Welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast, where we're superstitious half-wits who are holding back every single advance we've ever made, or at least we're here to discuss Headhunter. one of the two.
Hello, I'm Cy, and I'm joined by my upper group of half wits.
Hello, I'm Hannah.
Hi, I'm John.
And I'm Pete.
So, Headhunter, we are into the 6th episode of Series D. We've got the last episode directed by Mary Rich for a little while, and we're sort of midway through.
Well, actually, no, we're in the last stages of the go and collect famous scientists from around the Federation to help with the plans.
Let's start with John, who is new to the podcast.
How do you feel about series D so far before we get to Headhunter?
Well, I love series D. I've got, it's my favourite series of the four.
I mean, I love them all, but series D is my favourite.
So I've always had a real fondness for the 1st 6 episodes in particular because although I can, I can see that the last half of the season has got a higher hit rate in terms of, you know, genuine classic episodes.
I just, there's something really sweet about those 1st six. like rescue is my favourite episode of all time.
I know power has got its issues, but it's a lot of fun.
You can't deny that.
And then, yeah, I just, I love all of the episodes.
Even animals.
I just, because I just love that, that new setup, how they've just basically reinvented the whole series and it all feels really fresh and exciting and that whole, the new Xenon setting and Xenon base, that, that, I remember that sparked my imagination as a kid because there's, that whole backstory with Dorian, um, the whole thing with the Cesca and the, the hummocks.
Um, it just, I mean, there's lots of gaps to fill in, but that just sparks your imagination even more.
So I just love that whole reinvention of the series.
It's essentially a bit of a cliche to say this, but it's basically, in some ways, a completely new series.
And the way the series was made as well.
It's the same for series 2 and three, but it was made basically in 2 big production blocks.
So they did all the pre-filming, for the 1st 6 episodes, then they did all the studios, and then they did the same again for the remaining episodes.
And although that was true of previous seasons, this season really does feel like you can split it right down the middle because the tone is very different and they spend a lot more time on Xenon base in the 1st half.
Whereas the 2nd half.
It's a little bit more.
More in line with the previous series and that they're mainly on the spaceship and they're just having adventures and what have you.
So I just think those 1st 6 episodes feel, yeah, they've got their own unique feel, even though it is part of the wider series D. And I just love them.
I mean, not everything goes right, but they're just fascinating from a production point of view as well, and there's obviously huge story going on there in terms of what was going on behind the scenes.
So yeah, in a nutshell, I absolutely love Series D, and this is one of my favourite episodes.
I mean, I love rescue at the start, and then this book ends that 1st half beautifully.
I remember it from when I watched it when I was a kid.
I think more from the 83 repeat season than the actual original broadcast.
But then when I went to uni, it was a favourite there as well.
I used to have got one of my housemates loved Blake 7 as well, and we often, this would be one of our episodes of choice, and we would just stick it on and just, I mean, laugh with it, not at it. because it is very, very funny.
Um, but it's also very exciting and dramatic and a little bit scary as well.
Yeah, it's pretty much everything you'd want from an episode of Blake 7.
How about you, Hannah?
So I was less enthusiastic about the 1st few episodes of series D. I think, uh, I think some days, it gets like unfair flat, but it was very much, I felt like, were kind of like sort of 7 out of 10 and like, I mean, where is my 9, 10 out of 10 episodes?
It felt like I was waiting quite a while for things to get going.
And then we got to Headhunter and it just felt like we were out of the park.
I love the mystery side of it.
I think it's such a really fun and funny episode.
Um, I, yeah, just felt so drawn in.
I like the horror elements.
It's like got so many sort of tick boxes for that.
Um, and it feels like we've got back to like more Blake 70, Blake 7 of sort of running around together, um, Yeah, um, a bit less eloquent than the jump, but just it's really fun and exciting.
I love it.
Is this one you like, Pete?
It is, yeah, I'm joining the praise.
And it's got that.
So right, episode I was on earlier in the series where we talked about Traitor, which is a brilliantly made episode.
There's nothing wrong with it at all.
But I was a little bit lukewarm towards it compared to the rest of the panel, and I couldn't quite put my finger on why.
And it's kind of because it's kind of, for a really classic Blake 7 episode.
There got to be something somewhat preposterous about it in with all the action and the drama and the melodrama.
And yeah, that's where as well as having an episode title that could quite easily be the name of an East European porn website.
There's a few of those.
And this is probably the best.
That's just what more could you ask for?
Um, yeah, it's, it's, it is a bit silly when it's trying not to be, and when it's trying to be something, I'm, I'm flipped between the 2 lefts.
John, sometimes I'm laughing with it, sometimes maybe a little bit at it, but still loving it.
Uh, and, uh, yeah, I, I just think this has got the balance of, of, of, of, of things that, that are really working and something, so maybe if you were doing it on a higher budget or had much more time, you wouldn't have done it quite like that, but the fact that they did it like this is what makes it Blake 7 and that's why I love it.
I think one of the reasons I liked it is that you had a couple of episodes of Avon not having quite so much to do, um, possibly more than like a couple of episodes, and yet, he's starting to become a like really different, interesting character as the series goes on.
And so it's nice to spend a bit more time with him and trying to see bits of that unfolding a bit more because not really sure what where that's going to go at this point in the series.
There's a sort of generation gap between him and all the others now, isn't there?
with Villa maybe also in his generation, but not being part such involved in a power struggle.
But there's no sense of a power struggle anymore, between Avon and Tarrant.
That's that's complete.
That was settled along.
I mean, that's settled in the last series, but... stopping a twat by seriously.
He knows his place now.
Obviously, Avon pulled a gun on him.
He's got back in his corner.
He knows where he belongs.
But it's more likely.
I mean I've always I love Stephen Pacy.
I think he played against the more unlikeable elements of the character because he is so likeable.
But I think the character is written, you know, slightly more in a more likeable way in this series.
Like he's still having a go at the villa, but it doesn't feel like he's bullying him like he did in Siri C.
It feels like it's banter.
Um, so, yes, and I think all the characters get a lot to do in this episode, but Paul, it's all about Paul Darrow.
I mean, that's part of the reason I like series D so much, you know, the D is for Darrow.
And he is just.
I mean, it's, he's striking that balance between going so over the top, but he's, he's not taking the, taking the Mickey. you know, he's, you know, he's not, you know, he's still taking it very, very seriously, but he's performance is in some ways stratus ferric, you know.
But then he, but he's really, he still delivers on, on those moments when it really matters, you know, and yeah, it's, you just can't take your eyes off him.
He's just wonderful.
I mean, and it's very different to how he was in the earlier series, but yeah, I just, oh, he's just amazing in this episode. just great entertainment.
Like John Baker, just he's a superstar and you can't take your eyes off.
I like that there still feels elements of his character as he's B. I think, especially like the moment when he's with Linda Bellingham, and they're slightly flirty with one another, um, um, almost.
And there's already he asks, like her, like, oh, didn't Muller ever talk about his work with him, with you, she goes, Her relationship was more recreational and it just feels like, oh, that's still the Avon we know a bit.
Yeah, yeah, there's an eyebrow movement from him on that, isn't there?
Him and Roger.
There are some really great moments for him in this episode.
I love the moment where he sort of pauses while he's thinking about whether to sacrifice Tarrant and Villa, before commanding Aurak to restore the teleport, I won't even go to the heights that he doesn't know one to go to those heights.
And what a fantastic line he gets when Aurac starts getting cockier than usual.
And he says, when did you start offering gratuitous advice?
That's just, that's only he would offer.
I mean, often that, you know, the banter is sort of cynical for all of them, but that's just such a perfect day wrongly.
Oh, 2 lovely moments there.
Yeah, I mean, that restore the teleport.
I mean, I remember being a student, having had a few shandies, and we would try and do that line.
I'm not going to do it now.
Um, but it's just so good, but you really get I mean, it seems to go on for about 20 minutes, doesn't it, when he's thinking it over?
I mean, it's obviously just a few seconds, but, and again, it's slightly over the top, but it's not.
You really get the sense he's agonising over this and it's a little bit like what happens in a later episode, no spoilers, but he really is weighing it up, but then he does the right thing.
He does, you know, he saves them, but if when he says, oh, you have to do better than that, or if you want me to kill them, it's just, oh, it's so good.
And yeah, that moment you were just talking about Pete as well, is just a, yeah, I love that too.
I had both of those written down to mention.
The only other Avon moment I was going to mention is when he just throws away those pliers, whatever it is at the end.
It's just a little moment.
It's so casual. love that.
And his obvious stunt moment where he falls onto the only patch of ground that's actually covered in something so that he doesn't get muddy, but the way he lands with his arms out is just magnificent.
And of course, it was completely the rain was pouring down, was lashing down, so that was like a swamp they're in basically by the end of it.
So, yeah.
For me, this is 11 of the episodes that I sort of realised, sort of watching the series through up to this point.
This feels like the 1st episode where they're actually writing for everyone in this new crew and Sulin really comes to the 4 finally and is written with a with a character and you can really see Glynis Barber seizing the lines in the way and relishing them in the way that Paul Darrow does.
She's got a very similar kind of temperament, I think, and she is magnificent.
And her hair is fabulous this week as well.
It's a bit where, Orex says, well, I can give you.
I can fulfil all your desires. you wouldn't know where to start.
Yeah, that's a character finally emerging, yeah, from, yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, she never really gets her own episode, but she is a lot sharper from this point on, but this might be where I drop my fact, my new fact.
Oh, go on then, factors.
I mean, you probably know that series D was actually made in a hurry, even though they said at the end of terminal, oh, it will be back next year, it took them a long time to get it before they were actually officially confirmed to go ahead and it was all done in a massive rush.
Um, and they initially thought Jan Chappel was going to do the whole series.
And then they thought she was going to do the 1st 6 episodes.
I'm sure you know all this already.
And those 1st 6 episodes were all completely written.
And then basically, I mean, there's a little bit of confusion here.
I mean, did she initially indicate she was going to do it or wasn't she?
But the plan was to bring to have Callie in the 1st 6 episodes.
And the 6th episode was actually originally going to be animals, and they swapped them quite late in the day, which is probably why you said what you said earlier, so.
Um, And so, so all the episodes were rewritten, and then Jan Chappell basically just said, no, I'm not doing it. like, hang on a minute, what?
And so all of these 6 episodes had to be completely rewritten.
Um, and the original plan was when they were episodes were written, we're thinking, she'll do all of the all 13, but they'd only got the 1st 6 done.
And then when she said, no, I'm not doing it, and it turned out she wasn't going to do anything apart from those 2 literally 2 words.
So, but what they had planned to do was introduce Sulin in episode 5, which originally was going to be Headhunter.
And then Sokali and Sulin would have been in headhunter, Together.
And then Cali would have been killed off at the end of animals.
So if you watch Headhunter now, watch it again when you get a minute, and all of the, that character Vina was basically put in there, that was originally Sulin.
So Su Lin was originally Muller's companion, not Dorian's companion.
Oh, wow.
We would have had both of them in 2 episodes, so there had been a little bit of a crossover.
And when you actually watch it, even though Linda Bellingham plays it in a much softer way, then Glynnis Barber would.
If you just listen to the lines, you can really imagine Glynis Barber taking it and just put in a lot more edge in there.
And that bit when everyone says to her, don't know, don't be stupid when she's saying that you're murderers.
At that point, she would have taken the gun out and we'd have learnt that she's, you know, she wasn't just Mueller's recreational companion.
She was his bodyguard, whatever, whatever she was for Dorian, basically, the mind boggles.
Um, so, I mean, you're absolutely right.
This is the 1st episode where you're like, oh, they're finally writing the Sulin.
But imagine Jan Chappell saying all of Sulin's lines.
So she would have had all those lovely moments with Aurak.
So it would have been really nice to, Because, I mean, it would have been a shame for Jan Chappell to leave as much as I love animals, it would have been a bit of a, an odd episode for it to get killed off in, but at least she would have had this episode with everyone and just, you know, really getting some smart lines.
And you can really imagine her.
I can imagine Jan Chappell saying those lines.
So, so that, just imagine that episode where it's Sulin and Cali rather than Dina.
That whole bit where Aurak is telling Sulin to deactivate him towards the end.
We jumping around, but let's do it.
Yeah, that in particular, I've wrote that down as one of my favourite scenes, and I like it even more now that it could have been County.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean I watched it last night.
The 1st time, the 1st time I've watched it knowing what I know now.
And it was just, it just changed my whole perception of the episode.
I mean, Glynis is still beautiful in it and those lines work for Sulin.
But, you know, that whole thing of her comforting, you know, that's more of a Calli thing, you know, that caring role.
Um, yeah, Linda, they obviously changed the script slightly, but large chunks of it were basically, you know, just crossed out the, um, Sulin and put Vino, and then, and that was the case with a lot of the episodes, they just crossed out Calli's name and put in Sulin, or in Animal's case, they crossed out Calli and put in Damon's name.
Um, so yeah, and as far as I know, I don't think I've ever heard anyone else mention this anywhere.
But it's just when I've been researching series D. That I just found that I realised that is what had happened.
You know, there's just a few little script fragments that exist and it's just, yeah, fascinating to think that we could have had them both in it, and Chapel and Glennis Bar, but just a little bit of a crossover there.
Yeah, series DA.
Yeah.
That's really interesting what you say about the Aorax scene because I can now like see how like that works on sort of 2 levels the, you know, when asking to be made inoperative.
I think it works with Cali because she knows Aurak and sort of trusts to an extent.
But whereas with Sulin, it feels like she's just following something instinctive, like picking up, there's not something quite right there.
And I quite like that, like seeing that as like development part of her character.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not taken away from it as being a great suit in episodes.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. the 1st episode where she really has come into her own.
Um, and yeah, she's like a, in some ways, a bit like a female Avon in terms of the just like really cynical attitude, you know, really, really cool.
Um, But yeah, that's that's a little glimpse at what what could have been really.
Um, again, she would have died in the, in the following episode, which would have been animals, so, killed by Commissioner Sleer, dumped out of the, the spaceship, and, Just left there for them all, all to find.
So it would have been quite a grim, a grim ending, but then they said, okay, you're not going to come and do 6 episodes.
Can you do five, four, you do three, then you can do a couple of days filming.
Can you do lines off screen and it's just, I'll do 2 words, you know?
Alternative.
They're really bad at negotiating, aren't they?
negotiating.
It's very over 14 episodes to 2 words.
That's quite a lot of... are amazing though, aren't they?
It really sells the idea. is down that hole and it's still it's better than if they didn't use it.
It didn't hurt anything.
It does give the idea that she is down there and it is wonderfully grim, I think.
But I would it would have been nice to have had it for maybe, yeah, 6 episodes.
Wait, when this one, so when this episode kicks off, I did think for a minute.
I can, I think I remember watching it as a kid and thinking that I'd missed an episode because Venus's just there and and they're off on them, and I'm still getting used to them being off on missions, you know, it's just, it's Villa and Tarrant, isn't it?
Just the 2 of them in Scorpio this week.
But I love Villa emerging, yawning, doing up his flies.
That's just...
Honestly, he's really struggling on the jacket, like, it's already quite worn out.
Yeah, those those costumes must be quite smelly at this stage and I always think as long as they're wearing those costumes, they're going to be okay.
They're going to be, everything's going to be all right.
But then it's next week when they just change into the costumes that most of them die in, basically.
So that always gives though that last half. like they're heading towards Gow de Prime from that moment.
Whereas I like to think there's a big long gap between headhunter, an assassin.
And lots of other wonderful things happened, you know.
This is why you like the 1st half of series D, isn't it?
You just don't want that buildup.
Change of concrete.
That's it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, it's the death costumes.
Well, they're still very much in their winter costumes at the moment because everything is foul on location every time they go out.
And then suddenly, with Assassin, the sun has magically appeared out of nowhere after mums in the studio.
Yeah, there's even one studio scene where you can see someone's breath inside.
I don't know if I'm just imagining it from a cutting between location scenes, but it just looks really foully cold.
They spend so much money trying to replicate that now with CGI, don't they?
It's like, just go to Britain 40 years ago or anywhere today.
Well, that is blade 7, isn't it?
You want the planets to be cold and wet and gray and grim.
And as much as I like the later episodes, you know, seeing that bright sunshine and games, just, I mean, actually, it's nice because it makes a nice change, but Assassin as well, actually, does quite well for it.
Yeah, yeah.
And Paul Darrow loses about 3 stone between Headhunter and Assassin, so I'm not quite sure what happened there.
He just looks a lot. maybe it's just the costume. more flattering.
I don't know.
I agree, yeah, he looks, it works quite well for like Assassin's slave auction that he's suddenly like really gaunt.
Yeah, they even say, don't they?
You're a thin thing.
They wouldn't have said that a couple of weeks prior, don't you?
Maybe he saw that in the script and realised and took it as a hint.
Yeah, made it a crash diet.
Since Gareth Thomas has left.
They stopped a lot of boozing between them.
I'm not sure they have.
So when this was starting, I was thinking, oh, they've got they've got their corpse in on their ship and they're taking it back and mysterious things can start happening.
So I think, oh, okay, it's a Dracula episode this week.
Uh, because that's, that's the 1st thing that spring tomorrow, sprung to mind for me, the, uh, the, the, the vampire in the, in the, in the ship on the way to Yorkshire.
But there's a lot more than that to come.
Yeah, that's a that's a really good point.
Yeah.
And they actually describe when they were promoting this episode, they called it a comedy horror.
The horror elements are definitely there, aren't they?
I re-read your...
I reread your blog, Hannah, to just sort of steal your your observations.
Yeah, you had some interesting things to say there.
So I'm now going to claim those ideas as my own.
Now I'm joking.
Um, yeah, I may I may be regurgitating them anyway.
It has been a few years.
But yeah, that the image of him in the, in the cryo chamber is very, yeah, very hammer, isn't it, really?
Um, yeah, Blake 7 didn't do horror that often, but it did it quite well.
Well, should to mention, we're recording this during Halloween week, so I have very much been in like the horror mood and been watching a couple of hammers things this week.
I will just list off because I ended up noting down several of the horror elements that I felt tick off and anyone else should jump in with more.
So we've got characters separated from the start and isolated with Villa and Tarrant off on the own ship.
They're soon really vulnerable once like the system failure goes on.
Uh, we get darkness and dim lighting both on Scorpio and on James Zenon as everything gets turned off.
Um, we've got mystery unknown of, I do spend about just, I, I think it's good for like 35 minutes into this episode before that box gets opened and we get to see what's in there.
And I spent the 1st I watched this.
I was so, so desperate to know what's in the box because I thought it was just going to be Muller's head originally.
And I was just like, I can't believe they're going around with a head. just such a wonderful creepy element.
Um, just stuff things like, so we've got fear of the unknown, the unexplained, um, some suspense of wanting to know what's in the box, jump scares, um, we get an actual like 1st victim.
So we've got a corpse.
We don't know at this point that it's mullers until later on, but we have a body on the floor that we find out quite earlier. haven't gone ahead.
The technician takes a look at it.
It takes a look at his arse and goes, yeah, it's Moller. recognise that arse anywhere.
That's where it gets a bit rocky. rocky horror, isn't it?
My last one is the, oh, apart from actually just 2 actually.
So won't we, the mon, we have a monster, it's headless.
The obvious, but, um, and it looks like a headless corpse, uh, spinal, um, when we go cut to the forest afterwards, it feels almost like faux corory, I think.
Um, so we've got sort of the slightly dim lighting coming down.
It's almost like, you know, we're heading towards sunset and it's all getting a bit.
I am creepy there.
Um...
Also, actually, also, I just, I didn't have thought about it now.
Aurak, suddenly, we don't know what's wrong with Aurak, with that of it, but he's suddenly just saying things that are unnaturally auraky.
It's being cuntier than usual. all about?
Yeah, I think because Aurac is such a sod normally.
At 1st we're just a bit like, this is just awe, being a sod, but there's, um, the moment we've mentioned already, um, I think where, um, And he sends that, everyone, he says there is nothing very original about domination, as you will soon discover.
And they, everyone blowed their eyes, just this great, just little like inquisitive look, just for half a 2nd.
And it's, that's, that's it.
And, but, and they say it's this there in our minds still, like, trying to figure out, what's going on?
I love those just sort of creepy aside moments, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's almost like sort of possession and stuff, isn't it?
Where they're acting out of character.
So slave is the same, isn't he?
He's more slave-like than than usual and more stubborn and more.
And so they have to switch him off, which is terrible.
They never have done that to Zen.
Well, he says.
And yet it reminds me of, uh, it's shadow, isn't it, in series B, where, um, they end up with like Zen's doing sort of and weird stuff and they don't know what's and going on and the ships attacking them.
Um, and it all goes a bit weird there.
But I don't know. acting out of character.
Yeah, but it just almost feels by serious D, it always feels like they're so much more vulnerable and I think because it, Scorpio isn't the liberator and it hasn't got those capabilities and they're stuck in one place sometimes and they've not got, it doesn't feel like they've got infinite resources anymore.
And that is one of the things I love about in series D. It feels that everything's closing in on them and they're like running out of options a lot of the time.
Yeah, and the car breaks down in a thunderstorm, doesn't it?
That's, that's, we even get the, the, the, the lightning crack that we hear is from the BBC Death and horror sound effects LP that we had at my school.
I know I queued that up in school plays, that exact thunderclap.
That was that had been doing the, and you hear it the same, the same clap of thunder in most BBC productions from the 60s to the early 80s.
Yeah, that seems like a conscious decision, doesn't it?
that they were really playing up that that horror side of things.
That was a great rundown there, Hano, absolutely brilliant.
And yeah, I've never really picked up on the horror stuff too much on previous viewing, so I did look at it in a slightly different way this time around.
I don't know if it's because I've been immersed in hammer because I've been cheating and looking at your your blog, but yeah, it definitely has that vibe.
And yeah, yeah, you're right. that misty woodland is very, very hammer, isn't it?
Yeah, it's that final sequence where you think you've got to wait, you've gone somewhere, something scary's happened, and then you come home and you discover it's followed you back.
It's like the final act of the woman in black or something.
Um, that's the...
Just, I think Mark Gats on the documentary says, it's something like, but of course, it's just when you think the monsters aim death, that it comes back more powerful than ever.
Yeah, completely.
And this episode was shown on the 2nd of November.
So it was basically a Halloween Episode.
Oh, they got that bang on then, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There we go.
The only other thing we vaguely on is, well, the scientist's idea of we end up with sort of Frankenstein like, and I'm trying to keep track.
Now, it's been a while since I've watched the earlier episodes, but I make Muller is the 5th dead scientist, at least, that they've had so far following on, you know, from, I think I kill off quite a few in traitor, Justin, last week.
I'm just...
Dr. Paxton.
Who?
Yeah.
Muller stood no chance whatsoever if he was getting involved with them, like, just scientists and Blake 7 in series didn't.
And anyone who met or knew Ensor in any capacity as well is that if you're in both of that Vend diagram, then you've got no hope, have you?
And that's nice.
I think that's a lovely callback to series A as well.
Because we've had it mentioned a couple of times this series already.
So there's obviously just a little bit of continuity there, and I thought that, that was really nice that he, he'd worked with Ensor and had taken on, again, some of Ensor's grumpy traits as well and things like that.
That was that was a nice bit of writing.
Roger Parks is quite good. on the continuity and is quite quite up on that, I think.
Yeah, he's got better, hasn't he, since his very 1st episode?
We did say, we didn't think any writer had improved as much as Roger Parks did between Voice from the Past and Children of Our on.
Yeah, and I think this is as good, again, as children of our own.
I mean, that's a good episode too, but I think this is as almost as big a an improvement if that's possible.
Um, yeah, I love the whole Ensor stuff.
I mean, I'm always crazy for back references like that, but it fits the storyline.
And if you think about it, the Android is at a specifically after Aurak.
So it all ties in nicely together when you actually take a step back and look at it that way, the only slight issue I had when I was following it last night was that whole robot development cartel, that just feels a little bit, I'd like to have known a little bit more about what that's all about, and just a bit more world building there because we see the Scorpio approaching Pharos.
Um, but I don't really get a sense of what, what that, that setup is all about and I'd, I'd have liked to have known a little bit.
A little bit more about that.
I think you thought I'd maybe been a series B episode would have had a nice model shot of the actual, the base that they were in, and it's so nondescript.
It just looks like A, another series D set in there.
It could have almost telephorted down to Xenon Bass again.
You know, it looks pretty much exactly the same.
So, um, yeah, I think maybe a little bit more detail there would have helped.
And also, yeah, what the hell is Vina doing there?
And presumably, It would have been the same, you know, when, when that was Sulin's introductory episode.
So, you know, how the hell did she get there?
It seems a bit, well, you think how secretive they are about the location of the base.
How did she get there?
Without Muller?
What's happening there?
Yeah, I wonder if there was an introductory segment in a draft of it that they just decided.
Now let's just dive straight in, you know, get cut to the chase rather.
I wonder if we've lost something here because I don't think we ever find out how the robot development cartel got onto Mueller.
And at one point, I kind of styonic.
Oh, is it Vina?
Is like that what we're kind of meant to like infer?
But I don't think it is because I think she is, look, there's never kind of any hint of any sort of motivation of why it would be or anything, nothing kind of adds up about that, even if you kind of say, well, yeah, some of it isn't explained.
You can't add enough about it.
Um, and, uh, Also, the, I kept the fact they just keep doing the fault, the, the robot development cartel. even gets a line where it just feels like really like shoved in and I was like, why didn't they give this a name or anything?
Feels like it should have either.
LinkedIn with something later and I was like, In their mind, is this actually like a, like they're, looking ahead from the 1980s. they've got an actual company in mind, is this like, it's the Coca-Cola company and it's gone rogue by whatever year we're in and this is the BBC, so we can't actually name it.
Um, but it's just that mouthful of robot development cartels.
I love that.
I can tell at least.
Yeah, I love it though.
I mean, I think we're doing the same thing.
You've got to say the robot development cartel and the way Paul Darrow says it as well.
It's just it's just it's beautiful.
But yeah, it's very vague.
Maybe that's why they have to keep using the full name.
I don't know.
Yeah, it's a little bit, mate, it's worth remembering, though, these scripts were being rewritten very late in the day.
You know, they only knew Jan Chappell was leaving ridiculously late.
So they didn't give soothing a character because they were just giving her Callie's lines basically.
There's even that moment in.
I don't know if you covered it when you guys were watching power, but there's that awful line where one of the Seska says the black woman must win.
And it just seems ridiculous that she would say that, but reason why is, because Callie was originally in that scene as well.
So she's differentiating the black woman must win.
So it would made.
I mean, it's still a pretty horrible line, chunky line, but um, clunky, not chunky.
Um, It's because I've been watching Remembrance of the Daleks.
It would have made slightly more sense if Cali was there with Dana and it's that other black woman must win.
So it's just little moments like that, you realise, oh, wow, this has been done very, very late in the day.
Mind you, it was ever thus.
This episode is one of many this year that's directed by Mary Ridge, and isn't she brilliant?
She is so good for Blake 7 in this era.
She is really, really on it.
I think this is really brilliantly directed and she gets a sense of pace.
This is quite measured, but it sort of flows and it builds and it's building up and up and up.
I just want to give her kudos for the marvellous moment that she choreographs, where the whole crew are suddenly in the room together, and they all are reading each other's minds and know that they're all going to push tables around the Android and run for it.
And it's brilliant because the viewer just picks up on the clues from this just before they do it.
It shows how well they're working together as a unit, doesn't it?
And you're right, it is.
I mean, moments like that are really hard to do well in a, you know, a multi-camera studio, and it's just so well done.
Yeah, it's just that little look that Glennis Barber gives and you.
They're all, they just work together so well.
And then it's kind of comedic, a few seconds later when they're all running down the corridor.
And it just, it just strikes the tone, I think, just right.
It never goes too far towards comedy, but yeah, Mary Ridge is, I think, a phenomenal director.
We were so lucky to get her because they, They originally wanted Andrew Morgan to do um terminal after he did Children of our on.
He couldn't do it.
So they got Mary Ridge, who was basically a BBC staff director.
You know, she was there, um, and then they used her.
And then when they brought it back, they thought, well, let's get Mary Ridgebrook back.
She did such a good job with terminal, but also to get that continuity going.
And then because of the way the production blocks worked, they thought, well, we'll give a pretty much the whole season to do.
And she's, yeah, you're right.
She is so good and she even lifts episode.
I mean, I love animals. keep saying that, but it's not great, let's be honest, but it is well directed.
You know, that shot at the end where they're all watching the shit take off.
It is actually very nice.
The problems with that episode are not down to her.
But obviously what happens at the end and, you know, I think rescue is brilliantly directed, so it's power.
So is this.
Yeah, she's, I think she's a phenomenal director.
But you're right, absolutely about the fine line between silliness and horror.
And I think this is typified by the robot, Android, marching around the bass, shouting, where is Aurak without its head, which I think is the image of the episode.
It is a bit silly.
I mean, it's not really terrifying.
Was I terrified when I was seven?
don't think I was.
It's a great moment when it 1st emerges and the head's gone because it is that of, you don't think the monster's going to come back, but they'd after just a few shots of it, wondering. especially once you get outside and it's like, 0 my god, we're in the real world now.
Well, they even shot that bit on film, didn't they, to make sure it looks really good with the explosions going off and I love the fact it's Dana doing the explosions.
It's like, oh, they remember to give her something nice to do as well.
And it's classic Dana rather than weird Dana that we got in the previous episode.
Um, and yeah, they're all, even she doesn't have a huge amount to do, but it just shows that Roger Parks knew, he understood all the characters and got them working really well.
The one thought I have is I think they shoot that on film, but they shoot the reactions on video and there's clearly some interference, you can see it on the picture.
Well, you can't get more Blake 7 than that, something happening on film and people will actually...
Last week, really, hasn't it?
We've just in the studio.
Oh, God.
Yeah.
But yeah, the yeah, the costume is not, but I mean, it does what it says on the script, presumably, but unless, well, the script says, and it looks like a silly gester.
I don't why, you know, I guess it's just a space costume, isn't it?
And that's what space costumes look like for the 1st half of this year.
Yeah, true.
I guess the elephant in the room we haven't really talked about. is like, how the hell does it keep the head on there?
How the hell does he operate the mouth?
And, you know, why isn't there blood everywhere?
And have you guys ever seen Saturn free, that Farrah Fawcett film?
It was made in Round about the same time, actually.
But there is a there's a robot in that that runs a mock and takes its creator's head and puts it on, but it's a lot.
Goria.
So, and yeah, I think it was made like in 1979, 1980, so not too long before this.
Um, but yeah, they've got like kind of like pistons that are operating the head and it's never, you're never meant to think it's the actual guy.
It's just a gruesome thing that this Android has done.
So how the hell he's got.
You even see the metal bit, it's just completely smooth.
It's not even like there's a hook or anything to stick it on.
So, I mean, I assume something very high tech and clever.
So I know from a history of horror, and I think she probably had still been valid at the time, but Universal had copyright on like the image of Frankenstein for a long time.
So stuff like the bolts like on, like, I think probably would have counted towards it.
So I suspect that's why we don't have that kind of thing.
It's why, um, sort of 1950s Frankenstein looks nothing like sort of 19, um, sort of 30s, and Frankenstein Hammer had to do something completely different.
Um, Yeah.
Okay, that gives that gives them an excuse.
Yeah.
I mean, a reason.
There must have been a lot of blue roll in Mueller's like lab to clean up all that blood.
It's, I do think he starts to look.
He looked he looked...
Not well, but he doesn't look that pale when you 1st see him.
His head there when Taron arrives.
Um, but quite, I think by the time I'm on the ship, he's looking very pale.
Yeah, I think maybe if that had been, if this had been in series C or or B, I think that would have been a little bit more greaseome, I think we'd have seen a bit of blood, and I think it would have been clear that this is, this really is just a dead man's head.
And because he's in cryo sleep and you don't, he doesn't talk that much.
I think, yeah, I think they could have just maybe tweaked the script slightly, so just, so he doesn't really say much, so it's a little bit more feasible that it is a decapitated head stuck on a flat piece of metal, but it's sci-fi.
I mean, there could have been something, some really clever nanotechnology going on behind it, the scenes. don't know.
I'll just have several made out of different turnips like Wurzel Gummage does.
Oh, apart for the course.
Around the turn of the 70s to the 80s.
I love when they tried to barricade him in.
They barricade, or they try to barricade the door.
It is a brilliant scene, but everything that they use and put him run up the door is on wheels. the worst off the ball, like selection of things to try. you know, that trolly will stop him.
So when they beam up, when they, oh, not, I'd say, beam up, how, with that Star Trek, or are we?
When they when they teleport unconscious, Villa and Tarrant back to the base.
And across the girls, get the job of putting them on the stretches because that's the girls' job still.
Um, but, um, there's only one wheelie stretcher, and they've got these 2 blokes laying on the floor and they're like, yeah, we'll bring them through to the medlab, and then you just cut and they're in the medlab, but I want to know who got top deck on the stretcher because they must have just heaped them on top of each other.
It looked like they were about to pick up Villa first.
So we could put Tarrant, rest Tarrant on top of Villa.
Yeah, they just all lean down, don't they?
There's just, yeah, and then it just lingers just slightly, slightly too long, but yeah.
Which one is it that they sort of pick up and then complain that they should lose some weight?
Is that villa?
Yeah, I'm not sure, yeah.
Well, I'm assuming.
I mean, they both look very trim to me, but...
Yeah, but I feel like, yeah, so I feel like Taryn's the tallest one and that perm must wear a ton.
So...
It's his roll neck sweater that's adding to his his weight, isn't it?
That's nice.
It's a long sleeved as well, underneath his full, like, and Scorpio's of jumpsuit as well.
You must have been baking in the studio.
And you know, there was originally he had an overcoat as part of that outfit as well.
You actually, you actually see Sulin wear something, a bit, it's the same style as the rest of her outfit, but she's got like an over, a bit like a waistcoat slash jacket.
And Tarrant was supposed to have that as well.
I think that was more for the outside scenes, but then they just ditched it, but yeah, he must have been bloody roasting.
Imagine there's not a flat on him, is there?
Although we can see it, we can see their breath.
So inside maybe the studio, maybe they stopped heating the studio as budgets got tighter.
Vina's death.
Now, Linda Bellingham is a great actress.
What the hell?
My father's a butt, Kate.
Only Blake 7 could do a hug people to death scene.
Yeah, and it's not even like being, you know, the double asphyxiation by mummy debts in Pyramids of Mars is probably a more gruesome way to go if you're going to be hugged to death.
But he just sort of grabs her and this is like, right, I got you.
And she's like, oh, okay, I'm dead.
We needed a crack sound effect there, didn't we?
I think that just, that, that, yeah.
Just the crowd immediately that, oh, she's dead.
How can you be sure?
It's just how?
It beats the one, my previous, the previous record for this is Liz Shaw in the Silurians when the guy from the, the, the angry bureaucrat, Nider, uh, who gets Ranti and Rantier, more and more plagueridden, and then drops that in front of them, and the 2nd he hits the floor, Liz Shaw says from the other side of the room, he's dead.
But this even beats that.
I don't think she's hit the floor.
This snacks.
I'm timing it.
We've got seconds, just like, can you get the line in really fast, guys?
I mean, she goes for it though, to be fair.
You know, she's not worried about looking dignified.
She's doing her best, but yeah, it would have been better to maybe just move the camera away, so I can just hear a horrible sound, the spine cracking and then see a fall to the floor, just, um, but yeah, it's a slightly mishandled moment there.
And obviously, if it had been Sue Lynn, she wouldn't have died, presumably she'd have just confronted him.
Yeah.
It's a shame. stepped to one side and avoided it quite easily as Lina could have done, had the script not told her not to.
I really like Linda Bellingham in this and I kind of wanted her to stick around like running around with them on the base.
Yeah, that would have been great.
And I love her outfit as well.
In my head, and this isn't based on any real insight.
I'd like to think that's what Jan Chappell would have been wearing.
And they thought, oh, we'll just do the costume redesigned for Jan Chappell, so I can really see her, you know, red boots, that red and white.
It's a little call back to some of her previous outfits.
So in my head, that's, yeah, that's, that's how I imagine.
Jan Chappell...
Yeah, it's quite like her terminal costume, isn't it?
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah, a little bit of that, that red and white one she had in Death Watch as well, and it's, yeah, so it's like that mixture of the gray and the, and the red and the white as well.
Yeah, although there's a bit more cleavage than I think Jan Chappell would have been happy with.
I don't mean that sound as sexist as it probably did.
I just, Just from what I've read about Jan Chappell and costumes.
There was certain things she was comfortable with and certain things she wasn't and whereas Linda Bellingham, I think, had maybe, I'm just digging myself a deeper hole here, aren't I?
You're about to use the word buxom, aren't you?
I can tell.
Linda Bellingham is Linda Bellingham.
It is Lindsay Bellingham.
Yeah.
She's got fantastic eye shadow, hair.
Everything.
Yeah, she does look phenomenal.
She really does.
And I've got a lot of time for Linda Bellinger.
I love doing Doctor Who.
Um, and, you know, I used to love that, that, um, what's it called, that sitcom she used to do.
Um...
Yeah, twice.
I'm just inventing a sitcom later. divorce, divorce.
Yeah, 2nd thoughts.
That's it.
Thank you.
Of course, that's it, yeah. yeah.
But she's a, she's a, you know, a national treasure, isn't she, bless her?
She really was, yeah.
And the, um, uh, uh, the oxoadverts came after this.
So she was not yet to the oxo mum. because I did speculate.
Maybe, I thought maybe the script had her being strangled and they decided we can't strangle your Oxo Mum on BBC one. that actually hasn't happened yet.
She's not yet all creatures, great and small.
Mrs. Harriet either.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So is this a relatively early role for her?
Oh, no, no, she's, yeah, scrolling through Wikipedia.
She's done. she's done all sorts.
But yeah, she probably wasn't a household name yet, maybe.
No, yeah, she just had a really great aters.
Yeah, yeah.
I think she would have been recognisable to a lot of people watching it.
Yes, because they, I think they, they tried to get, they sort of went down the Doctor Who route a little bit in series D, didn't they?
Like trying to get, you know, household faces.
It's not household names, then certainly recognisable faces.
Yeah, stuff like so later on when you've got like Roy Kinnear, he's had lots of small parts in various things, lots of guest roles and and I think I sort of, Linda's a bit sort of younger, you know, to not quite so much, but still, it's that sort of kind of approach.
Yeah, and she's, I've seen, some people have sort of written her off as being a little bit wet in this, but she's actually not.
She's actually, she stands up for herself, you know, she's horrified by when they think they've killed her, and you know, she's really going at them.
Yeah, I think there's a bit more steel to the character than than people often think.
And yeah, she's definitely got a bit of a rapport going with Avon.
He definitely fancies her, doesn't he?
I mean, Yeah, there's that great moment where she challenges them about Mueller's death or potential death and Avon just turns around to her, just me and just says, try not to be stupid.
Yeah, yeah.
I like to think that's the point when Su Lim would have pulled a gun and we'd have had that, that part of the character, you know, but yeah.
But that's like treatment, she says, what sort of people are you?
It does make you really wish like you could know a bit more of the background of like, what sort of people did you think you were getting in involved with?
Like, what sort of adverts are they putting up to attract all these scientists?
They finished, they didn't carry on with their, you know, they did the 1st series novelisations.
I hope they do the same for series D because I think you could do, you could fill in a lot of gaps in, in, in series D and really flesh out, you know, some of that background and it's like when they talk about the hydro, hydro plant as well. couldn't they have mentioned that in established that a little bit a little bit sooner?
Um, but yeah. in this episode, if not earlier in the series.
Yeah, well, it could have been established in power, couldn't it?
Yeah, good idea, yeah.
And they may be exploring the planet.
So, so much seem when they see, when we sort of sort of come up with these things, I think it does come back to sort of John talking about, it is sort of clear that like the scripts ended up having to be a, there was cleaves of less time to make these sort of, I'm, I'm tweaked because you were having to reuse that time to rewrite stuff.
Oh, completely, yeah.
And I think that's why the scripts in the 2nd half are just that little bit more polished because I think Chris Boucher had more time to, when he knew what he was doing, He had more time to spend with the writers.
So while they were out making the 1st 6 episodes, he was having more time to to polish the next batch.
So, um, but as I say, I do love that 1st half of the season, even though it is, you know, very choppy.
But yeah, I want to, I want to read an, an explanation of that, a robot development cartel, uh, and how Alvina got there and how that works and because she sort, you get the implication, you get, you get the idea that she knows the cartel because she's saying, oh, no, they wouldn't do that.
So she is involved with them in some way, but it's not entirely clear.
Is it like, yeah, you know, you could have a whole prequel about her coming to Avon wanting to bust her partner out of this place that's holding him against his will or something and that could easily be a whole other episode.
It also implies that like maybe maybe she's naive.
You could, on one hand, you could say of going, they'd never do that.
But maybe they would never do that.
And actually, it's not them who were coming after Mueller.
It's some other 3rd party.
Hmm.
Well, they seem quite.
Nice though on the base, don't they?
I mean, that guy seems quite friendly.
I get...
He's Katie Muller's mate, yeah.
Well, maybe the Android planned it all.
Muller was there.
Oh I don't know.
It's nothing...
Right about it all unraffled.
Well, it is implied that the robot has set lots of this up.
So, yeah, maybe maybe it's much nicer in the robot development cartel than we're we're thinking.
Maybe it's just the robot that's the bad egg.
I think we should write that novelisation. ourselves and possibly produce it as an audio drama.
Yeah.
We get it in a few weeks. like decide your destiny one so we can do all the different plot lines.
In a few weeks time, we're going to need something to podcast about. making up our own episodes.
Well, it's all right.
John has form for this already.
Yes, you've done it.
You've done the Lord's work with Pip and Jane Baker.
Sorry, I've lost the thread.
What was that about Pip and Jane Baker?
Oh, sorry, we were just talking about your extra episodes.
Oh, right, right.
Okay, yes.
Yeah.
You blotted it out.
Yeah, Pip and Jane Baker, what could have been?
My goodness.
There's a Star Trek comedy Twitter account called Swear Trek, which just likes to tweet pictures of Star Trek scenes with swearing inserted as captions as if they're all swearing at each other.
It's funnier than our making it sound.
But, um, they, uh, like a few years ago.
And so the episode stops, Spock's brain fascinates them and is a source of endless mirth.
And particularly there's the whole idea and you might need to do some bleeping when this bit comes out, Simon, if you're editing this episode.
Okay, if this bit even stays in, that they redid it as instead of Spock's brain is missing, it's Spot's dick is missing.
And they just took the whole thing, like made a photo novel of the episode with just that, the plot just changed to being that, and everyone's reaction to being told, where is it?
It's in this box.
And that immediately, I couldn't help thinking of that while watching this episode. like, are you sure it's his head in that box?
Because what if it's a robo dick?
And that's actually why Linda Bellingham is so keen to get it back.
It kind of makes my friends.
Recreational relationship.
Yes, yes.
This would never have happened under David Maloney.
Michael Lee Bryant would not have directed that.
Well, it shows how far the series has come though, doesn't it?
I mean, even though series D is my favourite, it is completely different series to the one that Michael Lee Bryant worked on, in terms of tone, um, characters, everything is completely different, but that's part of the reason why I love it so much.
Every series of Blake 7 is so completely different.
But because it's been such a long gap between seasons.
Just stylistically, it is very different.
It's suddenly a very 80 show.
I mean, Siri C was broadcasting 80 and partly made in 80, but it's very 70s in in look and feel, isn't it?
Whereas this is, we're taking the show into the 80s.
Um, briefly, um, and it just, yeah, everything looks different.
Even space looks different.
I think it was, um, yeah, do you know Tim Dickinson?
I think he's done.
He's been on before, hasn't he?
He did a great blog about, um, yes, how stylistically it's different and even space looks different and just the house style has completely changed.
And if Tim is listening to this, if this makes it in.
This doesn't mean I liked him or I've got any respect him as a human being.
It was a reasonably well-written blog.
We'll pass that on to Tim.
The chairs are different this year.
God.
When we're on this planet.
I do end up when we're on the Xenon, I keep, there's little things I just keep wondering about.
That's a lovely bridge that they're on, and it's been lovingly painted green, and I just wonder who painted it?
Was it the, was it the male tribe or the female tribe?
Who had responsibility for the upkeep of all this planetary infrastructure?
Because I guess a lot of these scripts would have been originally drawn up before the idea of them having a base was settled on maybe.
So I guess there's there, they were actually, they visit a planet where episodes, which is what it was for about 3 years.
I think they'd make all right to guess that.
I think they trashed out the basic concept quite early on and then briefed the writers and said, look, this is going to be the theme now.
We've got a base.
We don't have, it's not, we don't have the safety of the liberator anymore.
They're going to be much more on, on the, on the defence, really, because they don't have a choice.
So I think that idea, that theme of them trying to find scientists and build up this group was that was, I'm pretty sure that was established quite early on, and I can only imagine that Xenon and Xenon place. was part of that.
Yeah, they actually, they, if, they started to think as a, almost like as a franchise, you know, they had, um, yeah, quite a lot of information about, you know, what does Xenon base mean, what are the new, you know, the new weapons that they've got?
Um, the Scorpio and and the way they talked about it, they were sort of thinking almost like a, almost like a brand book that you would have have now.
They were sort of thinking about merchandising a lot more and really thinking this is a complete reinvention of the series and, you know, sort of really teeing all that up quite early on.
And then the wheels fell off and everything went wrong.
But I think they were, yeah, really trying to seeing this as a complete reinvention.
Obviously very connected to what went before.
But with a liberator gone, Blake gone, potentially even server land being gone in the very early planning stages, they really saw this as almost like series, A one or...
Yeah, it's a soft reboot, isn't it, yeah?
Yeah, it really is, yeah.
So, um, yeah.
Like Perkwee's 1st year as Doctor Who, it's like how much of this can we actually clear from the decks and it'd still be the same show?
Oh, it's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah, season 7, just how, you know, you see the police box a couple of times once.
There's only one story, the police box, isn't it?
Which is crazy.
Yeah, yeah, everything away. kind of works.
Yeah.
That was a very long rambling.
It wasn't even an answer to a question, was it?
It just me...
Do you know, because I don't, I don't know.
Were any of these scripts found in a cupboard that were on unused series 3 outlines or was it or did they not even have that?
I don't think they did.
I mean, there was a couple of scripts in series C that didn't go ahead.
And actually that's a really good point.
There is some debate if, because Robert Holmes wrote a script for Siri C called Sweetly Dreaming, Slowly Die, Softly Dying or something, something like that.
And some people have theorised that that unused script from Siri C was then used as the 3rd episode, Traitor.
I'm not entirely convinced that is the case, but yeah, I think they had a couple of unused script for Siri C, but I think they were basically, yeah, starting for scratch.
Cupboard was bare pretty much.
Yeah.
And it was, yeah, it was all done in a rush, actually, like the draft script for traitor.
I mean it's still got Calli in there.
But also, you know, Scorpio isn't called Scorpio. called Nighthawk.
And there's all these kind of other changes.
So then I think that was only ever a placeholder before you all get to...
It's crazy.
Yeah, but it's the, but also it's the code name from LOLO, isn't it?
For real?
This is Nighthawk calling.
Yes.
I've been thrilled.
Oh, thank God, I didn't do it then.
And of course, Chris Boucher is quite smart and turns to all the writers who have written for the series so far for the 1st sort of half of the series to various results, but he knows he's going to get a workable script from all of those people.
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.
Ben Steed and Alan Pryor, whatever you think of them, they were old hands, you know, they, you know, very experienced writers, so they could turn stuff around very quickly.
Um, And Yeah, it's quite a rum bunch, actually, isn't it?
You know, James Folett, Adam Pryor, Ben Steed, It's such a shame Chris Boucher couldn't could only do two.
He was only allowed to write 2 episodes this series.
Would have been nice to have one or 2 more from him.
I think that would have really addressed some of the Um, Yeah, the sort of dangling plot threads in the, in the season.
I think he could have firmed it up a little bit and maybe given soothing a bit more of a character if he'd had a chance to write one or 2 more.
And that was rules, was it?
It wasn't that he was too busy. wasn't allowed to.
Yeah, it was rules, yeah.
And to be honest, he had that every year.
It was, he just managed to find a way around the rules. because when Terry Nation couldn't do the last 2 episodes of Series B, had to step in because there was no one else who could do it at such short notice.
Yeah, officially an emergency.
But yeah, exactly.
You always have to get special dispensation to do more than, I mean, you're allowed to do a couple, I think.
But in with this series, he was told he can do too.
And then, Apparently, Terry Nation had always said, if you can only do 2, always write the 1st episode and the last episode because they'll always get repeated.
But yeah, I'd one or 2 more Chris Boucher script, so that would have made a big difference.
Yeah, we're kind of missing the midseries Chris Boucher high point, aren't we?
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Yeah, I could happily lose maybe Assassin and get a voucher script in there.
Yeah, maybe another one as well.
It's a shame as well because he's proved himself quite good that the character piece stuff last year too, and you know, soon really needed one of those and I think if he'd had a midway pointy one, he would have probably used it for that.
And I think to be fair, they probably would have given her a more solid introduction if, where they had to write her into those, those 1st scripts, you know, really, really quickly.
So it literally was a case of just crossing out one name and putting in Sulin.
Um, and in rescue, he just had to shoehorn her in and it, you know, that would, we would have had very, very little, little time to do that.
So, yeah, she is very underwritten. in that 1st half of the series and then she sort of comes into her own, but never actually gets like a, a spotlight episode.
But, you know, she's, you know what, though?
You look at how, um, Jenna and Callie were treated in series B, and whatever you think of series D, you know, does Dana and Su Lin are never presented as weak.
You know, they're always presented as these stone cold killers.
Um, you know, very professional, very good at what they do.
So, and obviously 2 phenomenal actresses, and they, you know, they always deliver, and they're always written a smart and funny.
It's just a shame they didn't maybe get a little bit more time in the spotlight, but it's nowhere near as offensive as it was in series B, just how the female characters were just, Completely relegated. you I mean, I'm very forgiving of Blake 7, but that is one of the, the few elements and like that is, that's bad, you know, what was the thinking behind that?
And you look at the 1st series, and Sally and Jan are actually, they get a pretty good slice of the action.
You know, they get more to do than Michael Keating.
They get more to do than David Jackson.
I would say selling Ivettes on Paul Darrow's level and Jan Chappell maybe just slightly less to do.
But they are, you know, they get a very decent slice of the action and then series B kicks in and they just left, you know, dusting on the liberator.
It is, it's shocking.
I mean, who could, I don't know how anyone could look at those 2 actresses and think, right, let's just completely sideline them because they're just so good in the first, but I'm going off on a complete tangent, a complete round.
That's fine.
It's allowed.
It's Blake 7.
We don't even talk about this enough.
Headhunter.
Come on.
But it's true.
There's never an episode where Dana and Sulin are left behind without someone else with them on the base or wherever or left on Scorpio together. one or the other of them go down for, for, for a mission or whatever.
So it's it's far more equal that way.
I would be curious in the sort of briefs that writers got if it proved that the production had learned from the mistake they made in series B and, you know, looked and realised, you lose like good people, like this way, members of your production crew and that, you know, it's one of those things that is still needs a lot of change, like for in the industry, I think, and yeah, I think, especially for like nowadays, the focus is a lot often on like parts for like older women tend to, like, and be lacking.
Um, but it, I, but it is sort of the, I think there's still, the, the 80s.
I think sometimes like in the wider world, like women are having more career opportunities and going out to work and more full time.
I think it's like other industries, it's a really, really slow change and when I've watched some like other like, of later I ate his programs.
I been really shocked in the, like the depiction of how women are treated because it feels sometimes like nothing's changed from like 15 years earlier in attitudes.
I think, I think lessons were learned, and I think, um, I think in the 1st series, obviously, because Terry Nation was right in all of it, and he was, when he, I think he's a lot better than people giving credit for, and he was trying to give everyone something to do apart from Gan.
And then I think it's just with older new writers coming in, I think they just latched on to Avon Blake Villa.
And so that there was that lack of consistency.
But also, but I think Sally and Jan were really fighting for it and really fighting for more to do, and they've always said, I don't think anyone listened, but you can see they did try and address it a little bit towards the end of that series. like Sally gets more to do in the keeper, for example, and Jan Chappell is really heavily involved in Star one.
So it got a little bit better towards the end of that series.
And, um, yeah, when I was researching the book, I really got the sense that, you know, they were in the, you know, the news of the world did a story about them not being happy and it, I think it did make a difference and you look at how strong Gisette's introduction is at the beginning of series C.
I mean, that she's incredibly well written in those 1st 2 episodes at least, and again, that's Terry Nation.
Um, and Yeah, I mean, it doesn't stay as strong as that, unfortunately, but yeah, she's never, she's never really sidelined.
She's always really proactive and and, you know, just as involved as, as Tarrant, I would say.
So, yeah, I think lessons were learned.
I mean, I'm not saying it was perfect, but it was nowhere near as, um, as awful as what happened in series B. I'd like to draw attention. to some Mary Ridge work on the... crash zooms we get.
So I think we get one on the monster standing up, but my standout, and I do love a crash zoo, and it's one where the Mueller has knocked Avon's gone away, and we crash Zoom into Avon, and Paul Darrow gives this fantastic, horrified face.
And he's like, that is how you use a crash Zoom super.
And as it's zooming in, I think it's the same moment.
I might be combining 2 moments in my head, but as his gun is knocked away, his hat, he immediately turns his hand into a gunshake.
It doesn't do anything with it, but it's just like, where's my gun gone?
I've got a gun.
Oh no, it's only my hand.
Well, I think he hurts his hand, blessing, because then he disappeared for a bit.
Yeah, and he, because when he, he has that great line, he's like, I'll be back and he goes off and changes, he's holding his hands with it.
I think the implication is that he's burnt his hand, bless him.
Because we do see the other gun like turning red like it's hot.
So that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, those bits...
I mean, yeah, very over the top.
Yeah, crash zooms and what have you, but they, they are still really effective as well, aren't they?
So I was just going to mention the awful spacesuits.
I'm loath to criticise production elements for like seven, but they are just...
The rescue suits, yeah.
Flash Gordon in 1932, I think.
They mixed them from another production when clearly like the Mohican must have had some sort of use.
Yeah, maybe they got him from the space rights or something. don't know.
Just spray paint and gold.
It'd be fine.
Yeah, Nicky Rocker is not my favourite designer, Rocky Knickers, as they used to call him, but he did the whole of series D and half of series C as well.
And, you know, some of his stuff's good, but there are some bits that are just pure, I mean, that's just rubbish, isn't it?
I mean, Darrow even get, I keep calling him Darrow, because Avon, what's Avon?
just Paul Darrow.
He even does before, it's time to fetch.
I give this long pause, the rescue suit.
Yeah, they're not.
They're not good.
They have to, um, the flight suits, don't they?
I'm sorry, I'm skipping head, but in Warlord, they have some really lovely flight suits that Avon and...
There's those green and coloured ones.
They're superb.
Yeah, I really like those.
So yeah, he could do it.
I mean, you and I like their regular outfits.
I just wish they could have changed them more, but um, but yeah, that is a, that's a production.
Faux pas there, I would say.
It's very gray. series D. Yeah, it is.
Which, it's, in some ways, like, it's nice when you get some sort of the out of their design of stuff because all the sets are really great and it does feel so 80s in a way of like 80s futurism.
So, God, it's dull, I think, and it feels like the costumes blend into its name sometimes.
Yeah, the sets are not as a whole.
I mean, there are some notable exceptions, but, Yeah, the set design in the in the 1st 3 series I thought was always pretty good.
And yeah, not so much here.
I feel like they do well in headhunter because to make it slightly different because they use dim lighting and they use.
I think on Scorcare, it's sort of kind of almost like dark blue lighting where there's like sort of the lightings going dim.
So it does feel like we have a bit of variety in this one.
You've got when where Avon's meeting Vina in like the main recreational area, meeting area, where the wine's kept that bit.
And that's sort of all sort of fully lit and everything, but then when they're running through doors, we could actually get the sort of lights coming around and we've got darkness and shadows that, you know, doing as best they can on like studio VT.
Um, So that sort of works sort of quite well and then we get to aim the forest.
So I think that actually something that is mostly set in, like, students on, like, Zen and Basin, and Scorpio that normally I do really dislike just how gray and like, and indull it, it's, uh, but they fulfil like, so do, as much as they can with it this episode to give it some variety.
Yeah, you're right.
The lighting is really good.
It's used to create mood, isn't it?
And, um, and I've got to say, I do love the Scorpio set, even, I know it's not, not everyone does love it, and I do love anything to do with Zen on bass, but it's just that when they go down to that other place in, you know, the, the robot development catel.
Um, that could be another, you know, a closet in Xenophase, isn't it?
You know, it just doesn't, it just doesn't stick.
Because I remember watching it last night.
I was thinking, I've seen this episode probably about 50 times.
And I was, oh, I can't remember what the, The HQ of the robot development cartel looks like, but it just, but now I can't even remember it, what it looks like, even having seen it only, you know, the other night, it's, Well, it's basically got a cubicle with a door.
Yeah, it feels like.
Yeah, the more I think about it, I think Mueller, the Android was behind everything because he was after Aurak, wasn't he?
So I think, Mueller was doing whatever he was doing with the robot development cartel, and then the Android basically, I think he then realised, oh, this Android is actually really dangerous, and before he could put the inhibitor in place, the Android had hatched his plan to get ORAC, and do all the things he was doing, and maybe just, you know, really surgically remove that head, and did whatever the hell he did to animate it.
So, yeah, I think we just have to assume it was a very, very, very clever Android.
Improve a mental image of it wandering out with Aurac instead of a head on top of its shoulders.
That would have been that would have looked pretty good, actually.
Reaching up to put the key in.
Yeah, put your own gear.
Can key himself.
Yeah.
Speaking of reaching up, I wonder if they got complaints about Paul Darrow climbing up that electric pylon to rescue his Frisbee at the end.
Everyone's seen those public information films and then Blake 7 go and do this in primetime.
And Paul Durham making it look cool as well.
I thought he looked like the coolest thing you could possibly want to do.
Oh, come on, everything he does is cool, but yeah, I love, I love all that.
Um, Yeah, he's loving it. doing his own stunts as well because all that smoke goes off in his in his face as well.
And then, but yeah, the tossing away of the, um, of the pliers, whatever the hell it is, is just just beautiful.
Anything on the surface of Xenon always gets me going.
I love those, you know, the exit from the base.
Um, yeah, so the more time we spend on Zenon in an episode, that makes me very, very happy.
The doors are really cool.
This is one of my last images of Blake 7 from when I was a kid was of doors in rock faces, and this all comes from series D. Doors.
Lake 7 has always been doors in rock faces.
Oh, that is Lake 7, isn't it?
I love a secret face and an entrance.
Blake 7 does base entrances very, very well.
Stick some doors in a quarry.
That's not my name.
Oh, that just gets me.
That gets me in the field. really does.
Love it.
I was just going to mention another really lovely bit.
I did actually make notes.
I'm so organised.
The bit where Villa's in the cupboard.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. and you can hear a stool in coming and then she just opens the door and she said, she just completely takes the Mickey out of him.
I just think that's great.
And his acting is so good.
So again, he's sort of like slightly mortified when he steps out of the cupboard.
It's also, and I won't give anything away, but it is a premonition for later in the series.
Oh, yes, definitely, yeah, definitely.
And we get a brilliant final scene up on the surface.
I love the, you know, the Tarrant and and Dana and Sulin are disobeying Avon completely.
That final bit of drama of him realising what they've done in his fury. is just really well played.
I love that.
And then but then Aurat gets the last line, doesn't he, when he said, yes, master.
And the way Paul Darrow looks at him and he's like, you can tell he's really, even though he's still livid, he's kind of tough.
Borax being sarcastic to him.
And he is kind of the dad who all the kids have ganged up on is kind of the...
You're saying, oh, narration gap, isn't it?
Well, it's like a family day out because it's not...
I mean, I guess the stakes are quite high in this episode, but it just feels like, oh, okay, another bloody calamity that we've all got into in the, Yeah, I mean, they work really well together as a group, but yeah, he's definitely.
The teenagers have grown up and he's not in control of them all anymore.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's just that frustrated shut up.
Yeah.
So good.
Well, I think the prospects for organic life are now secured, and we've done justice to a really, really good episode of Blake 7 tonight.
Oh, I'm really glad you guys like it too, because it's not, I don't think it's a universally loved episode, is it?
I mean, I think people just think, well, it's not as bad as what went before.
But yeah, I think it's great.
When I was watching through for the 1st time, people kept sort of saying, oh, you got off a while before I sort of, it series D really sort of kicks off.
And yet, I like reached this and I was like, this is brilliant.
And I always talk surprised.
Yeah, it felt like it had like a lukewarm like response to it.
I was like, but no, like this is sort of in it for me.
And it's a while further into the series, I was thinking, this is going to like stay in like my favourite episode of series D. Yeah, and for me, yeah, it is that thing where it's got exactly the right amount of slightly ridiculous doings in it, that just hits that sweet spot that is so hard to hit because not enough and you get something that's fine and good and exciting, and too much and the wheels might start to come off.
But this just this hits the spot exactly.
It's getting a little bit preposterous and just really exciting.
Yeah, yeah.
Sorry.
It's, yeah, great family entertainment as well.
You know, this is a really good 50 minutes of great family entertainment, something for everyone.
The murder of a national treasure.
Yes.
Thrown in for good, maybe.
And I think that a lot of that with quite a few episodes in series D, like power, for example, and I know that episode does have issues.
But you can just imagine watching that, you know, back in the 80s with your family, which I did.
And it was, you know, everyone was, I'm not saying the whole family was hooked.
But I remember my older brother, like Blake 7, you know, my mom and dad would watch it too.
And it, yeah, it's just, it's okay, it's maybe not hitting all the sports for like the real afficionados.
But it's just a really good solid hour of really good, good telly.
I think you've got to remember that is it was, this was made as a slab of entertainment, mentally watched once, and then forgotten.
I mean, it says a lot that we're here talking about it all these years later, but I think it definitely did its job of just being, yeah, really solid family entertainment.
Can't say fair than that.
Thank you, Hannah and John, for coming along and discussing headhunter with us.
We'll be back next time when I believe we're getting some kind of message from the planet Domo.
The ninth, 5 subjects.
What can it mean?
Find out next week on maximum power.
So let's say thank you very much for listening and goodbye.
Goodbye.
Bye.
That's the power, go, go!
30 seconds thrust it, Maxi.
Switching command.
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