Is It an Emu?

[00:09]

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

I'm here with some old friends, some implacable old friends to talk about series D, episode three, traitor.

I'm Psy.

I'm Nathan.

I'm Simon.

And I'm Pete.

Yeah, so here we are, early series D, and this episode begins to establish a potential format for what the season is going to be, and takes us back somewhere that we haven't been for a very long time, I think not since rumours of death, to federation politicking and invasion and rebels, and things that we haven't seen in Blake 74 quite a while at this point.

And Robert Holmes comes in and writes a witty and intelligent script.

But what do we think of this episode?

Pete, how did you find this one?

Um, yeah, I found it implacable too?

[01:11]

It was egregious in its implacability to the extent that I had to start thinking, can I know what implacable actually means?

And I do now.

Fortunately, I don't think I've ever actually used that word in conversation.

I've avoided it.

I got out of that one.

Um, it's, uh, it's not bothering me with a B plot.

It's going straight in with, with, it's, this is what's happening and and there's only 2 of the crew actually get involved.

It's a very, everyone except Tarrant and Dana Light episode, isn't it?

I dont know if that's for production reasons, or just for cast reasons, because the planet is also an extremely well-populated planet.

We were just saying before we started recording, we've got a long list of characters names to try and remember.

Yeah, um.

I'm on the fence about this one still.

I'm looking forward to talking it through.

I haven't yet reached a conclusion, I think.

It's a funny old episode, this one, I think.

So, Nathan, what did you make of it?

I actually really like it.

I don't think there's a lot here and it is, you know, as Pete said, sort of fairly straightforward.

[02:14]

It's just got an A plot.

Uh, you know, we have the kind of usual sort of attempt or gesture to B plot, which is the will we leave them behind on the planet thing, which seems to be a thing that happens sort of fairly frequently, see also Horizon, for example.

But it's just the homesianness of the whole thing.

And Holmes doesn't really seem to care very much about the premise of Blake 7 and perhaps Chris Boucher cares a bit less than we might have thought.

Um, but it's really funny.

Holmes is not, you know, one of the great leftists of television writing.

But he does have serious aesthetic problems with colonialism, basically, he thinks colonialism and the empire is ridiculous.

And so what we get here is a lot of just sort of terrifically funny stuff, uh, particularly with the general, uh, which I just think works tremendously well.

[03:18]

It's so I think it's fun.

I think it's a, it's good.

And it does the job of setting up series D. You know, we recover from the Cliffhanger to series A in one episode.

It takes us 2 episodes to recover from the Cliffhanger series B, and it's taking us 4 episodes.

Everything's going to be in place at the end of next week.

And here we get what's the federation going to be this season.

And that's a fun thing to see too.

Mm, I really quite like this.

When I'm thinking of my favourite Blake 7 episodes.

I don't necessarily think of this one, but I do really like watching it, uh, time and time again whenever I happen to see it.

I think it works really, really well.

And I know there's no sort of technical A plot and technical B plot, but I actually think there is a sort of an A one plot and an A 2 plot because unlike a lot of other A plots.

There are actually 2 distinct sides and you're actually seeing both sides of the A plot in quite a lot of detail.

Um, and and you have sort of got several B. well maybe you haven't got several B plots.

[04:19]

You got an A plot, and then you've got several C plots, because you've got like, you know, the bit of the bit of whatever that character's name is, who's kind of, you know, the guy, the chemist who's come up with the drug, uh, in the cellar, and you've got, and you've got lights as kind of subplot as well.

So you have actually got a few little subplots without having a distinct B plot, I think.

So that's that actually is what helps carry you along.

But I think for me, the other thing that really makes the episode is some absolutely stellar suitably borderline chewing the scenery performances from a loss of those people with epaulettes that are sort of sorting around, most notably Christopher Neme.

I just, those performances are absolutely spot on for this genre and I applaud them greatly.

So let's talk about the Federation and the depiction of the Federation then.

I think that's a good place to start because they really are the focus of this episode.

And they are the poscious officers we've seen in quite some time.

[05:21]

Here, hear.

We have occasionally had the Federation be kind of British imperialism, haven't we?

And again, most notably, I think, in Horizon and most interestingly here.

But here, I think it's comedy British Imperialism.

And so you have cute quote, who is ridiculously posh, who does that. you know, there's, the scene doesn't quite work where, you know, he blows up Eigen while they're playing chess with each other.

But there is a magnificent moment where Hood says, you know, that Hunda and his rabble are becoming more than just a nuisance.

And then he has this sort of beautiful porcelain tea cup that he sips out of, which I just think is absolutely superb.

He gets his own variation, extremely posh variation.

Resistance isn't futile or isn't isn't useless here.

Resistance is quite pointless.

Extremely posh twist on the phrase.

I have to say, though, that whilst Horizon is very much channelling the decline of the British Empire or the dismantling of the British Empire after the Second World War.

[06:28]

I actually think this isn't that at all.

It's not a British story about the British Empire.

I think it's more about, I think there's more like this World War 2 type analogies. more like the nutsification of different Eastern European countries, for instance, that's what I, I see it as.

It's because of the way there, that quelling the resistance and so on, because Horizon's all about the resist, resisting these places becoming independent, resisting the breakup, whereas this is about trying to, you know, roll back over, you know, turf that you you once controlled years ago.

And I don't think it's accurate to suggest that the British Empire ever actually attempted to do that.

No, no, no.

I'm not saying I'm not saying that at all.

I am saying, though, it has the aesthetics, like the general, it's just a teacup, absolute imperial bore with all of his sort of opinions about, you know, wazis and scalarians and stuff like that.

You know, and and just he's such, you know, it's kind of weird because he's a young man.

Uh, you know, the actors are sort of fairly young man and stuff, but he is just like some pompous old uncle who's come back from India, who has an opinion about everything and has all of these sort of stories going and stuff.

[07:42]

And it's clear that that Holmes is making fun of those people.

Yeah, I don't think it's got anything to say about British imperialism at all, but I do think it has things to say about the British Empire, you know, and how ridiculous it is, I think.

It's the trappings of all of that, isn't it?

And it's right down to the furniture that they've got and the cutlery and the cut glass crystal glasses that they're drinking wine out of.

And almost every scene that they're in, they're drinking something.

Even when Practor has been killed, the general goes in and helps himself to a drink off the dead man's desk, things like that.

It's like, it's like, yeah.

I think you're right.

It's it's these old...

Well, in this case, sort of young generals coming in, but enjoying the spoils of everything, but not necessarily enjoying their jobs.

They're sort of typical homesey and people sort of sit almost sick of their jobs, but having to do it anyway.

[08:44]

And you get that sense very much at the end where he says, and I did tell you they were good fighters before he gets killed himself and things like that.

So it's just that little bit of humour as well.

I think a lot of the humour comes as well from how exasperated quote is about the general, because the general is such a pompous old know it all.

And there's that wonderful moment where, um, they discover that Aurak has been tapping into the computers to get some information on spaceship design.

And the general doesn't see the problem and cute, I keep wanting to call him cute.

Does he offer a draw, Nathan?

But with this Himmler eye patch just to go with the cute name.

Yeah, exactly.

But, um, he, you know, like, he can't make the general understand that it's an important security issue until he says they could get information about troop movements, and then suddenly he's all, Oh, no, we have to shut that down immediately.

[09:52]

And so, because the general is such a fantastic idiot in a way that's not overplayed.

Do you know what I mean?

Like the man is a fool, but it's not overplayed.

It like, um, it's like Ben Seeds character in uh, the rebos operation, who is clear, who is clearly an absolute moron, but no one plays it like he's a moron, you know?

And I think the generals like that.

It's funny, no, it's funny, because I don't see him as a moron.

I see him as just being so casually overconfident that there's absolutely no way that we can't be victorious.

And so that's why he keeps interrupting Christopher Neimon saying, oh, you know, don't worry. don't worry, don't worry.

Basically, just constantly say, oh, don't worry, it's fine. only when Christopher name, in deference to the rank. you know, always allows himself to be interrupted, that he finally spits out, is able to say, well, the real concern is. that's what gets the general going So it's a different kind of... general's always wrong.

I mean, he's wrong about literally everything.

And you know, yeah, yeah.

Except for the, except for the hand to hand.

[10:52]

Except the hand-to-hand combat thing.

But otherwise, yeah, no, I think he's an idiot.

Quoot's exasperation about that is very funny.

I love that when all right does hug their computer.

He does it. he does what every 10 year old in a school computer lab does and just puts his own name on the screen repeatedly.

It's Torak, print, Aurak, 20, go to 10.

Bunch of super genius, but he's just showing up.

I mean, it's interesting that the general is one of the few characters in this episode that doesn't get a name because I think he's defined by his job and that everyone just knows him as general.

So maybe that is just his name.

That's real nominative determinism, yeah.

And there's the, yeah, the sort of 3 tiers between, don't you, got the president elect and then him, the general and then, um, uh, uh, croot, um, almost doing the, uh, the old comedy sketch, uh, in terms of poshness of who looks down on whom.

[11:54]

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, practice amazing, isn't it?

I mean, he's got a very kind of mid-20th century look with those ears and that hair, you know, and just the most appallingly kind of posh civil service being going, the moment where, um, he pulls lights up because it's not a direct line because it comes via the magnetrix terminal, uh, you know, and lights doesn't bat an eyelid.

He says, I just meant it was private and priority coded.

He just sounds amazing.

Like that, that voice is astounding.

We are reaching huge stratospheric heights of poshness that the show has rarely seen.

And there's an unusual lack of distinction between the locals and the overlords, apart from slightly different hairstyles a bit.

But obviously, obviously the Everlords have all got their uniforms on, and so has the president elect because he's gone over and become one of them with their, with their black, we are evil space uniforms of evil.

[12:56]

But the rebels, every bit is posh as their overlord.

But they just have slightly scruffy hair, which by 1981 standards probably makes them look completely.

All of the rebels are probably the middle class of this planet anyway.

They've worked at the university and things like that.

It's that brilliant line at the start where he said, where Quoot says, so what was he in a previous slice?

A hairdresser?

and things like that?

It's just brilliant.

They're taking the piss out of these rebels brilliantly.

It does, and in that 1st interrogation, It's quite strange how cooperative he's just answering all the questions.

Of course, we don't, we like to find out why.

Because of the drug, because this is Blake 7.

And it's like it starts out pure Robert Holmes and then very quickly pitches into Terry Nation world that there's a sort of play, he gets a drug.

But, uh, and it's, there's bombs hidden somewhere and there's a, got to swim through some caves and we're going to have to, uh, the monorail's a nice twist, though.

I think there should be more monorails.

I was very disappointed we didn't actually get to see them on a rail because that would have been awesome.

[13:59]

They could have made a nice model for that.

But yeah, I mean, to go back to practice for a minute, there are sort of lots of interesting hints about his backstory.

I love the, the bit where um, they said, and where he says, oh, and of course, when um, because he feels in the backstory of what's happened to the federation, since Servoland's left, with the, the high council being um, sort of brought back, and sort of the regime change back to how it used to be, and he says, and of course, and I was, even I was taken in for questioning at one point, and he's like, one of the, probably one of those characters who switches sides depending on where he is, like, um, the um, interrogator back in rumours of death.

So there's that little callback that people will do whatever they need to do to survive and stay alive in this federation world.

I mean, the reason that we have that line, though, is, in order to make it plausible that he recognises Servoland, uh, when he sees that picture.

[15:08]

So he's a close enough associate to Serverland that he knows what she looks like, and so, whereas most of the people.

This is something that we need to know and something that is just astoundingly astonishingly implausible, which is that we have.

We had a federation and no one knows what the president looks like.

And all of the people who did know what the president looked like have been purged, except for Practor, who just went to, you know, prison or got interrogated or something and then was let go.

So no one knows what Servoland looks like.

And that means, of course, that she can just disguise herself as a policeman.

Still go on wearing the same, in fact, even more outrageous outfits.

Certainly more outrageous makeup.

Yeah, yeah.

But that, I mean, that is kind of the least plausible thing about it, I think, but I find myself not really caring.

[16:09]

I think that's kind of funny.

No, and that has come out of a bit of production chaos behind the scenes where they didn't think Jacqueline Pierce was coming back for this series.

And so they were going to create a new villainess to take her place.

And then suddenly she's well and she's able to come back and do this.

And so obviously they say, well, yeah, we've got to have Jacqueline Pierce because why wouldn't you if she's available?

And so you've got this confused character arc coming back in where they've set up this commissioner Sleer role and someone's got to do it.

So obviously it's going to be serverland in disguise.

So, again, it's the behind the scenes stuff for this early part of the season makes everything a bit chaotic and a bit wild with the storytelling because they're just sort of filling in places where people aren't on or are available.

So it's sort of similar to the Cali situation that we've got still at this point.

I'm surprised they didn't try and get more mileage out of it because everyone knows who she is by the end of this episode.

[17:11]

We all, well, we know, within minutes of her being introduced.

I mean, it's pretty nice. obviously the voice distortion isn't really tricking anyone.

It's more of a tease.

But yeah, there could have been a period of her being Commissioner Slayer and the Scorpio crew not knowing that, but it's kind of strange that they wrap it all up so quickly.

Yes, we're not allowed to believe that they think that there's a commission slayer. exactly.

I mean, I think they want to get back to the status quo as quickly as possible. jumping on, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And like, that's the other thing that I think is really, really interesting about this episode is that it brings the Federation back.

And, you know, when we talked about aftermath and and power play, it struck me this time watching through how thoroughly the Federation is destroyed and what little motivation the crew have in Siri C to do anything.

You know, they're just kind of wandering around from place to place.

Maybe they're following up a rumour, you know, about Blake, but they probably aren't, because we forget that pretty quickly.

And so this almost isn't an episode in itself.

[18:15]

You know, it basically exists to bring the federation back and make them a thread.

I think.

Is that fair?

I think that's reading far too much into it and giving them too much credit, I'm afraid.

I think it's just they want to do an episode like this and so they do.

I mean, because the Federation does appear a couple of times in series C, like you've got the halves of Cairos and you've got children of Hour on.

Like, there is a sort of, there is a Federation presence in those episodes.

But it's basically a circle and ship.

You know, like it's basically just...

Yeah, it's supposed to be a substantially weakens a situation of much more reduced federation where there's many more independent planets.

But nevertheless, there is still the notion of a federation that's sort of out there and they wanting to keep away from serverland.

They just do whatever story they want to tell in a particular week, I think.

And I don't see this past...

No one has sat down with a whiteboard or in a meeting or something with whiteboard and worked out how this all works.

I think that's not true.

And I think that Ver Lorimer comes in and takes over as producer and decides that we're going to make the federation a thing this season and give them something to do.

[19:22]

I think that there's a clear decision.

And maybe it doesn't really properly settle down until, you know, the 2nd production block.

You know, there is a kind of, let's just try and stay alive to the end of episode 6 thing going on.

Isn't there with the 1st the 1st blog.

But what it is now is we are going to try and find experts in things because the federation is expanding and we now have a base and we're in a position to find back.

And so making the federation a threat.

I think that almost certainly that thing about taking these new planets and gradually increasing their thing isn't just devised for the sake of this episode.

I think it is setting something up because think about it.

It's the 1st time that we've got a new producer for the show, and I think that the producer, you know, Via Lorimer, like is mostly a director, isn't he?

Yeah, yeah, before then.

Yeah, this is his 1st producing role.

But, you know, like, I think Chris Boucher is capable of thinking more than one episode ahead.

[20:28]

And, and certainly this pylene 50 thing is back at the end of the season.

You know, that's what they decide to pick up on.

We see that thing in Warlord.

Yeah, well, I was actually only mentioned.

I was actually going to.

Yeah, exactly.

And I was actually going to mention warlord more, like, it's almost like warlord. they picked up on it to sort of reinforce my point and I get what you're saying.

I think you can create the illusion that that's what's going on, but I think that in reality, having warlord, they've gone, oh, we can introduce this back and do this.

And I actually think Warlord is the pilot for an unmade series E, if anything.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, that's the way I see that episode.

And look, I'm not, I'm not, okay.

I was probably going a bit far in the previous comment that, yeah, obviously there's a little bit of planning, but I don't think there's nearly as much planning that, retrospectively, we might be trying to shoehorn into things.

I think it's just, we want to do a sort of a federation is expanding again episode because it's quite interesting and cool.

Because we want to have Servoland back and she's going to be someone else and 0 gosh, we can dress everyone up in these, you know, sparkly black evil uniforms and 0 god, Christopher Neimis. you know what I mean?

[21:32]

It's just, it's just, all of that is clearly happening too.

Exactly.

And that's for me, that's for me, reading too many behind the scenes books about more about like seven, but that I just see more of that in evidence than the kind of whiteboards that become popular in kind of the late 90s and into the 90s. how series are run.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I don't think it's anything like that.

But I do think that what it does, is it gives them the thing that they basically do a whole bunch of times this season, but hadn't really done before, which is we're going to go to this planet and find an expert who is going to help us in our fight against the federation rather than we're just going to wander around aimlessly or Cali, you know, Cali's not here to pick up a telepathic trace from some, you know, liberty.

We've got to have a hook to get into these episodes.

And that's what they do quite a lot from now on.

And so setting up a proper threat, I think, as part of this sort of group of 4 episodes, which just kind of reestablishes the show, I think is a kind of natural thing to do.

[22:41]

It's interesting, but when we meet them all, it's like a almost a cold open to them all on the Scorpio flying along.

Everybody's there.

They're all just at work.

There's no Scorpio liftoff thing.

There's no what's our mission going to be this week and Avon pulled arrow comes running in.

In this episode now, I'm not seeing any of a person called Avon.

I'm seeing Paul Darrow speaking exactly how he speaks when he's on Wogan, exactly, delivering every line at the fence line.

There's a bit where he goes around behind Sulin and he's making some some slightly funny comment being delivered as if it's a punch, a complete punchline.

And of course, because he's doing it that way, it works.

They're all very aggro.

Villa is a completely different person to the person who's been the past 2 weeks.

He hates Tarrant.

He's furious, he's cross.

He's been comedy drunk villa for 2 weeks.

Maybe he's just this week he's got the hangover and he's sobered up.

His character's the most changed, I think, from the previous week.

Soon makes the best of her 34 lines, is it?

As many as there.

Yeah.

Again, we're beginning to see the Paul Darrow and Glynis Barber partnership coming to life and realising that they can spark off each other quite nicely.

[23:49]

So we get a few clipped responses from both of them played really well, which is good.

I think the line you were looking for is Tarrance's young, pretty competent, everything that everyone would hate, that kind of thing, isn't it?

that he's going for.

The 2 of them have shotgunned the banana lounges at the front of a flight.

Yes, yeah.

We're missing we're missing that we're missing that white lounge with the...

Absolutely.

I do like that Dana has her feet up on the console as well.

And I was just I made a note that this would never have happened on the Liberator, probably because those consoles would have fallen over.

There's a tribute to the set design that they're saying, right, with something.

I kind of get that comfort and making it different to what you've done before.

And Josette is always interesting anyway, but just that little little bit.

And that's right in the background and you don't necessarily spot it, but it's just that that bit really, really good.

But yeah, I mean, you're right.

Paul Darrow is relishing every single line he's given now.

[24:52]

And obviously because it's a Robert Holmes script, Holmes is very invested in Avon and Villa.

And so this isn't his comfort zone writing for this crew, and it's almost like he's been told that you've got to send Terence and Dana down because they need something to do because they haven't had much to do so far.

Well, Darrow was the star last week.

So we've got to even this out a little bit.

So it's not necessarily the partnership that he would want to be writing, I think.

Is this the 1st episode, though, where we've had a total away party of only 2 people.

Like normally it's that's the opposite way around.

Tuesday on the ship and everyone else goes down and gets embroiled.

Or even just one stay on the ship, yeah.

Well, Kano, I think the other sort of antecedent where Dana and Tarrant are sent down together early in the season to establish themselves as main characters.

Oh, we haven't sung the praises of the new teleportation effect.

I haven't honest said I'm on yet.

Amazing disco car wash thing.

It's so, I don't know what it is.

[25:53]

It's so 1981.

I mean, we talked about it last week, but it's a physical object, isn't it?

with like with with glitter on it that actually whirls around and then they superimpose that over the teleport bay.

Is that kind of like what happens with the ogre or something in stones of blood?

This is a kind of similar kind of it.

No, I'm thinking the way that we transition between our universe and the parallel universe in Inferno.

Ah, that's what it is, yes, yes.

So let's talk about Terence and Dana, then, who really get the focus of this episode and are actually pretty competent down there together.

They work really well.

I think they're the only 2 people who can do the heroic thing.

I mean, the tension here, isn't it, that they've been sent down just to do reconnaissance, but of course, they find themselves helping, and that's why they stay behind, why they refuse to be beamed up.

[26:59]

And I guess they're the only 2 characters who would do that, you know.

So, uh, they're the 2 who are the most kind of straightforwardly heroic, I think.

Hmm.

Yeah, that's true.

If they hadn't been there, would anything different have happened?

What do they actually do?

Will they get the antidote to the to the thing?

Oh, they do get the antidote.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, they actually make the rebellion succeed.

It was about to fail.

We've lost the 2nd the 2nd unit.

What are they called?

The 2nd battalion, whatever of rebels.

We've only got Hunda and his, you know, eight...

Middle class head.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 8 university lecturers.

And they're all stoned anyway, so...

Oh, you're going to tell us lots of secrets.

Will share all our plans with you.

You're a nice Nazi.

But I mean, lights was going to lead them into a trap.

They were all going to be killed and that was going to be the end of it, but instead, because Taryn and Dana get the antidote of Forbus, and because they now have an antidote to Pylene 50, you know, in their pocket going forward.

[28:10]

And I think, again, that might possibly be some forward planning.

The rebels come in and they destroy the magnetrix terminal, although that's not super clear, but that's very, you know, definitely, I think, what's happening.

So they actually do make the rebellion work.

And one of their rebel friends is Biggles himself, um, a Vandir, which sounds like an antidote to something that you would get prescribed anyway.

The extremely I've written the posh handsome one.

Well, okay, but yeah, he's Neil Dixon.

Biggles in the 80s, Biggles movie, isn't he?

Oh, wow.

I wasn't if I put 2 together there.

Maybe this is what got him the part.

Dana and Tarant are super competent in this episode.

They do exactly what they need to do.

Right down to spotting that there's the old jeopardy false key that will kill them all and things like that and working things out sort of together.

And again, I think the 2 actors spark off each other quite nicely.

[29:11]

And Joe set Simon is obviously relishing having something to do for a change.

They do, but let's talk about that false key.

I mean, so that means that the Federation is expecting the guard to be knocked out at some point by rebels so that they plant a false key on him, which will cause a place to blow up.

And so the real key is shoved in his underpants or wherever the hell it is.

And you just like, it's like, it seems to be like, have they thought of everything or something?

It's an interesting, slightly unnecessary thing, but it all works.

It's not unnecessary though, because it is the thing that tips them off that lights is double agent or possibly a single agent.

Why does it tip that?

Because he didn't warn them about the booby trap.

Oh, that's right.

And we get that moment, you know, that terribly relaxed moment where he's talking to the general where lights is talking to the general and he's going, oh, and I've been running all of the rebel units for the last, you know, um, so, you know, and all of that.

And the general hates him, which I think is a great touch too, because he's a, you know, a secret agent rather than just some dumb grunt who goes in there and sort of hits people with their guns.

[30:21]

And he says, oh, you know, I expect they're dead by now, and then they run in and nearly, nearly fall foul of that, if that.

Yes, they they know that he's evil. yeah you're right.

Yeah, but I mean, the booby trap is not very good, but at least it happens quite quickly, I think, is the thing.

Yeah, and they get through it quickly without having to do an hour of puzzle solving to get through to...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which, in a Robert Holmes script is a bit of a bonus.

We've seen that before.

The next thing I say is true and the last thing I said, it was a lie, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, all that kind of stuff.

But it is interesting though. another one of those sort of situations and these kind of dramas where you sort of want to, you know, shake someone like Honda by the by the shoulders and go, for God's sake, of course he's going to double crossed you.

Look at him.

Look at the head stubborn.

He is obviously evil.

So can we talk about him?

[31:21]

Because I think he's fantastic.

So he's...

No lights.

So he's our eponymous traitor and then he is very angular.

So he has the sort of pointy Star Trek sideburns and he's got his widow's peak with the hair.

So he's all jingles. you know what I mean?

there's an attempt to do something with his eyebrows as well.

So he's entirely angular.

So he looks terribly fierce.

And he's sort of handsome, I think.

If you like that sort of thing, I guess.

Yeah, and has, you know, slim pickings, it's Blake 7.

He has the accent and stuff and he has this sort of very fantastically relaxed and just wonderful clip delivery.

I think he's really, really properly good.

And he's the one as well, who kind of exposes Sleer, because that's the other, you know, the A, 3 plot or whatever, as, as you said, Sime.

C one.

[32:22]

Yes.

C one.

Who is Sleir?

So he's terrific and he gets to play opposite everyone. doesn't he gets to play opposite the general and he gets to play opposite Practor and and Servolan and Hunda and everyone.

I think he's really properly good.

It's really interesting how he sort of, very slowly comes to the fore throughout the episode, so he's not there in the early scenes.

He sort of is mentioned and then appears.

Then we think he's working with the rebels.

Then we find out he's a double agent and actually he's the one sort of masterminding this whole thing.

And then he gets into a caress with Servilan and he kisses her and all of that.

And you know he is going to be stabbed in the back any minute.

And literally she stabs him in the back because she's not going to happen.

So terrific because that scene is just absolutely superb, isn't it?

Because he is, he has the upper hand.

He's touching her, he's stroking those feathers.

[33:23]

That outfit.

Can I just say, that is her best outfit.fit. with just no question.

Trousers.

We haven't seen her in trousers since series A. It's Julian Clary.

Do you know what I mean?

Learn everything that he knew from that makeup and that outfit.

It's astounding.

It's been that shot of her looking into, you know, looking pensive after killing, um, after killing lights has been my gravitar for, like, I don't know, 20 years or something.

Like it's, I think it's, it's absolutely her most incredible look.

But he has the upper hand.

He's stroking the thing, you know, like, and he's blackmailing her and stuff.

And then the moment that he calls her, he's about to.

The moment that he calls, she says that word. don't submit to blackmail.

That's true.

The moment that he says the word Servolan, she smiles because she knows she's now going to kill him because he knows.

[34:27]

She's missing away from him.

She's facing away.

She smiles.

Then she turns and kisses, and he goes, after all, how many people have you killed to keep your secret?

And she says, now?

That doesn't take you off.

It should be.

What it was, what it was wanting was her to say something like 31 and then stab him.

32.

I think it's I think it's better than that because it's slightly more subtle because it's now.

I mean, the number's just changing.

And then she stabs him and then she says 26.

It's the ultimate dead naming.

She's like...

And I think, yeah, Yassified Black Guardian is how I would have to describe her costume.

I love the lengths they go to.

It always happens in drama when they're trying to conceal the fact that maybe maybe one of the characters in this story is a woman.

[35:30]

Um, and uh, which in this one, like, yes, doubles the number of women on the planet by joining Dana.

But, um, the sentences, I'd like, you know, yes, the commissioner is coming.

I can't wait for that person to arrive here to join us.

I was watching Forbas do the pronoun avoiding bad thing.

He has a whole conversation about Sleer, in which he never refers to Sleer, by any other thing as Sleer, and even like the genitive pronoun, but just his sleers, like just, you know, every single reference.

And because, you know, it's Bob Holmes and it's, um, people who learned English grammar in the middle of the 20th century, there's no chance that they...

They can't refer to Slayer as they in order to hide it.

And so they just have to keep saying Sleer and Sleer.

And it's super obvious informers.

And I think I think we're supposed, yeah, they're wanting us to guess, aren't they?

This is not, I look, looked on BBC Genomen for where they keep the radio times cuttings.

[36:34]

Well, most of the radio times cut things, but very frustratingly for this episode of Blake 7 or unless the system's been hacked because the radio times cutting for that, this episode isn't there.

Instead, it's taken the information from BBC cult, so it doesn't include what cast list was included in the radio times that day.

So I can't check.

I can't confirm whether or not she was listed in the cast because she's in the end credits.

Servolan assets again.

She's even attacked the BBC Genius project.

It's probably a big photograph of half.

Missionlessly, yes. ruin the surprise.

Well, I mean, there's that wonderful moment when practice sees someone, you know, sees someone perhaps that he knows and then there's a gun pointed at him.

And if you're not looking carefully enough, what you don't notice is that the gun is entirely surrounded by black feathers.

Is it an emu?

Like who is it?

[37:39]

But yeah, I'm sure I'm sure the voice distortion is meant to be enough for everything.

Every 10-year-old watching to go, that's serverland.

I know.

Yeah.

And we do get that wonderful moment where Dana spots her and just shouts, Serverland in the way that we love in Blake 7.

Spots her hiding behind some plastic plants in that strange little set that we've got that looks nothing like the rest of the planet.

Like, was that deliberate?

I suppose I'm like, is it like that on purpose?

I suppose we have they don't want to take the whole cast out on some location, although Dana and Tarrant get one scene out on the proper location.

And it's a shame because I think actually the location is really well chosen.

And there's actually some really nice shots by David Sullivan Proudfoot, who's directing this episode, particularly where you've got the sort of soldiers arriving, but you see them reflected in the water underneath.

[38:40]

That was a really nice moment.

The hell it soldiers, like the ones that are being converted along the top of the ridge line, yeah.

Well, that whole scene, which starts with Avon Deer and his and his men all kind of lying playing dead and you see that their uniforms are the same colour as the dirt.

And then there's a really quite long and substantial action sequence where people are firing guns at each other.

There's lots of stunt work and stuff.

There's 5 people fall into that grossy and probably horrifically cold water.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Someone does a great backflip.

He's running towards camera and get shot and just immediately does a backflip over it.

Yeah, like I think it's really quite good.

And then it ends with a shot of actual dead bodies lying in the same place.

You know, we started with mostly done.

It is really well done.

What's a shame is that they blow that action sequence on something that really doesn't really matter?

Do you know what I mean?

Like, who cares?

[39:41]

And then when you have the giant action sequence at the end, uh, it's in the world's tiniest studio and choreographed with the least possible effort.

And it is people just running up and hitting each other with their guns and and both quote and the general seem to be killed by people with their bare hands.

You know, like, are they dead?

I don't know, like whatever.

And it's a really shockingly bad and badly directed and badly choreographed sequence.

And so the only explanation for doing that, like blowing the impressive location fight on a scene in the middle instead of the scene in the end is because you need so many of the people who are otherwise only in the studio to be in it, I guess.

Yeah, because otherwise you need to have all those other...

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Too many.

It is a shame, though, because I do think that that final scene is very messy and crappy.

[40:45]

It's very messy and I still didn't actually get the fact that Koot and the general are killed or whatever they are.

No, I actually might have been interversionally making notes on my phone at that moment and missed that because I didn't have any memory of that.

It's funny, there is a scene, and which is only really works if quote's dead, with the general coming up in explaining that he was right about the helots and how good they were at hand-to-and combat, and, you know, quote said, oh, we don't need that.

We could just use gas or whatever.

Um, and so the general's right.

So he gets to do a sort of one last, I told you so, uh, to the dead quote, but quote doesn't seem to have been sort of particularly sort of severely treated, but he's just sort of died of boredom or...

There is some interesting like bang bang your dead moments, right?

It's like the carrot.

Karen does a Karen does a vocal Vulcan neck pinch on that federation guard to get the key off him.

He just puts his hand on the back of his neck and the guard just goes down.

[41:47]

Are we supposed to believe that the, that the, the, the Hellatrix is freed of of the Federation at the end of this episode?

Yeah.

Yeah, the magnetrix terminal gets destroyed, I think. destroyed, right.

But Serverline has got what she sort of...

I'm entirely sure why she kills 4 of us other than she will, because she realises that he was going to try and kill her.

But she tells him she's going to poison him a bit more.

And then kills him.

It's like, does the 1981 video effect death?

Well, that's the great video effect that they have this episode, which is where they shoot people against a blue screen and then do a video effect on them, but then CSO them onto a background.

And so you've got the medical laser that turns people green.

And then you've got Serverland's gun, which turns people black.

And I think that works really well.

I don't know if we ever use that effect again, but I think it works pretty well. you know, it's clearly being done in camera.

They were all so proud of that effect, a bit.

So everyone can do what she wants.

It's her party.

She could cry if she wanted to.

[42:47]

Like, maybe Stewart and Barbara Gaskin at number one in the UK charts that week.

The 1960s hit.

That was a tough one.

Yeah, there's literally only 2 women on the planet.

So what do we think of Forbus?

We've not really, we've sort of skirted around him.

And obviously he's there for a huge exposition scene.

A quite interesting character.

Yeah, very much so, but dressed in an 80s cyberman costume without the silver spray paint.

It's like, it's only 87 and costume does the 10th planet sort of thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, robo man, kind of.

Yeah, yeah. isn't it?

Yeah.

So he's made a muscle relax.

I wrote this down.

I've made a muscle relaxant a 100 times stronger to induce passivity.

Now like, I know of a chemical that has similar properties to that.

[43:50]

I think that's what they mean.

And mind you, actually it's Robert Holmes, so he might be.

Uh, he might be.

Like, why does he say used homeopathically?

It's a muscle relaxant.

So...

It's like that invented thing where you have like less than one molecule or something and it's...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. right.

You just show it a picture of a diagram of the molecule and it improves on the water.

But it's homes being a dick, like as usual, you know, because he always does.

Like, there's a great little bit of dialogue where light says that you have to manufacture pile in 50 locally because uh, after um, after a couple of days, the enzymes breakdown and the drugs no longer effective and stuff because homes has some kind of medical thing in his background.

I know he's a policeman, but he always uses medical stuff, you know, he wrote killer.

Um, but even in Doctor Who, when he uses medical terminology.

He uses it correctly, you know, it must be some form of verticaria.

[44:56]

He's probably got a very good medical dictionary.

Maybe But it is a particular feature of his writing, I think.

Um, So, like, you know, Formus is a bit crappy and it looks a bit embarrassing now in retrospect now that we've kind of gone off the idea of, you know, crippled geniuses and stuff and, you know, perhaps rightly so.

Uh, but I don't know, you know, he's there.

I guess that's more interesting to watch than just some guy in a lab code.

But he's a crippled, he's crippled because, um, she, she, she poisoned him.

She's poisoned him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But generally speaking, you know, you have you have scientists who are in wheelchairs and stuff because, you know, they have their minds and that's the important thing in their body are less important.

And that's, you know, it goes back to Dortmund in the dark impression of Earth, isn't it?

Yeah, like I think he's okay.

And I do think that that, you know, like if, if you uh, still has some of the pylene 50 antidote left over and it was someone's birthday, you could certainly decorate the cake with it, don't you think?

[46:04]

Yeah.

Sprinkles.

It's very nice for sprinkling, yeah.

They're very sparkling.

Yeah, yeah.

The other big thing at the end of the episode is Avon's reaction to finding out that Servolang is alive, which is a great Darrow moment.

I think that scene is very well done.

Um, and it's something that Holmes does again in the caves of Andrazani.

So we start with even receiving the news that it's Servland and he's initially kind of reluctant to believe it and you've got, you know, Dana and Tarrant kind of pressing him.

And then we go to the scene where Servolan is there.

We see her in her outfit, she kills 2 people in the one scene, uh, and then thinks, you know, to herself, and then we dissolve back to Avon, and then we get his reaction, and it's like Shara's Jack.

[47:13]

Um, saying that he wants to kill Morgus, and then we cut to Morgus being an absolute creep, and then we dissolve back to Shara's check laughing.

And so it's like, uh, it's like we get to, he gets to hear the news.

Then we get to see her in action and we get reminded of what she's like, and then we get him saying, uh, I need to kill her myself. and I think that's really well done.

Then we've got that little pause where Avon's accepting the news that she's she's back because he doesn't believe it and to begin with.

And it's like, how the hell did she survive?

Just said, well, I don't know.

Find out.

Somehow.

I think that little ship that Michael Sheard arrived on, we're still attached.

Yeah.

She flings herself against the correct wall for it, I guess.

The one thing we haven't mentioned is the stock equalisation act.

[48:16]

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Which is, oh, the only time that they bring this up in the entire series.

It's a bad idea, isn't it?

It's a mistake.

It's kind of like if we're going to have people who aren't white.

We need to explain how that's going to go.

There is a black extra.

There are, yeah, I was looking out for that after that laugh.

Yeah, in a very bad fight scene at the end.

But that is waiting for...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or stand in a row waiting for their shot.

What about what they're wearing?

I had this theory, actually, that the liberator breaks up over Hella tricks.

And the wardrobe unit actually lands on the planet because everyone is wearing everyone's old outfits and like we've got parrot in Avon's outfit from redemption.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And that's that boy.

Remember the boy, the pretty boy who gets adapted?

[49:20]

You know, yes.

He's the one, he's the one that, that Colonel Quote is going to use for his entertainment later, I guess, if...

Well, they walk into that thing and it all goes...

Yeah, it all lights up when he walks in.

I know what you mean.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yes, so Tarant is wearing is wearing one of Avon's castoffs, but like there's some old Doctor Who outfits and there's a whole bunch of outfits.

And I did actually, this time, because everyone has 2 outfits this season, there's the, I was just checking, because they change into those outfits, because apparently no one on Hellatrix is wearing, I don't know, like turtlenecks and stuff this year.

Right.

So they have to change into something else.

But, and I was, I didn't remember them changing back the 1st time I watched it, so I kept a special eye out, and they, we don't, they arrive back on Scorpio in their original outfits, which they must have folded up and put under a rock. and they hastily changed.

[50:30]

Because when they're in touch with Avon, do you know what I mean?

It's like, oh, beam us up and they're in their Hellatrix outfits. and then they get changed very quickly before.

Like if he brought them up a bit earlier, maybe, maybe, you know, Tarrant wouldn't have had his pants on yet or something.

I think the fashion choices on Hellotrix is explained by the fact that they're obviously a somewhat distant and backward planet.

And so they're just, you know, several, several seasons behind the rest of the federation galaxies.

It's kind of like Australia in the 70s.

You know, we have fashions, you know, a few years late.

Yeah. does get that interesting line about when someone says, you know, all humans came from Earth originally.

And Sims says, oh, in your opinion, or something like that.

Like she's some kind of evolution, Exodus denier, or just pointing out that they're so far in the future, there are going to be people who don't even believe that all humans really came from Earth in the 1st place.

Yeah, because it's a well-known fact, isn't it?

[51:30]

Like, it's a well-known fact.

And Sulin says it's a well-known opinion.

And yeah, most well-known facts are.

In fact, there's a real kind of casual disregard to the backstory generally here.

And so we have serverland referred to as the Supreme Empress.

We have references to the empire.

Like, what's the Empire?

But I guess that's for this story, isn't it?

This is a story about Empires, so let's call it the Empress this week.

Yeah, they're not.

Look, no one's looking that up in a series Bible that's being done because it's what we want this week.

But then it's no whiteboard.

Yeah, but towards the end of series C, Survland kept adding new bits to her title all the way through as she got grander and grander.

So, who knows, she might have called herself the Grand Empress by the very end.

But it looks like, so we have the Federation has contracted and now it's expanding, but it sounds like there was an empire in the past, unless they are just using the word empire, not to mean the political system, but just to mean the area that's controlled by the Federation.

[52:36]

But language hasn't been used before on the show.

And it, you know, the show is notoriously careless about what the federation is, obviously, and each time it appears. looks completely different.

Executive style of empire.

Yeah, different style of things.

Just back, if I may, on the stock equalisation act thing. comment.

I actually think that this is a, it's, for me, it's a curious admission that you don't get very often in this era of television.

And because of the fact that, like, having a lead who is a person of colour in the show is in itself quite unusual.

It's also sort of, it's sort of almost also acknowledging the fact that fact, by saying, none of the guest casts you'll be meeting in the next 50 minutes will be black.

And so we need to explain how one of our leads is black.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, it's sort of like.

A lot of the guest casts meeting until episode 12 will be black.

Yes, exactly.

Apart from very, very occasionally, as a rule, you don't see that.

So it's almost, it's like, you know, the sort of like the question of the doctor who's sort of, you know, faced with, you know, Martha and so on, what happens when you go back in time, you know, it's, it's, it's just interesting that they even bothered to, to sort of mention that and I, and I don't necessarily know whether it's for bad reasons.

[53:52]

I actually think it's because they're almost trying to educate the audience or at least notify the audience that this is okay.

Don't you think?

Yeah, I think I'm giving a generous interpretation to it.

Oh, yeah, I think we're doing colonialism this week.

Hey, let's mention this.

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe, maybe.

Yeah, maybe that too, yeah.

But, I mean, they can't even bring themselves to have women in the show.

Do you know what I mean?

From time to time.

But it's not something they've ever felt that they needed to draw attention to before.

So throughout the previous season, it's not really mentioned at all.

She is just a character.

But I mean, I mean, you guys might be, you know, would have been too young at the time, to take it all in, but I'd be fascinated to know what the general reaction was in sort of more general media, not just the this much in the radio times, sort of thing.

I don't know, was a thing made of it.

I don't know.

It's just an interesting question.

[54:58]

I think it's sort of fair to say that, actually, this episode has given us quite a lot to talk about unexpectedly.

For me, it's always one that when I'm, I think about watching an episode of Blake 7, I never think, oh, I'll put on traitor.

I think maybe because it is sort of the start of the series 4, the arc, sort of story that it never feels like it's just a Blake 7 episode that you want to watch.

But actually, there's quite been quite a lot to talk about.

I think it's terrifically fun and it has, you know, like an exciting arc with Servoland, um, slowly revealing herself.

That's absolutely worth watching, I think.

You're right that it's not an episode that I think about, but I still think that it's, I've always have a very great fondness for it.

And I didn't come into it this recording thinking that we wouldn't have much to say because I think there's an awful lot to say about it, most of it good.

And it is, it does actually puzzle me why this doesn't have a better reputation because I'm not saying it's the best black 7 episode ever, but it's certainly got so many blank 70 things in it.

[56:01]

There's nothing that I'd say would let it down.

Nothing actually lets it down.

There's, okay, the set at the end for the final battle is a bit small, and oh, this affects a bit this, and, you know, the, the, the, I patches have been glittery or whatever, the usual, nothing out of the ordinary.

So, so I don't know, like, you, it's hard to, for me, it is very difficult to lay a case against this episode.

Yeah, it's yeah, it's never going to be one of my favourites, but it's certainly got its charms and yeah, you know, still having most of your central cast sat on a gray set shouting at each other while the plot happens on the planet below them.

I'd still like for there to be them getting more involved somehow would have drawn me into it more, I think.

But it almost works so like a standalone.

Little uh, little war movie. really, isn't it?

It's got that cold, its vibe or whatever.

And of course, Surverland.

Well, of course.

So, we'll be back next week.

When it'll be business as usual with quarries, chases, gooks, and search for a star drive.

And until then, may you not meet any helots at close quarters.

[57:05]

Thank you very much for listening and goodbye.

Bye bye.

Goodbye.

Knife and hell.

That's the power.

Go, go!

30 seconds thrust, Maxi...

Switching command.

Maximum power on all drives.

Massive power.