.619 --> 01:09:18.119
It was like, oh, I get that.

743
01:09:18.180 --> 01:09:21.000
Like, um, yeah, that's what the stars look like.

744
01:09:21.060 --> 01:09:21.359
Fine.

745
01:09:21.420 --> 01:09:22.859
Like that makes sense.

746
01:09:24.960 --> 01:09:36.479
And so you talked about how, so your operations are split between, well, your base is in Belfast and then you'll come over to England sometimes for some shots.

747
01:09:36.600 --> 01:09:46.560
Is that because you've got, Well, you mentioned having a barn that you could use for the, um, for Servoland's spaceship, but with occasional interruptions by Ripley the cat.

748
01:09:47.520 --> 01:09:52.739
Yeah, so I haven't, because of all the Doctor Who stuff.

749
01:09:52.800 --> 01:09:58.199
I've assembled an effects team locally around me, so we've got around Wade, who does our 3D printing.

750
01:09:58.260 --> 01:10:01.020
We've got Connor and AC who help out on the shoots.

751
01:10:01.079 --> 01:10:06.539
We've got Ben Page, who's actually from Scotland, but he flies over for them as like our DOP.

752
01:10:06.539 --> 01:10:16.560
And we've sort of got used to making stuff over here and we've built a little bit of a framework where we can do it quite cheaply because, yeah, Belfast is really known for this sort of thing.

753
01:10:16.619 --> 01:10:19.680
So you can actually get spaces for it quite easily.

754
01:10:19.739 --> 01:10:29.399
Um, but obviously on the Blake 7 stuff, uh, if you want to use the original props, you got to kind of fly over to England for it.

755
01:10:29.460 --> 01:10:41.159
And then obviously, if you do that, you've got slightly more resources in the shape of uh, sort of the Doctor Who teams, DOPs, and we had Matt Patrick on, uh, for the England sheet of the Blake 7 stuff.

756
01:10:41.220 --> 01:10:42.720
But, uh, yeah.

757
01:10:42.840 --> 01:10:45.960
Yeah, the generally split.

758
01:10:47.220 --> 01:10:55.560
Yeah, so, well, like, again, if we get the call for season two, we would split it just depending on what survived and what's still about.

759
01:10:55.619 --> 01:10:56.520
Yeah.

760
01:10:56.880 --> 01:11:02.819
And do you get any indications about what the quality of the masters that they've got?

761
01:11:02.880 --> 01:11:06.300
I guess is that not your the remastered versions of the normal episodes?

762
01:11:06.300 --> 01:11:07.500
That's not your department, is it?

763
01:11:07.560 --> 01:11:08.939
But do, do...

764
01:11:08.939 --> 01:11:11.699
That would be Paul Venesis that you'd need to chat to.

765
01:11:11.760 --> 01:11:12.960
We'll try.

766
01:11:13.020 --> 01:11:13.500
We'll try.

767
01:11:17.100 --> 01:11:20.399
I think you've answered all of our questions and more.

768
01:11:20.460 --> 01:11:20.760
Thank you.

769
01:11:20.819 --> 01:11:23.039
You've been really generous with your time and your collection.

770
01:11:23.100 --> 01:11:23.579
Thank you so much.

771
01:11:23.640 --> 01:11:25.800
It was lovely to see those models.

772
01:11:26.640 --> 01:11:30.600
I hope that makes for an interesting audio experience.