WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:18:21

1
00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.820
Welcome to Maximum Power, the podcast where life's a beach, but the sand draws a line in you.

2
00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:21.600
Have we got grit or are we soggy sandwitches?

3
00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.440
We're here to debate the Blake 7 episodes Sand.

4
00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:26.940
I'm Pete.

5
00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:27.660
I'm Adam.

6
00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:30.300
I'm Kate and I'm Simon.

7
00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:33.780
Welcome, everybody, and welcome Kate to maximum power.

8
00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:37.259
It's great to have you joining us on a pretty amazing episode.

9
00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:39.420
How do you find sand in general?

10
00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:40.619
or is you going to tell me you hate it?

11
00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:44.039
No, absolutely one of my favourites.

12
00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:47.280
I think possibly sad and psychophagus are the 2 best episodes.

13
00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:48.659
There's a commonality.

14
00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:49.979
Arguably.

15
00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:52.979
Um, you know, I liked it from...

16
00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:57.659
I, trying to remember if I saw it when I was a little girl or if I had to see it when I was a teenager when it was repeated.

17
00:00:57.719 --> 00:01:01.679
And I'm not sure, but I know that it knocked my socks off at the time.

18
00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:02.759
Yeah, yeah.

19
00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:04.319
And I saw it as a kid.

20
00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:05.879
I would have been 7 or 8.

21
00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:10.260
And I just remember it being like, why is this space show about having dinner?

22
00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:14.099
They just on a date?

23
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.219
Very disappointed as a child.

24
00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.079
As an adult, I'm like, oh, this is awesome.

25
00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:21.719
What about you, Simon?

26
00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:22.439
When did you 1st?

27
00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.299
I feel, well, when I 1st saw it.

28
00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:33.180
I can't remember when I 1st saw it, but it would have been watching it as part of watching Blake 7 in a very random order through VHS tapes supplied by Peter Griffiths back in the day.

29
00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:43.739
But I hate to say it, and I don't want to bring it, put a downer on it, but I think this episode, the parts are greater than it's some.

30
00:01:43.859 --> 00:01:52.920
Uh, the, the, the best things about it are all the bits, all the lines, all the little scenes.

31
00:01:52.980 --> 00:02:07.560
But I, I, when I was watching it this morning in preparation for this, I had exactly the same reaction with the last time I watched it, which was, yes, it's bits of it are fantastic, but it's just a little bit tedious to watch, I'm afraid.

32
00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:14.280
We've got an, that sounds like we've got an episode then because we've got, we've got things to debate.

33
00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:15.960
Ooh, conflict.

34
00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:17.099
Conflict.

35
00:02:17.099 --> 00:02:20.219
Which is more than this episode has.

36
00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:24.360
I mean, and for me, yeah, I saw this one.

37
00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:26.219
I don't think I saw it when I was a kid.

38
00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:30.960
But then I saw it when I was a teenager and like, you know, I was being shown them in random random order.

39
00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:34.439
Well, not random, but you know, selection by a friend.

40
00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:42.240
And I was just, I was perplexed that it wasn't Avon that was having this showdown with Serviland, but I'm sure we'll come to that.

41
00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:43.620
Showdown, etc.

42
00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:52.139
I suspect that was possibly a Jekyll Pierce directive, which is like, yeah, I've kissed him a lot.

43
00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:56.939
I want the younger one Not enough though, Adam. not enough.

44
00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.919
I mean, this could very easily be a backdoor pilot for the Serverland show, couldn't it?

45
00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:03.840
I mean, it's...

46
00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:05.099
Not that she needs one.

47
00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:06.900
Not that she ever needs to use a back door.

48
00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:10.439
She comes into a different character, doesn't she, in this, sort of?

49
00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:12.360
Yes, she has an emotion.

50
00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:22.500
And Netflix seems determined to bring out Silverland's vulnerability, which is not a characteristic that you associate with Silverland.

51
00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:24.780
She's the steel queen.

52
00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:40.919
And an interesting thing I thought was that we are very clearly shown that the emotions that Servan is having, her fear, her grief, are genuine because she is having them when other people can't see her face.

53
00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:51.780
So evil Stephen Yardley, whose name I've forgotten, Reve, is standing behind her and you can see her reaction to the recordings of Kala.

54
00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:55.860
And sometimes she seems to be putting on a performance for Tarrant.

55
00:03:55.919 --> 00:03:58.860
Other times he can't see her and she's still emoting.

56
00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:01.259
So it's all quite genuine.

57
00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:10.199
And um, very unusual, but I think it really helps to round that character out, that she isn't just there and she has, she's blank and has no emotions.

58
00:04:10.259 --> 00:04:14.759
She actually feels quite deeply, but nonetheless she's the steel queen.

59
00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:25.680
She's more than her evening dresses. yes Oh my god, wandering around on the planet of sand in high heels.

60
00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:30.000
Five miles, they say at the start, we're flying in 5 miles at the place.

61
00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:31.800
Israel over this ground.

62
00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:34.740
That's how indomitable she is.

63
00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:36.779
She's like, I can do this in heels.

64
00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:39.779
Don't worry, sweetheart. quicker than Roger Bannister as well.

65
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:43.560
It's about a montage of 2 clips and she's done the 5 miles in one minute.

66
00:04:43.620 --> 00:04:45.000
It's quite a turnaround.

67
00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:47.040
Barely worked up a glow getting here.

68
00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:51.779
You mentioned Reeves.

69
00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:56.519
Stephen Yardley because we've got a fairly small guest cast this week, but they all do their bit, don't they?

70
00:04:56.579 --> 00:04:58.980
And he's a real staple of BBC.

71
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:08.519
If you're a fan of anything from the 70s or 80s, you will have come across him and he's got just, you know, Bergerac, Juliet Bravo, Dr. 2 fans known for vengeance on Varos, of course.

72
00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:12.060
And he does more than being just the sort of Travis substitute of the week.

73
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.639
I think he puts a bit more into it than that.

74
00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:16.319
Because it needs more than that, doesn't it?

75
00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:19.980
I think he's disappointed that he gets killed so early, frankly.

76
00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:24.180
As he does, it's a good fall.

77
00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:25.379
But as he's doing that for?

78
00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:27.180
my agent said this was a bigger part.

79
00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:42.480
You can almost see his days being numbered from the very 2nd he mentions that he's recognised server and it's like, yeah, you are not going to make it to the end of this episode, buddy.

80
00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:43.199
Yeah.

81
00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:46.800
She's incognito.

82
00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:48.240
She's like Emperor Palpatine.

83
00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:49.500
Somehow, she survived.

84
00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:53.939
I mean, she's only, the 1st episode, she's only, was it, 30 something she's killed?

85
00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:59.879
There must be 1000s for her to go through the full, the full list of everyone who saw her.

86
00:05:59.939 --> 00:06:02.459
But that's not going to stop her, is it?

87
00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:03.360
That is not good.

88
00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:06.959
She's incognito, but she looks exactly the same.

89
00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:15.839
With this extraordinarily striking appearance and yet, yeah, but she does say that everybody who knew her had been purged.

90
00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:18.180
They must have made a good purge of it if nobody recognised it.

91
00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:18.839
Very good purge.

92
00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:23.699
But yes, you'd think she'd at least put on a Cassini wig to sort of make herself look like somebody else.

93
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.939
Just seen him or something, you know.

94
00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.019
Yes, exactly.

95
00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:37.259
Also, as if as if the original serverland, who this serverland's not supposed to be, I guess, wasn't, you know, one of the most photographed people of all time.

96
00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:39.000
Like, she's extremely glamorous.

97
00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:44.639
She would have been turning up in places like, oh, you'll never believe what the Supreme Commander was wearing this week.

98
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:50.279
Her Czech list probably actually got to destroy all her special edition postage stamps with me on.

99
00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:53.399
I've got to destroy all of those meltdown those coins.

100
00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:56.459
Everyone who read that issue of Who Weekly.

101
00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:20.220
We've also got Chazgo, played by Daniel Hill, famous to Doctor Who fans for not being able to be in Shada, but again, he was a he's a BBC staple from sitcoms particularly through the 80s and 90s.

102
00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:27.180
And I think the amount of grease on his hair in this episode could in itself, like, you've seen the, you've seen Shada.

103
00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:28.860
I mean, you see how big that hair is.

104
00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:29.879
That's what it takes.

105
00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:31.980
Yeah, that's what it takes to get it splash.

106
00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:37.980
Yeah, I, uh, Tesco and Servoland's assistant who hasn't given a name.

107
00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:42.360
They, to me, they really looked like they'd come out of Tom Corbett's space cadet.

108
00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:48.060
They had a real 50s rocket ship captain look with the big shoulders and everything.

109
00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:49.319
It was quiet.

110
00:07:49.379 --> 00:07:53.279
I'm not sure we see that look anywhere else in like 7 they look quite extraordinary.

111
00:07:53.339 --> 00:07:56.759
Don't we see those uniforms in Trace, or am I imagining?

112
00:07:56.819 --> 00:07:57.959
Yes, you could be right.

113
00:07:58.019 --> 00:07:59.160
Could be.

114
00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:02.279
I could also be wrong, but I'm just, that's what I thought of before.

115
00:08:02.339 --> 00:08:03.420
I'll check in post.

116
00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:08.519
Whichever one of you's right. leave that go luckily back.

117
00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:12.300
Whichever of us is wrong, you'll leave that in your name.

118
00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:13.500
Whichever's funniest.

119
00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:17.339
Oh, get on with it.

120
00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:18.720
What difference does it make if he is wrong?

121
00:08:18.779 --> 00:08:24.839
He did seem like possibly the most incompetent person to ever fly anything ever.

122
00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:27.120
Like, it was called, that's rude.

123
00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:28.379
I think he was very confident.

124
00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:31.620
I think it's that button and maybe this one.

125
00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:33.059
Yeah, sure.

126
00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:33.720
Why aren't we going?

127
00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:36.539
I think he was very earnest.

128
00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:37.799
He was doing it all very earnestly.

129
00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:45.179
I really felt for his position because, you know, he was trying his best and he's surrounded by all of these, you know, fools for commanders, you know.

130
00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:53.700
I mean, the line, yeah, the line management practises within the Federation are not based upon work-life balance and improving your employees' sense of development.

131
00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:54.419
Are they?

132
00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:57.659
Basically, just if anything goes wrong, I'm going to kill you.

133
00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:02.039
Ever since they replaced those people that put the blood vials in their chest to fly anywhere.

134
00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:03.179
Yes.

135
00:09:03.179 --> 00:09:05.340
Oh, no, we have to feed them.

136
00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:07.799
Yeah, we don't see much of the mutoids anymore, do we?

137
00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:08.519
No.

138
00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:12.120
I thought that's maybe these were recovering ones.

139
00:09:12.179 --> 00:09:16.620
Like, when you take off those weird little helmets, they've got very slicked back hair underneath.

140
00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:21.419
Most of the mutuids are all purged.

141
00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:24.779
Oh, yeah, maybe they all know what's in that looks like.

142
00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:29.940
I thought the mutanoids went out with Gareth Thomas day, didn't they?

143
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:31.320
Yeah they did.

144
00:09:31.379 --> 00:09:32.399
Went out with?

145
00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:36.240
In which sense?

146
00:09:36.299 --> 00:09:37.860
I can see him now.

147
00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:39.240
They were in a polycule.

148
00:09:39.299 --> 00:09:43.139
Stringfellows with one on each arm. ceased appearing at the same time as.

149
00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:52.320
And yeah, our 3rd Federation is Peter Craze of Michael's brother, isn't he?

150
00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:53.340
And it doesn't even get a name.

151
00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:54.419
Oh, is it?

152
00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.100
He's just Serverland's assistant.

153
00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.860
Yeah I'll have words.

154
00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:00.000
I mean, he gets a few lines.

155
00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:01.500
He's not just a, he's not a walk on.

156
00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:04.440
But not having a name is a very bad sign for your survival.

157
00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:06.720
Oh, yeah, it really is, yeah.

158
00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:09.059
We don't we don't do it by shirt colour.

159
00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:16.379
Although I've been enjoying a TV show lately called Dr. Odyssey and barely anyone has an actual name.

160
00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:27.000
Like, their character names are like Grandma, as played by Shania Twain, or Syphilis Sam, as played by Cord Overstreet. is the weirdest show.

161
00:10:27.059 --> 00:10:31.559
So you can have not a name and still impact the script. is true.

162
00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.860
I mean, enough to 4 years, they're probably running low on space names by now.

163
00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:37.679
The space name generator is overheated.

164
00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:39.840
Is he a space assistant?

165
00:10:39.899 --> 00:10:41.700
Does he count as a space assistant?

166
00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:44.519
I call him Henry.

167
00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:45.539
That's not spicy enough.

168
00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:46.919
Just don't be blameful.

169
00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:58.080
Space Henry. quite a few minutes in.

170
00:10:58.139 --> 00:11:02.879
We meet the supporting cast of less important characters back at Xenon Bass.

171
00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:03.899
They're debating it.

172
00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:11.220
And well, the idea that Avon would actually be bound by a vote. they actually sells that idea to me. and when I stand back and think about it, I'm like, would he, really?

173
00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:15.539
But he's genuinely, they're genuinely having a, you know, are we in for this one or not?

174
00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:19.440
And it's everyone except Villa is basically his, aren't they?

175
00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:20.279
Yeah.

176
00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:22.860
But he can't get a vote because he's inebriated.

177
00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:25.259
I wouldn't give myself a vote when I'm inebriated.

178
00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:32.399
I think I think whilst it is a democracy, I think Avon has as many votes as everybody else +one.

179
00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:35.220
He would have the casting vote.

180
00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:37.320
He's 50 he's always 51% of the vote.

181
00:11:37.379 --> 00:11:37.799
Yes, exactly.

182
00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:44.700
I wonder if Avon takes a bit of a vote because it's a rather ill-defined mission.

183
00:11:44.759 --> 00:11:50.460
It's like, well, there's something good maybe and maybe we could get it first.

184
00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:53.039
It's not a typical Blake 7 life or death.

185
00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:56.759
You know, we must defeat the federation kind of mission.

186
00:11:56.820 --> 00:11:59.700
So he's sort of thinking like, yeah, do we really want to do this?

187
00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:00.899
Yes, I suppose we do.

188
00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:01.679
All right, let's go.

189
00:12:01.740 --> 00:12:03.539
Otherwise the story's going to be too short.

190
00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:09.000
Yeah, we had the same kind of vague debate before the last episode games and look how well that turned out.

191
00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:16.500
They're not the wisest ship's crew in the galaxy.

192
00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:26.039
I think Avon has one of those votes where he's very skilled at convincing other people to make the decision he wants made.

193
00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:32.940
Like, you know, like if you wanted to get out of a job and you're just like, do you really think I'm the right person for this?

194
00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:37.740
Everyone's like, you know what?

195
00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:41.340
I think I know someone who's better for this job being like, yeah, because I did not want to do that.

196
00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:46.080
I suspect Avon's doing a little bit of that.

197
00:12:46.139 --> 00:12:51.600
We might not see it on screen, but I reckon he'd be going around white handing everyone before the vote.

198
00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:55.080
Well, here's the dominant male.

199
00:12:55.620 --> 00:12:57.299
He'll tell you.

200
00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:58.139
He is.

201
00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:02.879
There's some great gifts to be made out of the reactions to that statement at the end where he says.

202
00:13:07.500 --> 00:13:12.120
This isn't, I forgot to mention, this is an episode that starts with a poem.

203
00:13:12.179 --> 00:13:13.860
I don't think we've had an episode of Blake's heaven.

204
00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:15.899
Start with somebody reciting a poem before, have we?

205
00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:19.799
And it's one of Tannethlee's own poems that I think she'd written prior to this.

206
00:13:19.860 --> 00:13:31.320
One of the Blake 7 fact websites gets quite tangled about whether this means that she exists as a fictional poet within the Blake 7 universe as well, by virtue of having written her own poem into the story.

207
00:13:31.379 --> 00:13:32.580
Right, Tangle.

208
00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:32.879
Yeah.

209
00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:44.759
I hope she didn't feel the need to write a Blake 7 episode in order to get her poem aired. you How can I give this poem a greater audience?

210
00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:50.039
I had the impression that Reeve was quoting a poem that might be well known.

211
00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:59.820
That he says this is this plan that reminds me of this, and the approaching you get is that the other person at the other end might have heard this poem and thought, oh, I see what you mean.

212
00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:04.440
Um, I'd love the use of poetry all through all through it.

213
00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:16.500
The thing about, well, we be lovers for a long time, which the computer then, The computer produces like a mangled poem, it's starting to go colour, killer, colour, colour, and it comes up with that little bit.

214
00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:20.220
Uh, I loved that all through it.

215
00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:23.039
It's kind of, it's a bit like cut up poetry, isn't it?

216
00:14:23.100 --> 00:14:28.019
Like, you know, the way David Bowie used to write his songs, like just hacking things together and going, there you go.

217
00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:29.100
That's a bit of poem.

218
00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:30.600
Or I can say it.

219
00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:31.440
That's art.

220
00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:38.460
Yeah, an Aurac and the computer on the base both come out with the same phrase about, will we be together for a long time, isn't it?

221
00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:38.820
Yeah.

222
00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:39.539
Yeah.

223
00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:43.019
Sort of, and that's where that's where this...

224
00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:52.320
Well, I mean, opening with a poem anyways, it makes you realise this is a different episode to usual, but when the computers start quoting poetry as well, you realise that we're playing by some different rules this week.

225
00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:53.879
This isn't just going to be a shoot them up.

226
00:14:53.940 --> 00:14:54.419
I love it.

227
00:14:54.539 --> 00:14:59.700
I like the fact that some of some of the dialogue is essentially poetry as well.

228
00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:08.340
So, um, uh, Tarrant is describing Serverland as the panther with the golden eyes and the silver talons are like, whoa, where does that come from, Tarrant?

229
00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:12.299
Didn't suspect you had that in you.

230
00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:15.960
And also, so that I'm talking about power being beautiful and shining.

231
00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:20.519
And there's these incredible poetic little speeches as well as all of these witticisms.

232
00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:24.299
So it's just got this very rich language, which is a bit unusual.

233
00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:29.639
It's not that unusual because there's a lot of witticisms in Blake 7, but it is a very rich stew.

234
00:15:29.700 --> 00:15:31.620
Yeah, it just leans in a different direction.

235
00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:32.759
It is leaning, isn't it?

236
00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:42.360
Do you think it's because Tenneth Lee's like predominantly a prose author and is kind of, you know, for want of a bit of term, slumming it, writing for television?

237
00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:49.019
And it's like, oh, Chris Boucher sitting there going, yeah, I don't know where to cut this.

238
00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:50.220
We don't normally get poetry.

239
00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:55.440
Yeah, I mean, yeah, the and it does, you know, hark back to sarcophagus, doesn't it?

240
00:15:55.500 --> 00:16:02.399
I mean, very literally later on, but even just in terms of tone, it's definitely a do another one a bit like that, please, commission, isn't it?

241
00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:04.559
try something different at all.

242
00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:11.519
It's more of more coming from that perspective again, because they know there's something really distinctive that can like 7 can really do.

243
00:16:11.580 --> 00:16:13.860
I couldn't imagine a Doctor Who episode written by Tan Italy.

244
00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:14.879
Oh God, no.

245
00:16:14.940 --> 00:16:15.960
Well, at this point.

246
00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:16.500
No, yeah.

247
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:19.740
Not at this point in time when Tom Baker would just say whatever he felt like.

248
00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:28.740
Oh God, now I'm imagining this episode with Tom Baker and Mary Towne locked in the thing and that would not be broadcastable.

249
00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:39.600
Oh my god, the food machine, instead of dinner produces the cake for the 400th episode.

250
00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:43.620
Tom would want to be flirting with Beatrix Lehman, wouldn't he, actually?

251
00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:46.440
That would be his green version, probably.

252
00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:58.620
But yeah, it's going to a very different place and trying to really get the emotions running on us as it is on its characters because I remember seeing it for the 1st time I was a teenager.

253
00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:06.180
I tried to rewatch it this time, not letting myself remember that I know what's going to happen, that it isn't actually a murder mystery in that sense.

254
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.160
They aren't going to cure a space plague.

255
00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:15.240
Although they kind of, I mean, nobody bothers putting on a mask as they go striding into this base where everyone is supposed to have died of a plague.

256
00:17:15.299 --> 00:17:17.759
I mean, they've all had space vaccines.

257
00:17:17.819 --> 00:17:18.779
Oh no, that's true.

258
00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:20.400
Yeah, they mentioned that, don't they?

259
00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:21.420
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

260
00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:22.079
Yes, remember?

261
00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.779
So, yeah, they're all fine with their space vaccine.

262
00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:29.039
Oh, and I love the way when he says, when Reeve says that to that line, you know, have you had your shots?

263
00:17:29.099 --> 00:17:38.279
She sort of turns to look at him and said, of course I have, coming in here and it's like implying it's getting close to him as much as the planet that she's wanted to be fully inoculated against.

264
00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:44.519
Yeah, I needed I needed to not be near you and whatever you're wearing.

265
00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:58.980
But when we 1st see Keller on the little screen, there's something in her eye, you know, she's def- she's not telling us why, but she's reacting differently to him.

266
00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:05.759
And he doesn't, I mean, certainly based upon her previous encounters with men that she finds sexy in Blake 7.

267
00:18:05.819 --> 00:18:09.119
He's not the type to fling her over a shoulder over his shoulder and call her his woman.

268
00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:15.000
And maybe this is more believable than that, that she's gone for an intellectual, I suppose.

269
00:18:15.180 --> 00:18:19.019
Unless that's, you know, because she said this is from years and years ago.

270
00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:20.819
She was 18, she was young.

271
00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:22.440
Yeah, she was young.

272
00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:35.519
And so maybe that's why she did gravitate towards the more brutish behaviour of her later paramours because her previous experience is like, oh, I'm just, I could never replace anyone this smart.

273
00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:37.980
I need to go with the dumbest man I can find.

274
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.079
Well, she does.

275
00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:43.980
She does say she has a relationship, ends up having a relationship with power.

276
00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:54.539
And so I think I think the idea is, yes, while she originally falls in love with Keller, all she wants from her later men is just a good hard shag and that's, you know.

277
00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.259
Somebody can pick her up and drop her into a dress.

278
00:18:58.500 --> 00:18:58.680
Exactly.

279
00:18:58.740 --> 00:19:00.539
She should like she should like them to do it again.

280
00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:04.680
Oh my god, it's my favourite episode.

281
00:19:04.740 --> 00:19:05.039
Yes.

282
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:14.640
Definitely, I would say, sort of 2 opposite poles of late seven, in terms of its approach to...

283
00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:18.299
I don't mean it's approach to the female gaze.

284
00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:25.859
When you're young too, because you're so young, you're so dumb.

285
00:19:25.859 --> 00:19:35.759
But if Ben Steed tells you something about women, you believe it and you get old gender or sex or something and you get awfully nice to believe what Star Trek had to say.

286
00:19:35.819 --> 00:19:39.420
And, you know, just sort of absorb these ideas uncritically.

287
00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:44.940
And then later you have to undo all of those knots that have been tied in your brain. is terrible.

288
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.539
Um, I can't blame this episode for anything like that.

289
00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:50.640
I do, I do, the dinner scene.

290
00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:57.420
Like, it's one of my favourite moments because it's like, you know, I feel like this episode could have been called Sand in brackets, my dinner with Tarrant.

291
00:19:57.539 --> 00:19:59.579
And did my picnic.

292
00:20:01.380 --> 00:20:10.680
And that scene of, I don't know if it's just one of those fan rumours or a conventional anecdote, but there's the, I've seen claims that that line about, would you move?

293
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:17.519
I'd move next door was something that they actually had said to each other as a joke and then they got incorporated.

294
00:20:17.579 --> 00:20:18.779
I just had to film during a hairstyle.

295
00:20:18.779 --> 00:20:19.019
Yes.

296
00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:20.759
I don't know how many. that's true.

297
00:20:20.819 --> 00:20:21.839
That's great.

298
00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:23.579
It is a great set of lines.

299
00:20:23.640 --> 00:20:25.500
It is a great...

300
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:26.819
I'm just the girl next door.

301
00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:35.460
Would it work better with Avon?

302
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:37.259
Or it would be different.

303
00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:37.980
No.

304
00:20:37.980 --> 00:20:39.119
I've already been there.

305
00:20:39.180 --> 00:20:41.400
Sort of, haven't we, with their flirtation?

306
00:20:41.460 --> 00:20:43.140
Well, when have we really been there?

307
00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:53.400
I mean, you see, I think I think everyone's thinking of the scene, you know, the Death Watch scene as, you know, I'd be dead in a week, you know, kind of thing.

308
00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:55.319
I, I, that's not enough for me.

309
00:20:55.380 --> 00:20:58.559
I'd rather have had a longer sequence like this.

310
00:20:58.619 --> 00:21:00.299
And I think you could have still done it again.

311
00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:04.559
Maybe that's something in series 5 that we didn't get to see or something.

312
00:21:04.619 --> 00:21:12.059
But yeah, I, I, you needed a, a longer, where they're trapped together by themselves for a while, so they can properly get it on.

313
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:27.900
I also think the thing I love about them being trapped together is that Tarrant thinks he's, you know, cock of the walk and, you know, the new Blake, essentially, who they've cast because he looks vaguely similar.

314
00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:40.079
Um, but the reality is that Jacqueline Pierce is walking complete circles around him as an actor, as a character, and it's, it's kind of fun that he's sitting there like, yeah, I'm holding it.

315
00:21:40.140 --> 00:21:40.859
I'm holding my own.

316
00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:42.599
I'm and it's no, you're not.

317
00:21:43.140 --> 00:21:49.980
Like that's part of the joy of the scene, is him not being in control as much as he thinks he is.

318
00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:53.160
You know, I'm the big action man and I'm going to conquer this woman.

319
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:55.019
It's like, no, no, I've got your mind.

320
00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:55.980
I've got your car.

321
00:21:56.220 --> 00:21:57.779
Glorious.

322
00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:00.240
I think it provides a contrast.

323
00:22:00.299 --> 00:22:04.140
We've got vulnerable serverland, but vulnerable serverland has your gun.

324
00:22:04.259 --> 00:22:05.279
Yes, exactly.

325
00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:06.599
Well, it's all an act.

326
00:22:06.660 --> 00:22:07.980
Vulnerable server lane's all an act.

327
00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:13.079
She's in control pretty much of everything that happens with Tarrant.

328
00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:15.900
He doesn't realise it, but she really is running rings around him.

329
00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:17.579
That couldn't happen with Abon.

330
00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:21.420
They'd have to kill each other and that'd be, you know, their idea of sense.

331
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:22.019
Oh, yeah.

332
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:30.119
No, that's why I think that Avon doesn't work in this story, but this episode, but I think we want, I just want another sequence, you know, another episode. different episode.

333
00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:46.079
And that's a really good point, that Servoland's maturity versus Terence, boyish, desperation to please and to show how clever he is and and how flattered he is by the fact that the planet has chosen him from a list of three.

334
00:22:46.140 --> 00:22:50.819
I mean, you are literally the last man alive on the planet, Tara.

335
00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:52.799
Don't get too cocky.

336
00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:59.039
He's been chosen because he's the most in proximity.

337
00:22:59.099 --> 00:23:01.980
Yes, you're in the same room and you're alive, you'll do.

338
00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:05.640
It's not really that much of a victory.

339
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:19.619
I have to say, I was disappointed by the resolution, the, um, oh, water.

340
00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:23.640
Like that was a bit frustrating.

341
00:23:23.700 --> 00:23:25.319
And then it was several X tears.

342
00:23:25.380 --> 00:23:26.099
Resolution?

343
00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:27.059
Is that what we're calling them?

344
00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:28.200
classic, though.

345
00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:30.900
It's good enough for the seeds of death.

346
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:32.640
Of course it is.

347
00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:40.140
It's such a weird resolution to come from a country where the water falls from the sky 90% of the time.

348
00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:42.359
No, this is the thing.

349
00:23:42.420 --> 00:23:43.440
And I wondered when they wrote it.

350
00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:44.220
Well, they're thinking now.

351
00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:45.420
It's writing.

352
00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:46.500
It's definitely British.

353
00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:47.460
I think she is, isn't she?

354
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:48.599
Yeah, I'm not sure.

355
00:23:48.660 --> 00:23:49.319
Yeah, yeah.

356
00:23:49.380 --> 00:23:51.480
She's writing this now, what the Brits will never think.

357
00:23:51.539 --> 00:23:54.960
At some point every British post is going to say they're on the beach and it's not raining.

358
00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.980
Isn't that that's meant to be a clue that we've just failed to pick up?

359
00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:01.019
Oh, it's satire.

360
00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:06.599
But yeah, Servolan actually crying.

361
00:24:06.660 --> 00:24:09.299
Atia is difficult for me.

362
00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:20.640
Like, I would, you know, if she was actually crying fine, but yeah, I feel like her squeezing one out and that being the thing that stops the sound, it's like, she's capable of everything, Adam.

363
00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:21.839
She's capable of everything.

364
00:24:21.900 --> 00:24:22.500
Remember that.

365
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:24.779
But we sort of get told it, don't we?

366
00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:29.759
Because like, yes, Sevilan, you a tear fell from your face, but we couldn't quite catch that on camera, so we went up to see Villa do it instead.

367
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.700
It would have been great if it had turned.

368
00:24:32.700 --> 00:24:34.799
A single tears dissolved all this sand, yeah.

369
00:24:34.859 --> 00:24:39.180
It would have been great if Avon makes a bit of a leap of judgement when Villas builds his wine on the stuff.

370
00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:40.799
It might be alcohol that kills it.

371
00:24:40.859 --> 00:24:42.660
It's like...

372
00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:43.680
Crack open the vodka.

373
00:24:43.740 --> 00:24:45.660
We need to uh we need to defend it.

374
00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.119
Yeah, it might be fermentation that kills it.

375
00:24:48.180 --> 00:24:48.900
Like, who knows?

376
00:24:49.019 --> 00:24:53.519
I'll tell you an extraordinary coincidence, which you can probably just cut out.

377
00:24:53.640 --> 00:25:02.099
But, um, you may remember in the 1970s when the Viking lander went to Mars to look for life there. script up the soil.

378
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:03.180
It added water.

379
00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:05.579
And it jushed it round, yes.

380
00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:09.359
And I waited to see if there are any chemicals.

381
00:25:09.420 --> 00:25:14.819
And now there's scientist who said, what if water kills the life on masks?

382
00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:15.960
There's no water on Mars?

383
00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:22.079
So it might be getting its water from the salts that are in the sand, different kind of chemistry.

384
00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:27.900
And so when we dump a bunch of water in on top of it, we actually killed everything that was in our sample and that's why we got a negative result.

385
00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:33.420
Oh, that's only just the same time as I'm watching fan for this very podcast.

386
00:25:33.539 --> 00:25:34.619
How fascinating.

387
00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:36.180
Was it water?

388
00:25:36.180 --> 00:25:39.000
Was it water that they had in the Viking or was it something?

389
00:25:39.059 --> 00:25:39.359
Was it?

390
00:25:39.420 --> 00:25:44.220
I thought it was like hydrocarbons or some kind of like organic chemical that...

391
00:25:44.220 --> 00:25:45.119
They had nutrients as well.

392
00:25:45.180 --> 00:25:45.960
Nutrients.

393
00:25:46.019 --> 00:25:55.859
It had nutrients in it or something to see whether the nutrients were eaten by the things that it's just all the bacteria that it's just killed by adding these foreign alien nutrients to its soil.

394
00:25:55.859 --> 00:26:00.180
One of those little sachets you get with flowers from the florist.

395
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:02.099
Yes, you know.

396
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:02.880
Yeah.

397
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:12.119
It's, you know, I wonder where Tenet Lee came up with the idea of the monstrous sand.

398
00:26:12.180 --> 00:26:13.440
Like, was that...

399
00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:16.019
Do you think she had a moment of like, everyone loves Dune?

400
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:18.599
What if I make the worms the sand?

401
00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:22.500
She likes vampires, apparently.

402
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:24.240
She does, yes.

403
00:26:24.299 --> 00:26:25.859
Huge on vamp.

404
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.519
So what if, what if um, nutrients were a vampire?

405
00:26:29.579 --> 00:26:30.900
What if chairs were a vampire?

406
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:32.460
Ah, what if sand was a vampire?

407
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:36.599
Is that not how you write?

408
00:26:36.660 --> 00:26:37.140
I don't know.

409
00:26:38.099 --> 00:26:40.500
Just got that out. nonsense.

410
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:49.440
Hey, I want to know, as someone who writes, you know, novels, pros.

411
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:54.359
How would you feel being tapped to write an episode of Blake Seven?

412
00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:55.920
Terrified.

413
00:26:55.980 --> 00:26:57.660
I have no idea how to write a television script.

414
00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:01.799
But it's the 1st idea what to do.

415
00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:05.220
Actually, you know, I was actually on my 2nd watch through for this podcast.

416
00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:10.740
I was actually just admiring the skill with which bits of the story and characters.

417
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:16.380
I moved around in a very elegant way so that like we, for example, how do we get Tarrant on his own?

418
00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:17.940
They always beam down in twos.

419
00:27:18.059 --> 00:27:22.200
Well, it's because the sand is affecting evil Stephen Yardley.

420
00:27:22.259 --> 00:27:27.000
And so he shoots, but doesn't kill or horribly wound.

421
00:27:27.059 --> 00:27:27.660
Dana.

422
00:27:27.720 --> 00:27:30.779
And I'm just sort of sitting there going, the skill on display here.

423
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:32.279
It's very nice and I couldn't emulate it.

424
00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:38.220
So, yeah, I'd be petrified to be asked to write an episode of like a real one.

425
00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:39.720
I'd have a stab though.

426
00:27:39.779 --> 00:27:46.740
John and I wrote a like 7 book or a little while ago and we had so much fun doing that that I'd really love to do it again.

427
00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:48.420
Yeah.

428
00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:51.420
It must be a fun sandbox to play in.

429
00:27:51.660 --> 00:27:53.339
Not intended.

430
00:27:54.059 --> 00:27:57.779
No, it really is. there's childhood there.

431
00:27:57.839 --> 00:27:59.099
There's your adolescence there.

432
00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:03.000
There's you've been a sad old adult who still loves to watch Blake 7.

433
00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:04.799
Now...

434
00:28:04.980 --> 00:28:08.819
Do you get a list of things you're not allowed to mention because they don't know who owns them and that sort of thing?

435
00:28:08.819 --> 00:28:10.500
Or is it, or are you...

436
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:12.420
Oh, that's a really interesting question.

437
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:18.480
I can't actually remember now if we were given, you know, a bit like for the Doctor Who knew adventures.

438
00:28:18.539 --> 00:28:19.980
It was like you can't use the Daleks.

439
00:28:20.099 --> 00:28:23.460
Um, There very probably was.

440
00:28:23.460 --> 00:28:30.900
Or possibly it would have been more, we did the outline for the book and then they had a look at it and said, yeah, this is, this is okay.

441
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:33.180
You haven't mentioned anything that were a bit worried about.

442
00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:33.960
So just go ahead.

443
00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:39.779
Um, I remember just having a pretty free hand with it, so, uh, love to do that again.

444
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:41.460
If I'd ever ever get the chance.

445
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:48.779
What do we think of the, what do you think of the directing of this episode?

446
00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:49.980
It's a one-time director.

447
00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:53.039
Vivian Cousins.

448
00:28:53.099 --> 00:28:56.759
She went on to do quite a few soaps and children's things.

449
00:28:56.819 --> 00:29:00.299
She did some Fraggle Rock, apparently, in Grange Hill, and Emmerdale.

450
00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:00.720
Yeah.

451
00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:03.779
There's a Fraggle Rock crossover that I want to say.

452
00:29:05.339 --> 00:29:14.220
There's some odd, but there are some, there seems to be some odd choices. the start, like some strange zoom effect on a CSO that kind of comes across looking a bit blotchy.

453
00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:17.640
Maybe the Blu-ray people will be able to fix that, don't they?

454
00:29:17.700 --> 00:29:23.579
I was fascinated with the effect of making the sand move, which looked...

455
00:29:23.579 --> 00:29:46.079
That was great actually. completely convincing and really unnerving because it just looks somewhat like someone had put a vacuum cleaner on and then played the film in reverse, but it kind of was effective that it was just like, oh, it's moving in a really unnatural creepy way, even though it just looks like someone shoved it from the other side of the studio and you can't see the broom.

456
00:29:46.140 --> 00:29:47.819
I was wondering if it was magnet.

457
00:29:47.880 --> 00:29:51.599
Well, sort of, but yeah, you sort of think that, and I was actually thinking about that when I was watching it.

458
00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:55.920
It's a better movement, though, than a broom pushing it.

459
00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:59.700
It's really quite, and when you're saying a vacuum cleaner, maybe that's what it is.

460
00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:04.200
And then like, although that wasn't work either, because it's quite clearly live video.

461
00:30:04.259 --> 00:30:11.460
So I wonder how they got it or is it at an angle or something and everything's at an angle and the sand is sliding down the slow.

462
00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:14.579
Like that terrible quiz show where everyone had to stand on the air.

463
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:23.940
But that sequence, that's, yes, that sequence where the unnamed functionary is not completely sucked into the sand, but is sort of killed by the sand.

464
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:28.440
Yeah, it gets him what the sand is doing there is really, really good.

465
00:30:28.500 --> 00:30:41.940
That is actually, and I think that some more judicious cutting and a little bit more camera work would have actually made the sequence work a bit better because I think we're sort of stuck on his face for too long.

466
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:49.980
And so it kind of loses the, loses the sort of the horror moment and needed to cut away or cut something else or cut to his hand writhing or whatever it is.

467
00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:52.079
I, I, I, yeah.

468
00:30:52.500 --> 00:30:55.440
I guess we've got people out of shop wiggling things.

469
00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:56.339
Yeah.

470
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:01.200
Yes, but I think they were focussing on the people wheeling things rather than what the camera was doing, you know.

471
00:31:02.220 --> 00:31:04.740
But yeah, that's the reveal, isn't it?

472
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:06.000
That's the point at which we discover.

473
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.079
It really is the sound.

474
00:31:07.140 --> 00:31:08.519
It's not just a slightly...

475
00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:09.059
Yeah, yeah.

476
00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:14.279
I have an answer to your earlier question, I think, which was, why Sand?

477
00:31:14.339 --> 00:31:16.140
Where did Tenethly get the idea for the sand?

478
00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:20.220
And I've written down bodies preserved by the sand.

479
00:31:20.339 --> 00:31:31.140
I think she was thinking about ancient Egypt because before they did harmification where they'd use all of the different chemicals and everything and wrapped up the body and it was quite an elaborate process.

480
00:31:31.259 --> 00:31:40.200
The original mummification was simply that you buried your dead in the sand, and it was extraordinarily dry, and the body would dry out, and it would be preserved in that state.

481
00:31:40.259 --> 00:31:42.599
You just wrapped people up in mats and put them in the sand.

482
00:31:42.660 --> 00:31:46.019
Um, so I wonder if that's what she...

483
00:31:46.019 --> 00:31:46.859
Preserving a sausage.

484
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:55.500
The idea that it was a preservative might have suggested, you know, that that peculiar thing where the bodies are still warm and supple.

485
00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:58.440
Um, and from there, ah, another vampire.

486
00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:05.220
Oh, they should have done the accent.

487
00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:06.359
That's what it really needs.

488
00:32:06.420 --> 00:32:08.880
Everyone on the planet.

489
00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:10.200
Oh, if the sand had a voice.

490
00:32:10.259 --> 00:32:11.700
Oh my god.

491
00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:12.660
No, no, no, please, no.

492
00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:17.519
Whatever.

493
00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:19.859
You must too easy.

494
00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:23.279
Another Peter Tutman.

495
00:32:23.339 --> 00:32:25.440
Yes, yet another Peter does in the voice.

496
00:32:25.500 --> 00:32:27.539
Yes, that's street, that's drinking, mistake.

497
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.440
Make it a bit more gravelly, Peter.

498
00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:39.180
I was just going to observe that I wonder whether the sand thing is about because there's a line earlier on, the fact that it gets into everything.

499
00:32:39.180 --> 00:32:48.119
And, you know, anyone who's been to the beach knows that, you know, you find it in everything for days. you know, and I think that that's kind of thing, it's invasive.

500
00:32:48.180 --> 00:32:49.019
It just gets into everything.

501
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:53.400
And I think that's maybe where the where the concept maybe comes from from that point of view.

502
00:32:53.460 --> 00:33:07.980
But look, I think I think there's some, just going back to the direction, though, I think there's some interesting choices early on where you've got this collision of in studio stuff, and then the next shot is like a film insert, and then the next shot's a sort of crime a key, something about that.

503
00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:13.200
And then you've got, like, each shot practically is a different kind of effect.

504
00:33:13.259 --> 00:33:17.579
And I actually feel that quite jarring in the beginning.

505
00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:18.779
Like just decide what you're going to do.

506
00:33:18.839 --> 00:33:23.880
Are you going to be underworld or are you going to be, you know, face of evil?

507
00:33:23.940 --> 00:33:24.720
I don't know, you know.

508
00:33:24.779 --> 00:33:33.660
Yeah, it seems like sometimes they're transferring up the road to the film studio simply because they can have a day there and they've got no days left in the TV centre because I can't see any other reason why they need it.

509
00:33:33.720 --> 00:33:40.319
It's a choice because usually you get like at least a sort of a little sequence on film, but you've got literally, here's the shot of something happening, whatever it is.

510
00:33:40.380 --> 00:33:42.299
And then we go back to the studio for the next show.

511
00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:44.400
And then we've got the film bit for that. you know what I mean?

512
00:33:44.460 --> 00:33:46.140
It's going to and from to and from to and from.

513
00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:48.660
And that's a bit disconcerting.

514
00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:50.460
It looks terrible now.

515
00:33:50.700 --> 00:33:53.160
I think it looks terrible.

516
00:33:53.220 --> 00:33:55.140
I didn't even allowed television.

517
00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:59.940
I watched Blake 7 because it was on Friday night, so I had to, you know, run home from swimming.

518
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:03.839
Um, and I watched it on a very small black and white television.

519
00:34:03.900 --> 00:34:10.860
I'm going to tell you, there is no difference between what you're saying from saying... on a 4 centimetre black and white.

520
00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:16.440
I'm a great defender of the fact that, you know, it was standard definition on a crappy television with bad reception.

521
00:34:16.500 --> 00:34:17.039
Absolutely.

522
00:34:17.099 --> 00:34:23.940
But, you know, I think this kind of this kind of is a little takes it just is stretching it a little bit too far.

523
00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:26.340
Very possibly.

524
00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:35.760
I've got to say, I wonder if having a female director is why Jacqueline Pierce has gone to those places with this character she's never really gone to before.

525
00:34:35.820 --> 00:34:40.320
Like she's been kind of convinced to go, no, no, no, you actually felt something for this man.

526
00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:44.039
She's like, I never feel anything from anyone.

527
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:49.500
But, you know, having a female director's gone, go on, give me a give me an emotion.

528
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:51.179
She's like, oh, all right, I'll give you one.

529
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:53.579
That's a good point actually.

530
00:34:53.699 --> 00:35:10.559
Yeah, she feel, I think you're seeing someone, in her performance, someone sort of being a little bit liberated from having to be that, and the other example, you know, Children of War on is is another one where she gets, but that's much more, no, the huge melodrama of, I don't die, all of that.

531
00:35:10.679 --> 00:35:16.380
Yeah, and she's clearly going at that full pelt as she does in this.

532
00:35:16.440 --> 00:35:17.340
So I don't, yeah.

533
00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:21.659
I don't think her arms are been twisted, but maybe she's just been reassured.

534
00:35:21.719 --> 00:35:32.039
Because, I mean, you know, I feel like, you know, male directors would probably have a tendency to direct her as, you know, a glamorous man.

535
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:38.940
You know, here's this glamorous creature, but in charge of everything, so she's got to behave like a man.

536
00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:43.739
And whereas having a female director is like, you can be glamorous, you can be in charge, and also you can have an emotion.

537
00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:44.340
They're fine.

538
00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.679
We can contain multitudes.

539
00:35:46.739 --> 00:35:52.739
You know, you don't have to be just one type of thing that a man thinks you are, which is normally the case with directors.

540
00:35:52.860 --> 00:35:54.480
No, yeah.

541
00:35:54.539 --> 00:36:03.000
The only bit that made me still do a little wince is the moment where she, for a moment she gets spooked by something and buries her face in Terrence's shoulder.

542
00:36:03.059 --> 00:36:04.019
Yeah.

543
00:36:04.019 --> 00:36:08.219
It's only for a fleeting. when the sand start's breaking in.

544
00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:10.019
Yeah, I thought that was a bit unfortunate.

545
00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:12.179
For character consistency.

546
00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:15.780
Yeah, that's true.

547
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:16.380
She's humouring.

548
00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:17.699
Yeah, yes, she's humouring him.

549
00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:18.599
That's how it was.

550
00:36:18.659 --> 00:36:19.380
Oh, yes, fair enough.

551
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:19.619
Yes.

552
00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:24.480
And also, it's like, I want to see how hard the pecks are, but I want to feel how hard they are with my face.

553
00:36:27.539 --> 00:36:30.539
I don't think there's much firmness there at all, Adam, I think.

554
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:32.280
Karen, he's arrogant.

555
00:36:32.340 --> 00:36:33.119
He's terrogant.

556
00:36:33.179 --> 00:36:35.039
Yes, yes, yes.

557
00:36:35.099 --> 00:36:37.500
Probably quite doughy under that jumpsuit.

558
00:36:44.820 --> 00:36:48.480
I keep having, this is the stupidest thing in the world.

559
00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:52.260
I keep having, whenever I'm thinking of a title of something that I've got to talk about.

560
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:54.960
I sing it to myself in my head.

561
00:36:55.019 --> 00:37:00.900
And if it's a 3 syllable title, it's always Goldfinger, you know, it's Blake.

562
00:37:00.900 --> 00:37:08.579
But because sand is a one syllable thing, the only song that comes into my head is gold by Spandau Bella.

563
00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:14.280
But that's got its own open, I'm wandering around singing, hungry, sad.

564
00:37:14.340 --> 00:37:16.860
Oh my god, Tarant is bland.

565
00:37:18.840 --> 00:37:21.780
It's been stuck in my head.

566
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:23.340
I'm an idiot.

567
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:25.320
But what song can you do for gold?

568
00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:31.980
It's just such an odd title.

569
00:37:32.099 --> 00:37:35.039
It invokes nothing.

570
00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:42.239
Well, the thing that struck me while watching it, I think the previous time too, but and I don't think it's intentional.

571
00:37:42.300 --> 00:37:47.880
It's just sort of rhyme, I could just see it sitting nicely alongside, um, Solaris.

572
00:37:47.940 --> 00:37:55.860
Oh, yeah. um, this idea of a sentient in, in Solarity, it's the sentient planet in the water and we don't know what's happening and is it trying to communicate or what?

573
00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:00.059
And this is kind of looks like dry Solaris with sand instead.

574
00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:03.360
Um, the, the, and it's the sentience of it.

575
00:38:03.420 --> 00:38:09.420
Because I don't get a sense that the sand is evil, like a vampire normally is portrayed.

576
00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:12.059
The sand is just trying to do its thing.

577
00:38:12.119 --> 00:38:17.039
But then I suppose, but then maybe that's, you know, vampires get a hard wrap for that.

578
00:38:17.099 --> 00:38:17.880
They're just hungry.

579
00:38:17.940 --> 00:38:21.900
Yeah, but and they do explain as it's just trying to turn us into cattle.

580
00:38:21.960 --> 00:38:26.099
Like, that's... which is a great line and a great image.

581
00:38:26.159 --> 00:38:35.219
And I know that there's a whole thing in vampire fiction with, you know, treating humans like cattle, which, of course, yeah, but it's, yeah, I'm not a very good stock animal, though.

582
00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:38.460
Oh, yeah. 18 years to reach full size.

583
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:43.500
I know, and a lot of undoing offences, just, you know, it's all the opposable thumbs are no good.

584
00:38:44.820 --> 00:38:50.460
Get away. has happened in this one, shoot ourselves in the head and stop recreating.

585
00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:56.880
Well, it needs to have a voice is because then you can have an argument with it saying, you know, you haven't brought this through sand.

586
00:38:59.940 --> 00:39:06.000
I'm obsessed now with inside Kate's head that there is the voice of Peter Tottenham as...

587
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:09.420
His voices are going to be, you know, this is going to be Peter Tottenham's voice.

588
00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:12.000
Do you think it's a high pitched sand?

589
00:39:12.059 --> 00:39:14.219
It's like, I'm going to...

590
00:39:14.219 --> 00:39:16.739
Or is it like low?

591
00:39:17.219 --> 00:39:18.480
I'm the sand.

592
00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:22.019
No, I think the voice is gravelly.

593
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:23.039
Gravelly.

594
00:39:23.519 --> 00:39:26.280
It's handy, Julie. not grammar.

595
00:39:26.340 --> 00:39:27.300
Yeah.

596
00:39:33.659 --> 00:39:37.320
Well, see, when I 1st saw this, I was a bit confused.

597
00:39:37.380 --> 00:39:39.599
When they found Keller's body.

598
00:39:39.659 --> 00:39:50.579
I, it is explained, but I didn't pay attention and thought that he, I thought he must have just died and that the sound had just, as actually... literally an hour ago.

599
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:55.260
Yeah, because Tarrant was there and it just was going to get, and so, yeah.

600
00:39:55.320 --> 00:40:06.480
Because but then that undermines the whole um, the whole point of it with the preservative, which Avon is strangely thinks he's going to make them rich by pickling things.

601
00:40:06.539 --> 00:40:08.099
It's like going to be years new.

602
00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:09.239
That's going to be then.

603
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:12.900
They're going to corner the market in preservative.

604
00:40:13.019 --> 00:40:15.480
I think, yeah, I...

605
00:40:15.480 --> 00:40:17.519
Is it really our USP, Avon?

606
00:40:17.579 --> 00:40:18.840
Have you gone slightly mad this year?

607
00:40:18.900 --> 00:40:22.380
Yes, we can't let the Federation get their hands on this preservative.

608
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:27.300
But he kind of sells it as a preservative, like not for food, but for people.

609
00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:31.739
Like it feels like he's going to start selling, you know, Avon.

610
00:40:31.800 --> 00:40:34.619
Some kind of cosmetics at all.

611
00:40:34.860 --> 00:40:37.260
It's great exfoliant, yeah.

612
00:40:37.380 --> 00:40:38.519
It's going to keep you looking young.

613
00:40:38.579 --> 00:40:39.840
Just wipe some of this sand on you.

614
00:40:39.900 --> 00:40:41.159
You'll be amazed at the results.

615
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.300
We do get something in this episode is quite unusual.

616
00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:52.739
Callbacks to a previous episode.

617
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:53.400
Yeah.

618
00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:57.179
And from the one character who wasn't in it, which is an interesting way of doing it.

619
00:40:57.239 --> 00:40:59.280
And I love as you told me previously.

620
00:40:59.340 --> 00:41:00.719
That thing that you told me about.

621
00:41:01.500 --> 00:41:03.780
You told me about that really good episode that someone wrote last year.

622
00:41:06.900 --> 00:41:09.780
There's quite a few callbacks, aren't there?

623
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:22.500
Like, did they know that they were on their, their last legs, like that this was heading towards the end and there was not going to be a renewal or, you know, they were kind of personal non-grata around the BBC.

624
00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:26.519
So it's like, yeah, let's just start calling back to things because no one's watching anyway.

625
00:41:27.300 --> 00:41:29.519
Oh, you mean no one at the BBC?

626
00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:30.960
No, none of the high-ups at the BBC.

627
00:41:31.019 --> 00:41:33.179
Yeah, because the rates were great, weren't they?

628
00:41:33.239 --> 00:41:33.960
It's getting 8 million.

629
00:41:34.079 --> 00:41:34.440
Yeah, yeah.

630
00:41:34.500 --> 00:41:37.199
But no, yeah, the bosses are just like, all right, do yeah, do one more year.

631
00:41:37.260 --> 00:41:38.159
Just let them get on.

632
00:41:38.219 --> 00:41:43.260
But they were kicking, they were kicking around ideas for what they might, it might be like the next year, weren't they?

633
00:41:43.320 --> 00:41:46.440
But yeah, they knew that nothing was, then it wasn't likely, I think.

634
00:41:46.500 --> 00:41:46.739
Yeah.

635
00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:48.000
I love them.

636
00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:48.960
I love...

637
00:41:49.019 --> 00:41:49.440
It's weird.

638
00:41:49.500 --> 00:41:50.940
It's only in the 2nd half of the series.

639
00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:53.639
I start to notice Glynis Barber's beautiful accent.

640
00:41:53.699 --> 00:41:56.460
And I get she's got more words.

641
00:41:56.519 --> 00:41:57.420
I suppose that's why.

642
00:41:59.820 --> 00:42:05.940
She really emerges as a really distinct character, the sort of let me Adam fighter.

643
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:16.199
So, but she delivers this thing about, and her theory, and she theorises about the liberator's destruction and Callie's death all coming back to what happened in sarcophagus, and then says, and then everyone says, do you believe that?

644
00:42:16.260 --> 00:42:16.920
It's just not one word.

645
00:42:17.519 --> 00:42:19.679
Okay, why did you say it then?

646
00:42:19.739 --> 00:42:20.760
But it's little...

647
00:42:20.820 --> 00:42:22.139
It was a nice little.

648
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:26.579
That is really there to keep the previous scene apart from the following scene.

649
00:42:26.699 --> 00:42:27.900
I think.

650
00:42:27.960 --> 00:42:30.780
It's the weakest bit of the story.

651
00:42:30.840 --> 00:42:39.599
Yeah, but it's still, it does it in a, in a, it's so unusual that it's, uh, it's, it's quite interesting. want to do that every week, but yeah.

652
00:42:39.659 --> 00:42:43.920
I loved her as a kid because she was like Charlie's Angels in space.

653
00:42:43.980 --> 00:42:45.480
Like it was my dream show.

654
00:42:46.739 --> 00:42:49.139
Like, I was so glad she came.

655
00:42:49.199 --> 00:42:50.400
I like, 0 my god, I love her.

656
00:42:50.460 --> 00:42:52.980
She's kicking people, like in the head.

657
00:42:53.039 --> 00:42:56.159
So it was Aurac Charlie in that scenario.

658
00:42:56.219 --> 00:42:57.719
Yeah, essentially, yeah.

659
00:42:57.840 --> 00:43:00.900
You know, boys coming out of a block box, you know.

660
00:43:01.019 --> 00:43:09.480
They're all, um, Serverland's line to Tarram, but they're all resourceful and decorative, really. sums up sums up the whole cast and to some extent.

661
00:43:09.539 --> 00:43:11.099
Oh, right.

662
00:43:11.099 --> 00:43:12.059
It's so annoying.

663
00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:16.920
Even if you loved you, would you switch him off if you said he loved you?

664
00:43:16.980 --> 00:43:17.460
Yeah absolutely.

665
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:19.260
I'd want more of that.

666
00:43:19.500 --> 00:43:21.840
I'll take it where I get it.

667
00:43:21.900 --> 00:43:23.639
I think it's just the constant wine.

668
00:43:23.699 --> 00:43:25.980
It's just like.

669
00:43:26.039 --> 00:43:27.539
Can you turn it down?

670
00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:32.400
Like, he needs a quieter fan.

671
00:43:33.239 --> 00:43:35.460
That's what it is, isn't it?

672
00:43:35.519 --> 00:43:43.679
I was about to say, my laptop's starting to make that noise, which is usually the sign that it's needing to be replaced because the fan is going help a leather.

673
00:43:43.800 --> 00:43:46.380
Just to run a video link.

674
00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:55.679
So Avon is not embroiled in the action this week, but he still gets to be pivotal to the solution.

675
00:43:55.739 --> 00:43:58.980
But when this head he's doing his logic squares or whatever.

676
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:00.000
Which is awful.

677
00:44:00.059 --> 00:44:00.900
Oh my god.

678
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:09.599
Well, I just think of those things you have in the playground where it's the 4 little roll pieces of paper folded over and do the little...

679
00:44:10.619 --> 00:44:15.360
Parent loves serve land, this that's...

680
00:44:15.420 --> 00:44:18.840
But he's not he's got some little plastic chunks with words printed on them.

681
00:44:18.900 --> 00:44:19.199
Yes.

682
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:22.559
They were, they were space arrow cards is what they were.

683
00:44:22.980 --> 00:44:30.420
I mean, if any writer, if Talent League script had somebody getting out of the tarot cards, it would be quite fitting, wouldn't it?

684
00:44:30.480 --> 00:44:31.260
Yeah.

685
00:44:31.320 --> 00:44:36.960
But I guess someone's gone, oh, no, Avon would use something more logical because he's like a computer.

686
00:44:37.019 --> 00:44:39.179
Like he and Auret could be brothers.

687
00:44:39.719 --> 00:44:45.119
Avon has an extraordinary moment in this episode where he turns with a flourish.

688
00:44:45.179 --> 00:44:47.400
It's the only way I can describe it.

689
00:44:47.460 --> 00:44:54.780
He's literally walking from one of the consoles in the ship to another console, but he turns around in this sort of magnificent fashion.

690
00:44:54.780 --> 00:45:00.719
And I thought, he's not got as many lines as Tarant in this, but by God, he makes a meal of them.

691
00:45:00.780 --> 00:45:01.619
They are fabulous.

692
00:45:01.679 --> 00:45:03.659
I just enjoyed watching it.

693
00:45:03.719 --> 00:45:06.179
Turning with the flourishes is what he does though.

694
00:45:06.239 --> 00:45:10.559
And at least he does say well now, which is important.

695
00:45:12.599 --> 00:45:15.239
Just enjoyed watching it so much.

696
00:45:17.519 --> 00:45:21.480
I kind of miss the Liberator set where he had much more room to flounce.

697
00:45:21.539 --> 00:45:23.940
Like this set is so he's kind of cramped.

698
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:29.760
Like he barely, like he's, but I'm halfway through a flounces out the set, like he's somewhere else.

699
00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:34.800
There's moments where he has to, if he wants to run from his, from the, on the liberator.

700
00:45:34.860 --> 00:45:37.139
If he wants to run from the control desk around to the communicator.

701
00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:41.400
You have to do a big lap all the way around the sofa and just to answer the phone while it's bringing.

702
00:45:41.519 --> 00:45:44.400
But he was always so magnificent at it.

703
00:45:44.460 --> 00:45:48.840
Whereas here it's just like, I could just lean, but I'm gonna really lean.

704
00:45:52.920 --> 00:45:55.679
Nobody leans like Avon.

705
00:45:56.099 --> 00:45:58.739
It's a darrowing move, isn't it?

706
00:45:58.800 --> 00:45:59.039
Yeah.

707
00:45:59.159 --> 00:46:00.539
He's got his own verb.

708
00:46:09.599 --> 00:46:18.599
I like the conceit or structural thing, I suppose, in stories where you've got 2 people in different places solving the same problem at the same time and getting there together.

709
00:46:18.659 --> 00:46:29.519
And that is nice that we've got the Tarrant wakes up in the morning and realises about the water at the same time as Villa spilling his booze up, up, up on the Scorpio.

710
00:46:29.579 --> 00:46:31.139
The Scorpio?

711
00:46:31.199 --> 00:46:32.280
It's never the Scorpio, is it?

712
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:33.000
Scorpio.

713
00:46:33.059 --> 00:46:34.079
Scorpio.

714
00:46:34.139 --> 00:46:36.480
It's the liberator, but it's just Scorpion.

715
00:46:36.539 --> 00:46:40.019
I have a question about the green planet.

716
00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:41.099
Hmm.

717
00:46:41.099 --> 00:46:43.500
Sun never shines there. right?

718
00:46:43.559 --> 00:46:45.059
We never see the sky.

719
00:46:45.900 --> 00:46:47.820
Yeah, it's always black.

720
00:46:47.940 --> 00:46:49.139
But it gets dark.

721
00:46:49.199 --> 00:46:50.519
They have night.

722
00:46:50.579 --> 00:46:52.199
They say, it's getting dark.

723
00:46:52.260 --> 00:46:53.460
You know, we've got to make count.

724
00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:55.739
And I thought to myself, What?

725
00:46:56.940 --> 00:47:00.539
Yeah, that's a little, we just need that.

726
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:01.260
Yeah.

727
00:47:01.440 --> 00:47:08.219
But and Servolan's face when she says she's got to make camp is marvellous because I mean, hey, you're the best.

728
00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:12.000
The campus thing on Tellylov, the she doesn't...

729
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:13.500
She's like camping.

730
00:47:13.559 --> 00:47:20.099
I've dated people like that who I've suggested. suggested a nice weekend in a tent and they reacted them exactly that way.

731
00:47:20.940 --> 00:47:24.119
Camping as in not going out in drag?

732
00:47:24.239 --> 00:47:25.199
are you talking about?

733
00:47:25.260 --> 00:47:31.320
But at least, though they wake up, they are all sleeping under sort of sheets of tin foil, which is quite a camp way of camping, I suppose.

734
00:47:31.679 --> 00:47:35.880
I wonder if the sand has a glow that we don't know about.

735
00:47:35.940 --> 00:47:42.300
See, this is, in my Doctor Who podcast, I'm often coming up with stupid theories for things that are not explained in the script.

736
00:47:42.360 --> 00:47:49.199
So I'm more than happy to posit that the sand glows and then has a little 9 eyes.

737
00:47:49.260 --> 00:47:57.840
So when they say it's getting dark, the sand's like, got to have a sleep. gorged myself on old mate down in there. visitor centre.

738
00:47:58.920 --> 00:48:03.599
All the little sand particles are turning over so that the glowing parts are facing down.

739
00:48:03.659 --> 00:48:04.260
Yeah.

740
00:48:04.260 --> 00:48:06.599
They shut the sound down.

741
00:48:07.079 --> 00:48:09.780
I mean, it is quite glittery sand.

742
00:48:10.860 --> 00:48:16.199
I want to know why it's green sand because it seems to be more green from space than it is when you're there.

743
00:48:16.260 --> 00:48:17.519
Yeah.

744
00:48:17.579 --> 00:48:19.860
Yeah, it depends on the lighting.

745
00:48:19.920 --> 00:48:20.519
It is sometimes.

746
00:48:20.579 --> 00:48:21.000
Yeah.

747
00:48:21.059 --> 00:48:28.559
My head cannon with the light thing, even though there's no sun, is that the this is a very boring explanation.

748
00:48:28.619 --> 00:48:40.500
But when you are in, like, a remote, if you're in a remote area and it's an absolutely clear night and it's a moonless clear night, and the atmosphere is clear.

749
00:48:40.559 --> 00:48:44.400
The Milky Way is bright enough to cast a shadow.

750
00:48:44.880 --> 00:48:46.320
Wow.

751
00:48:46.380 --> 00:49:02.219
I was reading a thing and someone, and I've noticed it down here in ginderbite is that out of gingerbite, you can, on those really, really crisp, clear nights, no moon and the stars are just hanging out there and you do, you can see, like you can see as if there's a moon.

752
00:49:02.219 --> 00:49:06.840
And, I don't know, that's a romantic idea that maybe that's what they were referring to.

753
00:49:06.900 --> 00:49:14.639
I suspect not, but, you know, Look, it's a lovely backdrop to my dinner with Tarrant.

754
00:49:14.699 --> 00:49:16.019
Yes exactly.

755
00:49:21.360 --> 00:49:22.800
It is.

756
00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:31.739
And they need that backdrop because things are, hopefully, from the Sands point of view, going to get physical, just like Olivia Newton-John, at number one in the Australian hit parade.

757
00:49:31.800 --> 00:49:33.179
This week in 1981.

758
00:49:33.300 --> 00:49:35.039
Oh my gosh, that's the beginning.

759
00:49:35.099 --> 00:49:41.760
That's the beginning of my of my realisation, my my my coming of age into pop music was was Olivia Newton-John's physical.

760
00:49:41.820 --> 00:49:42.780
So that is perfect.

761
00:49:42.900 --> 00:49:43.380
Oh, really?

762
00:49:43.380 --> 00:49:50.460
Weirdly, it only got to number seven up here, but in Australia, it was number one for many weeks, has it?

763
00:49:50.460 --> 00:49:51.960
Right, we should have been.

764
00:49:52.019 --> 00:49:52.860
Yes.

765
00:49:52.980 --> 00:49:54.179
And she's our living.

766
00:49:54.239 --> 00:49:55.139
And she's yours.

767
00:50:07.739 --> 00:50:24.239
So, the actual, so, once Avon has deduced that, uh, that water is the, the, is its weakness, um, he sort of just, he just comes up with this, well, we'll fly down, this lightning sound effect means it's going to rain, and, and, and he seeds some clouds, doesn't he?

768
00:50:24.300 --> 00:50:26.760
Maybe that's, no, I don't want to go there.

769
00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:29.460
Maybe that's...

770
00:50:29.460 --> 00:50:34.079
I feel like Avon would be virile enough to be able to seed clouds in that way that you're thinking.

771
00:50:34.619 --> 00:50:44.579
I want to, I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to know about what, what, what problems Taryn and Surfland had with sand down there.

772
00:50:44.579 --> 00:50:46.260
Because it does get everywhere.

773
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:47.760
It gets everywhere.

774
00:50:50.820 --> 00:50:52.980
But so it's not a science.

775
00:50:53.039 --> 00:50:54.780
Well, is it a science year or is it a magic?

776
00:50:55.739 --> 00:50:58.260
Well, it's magic sand, so...

777
00:50:58.260 --> 00:50:59.699
No.

778
00:50:59.760 --> 00:51:00.360
Yeah.

779
00:51:00.360 --> 00:51:01.559
It is magic sand.

780
00:51:01.619 --> 00:51:12.119
Do you remember, surely these things weren't were only a bit after this, that you'd buy this magic sand in like little genie bottles and you'd pour it into glass.

781
00:51:12.119 --> 00:51:17.760
And I think the sand must have had a wax coating or something because you'd be able to make little towers and shapes in the glass of water.

782
00:51:17.820 --> 00:51:18.960
Inside the water.

783
00:51:19.019 --> 00:51:19.260
Yeah.

784
00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:20.400
Inside the water.

785
00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:22.920
And it was colourful.

786
00:51:22.980 --> 00:51:25.139
Yes, yes, yes Yeah.

787
00:51:25.139 --> 00:51:27.480
So it's water...

788
00:51:27.599 --> 00:51:32.880
Yes, exactly exactly what this planet needed too. you know, not be foiled by these.

789
00:51:33.960 --> 00:51:36.900
And two, the return to Vern.

790
00:51:38.219 --> 00:51:41.519
I did love that the sand didn't die.

791
00:51:41.639 --> 00:51:51.000
Like, because I was like, what is this ridiculous life form that is allergic to water and that obviously is rain on this planet.

792
00:51:51.059 --> 00:51:58.679
Like this makes absolutely no sense to me, but the fact that the sand, the sand organism was not destroyed.

793
00:51:58.739 --> 00:52:03.539
It was just kind of rendered inert. by water insert.

794
00:52:03.599 --> 00:52:07.500
Well, it was kind of, it died back a bit before it then was able to do it.

795
00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:07.739
Yeah.

796
00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:16.019
Yeah, there's a real sense of panic. and from serverland in that final, Well, not panic's the wrong word, but, you know, urgency in that final scene where she's like, just make the thing take off.

797
00:52:16.019 --> 00:52:24.000
As her greasy head assistant has come to, presumably, when he, when he, he's saying he passed out.

798
00:52:24.059 --> 00:52:37.079
I guess it was the sand was kind of in the process of doing away with him as a as an unnecessary male, but then suddenly he was the last one left, so that's why he survived, yeah.

799
00:52:37.559 --> 00:52:49.860
But is she sad in distress at the end when she's doing whatever she's doing and she smashes the cube of water in her hand and there's a bit of sand there that dissolved because is she sort of worried that the whole spaceship's going to dissolve around her?

800
00:52:49.920 --> 00:52:53.760
Because surely she just needs to go to the replicator and get some more water to spray about the place.

801
00:52:54.539 --> 00:52:56.280
Hose the place down.

802
00:52:56.340 --> 00:52:56.880
Exactly.

803
00:52:56.940 --> 00:52:57.539
How is the place down?

804
00:52:57.599 --> 00:53:04.260
I think that that water crush is just her having her final moment of, oh, my 1st true love is finally dead.

805
00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:05.460
Yes.

806
00:53:05.460 --> 00:53:06.900
I can move on.

807
00:53:06.960 --> 00:53:08.760
He was the last person who would have recognised me.

808
00:53:14.579 --> 00:53:17.280
Yeah, that's a point. would have had to kill him if he was still alive.

809
00:53:17.340 --> 00:53:18.000
I know.

810
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:21.719
Best nunner if we change this episode.

811
00:53:22.679 --> 00:53:26.219
Maybe that's why she was hitting him when they find him.

812
00:53:26.280 --> 00:53:28.079
She was like, die, die.

813
00:53:28.199 --> 00:53:29.699
It must be dead.

814
00:53:30.900 --> 00:53:38.519
I also, I love, speaking of Silverland not being dead, the, when, when Tarrant gives his big...

815
00:53:38.519 --> 00:53:41.039
I had dinner with Silverland.

816
00:53:41.039 --> 00:53:46.320
Oh my god, guess who I had dinner with last night?

817
00:53:46.380 --> 00:53:49.199
What happens on Vern stays on Vern?

818
00:53:50.579 --> 00:53:55.619
But it is really good where it's like, you know, yes, it's just like, and she got it.

819
00:53:55.679 --> 00:53:57.719
You're sympathy, I mean.

820
00:54:01.500 --> 00:54:11.760
I like, I do like that it, although she doesn't say anything, it's Dana who reacts 1st to this news with Fury and Storm glares at him and Storms out.

821
00:54:11.820 --> 00:54:20.460
Because, yeah, her history with Servolan and her dad and everything isn't the episode hasn't got time to go into that, but it's not forgotten.

822
00:54:20.519 --> 00:54:30.420
But yeah, which, you know, I'm guessing is her being a great actor and going, oh, yeah, I remember my backstory because I'm sure it was not on the page.

823
00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:34.860
Yes, it's the kind of thing that, you know, in the Acton rehearsal room.

824
00:54:34.920 --> 00:54:36.719
She said, why don't I storm off 1st?

825
00:54:36.780 --> 00:54:39.300
Because if everyone remembers, you know, she did kill my father.

826
00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:40.980
Oh, yeah.

827
00:54:41.039 --> 00:54:44.760
She killed my dad while wearing a fabulous red hat.

828
00:54:46.019 --> 00:54:49.079
I love that moment where she says to Tara.

829
00:54:49.139 --> 00:54:51.300
Taryn's like, I ought to kill you.

830
00:54:51.300 --> 00:54:52.619
And she's like, what have I what have I done?

831
00:54:52.739 --> 00:54:53.699
She haven't got a check.

832
00:54:53.760 --> 00:54:55.199
Did I murder your family or something?

833
00:54:55.260 --> 00:54:55.860
I can't remember.

834
00:54:55.920 --> 00:54:57.599
Which one are you?

835
00:55:00.659 --> 00:55:03.960
I was there when your shit blew up, but that wasn't my fault.

836
00:55:07.019 --> 00:55:15.179
It is funny that we only now in this episode get an explanation as to why as to how Serverland escaped liberated, even though they've already seen her in this season.

837
00:55:15.239 --> 00:55:19.920
Yeah, it's almost as if this episode's supposed to have been supposed to have gone out earlier.

838
00:55:21.960 --> 00:55:22.500
It's also what.

839
00:55:22.559 --> 00:55:26.880
I mean, it's nice that they do, but sort of why bother once you've got this foreign, you just, you just did.

840
00:55:26.940 --> 00:55:27.239
Yeah.

841
00:55:27.300 --> 00:55:29.460
And mind you, and that's the explanation, isn't it?

842
00:55:29.460 --> 00:55:30.420
I just press some buttons.

843
00:55:30.539 --> 00:55:32.039
Oh, I just...

844
00:55:32.099 --> 00:55:33.300
It's all hard.

845
00:55:33.360 --> 00:55:34.019
It's hard to explain.

846
00:55:34.139 --> 00:55:36.059
A word with my agent.

847
00:55:36.539 --> 00:55:39.300
Somehow, Palpatine survived.

848
00:55:40.559 --> 00:55:42.840
And she gets the final thing?

849
00:55:42.900 --> 00:55:43.860
She gets the final shot.

850
00:55:44.039 --> 00:55:49.920
This has been a thank you for enjoying the Jacqueline Pierce show moment, really, isn't it?

851
00:55:49.980 --> 00:55:51.840
And really, this is, and this is her.

852
00:55:52.380 --> 00:55:59.280
There's more to be seen of her, but this is her peak just in terms of number of lines about anything else.

853
00:55:59.340 --> 00:56:04.739
This is the big server-am episode of the final segment of the show, isn't it?

854
00:56:14.940 --> 00:56:18.599
I still think it's a bit ordinary, but the lines are so good.

855
00:56:18.719 --> 00:56:24.000
Like, there are so, so, so many good design lines, but it's just all a bit...

856
00:56:24.059 --> 00:56:25.559
Interesting.

857
00:56:25.619 --> 00:56:27.239
Well, yes, what's missing?

858
00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:29.159
I don't know.

859
00:56:30.239 --> 00:56:32.820
I don't know, a bit, I don't know.

860
00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:43.500
I, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it is just the fact that there's, there's good, interesting stuff, but for me, it just doesn't quite engage me in the way that it should.

861
00:56:43.619 --> 00:56:46.320
I was a little bit like that with traitor.

862
00:56:46.380 --> 00:56:49.980
There's nothing wrong with it at all, but it wasn't a 10 out of 10 for me.

863
00:56:50.519 --> 00:56:53.219
That's a generous description of traitor, to be fair.

864
00:56:53.519 --> 00:56:55.860
Well, there's nothing wrong with that.

865
00:56:55.920 --> 00:56:57.239
It wasn't bad.

866
00:56:57.300 --> 00:56:59.579
Well, I thought I liked it least.

867
00:56:59.639 --> 00:57:07.440
I enjoy traitor a lot more, but I think this is better in terms of the craft of it.

868
00:57:07.500 --> 00:57:12.599
But in terms of the craft of the script, but I just think that it's just not.

869
00:57:12.659 --> 00:57:21.239
I'm just not, um, like there are only so many times that I, you know, that although all the one liners are really great and fantastic.

870
00:57:21.300 --> 00:57:25.679
It doesn't, it doesn't drive me to the next one, if you know what I mean.

871
00:57:25.739 --> 00:57:26.820
Yeah.

872
00:57:26.880 --> 00:57:28.440
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

873
00:57:28.500 --> 00:57:41.639
It's, I mean, it is, you know, part of its problem is trying to service everyone on Scorpio with at least 2 lines and a lot of those scenes drag because it's like, why aren't we back at the dinner?

874
00:57:44.699 --> 00:57:46.559
want to get back to the sand planet.

875
00:57:46.619 --> 00:57:56.280
We need more serverland and it does, it's weird that, you know, they do feel like complete secondary characters in their own show. in this episode.

876
00:57:57.000 --> 00:57:59.820
But yeah, I hear what you're saying.

877
00:57:59.880 --> 00:58:06.239
It does kind of feel like, oh, maybe if I had tuned in to watch the Serverland show, I would have loved it more.

878
00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:09.119
But I did come here for Blake 7.

879
00:58:09.780 --> 00:58:13.380
Well, I do tune in for the server Lane show, of course.

880
00:58:15.539 --> 00:58:18.659
This is more Serverland show than any other episode.

881
00:58:18.719 --> 00:58:23.940
Normally, Serverland's there messing things up, but this is her like, no, no, this is my episode.

882
00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:28.199
I'm doing all of these things and everyone else kind of interrupting her instead of the other way around.

883
00:58:28.619 --> 00:58:51.239
I actually wonder whether this is the sort of point in the season where, and I think about, I think this about a number of the episodes to come, that they feel like a possible template for if there is a series five, what are the kind of episodes we're going to do, because sand is a different, as we've sort of said, is a different episode to a lot of other episodes.

884
00:58:51.300 --> 00:58:54.840
Is this the kind of thing they want to explore more moving forward?

885
00:58:54.840 --> 00:58:56.340
Or is it just a random one off?

886
00:58:56.400 --> 00:59:12.659
I think that a lot about something like warlord, for instance, is like a possible template for what might have come orbit being a template for what might have come. because they all are a bit different and a bit more different compared to episodes in earlier seasons.

887
00:59:12.780 --> 00:59:13.440
I don't know.

888
00:59:13.500 --> 00:59:16.019
Maybe that's just the odd impression I get.

889
00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:22.199
I mean, I would love like 7 series 5 to have been, you know, largely space horror.

890
00:59:22.260 --> 00:59:23.280
Like, that would be amazing.

891
00:59:23.340 --> 00:59:28.139
Imagine every planet had some kind of creepy monster that wanted to eat you, but didn't have a voice.

892
00:59:30.059 --> 00:59:32.219
I want Sam too now.

893
00:59:32.280 --> 00:59:37.320
I'm completely sold on the idea of a sequel to this just when he thought it was safe to go back on the beach.

894
00:59:37.380 --> 00:59:40.500
Yeah, but that's the kind of thing.

895
00:59:40.500 --> 00:59:49.380
That is the kind of thing, though, because there's no, there's no kind of, the raison d'etre for Blake 7 has kind of gone a long time ago with sort of fighting with Federation in some ways.

896
00:59:49.440 --> 00:59:56.400
And so trying to find a new reason for being, and I think that's what exactly what you're saying, like what you could do next year.

897
00:59:56.940 --> 01:00:02.699
I would I would love if there was a sequel to this for the sand to have worked out how to make people.

898
01:00:03.539 --> 01:00:17.460
So you get down there and there's like a weird Tarrant and a weird serverland who've been having dinner for about 2 centuries, just waiting to trick people into having dinner with them and then eating them.

899
01:00:18.960 --> 01:00:28.260
Well, the thing that we're deprived of series E could start with server line turning up with a little baby in her arms with curly hair and white white teeth.

900
01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:33.539
He was through the land here.

901
01:00:37.139 --> 01:00:37.380
Yeah.

902
01:00:37.380 --> 01:00:38.639
Yeah, that's true.

903
01:00:39.059 --> 01:00:40.619
Oh yeah, her genes would be dominant, wouldn't they?

904
01:00:43.079 --> 01:00:47.099
I suspect anything that went on between them was probably pegging.

905
01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:55.739
An interesting query about how this planet works.

906
01:00:55.800 --> 01:00:57.599
Like, okay, the base was there for 5 years.

907
01:00:57.659 --> 01:01:00.300
So what was the sand eating before the base got there?

908
01:01:00.960 --> 01:01:07.440
There must be creatures of some kind somewhere on this planet.

909
01:01:07.500 --> 01:01:12.360
And aren't we grateful that they didn't try to simulate them after the harvester Chyros Centre?

910
01:01:13.260 --> 01:01:16.320
to just take it as red.

911
01:01:16.380 --> 01:01:17.699
There's camels or something.

912
01:01:18.780 --> 01:01:22.679
Well, maybe the sand felt because it had new species.

913
01:01:22.739 --> 01:01:26.340
They could kill the indigenous life form because it had this...

914
01:01:26.460 --> 01:01:28.559
They're just not very tasty.

915
01:01:28.619 --> 01:01:29.940
Yeah, exactly.

916
01:01:30.119 --> 01:01:32.219
Humans are like chocolate.

917
01:01:32.280 --> 01:01:36.239
Whatever else is on the planet, it's like, oh, this is like salad.

918
01:01:38.519 --> 01:01:41.280
I want these tasty chocolate humans.

919
01:01:43.199 --> 01:01:45.900
Maybe that's our episode title.

920
01:01:51.239 --> 01:01:53.460
I'm game. do it.

921
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:02.400
Thank you very much for joining us on our sandy adventure.

922
01:02:02.460 --> 01:02:07.679
We hope there isn't any trap between your toes and that you'll be back to listen to maximum power again next time.

923
01:02:07.800 --> 01:02:09.840
From now, though, from all of us, bye bye.

924
01:02:09.900 --> 01:02:11.159
Bye.

925
01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:12.780
Bye bye.

926
01:02:12.840 --> 01:02:14.280
Now for now.

927
01:02:18.059 --> 01:02:20.039
That's my power.

928
01:02:20.099 --> 01:02:25.079
Go, go. 30 seconds thrust the maximum power.

929
01:02:25.139 --> 01:02:27.059
Switching to manual.

930
01:02:27.119 --> 01:02:28.980
Maximum power on all drives.

931
01:02:29.579 --> 01:02:32.039
Maximum power.

932
01:02:41.099 --> 01:02:46.019
And when we first see, uh, Servoland's beloved, Oh, what's his name?

933
01:02:46.079 --> 01:02:46.559
Wheres my notes?

934
01:02:46.619 --> 01:02:47.340
Where's my notes?

935
01:02:47.400 --> 01:02:48.719
What's his name?

936
01:02:48.780 --> 01:02:51.119
The guy we're going, the guy we're going to find.

937
01:02:51.179 --> 01:02:52.559
Oh, his her ex-boyfriend.

938
01:02:52.619 --> 01:02:53.280
What his name is?

939
01:02:53.340 --> 01:02:53.880
Keller.

940
01:02:53.940 --> 01:02:54.539
Keller, thank you.

941
01:02:54.599 --> 01:02:56.159
That's a very Blake 7, isn't it?

942
01:02:56.639 --> 01:02:59.099
That's why it was hard to remember.

943
01:02:59.579 --> 01:03:01.380
A lot of them.

944
01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:02.519
It could be any of them.