WEBVTT NOTE This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:13:53 1 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.179 Maximum Power. 2 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:12.900 Hello, and welcome to Maximum Power. 3 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:18.839 Oh, what a tangle web he weaved when 1st terry nation practised to conceive Blake 7. 4 00:00:18.899 --> 00:00:22.199 And so I'm I'm Peter, and who am I here with? 5 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.120 Hello, I'm Brendan. 6 00:00:24.179 --> 00:00:25.559 I'm Colin. 7 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:26.940 And I'm Pete. 8 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:33.299 So, we're looking at the Blake 7 episode, the web, and Pete, what did you think of television's 1st ever episode, maybe? 9 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:37.920 It's a, it's a sticky situation, all right, that's to be sure. 10 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:44.039 I don't remember this one it originally went out and it's quite a quirky little thing, isn't it? 11 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:49.140 I don't know what the received fan wisdom on it is, but it's really a story of 2 halves, isn't it? 12 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:51.600 One half quite a lot longer than the other. 13 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:55.200 With the um, the spaceship bit and Callie being spooky. 14 00:00:55.259 --> 00:00:57.719 But mainly, I'm going to remember it for the streaking. 15 00:00:57.780 --> 00:01:03.000 In terms of, in terms of the, I came to Blake 7 because I wanted shrieking. and there's a lot of freaking. 16 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:05.280 Wait for SiriC. will get some shrinking as well. 17 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:11.159 I think the fan wisdom on this episode might be that it's not very good. 18 00:01:11.219 --> 00:01:13.500 And I'm not sure that I agree with that. 19 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:15.239 I mean, I agree with it in some ways. 20 00:01:15.299 --> 00:01:22.920 I think it's probably the most fantastical thing that Terry Nation ever wrote with the possible exception of Planets of the Daleks in Doctor Who. 21 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:27.480 But I think it succeeds in a lot of ways, and I think it's important for the series. 22 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:33.959 I, uh, I think it was one of the earliest episodes that I saw watching as a little 6 year old in 1978. 23 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:38.280 I know I saw time squad and then this one and it left an indelible impression on me. 24 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:41.400 So, yeah, I forgive it quite a lot, I think. 25 00:01:41.459 --> 00:01:42.659 What do other people think? 26 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:55.200 Well, for me, I think this may have been the 1st episode proper that I saw, because the very 1st Blake 7 I saw was the truncated BBC video of the beginning. 27 00:01:55.319 --> 00:02:01.799 But I think this is the 1st proper episode, and I remember watching this at about 10 years old. 28 00:02:01.859 --> 00:02:04.140 At about 10 at night. 29 00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:07.680 And just being properly terrified. 30 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:18.300 By, by, you know, Saman's voice coming through Jenna and and does, Sally does an amazing lip sync for her life in that moment. 31 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:19.740 And how does she do that with her voice? 32 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:23.099 Yeah, that's the Rada, isn't it? 33 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:27.000 Space rather. 34 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:35.280 And in terms in terms of the wailing, we watched this today and Rod turned to me and said, are they are they just carrying around a box of kittens that they're not letting out? 35 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:36.479 Is that what's happening here? 36 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.000 Oh, poor kittens. 37 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:50.699 But of course, there is a theory in the real world that cats miaows have developed to emulate human children and babies in order to elicit sympathy and thus get food. 38 00:02:50.759 --> 00:03:03.479 So not only are the decimas of smaller stature, but they sound like children in distress, which we're sort of genetically hardwired to be distressed by. 39 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:05.520 I think it's I think it's very clever. 40 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:12.240 Perhaps the execution leaves a bit to be desired, but basically any sci-fi in the BBC in the 1970s you're going to be saying that. 41 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:14.520 So maybe they are evil after all. 42 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:20.460 They were just doing it to try and take over that planet and they completely, I hadn't, I'm having a moment of, of, of realisation here. 43 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:22.860 Maybe if the dome had been beset by kittens. 44 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:24.300 It might have been slightly more entertaining. 45 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:27.240 Colin, what did you think of the episode? 46 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:29.099 I really like this. 47 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:31.379 You know, I'm not a fan of received wisdom. 48 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:40.259 I kind of, I kind of liked just, it's like people that go, oh, the ending of Game of Thrones was bad. like, No, it just wasn't quite as good, right? 49 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:42.780 So I kind of try and put all that aside. 50 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:51.840 And I just think it's largely it largely succeeds, I think, in setting up a concept, but I don't think it properly explores it. 51 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:53.759 There's so much exposition. 52 00:03:53.819 --> 00:03:58.979 There's so much kind of, and then we built them, and then we did this, and then we land on this planet, and then I'm 6 people in one. 53 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.620 It's like, okay, okay, okay, cool. 54 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:06.300 And then there's 10 minutes of, you know, shrimps with axes, mashing shit up. 55 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:10.020 It does such a great job of atmosphere. 56 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:26.699 You know, you have Black Park all sort of covered in, you know, webs and disco space balloons, but the music is really dark and the salmon, the head and the jar thing, again, is just terrific and creepy. 57 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:30.360 But again, it just falls short a little bit because he's on the floor. 58 00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:32.459 It's like they all walk in. 59 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:34.019 It's like, oh, I'm just on the floor. 60 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:37.259 It's like, just, you know, have them in a massive sort of cabinet thing. 61 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:40.740 Don't just put like a little jar on the floor for them to come in and kick over. 62 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:49.740 It's not, you know, there's a few things that just, and the decimas like they, you know, they have bits of wood with bow ties on the end instead of, it doesn't quite work. 63 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:58.740 But I think they do a really good job of building up to a Blake and Avon standoff around, you know, Avon going, well, that's nice. 64 00:04:58.800 --> 00:04:59.699 I don't really care. 65 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:00.600 Let's get out of here. 66 00:05:00.660 --> 00:05:02.459 And Blake going, we've got to stop this. 67 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.879 Yes, there's an attempt at a kind of a message there, isn't there? 68 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:07.019 Yeah. 69 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:07.620 Yeah. 70 00:05:07.620 --> 00:05:08.040 Yeah. 71 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:10.079 It's all about the morality, isn't it? 72 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:12.600 about how these, and still, we're still learning a bit. 73 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:27.300 I mean, we know them pretty well by now, but particularly the dynamic between Blake and Avon about doing Blake just being so appalled by the way these creatures are being treated, and that that in this story, it's how appalled he is, that is the point of the story, not are these, is, is alien race? 74 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:38.339 A, going to defeat alien race B, or um, that's what takes this into, you know, this is Blake 7. still defining itself as being, this is the kind of show that does this rather than just having. 75 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:38.699 Absolutely. 76 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:42.180 And these 1st 5 episodes, I think, have been the show defining itself. 77 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.660 I mean, obviously there's been some setup there, but it's been trying out different things. 78 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:52.620 Simon, Australian Simon, last week said that Time Squad was a potential format for the show that wasn't really pursued. 79 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:55.680 This is another format, which I think is pursued more often. 80 00:05:55.740 --> 00:06:09.240 There are episodes in later seasons, usually by people who aren't named Terry Nation and Chris Boucher, which have these kind of fantastical elements to them, but it's the show deciding what it wants to be, whether it wants to be sci-fi or whether it wants to be fantasy. 81 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:17.040 And so last week we had industrial sites and cryogenesis capsules, and we've swapped them this week for heads in jars and proto-e-boks. 82 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:20.220 So, it's really interesting. 83 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:22.079 I think it's a template for later seasons. 84 00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:25.019 And also, do you know of Gareth Roberts, the Doctor Who writer? 85 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:36.300 I think he might have been the person who said that the moment you know Blake 7 is going to be space nonsense rather than anything else. is when Callie clutches her head and says, I think that could have been one of the lost. 86 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:52.439 There's also, there's a, my people, Claxon that I have in my head in any science fiction series, where someone at some point refers to, my people in a way that generally everyday human beings or alians even didn't tend to talk about, you know, I'm going home to see my people. 87 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:58.740 It's wonderful how whenever they mention the hour and hour in these episodes, right up to dawn of the gods in series C, they're these mystical people. 88 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:04.800 And then when we finally meet them, it's that person from Revenge of the Cybermen hanging around in an airport control centre. 89 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:09.779 Speaking of Doctor Who overlaps. 90 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.779 Very scary Navara with his creepy voice. 91 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:14.339 Did everyone recognise him? 92 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:20.100 In fact, he even looks a little bit like SV7 from Robots of Death because he is? 93 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:29.519 I wonder if he's very good at doing that. scary, impassive voice, but I'm not sure if I want to see his Hamlet and see if he does that exactly the same all the way through it. 94 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.220 Do you know who Samon was, the head in a fish tank? 95 00:07:32.339 --> 00:07:35.519 He's the minister from the Doctor Who episode, The Green Death. 96 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:39.540 He's the one who's on the phone who says wretched fellow needs a swift kick up the backside Prime Minister. 97 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.459 How the mice he has fallen. 98 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:48.420 Yeah, or maybe, you know, he's remained in government and empowered for all these centuries and now he's... 99 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:49.500 With all seen Futurama. 100 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:51.120 Richard Nixon's just a head in a jar. 101 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:53.160 Maybe he made Prime Minister after all. 102 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:57.360 Well, Futurama steals everything from doctor. 103 00:07:57.420 --> 00:07:57.839 Oh, yeah. 104 00:07:57.899 --> 00:07:58.379 Yeah. 105 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:02.399 Well, Peter, it's even worse than that for poor Richard Beale. 106 00:08:02.459 --> 00:08:04.620 Yes, he was the minister of ecology and the Green Death. 107 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:08.160 Before that, he was one of the voices in the macraterra. 108 00:08:08.220 --> 00:08:11.160 I believe he is the voice of the macra screaming at the end. 109 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:18.480 But even before that, he was the voice of a refusian, but his most famous Doctor Who appearance, I think, for many. 110 00:08:18.540 --> 00:08:22.259 Is Batmasterson in the gunfighters? 111 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:23.399 Oh good on him. 112 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:26.939 What a CV. 113 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:27.360 That amazing. 114 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:28.079 Exactly. 115 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:30.839 He appeared in a host of Bad Doctor Who and the Green Death. 116 00:08:34.019 --> 00:08:36.899 With the whole Kelly, my people thing. 117 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:57.960 Something I picked up on on this viewing is, you know, 1st of all, she says that the lost were sort of exiled from her society for performing experiments and then we find out that these experiments are in cloning, but also very importantly, Samon says that he is of our on, but not our on. 118 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:03.179 And with him and his other 5 intellects. 119 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:10.799 I do have to wonder if they're the original clone masters who created the hour and hour, if that's what we're going for here. 120 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:12.000 Oh, that's interesting. 121 00:09:12.059 --> 00:09:15.840 I, you know, I have to think that much as I love Terry Nation. 122 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:22.139 There's not always a lot of world building that he doesn't put in the script, so that is probably just me head cannoning. 123 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:29.159 But it's also very interesting structurally that Cali kick starts the plot and gets into the planet and whatnot. 124 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:30.360 But then never goes down there. 125 00:09:30.419 --> 00:09:38.399 It's interesting because they kind of, they're playing on this theme of Jenna sort of going, oh, God, an alien on the ship. 126 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:39.960 Can we trust her? 127 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:47.639 You know, and it immediately, in the 1st sort of 10 minutes, we're subjected to Cali sort of hitting someone with a silver newspaper. 128 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:51.659 Um, and uh, you know, can she be trusted or not? 129 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:53.639 But Blake is immediately... 130 00:09:53.700 --> 00:09:54.779 No, no, I trust her. 131 00:09:55.259 --> 00:09:55.679 We fine. 132 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:58.799 And then Avon is, you know, just chuck her out the air. 133 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:00.960 Well, I'd have definitely called it Villa for wearing that outfit. 134 00:10:01.740 --> 00:10:07.019 She is really, Kelly is really creepy in those 1st few scenes, if you don't know. 135 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:17.639 You know, later, she's got such a sort of, I don't know, Kelly looks like a sort of friendly chemist or English teacher, generally, but in those opening scenes, she's really, I think she does the spooky. 136 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:18.419 And she shot well. 137 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:23.639 Like those scenes where she's going to attack Villa are handheld and done in quite extreme close-up. 138 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:31.500 And something that I noticed watching this time around is that Callie's walking around with a gun strapped tour and no one else is, and I found that quite creepy. 139 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:36.059 Yeah, because they usually don't grab their guns until they're going down to the planet of the week. exactly. 140 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:42.659 Do you think that Jenna is impressed with Callie because he is a slightly more interesting character played by a slightly better actress coming in? 141 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:47.879 I'll just open that up to debate, Colin. 142 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:50.940 I really like both of them. 143 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:56.279 I've always preferred Tali because she's a bit more interesting and has stuff to do and has a bit more of a backstory. 144 00:10:56.340 --> 00:11:02.879 Whereas Jenna is like, well, I was a smuggling, I got caught and I can fly a ship and here I am in danger of the week. 145 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:09.059 Whereas you've always got the hour on my people that we sort of visit and revisit. 146 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:19.440 It's just that, well, when we get to terminal, where things will change a little bit, but Jen Jenner is falling, Jen is falling in quite quickly into the Sigourney Weaver and Galaxy Quest role, isn't she? 147 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:27.899 at one point where they fly they're looking at the web and on the screen as they're flying along and then the web starts to clear and she goes, so that's what's slowing us down. 148 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:31.679 Obviously, you're going through a big way. 149 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:33.179 There's also a graphics failing. 150 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:40.500 I think that very same scene where the image of 5 pursuit ships come centre into the screen, it cuts to Kelly going, there they are. 151 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:48.600 Yes, it's very interesting what you say about Jenna and sort of the Sigourney Weaver Roll because Jenna has similarly enormous hair in this episode. 152 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:54.419 It is like blue dried into this enormous kind of um, buffon, uh, style. 153 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:55.679 That's true. 154 00:11:55.740 --> 00:11:58.679 But, um, I think, you know, I was being a little bit glib before. 155 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:00.899 I think Sally and Ivette is actually great as Jenna. 156 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:16.320 I don't think she has as much to play that as Jan Chappel does with Cali, and it's always struck me what Paul Darrow wrote for actually the Bleak 7 magazine back in the 80s, where he was talking about Avon's attraction to Cali, which is always nascent. 157 00:12:16.379 --> 00:12:23.639 And said, um, that he wouldn't be attracted to Jenna, because she was, and I quote, a sugar coated wonder woman. 158 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:27.480 Yeah, and that's probably true, isn't it? 159 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:31.259 I suppose she doesn't have the rough edges of Kelly. 160 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:45.120 You know, despite the fact she's a smuggler, Jenna is quite a principled character and is vocal about those principles, especially butting up against Avon whenever he says, oh, you know, we should just leave people behind kind of thing. 161 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.899 It's usually Jenna who says, well, no, we're getting them out of there. 162 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:50.100 No, we're waiting for Blake. 163 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:59.580 So there is there is something to that, that she is possibly the most virtuous, honourable member of the team. 164 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:06.179 Yes, which may be why her and Gan were a good team up last week because Gan is similarly principled in his own way. 165 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:10.799 And so you get the impression that if they were running the ship, it would actually be quite a force for good. 166 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:25.019 The other thing I wonder about is with Jenna and Kelly is that Jenna had spent 4 months on the London with everyone else with Villa, with Gan, with Blake, with Avon. 167 00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:35.279 And then Cali comes along and someone, and Cali is someone completely new, and all of a sudden, Blake is affording Cali, the same trust as he gives to everyone else. 168 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:38.759 And I think in Jenna's mind, it's a bit like, well, no, hold on. 169 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:41.399 We can all trust each other because we have saved each other's lives. 170 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:43.919 We do not know who this person is. 171 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:53.460 And certainly, in the scripting, there was probably an intention to sort of set woman up against woman as rivals of affection. 172 00:13:53.519 --> 00:14:16.679 But at the same time, I think there is, there is a point in mistrusting Callie, if you were in that situation, which is only bolstered by this episode, and after what Callie does, Jenner and Avon are so outwardly, obviously hostile toward her, which understandable in the circumstances, but it's been bubbling since last week. 173 00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:18.360 In the fiction of the series. 174 00:14:18.419 --> 00:14:22.740 Do you think Blake could trust Callie a little bit more because he's had telepathic contact with her? 175 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:24.899 I certainly think that could be the case. 176 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:31.620 And also, I think in Kelly, he sees a deliberate freedom fighter like himself. 177 00:14:31.740 --> 00:14:35.039 The others have all mucked in with him because it's better than being in prison. 178 00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:46.139 They're not necessarily as devoted to the cause as he is, but in Kelly, he sees another freedom fighter, another revolutionary, and that is her raison d'etre. 179 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:51.419 So I think in Blake's case, not only does he trust it, he desperately wants to trust her. 180 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:53.460 Brendan, I think that's absolutely right. 181 00:14:53.519 --> 00:15:02.940 And, you know, spoilers were going to come to episodes in future and maybe next series where Blake's going to attempt something and Cali is always the one who backs him up. 182 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.759 Kelly is the one who says, we need to do this. 183 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:06.840 It's our only chance. 184 00:15:06.899 --> 00:15:08.399 And so I think they are kindred spirits. 185 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:13.620 Are you in the uh, Kelly or Jenna camp, Pete? 186 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:15.720 I'm still, I'm in both. 187 00:15:15.779 --> 00:15:17.639 I will happily have a foot in both camps. 188 00:15:17.700 --> 00:15:21.360 Yeah, I think I do like Jenna's stylings. 189 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:31.500 In a way, I sort of root for Jenna because I think she gets so underused and she does end up sitting, reading a magazine, working the teleport some weeks and that's an injustice because I really like her. 190 00:15:31.559 --> 00:15:36.720 But yeah, there's definitely more mileage in Callie's backstory because she's got on and it is really interesting. 191 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.720 It struck me watching these early episodes and still with the web as well. 192 00:15:39.779 --> 00:15:42.480 How proactive Jenna is in these early episodes. 193 00:15:42.539 --> 00:15:45.659 She is absolutely the 2nd lead of the show, not Avon. 194 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:50.399 It's a shame we lost that after the 1st 3 episodes and certainly after series A, spoilers again. 195 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:59.159 Because I think she's actually, she serves a very good function in the plot and she's good foil, Blake, but I think as the Blake Avon relationship develops. 196 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:00.659 She loses that position a little bit. 197 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:03.899 The dynamic between those 2 just can just fill an episode. 198 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:10.860 And so everyone else is lucky if they get anything written, written around them really, and then Villa gets all the gags because he's so good at the gags. 199 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:18.059 Jenna's really funny and quite acerving in the 1st couple of episodes before everyone comes along and becomes the comedy star. 200 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:19.559 So there's all that shuffling that goes on. 201 00:16:19.620 --> 00:16:22.500 I guess with any ensemble series, you're going to get that on you. 202 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.919 It's interesting to see how it takes shape, yeah. 203 00:16:26.940 --> 00:16:32.879 So speaking of Avon and Blake, I think they're actually starting to be particularly well defined in this episode. 204 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:34.080 What do you think, Colin? 205 00:16:34.139 --> 00:16:35.220 I agree. 206 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.460 I think the show is starting to really cement. 207 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:55.860 That relationship is the most interesting and the most developed and the most, you know, important to the story in the sense that we're transitioning Avon from, I just want to get rich and just disappear with the spaceship and relax, whereas Blake is like, we're going to take down the Federation. 208 00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:07.079 I mean, they're really starting to boss each other around now because that, you know, they're operating on this kind of level of we've just got to get something done, just instruction, instruction, instruction, delivery, delivery. 209 00:17:07.140 --> 00:17:12.839 Blake is ordering Avon about sometimes, and he's objecting a little bit, but he's taking it. 210 00:17:12.900 --> 00:17:15.180 So it's like, I need you on the flight deck. 211 00:17:15.299 --> 00:17:16.019 I'm busy. 212 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:17.160 No, get up here now. 213 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:22.019 Yeah, there's a brilliant bit where he answers the cut, he answers a ping from his little communicator with, all right. 214 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.839 You don't get that on stuff, right? 215 00:17:25.259 --> 00:17:30.119 But there's also a bit where Blake refers to Avon as a friend. 216 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:32.759 He's not psychopath. got more emotional intelligence. 217 00:17:32.819 --> 00:17:41.279 Avon is pretty much a sociopath psychopathite tendencies and he's not going to go walking around, sort of saying stuff like that for quite a while. 218 00:17:41.339 --> 00:17:43.019 He does it through his actions. 219 00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:47.579 But to me, it's the whole point of the series is how those 2 develop. 220 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:49.259 There is a line in later episodes. 221 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:54.420 We won't spoil which one or where it comes where Blake tells Avon that he's always considered him a friend. 222 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.059 So that's quite interesting. love that line. 223 00:17:57.180 --> 00:18:02.160 And there's also a scene where Avon unsarcastically refers to Blake as our leader. 224 00:18:02.220 --> 00:18:16.319 So even though he's clearly got designs on Blake not being there and being able to use the Liberator for his own purposes, he's specifically talking to other characters about what they could be doing if they weren't following Blake, he still does view Blake as the leader. 225 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:19.799 Yeah, and visibly when when they when he gets told to put down his gun. 226 00:18:19.859 --> 00:18:22.920 He turns and looks at Blake and wakes for Blake to nod before he does it. 227 00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:26.579 It's like that, I have chosen to allow you to be our leader. 228 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:34.259 It's pretty much the energy that Avon, or Avon seems to be giving or Avon, as they don't they all pronounce it Avon, like Raven. 229 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:35.460 They do except for Surfland. 230 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:37.619 When she comes in, she'll call him Avon. 231 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:39.000 Sorry. 232 00:18:39.059 --> 00:18:41.099 Sorry, so for what? 233 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:43.319 Spoilers. 234 00:18:43.380 --> 00:18:45.119 No, I'm joking. 235 00:18:45.180 --> 00:18:47.400 Brendan, what do you think of Avon and Blake in this episode? 236 00:18:47.460 --> 00:18:55.440 I very much enjoy their interplay, and especially when Avon comes down to the planet. 237 00:18:55.500 --> 00:18:57.839 We get and we get a nice little loop story bit. 238 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:01.920 And sort of all around the power cells. 239 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.599 And Blake explains, we can't give them power cells because they'll kill all the people here. 240 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:08.160 And Avon's like, that's bad. 241 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.279 And then Blake says, but if we give them the power cells, we'll be able to escape. 242 00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:12.660 And everyone's like, well, that's good. 243 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.380 And then Blake's like, but the power cells have monosodium glutamate. 244 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:17.880 And everyone's like, can we just get on with this, please? 245 00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:20.160 You also get your choice to frog it. 246 00:19:20.220 --> 00:19:21.359 That's good Yeah, exactly. 247 00:19:22.500 --> 00:19:32.640 But it's the whole thing of in that conversation because Avon is vacillating between, oh, well, we can't do it because X. Oh, well, we have to do it because why? 248 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:35.819 He is binary in his thinking. 249 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:40.500 And Blake does remind us at the end of the episode that Avon is more comfortable with computers. 250 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:43.440 And that's the thing Avon's doing here. 251 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:44.880 He's doing a moral calculus. 252 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:46.200 He's doing the trolly problem. 253 00:19:46.259 --> 00:19:49.140 And it's not just based on how many people you can save. 254 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:51.119 He's basing it on the value of the people. 255 00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:53.339 And because he's on one of the tracks. 256 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:56.160 He's not gonna put the trolly cart down that track. 257 00:19:56.220 --> 00:19:59.279 He's going to put it down the track of the reptile Ewoks. 258 00:19:59.339 --> 00:20:01.559 Whereas for Blake. 259 00:20:01.619 --> 00:20:05.819 It's a matter of all sentient life, must be free. 260 00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:15.119 And I think that's why this episode is so important because we know that Blake is fighting to free humans from tyranny. 261 00:20:15.180 --> 00:20:21.180 But what we didn't know until now is he wants to free anyone and everyone from tyranny. 262 00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:23.339 And it's quite an interesting distinction. 263 00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:28.440 Yeah, because sometimes you can have a freedom fighter narrative and it turns out the person is just fighting to be free. 264 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:32.880 Whereas he is fighting for freedom, collectively, universally. 265 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:37.319 And that just makes it clear he's not just somebody with a grudge against the people who are in charge of him. 266 00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:42.359 He actually wants to throw the whole damn corrupt whatnot. 267 00:20:42.420 --> 00:20:53.339 And it sort of crystallises the relationship between Avon and Blake in at the start of that kind of philosophical discussion they're having, where Blake says, you know, we've got to, we can't let the eradication of these creatures happen. 268 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:56.940 Yvonne internally rolls his eyes and says, does this concern us? 269 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.579 And you think that is the relationship right there. 270 00:20:59.819 --> 00:21:10.799 Yeah, it's sort of foreshadowed when Blake 1st meets with Gila and Navara, and they explain their situation and Blake is kind of a bit confused. 271 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:12.660 He's like, well, why did you force us to come here? 272 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:16.019 Well, and they're like, well, you might have said, no, and like, well, my mother said, yes. 273 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:22.140 Blake is still perfectly willing to help people who have put him through quite a lot already. 274 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:25.259 You know, they've turned his friend against him. 275 00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:29.759 They've endangered his ship and his crew, but when he realises it's an act of desperation. 276 00:21:29.819 --> 00:21:32.039 And he has the power to help. 277 00:21:32.099 --> 00:21:39.420 He's perfectly willing to do so until he discovers that a byproduct of his help will be the extermination of the decimas. 278 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:40.859 And at that point, he's like, no. 279 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:42.660 I can't do that. 280 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:45.420 And I think as much as wanting the decimals to be free. 281 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.660 That's also a moral decision on his part that he couldn't live with himself. 282 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:53.160 If the price for his freedom was the destruction of these creatures. 283 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:57.839 Whereas at the end, Daveon is like, these are what you wanted to save. 284 00:21:57.960 --> 00:21:59.940 Okay, rubbish. 285 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.380 That's squeaky and rubbery. 286 00:22:04.500 --> 00:22:06.720 They're not even furry, for God's sake. 287 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:17.880 I don't think that there's much controversy out there about the fact that the decimals are not the most successful realisation of what they're meant to be, but it's always confused me. 288 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:19.319 What are their 10 functions? 289 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:21.900 running, shouting, crying, throwing on windows. 290 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:24.599 They're even more annoying than Furby's. 291 00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:25.319 I... 292 00:22:25.380 --> 00:22:30.539 There's that bit where they're all, they're all trying to get in and you can see them against some sort of white screen. 293 00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:33.119 It looks like they're trying to get in through the round window and play a score. 294 00:22:33.180 --> 00:22:39.779 Yeah, and they're bagging on it so gently because it would clearly collapse if one of them actually just touched it. 295 00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:46.200 But and from the moment they're named, were you there thinking, okay, this is a Terry Nation script, the decimals. 296 00:22:46.259 --> 00:22:46.920 What the pun? 297 00:22:46.980 --> 00:22:49.799 They've made it Christmas. 298 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:51.779 They're gonna get decimated. 299 00:22:51.900 --> 00:22:53.519 Oh, right, they've got 10 functions. 300 00:22:53.579 --> 00:22:54.000 I see. 301 00:22:54.059 --> 00:23:05.400 We know this planet should be called the web planets, but in the script, I've no doubt it's called decimus. of course They probably have an 11th function that's only accessible with the secret code. 302 00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:14.640 And that shot that they have where they're all running into the dome when the door is very carelessly left open by Navara and Keila. 303 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:20.940 And I think it's a shot which is repeated about 3 times of the same decimas running through in the same awkward fashion. 304 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:22.619 So that's not something you see every day. 305 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:29.220 The whole section there and the dome at the dome with them, which is like, is it the last, it's slightly less than half of the episode, actually, isn't it? 306 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:33.660 To me, it could so easily be an episode of The Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. 307 00:23:33.720 --> 00:23:36.240 It's a really self-contained sci-fi concept. 308 00:23:36.299 --> 00:23:41.819 You meet these people who are going to destroy their clones and then you discover that they're clones or mutants themselves. 309 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:47.039 That would be on its own, a really taught little 25 minute science fiction script. 310 00:23:47.099 --> 00:23:57.660 I'm suddenly now wondering, I wonder if Mr. Nation had this laying around, having been submitted to anyone else and not taken up, because then, because then it's just wrapped in into a Blake 7 episode as well. 311 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:03.480 It's an unusual structure because they arrive, they solve a mystery and then they take a moral judgement and act on it. 312 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.920 Rather than meeting people who are plotting particularly. 313 00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:12.960 I mean, there's the consequences there of the decimas being eradicated. 314 00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:23.759 There's not, there's not, there's not a sort of to and fro of one upmanship over a villainous opponent, which I'm just floating it, that might be a nice thing to introduce to this series at some point in the next few episodes. 315 00:24:23.819 --> 00:24:24.420 We'll have to see. 316 00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:29.220 Yes, it's a concept that's not particularly well interrogated, is it? 317 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:38.460 Yeah, it's a very simple morality play, and we as the audience, I think, are invited to side with Blake. 318 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:45.000 But everyone is there, I think, to speak to the 10%, the decima of the audience. 319 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.200 You're going to kind of go, all right, no, actually, no, let them die. 320 00:24:49.259 --> 00:24:50.099 They're very annoying. 321 00:24:50.400 --> 00:25:03.900 Well, there's little sort of, there's little doubt, I think, that Blake is a more annoying character than Avon, because he is that friend who is like, no, we have to do this and we have to do this and is constantly treading on your toes and saying, no, let's do this today. 322 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:06.359 Whereas Avon's just there going, can't we just sit down for a moment? 323 00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:10.859 Can't I just fiddle with these forward detectors in peace, please? 324 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.480 Can't I just can't I just blow up consoles to show Gan? 325 00:25:15.539 --> 00:25:16.259 I'm clever. 326 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.099 Please. 327 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:21.660 Doesn't he treat Gan terribly in that scene? 328 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:24.059 When he says something about it's slow? 329 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:28.619 It's something you should be used to and can should have turned around and decked him. 330 00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:31.500 He's got something else that's pretty prescient as well. 331 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:32.579 Straight after that. 332 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:36.299 He says, there will be a time where Blake won't be making the decisions. 333 00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:43.079 Well, I don't know how well that was thought through, you know, as a thing because it kind of disappears for ages. 334 00:25:43.140 --> 00:25:45.599 It's certainly something that actually does happen, right? 335 00:25:45.660 --> 00:25:49.319 I think it's the kind of thing where you can write that into a script. 336 00:25:49.380 --> 00:26:04.259 And whether it comes true or whether it doesn't, you can, as the writer in an interview 10 years later, say, oh yes, it was always my intention that that would be hubris on Avon's part, and then he would never gain control of the liberator, if Gareth Thomas had agreed to do a 3rd series. 337 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:11.160 Or turn around and say, oh yes, you know, well, we knew very early on that we wouldn't be able to keep Gareth forever. 338 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:14.099 Whereas Paul will do it. 339 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:17.460 Yeah, we knew we'd be able to keep Paul on and that it's foreshadowing. 340 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:18.539 It's foreshadowing. 341 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:20.099 Blake 7 was my masterpiece, you know. 342 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:22.799 I got the title from a sign encyclopedia. 343 00:26:22.859 --> 00:26:23.819 Um, et cetera. 344 00:26:27.660 --> 00:26:30.240 Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? 345 00:26:30.299 --> 00:26:33.960 Because they do return to that question sort of periodically within the series. 346 00:26:34.019 --> 00:26:35.279 So we'll have future episodes. 347 00:26:35.339 --> 00:26:51.180 I don't know how many spoilers we want to give away, but I can think off the top of my head of horizon and the keeper from next year, where Avon gets a taste of being in command or is given the opportunity to ditch Blake and seriously entertains it. 348 00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:53.099 So that is something that we will keep returning to. 349 00:26:59.160 --> 00:27:05.819 It's still odd, having a series of Aurak in it for me as well, because to me, he's such an essential part of the seven. 350 00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:10.680 Zen on his own, is still sort of just being written as a computer voice. 351 00:27:10.740 --> 00:27:15.480 Well, this time anyway. but a mysterious computer voice with a lot of personality. 352 00:27:15.539 --> 00:27:25.980 I love that there's a bit of a blur over what, like sometimes Blake will turn to someone like Gan and say, activate the shields and Gan will then just pick a microphone and say, to Zen, Zen, activate the shields. 353 00:27:26.039 --> 00:27:30.000 It's like, has there been a time and motion study on this workflow? 354 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:30.960 Because, really. 355 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:34.799 You've got a voice activated supercomputer. 356 00:27:34.859 --> 00:27:36.839 Why do you need to tell a bloke sat at a desk? 357 00:27:36.900 --> 00:27:44.160 There's also, at one point, Jenna has to run all the way from her little control desk all the way around the sofas down the front and up in order to pick up a thing and talk to Gan. 358 00:27:44.220 --> 00:27:46.079 I might be mixing up my episodes. 359 00:27:46.140 --> 00:27:50.099 They're still finding their way around the ship and how it works and what the words are. 360 00:27:50.220 --> 00:27:54.420 They started saying down and safe when they beam down now, not beam down, sorry, teleport down. 361 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:55.380 But that's it. 362 00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:57.240 They've got to get their own lingo, haven't they? 363 00:27:57.299 --> 00:27:58.500 Because it's its own world. 364 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:03.359 We need to test Alexa with some of these commands to Zen to see if they work. 365 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:07.799 Because you can do it with reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. 366 00:28:07.859 --> 00:28:10.619 So try it, see what happens if Really? 367 00:28:10.619 --> 00:28:12.180 That walked any way inclined. 368 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:19.980 And Pete, that wasn't even taking into account all the scenes where Jenna, the pilot, is told to do a maneuver by Blake, the non-pilot. 369 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:22.680 She must be about to turn around and say, yes, fine. 370 00:28:22.740 --> 00:28:24.180 Backseat driver behind me. 371 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:26.339 Absolutely. 372 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:33.420 Or if it's like Blake saying, you know, turn 30 degrees starboard and Jenna's like 15, I think, but I won't tell him. 373 00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:35.220 I'm just gonna, I'll just do it. 374 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:37.500 Yeah, he hasn't noticed. 375 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:44.279 I love the way Villa is given his chance to use the neutron blasters. 376 00:28:44.339 --> 00:28:46.200 He just fucks it up from the get go. 377 00:28:46.259 --> 00:28:47.460 Oh, yeah. 378 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:53.759 No, before you fire the neutron blasters, you've got to activate the neutron force shield. 379 00:28:53.819 --> 00:28:55.019 Everyone knows that. 380 00:28:55.559 --> 00:29:00.299 And I love how Zen is like several times in this. 381 00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:03.720 Basically, I'm not gonna stop you messing stuff up. 382 00:29:03.779 --> 00:29:04.740 I'll just clean up after you. 383 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:13.019 But at that point, Zen actually steps in and says, actually, I'm not going to let you microwave yourselves this time, switch the shield on. 384 00:29:14.519 --> 00:29:20.519 It's interesting, isn't it, that Zen loses that slightly abrasive quality as he goes on. 385 00:29:20.579 --> 00:29:27.480 He warms up in much the same way as Cali does, because they have to save that for Aurak when he comes in, Aurak becomes the abrasive. 386 00:29:27.539 --> 00:29:33.480 I could do anything because I'm a supercomputer, but I'm not going to, and that's what, you know, fulfils the plot function. 387 00:29:33.539 --> 00:29:36.359 I forget, do they have arguments later on? 388 00:29:36.420 --> 00:29:38.160 Are we getting ahead of ourselves? 389 00:29:38.220 --> 00:29:39.900 Or do Aurac and Zen have arguments? 390 00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:40.920 Because I know it'll be quite funny. 391 00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:52.980 I think they work together quite well in one episode, but we've got to wait for series D when Zen's follow-up, Slave, and Aurac, get into a proper bitch fight, worth the price of admission alone. 392 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:55.440 Still the same actor as well. 393 00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:55.980 I love it. 394 00:29:56.759 --> 00:30:00.000 Apparently doing it live with himself in the studio. 395 00:30:00.059 --> 00:30:06.180 And Paul Darrow's autobiography, he claims that Peter Studenham was getting 22 salaries for that, but I'm not sure if that's a joke or not. 396 00:30:06.420 --> 00:30:09.480 That's a very BBC joke, isn't it? 397 00:30:10.380 --> 00:30:24.779 It's interesting the point you make about Villa and his enthusiasm for firing the neutron blasters because Villa famously won't be seen to actually kill anybody until halfway through series D. Oh, well, he does stab someone in Signus Alpha. 398 00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:26.400 Oh no, you're absolutely right. 399 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:27.900 Maybe I should rephrase that. 400 00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:32.579 Famously, Villa will not be seen to fire a gun and kill someone until halfway through series, did he? 401 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:33.119 I see. 402 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:33.599 No shooting. 403 00:30:33.660 --> 00:30:34.559 Yeah, he doesn't shoot anyone. 404 00:30:34.619 --> 00:30:37.259 Yeah, I hadn't no, had not clocked that at all. 405 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:37.980 That's really interesting. 406 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:42.180 So what do we think of the production of this episode? 407 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:46.140 We have Michael Bryant, who is behind the way back, the 1st episode back behind the cameras. 408 00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:50.220 Also, the robots of death, which explains the presence era of Miles Fothergill. 409 00:30:50.279 --> 00:30:51.299 Yes, SP 7. 410 00:30:51.359 --> 00:31:02.220 But I think that is also why we get the POV handheld shots that you mentioned earlier when Callie is sort of under Siemens control. 411 00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:06.299 And I think there's a very slight fish islands. 412 00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:12.000 It's not it's not too exaggerated, but it highlights the alienness of the situation. 413 00:31:12.059 --> 00:31:18.000 But it is a little confused in terms of cinematography, just because when Callie attacks Villa. 414 00:31:18.059 --> 00:31:21.420 We also get Villas POV from those cameras. 415 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:28.980 And then when Callie is ushering Blake and Avon back to the flight deck, we get their POV as well. 416 00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:39.960 So I suppose it's just for the mind control sequences, but it, it could have perhaps been better if we just got Kelly's POV, but we didn't actually see her. 417 00:31:40.019 --> 00:31:43.559 Until she's on the flight deck. 418 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:45.240 Yeah, there's no mystery, is there? 419 00:31:45.299 --> 00:31:46.799 You know, it's like, something weird's happening. 420 00:31:46.859 --> 00:31:47.759 Oh it's obviously Cali. 421 00:31:47.819 --> 00:31:55.680 And then there's just there's just 5 minutes of them rather slowly, everyone else slowly realising that this weird stuff is being done by the only person it could possibly be being done by. 422 00:31:55.740 --> 00:31:59.099 But it's still tense because because of all those directorial touches. 423 00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:02.880 But I read somewhere that this was a script that underran quite substantially. 424 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:11.160 There is one scene where it's quite near the beginning where Blake just walks from one room to another and you could say, well, it's an interesting world building. 425 00:32:11.220 --> 00:32:16.380 We get to see the liberator as he walks down a corridor and through a door and down another corridor and then starts a conversation. 426 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:23.519 But really, it's kind of 30 seconds of a man walking across his TV studio quite slowly or delivering his next line. 427 00:32:23.579 --> 00:32:29.819 It's interesting because I think there's a sense of pace and urgency to those early scenes, which may not actually be there in the script. 428 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:31.680 I think Michael Bryant helps to deliver that. 429 00:32:31.740 --> 00:32:36.180 It's interesting what you were saying earlier about the fact that the story on the planet could be quite self-contained. 430 00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:39.660 There's a lot of Blake 7 episodes, and particularly a lot of episodes of this series. 431 00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:50.640 I'm thinking of breakdown later on, which have kind of an extended setup onboard liberator for up to half the episode before they get into the situation proper on the planet or the space station. 432 00:32:50.700 --> 00:32:54.359 And part of me wonders if that was purely a logistical thing. 433 00:32:54.420 --> 00:32:57.720 They knew they had very little budget and very little time. 434 00:32:57.779 --> 00:33:02.579 And so they opted to have extended scenes on their set where they knew how to cover it. 435 00:33:02.579 --> 00:33:05.940 And it was in the studio and they had all of their regulars. 436 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:07.259 Yeah, I'm playing with you, I see. 437 00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:13.259 So yeah, and keeping the audience sort of keeping you waiting because we know they are going to go to a planet and get embroiled in something. 438 00:33:13.319 --> 00:33:18.599 But having the setup 1st prior to that rather than having a lengthy end scene at the end or something. 439 00:33:18.660 --> 00:33:24.839 Yes, and purely logistical as well, if you need to remount scenes in another studio block, it's easy to do it on your main set. 440 00:33:24.900 --> 00:33:25.500 Very true. 441 00:33:25.559 --> 00:33:34.559 I do also wonder if it is an attempt to experiment with the traditional drama format of intercutting between an A plot and a B plot. 442 00:33:34.619 --> 00:33:46.259 So, say, in Time Squad, last week, Sickness Alpha before that, we have a very clear A plot on the ship and B plot on the planet or vice versa. 443 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:51.839 They're probably as important as each other in terms of Blake 7 that we keep cutting between. 444 00:33:51.900 --> 00:33:59.940 Whereas here, the 1st plot is Callie's mind control and getting the ship into position and the 2nd plot is the plot on the planet. 445 00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.500 And once we've reached the planet, Kelly's mind control plot doesn't really come up again. 446 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:16.500 It's something that, in a way, is quite modern, because if we look at modern Doctor Who, and especially when we talk about Stephen Moffatt's 2 parters, the 2nd part is often quite different to the first. 447 00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:18.900 It's not just a continuation. of the same story. 448 00:34:19.019 --> 00:34:22.800 It is a new plot based on the previous episode. 449 00:34:22.860 --> 00:34:41.340 And it's easy to imagine that Terry Nation in his head would have been putting in like a cliffhanger halfway through, say Blake getting attacked by that spear full of jam when he arrives on the planet. looks like a smear of jam across his head. 450 00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:45.539 But, you know, that would be the sort of cliffhanger that joins the 2 parts of the story together. 451 00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:47.639 With this story apparently underrunning. 452 00:34:47.699 --> 00:34:51.780 I do wonder if that plays the plethora of... 453 00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:56.099 It's alright. 454 00:34:56.159 --> 00:34:57.059 Yeah, they're on their way. 455 00:34:57.119 --> 00:34:57.420 We know. 456 00:34:57.480 --> 00:34:58.139 We know. 457 00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:01.380 And it's a Terry Nation thing, of course, isn't it? 458 00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:08.460 You're making me think of the keys of mariners, and the chase is 60s Doctor Who scripts, where it is, they have a 25 minute adventure. 459 00:35:08.519 --> 00:35:11.880 Then something weird happens and then they go somewhere else and have another 25 minute adventure. 460 00:35:11.940 --> 00:35:13.320 Yes, absolutely. 461 00:35:13.380 --> 00:35:16.860 I think, yeah, he's very episodic in the way that he does things. 462 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:20.940 He doesn't often overlap with stories and, you know, I think there's something to be said for that. 463 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:28.019 It makes Blake 7, which could be a complex series and becomes more complex later on actually very accessible to the wider viewership. 464 00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:30.840 Yeah, and having these extended liberator sequences. 465 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.980 It does have the benefit of fleshing out the characters with interplay and stuff. 466 00:35:35.099 --> 00:35:43.019 And and that's the room for the repartee and the and the, the, the put downs that the, the, the people really love, love the series four. 467 00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:52.139 Which, if you were making this episode now, I would imagine, there's a risk that everything on the Liberator would be a pre-credit, cold intro would be, would be the 1st one minute. 468 00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:56.940 And then, and then it would, you'd get the title sequence and you'd be down on the planet doing doing the story. 469 00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:00.599 But having it split like this gives it a really interesting different balance. 470 00:36:00.659 --> 00:36:01.559 That's right. 471 00:36:01.619 --> 00:36:05.579 Whereas actually secretly, or even non-secretly, those scenes on Liberator are what we love. 472 00:36:05.699 --> 00:36:10.679 Well, there's like a 10 minute sequence of Blake buttoning up his green knitwear. 473 00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:19.260 Well, Blake with his shirt open, that's what we've all been waiting for. doing woken from sleep acting. 474 00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:27.059 I think it's the 1st time we get to see Avon in black, which has becomes his sort of signature look. 475 00:36:27.119 --> 00:36:39.659 So you've kind of got slightly galifrine robe things over his shoulders, but they're starting to position him as always pretty much always dressed in black apart from the less of the beige tank top. 476 00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:43.019 Dungarian thing that's the rest of them are still on. 477 00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:44.219 There's a great moment. 478 00:36:44.280 --> 00:36:52.199 There a moment where Blake and Avon, when the bomb goes off near the start, Blake and Avon clasp each other and flung into the teleport together and I immediately add in my eyes. 479 00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:55.739 In my mind's I hashtag blavon trending on them. 480 00:36:55.739 --> 00:36:59.639 Because that doesn't seem to have been a thing, strangely. 481 00:36:59.699 --> 00:37:03.179 Whereas now it would be like, that would be the 1st place everyone would go. 482 00:37:03.480 --> 00:37:04.139 Yeah, yeah. 483 00:37:04.199 --> 00:37:12.960 Do you know, there's a part of me that thinks that was a thing following the series in the fandom of the 1980s and the Bordero found out about it and wasn't impressed. 484 00:37:13.019 --> 00:37:23.940 I'm just trying to just trying to think as well, making your way down the cast, um, Jally is, um, is probably like successful, but I think maybe the worst one would be Van. 485 00:37:24.059 --> 00:37:27.360 Oh, your shipping van. 486 00:37:27.420 --> 00:37:33.659 And 0 my god, if we look at Ark of Infinity, we finally know where Cardinal Zorak comes from. 487 00:37:35.099 --> 00:37:37.500 Can I just say ew. 488 00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:39.420 Across computers. 489 00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:44.039 Wasn't that the star sign that Romana and Doctor Who was born under? 490 00:37:46.440 --> 00:37:58.920 Yeah, I think there's a sense in this episode that, you know, as with a lot of other series episodes, it's a little bit patched together, sort of script wise, you know, maybe it was underrunning. 491 00:37:58.980 --> 00:38:00.599 Maybe Terry Nation didn't have a lot of time. 492 00:38:00.659 --> 00:38:07.380 But my feeling is that it's actually papered over a little bit better than other episodes because of Michael Bryant. 493 00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:17.159 I think he brings a certain flair to it and it just feels like a more confident and successful production than something like sickness alpha or time squad. 494 00:38:17.219 --> 00:38:19.139 There's nothing tentative about what they're doing now. 495 00:38:19.260 --> 00:38:20.699 Is they're completely rolling with it? 496 00:38:20.760 --> 00:38:22.860 Yeah, and Michael Bryant, I think, just... 497 00:38:22.860 --> 00:38:28.199 Aside from it, any other director this season, except maybe Douglas Canfield, who does dual. 498 00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:32.880 He seems to have an idea of what he wants to do with the series. 499 00:38:32.940 --> 00:38:44.579 He sort of pushes it visually in a certain direction, whereas some of the other episodes, and I'm thinking, we talked last week about Pennant Roberts Itis, which is the ability to make any action scene look like it's coronation strips. 500 00:38:45.900 --> 00:38:50.340 He doesn't seem to have a real handle on what the series needs. 501 00:38:50.460 --> 00:39:01.019 Well, Mike Lee Bryant has always been a tremendous action director for science fiction while also being spoken of very fondly by actors. 502 00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:05.760 And it's interesting because very often when actors talk about an actor's director. 503 00:39:05.820 --> 00:39:16.199 You kind of go, okay, yeah, your Peter Moffatts, your Pennant Roberts's, your Ron Jones's, like people who are very easy to work with, very easy to get on with, but don't necessarily deliver great results. 504 00:39:17.820 --> 00:39:21.059 Whereas Michael E. Bryant is someone who seems to do both. 505 00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:22.440 He's respected by actors. 506 00:39:22.500 --> 00:39:33.480 And I think someone who worked on Robots of Death was basically saying, like, Michael does all these amazing things and you see him lying on the floor to look at angles and whatnot. 507 00:39:33.539 --> 00:39:37.260 But when it comes time to do the actual take, it never intrudes on the acting. 508 00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:43.199 And that's possibly why he maybe in the studio somehow, he makes it seamless to the actors. 509 00:39:43.260 --> 00:39:49.559 So the handheld work doesn't interrupt what they're doing and make them feel comfortable and give a good performance. 510 00:39:49.619 --> 00:39:54.239 Like even that moment where Avon says to Gan that he's slow. 511 00:39:54.300 --> 00:40:03.659 You do just get a little tiny look from David Jackson, which is probably the result of David Jackson saying, I think Gan would say something here, but it's not in the script. 512 00:40:03.719 --> 00:40:07.019 And Michael Lee Bryant saying, well, give him a filthy look. 513 00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:16.079 Give him a give him a look that makes it clear that you don't appreciate that and you know you're not stupid and I will make sure that that is seen on camera. 514 00:40:16.139 --> 00:40:17.519 That's a really good point. 515 00:40:17.579 --> 00:40:24.960 And because Gan is so underwritten, JV Jackson's performance and whoever's directing between them can put things in to sort of give him something. 516 00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:32.039 Like, you know, when he's at the start of this one where he sneaks up, you have to sneak up across a wooden elevated set on Cali. 517 00:40:32.099 --> 00:40:37.019 Like you just know that they've turned down the studio sound in that sequence. 518 00:40:37.079 --> 00:40:38.579 And what and what happened? 519 00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:52.739 And Blake steps forward in sync so that his footsteps, the sound of his footsteps are helping to mask the sound of Gan's footsteps coming up behind Gali, because otherwise it would not be at all believable, really. that he had tiptoed down a staircase to sneak up on it. 520 00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:53.519 That's right. 521 00:40:53.579 --> 00:40:57.539 And that's actually an exceptionally well blocked scene because you know exactly where everybody is. 522 00:40:57.719 --> 00:41:01.860 And at the very end of the scene, just when Gan is about to grab the gun off Cali. 523 00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:05.880 Avon then takes a cue from Blake and steps forward to take her attention. 524 00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:06.599 It's very well done. 525 00:41:06.659 --> 00:41:13.500 Yeah, and that's using an ensemble cast really effectively around a three-dimensional set, isn't it? 526 00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:13.739 Yeah. 527 00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:15.360 It's also little touches, isn't it? 528 00:41:15.420 --> 00:41:19.679 You just get the impression that Michael Bryant gets a whole lot more out of his studios than some directors do. 529 00:41:19.739 --> 00:41:22.980 So it's little things like when Blake teleports down. 530 00:41:23.039 --> 00:41:29.039 Kelly is in the same shot. as him and so it's a split screen so that Blake can teleport away and she can react to it. 531 00:41:29.099 --> 00:41:42.480 Whereas if we look at a doc 2 example, I don't think there's a single occasion in the 1980s where Peter Moffat directed an episode where you don't cut away to the TARDIS materialising or dematerialising because having characters in shot is just too much work. 532 00:41:42.599 --> 00:41:44.579 Yeah, absolutely. 533 00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:49.260 And of a far less important note, but that scene in the teleport area. 534 00:41:49.320 --> 00:41:52.380 We get the introduction of the colour coded anorak. 535 00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:55.500 So believe is forest green. 536 00:41:55.559 --> 00:41:57.119 Cali is apple green. 537 00:41:57.179 --> 00:42:03.300 Avon is black slash gray, and we'll see the other colours later. in the season. 538 00:42:03.420 --> 00:42:05.159 Jenna's fetching pink, isn't she? 539 00:42:05.219 --> 00:42:08.159 Colour coded anorax is the name of the title of this episode. 540 00:42:11.039 --> 00:42:13.679 Colin, what do you think of Michael Bryant? 541 00:42:13.800 --> 00:42:17.519 I don't really follow necessarily the all the directors. 542 00:42:17.579 --> 00:42:21.300 So so far, Michael did the opening episode only, and this is his 2nd episode. 543 00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:22.980 Well, in that case I think he's excellent. 544 00:42:23.039 --> 00:42:25.800 No, I think he does a really, really competent job. 545 00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:28.500 What you've got to work with is 50 P and some cardboard. 546 00:42:28.559 --> 00:42:34.619 He does, like, as we were saying earlier, there's sort of handheld shots, a bit of fish eye and making it scenes tense. 547 00:42:34.679 --> 00:42:38.699 You know, there's not really a thing, any part of the episode that's wasted. 548 00:42:38.760 --> 00:42:49.199 Maybe the decimal smashing stuff up takes a little bit too long, but you get the pace, you get the buildup, you get Cali very well directed when or enacted Jenna when she's taken over. 549 00:42:49.260 --> 00:42:51.539 But yeah, no, I think it's a very, very competent job. 550 00:42:51.599 --> 00:43:00.119 And as you say, it's confident now. 1st 2 were terrific openers, 3 and 4 kind of a little bit wobbly in places, but this is very strong. 551 00:43:00.179 --> 00:43:01.920 And the ratings reflect it, don't they? 552 00:43:01.980 --> 00:43:03.000 Just checking up. 553 00:43:03.059 --> 00:43:08.460 And so by now, this is a show that has put on 2000000 viewers, since it's part since its 1st episode. 554 00:43:08.519 --> 00:43:13.199 We've gone up from 7 just 7.5 to over 9.50000 people tuning in for this now. 555 00:43:13.260 --> 00:43:14.099 That's right. 556 00:43:14.159 --> 00:43:15.539 And next week we're going to add another million. 557 00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:17.219 It's onwards and numbers, isn't it? 558 00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:28.619 It's really quite interesting that Blake's haven't found an audience because it was up against Coronation Street, which is already, maybe not as huge as it is now, because it's a behemoth of television now, but was still a very popular program. 559 00:43:28.739 --> 00:43:33.599 And the fact that Blake 7 was able to build an audience against it. really says something for the series, I think. 560 00:43:33.659 --> 00:43:36.780 So one nights was like 7 on Tuesdays or Thursdays, maybe? 561 00:43:36.840 --> 00:43:48.719 For series A, it was on Mondays, and then on series B, it changed to Tuesdays and went up against Charlie's Angels and lost 2000000 off its regular ratings, which was still sound, but not as great. 562 00:43:48.780 --> 00:43:54.719 And then for Siri C, they moved it back to Monday nights against Coronation Street, and it did even better in the 1st series. 563 00:43:54.780 --> 00:43:55.440 Wow. 564 00:43:55.440 --> 00:44:03.719 Yeah, and then what a choice in those days where you just had to decide whether you were watching it, watching it once or never seeing it was your only option for any TV program. 565 00:44:03.780 --> 00:44:04.559 That's right. 566 00:44:04.619 --> 00:44:11.820 I think they might have had maybe an omnibus repeat of the last 2 episodes of this series going into the next one, but you'd be very lucky if you got anything. 567 00:44:11.880 --> 00:44:17.579 Doctor Who, I think, was unusual in that they repeated 2 stories from the previous series over the summer. 568 00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:22.800 I mean, thank goodness we've got all of our VHS tapes, because otherwise we'd have no way of watching it. 569 00:44:22.860 --> 00:44:25.800 Yeah, I always remember to rewind mine after each episode. 570 00:44:26.039 --> 00:44:45.480 Do you know, I remember in Australia, they showed the 1st 3 series through 78, 79, and I think early 81 maybe, and then they repeated series A to C late on Saturday nights, like around about 1130 or midnight, over 39 weeks in 1981 or 82. 571 00:44:45.659 --> 00:44:52.860 And I was only 9 or 10 years old and my parents allowed me to stay up because it was a Saturday night to midnight and watch the series. 572 00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:54.360 So I'd obviously seen them all 4. 573 00:44:54.539 --> 00:45:01.440 And they went to bed and the house was quiet and it was midnight, which is, you know, unheard of for a 10 year old to be allowed to stay up to midnight. 574 00:45:01.440 --> 00:45:07.440 And it's just, it's so indelible in my memory watching these episodes in that kind of situation. 575 00:45:07.500 --> 00:45:09.239 Very fond memories of childhood. 576 00:45:10.619 --> 00:45:16.679 The thing I've just remembered about this is, speaking of sort of broadcast time and suitability for children. 577 00:45:16.739 --> 00:45:20.760 Right at the end, the decimals are kicking around a skull. 578 00:45:20.820 --> 00:45:23.039 It's really funny. 579 00:45:23.099 --> 00:45:24.119 It's pretty grizzly. 580 00:45:24.179 --> 00:45:25.800 Yeah, in the book of Liberation. 581 00:45:25.860 --> 00:45:34.260 It brings it brings up the point that this is the 1st time we see a revolution in the show and it's not pretty. 582 00:45:34.320 --> 00:45:35.760 These little creatures aren't noble. 583 00:45:35.820 --> 00:45:38.760 They don't say, thank you, we shall now reign in peace and dignity. 584 00:45:38.820 --> 00:45:40.320 You know, it's yeah, it's carnage. 585 00:45:40.380 --> 00:45:50.159 Yeah, but, you know, also, it's it's kind of like, you know, your sympathy has been with them because the 1st word any of them speaks is help me, help me, help us. 586 00:45:50.219 --> 00:45:53.340 And yeah, the last thing they're doing is screaming. 587 00:45:53.400 --> 00:46:01.139 They are not only smashing people because if they are people, then so are the 2 servitors, basically. 588 00:46:01.320 --> 00:46:04.079 But they are smashing science. 589 00:46:04.139 --> 00:46:07.440 They're smashing the science that created them. 590 00:46:07.500 --> 00:46:28.500 It's interesting, isn't it, how Blake 7 plays with a lot of horror tropes early on, and so Signus Alpha is filled with horror imagery of kind of, you know, desolate landscapes and sort of weird figures in robes turning up Time Squad last week plays with the horror tropes of kind of things in the dark coming back to life like Frankenstein and stalking you. 591 00:46:28.559 --> 00:46:36.780 And this week, I think, also has those horotropes, like you're saying, with the skeletons and the nature of life and genocide. 592 00:46:36.840 --> 00:46:38.280 It's really, it's quite hard hitting. 593 00:46:38.340 --> 00:46:42.360 It may not be produced in a hard hitting way, but there are ideas at work here. 594 00:46:42.420 --> 00:46:47.099 Yeah, and that thing of it being, the 1st episode having gone out an hour earlier than all the others. 595 00:46:47.219 --> 00:46:57.300 I do still wonder whether that was that was always the intention to try and lure yours the wrong word, you know, but attract the audience and then actually make it a bit more adult or whether they originally put it down for tea time. 596 00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:01.980 And then when the episodes actually were being previewed, they would start thinking, hang on, maybe we need to just shunt this back a little bit. 597 00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:06.420 So what do we think of this episode overall? 598 00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:08.159 How would we how would we rate it? 599 00:47:08.219 --> 00:47:10.139 If they just weren't so squeaky? 600 00:47:10.199 --> 00:47:11.880 This would be one of the best episodes. 601 00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:14.579 If they did little growls or they had slightly different voices. 602 00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:16.800 I think I think people would really love this episode. 603 00:47:16.860 --> 00:47:26.039 But I guess it's one that fans think non-fans are going to look at and just point and laugh, and so it might be in that slightly shame zone that we all have as fans of old TV series. 604 00:47:26.099 --> 00:47:28.019 But yeah, I thought it was great. 605 00:47:28.079 --> 00:47:41.820 I do think there is a certain amount of pathos in the hell pass hell pass, but it is carried along by the fact that everyone in this is taking it seriously in the world of itself. 606 00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:46.139 And, you know, even poor Richard Beal stuck there in a fish tank. 607 00:47:46.260 --> 00:47:52.440 You know, when he's delivering his dialogue and talking about how, you know, the decimals will be wiped out. 608 00:47:52.500 --> 00:47:53.460 No, that's fine, really. 609 00:47:53.519 --> 00:47:54.300 They're just experiments. 610 00:47:54.360 --> 00:48:08.280 You do get, or at least I do get the impression that this is a being so advanced or different in his thought processes that the value of a single life means nothing to him. 611 00:48:08.340 --> 00:48:12.300 It's the value of scientific quote unquote progress that means something to him. 612 00:48:12.360 --> 00:48:24.119 So I think this is one where for concept alone, I love it and the execution is about as good as it can be for this mid-season story. 613 00:48:24.179 --> 00:48:31.079 It's the 1st time we've kind of gone off story arc because this story will not impact anything going forward. 614 00:48:31.199 --> 00:48:36.780 It is not impacted by anything previously except the distrust of Cali onboard the Liberator. 615 00:48:36.840 --> 00:48:42.119 So, yes, Brendan, you can really see this being labelled as one off space. 616 00:48:42.119 --> 00:48:43.199 Oh, different in the pitch, can't you? 617 00:48:43.320 --> 00:48:44.280 It's the long game. 618 00:48:44.340 --> 00:48:48.179 Even although even that's not a one-off. you know what I mean. 619 00:48:48.239 --> 00:48:56.099 It is a solid 7 out of 10 because even if you go, oh, you can skip this one and you can skip this one and you won't miss any of the overarching plot. 620 00:48:56.159 --> 00:48:58.320 If you do watch it, you get so much character stuff. 621 00:48:58.380 --> 00:49:00.539 And I think that is its strength. 622 00:49:00.599 --> 00:49:01.500 That's right. 623 00:49:01.559 --> 00:49:03.420 The season would feel poorer without it, wouldn't it? 624 00:49:03.480 --> 00:49:17.039 I think it's really, it's really quite strong, if a bit silly, in places, and I think the crew dynamic is really well established, and they're all gelling as part of a crew, and it feels like the 1st regular episode of the series. 625 00:49:17.099 --> 00:49:18.300 What do you think, Colin? 626 00:49:18.420 --> 00:49:19.980 I agree with Brendan. 627 00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:36.719 I think it's a solid 7 out of 10 and I agree with Pete that you can take the decimas to be creepy and weird and it's like, ooh, that's a bit odd and slightly uncomfortable, but it's not quite there enough to make it solid. you know, that you feel really sorry for them. find it just a bit, you know, a bit silly. 628 00:49:36.780 --> 00:49:46.019 It's got good concepts in there about sort of genetic engineering, but it spends a little bit too much on animal rights actually, and it spends a little bit of time sort of explaining all these. 629 00:49:46.079 --> 00:49:47.880 Okay, we've explained everything. 630 00:49:47.940 --> 00:49:49.019 We're 45 minutes in. 631 00:49:49.079 --> 00:49:51.840 Let's just smash stuff up and go. 632 00:49:53.039 --> 00:49:54.599 It's good. 633 00:49:54.659 --> 00:49:55.139 I love it. 634 00:49:55.199 --> 00:49:56.340 I love it because of the atmosphere. 635 00:49:56.340 --> 00:49:57.360 And it's different. 636 00:49:57.420 --> 00:50:00.539 It isn't just gonna be a cops and robbers or show. 637 00:50:00.599 --> 00:50:05.519 It's going to have some some sort of darker elements of science fiction in it. 638 00:50:05.579 --> 00:50:06.960 So I enjoy it. 639 00:50:07.019 --> 00:50:07.800 It's interesting. 640 00:50:07.860 --> 00:50:22.739 I watched the 1st episode of Intergalactic, which is sort of a modern day, very much rip off of Lake 7's 1st episode, and I couldn't have been less interested in the characters, whereas in the web, in particular, even the characters that are lesser used, I'm invested in them. 641 00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:29.159 Let's stick with intergalactic, if you, you know, the, the 2nd one isn't too great, but it does pick up a little bit later. 642 00:50:29.219 --> 00:50:30.360 Okay, I'll do that. 643 00:50:30.420 --> 00:50:32.400 And some of the characters don't soften. 644 00:50:32.460 --> 00:50:33.840 They get more psychotic. 645 00:50:33.900 --> 00:50:34.739 It's still a bit of fun. 646 00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:37.559 I'm just not on board unless there's an RP accent, I'm afraid. 647 00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:48.840 The crucial line is, do they pronounce the word schedule correctly in a BBC approved manner, because even Zen does that in this, as do the Dalek, from various other aliens, because they get letters if anyone says schedule. 648 00:50:49.619 --> 00:50:52.619 Is it quixotic or quixotic? 649 00:50:52.679 --> 00:50:53.159 I don't know. 650 00:50:53.219 --> 00:50:54.420 Or virus, that's next level. 651 00:50:56.159 --> 00:50:58.800 Is there anything that we haven't touched on? 652 00:50:58.860 --> 00:51:01.860 Is there anything that people want to talk about or any points? 653 00:51:01.920 --> 00:51:08.519 When Miles Fothergill sits down, he appears to have quite well-defined pecs, but I don't know if that's just the suit. wearing. 654 00:51:10.139 --> 00:51:12.960 Do you want to know something scurrilous, Brendan? 655 00:51:13.019 --> 00:51:17.699 I think that Miles Fothergill may have been dating someone who played the Naimon. 656 00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:20.579 Is it the wonderfully named Clifford Norgate by any chance? 657 00:51:21.840 --> 00:51:27.420 That's all I know, and I may be speaking of nothing, but there we go. 658 00:51:27.480 --> 00:51:28.320 That the whispers I heard. 659 00:51:34.380 --> 00:51:41.760 Well, thank you very much for listening to our Ravings and Musings on television's 1st ever website, the web. 660 00:51:41.820 --> 00:51:43.380 That's goodbye from me, pizza. 661 00:51:43.440 --> 00:51:44.400 Goodbye from Brendan. 662 00:51:44.460 --> 00:51:45.420 Bye from Colin. 663 00:51:45.480 --> 00:51:46.739 And goodbye from Pete. 664 00:51:55.800 --> 00:51:57.360 Switching to Manny. 665 00:51:57.420 --> 00:51:59.340 Maximum power on all drives.