WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:12:08

1
00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:20.399
Hello, dear listener, and welcome back at last to Maximum Power, the only Blake 7 podcast surprisingly free of all the corruptions of time and appetite.

2
00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.379
Well, some of them anyway.

3
00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:24.059
I'm Nathan.

4
00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:25.140
I'm Pete.

5
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:26.039
I'm Pisa.

6
00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:27.300
I'm sorry.

7
00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:49.380
And I'm Simon Well, it's been about 18 months since the alarming announcement that the show would be back for another year, and so here we are well into the 1980s, starting a new 4th season of Blake 7 with the opening episode Rescue, directed by Mary Ridge, and written by Chris Boucher with just a little help from Oscar Wilde.

8
00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:59.520
This is the 1st time I was ever aware that I was watching a new series of Blake 7 and was this your 1st new episode ever, Si?

9
00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:00.600
It was.

10
00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:02.039
Yeah, this is where I started.

11
00:01:02.100 --> 00:01:06.659
So I'm the BBC after much correspondence from viewers.

12
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:15.000
I'm complaining that there was no more Blake 7 decided that they would repeat series D in the summer of 1983 on Saturday evenings.

13
00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:22.019
And my mum, being clever and wonderful, decided, oh, this is a bit like Doctor Who.

14
00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.780
So you will, you'll probably enjoy this, Simon.

15
00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:28.799
And so she sat me down to watch it and I loved it from the off.

16
00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:30.840
So this is my 1st episode of Blake 7.

17
00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:32.819
Wow, okay.

18
00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:35.280
But you watch it as a repeat, not the 1st time it went out.

19
00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:46.680
Yeah, I was a bit too young to see it 1st time round, so I was about, I would have been 6 at the end of 1981 and I don't think I was quite ready for, for animals at that age.

20
00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:48.180
I know.

21
00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:49.319
Yeah, who is?

22
00:01:49.379 --> 00:01:50.640
at any age.

23
00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:51.060
Yeah.

24
00:01:51.120 --> 00:02:13.740
This was actually an episode that I knew was coming from a new season as well because I'd seen the advertisements on the ABC when they were running them for series D. So we'd had series A through C on the ABC and Australia. 1st run in 1979 and 1980, and then a big repeat run on Saturday nights, which was like the golden period of my childhood at midnight on a Saturday night in 1982.

25
00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:20.400
And then they showed this in 1982 as well, series D, and it was shown on a Friday night at 7.30 p.m.

26
00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:27.300
So that was absolutely the right time for how old was I, 10 years old, come home from school, end of the school week.

27
00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:34.319
If you were lucky, you had a dock 2 episode on Friday night, and then you had a 1st run new episode of Blake 7 at 730, which was adult time.

28
00:02:34.379 --> 00:02:34.800
It was amazing.

29
00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:40.620
So I think I came in during the sort of repeats of series three.

30
00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:45.060
I'm going to call it given that's what the eventual Blu-ray release, we'll call it.

31
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.680
Call them now.

32
00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.759
So I had watched Terminal and been shocked by it.

33
00:02:53.819 --> 00:02:54.780
I had watched Terminal.

34
00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:56.340
It was a repeat, but it was new to me.

35
00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.639
I didn't know what was going to happen and I thought it was astonishing.

36
00:02:59.699 --> 00:03:05.460
And so I came into this, you know, expecting the pickup from the previous season.

37
00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:14.759
And so I was super excited to see what they were going to do, particularly since Terminal destroys so much of the actual premise of the show.

38
00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.159
I mean, for me, it was, I mean, I never saw anything broadcast.

39
00:03:20.219 --> 00:03:29.819
It was all acquired VHS copies at 1st thanks to Peter, you know, which began with that famous or perhaps infamous screening of Harvest of Chiros.

40
00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:32.460
And I couldn't tell you when I 1st saw Rescue.

41
00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:33.780
It's all jumbled up.

42
00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:39.539
Like, I saw Blake 7 in what is effectively a totally random order and well, I just have to live with that, I guess.

43
00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:41.400
So do we all.

44
00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:58.680
Nathan, it's interesting what you said about the fact that terminal had jettisoned. so much of the series because what was really interesting to me, and I think this episode is really very impressive in what it achieves, is that Chris Boucher kind of picks up the remnants of where we were at with terminal.

45
00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:03.180
All we're left with is basically a bunch of characters with no recognisable show around them.

46
00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.819
And just with like precision ease.

47
00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.400
He sort of um, he reintroduces them.

48
00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:22.860
And with that 1st scene with Avon and Dana looking at the link going into the ship, within a few lines of dialogue, you're left with absolutely, you're in no doubt that this is the same series, it feels like Blake 7, even though all you've got left is the characters.

49
00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:29.339
Yeah, I mean, this was this would have been the 1st episode that I was watching properly that I watch every week now.

50
00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:40.439
Is it Monday nights it went out on here and I'd seen the repeats of caught bits of the 3rd series and it repeats over that long period that the hiatus.

51
00:04:40.500 --> 00:04:41.579
Do we call it the wilderness months?

52
00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:46.199
We can call it the wilderness months between the penultimate and final seasons.

53
00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:48.660
Uh, and it was exciting.

54
00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:49.920
It's getting a relaunch.

55
00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:56.579
It's going to be slightly all new Blake 7 show kind of vibe to having a show change so completely apparently.

56
00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:01.680
But then you sit down to watch it, and of course, yeah, it's got exactly the same heart and possibly the strongest elements of that.

57
00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.199
I mean, it is the same and yet it's different.

58
00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:12.120
I mean, this is set days or even possibly hours after where we leave them in terminal and yet, I mean, I mean, I know psychologically...

59
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:13.920
There has been a snow, it's 18 or so much.

60
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:21.000
That just happened while, you know, Servolane was speaking, obviously. in that sequence. special planet.

61
00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:22.079
Yeah, but exactly.

62
00:05:22.139 --> 00:05:32.399
But it's like suddenly arriving in the leisure hive for me in that it's suddenly leapt forward more time than the gap in production suggests we should have.

63
00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:46.500
There is a very, very clear difference in the entire look of the show, and that's kind of what I'd like to talk about first, but let's start with the very 1st thing that we see, which is the titles.

64
00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:57.180
So series 3, Jettison's Blake and, you know, basically the original premise of the show that we never actually followed up anyway.

65
00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:06.480
Thank heavens for that. a more generic sort of chasing people through space, the liberator chased by pursuit ships through space.

66
00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:15.600
And now we have something that has even less visible Blake Sevenness in it, kind of at all, really.

67
00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:18.300
It's an interesting choice, isn't it?

68
00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:22.079
It feels like a very generic sci-fi show set of titles.

69
00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:26.399
It's almost like they don't quite know what this series is going to be.

70
00:06:26.459 --> 00:06:30.360
So they can't quite set anything sort of up.

71
00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:38.279
I wonder if that sort of played into it, whether it's just we just need a set of space titles that will do the job.

72
00:06:38.339 --> 00:06:40.379
I really like the new logo.

73
00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:47.819
I think that's really stylish and cool, but again, it takes away the Federation logo with the title over the top.

74
00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:54.779
So it's really stripping out everything that we know from the show and sort of retooling it.

75
00:06:54.839 --> 00:07:03.839
The titles themselves look great, but after the 1st time, you're not getting very much out of them because there isn't very much in them to get anything out of.

76
00:07:03.959 --> 00:07:10.379
I mean, I have to say so, that I did go to school the next school day and look up what pitch and your were.

77
00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.480
Aside from bitching you, though, no, you're right.

78
00:07:15.540 --> 00:07:26.639
They're not very exciting and I can't help but wonder whether the people in the BBC doing those titles had no actual idea, had no real proper brief, as you said, suggesting side that they just are like, can you just come up with these titles?

79
00:07:26.699 --> 00:07:30.959
There's nothing wrong with them, but they are comparatively dull, even if they're really well done.

80
00:07:31.019 --> 00:07:38.879
I actually also wonder whether, including the person who redesigned the Black 7 logo, whether they even knew that the previous logo was over a Federation logo.

81
00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:39.839
I suspect they didn't.

82
00:07:40.019 --> 00:07:48.899
Oh, you see, I've credited it with more than that, because I've always seen it as the Scorpios taking off. is it going to go this week?

83
00:07:48.899 --> 00:07:53.639
is now the premise of the show. rather than they're on the run from the Federation anymore.

84
00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:59.519
So I took it as a deliberate, we've moved on from that kind of statement, really.

85
00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:09.360
Yeah, but it, um, it reminds me a bit of those very early arcade games that actually had some kind of physical component in them, that was like a spinning planet with things projected onto it.

86
00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:18.600
Do you remember Pete, the Star Wars game, which was along those lines where you actually did the attack on the Death Star trench, and it felt very much like those opening credits.

87
00:08:18.660 --> 00:08:19.620
Oh, yes.

88
00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:23.160
I could last for half an hour on 10 pence in one of those on the pier at Western people.

89
00:08:23.579 --> 00:08:24.480
Exactly.

90
00:08:24.540 --> 00:08:25.560
It was so much money.

91
00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:36.899
I'm sure that's what they were tapping into If you've ever seen an early 80s, late 70s movie where there's an annoying little kid who puts 10 P in a machine and is hogging it for hours and all the teenagers stand around him and one of them's going, hey, this kid's really good.

92
00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:40.799
That literally happened to me. 1979 at Western Superman.

93
00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:45.899
It's interesting what you said there, Pete, because I think you might be onto something where now that I think about it.

94
00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:56.820
The opening credits do look like a computer generated version of the early model work we get with the Scorpio flying down into the trench, and that's all orange as well.

95
00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:03.360
And so it's almost like they've done that model work and then thought, hey, actually, that's a pretty good idea for an opening sequence.

96
00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:10.559
Yeah, I wonder if there was a, if there was a version of it that actually had Scorpio lifting off at the start and they like had to ring it in because of budget or something, I think.

97
00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.960
Or because it looked rubbish when they tried to do that.

98
00:09:13.019 --> 00:09:23.820
I think the bit, though, where we move from being over, you know, just going over the landscape and then into sort of deep space mode or deep mode or whatever it says on there.

99
00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:25.679
I think that looks really impressive.

100
00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:29.279
Like that's well directed and and like really good animation.

101
00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.679
And it's very, very 80s, I think.

102
00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:37.919
And so this is Blake 7 doing the thing that Doctor Who has done before, which is like saying, here we are.

103
00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:53.759
It's the 1980s and all of the 70sness and all of the sort of weirdness of the design of the original show, we gradually kind of throw out during the course of the episode, even after, you know, we've destroyed the Liberator last time.

104
00:09:54.360 --> 00:10:00.419
I mean, reassuringly, Dudley Simpson is still there, but he's much more synthy this season.

105
00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:05.519
Imagine what it would have been like though with like Peter Howell or Patty Kingsland doing the music.

106
00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:28.080
Some of this also is Via Lorimer coming in as producer, and obviously he sees the show in a slightly different way and very much a space adventure, and this would have fed into, thankfully, what we didn't get for the end credits with Stephen Pacey singing over Bugley Simpson's new arrangement of the theme.

107
00:10:28.139 --> 00:10:34.919
So maybe the titles are sort of part of his vision for the show, which is different to what David Maloney was doing.

108
00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:40.080
I'm forever disappointed that we didn't get Stephen Pacy singing over the end credits that would have made my day.

109
00:10:40.259 --> 00:10:43.200
I'm disappointed as well. awesome.

110
00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:51.000
I think maybe Via Lorimar must have seen that little interstitial from sarcophagus with Dana singing over the void and said, I know what, let's have that everywhere.

111
00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:04.200
I've been frantically Googling while we've been talking, just because I couldn't remember his name, and it's Doug Bird is the name of the guy who did the credits, who also did Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Day of the Tiffin around the time.

112
00:11:04.259 --> 00:11:05.820
That all looks similar, isn't it?

113
00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:09.840
He died really young in an accident, a boat boating or something accident.

114
00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:11.159
But so...

115
00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:12.539
Some praise terminal fan.

116
00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.059
He was the man of the moment at the time for doing credits.

117
00:11:15.179 --> 00:11:16.440
Yeah, he was he was in demand.

118
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:32.100
So other things start to happen as well.

119
00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:42.779
We do have the sequence on Terminal, which we'll talk about a little bit later, but we're very quickly on Scorpio, about 10 minutes in.

120
00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:50.639
And so we get to see what the new sets are going to look like. 1st Scorpio and then Xenon base.

121
00:11:50.700 --> 00:12:06.120
And whereas we'd gone with one big, very weird sort of, I don't know, it always looked like a sort of cocktail lounge, you know, the flight deck of the liberator, we've gone to something much, much more standard and much smaller.

122
00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:10.919
And I think, much crapper than what we had before.

123
00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:13.019
Am I being unfair?

124
00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:18.360
Not necessarily, but isn't that because you've got the Xenon base as well as the ship.

125
00:12:18.419 --> 00:12:22.320
And so you've got to kind of halve the space of both of them, maybe?

126
00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:23.279
Yes, maybe.

127
00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:31.080
But increasingly what ends up happening as the season goes on is that we decide that we can't afford to erect the Zen on base sets anyway.

128
00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:37.860
And so we do, like vastly more on board the flight deck of the Scorpio that we would have.

129
00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:46.559
So much so that when we arrive at sand, episode 9 and they have that one scene where they're sitting around the crew room talking, you think, 0 my god, we're at Xenon base again.

130
00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:50.220
It all looks, it sort of looks like the waiting room at New Street Station.

131
00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:52.320
It just the Zen on base.

132
00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:57.779
And then, but yeah, with the, on the Scorpio, it's like, is the crapness diagetic?

133
00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:08.879
That's not quite the right use of the word, but like it's supposed to be, it's just an old freighter, but then you look at something like the freighter in Doctor Who Earth shock, and it looks much better than this, and they're only using it for 3 weeks.

134
00:13:09.059 --> 00:13:15.899
So like you can see the studio floor. you can, there's just big empty, the walls.

135
00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:16.679
They just flats.

136
00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:18.240
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

137
00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:20.279
It's it's just not very good, I think.

138
00:13:20.340 --> 00:13:25.679
And later on when they erect those sort of banana lounges next to the...

139
00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:27.299
The ones that eat rock slides on.

140
00:13:27.299 --> 00:13:28.139
Teleport.

141
00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:29.220
Like, Jesus.

142
00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:34.559
But I think, like, there's a kind of millennium falcon feel to it.

143
00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:37.019
I think Peter and I were talking about that.

144
00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:39.120
Yeah, particularly the model.

145
00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:45.899
It's like the model is like the Millennium Falcon only with everything interesting about that model removed.

146
00:13:46.019 --> 00:13:48.240
And brown and brown.

147
00:13:49.559 --> 00:13:55.919
I think Terence says something about move, you scruffy bag of bolts move at some point when he's trying to get it to move.

148
00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:59.279
And that's a line is actually lift, you Scotty bag of bolts.

149
00:13:59.340 --> 00:13:59.700
Lift.

150
00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:00.059
Lift.

151
00:14:00.059 --> 00:14:03.000
Much around that every time I've taken a smod.

152
00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:04.379
What would we do without you anywhere?

153
00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:10.320
That's supposed to be Tara's Han Solo moment, isn't it?

154
00:14:10.379 --> 00:14:11.399
It doesn't quite.

155
00:14:11.460 --> 00:14:12.179
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

156
00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:25.019
No, but remember that set, you know, has a low ceiling has detail in the walls and stuff and obviously it's on a movie budget and it's not something that we could have achieved, but the blank walls, you know, in the blank space and stuff.

157
00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.500
And like again, it's very 80s and so it felt refreshing at the time.

158
00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:33.299
All of the, the, like all the yellow outlines on everything and the gray and all of that.

159
00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:34.679
Like, it does look cool.

160
00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:39.539
It does look kind of modern, but it is a bit sparse, I think, and a bit visually dull.

161
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.000
Yeah, it's all a bit static, isn't it?

162
00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:45.659
There's nothing really to sort of take your eye on the liberator.

163
00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:50.940
There's always something weird or we've got those strange lights sort of flickering.

164
00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:54.840
The Scorpio always feels very static, like it is set.

165
00:14:54.899 --> 00:14:56.820
I mean, was are we being unfair?

166
00:14:56.879 --> 00:14:58.740
Was the budget simply much lower this year?

167
00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.019
I picked up that impression, but I don't know if it's that's true.

168
00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:06.480
Yeah, I don't know this, but I think that maybe when you had a series being set up.

169
00:15:06.539 --> 00:15:13.320
You got setup costs for it, whereas I don't think they had setup costs for the season, but they still had to because they'd thrown out all the sets and everything.

170
00:15:13.379 --> 00:15:16.259
They still had to erect new sets and design them.

171
00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:19.559
They can't do a verity Lambert and average out the cost of the TARDIS console over 26 years.

172
00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:21.120
That was a coming little match.

173
00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:35.460
But maybe also it's just, it's just, I mean, maybe, yes, it's not as interesting as it might be, but it's smaller than it might be, but isn't that just because they realise that we don't want to have this great big liberated style set that takes up all this studio floor space.

174
00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:39.179
We want to be able to have more sets on the planet we're going to or whatever happens to be.

175
00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:48.240
I think they're definitely going for the Millennium Falcon for the exterior, and I think they're probably going for the Nostromo inside, but on a BBC budget.

176
00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:51.240
I'm quite fond of the Scorpio set.

177
00:15:51.299 --> 00:15:56.220
It's, of course, nowhere near as good as the Liberator Flight Deck and teleport Bay.

178
00:15:56.279 --> 00:15:57.299
But I don't think it looks terrible.

179
00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.799
It's just a bit IKEA.

180
00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:01.559
I don't mind spending time there.

181
00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:03.059
There's lots to look at, I think.

182
00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:06.120
I think it is actually a visually active set because you've got Slave, who is.

183
00:16:06.179 --> 00:16:10.379
Yeah, slave is good. which is kind of a good approximation of Zen lighting up.

184
00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:11.820
You've got the different screens.

185
00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:13.679
You've got like lots of business on the controls.

186
00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:14.580
I quite like it.

187
00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:20.279
What it suffers from, and it's the key thing in Doctor of this time as well, is that they've turned the lights up to maximum.

188
00:16:20.340 --> 00:16:24.179
Only they turned the lights down and given it some pools of shadow in that.

189
00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:24.899
It would look much better.

190
00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:30.240
Yeah, because when they do that in something like star drive, it looks, it does look better, doesn't it?

191
00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:37.500
Yeah, and in Headhunter as well, when they get put into cryogenesis and it's lit with blue, it instantly looks more impressive.

192
00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:39.779
What about Xenon base?

193
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.720
Lots of...

194
00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.240
Why do the ferns, why do the ferns have a wind machine?

195
00:16:48.299 --> 00:16:50.159
Because the ferns are actually kind of waffling.

196
00:16:50.220 --> 00:16:53.879
Is that to try and make it suggest that the air conditionings on maximum or something?

197
00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:57.360
It's air conditioned on Zen. stuffy at all.

198
00:16:57.419 --> 00:16:57.840
Yeah.

199
00:16:57.899 --> 00:17:02.759
It operates the fan in the basement, which spreads dust across the floor.

200
00:17:02.820 --> 00:17:05.579
It's very well ventilated based.

201
00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:07.500
That is clearly a plot point that they don't.

202
00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:10.140
I do think Xenon base looks a bit bland.

203
00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:10.740
It's just flat.

204
00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:12.660
It's very 80s as well.

205
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.839
You know, it is us saying this is the 1980s.

206
00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:29.819
And of course, sort of around about halfway into the episode or a little bit after that, actually, we get 3 of the remaining regulars changing their outfits as well. which they're invited to do so by Dorian.

207
00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:33.119
Yeah, who's obviously got all their measurements and everything's ready.

208
00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:34.740
Yeah, not creepy at all.

209
00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:47.640
It's really interesting to me how much the costume design speaks of Blake 7 because those early scenes when they're on terminal and then when they're on the Scorpio flight deck for the 1st time.

210
00:17:47.700 --> 00:17:59.759
That almost feels like a hangover from series C for me, and it's because they're in their colourful outfits, which is, in my mind's eye, those series BNC costumes, are Blake 7.

211
00:17:59.819 --> 00:18:12.660
And so when you've got Taranton Crimson and Dana in red and black, Villa in Tan, Avon in black, it makes it look completely different to when they then get all changed into variations on dark blue and gray.

212
00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:18.480
Yes, but aren't the costumes so much nicer that they get into when they get to Zenon base?

213
00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:19.440
like, no, yeah.

214
00:18:19.740 --> 00:18:23.400
They are, but that is also an 80 statement.

215
00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:24.539
It is like the fashion.

216
00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:29.220
The fashion got stuck in 1978. and it is that bringing it back to Leisure Hive again.

217
00:18:29.339 --> 00:18:34.140
It is that thing where suddenly the fashion has, you know, I mean, fashion does kind of leap forward in chunks.

218
00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.500
It's not gradual and I feel like we have like leapt forward.

219
00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:46.500
And the great thing about that I like about the costumes is that there are kind of senses of jackets and layers and they don't all look like they've been kind of sprayed on and sewed into their costumes in quite the same way.

220
00:18:46.619 --> 00:18:50.579
I mean, these costumes had to be hardy because they lasted half a season.

221
00:18:50.759 --> 00:19:11.579
I have to say that I was so excited when I 1st saw this because this was the exciting new look, and it was the same experience watching season 18 of Doctor Who, where it had been visually a little bit tired and those things looked a little bit kind of old, and it was just such a thrilling refresh. culturally as well.

222
00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:20.039
I mean, maybe it's just the ages I, we more or less were, that the 80s beginning was such a turning its back on the 70s moment in terms of for mainstream culture.

223
00:19:20.099 --> 00:19:21.299
It's like, it's the 80s now.

224
00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:22.140
We've got neon.

225
00:19:22.259 --> 00:19:33.359
There was this idea that there had been this great leap forward that we'd moved into the 80s and, you know, but that mean, it had to start wearing 80s clothes and being aware that ridicule is nothing to be scared of, no matter what you're wearing.

226
00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:40.859
And adamant with telling us all at number one in the hip parade for the 3rd of 4 weeks as we sat down to watch Rescue from Blake 7.

227
00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.380
These things chime.

228
00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:44.279
They do.

229
00:19:44.700 --> 00:19:55.140
Obviously, we've got the Dana and Sulin in jumpsuits, which were very 1981. absolutely. expecting to do an aerobics routine.

230
00:19:55.440 --> 00:20:02.279
And obviously, what we also have to sort of take into consideration is they're filming a lot in winter at the moment.

231
00:20:02.339 --> 00:20:08.460
So these 1st set of costumes are big and padded and warm so that they can stay warm.

232
00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:15.539
You know, and you, you look at poor old Josette Simon in, in the scenes on terminal at the start of this, in her point.

233
00:20:17.700 --> 00:20:24.359
And there's bare back at times when she falls over in the snow and just think, yeah, hang on.

234
00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:31.319
Actually, they've got a bit of duty of care to the actors for the rest of these these winter sort of and early spring sort of filming shoes.

235
00:20:31.380 --> 00:20:32.880
No they don't. just the early 80s when are you talking about?

236
00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:34.200
warmest car.

237
00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:46.920
It's really interesting, that kind of that move into the 80s, because it was pronounced in Doctor Who, the last story of the 1970s, which was technically shown in January 1980s, the Horns of Nimon.

238
00:20:46.980 --> 00:20:51.900
And when it comes back 9 months later, with the leisure hive, it looks so markedly different.

239
00:20:51.900 --> 00:21:00.359
And it's even more so with Blake 7 because the last show of the 70s is essentially terminal, which was shot in January of 1980.

240
00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:02.220
Then they've got an even bigger break.

241
00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:08.400
They've got 12 months before they start shooting rescue and the 80s have hit in full force between terminal and rescue.

242
00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:09.960
You can see it everywhere through this season.

243
00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:12.299
The highlights in Dorian's hair everywhere, yes.

244
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:24.119
In fact, well, everybody I do want to talk about Dorian in that connection too later on when we talk about him because he, I think, is the 1st kind of 80s guest star that the show's ever had.

245
00:21:24.180 --> 00:21:28.980
I do want to just quickly before we move on and kind of talk about how the episode begins.

246
00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:33.839
Let's talk about one other element of the design, which I think is the guns.

247
00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:37.619
So the guns on Blake 7 were absolutely unique.

248
00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:44.819
Nothing like them had ever been seen and it always seemed to me that drawing a Blake 7 gun was like drawing a sword.

249
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:50.039
And so it did look like a sword with a sort of hilt and a sort of middle bit, and that was kind of the design.

250
00:21:50.099 --> 00:21:51.599
It was very Robin Hood.

251
00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:55.440
And now we've very much gone to just space guns.

252
00:21:55.559 --> 00:21:58.740
It's Han Solo's gun, isn't it?

253
00:21:58.799 --> 00:21:59.759
from Star Wars.

254
00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:02.220
Absolutely. is the design.

255
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:14.880
I mean, they look chunky and shiny, and they're pretty cool, and the idea of them having the different clips to use is a really great one that no one ever uses after it's mentioned.

256
00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:15.900
So it's such a shame.

257
00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.299
I would love to have seen them use micro grenade.

258
00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:20.519
Or drug.

259
00:22:20.579 --> 00:22:24.779
That's probably for relaxing in the evenings more than anything else.

260
00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:28.559
I have to say, chunky and shiny and pretty cool.

261
00:22:28.619 --> 00:22:30.240
You could have been talking about Paul Darrow, then.

262
00:22:30.539 --> 00:22:36.839
But Nathan, it's interesting that just to sort of just sort of count to what you were saying there about the guns.

263
00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:42.839
We went from space guns to guns in space. if I can put it that way.

264
00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:43.740
Yeah.

265
00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:46.319
Has anyone seen one of those props?

266
00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:47.400
Has anyone handled them?

267
00:22:47.460 --> 00:22:48.480
Are they made of metal?

268
00:22:48.539 --> 00:22:50.640
They look like they're machined out of metal?

269
00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:59.400
They are made of metal, and in fact, that thud you hear when Dorian throws his gun onto the ground on terminal and Tara picks it up.

270
00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:00.539
That's an actual thud.

271
00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:02.039
They are heavy guns.

272
00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:10.680
That was one of the things I disliked was that just how generic they were based on something that I thought was a cool idea. at the time.

273
00:23:10.740 --> 00:23:13.440
But now I just think they're solid and they're really great.

274
00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:17.819
They make excitingly chunky noises when you put the magazines in.

275
00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:20.579
You know, Sulin looks like a boss drawing one.

276
00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:22.380
Like I'm a big fan.

277
00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:26.640
And that scene, that scene of the gun cupboard.

278
00:23:26.700 --> 00:23:35.579
Compare how kind of boring and low rent the gun cupboard is compared to the reveal of the big gun cupboard in what, what are we talking about?

279
00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:36.960
Cygnus Alpha, is it?

280
00:23:37.380 --> 00:23:43.680
I mean, I have to say that Dana's line where she's talking about the guns and says, these are the best I've ever seen.

281
00:23:43.740 --> 00:23:45.660
You sit there going, no, they're not loved.

282
00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.720
They're not as cool as the ones you had last episode in Turbo.

283
00:23:48.779 --> 00:23:52.799
They're not even as cool as that shampoo bottle one that you kept in your bathroom cabinet.

284
00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:57.299
Just less likely to hold up production by breaking.

285
00:23:57.359 --> 00:23:59.519
That's a main thing, isn't it?

286
00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:01.980
That's arrowproof.

287
00:24:08.099 --> 00:24:16.440
So let's go back to the beginning of the episode, and of course, the 1st order of business, I think, is writing out Jan Chappel.

288
00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:27.599
I was shocked to learn much later that she was actually persuaded to record those 2 lines, specially for the episode, but that was all she was willing to come back and do.

289
00:24:27.660 --> 00:24:29.460
How do we think that was handled?

290
00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:33.720
They make the best of a bad situation.

291
00:24:33.779 --> 00:24:39.960
I mean, the story is they asked her to come and do the whole series that she said, no, come and do 6 episodes.

292
00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:42.420
She said, no, come and do 2 episodes.

293
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.359
No, come and do a line.

294
00:24:45.420 --> 00:24:46.680
I'll do 2 words.

295
00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:54.119
It's, yeah, it's a really strange situation because Canny's been such a big part of the show.

296
00:24:54.180 --> 00:25:00.779
And it's, it's nice that they haven't just sort of said, oh, Callie died while, while we were doing this.

297
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:03.599
So they made some effort and we get to hear her.

298
00:25:03.779 --> 00:25:07.799
But it's, yeah, it feels, I don't know.

299
00:25:07.859 --> 00:25:09.539
It's a difficult one to put into words.

300
00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:13.079
It's a lot better than having Glennis Barber in a wig is all I can say.

301
00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:17.400
So, you know...

302
00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:27.119
At least her absence does end up being a bit of a plot point, the lack of a telepath and the extra glass of wine being the thing about it.

303
00:25:27.180 --> 00:25:29.339
So it isn't just, oh, there we go.

304
00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:31.980
That's that sorted out after 5 minutes. we'll never mention her again.

305
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.160
So at least, yeah, I think they made the best of the situation, really.

306
00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:36.599
They do what they have to do.

307
00:25:36.660 --> 00:25:41.400
I mean, that is a very nice scene when Sulin brings the glasses and Dana's the one on it.

308
00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:42.180
She sharps Hawks.

309
00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.180
She's looking at Surreal and like, she doesn't know what to make of her.

310
00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:46.859
And as soon as she sets down the glasses.

311
00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:51.059
Dana's instantly there with, if Kelly had escaped with us, there wouldn't be an extra glass.

312
00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:53.880
And you think, I wish we could see more of this, Dana.

313
00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:57.960
I wish, you know, she's sharp as attack and I wish we could just get that more often.

314
00:25:58.019 --> 00:26:06.059
Unfortunately, I think, I mean, it's all due to Jan Chappel, you know, she could, she could, um, it was all up to her what she wanted to do.

315
00:26:06.119 --> 00:26:28.440
But I do think fans feel slightly, um, like it would have been great just to have had a scene, you know, even if it was shot in one day at, you know, just something because Kelly was such an important and integral part of the series, it seems such a shame just to write her out in the 1st scene without seeing her.

316
00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:39.839
And it does, unfortunately, muck this episode up a little bit because obviously the original point was that Dorian came looking for them, not because they were bound together by their adventures.

317
00:26:39.900 --> 00:26:40.980
That could have been any crew.

318
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.660
It would have been because Cali was the one who was binding them together.

319
00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:49.920
And so with her absence, it kind of loses all of that and it gets a bit muddy at the end.

320
00:26:50.160 --> 00:27:01.619
I think there is one other moment too, that properly sells the loss, which is when they're all kind of sitting around.

321
00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:02.579
Do you know what I mean?

322
00:27:02.579 --> 00:27:06.599
explaining to Tarant, what's happened while he's been unconscious, they're around the fire.

323
00:27:06.660 --> 00:27:11.339
And they're just kind of firing Chris Boucher, Blake 7 lines at one another, which is always great.

324
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:12.900
That's kind of why we're here.

325
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:16.980
But I even says Callie is dead in his sort of swaggering way.

326
00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:18.599
And Terence says, are you sure?

327
00:27:18.660 --> 00:27:24.779
And it looks like he's about to do another line and he just goes, no, I'm sure.

328
00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:25.920
Like, he just drops it.

329
00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:27.420
There's no sarcasm.

330
00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:31.380
It's like it's underplayed but heartfelt. and you kind of want that.

331
00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:35.460
I mean, it was never going to be anything other than Callie wouldn't have wanted us to mourn.

332
00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:39.960
We better go on to the next adventure. you know, like that was always going to happen.

333
00:27:40.019 --> 00:27:50.460
But there is just that little moment from Avon, you know, the ostensibly the, the least caring member of the crew, where he does actually show a bit of emotion.

334
00:27:50.700 --> 00:28:11.460
And I do like the way later on in the episode, he repeats the line from Mission to Destiny, and he does the last of Callie's people had a saying, and just that Callie was murdered, just like most of her people, and that little callback is, for Avon is actually really touching and really lovely.

335
00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:13.980
And it points to the whole darkness.

336
00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:17.579
Calli is a saying about trusting people and that and she ended up dead.

337
00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:22.559
Yeah, Chris Belcher definitely making the best of a bad situation as he always could.

338
00:28:22.619 --> 00:28:27.900
I think it's nice that Avon and Kelly's relationship was always one of the most interesting in the show.

339
00:28:27.900 --> 00:28:33.720
And following on with that scene that you were talking about, Nathan, um, when Terence says, are you sure?

340
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.440
And Avon says, I'm sure Dana says, he went back in.

341
00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.339
So Avon was the one who went down to find Callie's body.

342
00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:42.299
No one else, just him.

343
00:28:42.359 --> 00:28:44.460
And I think that's, yeah, quite touching.

344
00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:45.059
Yeah.

345
00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:51.119
There's some really nice moments between or just little touches between Dana and Avon in this one.

346
00:28:51.180 --> 00:28:53.220
Literally, with when there's the big explosion.

347
00:28:53.279 --> 00:29:12.000
He just has his hand over her protectively on the ground, sheltering her for, they're still something I never didn't notice at the time when I was watching it in the past, the extent to which he's just thought that sort of she's his apprentice kind of vibe to them and a bit of father-daughter conflict where, although it is a bit overdone where he doesn't know.

348
00:29:12.119 --> 00:29:14.940
Don go running off, getting into trouble, so she immediately runs off and gets into trouble.

349
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:16.319
And then 8 minutes later, she does it again.

350
00:29:16.380 --> 00:29:22.980
But both times, both instances of Dana being the kid who gets into trouble, which does happen like in the 1st 10 minutes twice.

351
00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:26.819
But on both of those occasions, it's because she's headstrong and ferocious.

352
00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:28.200
It not because she's silly or stupid.

353
00:29:28.259 --> 00:29:34.680
She's just seen as being headstrong. and needing to cool it and be more calculating like Avon.

354
00:29:34.799 --> 00:29:37.200
So But also it's coming from a good place.

355
00:29:37.259 --> 00:29:40.859
You know, Avon is calculating, whereas Dana's like, what, the base might blow up.

356
00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:42.359
We've got to go back and warn them.

357
00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:47.640
She's not just impetuous, but she's got other people's interest at heart and maybe the way that Avon doesn't.

358
00:29:47.940 --> 00:29:51.720
Yeah, and Avon's definitely colder, isn't he?

359
00:29:51.779 --> 00:29:52.980
post-terminal.

360
00:29:53.039 --> 00:30:04.980
He's, we will see this throughout the series, but it's definitely sort of being set up here right from the start that he's just being practical and his survival instinct is kicking in more than anything else.

361
00:30:05.339 --> 00:30:06.779
Yeah.

362
00:30:06.839 --> 00:30:16.740
I have to mention at this point, if we've talked about Dana running off, the giant snake puppet, which I think is absolutely surprising.

363
00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:17.160
I love it.

364
00:30:17.220 --> 00:30:19.740
So... awesome.

365
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:20.579
Yeah.

366
00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:24.839
This is the same series that gave us the climopan insect.

367
00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:31.259
And yet we've got this magnificent snake with its head that opens to reveal another head inside.

368
00:30:31.319 --> 00:30:32.460
It's wonderful.

369
00:30:32.579 --> 00:30:33.180
It's so good.

370
00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:39.960
And Mary Ridge uses the same background noise for terminal that she used last episode.

371
00:30:40.019 --> 00:30:43.559
And in fact, the background must get the continuity rights.

372
00:30:43.619 --> 00:30:52.799
Well, yeah, except for the shape of the planet, obviously, but I think that that was super effective, that noise.

373
00:30:52.859 --> 00:30:54.839
Like, remember, we were going down into it.

374
00:30:54.900 --> 00:30:56.220
Ivan was behaving weirdly.

375
00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.660
You know, that whole episode is so tense and that noise is so much a part of it.

376
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.640
And so bringing that noise back.

377
00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:08.039
And then, of course, that's bookended by the sound in the room, as Dorian calls it.

378
00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:12.420
Which, again, is just really quite incredible.

379
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.480
Like, both of those sounds are really great.

380
00:31:15.539 --> 00:31:17.039
She does an awesome job, I think.

381
00:31:38.099 --> 00:31:45.539
So, soon, we're on board the Scorpio and taking off, how do we think that Dorian lands when we 1st see him?

382
00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:50.579
And in particular, are we expecting him to be our new regular?

383
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:53.940
I think he lands in a scruffy bag of bolts.

384
00:31:54.660 --> 00:31:58.079
I think he's dreamy. gorgeous.

385
00:31:58.140 --> 00:32:07.079
It seems very clear to me that if Jan Chapel had come back and they'd lost Villa or Tarrant, absolutely, Dorian would have been a new member of the crew.

386
00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:09.420
Maybe not played by that actor though.

387
00:32:09.539 --> 00:32:12.180
There's chemistry with everyone is brilliant.

388
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:13.799
He is absolutely superb.

389
00:32:13.859 --> 00:32:24.720
Jeffrey Burrage is got looks and he's got the diction and he's just, yeah, clearly lined up for, for, um, for being able, the episode wants us to think that, doesn't it?

390
00:32:24.779 --> 00:32:25.079
I think.

391
00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:25.319
Yeah.

392
00:32:25.380 --> 00:32:28.079
And also, it's that thing that happened with Hinchcliffe Dog 2.

393
00:32:28.259 --> 00:32:33.839
They kept talking about having to cast big, strong, capable actors to be opposite Tom Baker.

394
00:32:33.900 --> 00:32:35.579
Paul Darrow needs that as well.

395
00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:38.880
And Dorian is a really good enemy for Avon.

396
00:32:39.059 --> 00:32:42.960
He outshines him in that scene at the end, doesn't he?

397
00:32:43.019 --> 00:32:45.900
With Aurak, he's just fixed Aurak, and he's winning that scene.

398
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:49.019
Yeah, it's funny because maybe it's just the way I kind of read the drama.

399
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:59.640
I don't know whether it's because I already knew who was going to join and who wasn't going to join, but because of the style of actor it is and because of the style of performance it is and character, you don't, I didn't never felt that, oh, yes, he could be a new regular.

400
00:32:59.700 --> 00:33:05.880
It's that kind of thing that his performance is too great to be a mere regular character.

401
00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:08.400
No, you can tell his...

402
00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:09.299
That's what you're saying.

403
00:33:09.299 --> 00:33:10.140
It's what you're saying.

404
00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:13.559
He's willing to slum it for 50 minutes, but he's not doing a whole scene.

405
00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:16.559
He's not on a season at Stratford.

406
00:33:16.619 --> 00:33:18.180
You couldn't give that up.

407
00:33:18.180 --> 00:33:18.539
Exactly.

408
00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:26.160
So you're saying for the sun sign that they had auditions and he came in and they went, hmm, guest star, and then Glynis Barber came in and they went, uh, regular.

409
00:33:27.779 --> 00:33:36.539
You know, you know very well what all the pay scales were like for BBC time. simply would not have been able to afford him for 13 episodes.

410
00:33:37.619 --> 00:33:51.900
He really sells as well, the change in Dorian, because Dorian's kind of cheerful and obviously there's more going on with him, but he's kind of chipper in those early scenes and then as he becomes more corrupted, as we go into the episode, he gets...

411
00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:53.220
The corruption becomes more visible, yes.

412
00:33:53.339 --> 00:33:53.759
Correct.

413
00:33:53.819 --> 00:33:56.039
He gets slower and a bit more standoffish.

414
00:33:56.099 --> 00:34:03.299
And then when you've got that scene with Aurak, he really shows such brittle anger in it as well.

415
00:34:03.359 --> 00:34:05.640
The way he says to Aurak, don't be insolent.

416
00:34:05.700 --> 00:34:07.259
And you think, ooh.

417
00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:12.179
But the thing about that sequence, of course, is he's gone down to the sea devil for his recharge, whatever the hell it is.

418
00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:13.920
And so those...

419
00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:20.699
And so, and so I think also that performance is saying that as well.

420
00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:22.500
Like, like, we see the change.

421
00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:26.280
He's very aware of where he is in the story in the script.

422
00:34:26.340 --> 00:34:28.800
And that's a that's a sign of a great actor.

423
00:34:28.980 --> 00:34:33.599
I mean, he's playing dumb in the in the initial scene.

424
00:34:33.659 --> 00:34:42.119
And it's only once we're in real proper danger that he takes over the ship and then hits his head on the thing and it, you know, doesn't end up happening.

425
00:34:42.179 --> 00:34:47.519
And there's that moment, isn't there, where his performance changes, where he turns around and he says, what?

426
00:34:47.579 --> 00:34:49.019
You mean you're here by choice?

427
00:34:49.079 --> 00:34:52.739
You know, and then you get those wonderful reaction shots of all of the crew.

428
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:56.159
I love water. fantastic.

429
00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:00.420
I had to actually rewind this morning to wake up.

430
00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:01.380
Wait, did I miss something?

431
00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:05.460
What did he say?

432
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:08.039
And then Paul Darrow goes, I'm going to turn and go, hmm.

433
00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:09.119
Into shot.

434
00:35:11.219 --> 00:35:15.239
Do your reaction gifts are available for download for maximum power.

435
00:35:16.380 --> 00:35:37.380
It's also the scene when they're leaving Scorpio when Avon's got the gun on him and he suddenly regains the upper hand when the door closes and they can't get back into the ship and they have that whole thing about, you know, you'd be surprised how little it matters to me, the difference between life and death and he's like, oh, shall we go and just turns around and walks off.

436
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:44.280
You're being so bloating, you know, he's got a heart of pure stone and stuff and they're doing all these Blake 7 dialogue and he just rolls his eyes.

437
00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:46.139
Can we get on with it?

438
00:35:46.139 --> 00:35:47.280
It's really great.

439
00:35:47.340 --> 00:36:03.300
I want to highlight the hilarious scene, which is some really fabulous, like, acting evil for the audience's benefit, which is when he kneels down and start stroking more and sort of looking evil and then he sort of pulls himself against.

440
00:36:03.480 --> 00:36:04.500
Great evil acting.

441
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:05.099
Yes, you're right.

442
00:36:05.159 --> 00:36:05.519
Yes, yes.

443
00:36:05.699 --> 00:36:09.599
When we're doing Adorian Gray, which is not a spoiler.

444
00:36:09.659 --> 00:36:25.559
Yeah, he doesn't get that bit to, like, you know, Cindorian Gray, he's introduced to this amazing guy who everybody finds irresistible, and then we discover he has a seedy underside, which is all part of his irresistibility, and then we discover the dark consequence stroke cause of it.

445
00:36:25.619 --> 00:36:28.079
They can't really have him going out nightclubbing or whatever.

446
00:36:28.139 --> 00:36:31.199
So it's just he's got a lot of wine and he keeps it.

447
00:36:31.320 --> 00:36:33.360
That's the villa's line.

448
00:36:33.420 --> 00:36:42.360
I've never met a man who keeps his wine under lock and key or something like that or I'll be suspicious of a man who keeps his wine under lock and key is what's again the seeding of that.

449
00:36:42.420 --> 00:36:55.079
See, I think I think it's actually telling that this is the 1st time we hear the word wine in the show, and it's always been adrenaline and soma and various drugs and stuff, but we've never actually mentioned wine as such.

450
00:36:55.079 --> 00:37:03.000
And I think giving him a real world vice because I think, I do think that he, that he's clearly coded as gay.

451
00:37:03.059 --> 00:37:04.199
The actor is gay.

452
00:37:04.260 --> 00:37:07.079
You know, he's thin, he's got blonde highlights.

453
00:37:07.260 --> 00:37:08.699
He's got a very, very 80s look.

454
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:11.639
There's makeup once he cleans himself. got excellent forearms.

455
00:37:11.699 --> 00:37:13.320
Excellent forearms.

456
00:37:13.380 --> 00:37:18.420
He kisses some solin like she's definitely his beard.

457
00:37:19.380 --> 00:37:20.880
Exactly.

458
00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:21.420
Yeah, yeah.

459
00:37:21.420 --> 00:37:22.800
And she's, exactly.

460
00:37:22.860 --> 00:37:26.820
And he's going to feed her to the monster at the 1st opportunity to get rid of her.

461
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:29.820
But, but also...

462
00:37:31.260 --> 00:37:33.719
She's his companion.

463
00:37:33.780 --> 00:37:38.280
But it's his partner that he loses to the room.

464
00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:51.780
And there's a series of men, like he says, a series of men and they last, and, you know, it might just be, you know, Blake 7 doing sort of old-fashioned sexist language or just not thinking of women or whatever.

465
00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:58.980
But the fact is it's a series of men, each of which gets overwhelmed by his corruption quicker and quicker and quicker.

466
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:10.440
And then at the end, the sea devil turns into that shirtless twink, you know, this pretty boy is taken and corrupted and turned into a monster.

467
00:38:10.500 --> 00:38:12.960
And so he's very gay.

468
00:38:13.019 --> 00:38:20.820
Like the source is, is, you know, the source, like there's, yeah, he literally had the host of strictly come down and thing tied up in his basement.

469
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:23.699
I mean, how...

470
00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:25.559
He was truly coded as gay.

471
00:38:25.619 --> 00:38:26.699
It would have been Shirley Barris.

472
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:31.980
It is actually, Nathan, that is actually a very interesting reading.

473
00:38:32.039 --> 00:38:38.400
I'm wondering how deliberate that was, or at least how many people knew that that was what they were going for at the time.

474
00:38:38.460 --> 00:38:39.480
I suspect not.

475
00:38:39.539 --> 00:38:43.139
I think it's just the fact that, oh, of course, they're men because they're the ones that he's luring into the thing.

476
00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:45.239
But it is fascinating how it works.

477
00:38:45.300 --> 00:38:48.539
But then again, the original story, of course, is such a gay story.

478
00:38:48.599 --> 00:38:50.579
It's such about like it's Oscar Wilde.

479
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:52.139
It's about beauty.

480
00:38:52.199 --> 00:38:52.860
It's retaining.

481
00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:56.940
It's not even the fact that like, you know, Dorian, the original Dorian Gray is handsome.

482
00:38:57.000 --> 00:38:58.380
He is beautiful.

483
00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:02.159
There are all these kind of feminine qualities that are bestowed on Dorian Gray.

484
00:39:02.460 --> 00:39:08.519
And so it is quite interesting that you're sort of, it's very easy to read it that way from a modern, as a modern audience.

485
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:10.739
I'm fascinating to know what they thought at the time.

486
00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:14.760
Well, because we don't see what corruption do we see?

487
00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:15.659
Do you know what I mean?

488
00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:20.219
corruption and appetite and vice that he can try.

489
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:21.659
And we get wine.

490
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:27.119
He drinks a lot of wine, you know, like he gets the wine out at the end, like he gets that out twice.

491
00:39:27.179 --> 00:39:28.860
What's the corruption?

492
00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:33.119
He sort of spends 20 years trying to invent a teleport 30 years, for God's sake.

493
00:39:33.179 --> 00:39:34.619
We don't see him nightclubbing.

494
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.079
Maybe he's out clubbing with the homics.

495
00:39:38.340 --> 00:39:44.039
I think that there is a lot of crossover between that aesthetic and gay aesthetic.

496
00:39:44.099 --> 00:39:52.380
And so you have bands like Duran Duran, which were overly made up with massive hair, which we code as gay now, but I think there is a lot of crossover there.

497
00:39:52.440 --> 00:39:57.840
I also think that because the actor is gay that helps us to read it in that way.

498
00:39:57.900 --> 00:40:00.780
I think he probably knew full well.

499
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:03.480
I mean, how could you miss it, that it was a play on Dorian Gray.

500
00:40:03.539 --> 00:40:11.460
And I also think that our Dorian rescues Dorian, his name is Dorian Gray, because the show's new aesthetic, takes its cue from his name.

501
00:40:11.639 --> 00:40:17.219
Great costumes, Gray Scorpio, Flightdeck, Gray in Paldaro's hair, everything great.

502
00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:32.219
It is actually probably worth mentioning it at this point about the fact that for the time Jeffrey Burridge is comparatively out, and certainly his partner's comparatively out because Jeffrey Burridge, sadly, dies later that decade through complications relate to AIDS.

503
00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:41.519
And during a, this is your life that is done for his partner, his long-term partner, whose name escapes me, sorry, but that partner originally.

504
00:40:41.579 --> 00:40:42.059
Thank you.

505
00:40:42.119 --> 00:40:48.420
Did not want it. was there was a big kerfuffle about it going to he. didn't want it to go to air because basically throughout this is your life.

506
00:40:48.480 --> 00:41:16.500
There was absolutely no mention of Jeffrey Burrage in it, which, of course, oddly enough, he found very offensive, and they sorted out with Michael Aspel doing a voiceover during the end credits, which is a bit pathetic, very much of the era, of course, but it's just fascinating that how much being kind of even a bit out with your sexuality at the time would have grossly impacted your career, and yet the boat, the 2 of them were relatively fearless at the time.

507
00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:17.940
And I think that's quite extraordinary.

508
00:41:18.599 --> 00:41:28.679
If you want to see Alec McGowan, he plays Q in, never say never again in the off-brand Bond film from 1983.

509
00:41:38.280 --> 00:41:41.880
Let's talk a little bit about our new regular.

510
00:41:41.940 --> 00:41:50.579
It seems like we've forgotten what Dana's job is on the ship and have decided to get a new girl in to do Dana's job on the ship.

511
00:41:50.639 --> 00:41:51.659
Is that a thing?

512
00:41:51.719 --> 00:41:55.800
In fact, when Dana came, we'd kind of forgotten what Callie's job was on the ship.

513
00:41:55.860 --> 00:41:56.699
Do you know what I mean?

514
00:41:56.760 --> 00:41:59.219
Like every new girl that we introduced?

515
00:41:59.280 --> 00:42:01.559
And we'd forgotten what Gan's job was on this show.

516
00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:05.699
If only if only they'd thought it through that well, Nathan.

517
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:18.300
I think it's just because I think they just want another action girl and, you know, that's what they decided is successful because all of the space telepathy thing with Kelly is has gotten a bit old and they've kind of done everything they could possibly do with that sort of type of thing.

518
00:42:18.360 --> 00:42:28.440
I'm jumping ahead a little bit, and I don't want to have spoilers, but it has always struck me that Zulian, while she's a good character, and I really enjoy the performance and the character.

519
00:42:28.500 --> 00:42:35.880
They should have waited and they should have introduced Dr. Paxton in 4 episodes time because she would have been a really interesting addition to the crew.

520
00:42:35.940 --> 00:42:37.920
She would have held her own with Avon.

521
00:42:37.980 --> 00:42:39.059
It would have been a different dynamic.

522
00:42:39.119 --> 00:42:40.800
If they wanted to go in a different direction.

523
00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:43.199
That's absolutely a direction you could have gone in.

524
00:42:43.260 --> 00:42:46.380
Whereas Sulin, again, feels like it's taking away from Dana a little bit.

525
00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:48.119
It's interesting.

526
00:42:48.179 --> 00:42:52.260
They're still sticking with a formula in that you have the regular cast.

527
00:42:52.260 --> 00:42:57.239
And so one of the regular cast doesn't want to keep going, so we need to replace that regular castle with another new regular cast.

528
00:42:57.300 --> 00:43:09.300
They couldn't just have Sulenor, Doreen, or anyone, really, for a few episodes, and then have Dr. Plexen or whoever, and then have somebody else, like just have a series of, you know, people who do a few episodes before they get killed or something.

529
00:43:09.360 --> 00:43:14.940
They just, they haven't yet gotten into that that possibility that the mindset hasn't yet allowed for that.

530
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:18.239
I mean, I suppose that, you know, the name of the show is a factor.

531
00:43:18.300 --> 00:43:20.219
They've got they've got the seven.

532
00:43:20.280 --> 00:43:21.360
And there's that, right?

533
00:43:21.420 --> 00:43:22.980
It really jumped out to me this watching this time.

534
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:29.699
There's, I think it qualifies as a 4th war break where Dana says to Villa, something about, you've got amazing friends too.

535
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:38.340
And he, he sort of turns, not, not to camera, but he turns aside and says, huh, name 6 because it's the show is called Blake 7 and he hasn't got 6 friends at the moment.

536
00:43:38.400 --> 00:43:40.860
Well, it's my soul inputs out 7 glasses.

537
00:43:40.920 --> 00:43:41.699
Do you know what I mean?

538
00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:46.320
Like, I just think that number 7 gets mentioned there for that reason, sure, add, add up.

539
00:43:46.440 --> 00:43:52.079
You know, the 5 plus Sulin and Dorian, but I think, you know, 7 is a telling number there.

540
00:43:52.139 --> 00:43:55.619
And maybe it's meant to suggest that both of them are going to join at the end.

541
00:43:55.679 --> 00:44:03.960
They've got her measurements from all of her previous appearances as mutos and things like, actually, you know, gets on with everyone.

542
00:44:04.019 --> 00:44:05.820
I imagine that was pretty much, yeah.

543
00:44:05.880 --> 00:44:11.039
It's a shame that she doesn't seem to have much more of a character to get her teeth into.

544
00:44:11.400 --> 00:44:19.559
No, it takes a little while, I think, for them to work out what to do with her because we're in a bit of script crisis, aren't we?

545
00:44:19.619 --> 00:44:25.619
Because we've got scripts that are written for Jan Chappell and Cali, and so it's basically cross her out, put her in.

546
00:44:25.679 --> 00:44:35.219
And so she doesn't really get a character until really sort of headhunter assassin time when there's a bit more time to have fought through.

547
00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:39.360
Blintz Barber has a lovely archway of delivering everything again.

548
00:44:39.420 --> 00:44:54.719
Again, like she can't quite believe she's in this show and she's a bit bit out of this and I think we've had some characters like this before where they just feel like they're slightly above all of this, but I'm going to do it with my eyebrow arched and it's brilliant.

549
00:44:54.780 --> 00:44:59.760
Actually, her relationship later on with Paul Darrow is really excellent.

550
00:44:59.820 --> 00:45:04.079
The 2 of them fire off each other really well and there's there's great chemistry there.

551
00:45:04.139 --> 00:45:08.760
But there's not a great deal in this story to get your teeth into.

552
00:45:08.820 --> 00:45:11.639
We're established that she's quite fast with a gun.

553
00:45:11.699 --> 00:45:13.619
She's quite good at pouring wine.

554
00:45:13.679 --> 00:45:18.780
She's quite good at sneaking off up spiral staircases in the last scene and disappearing.

555
00:45:19.079 --> 00:45:23.820
She looks hotter than gray jumpsuit, which is quite, quite, quite an accomplishment.

556
00:45:23.880 --> 00:45:25.920
She thinks poor old slave, he's creepy.

557
00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:30.659
I do like when she says, I really could be quite annoyed.

558
00:45:30.900 --> 00:45:35.099
I'm sure we'll find out lots more about her in her 2nd episode next week.

559
00:45:37.619 --> 00:45:39.780
It's funny, isn't it?

560
00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:50.159
Because I do think she gets character halfway through the season and when she does, it's really good, but she clearly walked into rehearsals, maybe not sure how to perform in the show, watched 2 minutes of Paul Durrow and went, okay, got it.

561
00:45:50.159 --> 00:45:53.699
Because she's just, she's just doing that kind of delivery.

562
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:55.079
Yes, her acting.

563
00:45:55.139 --> 00:45:57.719
Her performance is at exactly the right kind of heightened level for the show.

564
00:45:57.840 --> 00:45:59.699
Him but slightly more match show.

565
00:46:01.440 --> 00:46:04.019
Also, it seems crazy to me.

566
00:46:04.079 --> 00:46:06.119
Again, we're getting I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

567
00:46:06.179 --> 00:46:15.300
It's crazy to me that when they did lose Jan Chappel, who was the focus of animals, they didn't make Sulin, the focus of animals just to flesh out her characters.

568
00:46:15.360 --> 00:46:17.519
That seems like a real miss for me.

569
00:46:17.579 --> 00:46:19.260
Yeah, that would have worked.

570
00:46:19.320 --> 00:46:21.480
And being a bit less icky.

571
00:46:21.539 --> 00:46:23.039
She was probably grateful though.

572
00:46:24.480 --> 00:46:28.320
Sue Lynn, I'm trying to learn to pronounce it correctly again.

573
00:46:28.380 --> 00:46:33.840
They really emphasised the Lin, which I had not been doing for in the 20 odd years since I 1st saw this.

574
00:46:33.900 --> 00:46:35.400
Oh, God, it's more than an idea.

575
00:46:35.460 --> 00:46:37.320
So, Lynn.

576
00:46:37.380 --> 00:46:40.679
But so she's in the dark about she's not his conspirator.

577
00:46:40.739 --> 00:46:43.739
She is his beard in the sense that she doesn't know what's in the basement.

578
00:46:43.800 --> 00:46:46.260
She's never, don't go into the basement yet.

579
00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:49.079
Don't go down the extremely well used whiny spiral staircase.

580
00:46:49.139 --> 00:46:50.940
That's Dorian's man cave.

581
00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:51.420
No women allowed.

582
00:46:51.599 --> 00:46:54.000
Let's talk about that cave.

583
00:46:54.059 --> 00:46:57.480
So, uh, we have the room.

584
00:46:57.539 --> 00:47:02.699
And for me, everyone is so posh.

585
00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:04.860
Like everyone is so absurdly posh.

586
00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:11.400
And like this whole episode, I'm there just absolutely thinking, Simon must love this.

587
00:47:13.860 --> 00:47:16.260
What was this absurd business?

588
00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:18.659
It's absurd that you find it absurd, Nathan.

589
00:47:19.500 --> 00:47:23.159
But, I mean, you know, because Joe said is fantastic.

590
00:47:23.219 --> 00:47:26.280
Like, you know, she has the fabulous posh accent.

591
00:47:26.340 --> 00:47:29.579
Zulin is there doing the sort of absurdly posh accent.

592
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:31.380
And so is Dorian in his room.

593
00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:45.059
And like the cave is, I think, in an episode that actually is trying to sort of jettison quite a whole lot of the weirdness, the unique weirdness of Blake 7.

594
00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:52.800
What we get is the weirdness of Blake 7 is this cave and it has a weird soundscape.

595
00:47:52.860 --> 00:48:00.360
It looks very strange and just like, uh, you know, the way that the liberator comes from nowhere.

596
00:48:00.420 --> 00:48:03.900
You know, the liberator is weird Blake 7 when it 1st arrives.

597
00:48:03.960 --> 00:48:05.460
We go from the London to the Liberator.

598
00:48:05.519 --> 00:48:15.179
We go from gray sets to a large, strange, you know, unknowable place. the room itself that's responsible for the premise of the new series.

599
00:48:15.239 --> 00:48:24.780
It's because it's enabled Dorian to create slave and the teleport and, you know, Zenon Bass and all of that in the 200 years that he's lived.

600
00:48:24.840 --> 00:48:33.000
So it's weird Blake 7 coming in at the end of the episode, I think, and kind of taking back control of the program and I love that.

601
00:48:33.059 --> 00:48:34.199
I absolutely love that.

602
00:48:34.619 --> 00:48:39.360
It's sort of a room that's a room that provided everything that they'd lost.

603
00:48:39.420 --> 00:48:46.619
So it's like, okay, do you need a hot rod ship that can outrun federation pursuit ships, new guns, Do you need a charming flight computer?

604
00:48:46.679 --> 00:48:48.059
Do you need to teleport that works?

605
00:48:48.119 --> 00:48:49.199
The room will give it all to you.

606
00:48:49.559 --> 00:48:51.300
Yeah, yeah.

607
00:48:51.360 --> 00:49:00.059
Can I just say, Nathan, it's interesting because I had the precise opposite view of the room in that, for me, it's not weird, like seven.

608
00:49:00.119 --> 00:49:07.920
To me, this is this is an episode or story of Doctor Who that Chris Boucher didn't write for Doctor Who he wrote for Black 7 instead.

609
00:49:07.980 --> 00:49:14.099
For me, when they go down the spiral staircase and they find this mysterious place where there is a sea devil, et cetera.

610
00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:25.980
And there's a, you know, all you need is that sort of strange, jagged, sort of slow motion thing where everyone's kind of like, there's that button you press on the vision mixer, Peter, where, you know, every, there's 3 seconds where there's a shadow previously.

611
00:49:26.039 --> 00:49:28.500
Simon, it's the cliffhanger to nightmare of Eden part three.

612
00:49:28.619 --> 00:49:29.880
Exactly.

613
00:49:29.940 --> 00:49:30.300
Yes.

614
00:49:30.360 --> 00:49:32.400
So it's that button that hasn't been pressed on.

615
00:49:32.519 --> 00:49:40.619
But this is a story that I think Chris Boucher could have written for Doctor Who had he and, you know, the rest of them not gone off and decided to make Black 7 instead.

616
00:49:40.739 --> 00:49:49.199
For me, it doesn't actually feel very Blake 70 to have this concept of a kind of a Dorian gray kind of painting in the attic or sea devil in the basement sort of thing going on.

617
00:49:49.260 --> 00:49:55.079
That's more of that's that more of that kind of fantastical thing that Doctor Who would do unless like 7 would do.

618
00:49:55.079 --> 00:49:57.960
I know there's things like ultra world and crap like that.

619
00:49:58.019 --> 00:49:59.039
But you know what I mean?

620
00:49:59.099 --> 00:50:00.960
Like, like, it just reads so much to me.

621
00:50:01.019 --> 00:50:02.460
I'm glad to hear you say that, Simon.

622
00:50:02.519 --> 00:50:03.059
It is crap.

623
00:50:03.119 --> 00:50:05.880
I said that was a I said that I'm loving him.

624
00:50:06.659 --> 00:50:08.519
But you know what I mean?

625
00:50:08.579 --> 00:50:10.679
but no, I love ultraworld, actually.

626
00:50:10.739 --> 00:50:12.179
But, you know, do you know what I'm saying?

627
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:27.179
Like, in the main, Brakes Lake 7 is trying to be grittier, and whilst there are sort of gritty aspects of this episode, this whole Dorian Gray type story, for me, wreaks a Doctor Who story that should have happened rather than a Black 7 episode.

628
00:50:27.239 --> 00:50:27.900
Don't you think?

629
00:50:27.960 --> 00:50:33.420
There's Duel and the Than and sarcophagus and like there's always weird.

630
00:50:33.659 --> 00:50:36.300
Okay, there's that kind of weird.

631
00:50:36.300 --> 00:50:37.679
Yeah, that's what that's...

632
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:38.519
But this is not that kind of weird.

633
00:50:38.579 --> 00:50:40.139
They're all different, right?

634
00:50:41.159 --> 00:50:45.480
Yeah, different kinds of weird, but this kind of weird for me is Doctor Who kind of weird. anyway, sorry, Peter.

635
00:50:45.539 --> 00:50:51.119
Doctor Who in the in the Graham Williams and Philip Hinchcliffe, the 70s, is always taking classical inspiration.

636
00:50:51.179 --> 00:50:54.480
It's always Doctor Who's spin on Frankenstein or Doctor Who's...

637
00:50:54.480 --> 00:50:55.260
Exactly King Kong.

638
00:50:55.320 --> 00:50:57.360
And that's what this is, fake 7 doesn't often do that.

639
00:50:57.420 --> 00:50:58.260
Yeah exactly.

640
00:50:58.320 --> 00:50:59.159
Maybe that's what I'm thinking.

641
00:50:59.219 --> 00:51:14.699
But what I'm interested to know too, is that so they've got this room in like several spiral staircases down, which obviously somehow has the ability to make you live forever by taking your friends and turning them into a monster.

642
00:51:14.760 --> 00:51:16.320
Don't give Ava ideas.

643
00:51:16.739 --> 00:51:18.480
Yes, exactly.

644
00:51:18.539 --> 00:51:23.579
They just happily use the Xenon base for the rest of the season and never think that, well, there's this place down there.

645
00:51:23.639 --> 00:51:25.800
Maybe we should, how can we utilise that?

646
00:51:25.800 --> 00:51:27.719
You know, live forever or something.

647
00:51:27.780 --> 00:51:30.000
Soverland getting her hands honest and having more of her babies.

648
00:51:30.719 --> 00:51:32.280
Exactly.

649
00:51:32.340 --> 00:51:33.059
Exactly.

650
00:51:33.179 --> 00:51:35.579
Imagine, yes, JC Jacqueline Pierce could have gone down there.

651
00:51:35.639 --> 00:51:36.719
Imagine the Jacqueline Pierce version.

652
00:51:36.780 --> 00:51:37.619
It's interesting, Simon.

653
00:51:37.679 --> 00:51:39.360
I think Chris Belcher, you're right with that.

654
00:51:39.420 --> 00:51:43.860
And remember, Chris Boucher has touched on the idea of Gestalt identities before, an image of the Fendal.

655
00:51:43.920 --> 00:51:49.380
So it's clearly something which is, you know, lurking at the back of his mind properly from all of those sci-fi fantasy novels that he read.

656
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.800
Well, it's funny, Gestalt is used in Pirate Planet as well.

657
00:51:52.860 --> 00:51:58.739
So it's very much of the of this era. quite hard to visualise in a BBC's TV studio.

658
00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:04.320
Yeah, I have to get a metaphysical and just talk about it. it's a crystal or something.

659
00:52:04.380 --> 00:52:08.880
Would they have all literally splodged together, absorb a loft style?

660
00:52:08.940 --> 00:52:15.059
Would they, you know, we don't, the, the, you know, resolving it by a drunk man throwing a gun downstairs to them all?

661
00:52:15.119 --> 00:52:21.059
They'd have used that faulty vision mixer, which makes everything blur out for wise, and then they'd have been just put on the period of a blog.

662
00:52:21.119 --> 00:52:27.360
Gestalt density with Glenis Barber's bum, Avons, have a C-double face.

663
00:52:29.340 --> 00:52:35.639
Dana going weirdly screaming and flinging herself into Terence's protective arms is one bit that did not land for me at all.

664
00:52:35.880 --> 00:52:38.820
Clearly, clearly meant to have been Cali.

665
00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:42.059
Yeah, it's completely different from how she's behaved the rest of this episode.

666
00:52:42.119 --> 00:52:44.340
Never mind.

667
00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:46.800
I mean, all right, she's been locked in the dark with a monster through a few hours.

668
00:52:46.860 --> 00:52:49.619
She's supposed to have gone slightly mad, which...

669
00:52:49.619 --> 00:52:50.639
Slightly bit balmy.

670
00:52:50.699 --> 00:52:55.559
But the bit that doesn't land for me is her throwing the gun towards the...

671
00:52:55.619 --> 00:52:57.059
It's a very...

672
00:52:59.039 --> 00:53:01.679
It's like something Perry would do.

673
00:53:01.739 --> 00:53:02.340
Odd.

674
00:53:02.340 --> 00:53:04.679
Exactly.

675
00:53:04.739 --> 00:53:05.880
How dare you?

676
00:53:05.880 --> 00:53:11.400
These spiral staircases all at the same to me.

677
00:53:12.840 --> 00:53:14.699
I think they're great.

678
00:53:14.760 --> 00:53:17.039
I love the spiral staircases. and where are we?

679
00:53:17.099 --> 00:53:22.679
Are we in Ealing for just a few minutes so that we can go up and down the actual spiral staircase at some point.

680
00:53:22.800 --> 00:53:24.420
It's pretty great.

681
00:53:24.480 --> 00:53:25.860
What do we think of the resolution?

682
00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:28.019
like how how the episode ends.

683
00:53:28.380 --> 00:53:31.199
The ageing effects are done quite nicely.

684
00:53:31.260 --> 00:53:41.340
I think the BBC always do a good, good ageing effect, and um, they like a body turning to dust affects the visual effects team know exactly how to do this.

685
00:53:41.400 --> 00:53:46.320
We saw it in State of Decay the year before in Doctor Who, obviously, so they know what they're doing.

686
00:53:46.440 --> 00:53:54.900
Yes, I very much prefer the cutaway to a reaction shot, then cuts to them being a bit older, faster way to reaction to them.

687
00:53:54.900 --> 00:53:59.880
Rather than trying to, rather than trying to sort of do a rollback and mix on the different stages of ageing makeup.

688
00:53:59.940 --> 00:54:01.679
It's very slow, isn't it?

689
00:54:01.739 --> 00:54:03.179
Like, it's very stately.

690
00:54:03.480 --> 00:54:06.840
And like we'll come back to him looking completely different.

691
00:54:06.960 --> 00:54:09.539
And now he's, you know, old.

692
00:54:09.599 --> 00:54:12.420
Now he's got a sort of gooey head.

693
00:54:12.539 --> 00:54:14.519
Now he's just a sort of puppet.

694
00:54:14.579 --> 00:54:19.800
Like, and everyone just looks and everyone just sort of stands and looks and what does it happen?

695
00:54:19.860 --> 00:54:20.639
awesome.

696
00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:25.860
Nathan, there was an established BBC handbook for how this would be done.

697
00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:29.760
At 1st you would have the actor sort of squawking a little bit with her into the floor.

698
00:54:29.820 --> 00:54:31.739
Then they'd have the old age makeup.

699
00:54:31.800 --> 00:54:33.900
Then it would be some kind of creature mask.

700
00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.780
Then it would just be goo on the floor, then it'd be the wind.

701
00:54:36.840 --> 00:54:40.800
That was always the 5 stages. actor, I think.

702
00:54:40.860 --> 00:54:44.400
There is another actor, like an older guy at some point as well.

703
00:54:44.460 --> 00:54:48.719
Like Jeffrey kind of, yeah, he goes off camera and someone else replaces him.

704
00:54:48.780 --> 00:54:51.780
He's saying, I'm not being made up to my household.

705
00:54:51.900 --> 00:54:56.940
They're just great pandering from rehearsals for all that chickens to victorous love.

706
00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:00.599
He goes hell for leather when he realises.

707
00:55:00.780 --> 00:55:04.619
There isn't an effect, really, that's just going to cover this.

708
00:55:04.679 --> 00:55:09.900
So he has to go in the full, the full Monty of screaming his head off and shrieking and...

709
00:55:09.900 --> 00:55:14.219
He goes the full Caroline Holdaway on that.

710
00:55:15.539 --> 00:55:19.440
He goes to about 50% of gallon all day.

711
00:55:20.639 --> 00:55:24.420
I mean, we can't sing his praises enough, Jeffrey Boach.

712
00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:29.219
I think he is clearly one of the top 5 league 7 guest stars.

713
00:55:29.280 --> 00:55:29.880
Absolutely.

714
00:55:30.300 --> 00:55:39.599
And also on the Blake 7 scale of hotness from Nova to Agrarian, or if you're that way inclined, Agrarian to Nova, he rates very highly.

715
00:55:39.659 --> 00:55:40.559
Very, very.

716
00:55:40.559 --> 00:55:45.059
I think I think he is barely subnova.

717
00:55:45.119 --> 00:55:47.219
Well, maybe that was one of his vices.

718
00:55:52.019 --> 00:55:54.480
You've reminded me, there is that line.

719
00:55:54.539 --> 00:56:02.280
Sorry, we've already covered it, but there's that line in his scene with Avon where he really looks Avon Square, nose to nose, and says, I can have any vice I want.

720
00:56:02.340 --> 00:56:04.739
And maybe I don't know now.

721
00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:09.179
I'm thinking maybe that was deliberately he is flirting with Avon because who wouldn't?

722
00:56:09.239 --> 00:56:21.420
I mean, I can imagine Darrow Stroke, Avon, what's the difference, being the kind of guy who would not want any funny business, but at the same time, would be deeply offended if someone came out as gay and didn't fancy him.

723
00:56:21.480 --> 00:56:23.219
I just think he would be...

724
00:56:23.280 --> 00:56:24.179
Yes, absolutely.

725
00:56:28.139 --> 00:56:32.159
Can I just take a moment for Paul Darrow's startling?

726
00:56:32.219 --> 00:56:41.880
I'm possessed and I can't move, but I'm fighting against this axing down in the bait in the cave because that is a masterpass of everything Darrow does.

727
00:56:41.940 --> 00:56:42.599
That is brilliant.

728
00:56:42.719 --> 00:56:46.860
Isn't he throwing himself backwards against the spiral staircase?

729
00:56:46.860 --> 00:56:51.960
So that when Michael comes down there, he can handly hand him the gun.

730
00:56:52.019 --> 00:56:54.119
He's Reading.

731
00:56:54.179 --> 00:57:04.139
I love the scene where Villa has the gun in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other hand and is kind of deciding what to do, which I just think is terrific.

732
00:57:04.199 --> 00:57:08.099
The way he saves the day just by deciding actually, no, I'm not going to crawl into the bottle of wine.

733
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:11.219
I'll go and shoot the people with the gun that still works.

734
00:57:11.280 --> 00:57:13.079
But talking about the gun.

735
00:57:13.139 --> 00:57:15.539
Did anyone else have even this morning when I watched it again?

736
00:57:15.599 --> 00:57:25.260
Um, I, you know, when he's, he's reaching for the wine in that earlier sequence and that that other gun drops to the floor. my mind just goes straight to, oh, that's just a rush scenario.

737
00:57:25.380 --> 00:57:28.800
Oh, they didn't take that.

738
00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:30.239
Well, actually, Kel Supreme.

739
00:57:30.300 --> 00:57:31.559
And then something it's actually relevant.

740
00:57:31.619 --> 00:57:33.539
The gun was on the floor. like do you know what I mean?

741
00:57:33.599 --> 00:57:38.519
It's, it's, it's actually quite weird that you, you get so used to just assuming things.

742
00:57:38.579 --> 00:57:40.079
Yeah, it's Matt Smith's cuffs again.

743
00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:43.139
Yeah, because there needed to be a cutaway.

744
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:51.780
If you didn't want it to think it was a flaw, a flaw, you needed to have a cutaway of the gun on the floor, basically, so that we were clear, yes, the gun was meant to drop on the floor.

745
00:57:51.840 --> 00:58:00.960
The whole episode is a villa moment and it really brings it home to me that as sad as I am, that we've lost Chan Chapel because she's just amazing and I love Kelly.

746
00:58:01.019 --> 00:58:04.800
I don't think the program could have survived losing either Avon or Villa.

747
00:58:04.860 --> 00:58:10.619
Villa is so important to the dynamic and give so many good moments in this episode.

748
00:58:10.679 --> 00:58:23.159
And Nathan, adding to what you said, the scene where Villa is on the spiral staircase listening to Dorian and Avon, and he's creeping down the stairs to do his heroic bit, which, you know, Villa doesn't often do, but, you know, twice in 2 episodes saves the day.

749
00:58:23.219 --> 00:58:29.219
And Dorian says, if you're expecting your friends to rescue you, all of their guns have been tampered with as well.

750
00:58:29.280 --> 00:58:33.900
And he just looks at the gun in his head, rolls his eyes and tiptoes back upstairs.

751
00:58:33.960 --> 00:58:35.760
It's amazing.

752
00:58:36.539 --> 00:58:43.440
My favourite moments in the episode is where they're all getting things to do on the flight deck of Scorpio at the start.

753
00:58:43.500 --> 00:58:46.860
And Avon just throws around and says, Villa.

754
00:58:46.980 --> 00:58:53.639
And Villa looks like he's ready for something and he says, just make sure our guest is behaving or whatever he says.

755
00:58:53.639 --> 00:58:57.719
And it's just that look of deflation on Michael Keating's face at that moment.

756
00:58:57.780 --> 00:59:05.280
But of course, following that, Chris Boucher knows what he's doing because immediately following that, Dana calls him over because she needs his help to open the gun locker.

757
00:59:05.340 --> 00:59:06.360
Yes, yeah.

758
00:59:07.320 --> 00:59:11.219
Yeah, I mean, I know there's all this love for Jan Chappell, but frankly, I don't care.

759
00:59:11.280 --> 00:59:14.519
Out with the olden...

760
00:59:14.519 --> 00:59:17.639
Yeah, no, no, I...

761
00:59:17.639 --> 00:59:19.380
Yeah, no, no.

762
00:59:20.280 --> 00:59:23.099
Well, yes, but that was then.

763
00:59:23.159 --> 00:59:27.420
And and it's like that thing, I like, I like casts to be refreshed.

764
00:59:27.480 --> 00:59:33.719
And she was in it from the beginning and you're right, you can't get rid of, you know, you're not going to get rid of Avon, otherwise it's a different series.

765
00:59:33.780 --> 00:59:35.880
You can't get rid of Villa for a similar reason.

766
00:59:35.940 --> 00:59:46.800
And I would have almost, if I was running the show, I would have almost asked her to leave because of the fact that she's kind of done everything that you need that you can have that character do.

767
00:59:46.860 --> 00:59:54.119
And um, it's, it's, it's actually refreshing to have another, another new character coming for the, for the new season.

768
00:59:54.239 --> 01:00:03.960
So I think it's actually, we're very fortunate that she said, no, no, no, I'm really not coming back and we have, you know, Sue Lynn to enjoy for the for one small year.

769
01:00:04.019 --> 01:00:21.840
It's one of the things that I like about long firm, about long form television as a medium, which is that the creatives, the writers and showrunners and staff don't have complete control because cars come in and out, things happen, you know, strange, real world twins.

770
01:00:22.559 --> 01:00:25.260
All of that stuff makes it so interesting.

771
01:00:25.320 --> 01:00:27.239
It's one of the reasons that I love Doctor Who.

772
01:00:27.360 --> 01:00:30.179
And, you know, one of the things I love about this.

773
01:00:30.239 --> 01:00:30.840
I agree.

774
01:00:30.900 --> 01:00:36.719
I think the changes in the cast are kind of devastating at the time when you watch it and that's part of the fun too.

775
01:00:37.320 --> 01:00:39.659
It gives them a chance to do something new.

776
01:00:39.780 --> 01:00:52.619
Yeah, and just the fact that they didn't necessarily know they were going to get a 4th series and would they have destroyed the liberator and done what they did at the end of terminal if they didn't think it was the end of the series.

777
01:00:52.679 --> 01:01:03.360
And so we get this completely different feel just because of circumstances and someone coming back and enjoying the show and then said, well, we'll give it another year.

778
01:01:03.420 --> 01:01:03.719
Why not?

779
01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:14.940
I love that in the 1st minutes when they, um, uh, the get out that was presented at the end of last year, the, the, uh, the, I'm telling them there's a decrepit old ship that they could use and they just, we blow that up.

780
01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:16.199
We're not picking up that thread.

781
01:01:16.260 --> 01:01:19.320
We're going with a we're going with a different thread instead.

782
01:01:19.559 --> 01:01:23.460
So she left them there with the ship, which was then, but we trapped to kill them.

783
01:01:23.519 --> 01:01:24.420
Why didn't you just shoot them?

784
01:01:24.480 --> 01:01:25.920
She could have just shot them all.

785
01:01:26.280 --> 01:01:29.159
All the humiliation.

786
01:01:29.159 --> 01:01:30.360
The humiliation.

787
01:01:30.420 --> 01:01:43.019
I think it's amazing how bleak that opening is because it was already bleak and things get worse for them during the course of the 1st 10 minutes of the episode to the point where they're on an exploding planet.

788
01:01:43.079 --> 01:01:46.019
I mean, you thought they were in trouble at the end of terminal.

789
01:01:46.079 --> 01:01:47.880
But things rapidly get much worse.

790
01:01:48.059 --> 01:02:02.460
But just on that, isn't it interesting though, that we have actually decided, despite the fact that there's quite a relatively speaking long gap between the series, that we decide we are going to pick it up from precisely where we left off, they're not just going, okay, here we are 12 months away.

791
01:02:02.519 --> 01:02:05.699
Oh, oh, and by the way, we got away from terminal and, oh, by the way, Kelly died.

792
01:02:05.760 --> 01:02:07.440
Oh, by the way, but or she didn't die.

793
01:02:07.500 --> 01:02:09.480
She's gone off to some pleasure world or whatever the heck it is.

794
01:02:09.539 --> 01:02:10.500
You know what I mean?

795
01:02:10.559 --> 01:02:19.619
Like, it's just interesting that they decided to take this route after the severance effectively, the weird circumstances of the renewal.

796
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:21.179
And terminal did get a repeat.

797
01:02:21.239 --> 01:02:24.360
I'm just consulting the Almighty BBC Genome.

798
01:02:24.420 --> 01:02:24.780
It did.

799
01:02:24.840 --> 01:02:25.619
It was repeated in summer.

800
01:02:25.619 --> 01:02:28.079
Yeah. 1981 just before.

801
01:02:28.139 --> 01:02:28.559
Just national.

802
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:30.239
Yeah.

803
01:02:30.300 --> 01:02:31.139
Yeah, several episodes.

804
01:02:31.199 --> 01:02:32.340
Yeah, running up to terminal.

805
01:02:32.400 --> 01:02:36.360
So, yeah, and BBC One, primetime, 8 o'clock in the evening repeat as well.

806
01:02:36.420 --> 01:02:38.340
Yeah. getting grave.

807
01:02:38.400 --> 01:02:45.300
I think the fact that this picks up from where we left off is probably down to Chris Boucher, he just like picks up the remnants of the show that we're left with.

808
01:02:45.360 --> 01:02:50.460
As I said earlier, just a bunch of characters who are Blake 70 and with just precision ease.

809
01:02:50.519 --> 01:02:52.980
He kind of crafts this new show around them.

810
01:02:53.039 --> 01:03:10.139
He takes some shortcuts with the teleport and the guns and everything, but it is remarkable in the way like aftermath did last season that it formats the show almost incidentally and tells a really good story of escape and peril at the same time.

811
01:03:10.199 --> 01:03:13.199
I mean, you don't come away believing this is a different show.

812
01:03:13.260 --> 01:03:14.940
It's absolutely the same show.

813
01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:16.500
It's just had some cosmetic changes.

814
01:03:16.559 --> 01:03:20.039
And I will have to say, laying my cards on the table.

815
01:03:20.099 --> 01:03:24.239
I think they made one huge error at the start of production.

816
01:03:24.300 --> 01:03:25.619
It's probably down to Via Lorima.

817
01:03:25.679 --> 01:03:32.159
I going to blame him anyway, but when they showed up at the production office for day one of series D. Blake 7 is the Liberator.

818
01:03:32.219 --> 01:03:39.119
That ship is celebrated and integral to the show and to the public and fan consciousness of it.

819
01:03:39.179 --> 01:03:50.880
This needed to be one of 2 stories, a time travel story that winds back the liberator's destruction, or DSV 3, coming looking for the destruction of DSV2.

820
01:03:51.059 --> 01:03:55.079
You could have even 80sed up the sets and sort of, you know, they would have still been probably the same.

821
01:03:55.199 --> 01:04:02.219
They needed the liberator, and it's the one thing that this season doesn't really recover from, is that Blake 7 is the liberator.

822
01:04:02.340 --> 01:04:03.420
Maybe.

823
01:04:06.480 --> 01:04:08.340
Well, that's all the time we have for this week.

824
01:04:08.400 --> 01:04:14.519
We'll be back next week for another argument about whose turn it is to unpack the dishwasher in power.

825
01:04:15.119 --> 01:04:20.280
Until next time, maybe you should consider laying off the Botox for a bit.

826
01:04:20.340 --> 01:04:24.000
Sure, you look right now, but it's not going to do you any good in the long term.

827
01:04:24.059 --> 01:04:26.940
Thank you very much for listening and good night.

828
01:04:27.000 --> 01:04:28.019
Good night.

829
01:04:28.079 --> 01:04:28.860
Good night.

830
01:04:28.920 --> 01:04:29.760
Bye.

831
01:04:29.880 --> 01:04:30.599
Bye for now.

832
01:04:43.320 --> 01:04:46.500
Let's the power, go, go!

833
01:04:46.559 --> 01:04:50.039
30 seconds thrust, Maxi...

834
01:04:50.099 --> 01:04:52.019
Switching command.

835
01:04:52.199 --> 01:04:54.719
Maximum power on all drives.

836
01:04:55.980 --> 01:04:58.199
Seven, now.

837
01:05:07.260 --> 01:05:09.780
I think, do we wind that on?

838
01:05:09.840 --> 01:05:12.239
Oh, we'd have to put...

839
01:05:12.239 --> 01:05:13.380
We would have to put...

840
01:05:13.380 --> 01:05:15.840
We would have to put Simon's maybe, though, in there.

841
01:05:18.900 --> 01:05:20.639
I don't know.

842
01:05:20.699 --> 01:05:23.400
I think for me, I mean, this can go the tag.

843
01:05:23.460 --> 01:05:24.179
This is going to check.

844
01:05:24.239 --> 01:05:26.159
I don't need to be hurt.

845
01:05:26.219 --> 01:05:27.719
I don't need to be heard on this.

846
01:05:27.780 --> 01:05:28.739
Oh, you do?

847
01:05:28.739 --> 01:05:33.539
It's interesting because I met you.

848
01:05:35.280 --> 01:05:37.739
I don't need don't need it.

849
01:05:37.800 --> 01:05:40.199
Sorry, I need to be heard now, but I don't need to be broadcast.

850
01:05:40.260 --> 01:05:43.019
The, the, um, the thing.

851
01:05:43.079 --> 01:06:01.619
I mean, again, going back to that thing that, you know, I come into Blake 7 with series C and, you know, then I kind of, it's all, I can't even remember what I see next, it's all kind of random, but, but, for me, aftermath and this, as you're saying, PG, it does kind of reboot the show, it's still obviously the same show, but it's a different version of the same show.

852
01:06:01.679 --> 01:06:14.340
For me, it's almost like in both cases they're saying, well, we've gotten rid of all of that Blake rubbish and now we can actually do the show that we actually wanted to do along or we realised we wanted to do when we were about 4 or 5 episodes into the 1st series.

853
01:06:14.460 --> 01:06:16.500
Oh, this is actually what we did crap.

854
01:06:16.559 --> 01:06:18.360
This is so much going to be so much better now.

855
01:06:18.420 --> 01:06:19.079
Do you know what I mean?

856
01:06:19.139 --> 01:06:28.079
Like, I really felt the original 2 series of the show feel tired when they're happening, whereas these 2 series don't.

857
01:06:28.980 --> 01:06:42.599
What it really, what it highlights for me, and you said obviously earlier that it all looks a little bit generic, it's just how lucky we were to have such talented designer as Roger Murray Leach setting up the show in 1977.

858
01:06:42.840 --> 01:06:48.960
He made the liberator and it set design so fascinating and something that stood out and characterised the series.

859
01:06:49.019 --> 01:06:55.199
And if you got bottle shows such as sarcophagus or breakdown, which were mainly said aboard liberator.

860
01:06:55.260 --> 01:06:56.760
You were happy to spend time there.

861
01:06:56.820 --> 01:07:01.079
And so the key problem is that the Liberator is unique and Scorpio is generic.

862
01:07:01.139 --> 01:07:02.340
Yes.

863
01:07:02.400 --> 01:07:04.559
Yeah, although I...

864
01:07:04.619 --> 01:07:12.059
I mean, I totally get where you come from, but I think that's the series 4 vibe that we don't even, you know, we can survive without Blake.

865
01:07:12.119 --> 01:07:13.019
We can survive without.

866
01:07:13.079 --> 01:07:16.440
Star Trek wouldn't dare make a series without the enterprise, but we're like seven.

867
01:07:16.500 --> 01:07:18.059
We're gonna really shake things up.

868
01:07:18.119 --> 01:07:22.139
So I, yeah, I can't imagine series 4 with the Liberator.

869
01:07:22.199 --> 01:07:28.079
Um, because so much of the stuff is about them being more, uh, struggling.

870
01:07:28.079 --> 01:07:31.139
As, as, as I'm under, under adults now.

871
01:07:31.199 --> 01:07:33.659
And when you're flying around in the greatest ship in the universe.

872
01:07:33.780 --> 01:07:36.659
It definitely would have been a different series. yeah.

873
01:07:37.260 --> 01:07:40.980
I'll tell you what, server, I would have had server line just successfully naked.

874
01:07:41.039 --> 01:07:41.880
Serverland's got it now.

875
01:07:41.940 --> 01:07:44.219
We going to run into her later this series, flying around and deliberator.

876
01:07:44.280 --> 01:07:45.599
I believe later.

877
01:07:45.659 --> 01:07:46.860
There's a bit of news coming out.

878
01:07:48.719 --> 01:07:50.159
Yeah.

879
01:07:50.159 --> 01:07:51.960
What kind of use?

880
01:07:51.960 --> 01:07:54.780
40 inch now it takes from harvest of chiros.

881
01:07:54.900 --> 01:07:57.539
If you can compare it to Doctor Who from.

882
01:07:57.599 --> 01:08:01.980
I mean, Dr. Blake 7 was never about the liberator for me. was worries about Paul Darrow and Avon.

883
01:08:02.039 --> 01:08:10.440
And in the same way the Doctor Who is kind of about the Tartars, but it's also kind of not when you consider how often it's successfully happened without the Tartars.

884
01:08:10.500 --> 01:08:13.440
I mean, most of the per year or a lot of the per year, at least.

885
01:08:13.500 --> 01:08:16.199
The TARDIS is a footnote, if at all.

886
01:08:16.260 --> 01:08:20.399
And that's actually fundamentally the not the most interesting thing about the program.

887
01:08:20.460 --> 01:08:22.619
And even though it's a hook, absolutely.

888
01:08:22.739 --> 01:08:33.119
But yeah, I think that not having to liberate, I think trying to retrofit the liberator back into series D, I think, would have been an error and would have just made it look tired.

889
01:08:33.420 --> 01:08:40.380
I mean, maybe, but Doctor Who is a unique program about time travel.

890
01:08:40.439 --> 01:08:41.760
Blake 7 is a space opera.

891
01:08:41.819 --> 01:08:43.859
There's plenty of other space operas around.

892
01:08:43.920 --> 01:08:57.119
Obviously, there are other things that make Blake 7 unique, and we tap into those in this series, but Liberator was a big part of what made Blake 7, what gave it its character, whereas I don't think the TARDIS is that in Doc 2, Doc 2 has other equal strengths.

893
01:08:57.659 --> 01:08:59.640
I think we wind up.

894
01:08:59.699 --> 01:09:00.119
What do you?

895
01:09:00.180 --> 01:09:01.260
Yeah.

896
01:09:01.260 --> 01:09:03.060
Yeah, do you think that's conscious?

897
01:09:03.119 --> 01:09:04.680
No, no, no.

898
01:09:04.739 --> 01:09:15.539
I was just sort of saying, I just sort of think that maybe Blake's 7 only becomes completely about Paul Darrow in retrospect and what it's becoming about is being negotiated now.

899
01:09:15.659 --> 01:09:16.859
Do you know what I mean?

900
01:09:16.920 --> 01:09:19.199
as they decide what they're going to do for season four.

901
01:09:19.260 --> 01:09:19.920
What is it about?

902
01:09:19.979 --> 01:09:21.180
Is it about the liberator?

903
01:09:21.239 --> 01:09:22.439
Well, we're deciding it's not.

904
01:09:22.500 --> 01:09:24.119
It's going to be about Ivan.

905
01:09:24.180 --> 01:09:25.079
Do you know what I mean?

906
01:09:25.140 --> 01:09:31.140
And I think, and the show just ends up being about Avon by accident, really, again, he's the Urkel.

907
01:09:31.199 --> 01:09:34.500
He's the breakout character, you know, who everyone kind of remembers.

908
01:09:34.500 --> 01:09:36.060
Mostly Urkel.

909
01:09:36.119 --> 01:09:36.479
All right.

910
01:09:36.539 --> 01:09:41.159
I'll do the outro and then we'll see how we go.

911
01:09:41.220 --> 01:09:45.899
I don't know whether this works, you know, maximum power context, but we'll give it a go.

912
01:09:45.960 --> 01:09:47.880
Well, it's all the time.

913
01:09:47.939 --> 01:09:50.159
Well, that's all the time we have for this week.