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This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:17:33

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Welcome back to the Maximum Power podcast.

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This week we're talking about the episode Assassin, just a regular assassin, not a deadly one, so set your expectations accordingly.

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You all quite comfortable?

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Then, ladies and gentlemen, for your edification and delight, the voices you all know and love.

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I'm Mark.

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I'm Brendan.

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I'm Nathan.

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And I'm Peter.

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Oh no.

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I don't really like clever people.

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I like more, rather.

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I'll try and quell my fear long enough to go round a table and get an overview of what we all thought of this one.

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Should we do reverse alphabetical, so Peter?

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Do you know, I remember quite liking this when I 1st saw it and I still quite like it.

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It sort of fits into the 1st half of series D a little bit more than the second.

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The 2nd kind of gets its act together, whereas I don't really think this episode does get its act together very much.

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Um, I think it's a lot of fun and I think the 1st half is probably a little bit better than the 2nd half, but um, yeah, there is a lot of fun to be had here, I think.

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I thought it was incredibly tense and scary when I was a child when I 1st saw it at like the age of 12 or something when it was 1st broadcast here in Australia.

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I thought it was amazing and Dudley's music and the lighting and the whole atmosphere of it.

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Now I think it's absolutely laughable.

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Like it's, but in a good way.

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Like, it's properly enjoying.

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It's properly enjoyable.

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It's, it's as if we had mission to destiny, only it was fun and enjoyable.

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That's how I'm going.

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You're saying it's still amazing, but just in a different way.

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Yeah, exactly.

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I actually quite enjoyed it.

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Like, before watching it for the podcast, I don't think I'd seen it for many, many years, and I do think that it has its flaws, but, um, going back to something you said, Peter, about it, you know, fitting more into the side of the season before, they've really bedded in.

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I think there's a lot more bedded in here than there was in, say, Stardrive, and we've even got kind of, we're on a planet. space pirates.

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But when someone asked me what I was doing this weekend, I messaged them and said, I'm coming home to record a podcast.

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Um, It's about an episode of Blake 7, where an assassin tries to assassinate the crew with their assassinating robo spiders.

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The episode is called Assassin.

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The thing is this episode, it starts off so well.

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Like those early scenes on the Scorpio flight deck are a lot of fun.

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There's some good interaction.

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There's just an abundance of riches in that 1st part of the story set on Domo, the ninth.

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Son of Domenith.

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I love that Domo is a planet near the edge of the 6th quadrant, only in Blake 7.

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Quadrant.

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There's so much to enjoy in that early part, even from Villa and Avon teleporting down and sort of Avon doing his whole Fey space crash victim bit, Villa covering his eyes when he gets kind of wrestled to the ground.

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It starts off really well.

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Yeah, I think the setup's really good as well.

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I really enjoy the buildup of cancer, this amazing, infallible assassin and everything, but then...

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Blake 7ed it up by the end, haven't they?

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And given this incredible assassin, a ridiculous theatrical streak and just nobody's kind of acting within their own interests and it's, yeah, it just kind of falls apart.

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Why does she have a spider instead of a crab?

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It's simply because they had a spider from full circle until they pressed it into use.

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Just, well, it's in my head, actually, because I don't know if it's in my nose.

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Is it Omega's is it part of Omega's costume, one of the brokers?

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Yes.

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Yes it is.

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Yeah, it's omega's sort of, um, I'm not sure what the right word is jerkin, perhaps, and I think... gauntlet sort of thing, yeah.

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God, I don't want to see how Miggs is jerkin.

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And also in those scenes, we have Betty Marsden who would later find notoriety as the dance mistress of the 1st season of French and Saunders.

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Mr. Saunders, my girls will not stand for this.

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Oh wow.

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She?

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I mean, she did a few carry on films, I think.

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She's in carry on camping, possibly.

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Um, uh, so she's a sort of minor get, I think.

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And she's great.

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Yeah, she's delivering everything in that carry on kind of way.

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I am a public servant.

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Those scenes between her and Servilan are amazing.

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And I think that the episode would be poor without her.

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And she even gets to do the thing where they teleport away, so they disappear in front of her eyes and she does the shocked face.

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I always love that.

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Does she drop her glass?

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I think she dropped her plastic glass.

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It's like when you get a wino in a James Bond film, isn't it?

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Yes.

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That guy, yeah.

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Do you think she'd been picking out on the mangan?

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In those early scenes on Scorpio.

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I do like they've brought in like some Eames loungers, so it's not just people hunched over their consoles all the time, but it does mean when we have this scene of, you know, Avon's meant to be almost scared of cancer.

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He's just sort of lying back like he's on a beach somewhere.

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You know, it's not, it's not the octagonal sofa from the liberator.

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And basically because Avan and Sulin are just there to kind of swagger and give muscular quips to each other and don't actually have a role in running the ship. those end up being their chairs.

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So they look like, I think I've said this before.

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They look like, you know, their pool side on the fucking Lido deck of the Pacific Princess the whole time.

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It really lends the whole thing no air of urgency whatsoever.

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It's fantastic.

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I think it's a great choice.

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And it is, you know, a testament to how incredibly cheap, that said is, you know, like there was no room for anything.

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They didn't really think through what the characters were all going to be doing.

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Uh, you know, the liberator flight deck had all of these spaces and all of these interesting blazes to shoot.

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But this is all one level, all tiny.

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And so it's just like, let's buy a couple of kind of banana chairs and fling them next to the teleporter.

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It's like everything in series D. It's a little bit lower rent than everything that came for it.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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That sort of holiday pool side impression is reinforced a little bit as well because people are drinking all the time, aren't they?

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Servolan is drinking with the 12-year-old captain of her shit.

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Who's definitely not old enough to be drinking wine, then with Verlis on the planet as well.

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They're sitting quaffing drinks.

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The deliberator crew are always drinking.

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It kind of makes me think like, I think there was a bit more of a culture in the 80s of drinking like that.

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When I joined a bank in 2005, some of the older members of staff were regretting that you could no longer go for a couple of pints at lunchtime and then come back to work and that kind of thing.

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So well, they just thought that that culture would just continue well off into the future or maybe become more kind of liberal and people would just, you know, kind of drink when they're actually at work all the time.

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Yeah, it seems like an odd thing, doesn't it?

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Well, he's just trying to make it more adult.

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Yeah, I think so.

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I think so.

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As we said before, the wine isn't mentioning Blake 7 in the other 3 series at all.

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It's always space drinks of...

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Adrenaline, Soma.

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Yeah, yeah, but we make it wine, I think, from here on.

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And that's the Xenon bases kind of carafe and wine glasses, isn't it, that Sulin brings in at the end?

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I have 2 observations to make about the wine in this episode.

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One is that Villa had drunken oil in animals.

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So they've clearly discovered a new source of the wine.

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And the other is that when you were talking about a culture of drinking, it puts me in mind of when Gareth Thomas and Jacqueline Pierce were on a chat show.

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I think it might have been Saturday Superstore or something like that, and they were being asked a question by children who'd written in.

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And one of the questions was, did they have to do anything?

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Like, you know, they weren't allowed to drink while they were shooting or stuff like that, and they both just laughed uproariously for about 10 seconds and then didn't answer.

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Yeah, it's like no one can get through voice of the past.

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No one can get through voice from the past sober and that includes the cast.

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A glass of wine?

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The other thing, of course, that debuts in those opening scenes is the 2nd set of costumes for the season.

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Um, and they're visibly lighter, aren't they?

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Like there's no jumper for Tarrant or anything like that.

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And are they terrible?

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I think they're worse than the previous.

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I think Sue Linds is better, but hers is the only one that is.

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Yeah.

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I especially don't like Gisette's.

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Yeah, she's dressed as slave.

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It so weird.

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That that that cannot be the title. very problematic.

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Glamorous purple version of slave.

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Go ahead, look.

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Sounds racist to me, really.

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Do you know, the slave doesn't actually get a line in this, so maybe it was a bit peeved.

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But yes, those costumes, they're, I mean, it's part of the reason that the aesthetic of series D isn't as good as the others because they got it just right in sort of the latter half of series B and then series C.

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It had a real, what I think of as the defining bleak 7 look.

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Whereas giving them costumes, which they just wear for half the season and then half the season.

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The summer in winter costumes, doesn't really work and they're, they're all these boring kind of 80s space colours.

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They're coveralls.

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They're gray and they're white and they're black.

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There's no colour in them at all.

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I recently listened to the big finish, 40th anniversary special the way ahead, which has some very good interviews on there, but Stephen Pacey and Glynis Barber talk about those costumes, and the costume designer for this season is Nicolas Rocker, and the cast actually called their costumes, their Nikki Rockers.

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Hang on.

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Brendan, I think they call them their rocky knickers.

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Yeah, well...

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But Glynis Barber is on record as saying, I was given 2 costumes and they were both terrible, which is why I have a different hairstyle every week because it was the only thing I could control to make myself look decent.

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But I actually, I quite like the cut of um, this new costume she has.

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It's, yeah, it's just the fact that everyone is wearing gray except for Paul, who's wearing black, and yes, Gisette is wearing purple, but it's kind of a gray aubergini kind of purple.

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Like it's not striking and I get they're going for a a darker, greyer tone over the whole season.

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But at the same time, you, when you massively reinvent something, you want it to be as good if not better.

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Not just okay in a different way.

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I mean, I think the problem is that they rein it in and try and make it less Blake 70.

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I might have said this before, but you now have a boring spaceship.

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You have normal space guns.

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You know, everything is very, very generic, and we're trying to be very gun and very serious in a show that has verless in it.

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You know, like it's just ridiculous.

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And a script like Assassin.

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The whole thing face plants terribly and ends up being much camper and much sillier than any of the previous 3 seasons.

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And I say that as a, as a, you know, uh, sort of, uh, reverent compliment to the season.

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Like, it's great, but, you know, like, you can tell that it's not really in poor old V Lorimer's control.

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It doesn't actually work out the way that he intended, I think.

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Do you think Verlas, as well as being an anagram of silver?

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She was one of the space pirate people.

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So she's Long John Silver.

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That's what she said.

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Do you think it was also a contraction of Violorimer?

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I can fully believe it.

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There is a glorious bit in one of the one of the Blake 7 audios where they decide to name a planet Via, just as a tribute to Via Lorimer, but Darrow clearly hasn't twigged until he says it.

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And so there's a blooper saying, Jetta's going down to V.

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Oh my god.

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Oh, he'd love that.

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Have you seen this line?

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I don't think I'm going to be on the episode where we talk about games.

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So I'll drop in this little nugget here.

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I interviewed Stratford Johns for Doctor Who magazine, and so I couldn't resist asking about his appearance in games in a couple of weeks, in fact, in next week.

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And he said that he hated the costume that they put him in.

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He said, I can't wear this.

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You know, he was fresh out of, um, fresh out of Zed cars or whatever he came from.

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And so he marched down the corridor to Via Lorimer's office, because he knew Vera, and he walked in.

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Ver, darling, look what they've put me in.

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And Vera looked him up and down and said, darling, it's wonderful.

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And so, John, she's went.

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All right, darling, just for you.

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It really was terribly butch and gritty there, wasn't it, even in the production office.

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Oh dear.

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I think the scenes with Servolan and Verles are quite nice.

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So I'm being that relaxed and like seems to be genuinely enjoying herself.

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Like, she's she's got what she wants from Furley. doesn't need to sort of threaten intimidate her or kind of manipulator or anything.

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So it's quite nice to see that side of server line, I think, in those scenes.

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I have a slight problem in that I think that there's something racist about the way this is portrayed.

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And what it is, right, is that this, I think, is the only Blake 7 episode that has actual slavery in it.

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Am I right?

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It's certainly the only one that has, it is a major plot point.

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Is there slavery in the Blake 7 universe?

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Slave?

195
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Hmm, there's slave.

196
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Yeah, it's true.

197
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There is slave.

198
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And so this is the 1st time we have slavery.

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And, you know, it looked like, the previous century England and America had slavery, but we have to portray it as a sort of Middle Eastern thing.

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And so we get all of these shitty stock costumes together and we have, you know, the music and all of that because it's a, it's actually a kind of, it's, it's Arabs doing slavery.

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That's who does it.

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And I think that's a little bit kind of a bit of a problem.

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It does mean that everyone's wearing just the most hilariously preposterous outfits, and we do get the boys, you know, with their stomachs exposed, holding fans behind serverland and furlers, which is kind of hilarious.

204
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And we get the wonderful Adam Blackwood.

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Um, who is Balazar in the mysterious planet, playing agent talk, the one who goes on about Valeria, of Pryn, and Nadratov, of Gurun best.

206
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Oh, I wish we could have seen Valeria of Prim, and Nadratov of Grim Pest.

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I'd like to imagine that they would have been played by Via Lorimer and Peter Miles.

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I'd assume Valeria was a woman, but I think Nadritov was actually looking forward to participating in some of the extra duties that Avon would have been capable of doing after a hard day's work in the evening. with knee bronx.

209
00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:11.940
And the other thing is, fuck.

210
00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.019
There are a lot of BBC press on beards on the planet domo, aren't there?

211
00:16:18.179 --> 00:16:22.679
All the fashion on Domo the ninth, but they're clean shaven on Domo.

212
00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:29.879
I will say, I will say Benos has a particularly egregious press on beard, but those are not press on abs.

213
00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:31.139
Oh my god.

214
00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:35.940
So these are the only abs in the history of Blake 7. believe me, I've checked.

215
00:16:36.299 --> 00:16:39.120
And it is incredible, isn't it?

216
00:16:39.179 --> 00:16:43.620
Like now it's the 80s you're allowed to have men who are kind of eye candy.

217
00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:48.000
And, you know, Ben, obviously you'd need a sack over his head, I think, probably even without the beard.

218
00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:54.120
But he does look very, you know, very fit in those scenes, doesn't he?

219
00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:55.139
Like visible abs.

220
00:16:55.559 --> 00:17:02.759
I do wonder when he captures Avon, where he makes a bigger big thing of the fact that Paul Darrow is a bit skinny.

221
00:17:02.820 --> 00:17:05.579
I mean, maybe on paper.

222
00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:09.900
That's like Villa weighs 73 kilos.

223
00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:11.700
No, no one's playing that.

224
00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:14.640
Yeah, I don't weigh 73 kilos.

225
00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:17.640
I weigh 69 kilos.

226
00:17:17.700 --> 00:17:18.420
Oh, hurang.

227
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:18.720
Nice.

228
00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:24.660
Um, on the topic of, um, on the topic of verless.

229
00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:33.480
I was just thinking, you know, it's always nice when they set up Servolan to have witty dialogue with another woman.

230
00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.539
And, you know, I'm thinking back to major Thania.

231
00:17:36.599 --> 00:17:42.119
I'm thinking even LeGron, you know, even though her performance is...

232
00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.380
A plot.

233
00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:50.099
I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking Costos.

234
00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:51.900
You know, it's a different energy.

235
00:17:51.900 --> 00:18:01.079
And sort of last season, Serverland was just constantly surrounded by men, you know, and this season, she's been constantly surrounded by men again.

236
00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:14.759
It just brings an immediately different energy and there's especially an energy between them of sort of, um, I think it's B. Arthur and Angela Lansbury in that scene in Mame in the cafe.

237
00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:19.740
Yeah, there's this energy that is like, oh, darling, oh, darling.

238
00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:21.000
Oh, you're looking wonderful.

239
00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:23.339
I see the scars have healed, that sort of thing.

240
00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:31.680
Yes, and in a way, it's kind of a pity that Betty Marsden disappears from the plot when she does.

241
00:18:31.740 --> 00:18:33.660
But at the same time, it makes sense.

242
00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:43.500
You know, she's not going to go chasing after, um, uh, Robert Holmes's robot, Doctor Who, abortive attempt.

243
00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:46.259
You know, she's not going to go chasing after kneebrocks to get her money back.

244
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:47.519
No.

245
00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:51.539
It always works really well when they give Servolan a comedy sidekick.

246
00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:54.660
Do you remember the guy from Gambit of Jarier?

247
00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:00.900
And Villa last year is the only good thing about Villa.

248
00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:06.000
Also, to your point from earlier, Mark, the fact that her spaceship captain looks so young.

249
00:19:06.059 --> 00:19:08.880
Servan's always had a bit of a thing for a twink.

250
00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:12.720
Remember that guy who was like her little confidant in her 1st episode?

251
00:19:12.779 --> 00:19:13.500
Right, right.

252
00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:13.920
Yeah.

253
00:19:13.980 --> 00:19:16.079
I thought we were old friends.

254
00:19:17.700 --> 00:19:33.480
So also, I think we should talk about how that scene ends because of course it ends with the, you know, some kind of action sequence, which is astoundingly badly directed, like absolutely appalling.

255
00:19:33.539 --> 00:19:39.960
And like suddenly Avon's been captured and it's not clear who is where or what the hell is going on.

256
00:19:40.019 --> 00:19:48.960
And there's one shot, one magnificent shot, which is the best shot in the whole episode, which is Dana comes down with a gun.

257
00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:54.720
And then some person turns, she goes, you and see Servilant.

258
00:19:54.779 --> 00:19:56.880
Then she's distracted by someone whom she attacks.

259
00:19:56.940 --> 00:20:02.279
And then Silverland just walks out of your house. really slowly.

260
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.079
It's so absurd.

261
00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:05.940
It's so gorgeous.

262
00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:06.599
It's wonderful.

263
00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:09.839
It's just 2 seconds, but it's the best part of the episode.

264
00:20:09.900 --> 00:20:18.839
So we know the background of this is the David Sullivan Proudfoot, who directs the rest of the episode and did a miserable job on Traitor and Star Drive earlier in the year.

265
00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:21.240
He wasn't available for the location work.

266
00:20:21.299 --> 00:20:23.579
And so Veramar himself took over.

267
00:20:23.640 --> 00:20:29.880
And it is astonishingly badly covered for Ver. used to be a really good director on this show.

268
00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:33.839
I can only imagine that they ran out of time or something because you're right, Nathan.

269
00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.019
There are key shots which are missing from the action.

270
00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:39.059
So things just seem to jump around.

271
00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:40.380
It's not covered very well.

272
00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:44.460
I will say I do think the location work is better than the studio work, but more on that.

273
00:20:44.579 --> 00:20:45.779
Interesting.

274
00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:52.079
Yeah, I think the fights aren't well directed because the angle you can see that the kicks and the punches aren't connecting.

275
00:20:53.099 --> 00:21:02.279
Then, yeah, like you say, um, so you don't see where Servoland goes, so it's not clear why she isn't just shot, uh, because there doesn't seem too much cover there.

276
00:21:02.279 --> 00:21:12.779
And then I had to rewind the bit where they actually capture Avon because they grab him in the background and there's something in the foreground which takes your attention.

277
00:21:12.900 --> 00:21:17.940
So it seems like it's just a quick cut and suddenly he's serverland standing over him.

278
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:21.839
Uh, and he's been has been captured, but it's happening in the distance.

279
00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:27.779
You can see his arms being grabbed, but you'd never spot that on a kind of a 1st view and it's very strange.

280
00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:29.099
Yeah.

281
00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:42.839
And even down to like when kneebrox gets the bracelet and sort of very, and sort of very secretly pulls it out of his shirt and holds it in the air for 10 seconds and then very secretly puts it back and it's like, no one noticed that?

282
00:21:42.900 --> 00:21:44.880
Yeah, it also looks...

283
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:46.619
No one could be shot on a completely different day.

284
00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:48.900
There was something very odd going on.

285
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:50.279
In who's to say it wasn't?

286
00:21:51.539 --> 00:21:59.460
I mean, even though it's not very well shot, it does have the bit of Serveland saying that she wants Avon to address her as Ms. Trev.

287
00:22:00.779 --> 00:22:02.339
That was good.

288
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:02.819
That was good.

289
00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:05.700
What are they doing with Serve Land's makeup this year?

290
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:07.740
I mean, we talked about the costuming, but the makeup?

291
00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:16.380
I know it's astoundingly 80s, but the blush on her cheeks in this episode is so heavy, it looks like bruising.

292
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:21.000
Which may be a Bensteed fantasy come to watch.

293
00:22:21.059 --> 00:22:38.400
You know, I do have to wonder if it's, If it's just an accident or if it's an effort to sort of show how delusional she's gotten, because it's either by the end of series C or early on in series D, she's apparently named herself Supreme Empress.

294
00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:39.900
She's not just president anymore.

295
00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:41.940
She's supreme empress of the federation.

296
00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:52.380
And I wonder if this season there's an effort to make her even more outrageous to just to go full, you know, mad Nero Caligula kind of thing.

297
00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:59.940
Um, it's it's quite funny because uh, the other of the day, I just rewatched the series A Blu-ray trailer.

298
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:12.720
And of course, you know, Serverland's makeup is far more muted, her hair is longer, it's still short, and she hasn't quite adopted the maximum power of it all at that point.

299
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:21.839
And then to come straight into this, where, you know, she's, she's bidding 700 Tal Mars or whatever it is.

300
00:23:21.900 --> 00:23:23.160
Them.

301
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:23.759
700.

302
00:23:24.299 --> 00:23:27.299
Yeah, 700 bottles of Vimto for Avil.

303
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:47.819
Yeah, it's, I mean, it's the same character and that's fine, but it just made me think, okay, yeah, she's gone from like, Chief of the Armed Forces to president of a federation that then crumbles and she's somehow been deposed between seasons as well.

304
00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:51.119
Yeah, it's it's an old, it's an odd thing.

305
00:23:51.180 --> 00:23:58.680
I think, I mean, the clear actual reason for it is that we have a new costume designer, a new makeup person, is that right?

306
00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:06.000
I mean, that's what's kind of happening and I don't want to sort of leap ahead because we haven't mentioned her and we'll obviously spend some time talking about her.

307
00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:07.680
Don't know who you can be talking about.

308
00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:20.700
Yeah, Caroline Holdaway, at the end in her final scene, has makeup, eye makeup that looks very much like what, um, Jackie is sporting in traitor at the end of trader.

309
00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:36.119
And I really like the dress in this one because, like when we had June Hudson and we had a giant fucking lizard crawling up her breasts or whatever or, you know, like just these absurd outfits, that was magnificent.

310
00:24:36.180 --> 00:24:40.259
I mean, that was absolutely glorious and the sort of thing that you were never going to see anywhere else.

311
00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:46.319
But I mean, I just think this simple black cocktail dress that she's wearing in this episode is fantastic.

312
00:24:46.380 --> 00:24:49.500
And the thing that she's wearing on location is pretty great as well.

313
00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:52.200
And just the black, with her black hair.

314
00:24:52.259 --> 00:25:00.839
You know, I just think she looks astoundingly great in series D. Even if uh, the costumes aren't quite as inventive.

315
00:25:00.900 --> 00:25:05.759
I mean, her best outfit, I said a few weeks ago, was traitor.

316
00:25:05.819 --> 00:25:07.680
Like that's her best outfit in the entire run.

317
00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:15.660
Um, but, you know, just, I think that there are, these are reliably good outfits in series D. I think she looks magnificent.

318
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:18.180
It's just a thing to do with the colour as well.

319
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:21.480
Like with the other regulars who are all in greys and whites and black.

320
00:25:21.539 --> 00:25:33.539
She's just in black this year, and she has been since children are on, which people have retrofitted to be her and mourning for her, for her cloned babies, but I think they just decided she looks good in black and she does.

321
00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:38.640
She looks great, but think of her from Gambit in that red outfit, which is just so striking.

322
00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:40.380
I think we miss a bit of that colour.

323
00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:41.039
Yeah.

324
00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:00.960
Evan also meets kneebrooks on the planet Domo, who's played by Richard Herndel.

325
00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:05.640
That's the only other thing I've seen him in, apart from the 5 doctors, so I was kind of interested in that.

326
00:26:07.019 --> 00:26:22.859
Couldn't really sort of figure out the point of his character, but then I think it works really well once they're on cancer's ship because I kind of guessed fairly early on that the man purporting to be cancer isn't him or isn't them.

327
00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:28.259
But it did keep me guessing for a while whether it was kneebrox or Piri.

328
00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:34.500
So his presence was quite good in that and then I kept switching between the 2 until the scene they have together where she gives herself away.

329
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:37.319
Yeah, I thought he was really good in this.

330
00:26:37.380 --> 00:26:42.119
I think they just needed someone aboard the ship for cancer to be able to kill who wasn't the regular.

331
00:26:42.180 --> 00:26:42.480
Yeah.

332
00:26:42.539 --> 00:26:45.660
Yeah, he had to kill someone otherwise, how is he an assassin?

333
00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:52.559
you know, and so he kills, I mean, she kills cancer and she kills um, and she kills rocks.

334
00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:53.940
Rada cancer.

335
00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:55.259
He's amazing.

336
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:04.380
I think I mean, this is the performance that got him the role, isn't it?

337
00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:05.099
In the 5 docks?

338
00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:05.519
Yes.

339
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:05.819
Yes.

340
00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:13.380
Yeah. yeah Yeah, Ian Levine saw this and suggested him a couple of years down the line to John Nathan Turner.

341
00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:14.339
Yeah.

342
00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:19.259
I mean, he's kind of terrible as the 1st doctor in the 5 doctors, but he'll do, I guess.

343
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:23.460
Well, it's funny that, you know, in the scene where he's comforting Peary.

344
00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:26.579
He's more doctor-ish than he is for the whole of the 5 doctors.

345
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:31.980
So you kind of go, yep, okay, I get why that that choice is made.

346
00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:35.099
So I can only blame Peter Moffatt, which is always a good choice.

347
00:27:39.059 --> 00:27:43.680
I saw the 5 doctors first, so he's sort of my default 1st.

348
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:58.559
Yeah I think, you know, it's a Doctor Who thing that no one could watch the episodes back then and we knew he was the grumpy one and so that's how Richard Herndle played it, you know. then we later found out that that was unfair but we kind of had no way of knowing that at the time, I think.

349
00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:01.019
Yeah, I think he's kind of nice.

350
00:28:01.079 --> 00:28:03.900
I mean, there's, there's an odd moment.

351
00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:06.299
There's a couple of odd moments between him and Avan, isn't there?

352
00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:14.279
Particularly the you promised thing because there's a thing where he says you have to promise and then I even does his special slightly camper.

353
00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:15.660
I don't give a shit voice.

354
00:28:15.779 --> 00:28:19.559
Okay, I promise, you know, and you kind of go, oh, right, okay.

355
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:25.319
But, you know, he does bring him up and he's clearly there as a kind of red shirt in order to get killed.

356
00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:28.200
So, you know, cancer can kill someone.

357
00:28:28.259 --> 00:28:29.579
But you know what?

358
00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:41.940
Like, Paul has said that there were times where he said to either David Millennial, Via Lorimer, I really don't think Avon would do this, like programming Zen to accept, um, Tarrant and Dana as crew.

359
00:28:42.000 --> 00:29:02.700
But I think the scenes between Avon and Nibrocks are actually, they actually give a bit of texture to Avon's character because all through the top half of the season, he's been a right bastard, you know, 1st of all, he gets the ship blown up on terminal, and, you know, then there's um, poor Dr. Paxton.

360
00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:05.220
And the various other experts.

361
00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:08.400
Not to mention the relish that he kills Benos.

362
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:09.420
Benos.

363
00:29:09.480 --> 00:29:10.019
Yes.

364
00:29:10.019 --> 00:29:11.220
Oh yeah, that's great.

365
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:14.460
Then I was as a slaver, like we wanted him to be killed.

366
00:29:14.519 --> 00:29:15.420
Oh, totally.

367
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:23.099
Then, you know, Avon actually does, you know, make an honourable agreement with kneebrocks.

368
00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:25.680
I think Knebrock's coming aboard with cancer's.

369
00:29:25.740 --> 00:29:27.240
Ship makes absolutely no sense.

370
00:29:27.299 --> 00:29:31.140
So they put in a little seed of kneebrock saying, well, you can take me home after this.

371
00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:34.980
Like, yeah, on the ship that doesn't have the assassin, maybe.

372
00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:36.359
What are you doing here?

373
00:29:36.420 --> 00:29:42.119
Um, but you know, it's, it's kind of then shot a bit like a horror movie.

374
00:29:42.180 --> 00:29:45.000
So the character's motivations aren't there to make sense.

375
00:29:45.059 --> 00:29:47.519
The character's motivations are there to get them alone with the killer.

376
00:29:47.579 --> 00:29:48.779
Yeah.

377
00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:54.059
I think, um, Knebrox is a rarity in Blake 70s, a truly sympathetic character.

378
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:59.460
You know, he's just an old man who got caught up in this thing and he brings out different fastest crew.

379
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:07.859
Like I said, Avon has some odd reactions to him and seems a little bit sort of more sympathetic to him, but also we'll talk about this a little bit later, I think.

380
00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:09.720
He really brings out a side of Suulin.

381
00:30:09.779 --> 00:30:13.799
That's interesting because she seems very fond of him in a short period of time.

382
00:30:13.859 --> 00:30:17.220
And so you start to see, you know, what happened in her background.

383
00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:22.079
You know, she's meant to be quite a cold, you know, gun for hire, but she obviously takes a liking to him.

384
00:30:22.140 --> 00:30:24.240
I think he's a useful character.

385
00:30:24.299 --> 00:30:31.559
Also, he's 70 in this, which boggles my mind that he's only 17 years older than I am now.

386
00:30:31.619 --> 00:30:33.720
He seems so decrepit.

387
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:49.559
I will say the other thing I know him from is a latter-day episode of the Avengers called Legacy of Death, which also features which also features Ronald Lacy and Stratford Johns.

388
00:30:49.619 --> 00:30:52.079
Like it's a bleak 7 pre-union.

389
00:30:52.500 --> 00:31:00.839
But Richard Herndle, he only has a couple of scenes in it because he is a dying villain who lays a trap for all his rivals.

390
00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:08.039
And so he in the 1st scene, he's sort of interred in a glass coffin and you think, oh, that's the end of that.

391
00:31:08.099 --> 00:31:14.400
And then in his last scene, he gets out of the glass coffin when all of his rivals have been assembled around him.

392
00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:16.740
And you know, you know what?

393
00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:17.519
So what?

394
00:31:17.579 --> 00:31:19.799
That would have been 12 years before this.

395
00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:29.339
Um, Yeah, mid-50s Richard Herndle. an attractive, distinguished older man.

396
00:31:29.579 --> 00:31:33.720
Yeah, he's ready for all those evening hobbies you might have for him, Brendan.

397
00:31:35.339 --> 00:31:40.859
He gets more paprikash mash or whatever it's called.

398
00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:44.220
You are you are nuttle toff of groom rest.

399
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.940
And I'm going on my tea break.

400
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:07.920
The scene where, uh, they're trying to auction off Avon and they say that, you know, the female clients might be interested in.

401
00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:15.420
Is that a nod to the fact that Paul Dowrow had become a bit of a sex symbol supposedly from playing Avon?

402
00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:16.200
Is that, do you think?

403
00:32:16.200 --> 00:32:17.279
Is that kind of an...

404
00:32:17.339 --> 00:32:17.700
I think so.

405
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:22.680
I mean, I don't know if they're reacting to that, but, you know, he's the lead and so he kind of has to be handsome.

406
00:32:22.740 --> 00:32:24.599
And uh, yeah.

407
00:32:24.660 --> 00:32:30.779
I mean, I can't imagine a similar sales pitch for Thomas could...

408
00:32:33.420 --> 00:32:35.700
Where did you start my bidding?

409
00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:36.420
No bids?

410
00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:45.000
He can puff outrageously as he carries your groceries through the Asda car park.

411
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:56.279
And he might possibly be able to tuck you in at the end of the day, but I wouldn't count on him having enough energy for that, to be frank.

412
00:32:56.339 --> 00:32:59.519
He'll stand in the corner and do Richard III for you.

413
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:02.400
That's the play.

414
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:08.579
Every time you want Blake to take his top off is down a mine on the planet Horizon.

415
00:33:11.819 --> 00:33:13.259
And even not then.

416
00:33:13.319 --> 00:33:14.339
Yes.

417
00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:15.059
Why?

418
00:33:18.420 --> 00:33:23.579
So you think somebody mentioned that about sort of characters, what their motivations are and things.

419
00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:29.819
Why didn't one of the things, one of the things I didn't get about this was why did Avon fight the slavers?

420
00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:35.880
When he he presented himself to them and said, oh, I've just crashed and I'm all helpless and I need some food and shelter.

421
00:33:35.880 --> 00:33:38.099
Why did he then fight them?

422
00:33:38.099 --> 00:33:41.759
Because he was already, he'd already been taken by them as a slave.

423
00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:48.420
The idea I thought was to infiltrate them, to find, gather information, if Servline was there, if council was there.

424
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:50.579
Other than to inject a bit of action.

425
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:56.400
I didn't really understand why he fought them because that's what cost him his bracelet and jeopardised the mission.

426
00:33:56.700 --> 00:33:58.559
He's an idiot.

427
00:33:58.619 --> 00:33:59.940
I don't know, maybe...

428
00:33:59.940 --> 00:34:02.700
He wanted to go for more money.

429
00:34:02.759 --> 00:34:06.059
Certainly his price goes up, doesn't it, after doing that?

430
00:34:06.119 --> 00:34:08.219
Like Ben Os goes, oh, okay.

431
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:09.780
Yeah.

432
00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:15.539
But by that stage, he's by the time he's auctioned, he's already got the information from kneebrox, hasn't he, that he needs?

433
00:34:15.539 --> 00:34:15.960
Yeah.

434
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:27.719
Maybe he was hoping not to be taken in as a slave, but just to be taken in because I think, you know...

435
00:34:27.780 --> 00:34:35.280
Yeah, well, you know, I feel like where he's kind of going with, oh, you know, my shuttle's crashed and all my friends have been killed.

436
00:34:35.340 --> 00:34:37.559
I think the next line out of his mouth should be.

437
00:34:37.739 --> 00:34:42.059
If you can put me up for the night and get me a hyperspace communicator.

438
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:44.099
I can make sure that you're well paid.

439
00:34:44.280 --> 00:34:52.860
You know, that is the smart line to play instead of just, all my friends are dead and no one knows I'm here, Mr. Slaver.

440
00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:53.280
Um.

441
00:34:53.699 --> 00:34:57.300
And like Suolin has told him it's pirates.

442
00:34:57.360 --> 00:34:58.800
Like, it's not like he's not expecting them.

443
00:34:58.860 --> 00:35:00.239
That's exactly what he's expecting.

444
00:35:00.300 --> 00:35:12.059
It's just, uh, I think it is to inject some much needed and uh, lamentably poorly uh, directed action into the, into the episode at that point.

445
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:14.219
Which actually injured Paul Darrow.

446
00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:17.099
But when he's rugby tackled.

447
00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:20.460
Yeah, yeah, because it's clearly not a stunt, man.

448
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:21.659
You can see that it's term, yeah.

449
00:35:21.719 --> 00:35:27.780
I wonder if that's maybe why some of the other stuff was done in Longshot because maybe that's not Paul Darrow.

450
00:35:28.139 --> 00:35:36.300
You can just imagine Via Lorimar, our producer, onset directing on the 1st location day of the 2nd block and down goes his leading.

451
00:35:37.019 --> 00:35:40.139
Oh God, we're going to have to do this with Pacey.

452
00:35:40.980 --> 00:35:44.579
What a bit less than a season I would have just beat his legs.

453
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:49.980
Fear say, I'll step in, loves.

454
00:35:53.219 --> 00:35:56.340
Just imagine the DVD commentaries now.

455
00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:59.039
Well, Avon, this episode's a bit lighter than the loafers.

456
00:36:01.139 --> 00:36:02.760
Oh.

457
00:36:02.820 --> 00:36:20.340
Um, It's interesting, Peter, what you said about Vier does the, uh, location and David Sullivan Proudfoot does the studio because when I heard that Vier had done some of the directing, I had assumed it was the other way around because I quite like the studio direction.

458
00:36:21.599 --> 00:36:23.639
The camera direction.

459
00:36:23.699 --> 00:36:32.940
Because, I mean, I think the studio stuff is really successful because, um, I think the set for cancer ship is actually really good.

460
00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:47.760
Despite the fact that there's a lot of milk crates, and quite a lot of those things that you put in the cutlery drawer. to keep the knives and forks apart, particularly in the hold.

461
00:36:47.820 --> 00:36:48.780
They're all over the hold.

462
00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:52.199
But, I mean, the thing that struck me at the time.

463
00:36:52.260 --> 00:37:06.480
And I think the thing that impressed me the most is, you know, once the, um, once they lose life support, everything goes dark, there's a lot of red light, there's a lot of purple, and the sets are really quite dark for TV, I think.

464
00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:10.260
Um, and so I thought that that really worked.

465
00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:19.679
And I think, you know, the suddenly Dudley brings out a xylophone or something. you know, and like that works really well as well.

466
00:37:19.739 --> 00:37:32.340
So I, I, you know, I wonder whether it's the camera direction so much as just the incredible set and lighting and and music that help that.

467
00:37:32.460 --> 00:37:34.380
Oh, I think it looks okay.

468
00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:37.019
I think the set's all right, and they do turn down lights, which is good.

469
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:45.360
But in common with Traitor, which is a pretty reasonable script, badly mounted, and Stardrive, which is a terrible script, badly mounted.

470
00:37:46.440 --> 00:37:50.400
The linking DNA is David Sullivan Prowford.

471
00:37:50.460 --> 00:37:52.559
And what he does is he shoots things too wide.

472
00:37:52.619 --> 00:38:01.980
And so that lamentable fight sequence between Tarrant and Rada Cancer, where he just catches it all in long shot with them sort of throwing themselves around the set.

473
00:38:02.039 --> 00:38:03.179
You know, there's no cutaways.

474
00:38:03.239 --> 00:38:06.780
There's no dividing it up. to try and make it into a proper fight sequence.

475
00:38:06.900 --> 00:38:09.119
It's all looking like it was shot on the stage.

476
00:38:09.179 --> 00:38:11.159
And in common with those earlier episodes.

477
00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:14.639
And I'm thinking as well of the location footage in traitor.

478
00:38:14.699 --> 00:38:17.639
The shots are held for far too long.

479
00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:21.719
It's not cut quickly enough, and so everything sort of grinds to a halt.

480
00:38:21.780 --> 00:38:29.639
The script, I think, is pretty reasonable in setting up atmosphere, and they're doing all the right things by kind of turning lights down that, it's just not well shot.

481
00:38:30.599 --> 00:38:33.840
What's Avon waiting for during that fight?

482
00:38:33.900 --> 00:38:35.099
Because he says I'll cover you.

483
00:38:35.460 --> 00:38:49.320
I felt like you should have cut back to him and showed him trying to get a clear shot of the man who thinks he's cancer, but it, um, it just, it just waits until he's uh, he's lying in the chair, doesn't he?

484
00:38:49.380 --> 00:38:51.179
And then holds the gun.

485
00:38:51.239 --> 00:39:05.280
I mean, part of it, I think, is just to get the element of surprise happening in that because that's actually a pretty good moment where he, you know, pulls the gun on him where, you know, like cancer lands on his back and he pulls the gun and I can't remember something about you have to learn to live with disappointment.

486
00:39:05.340 --> 00:39:09.780
Like he does a callback to Rata Cancer's earlier line.

487
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:12.840
And I think that's really good.

488
00:39:12.900 --> 00:39:16.139
Like all of that stuff at that point is really good.

489
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:19.500
That setup, which is heaps, like Mission to Destiny.

490
00:39:19.559 --> 00:39:20.219
Do you know what I mean?

491
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:21.659
There's been a murder.

492
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:23.639
It's the whiny blonde girl who did it.

493
00:39:23.699 --> 00:39:34.019
The ship, the ship, you know, the, like our ship goes away, leaving half of us on the ship and half of us waiting. comes back in record time.

494
00:39:34.139 --> 00:39:35.639
Yeah, comes back in record time.

495
00:39:35.699 --> 00:39:42.599
Like that whole thing, like the whole setup is kind of the same and we're all sitting around the ship for no readily apparent reason.

496
00:39:42.659 --> 00:39:52.980
There's one moment where Peary just says, I'd feel much safer on the ship and you know that she's, you know, that's just her being evil and it's her ship and that's where her weed is or whatever, like she doesn't want to leave.

497
00:39:53.579 --> 00:39:56.880
But none of it makes sense in sort of context, I think.

498
00:39:56.940 --> 00:40:00.059
I mean, they're waiting around for Servland, I suppose.

499
00:40:00.119 --> 00:40:00.900
Yeah, yeah.

500
00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:10.619
I read that, um, I read that Avon moment as actually just, uh, I'll jump. before he kills Tarrant.

501
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:12.840
That's it.

502
00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:24.179
He's just really enjoying watching Tarrant be thrown around a bit because I think at that stage he knows that cancer doesn't have a gun, for instance, so he's like, it's hand-to-hand combat.

503
00:40:24.179 --> 00:40:27.420
And I think I think Tarrant's already lost his gun.

504
00:40:27.480 --> 00:40:34.920
So everyone's like, okay, that's a fair fight because you do cut to him, but he is just sitting back and just hold us on pointing the gun at the ceiling.

505
00:40:35.219 --> 00:40:39.059
I definitely read it as, yeah, Terence got this.

506
00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:48.059
But actually, I take your point, Peter, in that if that's the intent, it could be more comedically shot with some reaction shots from Stephen Pacey, of like, really?

507
00:40:48.119 --> 00:40:49.679
Are you really doing this?

508
00:40:49.739 --> 00:40:54.780
Like, I've been watching Archer 1999 at the moment and it's absolutely something that would happen in that.

509
00:40:55.980 --> 00:40:58.500
I think it's quite a nice moment, actually.

510
00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:03.659
I think Avon's just being cool and biting his time and letting Tarrant get thrown around until the last time.

511
00:41:06.300 --> 00:41:21.300
So I get that Yvonne's plan is to wait for Servoland to turn up, but Cervolan and cancer's plan is that cancer will get them to trust her so they'll take her back to their base.

512
00:41:21.420 --> 00:41:24.780
But when they try and take her back to their base.

513
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:29.880
Cervolan has control of cancer's ship and doesn't let them go.

514
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:42.059
So she's sabotaging her own plan there because even if even if they set off and they rumbled that Peary was cancer, she would then know where the base was, wouldn't she?

515
00:41:42.119 --> 00:41:43.860
because she'd have the coordinates or whatever.

516
00:41:43.920 --> 00:42:00.300
So I don't I don't get why Servoland is both stopping the ship from moving and blocking the communications and getting Scorpio back there because then all 5 targets would be there for cancer slash serve land to turn up and blow the ship up.

517
00:42:00.360 --> 00:42:02.880
So I don't, it's that waiting around bit.

518
00:42:02.940 --> 00:42:05.880
It seems pointless from the point of view of the actual objective.

519
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:10.019
Well, you can fully imagine serverland saying to non-rada cancer.

520
00:42:10.139 --> 00:42:16.380
Go back to the base and kill off all the others, but can we just set up your ship so that I can hear you kill Avon?

521
00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:17.820
I can fully imagine that.

522
00:42:17.880 --> 00:42:18.659
Yeah, yeah.

523
00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:30.539
Also, I think probably, you know, the thing where they turn off the life support in order to kind of provoke everyone into wandering by themselves through the corridors and exposing themselves to danger for that scene.

524
00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:32.400
Like that's cancer.

525
00:42:32.460 --> 00:42:36.599
That's rada cancer that does that as far as we're concerned because that's the only cancer we know.

526
00:42:36.659 --> 00:42:45.719
And so later on, at the end, when it's revealed that she, uh, she had control that Servoland had control of the ship.

527
00:42:45.780 --> 00:42:51.659
I think we're just not meant to go back and go, oh, wait, but that now that doesn't make any sense.

528
00:42:51.719 --> 00:42:52.860
Do you know what I mean?

529
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:55.139
Like, I think I think it's very local logic.

530
00:42:55.199 --> 00:42:56.099
It's fridge logic.

531
00:42:56.159 --> 00:42:58.139
Like it works at the moment of the plot.

532
00:42:58.199 --> 00:43:09.059
Um, you know, like that reveal that she's been listening and controlling the ship, that's needed for the final scene, uh, and we're just not meant to think about it too hard, I think, probably.

533
00:43:09.119 --> 00:43:13.320
I also love the fact that Servline's just been listening to an episode of Blake 7.

534
00:43:13.380 --> 00:43:14.400
Yes, yeah, yeah.

535
00:43:15.179 --> 00:43:21.960
I can't recall if on 1st viewing, I was taken in by the Pirie Cancer.

536
00:43:22.739 --> 00:43:23.820
I can.

537
00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:24.480
I completely was.

538
00:43:24.539 --> 00:43:31.559
I thought that he was cancer, like, and I, you know, and it's clearly operating on that level because it really works on that level.

539
00:43:31.619 --> 00:43:37.920
I think, like, I don't know what to make of Caroline Holdaway's performance.

540
00:43:37.980 --> 00:43:39.840
Like on some levels.

541
00:43:39.960 --> 00:43:42.900
I'm sorry for being so silly.

542
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:44.340
On some levels.

543
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:51.000
It's literally the worst performance of any guest actor in the entire run of Blake 7.

544
00:43:51.420 --> 00:43:54.300
But I can't hate it.

545
00:43:54.360 --> 00:43:59.579
Like, I really can't hate it because she's uniquely terrible in like 2 different ways.

546
00:43:59.639 --> 00:44:05.039
Like, she's terrible as Peary, and like as Peary, you're supposed to hate her.

547
00:44:05.099 --> 00:44:11.760
You know, and even though that undermines, um, Terrence character, because like, what the fuck?

548
00:44:11.820 --> 00:44:14.699
Like, is he finding that attractive?

549
00:44:14.760 --> 00:44:17.880
She's so like doughy and stupid.

550
00:44:17.940 --> 00:44:22.980
The bit where they lock her in with knee, knee brocks, knee brocks.

551
00:44:23.039 --> 00:44:25.800
Jesus Christ, knee brock space name.

552
00:44:25.860 --> 00:44:27.000
They lock it in.

553
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.039
Oh, they lock her in the hole with knee brocks.

554
00:44:29.099 --> 00:44:37.860
And then they all go out and she's going, ooh, like that, you know, it's just like, you do know he'll come and kill you, right?

555
00:44:38.159 --> 00:44:41.760
So she's incredibly, incredibly annoying.

556
00:44:41.820 --> 00:44:53.820
And then she's shockingly bad, like astoundingly much, much worse. once she gets into her sort of menacing hair and makeup for that scene with Avon.

557
00:44:53.880 --> 00:44:56.519
Like it's amazing, isn't it?

558
00:44:56.579 --> 00:44:58.980
Like, she just finds new ways of being bad.

559
00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:03.960
Can I say that I agree with everything that you're saying, but I also think that she's wonderful.

560
00:45:04.260 --> 00:45:07.500
It's the same reason.

561
00:45:07.559 --> 00:45:11.280
I mean, IMDb says that she's known for Blake 7.

562
00:45:11.340 --> 00:45:13.139
Maybe it should have read she's infamous.

563
00:45:14.340 --> 00:45:19.199
Her performance as Pirie is hysterical in more ways than one.

564
00:45:19.260 --> 00:45:25.739
Her roles before and after this were for play for today and in Angels, the medical drama.

565
00:45:25.800 --> 00:45:30.780
I can only imagine that they were slightly more naturalistic performances, but we don't know.

566
00:45:31.139 --> 00:45:34.619
I legitimately adore the performance.

567
00:45:34.679 --> 00:45:37.320
It's terrible for all kinds of reasons, obviously.

568
00:45:37.380 --> 00:45:44.340
But the scene where she does transform into, maybe we'll come back to that, the scene where she transforms into cancer.

569
00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:50.699
But as Piri, I think, yeah, she's incredibly annoying, but there is something very alluring about that performance.

570
00:45:50.760 --> 00:46:01.980
And having said that, I really like the change antenna with her scene with knee brooks, where she's visibly annoyed with this old fool, but also trying to keep up the pretence of being pure.

571
00:46:02.039 --> 00:46:07.380
Yeah, it's, it's kind of like I was watching it knowing about the twist.

572
00:46:07.380 --> 00:46:12.599
And I think, I think I didn't know when I watched it when I was younger, but it's been a long time.

573
00:46:12.659 --> 00:46:25.199
Um, Knowing watching it, knowing about the twist, and the only conclusion I've come to, is that the actress went, okay, this Piri is a fake character.

574
00:46:25.260 --> 00:46:26.219
She's a cover.

575
00:46:26.280 --> 00:46:30.360
So I'm gonna overplay that so the audience know it's fake.

576
00:46:30.360 --> 00:46:33.780
And it's like, no, no, no, that's not, that's not how this works.

577
00:46:33.840 --> 00:46:47.699
The, the audience is not meant to know the, the, the, you're meant to be fooling the audience and it's kind of like, I can understand, sort of, Stephen Pacey is apparently like, Terrence, a complete idiot in this one.

578
00:46:47.820 --> 00:46:48.360
I hate it.

579
00:46:48.420 --> 00:46:49.440
It's like, yeah.

580
00:46:49.500 --> 00:47:09.539
And if she had given a more sort of naturalistic, afraid but not cowering performance, I think it would have worked so much better and it would have been, you know, Tarrant is sympathetic and fooled, not a simpering fool.

581
00:47:09.659 --> 00:47:14.039
I can only imagine on the 1st day of rehearsals at the Acton Hilton.

582
00:47:14.099 --> 00:47:19.860
She was there giving that performance, and there's David Sullivan Proudfoot going, wonderful love, fabulous.

583
00:47:21.420 --> 00:47:24.780
Yeah, imagine if you had sympathy with her.

584
00:47:24.840 --> 00:47:29.280
And then you discover that she's the uh, she's the assassin.

585
00:47:29.340 --> 00:47:30.659
It would have been incredible.

586
00:47:30.659 --> 00:47:36.420
As it is, you know, she's so annoying in what is just a delightfully funny way.

587
00:47:36.480 --> 00:47:41.159
Um, but yes, I mean, she wrecks the end of it, doesn't she?

588
00:47:41.219 --> 00:47:44.699
Um, and and like that villain performance.

589
00:47:44.760 --> 00:47:46.260
Holy shit, it's bad.

590
00:47:46.380 --> 00:47:51.539
Like it's seen where Perry transforms into cancer is a camp classic.

591
00:47:52.980 --> 00:47:57.119
The hair, the evening gloves, the grating.

592
00:47:57.179 --> 00:48:01.019
And that's even before we get to her remarkable death throws.

593
00:48:01.739 --> 00:48:04.679
But and then what was going to happen?

594
00:48:04.739 --> 00:48:07.500
She was going to go and take all of that off.

595
00:48:08.340 --> 00:48:11.400
And then go back to Tara.

596
00:48:11.460 --> 00:48:12.059
Is that it?

597
00:48:12.119 --> 00:48:13.619
So she did all of that.

598
00:48:14.159 --> 00:48:21.539
I'm going to put on my menacing frock, you know, like, and, and, like, it's so strange.

599
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:23.519
It's so strange.

600
00:48:23.820 --> 00:48:30.119
And that hair, like that doesn't come eat, like maybe they have space hair in the future and it's all much easier to do.

601
00:48:30.179 --> 00:48:37.500
But there's a lot of work went into that and uh, and then she, what, just sort of musses it all up and then goes back to Tarrant.

602
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:38.639
It's very odd.

603
00:48:38.699 --> 00:48:43.920
If her blot had gone the way that she'd wanted it to, then Su Lin would have died by Space Spider.

604
00:48:43.980 --> 00:48:45.900
Avon would have died by Space Spider.

605
00:48:45.960 --> 00:48:51.480
She then would have run into Tarrant in a corridor and said, oh, I'm being very silly, but I found time to change.

606
00:48:55.619 --> 00:48:57.059
Yeah.

607
00:48:57.119 --> 00:48:58.800
It's really something.

608
00:48:58.860 --> 00:49:01.559
I mean, the death throws are astounding.

609
00:49:01.619 --> 00:49:04.559
I think that just the director has just gone, I don't know.

610
00:49:04.619 --> 00:49:09.000
I really, there's nothing that I can say to this woman, like we're just, we're stuck with that.

611
00:49:09.179 --> 00:49:12.539
I actually think the 1st of the death row is okay.

612
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:14.940
It's the last scream that really does it.

613
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:17.400
It's when she stops screaming and then goes, oh.

614
00:49:18.239 --> 00:49:19.739
I'm dead.

615
00:49:19.980 --> 00:49:27.179
He's dead for about 2 seconds and then it cuts to the spider falling off and her hand is still going...

616
00:49:27.179 --> 00:49:30.179
It's amazing.

617
00:49:32.159 --> 00:49:38.880
If she'd been any good as cancer, you could have said that it's cancer, that there was the bad actress playing period.

618
00:49:38.940 --> 00:49:39.420
Yes.

619
00:49:39.480 --> 00:49:40.559
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

620
00:49:40.619 --> 00:49:43.500
No, but it's clearly just a bad actress claim, yeah.

621
00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:46.739
Can I say I actually think she is pretty good as cancer?

622
00:49:46.800 --> 00:49:54.539
I mean, obviously she's wildly over the top in that scene, but it's a it's a performance that we've seen before and it's quite enjoyable, I think.

623
00:49:54.599 --> 00:49:57.119
Yeah, I really like it.

624
00:49:57.239 --> 00:50:09.539
I'm I'm I'm convinced that Joel Schumacher watched it when he was preparing for Poison Ivy and Batman and Robin because it's it's very similar to what Uma Thurman does.

625
00:50:09.599 --> 00:50:14.039
Um, there's, let's not go nuts.

626
00:50:14.039 --> 00:50:22.260
That is a really, really sort of high school drama production kind of vibe to it.

627
00:50:22.320 --> 00:50:22.980
Do you know what I mean?

628
00:50:23.099 --> 00:50:25.679
It's just not in any way competent.

629
00:50:25.739 --> 00:50:27.480
And it's like it's glorious.

630
00:50:27.539 --> 00:50:31.079
Like, I love how kind of dismissive she is and stuff.

631
00:50:31.139 --> 00:50:34.440
You know, um, I'm afraid it's very much the reverse.

632
00:50:34.500 --> 00:50:38.039
You know, like, which is so, so, certainly hot.

633
00:50:38.099 --> 00:50:39.840
So ridiculous.

634
00:50:39.900 --> 00:50:45.840
Like, it's wonderful, but it could have been properly menacing. like she could have been going for many things.

635
00:50:45.900 --> 00:50:48.119
I mean, you know, Jackie is right there.

636
00:50:48.179 --> 00:50:49.559
Do you know what I mean?

637
00:50:49.619 --> 00:50:52.980
Like, absolutely nailing how to do that.

638
00:50:53.039 --> 00:50:57.719
And she's not even a kind of pound store, Jacqueline Pierce.

639
00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:58.320
Yeah.

640
00:50:58.380 --> 00:51:03.000
There's one particular line where she just takes this.

641
00:51:03.420 --> 00:51:05.699
You can't even call it a Shatnerian pause.

642
00:51:05.760 --> 00:51:06.659
It's inexplicable.

643
00:51:06.719 --> 00:51:09.480
Fortunately, it has an inexhaustible supply.

644
00:51:09.539 --> 00:51:11.340
Oh, venom.

645
00:51:11.400 --> 00:51:11.940
Venom.

646
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:16.380
You haven't even mentioned the word supply.

647
00:51:16.440 --> 00:51:17.340
This isn't a pun.

648
00:51:18.659 --> 00:51:29.519
Well, I think this is the only Blake 7 episode to feature the word bitch, and it comes up twice. and it's both versions of cancer say it.

649
00:51:30.300 --> 00:51:35.460
And it's, you know, as we said probably last week because I wasn't on it.

650
00:51:35.519 --> 00:51:38.099
Headhunter is the episode where Su Lynn gets a character.

651
00:51:38.099 --> 00:51:39.960
This very much continues that.

652
00:51:40.019 --> 00:51:42.780
She's got a proper character and she's really great.

653
00:51:42.840 --> 00:51:46.139
And, you know, she's characterised as that blonde bitch and she's amazing.

654
00:51:46.199 --> 00:51:47.940
Yeah, she's really good.

655
00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:52.860
But, and you mentioned before how knee Brock brings out that sort of softer side of her.

656
00:51:52.920 --> 00:52:00.960
And it is, I think, like, she's good in headhunter, but she's still just doing sort of banter with the box of flashing lights.

657
00:52:01.019 --> 00:52:03.900
You know, this is...

658
00:52:03.960 --> 00:52:07.920
Like, this is a step up, I think. and I think she's really good.

659
00:52:07.980 --> 00:52:15.179
This is the 1st time she gets to play a person rather than just that person we got in because Jan didn't want to do the final year.

660
00:52:15.239 --> 00:52:20.760
And tellingly, this is the 1st script of the 2nd block, so they've been able to, yeah.

661
00:52:20.820 --> 00:52:22.440
So I think that that is really good.

662
00:52:22.500 --> 00:52:23.940
There is one moment though.

663
00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:27.659
And it is absolutely...

664
00:52:27.780 --> 00:52:36.179
Where, again, like complete defiance of all of our hard won knowledge about how human beings behave.

665
00:52:36.179 --> 00:52:39.960
She decides that she's got to stop and think this through.

666
00:52:40.019 --> 00:52:41.579
This is an important thing.

667
00:52:41.639 --> 00:52:44.219
She can't think about it while she's walking around.

668
00:52:44.280 --> 00:53:08.940
And so she stands there for a while and thinks, and instead of, you know, like, having a bit of a thing, and then she goes, I know, I think I could think better, if I sat down on the floor, underneath these milk crates, and then spread my hands out some way, um, in case any kind of animated spider comes along so that it can have like easy access to my hands.

669
00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:16.980
And I think it's such a sort of strikingly inept thing, like absolutely inexplicable, that Russell T. Davis never forgot it.

670
00:53:17.039 --> 00:53:20.940
And so he plays with it in the end of the world.

671
00:53:20.940 --> 00:53:38.579
Because there's that moment in the end of the world where the little spider goes up to Rose and Rose lifts of, you know, puts her hands up to her face and goes, oh, I've just worked it out and narrowly avoids being bitten by the spider that the adherents of the repeated meme bought on board platform one.

672
00:53:38.639 --> 00:53:40.260
So it's definitely a reference.

673
00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:42.119
I won't be told otherwise.

674
00:53:42.179 --> 00:53:47.639
All you needed was Cassandra to say I should imagine that blonde bitch is probably...

675
00:53:49.320 --> 00:54:04.679
Well, I had to check with Psy, because I thought maybe this one was written by Ben Steed because I felt like this is quite sexist bits where Sulin says there's only 2 ways to deal with a hysterical woman and he kissed them while he slapped them.

676
00:54:04.739 --> 00:54:11.340
I thought Sulin, like not being able to walk and think at the same time.

677
00:54:12.900 --> 00:54:14.340
Wow.

678
00:54:14.579 --> 00:54:22.260
And then the way that Piri was written as well is very kind of derogatory to women.

679
00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:26.159
So yeah, I kind of felt the whole thing felt quite sexist.

680
00:54:26.219 --> 00:54:28.920
So I was quite surprised when I said, yeah, no, it wasn't him.

681
00:54:28.980 --> 00:54:39.480
I actually do like one line that she gets, which is in that scene where she says, oh, yes, you know, 2 men don't like each other and it's a completely rational judgement.

682
00:54:39.539 --> 00:54:41.940
But for 2 women, it has to be jealousy.

683
00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:51.480
And to have a character in the program makes even a sort of vaguely feminist statement is so rare and unusual, it's pretty great.

684
00:54:51.539 --> 00:55:08.099
Yeah, and also the fact that period is like that and so over the top puts into sharp relief, the fact that any of our regular female characters in Blake 7, no matter how poorly they were served in the scripts, have never been like that, they've always been strong characters with agency.

685
00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:12.539
And so I think having her as a contrast to Sulin helps Sulin.

686
00:55:12.780 --> 00:55:21.659
And also, you know, later on when they're debating whether to leave period or take her on the search to find cancer.

687
00:55:21.719 --> 00:55:24.239
Well, no, please don't leave me.

688
00:55:27.179 --> 00:55:29.340
That's the one.

689
00:55:29.400 --> 00:55:34.440
Well, while Sulin is not sympathetic towards her.

690
00:55:34.500 --> 00:55:38.039
At one point period runs up to her and says, I know I know you don't like me, but don't leave me here.

691
00:55:38.099 --> 00:55:42.360
Sulin actually says pretty much, no, we're leaving you here if they're your safety.

692
00:55:42.420 --> 00:55:44.159
This door will lock automatically.

693
00:55:44.219 --> 00:55:46.199
I am the only one with the key.

694
00:55:46.260 --> 00:55:53.280
She does seek to reassure her, even though she has stated, I don't like this person, but that doesn't mean I wish harm upon them.

695
00:55:53.340 --> 00:55:56.699
Which is a, again, it's a bit more depth of the character.

696
00:55:56.760 --> 00:56:00.840
Like, I'm pretty sure I'm right in when I say Sulin doesn't get a focus episode this season.

697
00:56:00.900 --> 00:56:01.619
No.

698
00:56:01.679 --> 00:56:02.760
I don't think.

699
00:56:02.820 --> 00:56:04.500
But...

700
00:56:04.500 --> 00:56:06.780
Um, that...

701
00:56:06.780 --> 00:56:09.239
You could have animals, that would have worked. would have worked much better.

702
00:56:10.679 --> 00:56:13.139
It couldn't have worked much worse.

703
00:56:14.159 --> 00:56:16.679
Maybe he could have been Villa's old boyfriend.

704
00:56:16.739 --> 00:56:31.679
I don't know But, you know, I do think that there is an effort to balance that with giving her character moments, especially in this back half of the season, which work to Glynis Barber's strengths.

705
00:56:31.739 --> 00:56:36.539
Because I think there's a bit of a what we would now see as a bit of a Jerry Ryan thing.

706
00:56:36.599 --> 00:56:39.900
She may have just been hired. for the glamour.

707
00:56:39.960 --> 00:56:42.780
But she is actually a subtle and talented actress.

708
00:56:42.840 --> 00:56:48.000
And they do start giving her sort of funnier lines and funny equips and what have you.

709
00:56:48.059 --> 00:56:54.840
And well, yeah, that line about, you know, 2 ways to deal with a hysterical woman does sound like a Ben Steed thing.

710
00:56:54.900 --> 00:56:57.719
It's funny coming from Glynis Barber.

711
00:56:57.780 --> 00:56:59.519
She makes it funny.

712
00:56:59.579 --> 00:57:03.119
And then, of course, you know, she spins on a dime to deliver that.

713
00:57:03.179 --> 00:57:05.159
Oh yeah, I'm irrational, am I?

714
00:57:05.219 --> 00:57:08.699
Yeah. she's talking about Avon and Tarrant.

715
00:57:09.780 --> 00:57:12.420
She gives as good as she gets. absolutely.

716
00:57:12.480 --> 00:57:15.300
That's always been a thing about the female characters in this show.

717
00:57:15.360 --> 00:57:17.039
They give us good right back to Jenna.

718
00:57:17.099 --> 00:57:21.960
And, you know, she's got very good chemistry with Paul Darrow in particular, I think.

719
00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:26.820
And, and, well, we'll see if how that's explored later in the season.

720
00:57:26.880 --> 00:57:29.400
Oh, don't make it sound like they have an affair.

721
00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:35.099
This is off topic.

722
00:57:35.159 --> 00:57:39.780
But way back in the Misty Dawn of the 1990s.

723
00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:43.739
There was a Doctor Who role-playing book called Time Lord.

724
00:57:43.800 --> 00:57:47.579
And at that point, I hadn't seen season 26 of Doctor Who.

725
00:57:47.639 --> 00:57:54.659
Um, and in the character write up for the doctor and Ace, it mentions their wonderful on-screen chemistry.

726
00:57:54.719 --> 00:57:58.199
And for 10 year old me, I'm like, hold on, does that mean they get romantic?

727
00:57:59.340 --> 00:58:01.739
And it's like, no, of course not.

728
00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:07.980
But, yeah, it, it, it, yeah, that just reminded, um, and I'm glad they didn't. just reminded me of that.

729
00:58:08.699 --> 00:58:16.019
I mean, it takes a lot to say that when Tarrant falls for Ziona from Zondal in Warlord.

730
00:58:16.139 --> 00:58:18.360
With her nylon hair.

731
00:58:21.420 --> 00:58:22.980
Poor old Carolyn Holdaway.

732
00:58:23.039 --> 00:58:26.340
She did, as they say, leave the industry soon after this.

733
00:58:26.400 --> 00:58:30.179
And she became an interior designer.

734
00:58:30.179 --> 00:58:36.179
And in fact, I can't say if all of her projects use wooden flats and black metal plating and other lighting.

735
00:58:36.239 --> 00:58:37.500
No, they don't.

736
00:58:37.559 --> 00:58:39.960
I checked them out online and they're actually gorgeous and colourful.

737
00:58:40.019 --> 00:58:41.519
So you should check them out online as well.

738
00:58:41.579 --> 00:58:42.539
Oh, brilliant.

739
00:58:42.599 --> 00:58:43.019
Fantastic.

740
00:58:55.679 --> 00:59:14.340
The thing that just occurs to me is, last year, when Doctor Who got the Doomsday spinoff, kind of multimedia thing, and Sues Kempnel's cast as doom, the universe's greatest assassin, and Doctor Who fans poured absolute scorn on that, and says, what she doesn't look like, the world's greatest assassin.

741
00:59:14.460 --> 00:59:16.260
And this shit's been out here for 40 years.

742
00:59:17.760 --> 00:59:22.800
They knew that the role of the universe's greatest assassin had already been taken.

743
00:59:25.320 --> 00:59:31.019
Doom has more than one method of killing a targets as well, not just a very slow spider.

744
00:59:31.079 --> 00:59:34.559
Yeah. very close proximity.

745
00:59:34.619 --> 00:59:38.039
It's baffling that script thing, isn't it?

746
00:59:38.099 --> 00:59:42.599
Because there's no way they were ever, ever going to be able to realise it, and of course they couldn't.

747
00:59:42.659 --> 00:59:49.860
They just did a rollback and mix between a badge and then like a shitty spider that looked nothing like the badge.

748
00:59:49.920 --> 01:00:04.380
And you, like I was thinking about the little spiders that come out of the spheres in the end of the world, and clearly what was intended was, it was like, every time I watch it, and she goes, the side of the crab, it was visible there to you all the time.

749
01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:06.360
Is that on Perry's outfit?

750
01:00:06.420 --> 01:00:07.679
Because I never remembered a lot.

751
01:00:07.739 --> 01:00:08.400
It is, it is.

752
01:00:08.579 --> 01:00:11.159
It also doesn't look like a crab.

753
01:00:11.460 --> 01:00:14.159
And it doesn't look like a spider.

754
01:00:14.219 --> 01:00:18.239
Like if it had legs that came out of it and walked along that, you know, like whatever.

755
01:00:18.300 --> 01:00:23.880
But I mean, it just comes a time where you just hit someone with a big fucking stick and kill them.

756
01:00:23.880 --> 01:00:24.900
Like, what?

757
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:25.739
What's going on?

758
01:00:26.880 --> 01:00:29.099
Just the wrench, yeah.

759
01:00:30.659 --> 01:00:36.300
It's that bit from Austin Powers, where Scott Evil is like, why wait for the sharks to kill them?

760
01:00:36.360 --> 01:00:37.320
I've got a gun.

761
01:00:37.380 --> 01:00:39.780
Let's just quit till we fuck the sun.

762
01:00:39.840 --> 01:00:40.559
Let's do it together.

763
01:00:40.980 --> 01:00:43.800
She didn't even kill Ava when you had...

764
01:00:43.860 --> 01:00:45.900
She could have clubbed him to death when she knocks him out.

765
01:00:45.900 --> 01:00:52.380
But no, she had to knock him out, strap him to a table, get into her all frocked up look just to gloat.

766
01:00:52.440 --> 01:00:53.639
And that was her downfall.

767
01:00:54.599 --> 01:00:57.000
He's had it to their sex.

768
01:00:57.659 --> 01:01:05.039
And how dedicated an actor is Rada cancer, because he keeps the character up.

769
01:01:05.099 --> 01:01:06.599
Even when there's no one around.

770
01:01:07.079 --> 01:01:13.559
And apparently it's all for the promise of like he and Peary are going to run off together.

771
01:01:13.619 --> 01:01:15.239
She's like, yuck.

772
01:01:15.300 --> 01:01:18.119
He thought we were going to run off together.

773
01:01:19.320 --> 01:01:26.699
But they're both keeping up the performance because when they're waiting in the flight deck for Avon and Tarrant to bumble in and do their thing.

774
01:01:26.760 --> 01:01:28.440
Yes, why is she crying?

775
01:01:28.500 --> 01:01:32.340
It's got lip quivering in it. like, okay, get into character love.

776
01:01:32.400 --> 01:01:33.179
Get it.

777
01:01:36.539 --> 01:01:40.619
She's had a bit of a run on run with rada cancer and how to do it.

778
01:01:42.480 --> 01:01:46.199
Cancer, darling, let me tell you about the method.

779
01:01:46.260 --> 01:01:46.739
Okay.

780
01:01:47.760 --> 01:01:53.940
I hope you have a leather gimp suit in my size with your emblem. with your emblem, darling.

781
01:01:54.000 --> 01:01:54.840
And the cape, the cape.

782
01:01:54.900 --> 01:01:55.380
Thank you, darling.

783
01:01:56.340 --> 01:02:01.380
I have to say, even though those spiders look terrible, and why are they spiders, then you need to be crabs.

784
01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:03.000
When Tarrant shoots it.

785
01:02:03.059 --> 01:02:06.059
It does explode with this point, which is amazing.

786
01:02:06.119 --> 01:02:07.199
Awesome.

787
01:02:07.260 --> 01:02:07.679
Yeah.

788
01:02:07.739 --> 01:02:12.599
Which is presumably the venom, which kills on contact, which is now all over the flight deck.

789
01:02:12.659 --> 01:02:13.619
Thank you, Taren.

790
01:02:14.880 --> 01:02:17.940
I think you'll find that with fatty bends.

791
01:02:19.800 --> 01:02:23.940
They could have put a clue in where Perry always walked sideways, couldn't they?

792
01:02:27.059 --> 01:02:32.039
Asking dear Caroline to do...

793
01:02:32.760 --> 01:02:36.119
You think Serlin can't think and walk at the same time.

794
01:02:36.179 --> 01:02:37.500
Can you imagine?

795
01:02:37.559 --> 01:02:40.920
Caroline trying to deliver dialogue while walking sideways.

796
01:02:41.219 --> 01:02:47.820
I can just imagine selling an event happening across this episode on a Monday night and going, right decision.

797
01:02:49.320 --> 01:02:52.679
Jan. Can you actually chat right now?

798
01:02:52.739 --> 01:02:55.559
She's still pretty excited about animals.

799
01:02:55.619 --> 01:02:57.780
What if she put animals on transmission?

800
01:02:57.840 --> 01:02:59.820
I thought, holy fuck, that could have been me.

801
01:03:01.800 --> 01:03:04.679
It turned out worse than I thought.

802
01:03:04.679 --> 01:03:12.480
I'm just imagining jam with a glass of red at home watching this, just going, Yeah, I would have punched up.

803
01:03:14.519 --> 01:03:20.099
I really think Su Lin starts to succeed because they move her towards Jenna's character.

804
01:03:20.159 --> 01:03:27.239
They just move her towards being this kind of She's a bit kind of above everything and kind of rolling her eyes internally at things.

805
01:03:27.300 --> 01:03:32.099
And so they just make her Jenna really, and as was proved in series A and B, it works.

806
01:03:32.159 --> 01:03:33.000
Yeah.

807
01:03:33.000 --> 01:03:37.199
It is a great shame that they care so little about.

808
01:03:37.260 --> 01:03:54.420
You know, like the amount of effort that goes into, uh, setting up the 2 characters that they introduce at the beginning of series C and just the absolute failure to do anything at all to set her up, to give her anything interesting.

809
01:03:54.480 --> 01:04:05.159
And it's just like, I don't know, do we have a woman who does guns on the crew because we could have one of those and you kind of think, well, we do, but we do have one of those.

810
01:04:05.219 --> 01:04:13.980
You know, like, it's just a bafflingly kind of half-assed thing and it really is just we need another woman, you know.

811
01:04:14.039 --> 01:04:18.239
So, uh, prompts to Glinnis for making it into something, I think.

812
01:04:18.420 --> 01:04:23.820
I always think it's kind of weird that we never have like a dedicated medic.

813
01:04:24.900 --> 01:04:31.920
But, you know, I do wonder if they, if they just kind of go, oh, medics, no, you can't have an action series with a medic.

814
01:04:31.980 --> 01:04:37.500
And it's like, you can absolutely give a medic a gun, but also that means you can actually hurt your characters more.

815
01:04:38.280 --> 01:04:41.579
They also they turn characters into medics.

816
01:04:41.639 --> 01:04:45.900
So they turned Gan into a medic and then when he was killed, they turned Calli into a medic.

817
01:04:45.960 --> 01:04:49.320
Yeah, former terrorist Cali. dramatic.

818
01:04:49.619 --> 01:04:52.199
Let me out of here, please, Callie.

819
01:04:52.260 --> 01:04:52.559
Okay.

820
01:04:53.159 --> 01:04:55.440
It was Aurac last week.

821
01:04:55.440 --> 01:04:57.420
It was the moment. absolutely.

822
01:04:57.480 --> 01:04:59.340
I thought it was the 1st time that happened.

823
01:04:59.639 --> 01:05:02.519
These 2 Aurak now.

824
01:05:05.460 --> 01:05:13.320
God, I love series D. It's not as good as any other series of Blake 7, but it's still rippingly good.

825
01:05:13.440 --> 01:05:14.280
It's great.

826
01:05:14.280 --> 01:05:15.480
And you know what?

827
01:05:15.539 --> 01:05:17.159
I do think it has a consistency.

828
01:05:17.219 --> 01:05:19.079
Consistently bad, yes.

829
01:05:19.139 --> 01:05:22.380
No, I'm joking.

830
01:05:22.440 --> 01:05:23.219
Yeah, yeah.

831
01:05:23.219 --> 01:05:27.480
The thing is, I would say probably animals is the worst episode.

832
01:05:27.539 --> 01:05:28.739
Yeah.

833
01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:32.159
And even then, Animals has a really good central concept.

834
01:05:32.219 --> 01:05:34.860
They just haven't thought enough about the execution.

835
01:05:35.340 --> 01:05:46.260
And I'm sure this was said a couple of weeks ago, but it's like, yeah, either give the plot to Su Lin or cast a younger actor as Justin, and it solves most of the problems.

836
01:05:46.320 --> 01:05:48.119
Yeah.

837
01:05:48.119 --> 01:05:50.099
There's probably a shredder in the office somewhere.

838
01:05:50.099 --> 01:05:52.019
Yeah. could have considered.

839
01:05:56.820 --> 01:05:58.260
Yeah.

840
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:05.039
Just get a 3rd script from Bob Holmes and nothing from Ellen Prior.

841
01:06:05.099 --> 01:06:06.059
That would have worked too.

842
01:06:19.199 --> 01:06:22.559
So that's our episode on Assassin.

843
01:06:22.619 --> 01:06:23.760
Thank you very much for listening.

844
01:06:23.820 --> 01:06:30.900
Find out more about the podcast at our website, maximumpowerpodcast.com, including all our other podcasts.

845
01:06:31.199 --> 01:06:46.139
Flight through entirety, the BJBJ Game Show, 500 Year Diary, Jody Into Terra, the 2nd great and bountiful Human Empire, the Library of Impossible Things, Bondfinger, Untitled Star Trek Project, the 3-handed Game, Startling Barbara Bain, and Trap One.

846
01:06:46.260 --> 01:06:48.420
We have an endless supply.

847
01:06:48.539 --> 01:06:50.159
Of podcasts.

848
01:06:52.860 --> 01:06:54.420
Good night.

849
01:06:54.539 --> 01:06:55.679
Good night.

850
01:06:55.800 --> 01:06:57.059
Good night.

851
01:06:57.719 --> 01:06:59.400
That was great.

852
01:06:59.460 --> 01:07:00.360
That was good.

853
01:07:12.420 --> 01:07:13.980
Bachelor Power.

854
01:07:14.039 --> 01:07:18.960
Go, go. 30 seconds rust to the maximum power.

855
01:07:19.079 --> 01:07:21.000
Switching to manual.

856
01:07:21.059 --> 01:07:23.159
Maximum power on all drives.

857
01:07:23.579 --> 01:07:25.800
Massive power.

858
01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:33.360
I've had such a laugh since you did voice from the podcast.

859
01:07:33.960 --> 01:07:40.019
Did you read down that street, that whole website, like that webpage with all of the podcasts?

860
01:07:40.079 --> 01:07:40.440
Yeah.

861
01:07:42.539 --> 01:07:45.000
Oh, all right, that was awesome.

862
01:07:45.059 --> 01:07:46.619
You should look up Carolyn Holdway.

863
01:07:46.679 --> 01:07:47.579
She looks amazing now.

864
01:07:47.639 --> 01:07:52.260
She's in the 70s and she just like looks, you know, she's an interior designer.

865
01:07:52.320 --> 01:07:54.900
She's got like blonde hair and she's smiling into the camera.

866
01:07:54.960 --> 01:07:56.039
You go, ah, you're amazing.

867
01:07:56.099 --> 01:08:01.920
That's awesome Because her IMDb thing was so short and I felt kind of a bit sad for her.

868
01:08:01.920 --> 01:08:07.260
And it'd be like, now she's in Holby City for 3 episodes and they said, please don't.

869
01:08:07.320 --> 01:08:08.760
Don't do that again.

870
01:08:10.559 --> 01:08:17.640
She was also apparently a bridesmaid in a couple of episodes of Corey and in 1991 or whatever.

871
01:08:17.699 --> 01:08:20.880
And if you see a photo of that online, she looks incredible.

872
01:08:20.939 --> 01:08:22.920
It's the most early 90s thing I've ever seen.

873
01:08:22.979 --> 01:08:23.760
She's so mumsy.

874
01:08:23.819 --> 01:08:28.199
Well, that's she is sort of weirdly mumsy in this, isn't she?

875
01:08:28.260 --> 01:08:29.880
Like she's a, you know, anyway.

876
01:08:29.939 --> 01:08:32.220
You must think she's awfully silly.

877
01:08:33.600 --> 01:08:40.739
John Wyman is probably most famous for being that evil blonde skier in for your eyes only.

878
01:08:40.800 --> 01:08:42.119
Oh yes.

879
01:08:42.180 --> 01:08:44.520
Is John Wyman rad a cancer?

880
01:08:44.579 --> 01:08:45.779
Yes, he's rada cancer.

881
01:08:45.840 --> 01:08:47.039
Oh, okay.

882
01:08:48.779 --> 01:08:50.760
That was only the next year.