WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:20:43

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Heist to see you, to see you heist.

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This week, maximum power is the podcast that's got black gold, but it's not crude, but we will always believe in your soul because this week we are reviewing the 49th episode of Blake 7.

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You got the power to know, you're indestructible.

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Always believe it.

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Gold, gold.

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I'm joined today by a fantastically glittering panel.

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I'm Peter.

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I'm Cy.

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I'm Tom.

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And I'm Pete.

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So yeah, welcome to the episode, everyone.

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Tom, you're our guest of the week.

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How did this one land for you?

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When I was asked which episode out of series D, would I like to be on gold was sort of top of my list, like, it just, when you're watching it all the way through, it just really stands out as such a good episode, there's action, there's tension.

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I think you could actually show this to a family member or a non- non-Blake 7 fan.

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There's no like wobbly bits or embarrassing bits.

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It's no animals. passes that test, doesn't it?

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Suddenly after a few of those episodes, like you suddenly go, oh, hold on.

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There's no special space crystal they're trying to locate or whatever. it's, oh, it's gold.

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Oh, it's a crime show in space.

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Yeah, Peter, what about you?

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No, I think this is a really enjoyable episode.

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It is one of the highlights of series D. It's really well written.

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It's well directed, which is not something you can really count on this season for a lot of the time.

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And there's also great character work.

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So that's definitely not nothing.

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In fact, it's most of what you could ask for.

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I do have a problem with it, but I'll talk about that later.

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Okay.

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Simon, what about you?

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You're going to be the one, you hate it, don't you?

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I hate you.

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No, no, no.

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When I when I think of Blake 7.

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And think of my favourites.

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This one is some top 5 for me.

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I absolutely adore this episode.

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It's one that I remembered really well from seeing it back in 83.

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It really stood out then and has always been a real favourite.

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There are loads of, loads of great things in this episode and I'm sure we'll talk about them.

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But one thing I'm really pleased to see is that every one of the regular cast gets something really good to do in this episode and we haven't had that.

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It feels like for quite a while.

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Everyone is really well defined and has a role to play in a proper heist adventure.

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And that's that's what you want.

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They're all using their skills and they're all brilliant.

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So, yeah, it's really well written, really well made, and yeah, it's a, it's a minor classic towards the end of the series.

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And you know, that generally only happens in Chris Boucher stories where all the characters are used well, but this guy's a rookie writer who comes in and somehow pulls it off.

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Yeah, and he knows the characters inside out.

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It feels like he's been writing for this show forever and he's a late find and just think if there'd been series E, he'd have been one of the star writers, I think, they'd have got him back for probably a couple of episodes instead of Ben Steed.

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Unless he'd done an Alan Pryor and come back and suddenly fallen off the cliff.

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Yes, yeah, Colin Davis, he'd been writing radio drama's quite a bit, I think, and it got BBC connections that way.

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There's a fantastic interview with him, that our broadcast organiser, extraordinaire James tracked down for us in the Horizon fanzine, which is available on the internet archive.

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And that is really interesting reading him describing, basically, he didn't know the characters that well, but he just felt he was really well briefed by Chris Boucher, gave him a really good short summary, and like, for example, always makes Sulin, say, the nastiest thing in every scene.

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And when you see that, and is that simple?

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And it makes her, I mean, simple, it makes that clear.

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And it makes her such an a distinct individual.

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I know a few episodes ago, you know, I was commenting, that's not a revelatory comment that in those 1st few episodes of this season.

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Suling's not got much to hang her coat on.

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And now she's just absolutely this sassy and sarcastic and I love it.

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I love her performance.

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I think I remember loving her when I was when I was a kid. 1st time I saw this would have been shortly after seeing the repeat of episode one of Legopolis on BBC 2 in 1981.

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That was quite a Monday night.

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She gets such great lines in this story as well.

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And they're not, they're not really a side of a character that was seen before.

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So that moment where she just says tequila.

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I dislike greedy men, Keila, is just so, so much of an insight into her character that we haven't had before.

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And then, you know, a couple of scenes later, she gets that, that great moment with Tarrant, where she says, why don't we wait in the person's office?

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And you're just saying, where's this Sulin bean?

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She's great.

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I love the bit where she stood back to back with Avon, both of them with their guns out pointing at the walls and not at anything that's where no threat is going to come, but they're playing the scene and it's the, I've mentioned before, the chemistry between Paul Darrow and Glynis Barber is phenomenally good and they play really, really well off each other.

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So it's really good to see them paired off for a lot of this episode.

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I think in that scene, she's finally learnt how to out Darrow Paul Darrow.

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And so it is really fun.

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I think the scenes they get here are amazing and that will carry forward into Warlord in a couple of weeks where I think their scenes may be the highlight of the episode.

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And her interaction with our guest, uh, Roy Canair, where he's sort of starts off sort of being slightly, slightly sort of creepy towards her and calling her pretty and that, and then she just sort of sticks her guard in his face and we realise who, uh, yeah, who he's dealing with.

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Yeah, she refuses to, for a while, she just ignores it the 1st couple of times. completely blank faces it and then she's like, this is not wearing me down if you think it's wearing me down.

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Do you know who Sharon smelled?

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She reminds me of Jenna in her prime.

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She really recalls how good Jana was in sort of those early episodes of series A and how great this show is when it writes its female characters with gumption, which is more often than not has to be said.

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Um, I just think they were late in discovering a character for Sulin, but once they did discover it, Glenis Barber runs with it and is one of the really appealing parts of late Series D. Yeah, I love the moment where Keeler says, oh, that was good shooting and Avon turns around and says, Sulin shot them both and just the look on his face and because she has been so cool and so fast that he hasn't noticed and that's, yeah, they're really going for that.

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She's a really great gunslinger.

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She's really good at her job.

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But also, you left out the little bit in between, where he says, you know, that was great shacing you to.

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Paul Darret turns to Sweden and says, not bad. and there's going round tequila and says, Sweden, shot them both.

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Not bad is really what makes it.

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And that's it.

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That's what this script is.

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It's funny as well as as exciting.

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And there are loads of really brilliant, funny lines all the way through and not just from Roy Kinnear, who you would expect to be the funny one.

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But from the whole crew, everybody gets a good snappy line.

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And Peter, you were right.

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It feels like a Chris Boucher script because everybody is in sort of maximum, almost quip mode.

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They're all it's all really quotable and really sayable dialogue, which it isn't always in Blake 7.

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Yeah, and imagine Roy Kinnear there.

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Yeah, let's talk about him a bit because this hinges on this. is a very big role, isn't it?

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In terms of lines, he's probably easily getting as many as any of the central characters.

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This is hung on this character.

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And at the time, he was kind of ubiquitous.

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He was a sort of actor who just turned up in an episode of anything.

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It's, when it could be sitcoms or dramas, um, he'd all, but also he's the sort of, he'd be alongside Beryl Reed on blankety blank, uh, and things like that a lot too.

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In that interview I mentioned, the writer was a little bit taken aback because he visited this guy as a square jawed kind of tough guy.

102
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And so when this comedic character actor gets the part.

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Initially he's a bit surprised, but then he says as soon as he saw him doing it, he realised where they were going and he was delighted with how well it worked.

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Also, he should have known how British television worked at the time.

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Whenever he had a square jawed, tough guy, it's always going to be a blobby, middle-aged, rather lovey.

106
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I think it's quite telling that Villa is hardly in it, and it's almost like, you know, that I don't know how those scenes would have worked if they were both sort of interacting with each other.

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It does create a bit of space, doesn't it?

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Because Villa is such a scene stealer and always has the funniest line in everything that he's in.

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It's a bit like Villa's Villa's dodgy uncle that's just turned up with a plan.

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And yeah.

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And more than in the other episodes, I noticed, because the object, it's a villa light episode this week, sort of.

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Although he's still in several key scenes, but only on the Scorpio.

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But when he has become front and centre face of the show alongside Darrow.

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I noticed, though, in this episode, unlike other ones where some character doesn't get much to do.

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Villa is mentioned lots in scenes that he's not in.

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They keep they explain when they're down on the planet why he's not there with them.

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Uh, and then they explain again later when they're, um, when they've gone some, somewhere else why he's, he does, Oh he doesn't trust you, so he's not come.

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Rather than him just not being there.

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It's like we do need to just explain to the audience why the funny one's not here. scene.

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It's one of the aspects of this script, which I think is really great.

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And like you said earlier, Colin Davis seems to have a real handle on the characters.

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I love filler's role in this episode.

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Even though he doesn't have much to do, he's really integral to it and he's written really well.

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So Avon talks about him positively, calling him a good thief, and saying that he's frequently right for being suspicious of people, and that's not the way that their relationship is always written, but we know that that's what's at the heart of it.

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And then later, after Avon and Sulin are presumed dead.

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Did you notice how Villa seems to be the one who's taken charge?

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Dana and Tarant are doing their heavy bit, but Villa's the one that's calling the shots when they're interrogating Keila on Scorpio.

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It's fascinating dynamic.

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And, you know, he also saves Avon by teleport during that action sequence.

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So he contributes a lot to this episode.

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And I think you can always tell the quality of a Blake 7 script by whether it treats Villa as an idiot or as someone with a lot more depth than that.

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And yeah, I think the way he just takes command quietly is incredible.

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It's a side of Villa, we don't see very often, but he is quietly commanding without Avon there to overshadow him, and it shows how intelligent and how much he's paid attention over the last 4 years to what goes on and how to do this.

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And it's almost a shame that we're so near the end of the series because he could actually lead this series. which is, yeah, you wouldn't expect from the character who Terry Nation only sort of 2 years ago was writing off as as not valuable to to the series.

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He's he's really proved his worth and Michael Keating really plays this one really seriously all the way through.

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He's he's not jokey at all in this episode.

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He's really yeah, really, really good.

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It's one of the generally uncommented on narratives of series D, how competent Villa is in a lot of instances.

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He's still written badly in episodes.

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Like I can think of star drive and animals, which make him into a bit of a buffoon.

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Um, but that's just poor writers doing it generally, and I can think back to rescue where he saves the day.

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Power, where he does a really good job of the key thing, which is being able to get through to Scorpio at the end of the episode.

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And then all through the 2nd half of series D, where he is just astonishingly competent.

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He saves Dana and Tarrant in games.

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He is the conscience of the crew in sand when he tells off Sulin for talking about Kelly's death.

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He has a really visceral reaction to that and it, you know, labels him as someone who's a thoughtful person talking about the loss of Cali.

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In this, he's really on top of his game in warlord, he's kind of like a Greek chorus, just like commenting on the things that are going on.

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And of course, in Blake.

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He has a lot to say for himself as well.

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I think series D might actually be the best season for Villa's character.

151
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You can't say that for everybody.

152
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No.

153
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Yeah, as a kid watching it, I think I've said it before, I kind of thought it was his show. him and that other angry guy, played by Paul Darrow, were clearly it was clearly about those two.

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But I guess that's pretty much wrapped up in this episode and there'll be nothing weighty coming up for them in the episodes ahead.

155
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Not at all.

156
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No change in their dynamic whatsoever.

157
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You just have to see.

158
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Yeah, but to go back to Roy Cania, because we kind of got sidetracked there, I'd like we do, um, I love the way he, he starts off quite confident and gets more and more nervous the closer it gets to the end of the episode and um, when he's going to be found out and and things like that.

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But he still has an edge when he kills Dr. Slayton.

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That's the moment.

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For no reason, just because he's, and even Avon says he wasn't armed, and Avon will shoot anyone in the back if they're a threat.

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I was going to say, I think the thought outrage from the regulars is a bit rich given how bloodthirsty they are in this episode gunning down or blowing up anyone who crosses their path.

163
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I started keeping a tally and I lost count.

164
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But yeah, and like some of these people are just, you know, you're just a factory operative.

165
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You didn't deserve to be shot in the head, by slowly.

166
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You were just going through the fire drill.

167
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They're processing some vegetables.

168
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But but Tarant, I think I think Pacey's putting bits into Tarant definitely is looking a little bit alarmed at some of the killings that go on.

169
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Oh, and Sulin gets that brilliant line when the, somehow, hiding behind that, not huge thing in the control room of the, of the...

170
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Yeah, that's...

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And uh, and the guard walks away in the nick of time and Sulan turns to Tara and says, oh, he got away just in time.

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Otherwise, he would have got shot.

173
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And Taron, there's a little reaction from Taron there about, she's enjoying this.

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She was, she would have enjoyed the chance to kill this guy.

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And she's, because she's been on a, on a spree this week.

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Yeah.

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But yeah, so yes, sticking with Roy Kinnear, he gets that fantastic line.

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Uh, Zulian Asim says about the planet.

179
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What's it like on the surface?

180
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And he says on the surface, it's a pretence like me, which is on the nose, except because he's, because it's him, it seems like he's just saying that to Joe, and you can, you can sort of generally think that his character is just trying to imply that there's a, that he's deep when he isn't really, but actually he really is, or is he?

181
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It seeds that in a fairly clear spelled out way, but it's still well done.

182
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It still lands really nicely, I think.

183
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Like, I think the character has got layers. and maybe part of the casting is to add that kind of mistake rather than just cast the usual kind of square jawed person.

184
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You've got someone who's slight, a slight misfit who you think, okay, well why is he in charge of this spaceship?

185
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And then, okay, so then he's got the history of, they just chuck in a line about him working for the Federation and...

186
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On the president's personal staff.

187
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Wow, yeah.

188
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Which president?

189
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I have seen that pointed out as one of the weaknesses of this episode that it's kind of obvious which presidents it's going to be.

190
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That's only knowable.

191
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It's fun.

192
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It's fun to then guests ahead of them.

193
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Who could possibly be that high heeled wearing a black robed person walking on the curry?

194
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Let's just hide her face to keep the pretence going.

195
00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:45.480
But one of my my favourite bits is where the camera is focussed on Roy Kinnear, when they're on the on the Scorpio deck, and he sat at the back, and the rest of the crew are all at the front talking, and he's nervous and he's sweating, and you can see it all written on his face that he's in completely out of his depth now and doesn't know what's going to happen, and he plays that really, really well.

196
00:17:45.539 --> 00:17:56.099
And from then onwards, he gets more and more nervous about what's going to happen and every time Avon starts calling the shots and saying, we're going to ask for 1000000000 We're going to go here.

197
00:17:56.160 --> 00:17:57.119
We're going to do this.

198
00:17:57.180 --> 00:18:08.700
And it's just like, you can see he's really panicking now that things are not in his control and obviously he knows who's going to be waiting for him and what's going to happen to him.

199
00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.880
And that, yeah, that's really, really good.

200
00:18:11.940 --> 00:18:22.799
And so slowly, his confidence from those early scenes where he's in control of everything slips and slips and slips all the way through and that's wonderful to see.

201
00:18:22.859 --> 00:18:26.460
And those scenes that, yeah, they kind of reflect each other.

202
00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:30.000
The 1st setup scene on board the silver carrier.

203
00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:31.319
Is that right you're saying?

204
00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:32.759
Space princess.

205
00:18:32.819 --> 00:18:33.960
Wheeling's face.

206
00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:39.299
What's the Space Princess?

207
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:45.299
The balance between those scenes, the height, the archetype or heist movies, I watched them.

208
00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:48.480
I watched Ocean's 11, by the way, too, before...

209
00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:49.200
How did that comp?

210
00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:52.259
There are remarkable plot similarities, actually.

211
00:18:52.319 --> 00:19:02.160
Which, strangely, but I saw the 2010 version. the, you know, the new version of OshLo. was trying to watch the 60s version, but Amazon have uploaded the wrong version.

212
00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:05.880
So you pay for Frank Sinatra and you get George Clooney instead.

213
00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:08.160
But that's sidetracked.

214
00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:11.220
Does the climax happen on the Arc Rough Bennett complex?

215
00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:19.200
But there is a lot made, a crucial thing is faking a CCTV image with a recording instead.

216
00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:23.519
And that sent me off to TV tropes, which website.

217
00:19:23.579 --> 00:19:35.339
I'm often a bit disabled about it because people sometimes just use it to whinge about things, but it was actually really, I then went down a right old rabbit hole about trying to track down the 1st kind of instances of when that was happening because this seems like a fairly early instance of it.

218
00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:36.480
You get it in things all the time.

219
00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:49.259
But I found in movies, loads of big movies were doing it afterwards, and I was like, yeah, Ocean 11, Ocean's 11 speed, Mission Impossible 3, all have the same thing, and I'm like, obviously, they all saw this episode of Blake 7.

220
00:19:49.319 --> 00:20:02.940
But turns out there were earlier ones too, particularly on TV, there was a Colombo episode in 1975 called Recap, where he'd realised he'd sold the crime by realising someone in a TV studio had faked a loop tape recording of an empty room.

221
00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:07.740
And then there's the Doctor Who episode, The Sun Makers, 1978, features the same thing.

222
00:20:07.799 --> 00:20:10.980
Um, so that might have been what, what, what nudged it in this direction.

223
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:16.440
Yeah, also makes you think that maybe HG Wells saw animals before he wrote the island of Dr. Moro.

224
00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:20.160
Seems likely.

225
00:20:20.579 --> 00:20:29.519
So, so, these are absolutely classic heist movie moments. and those that scene where they're all talking to him for the 1st time.

226
00:20:29.579 --> 00:20:36.299
They're all getting lines that chip in and come from their own perspective and then back on the on the Scorpio.

227
00:20:36.299 --> 00:20:40.859
The same thing happens again, but the tables are turned a bit and now they're in the driving seat.

228
00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:48.599
And yet it's just so well directed and the characters are so well served by their by the shares of the script that they get.

229
00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:48.900
Yeah.

230
00:20:48.960 --> 00:21:00.359
And there's a lot of scenes which are really interestingly kind of blocked with the regular standing around him or ranged in front of him while they're kind of like trying to come up with their next step.

231
00:21:00.420 --> 00:21:01.619
It's all very heist movie.

232
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:07.619
It makes you think they've sort of stumbled across a new way to make Blake 7.

233
00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:14.940
There's a few episodes where they sort of try a slightly different format, quite a lot of the Chris Boucher episodes.

234
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:17.460
Although this, although this one isn't by him.

235
00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:22.799
Like, you kind of think, yes, like they should do more of these because it just works so well.

236
00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:31.079
It's got, like you say, all the characters get something to do and it's so snappy and pacy and it just works so well with the format to show.

237
00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:34.559
Chris Boucher famously said to me in the pub.

238
00:21:35.339 --> 00:21:41.819
Um, that Blake 7 was his opportunity to do a lot of different genres.

239
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:50.039
And so you look at Death Watch was his Western and City at the Edge of the World was his romance and he sort of plundered different genres.

240
00:21:50.099 --> 00:21:53.400
You can fully imagine him writing this episode as his heist movie.

241
00:21:53.460 --> 00:22:02.460
And in fact, I think the script is so good in instances that you can fully believe that Chris Boucher either briefed Colin Davis exceptionally well or wrote it himself.

242
00:22:03.059 --> 00:22:08.700
And hadn't it been said somewhere that this episode could have been a sort of template for a series E?

243
00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:10.500
Chris Boucher said that.

244
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:20.640
And I think it might have been referenced in one of those Andrew Pixley specials that were done for Panini back in the mid 90s.

245
00:22:20.700 --> 00:22:22.680
I seem to remember reading it there.

246
00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:28.259
That is part of my problem with this episode, such as it is, but I will mention that later.

247
00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:30.779
We want a little variety.

248
00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:34.920
Yeah, we're going to run out of superlatives before the episode's done if you don't.

249
00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:41.039
Just can I just talk about Roy Kaneer for a moment?

250
00:22:41.099 --> 00:22:44.819
Because you mentioned earlier that he was ubiquitous on British television.

251
00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:52.259
My only, because I grew up in Australia, obviously, um, My only experience of him was Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.

252
00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:58.079
Um, and so I got a little thrill when he showed up um, because I recognised him from that.

253
00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:04.559
And of course, Blake 7 in my childhood and Willy Wonka in a lot of people's childhood is like a really happy place.

254
00:23:04.619 --> 00:23:11.160
And so it was this kind of collision of uh 2 things, you know, watching Willy Wonkram shock factory every Christmas on television.

255
00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:12.599
That kind of thing.

256
00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:16.680
I think Keila is one of the top guest turns of this season.

257
00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:22.500
They needed someone who could not just play him as a square jawed type.

258
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:25.500
They need someone who could bring all of those levels to him.

259
00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:34.440
And it is such a nervy and slimy performance that I think the episode would be not as great without him in it.

260
00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:37.920
Yeah, and when that booby trap goes off in his face.

261
00:23:37.980 --> 00:23:39.960
Yeah, the little bugs are all over him.

262
00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:49.140
I genuinely was like, ah, it's, um, of course, he's got pulled arrow to react to him, and if anyone's going to react to you, pulled arrow, it's going to be a fantastic person to be doing that.

263
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:50.279
And they just...

264
00:23:50.339 --> 00:23:50.880
You're clear.

265
00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:52.680
Yeah, but they're genuinely panky.

266
00:23:52.740 --> 00:23:54.660
My heart rate absolutely went up during that scene.

267
00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:56.400
I was not just watching those events unfold.

268
00:23:56.460 --> 00:23:58.319
I was really startled by it. for real.

269
00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:00.119
I knew it was coming, but I'd kind of forgotten.

270
00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:12.960
You kind of need that actor who you're never quite sure about, like, what they'll do next or, you know, he's nervous, but is that because he's going to get found out or is he just nervous because he's a very nervy character?

271
00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:17.099
Yeah, it's a very sweaty performance in the in the right way for them.

272
00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:17.819
Very watchable.

273
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:18.359
Definitely.

274
00:24:18.420 --> 00:24:20.279
He's playing it for real all the way through.

275
00:24:20.339 --> 00:24:31.799
He feels like a fully rounded character all the way through and I really love that and that nervousness, that panic is really, really proper panic.

276
00:24:32.220 --> 00:24:36.119
I also buy him as the purser of the space princess.

277
00:24:38.700 --> 00:24:55.019
Yeah, there's just that moment where he clocks the, the, the woman who's in the slightly revealing blue catsuits kind of costume and yeah, and gives a little, little grin and and things like that that feel really, Yeah, he's just horrible.

278
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.740
Yeah, he's smarmy and creepy.

279
00:24:58.859 --> 00:25:03.960
But yeah, but then is he coming enough to really be outwitting them all?

280
00:25:04.019 --> 00:25:05.579
It just keeps you keeps you going.

281
00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:08.400
Well, I wonder where where he knew Avon from.

282
00:25:09.180 --> 00:25:17.759
He's just sort of painted... old friend and there's obviously a relationship between them and and things like that.

283
00:25:17.819 --> 00:25:23.099
And he's always saying, old friend, old chum, all these things to reinforce that.

284
00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:24.660
But we never get that backstory.

285
00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:26.880
No, and Avon never gives him anything back.

286
00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:28.500
Avon is just like who's an acquaintance.

287
00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:29.099
I know.

288
00:25:29.220 --> 00:25:31.920
And in between that, he was working for the Federation.

289
00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:34.500
On the president's personal staff.

290
00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:35.460
Yeah.

291
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:38.400
Can you imagine after?

292
00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:44.819
Can you imagine that after work, Avon and Keila and the guy from Killer in series B would all go for a drink.

293
00:25:45.299 --> 00:25:47.759
Hello, old friend, how are you?

294
00:25:47.819 --> 00:25:48.539
I'm good old friend.

295
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:49.019
How are you?

296
00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:51.480
And he's just waiting to snap them all in the back.

297
00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:57.839
Yeah, and for those who don't know, it was a real shame.

298
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:07.380
I think it was headline news when he very suddenly died in 88 in a while filming in a fall from a horse, which was very sad.

299
00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:19.440
That's why he just, it disappeared from the scene because otherwise he clearly was really well connected at BBC and ITV and would have gone on having a long career into his, he was only in his 50s.

300
00:26:19.500 --> 00:26:22.740
So, yeah, that's why he very sadly disappeared.

301
00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:35.940
But his son, Rory Kinnear, is Tanner in the movies. and has similar level of could pop up anywhere about him because he's one of those you can do sitcoms or you can do bomb movies. in years and years, isn't he?

302
00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:36.299
Instagram.

303
00:26:36.359 --> 00:26:41.099
So, uh, yeah, no, that's, if he wasn't, that's good.

304
00:26:41.160 --> 00:26:44.819
This whole episode would really be deeply harmed by it.

305
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:46.680
It needs someone who's not just doing that.

306
00:26:46.740 --> 00:26:51.000
I'm doing a bit of Blake 7 this week, kind of acting, which some some guest stars can do that.

307
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:57.839
And in an episode with a bigger cast of baddies if they're among them, you know, but yeah, he's got a lot on his shoulders in this.

308
00:26:57.900 --> 00:27:04.380
It just shows you how much a role like this rides on good casting as well because he makes the episode.

309
00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:10.740
I would say that Stratford Johns elevates games far beyond the blandness of the script a couple of weeks ago.

310
00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:18.059
But then you look at something like animals where the casting of Justin is just completely wrong and it syncs the episode.

311
00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:18.779
Yeah.

312
00:27:18.779 --> 00:27:23.160
I mean, I don't know how buoyant that episode would have been with a difference.

313
00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:25.319
You're struggling to surface.

314
00:27:25.380 --> 00:27:27.960
It's one of the factors. shall we say?

315
00:27:28.019 --> 00:27:30.059
But it's a fun episode, still.

316
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:48.960
But someone who is given a very Blake 7 performance through all of this episode is Paul Darrow, who is enjoying himself immensely, and my notes for this episode are quite a lot of the dialogue that he has given.

317
00:27:49.019 --> 00:27:51.960
My favourite being, so what's the snag?

318
00:27:52.019 --> 00:27:53.160
Keila.

319
00:27:55.319 --> 00:28:00.059
It seems very, very much written for Paul Darrow to say.

320
00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:01.920
Yeah, yeah.

321
00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:04.319
And he gets some brilliant reactions.

322
00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:09.960
So other things, I think they're even writing lines specifically to be said just so that he can we can cut to his reaction to them.

323
00:28:10.019 --> 00:28:13.559
There's a bit where Keeler gets the liner on the grapevine.

324
00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:14.579
You're getting to be big news.

325
00:28:14.579 --> 00:28:24.000
And his face is just instantly darkens at that, you know, like that is not what Avon wants to hear.

326
00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:26.640
But also, is it Avon, just looking a bit darker?

327
00:28:26.700 --> 00:28:29.339
I've been big news for years, which from with you?

328
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:34.559
He smiles an unusual amount in this episode, which is really good.

329
00:28:34.740 --> 00:28:44.819
So it shows that we're, he's either Avon is enjoying all of this, particularly the heist planning and the action and everything else.

330
00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:52.920
But also, it also puts you on your guard because if he's smiling, everything is going to go to shit very quickly.

331
00:28:55.559 --> 00:28:58.859
I think he's very good in those action sequences.

332
00:28:58.920 --> 00:29:05.339
Like one of the best mounted action sequences in the series, I think, is the one where they're trying to steal the gold.

333
00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:10.559
The other's wheeler to board Scorpio and then the connecting tube starts to disconnect.

334
00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:17.160
I think that's an exceptionally well mounted action piece for a studio multicam drama.

335
00:29:17.220 --> 00:29:37.380
Um, and it actually, I can remember watching it for the 1st time, and I was on the edge of my seat and loved the fact that you actually get the entire sequence up to the door closing and the thing disconnecting and the guard, um, holding onto the door and then getting sucked out before you cut back to Scorpio and Villa teleports, Avonorboard.

336
00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:42.000
I remember sort of having that sigh of relief, the action sequences over and everything had gone well.

337
00:29:42.059 --> 00:29:47.519
I just think it's a really well done piece of action for Blake 7 and Paul Darrow is great in it.

338
00:29:47.579 --> 00:29:49.740
I think it's so well directed.

339
00:29:49.799 --> 00:30:02.579
And then I looked up the director, Brian Lighthill, and it said this was his 1st directing job or his 1st directing credit after being a production manager.

340
00:30:02.579 --> 00:30:10.079
And the writer, Conan Davis, it was his 1st broadcast TV.

341
00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:18.119
And I'm just amazed that, you know, the level of direction in this is, you know, up there with some of the best.

342
00:30:18.180 --> 00:30:25.440
And then the director also did Orbit, which is coming up, which again has some great moments.

343
00:30:25.500 --> 00:30:28.980
An entirely different script directed just as well.

344
00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:34.980
Yeah, yeah, this one's got lots of film, lots of action, shooting, explosions, everything.

345
00:30:35.220 --> 00:30:39.240
Sorry, I'm just going to say on the negative side of Brian Lighthill.

346
00:30:39.299 --> 00:30:43.500
He did produce the 2 Blake 7 radio plays in the 90s.

347
00:30:43.619 --> 00:30:45.900
So no one is no one is flawless.

348
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:50.519
Even gold can be tarnished.

349
00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:53.400
Can it, actually, no.

350
00:30:53.460 --> 00:31:02.460
I think Series D, I'm not sure about this, but it seems to me like they had to scrabble for directors because it was late going back into production.

351
00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:03.900
And the series had been going for 4 years.

352
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:06.539
It wasn't going to attract top draw talent.

353
00:31:06.599 --> 00:31:09.359
I think there might have been a feeling within the BBC.

354
00:31:09.420 --> 00:31:11.819
They kind of outstayed its welcome a little bit.

355
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:15.359
And so you get a number of new directors this year.

356
00:31:15.420 --> 00:31:17.819
Not a lot of them are very good.

357
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:23.519
I mean, Mary Ridge is obviously amazing, but even she drops the ball on something like animals.

358
00:31:23.579 --> 00:31:29.039
David Sullivan Proudfoot doesn't do a very good job of Tracer and especially Stardrive.

359
00:31:29.099 --> 00:31:43.259
Vivian Cousins is kind of interesting on games and sand, but it's really only Brian Lighthill on this and orbit who does a really sterling job and makes you go, oh, okay, you found your groove.

360
00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:55.259
And so so much Blake 7 as ever can be laid at the feet of the director, if the director is good and knows how to cover an episode and knows how to cut action in the studio, it's almost always successful.

361
00:31:55.440 --> 00:31:57.119
Yeah, yeah.

362
00:31:57.180 --> 00:31:59.279
And there's some really good moments that have to be solved.

363
00:31:59.339 --> 00:32:04.380
I mean, I, I, for a moment, when everyone thought Avon and Sulan were dead, I kind of was worried about them as well.

364
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:05.460
It was so well sold.

365
00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:06.960
And that's a very good moment from Dana.

366
00:32:07.019 --> 00:32:12.779
Dana's not in the front and centre this week, but she's like everyone, she's got plenty to do.

367
00:32:12.839 --> 00:32:16.559
And that scene was a particularly good moment for her, I think.

368
00:32:16.619 --> 00:32:21.960
And the characterisation of Dana isn't being sidelined.

369
00:32:22.019 --> 00:32:22.740
They've settled.

370
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:35.160
They found out who she is now and she's the, she's the very, she's very practical and she's optimistic and she, but and she's sort of young and that counterbalances nicely with Zulin's sarcasm and nastiness.

371
00:32:35.220 --> 00:32:53.579
And like, and particularly, we've had a few times, happens in this episode too, where Dana and Tarrant become a pair for a time, and they always, and they've sort of become the young idealists versus versus the cynics with it within the crew, and I think that works as a really nice balance too.

372
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:57.059
But then they're not they're not joined at the hip and get different things to do as well.

373
00:32:57.119 --> 00:33:03.420
And she's still got a bomb in her pocket ready for any availability, even though she has no pockets.

374
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:08.039
And the way she leaps off that stretcher.

375
00:33:08.099 --> 00:33:10.200
Yes, minutes after having been given the antidote.

376
00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:13.740
It's quite nasty what they do to her.

377
00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:19.259
They inject her with some kind of, um, psychotropic and she is really...

378
00:33:19.259 --> 00:33:22.920
The acting in those scenes is really, really good.

379
00:33:22.980 --> 00:33:25.859
You can really believe that she is suffering with something.

380
00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:36.059
She is sweaty and she is tossing and turning all over the place and her breathing is so anxious and vast and yeah, it's really, really good.

381
00:33:36.119 --> 00:33:39.900
And Stephen Pacey is balancing it off fantastically, as we've said.

382
00:33:39.960 --> 00:33:47.880
Let's go into that a bit more because his polo neck stoner acting is magnificently.

383
00:33:48.779 --> 00:33:54.000
That's Tarrant being a bad actor, proving that Stephen Pacey is a really good actor.

384
00:33:54.480 --> 00:33:58.380
Is this the only time Stephen Pacey gets to do comedy apart from animals?

385
00:33:58.859 --> 00:34:05.640
There's that great scene where he's talking to the doctor aboard the space princess and he says, oh, but then she'll die.

386
00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:10.559
And then the doctor turns to the camera and he's blocking Stephen Pacy.

387
00:34:10.679 --> 00:34:13.199
You see Stephen Pacey smile broadly behind him.

388
00:34:13.260 --> 00:34:21.480
The doctor turns back and suddenly Terrence's face has changed, has become the kind of the drugged up stoner going, oh, again, it's just, it's so great.

389
00:34:21.539 --> 00:34:23.219
I wish we'd seen comedy from him more often.

390
00:34:28.619 --> 00:34:35.039
I do wonder what the passengers of this cruise when they, when they went back to uh, zero.

391
00:34:35.099 --> 00:34:35.699
Zerok?

392
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:36.599
Zerok?

393
00:34:36.659 --> 00:34:38.820
Um, with a Zed.

394
00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:40.320
Zero River Zed.

395
00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:52.980
Yeah, I wonder what the passengers thought when they returned home because they'd been sort of judged the whole time, they sort of wandered around in a daze, just looked through the window.

396
00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:58.380
Do you think it's meant to be a luxury cruise because it looks slightly tatty.

397
00:34:58.500 --> 00:34:59.340
Yeah.

398
00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:01.800
Yeah, I guess that's very pastel.

399
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:04.860
Yeah, they haven't had a lot of money to spend onsets. this week.

400
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:13.019
And the, I mean, that shootout just happens in a wide pink corridor with nothing else in it and they still, the directing still manages to make it pacy.

401
00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:16.619
But yeah, they haven't been able to spend a lot of money convincing us this is a luxury liner.

402
00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:24.179
But then if it's a fake luxury liner really anyway, and they're just part of the cover story, along with the supposed crates of vegetables.

403
00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:27.360
I suppose that's a parallel, isn't it?

404
00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:30.360
Do they even know they're being shown those videos, aren't they?

405
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:33.420
of the person narrating the wonderful things that they're not really flying?

406
00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:34.619
They're not even flying past.

407
00:35:34.679 --> 00:35:36.119
They're just going straight to earth, aren't they?

408
00:35:36.179 --> 00:35:39.119
I didn't notice that on the I missed that detail on the 1st watch of his.

409
00:35:39.179 --> 00:35:46.679
Well, on the plus side, they could have been released into the dome on earth and they would have already been drugged up and could have just like wandered up and down the corridors like everybody there.

410
00:35:48.599 --> 00:36:00.000
Presumably these are willing, willing citizens just going for a drugged up ride and getting up to God knows what, but...

411
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:06.719
I mean, worse things have happened on pleasure cruises in Blake 7 as we saw at the start of Star one.

412
00:36:06.780 --> 00:36:08.099
At least they don't crash.

413
00:36:11.219 --> 00:36:15.360
Those scenes support Space Princess, I think, are really well done.

414
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:21.480
And sometimes Blake 7 in its more sober days, you know, I'm thinking maybe mission to destiny.

415
00:36:21.539 --> 00:36:33.239
Spaceships are quite boring, you know, wandering around, whereas the space princess scenes have some zing and some humour and just a bit of kind of atmosphere and joie de vivre to them.

416
00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:37.559
And I think that's probably down to Brian Lighthill as well.

417
00:36:37.619 --> 00:36:42.599
The characters are having fun during those scenes and they're short and interesting ways.

418
00:36:42.659 --> 00:36:46.860
I also think I have 3 things to say about the space princess.

419
00:36:46.920 --> 00:36:54.059
One, it's a great design, the exterior model, and those effects sequence, tremendous.

420
00:36:54.659 --> 00:36:58.860
I love too, the Space Princess soundtracks.

421
00:36:58.920 --> 00:37:03.659
So that music is just unlike...

422
00:37:03.659 --> 00:37:06.480
It's unlike anything else in Blake 7.

423
00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:09.059
I don't know why they did it, but it really works well.

424
00:37:09.179 --> 00:37:11.639
It's so hard to get that kind of thing right too.

425
00:37:11.699 --> 00:37:19.860
If they'd over-gged it, it would have just been really annoying and silly. but they wanted it to be a little bit annoying and silly and hitting that sweet spot.

426
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:24.480
And then the actual score of the episode itself, cutting in just with that down.

427
00:37:24.539 --> 00:37:27.659
At least on a really good week this week.

428
00:37:27.780 --> 00:37:39.119
We don't often say that, particularly sort of at this era of Blake 7, but he is really got this going. he's adding to the tension all the way through.

429
00:37:39.179 --> 00:37:47.400
Um, and always think we've got a minute and a half at the start of the episode where it's mostly model work and music.

430
00:37:47.400 --> 00:37:51.059
And it's still selling it really well.

431
00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:55.739
It's really exciting opening, which is sort of unexpected.

432
00:37:55.800 --> 00:38:01.019
But yeah, Dudley is really on it and really inspired by this one, I think.

433
00:38:01.079 --> 00:38:04.860
Well, not only that, but the model shots.

434
00:38:04.920 --> 00:38:07.199
They're on videotape, aren't they?

435
00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:09.059
Yeah, I think so.

436
00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:16.199
I think I think series D was shot on film and then mattered onto video backgrounds, which is why it's all got the chroma key fringing on it.

437
00:38:16.260 --> 00:38:17.639
Ah, okay.

438
00:38:17.699 --> 00:38:27.179
Because, yeah, the when Doctor Who tries, you know, to rush a spaceship shot in studio and videotape, it just looks awful, but on this...

439
00:38:27.179 --> 00:38:28.679
Yeah, you end up with terror of the vervoids.

440
00:38:28.739 --> 00:38:36.539
Yeah, they can they can have just pure spaceship shots for like a minute and it works and they're so good.

441
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:47.219
They play them again later in the episode. where we can pan down onto and the angle changes to the front of the ship from the top.

442
00:38:47.219 --> 00:38:48.960
It's really, really good.

443
00:38:48.960 --> 00:38:50.880
For Blake.

444
00:38:50.940 --> 00:38:58.320
It's doing some of the, it's doing some of the, it's doing some of the pitch and roar that the Scorpio does in the opening.

445
00:38:59.699 --> 00:39:08.880
And you do get, you get a, it is hard with, though, when video, as soon as videos involved, which I think it is in this season and run more than the previous ones, isn't it?

446
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:16.199
For model shots, you get the scale sometimes is harder to, even if it's a really lovely model.

447
00:39:16.260 --> 00:39:17.400
It doesn't feel as big.

448
00:39:17.460 --> 00:39:29.940
I think I always think of the model at the start of Resurrect Doctory Resurrection of the Daleks, that sort of does a lovely moonu for swerving over the camera, but it's somehow a little bit judgery and a little bit, um, it just looks video-ey.

449
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:50.400
Um, there's my technical skills, um, but in this, it, that, that's not such a problem at all, then the ship just looks beautiful with its, the red star was a, I don't know, either they're going for the Chinese army or they're going for, um, uh, the red star cruise liners, uh, that were the rivals to the white star, Titanic, the red star, and the white star with the 2 rivals, I think.

450
00:39:50.460 --> 00:39:52.079
So I guess I guess it's the latter.

451
00:39:52.139 --> 00:39:56.400
Well, I have to say, this is the era of the love boat and the Pacific Princess.

452
00:39:56.460 --> 00:40:01.320
So those effect shots of the space princess could only have been improved with that theme over the top.

453
00:40:01.380 --> 00:40:03.900
Is that the name of the ship?

454
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:04.980
never knew that.

455
00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:06.420
Okay, well that's...

456
00:40:06.420 --> 00:40:09.960
Hey, I now desperately want to see that done that way.

457
00:40:10.019 --> 00:40:12.239
And be, okay, that clicks.

458
00:40:12.300 --> 00:40:14.639
It's literally the love boat ship with space put in front of it.

459
00:40:14.699 --> 00:40:23.340
Yeah, the effect shots are sort of using the techniques that they pioneered on the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, which had been so successful.

460
00:40:23.400 --> 00:40:27.780
And so it's the same effects team coming in to do a lot of the model shots this year.

461
00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:30.179
So it sort of works that way.

462
00:40:30.300 --> 00:40:35.760
They worked out how to sort of map the effect shots quite successfully.

463
00:40:35.820 --> 00:40:39.539
So they're going for that and it's fast cheap and it works.

464
00:40:39.659 --> 00:40:48.119
So, a lot of the time, it doesn't, with Blake 7, it doesn't always sort of pull off the way that they sort of expect it to.

465
00:40:48.179 --> 00:40:50.760
But here, I think it really sells it.

466
00:40:50.820 --> 00:40:51.599
It's really really good.

467
00:40:52.860 --> 00:41:04.019
And like hitchhiker's guide in the Galaxy and the heart of gold, the doors on the space princess are high as they enclosed, or you just want them to say, glad to be of service.

468
00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:17.639
It does add a slightly sort of a off colour kind of vibe to the space princess, you know, the what is the word?

469
00:41:17.699 --> 00:41:18.300
CD?

470
00:41:18.360 --> 00:41:20.280
Yeah, CD. is that the CD?

471
00:41:20.340 --> 00:41:20.579
Yeah.

472
00:41:20.639 --> 00:41:21.000
Yeah, yeah.

473
00:41:21.059 --> 00:41:21.900
It's not all that.

474
00:41:21.960 --> 00:41:23.460
It's not all CD vibe.

475
00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:25.559
Yeah, a little bit, a little bit tawdry.

476
00:41:25.619 --> 00:41:27.480
Not quite, yeah.

477
00:41:27.539 --> 00:41:35.219
Do you think maybe Dudley came up with his spaceship music for this episode and thought, I know, I can apply the same principle to the closing credits?

478
00:41:36.900 --> 00:41:40.139
Slightly seedy, slightly off.

479
00:41:49.199 --> 00:42:03.300
I suppose we probably ought to talk about the last 10 minutes where, like terminal, Jacqueline Pierce strides into the episode and steals it from underneath everyone.

480
00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:09.119
And what's joy is we haven't had many scenes of Avon and Serverland this year.

481
00:42:09.179 --> 00:42:18.420
So Chris Boucher and Via Lorrimer made a deliberate decision to separate them so they were not dominating the whole, the whole series.

482
00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:30.900
So it's a real joy to see them really up close and they're playing off each other beautifully. those scenes sizzle, when she turns around and says, Avon, will you be careful with the gun?

483
00:42:31.980 --> 00:42:37.019
And they're they're really enjoying a chance to play off each other.

484
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:58.380
But also, one of the things I really like is, the way Tarrant reacts to her in the background as well, and particularly when, sort of later on when, um, they say, oh, Serverland's not just a greedy gangster, and, and the look that he gives, the look between him and Avon after sand.

485
00:42:58.440 --> 00:43:08.219
There's a really nice bit of character throwback, and they haven't forgotten what happened, and Dana is still furious that whenever Serverland turns up.

486
00:43:08.280 --> 00:43:14.039
So it's just it's so nice to see Jacqueline Pierce enjoying herself immensely this episode.

487
00:43:14.099 --> 00:43:43.199
And I think, if I remember originally, one of the ideas for the direction of this show would be like a chess game that's going on in the background, and you'd see her fingers moving delicately the pieces into position, and I'm really glad they got rid of that because it's a, I know it's not a surprise that she's turning up at the end, but it's, it's such a lovely moment when she pulls the mask off with her fingers or with her very long nails and and just reveals herself and they get to do.

488
00:43:43.739 --> 00:43:47.940
Savalan. at the best place.

489
00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:51.840
Yes, what they hardly ever say in Blake 7 is we need less subtlety.

490
00:43:53.400 --> 00:44:00.960
But yeah, as you and as you say, that where she then pops it by batting his gun aside, like they're old friends, you know?

491
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:05.340
And yeah, it's not it's not a shocking reveal, is it?

492
00:44:05.340 --> 00:44:07.619
For anyone, but it's everything falling into place.

493
00:44:07.679 --> 00:44:09.179
It's, of course it is, and here she is.

494
00:44:09.239 --> 00:44:14.639
Um, and there's, there's a bit of, I, one of the, this episode is, is paced so quickly.

495
00:44:14.699 --> 00:44:21.179
Like, again, it was only on a 2nd watch that I sort of was noticing things like you don't, they say they're going to go and land on the planet.

496
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:22.500
You don't actually see them land on the planet.

497
00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:25.019
And they're just there.

498
00:44:25.019 --> 00:44:25.739
And that's fine.

499
00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:40.860
But back at the, there's a moment back in the, um, refinery at the beginning, in the mine at the beginning. where they just Avon and Sulin, just say they're going to go get on the ship, the princess, and then they're on it.

500
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:42.119
You just have a cut.

501
00:44:42.179 --> 00:44:44.039
And the 1st time I watched, rewatched it.

502
00:44:44.099 --> 00:44:45.719
I did get a little bit confused by that.

503
00:44:45.780 --> 00:44:46.860
I thought they were still on the planet.

504
00:44:46.920 --> 00:44:52.019
And so it's taking economies, but sometimes jumping you forward a bit.

505
00:44:52.019 --> 00:44:54.960
And basically, you've got to bloody pay attention, isn't you?

506
00:44:55.019 --> 00:44:57.300
That's what it demands of you.

507
00:44:57.300 --> 00:45:00.840
And the reward for that is you get an episode that really cracks along like this.

508
00:45:00.900 --> 00:45:05.460
Um, does Dana react enough to noticing its server land?

509
00:45:05.519 --> 00:45:15.900
Like, a couple of episodes, she was burst into tears of fury and rage at the bare proximity of the woman, and this time she just sort of looks like, oh, it's a, that's one criticism I've seen.

510
00:45:15.960 --> 00:45:19.860
Maybe she's finally thought, oh, well, Terrence Shagged, I should not be that bad.

511
00:45:20.400 --> 00:45:22.380
She's suffered enough.

512
00:45:23.219 --> 00:45:25.679
She killed my dad, but you know.

513
00:45:27.179 --> 00:45:37.440
I think those scenes with Servolan at the end are just the icing on the cake for the episode. heralded by those unmistakeable stiletto boots.

514
00:45:37.500 --> 00:45:39.059
It's like, who can this be?

515
00:45:39.119 --> 00:45:40.380
Is it Travis come back?

516
00:45:41.099 --> 00:45:52.559
I think it is the only time this season, apart from that, I think, 2 lines, an Assassin, where we get Avon and Surfland, facing each other in one of those classic exchanges.

517
00:45:52.619 --> 00:45:57.599
And so it's just like an aftermath, Rumours of Death, Death Watch, terminal, all those classic episodes.

518
00:45:57.659 --> 00:46:04.860
And it makes you realise that even though it was a creative decision to keep Avon and Servland apart, it's a mistake.

519
00:46:04.920 --> 00:46:08.460
It's one of the minor ways that series D drops the ball.

520
00:46:08.519 --> 00:46:09.179
Hmm.

521
00:46:09.179 --> 00:46:17.280
I mean, the, this, this sermon and Avon scene is probably one of my favourite scenes in the show ever, really.

522
00:46:17.340 --> 00:46:21.300
Like the sort of reaction, Jacqueline Pierce.

523
00:46:21.420 --> 00:46:33.900
I watched games before this, and she sort of carries on that kind of really coy, smiley but really powerful performance.

524
00:46:33.960 --> 00:46:38.400
And then you've got Avon just Paul Darrow's pure Paul Darrow now.

525
00:46:38.519 --> 00:46:51.239
Um, and they just sparked so well together, like, and it's that almost thing like, They've kissed before and you could almost see them throwing in another kiss or whatever.

526
00:46:51.300 --> 00:46:52.320
They're so close together.

527
00:46:52.380 --> 00:46:54.059
It's like men nose to nose.

528
00:46:55.320 --> 00:46:57.300
But it's almost better.

529
00:46:57.360 --> 00:46:59.880
That might have been a bridge too far for Dana.

530
00:47:01.380 --> 00:47:03.300
And Tarrant.

531
00:47:03.840 --> 00:47:05.280
Exactly.

532
00:47:05.340 --> 00:47:07.800
I mean, Tarrant wanted to kiss Avon.

533
00:47:09.420 --> 00:47:12.599
There's parafanzines where that's gone into.

534
00:47:12.780 --> 00:47:16.860
They're a wild 70s, 80s fanzines where that's gone into.

535
00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:22.800
I mean, it's that thing where, you know, Avon, certain man knows Avon's works it out.

536
00:47:22.860 --> 00:47:30.659
Avon knows Servan's been really clever and they're just the 2 brains behind it just some mutual appreciation.

537
00:47:30.719 --> 00:47:31.320
Absolutely.

538
00:47:31.380 --> 00:47:35.039
She knows that he knows that he's worked out.

539
00:47:35.099 --> 00:47:35.579
Exactly.

540
00:47:35.639 --> 00:47:40.679
And that bursts the bubble of any viewers who might be saying, oh, well, they could have figured that out.

541
00:47:40.739 --> 00:47:45.960
Well, of course, they're sort of saying, they're sort of saying, turn the middle turn to the audience and say, of course we figured it out.

542
00:47:46.019 --> 00:47:47.159
This is all a game to us.

543
00:47:47.219 --> 00:47:55.440
You wouldn't leave me a clue like that. is one of my favourite Avon lines, even though it's not like, it's not like a particularly melodramatic one.

544
00:47:55.500 --> 00:47:56.880
It just him spelling it out.

545
00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:09.360
Just that little touching moment where, where it's just that mutual thing where she says, oh, no one knows you like I do and he just, she turns around and says, who does?

546
00:48:09.420 --> 00:48:24.239
And it's just that touching relationship where it's right back to aftermath where there could be, it's that mutual admiration and she's loved setting a trap for him and he's there and it's all worked.

547
00:48:24.360 --> 00:48:31.619
Like I said, but she's got another sting waiting for them afterwards that he doesn't know about.

548
00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:33.780
But, yeah, yeah.

549
00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:42.059
That amazing revelatory line in Death Watch where he says, you don't tell an enemy this, and she says, but I don't think of you as an enemy.

550
00:48:42.360 --> 00:48:44.579
I think of you as a future friend.

551
00:48:47.639 --> 00:48:54.539
And and Keila meets his demise quite in a gloriously horrible serve language.

552
00:48:54.599 --> 00:49:01.320
Well, actually, is it almost a mercy killing that they, because it appears she's just going to leave him there to starve to death, which would be a very serverland thing to do.

553
00:49:01.380 --> 00:49:02.880
That would have taken a while.

554
00:49:08.579 --> 00:49:11.460
I'm laughing and disapproving at the same time.

555
00:49:14.519 --> 00:49:20.699
But there's that wonderful line where Serverland turns to him and says, what use would money be to you?

556
00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:21.780
Pause.

557
00:49:21.780 --> 00:49:22.860
Here?

558
00:49:22.920 --> 00:49:28.440
And that look of realisation on his face that he's not coming back.

559
00:49:28.500 --> 00:49:34.559
Yeah, the penny that has been dropping so slowly for him throughout the entire episode finally drops.

560
00:49:34.619 --> 00:49:37.440
I mean, he could have come back.

561
00:49:37.500 --> 00:49:41.820
They've sort of left it almost open. don't quite, you know, we don't see him die.

562
00:49:42.239 --> 00:49:45.360
Well, he's just laying there face down on the ground, isn't he?

563
00:49:45.420 --> 00:49:46.679
But, um, it could be pretending.

564
00:49:46.739 --> 00:49:48.179
Yeah, they could have just clashed him.

565
00:49:48.239 --> 00:49:48.780
Yeah.

566
00:49:48.780 --> 00:49:49.920
Yeah.

567
00:49:49.980 --> 00:49:53.400
He could have showed up in the last episode of Blake taking off his helmet.

568
00:49:53.460 --> 00:49:54.659
Who knows?

569
00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:55.380
Maybe he will.

570
00:49:55.440 --> 00:49:59.760
For the next season, they could have, you know, they could have revisited him.

571
00:49:59.820 --> 00:50:00.539
Yeah, yeah.

572
00:50:00.599 --> 00:50:02.280
You can write your way out of bigger holes in that.

573
00:50:02.340 --> 00:50:02.579
Yeah.

574
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:18.420
And I loved the kind of the over the top kind of quarry scenes, you know, as the planet, you know, they don't just meet in some, they could have just met back in the industrial complex or anywhere or... corner of the space princess.

575
00:50:18.480 --> 00:50:23.699
Yeah, these huge vistas of Corey, and actually it looks really good.

576
00:50:23.760 --> 00:50:27.239
It looks really varied, kind of alien, desolate landscape.

577
00:50:27.659 --> 00:50:30.420
Just for these short scenes.

578
00:50:30.480 --> 00:50:31.260
Yeah.

579
00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:42.179
And that shot of serverland on the back of the little Jeep at the end, with her smug smile looking upwards, with the dust all around them.

580
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:43.380
It's so good.

581
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:45.239
It's so brilliantly shot.

582
00:50:45.300 --> 00:50:46.559
It's a wonderful moment.

583
00:50:46.679 --> 00:50:51.719
I think Serverland showing up at the end of some episodes might be a bit of a disappointment.

584
00:50:51.780 --> 00:50:53.099
It's like, why wasn't she in it?

585
00:50:53.159 --> 00:51:05.460
But this is just, it's a lovely camp and dramatic scene to finish off a lovely camp and dramatic episode and Q, one of Paul Darrow's best ever Mad Avon laughs.

586
00:51:05.519 --> 00:51:06.900
Well, yeah, that's good.

587
00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:08.340
Should we go to that final scene?

588
00:51:09.539 --> 00:51:14.219
Because it could have just ended on the planet, but of course, yeah, there's that twist to be revealed.

589
00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:26.159
The writer in this interview I mentioned in the fanzine, said that it was only when he was writing this final scene that he realised he needed to do something to the gold to make it destroyable.

590
00:51:26.219 --> 00:51:43.320
And that's when, and so he then went looped back to the start of the episode and putting the whole thing about the goal being treated and made black, and needing to be restored, because it was only at that point, is that, of course, that's what my finale needs for the twist, and that it wasn't, he wasn't given any direction to have them be on a losing streak.

591
00:51:43.380 --> 00:51:51.179
He just, that was where this episode was going and it just, and it just, but he was, he was told this, this season is all about they're trying to assemble things.

592
00:51:51.239 --> 00:51:53.519
They're trying to get things to build up their base.

593
00:51:53.579 --> 00:51:55.079
That's their objective this year.

594
00:51:55.139 --> 00:51:58.260
And so he decided, yeah, his was going to be one where they fail.

595
00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:17.699
I have to say, one of my favourite moments in the episode is an Aurak moment, and it's just that little moment where he laughs as he says, it's worse than that, unfortunately.

596
00:52:17.760 --> 00:52:23.579
And the characterisation is so perfect because he's the one delivering the bad news.

597
00:52:23.579 --> 00:52:29.400
And he's he's in on the joke as much as Servilan is as much as the crew are.

598
00:52:29.460 --> 00:52:36.539
And that's really, it's a really lovely performance from Peter Tottenham, who we don't always sort of celebrate.

599
00:52:36.599 --> 00:52:41.400
But his his Aurak through this year has gone to operatic scales of acting.

600
00:52:41.460 --> 00:52:43.139
He's so good.

601
00:52:43.199 --> 00:52:51.300
He's taken this character and really refined it and honed it and he's a central part of the crew and we often forget that, I think.

602
00:52:51.360 --> 00:52:52.320
Yeah.

603
00:52:52.320 --> 00:52:57.059
It's all right, getting his own back for all those times when one of the regulars said, shut up or I can move his key.

604
00:52:57.239 --> 00:53:01.920
He's loving delivering the bad news Yeah.

605
00:53:01.980 --> 00:53:14.519
It's not just a McGuffin when he needs to have an extremely useful ability or gets to go mad, which is fun, but to just have him just in his normal self being having this personality.

606
00:53:14.579 --> 00:53:15.420
It's great.

607
00:53:15.480 --> 00:53:19.500
And it's great that he can. is perfectly situated to give a bit of breaking news that upends everything.

608
00:53:19.860 --> 00:53:23.219
I think how much better that line would have been coming from slave.

609
00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:26.880
Like, I'm the politans, master.

610
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:28.380
It is worse than that.

611
00:53:31.139 --> 00:53:34.679
So what do we think of this plan?

612
00:53:34.739 --> 00:53:43.739
Because it's quite good when it's, you know, a typical heist movie when, you know, they start off with a plan and then just everything keeps getting wrong.

613
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:51.900
So they can't just sweep in to the refinery, steal the gold and come out again.

614
00:53:51.960 --> 00:53:59.760
I have to do this thing with the processing and with the sort of smuggling out of the ship and then they have to do it old school because they can't teleport.

615
00:53:59.820 --> 00:54:06.480
It's kind of setting up the uh, hold on, we are in Blake 7 and we do have a teleport and everything.

616
00:54:06.539 --> 00:54:08.880
But we're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way.

617
00:54:08.940 --> 00:54:13.199
Yeah, they've had to think it, they've really had to think it through and come out with all these obstructions.

618
00:54:13.260 --> 00:54:18.360
Um, one thing I love about when they talk about, they ask about the mine, what's it?

619
00:54:18.360 --> 00:54:22.980
And he says something like, it's underground and things it's Sulin, who says they usually are or something, or would it be like?

620
00:54:22.980 --> 00:54:26.940
But then we cut to a picture of the spaceship flying above the planet.

621
00:54:26.940 --> 00:54:28.500
And the planet is a big ball of gold.

622
00:54:28.559 --> 00:54:32.400
The people doing the planet backgrounds didn't quite get that memo.

623
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:37.679
Because on that basis, you could just land there and just scrape a trowel along the ground.

624
00:54:37.679 --> 00:54:41.880
Sort of the lack of the teleport leads to Dana getting the wonderful line.

625
00:54:41.940 --> 00:54:44.760
Well, it makes you realise how useful the teleport is.

626
00:54:47.159 --> 00:54:50.039
Like it's just dawned on me.

627
00:54:52.619 --> 00:54:56.940
It's really good because the clever plotting makes the characters clever as well.

628
00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:01.619
No one is conspicuously stupid this episode and you can't always say that.

629
00:55:01.679 --> 00:55:03.059
No, yeah.

630
00:55:03.179 --> 00:55:03.539
Yeah.

631
00:55:03.599 --> 00:55:11.699
And that thing with Villa's absence, being mentioned in that last scene, down on the planet, Avon gets to say, you know, Villa was wise not to trust you or something like that.

632
00:55:11.760 --> 00:55:18.000
And just little, even characters who aren't there are contributing to scenes they're not in, and that's a sign of a really good script.

633
00:55:18.119 --> 00:55:28.619
Well, they are a gang, even if Avon has a line saying, you know, that we're just together for the mutual convenience, like they do follow him.

634
00:55:28.679 --> 00:55:29.340
Right?

635
00:55:29.460 --> 00:55:30.900
They're totally his game.

636
00:55:32.039 --> 00:55:42.539
There's a point where you clearly none of the others trust Keeler and want to go along with it, but because Avon is so steadfast and because maybe there's some cash involved.

637
00:55:43.139 --> 00:55:46.260
How much do we think a 1000000000 credits is?

638
00:55:46.320 --> 00:55:48.840
Well, how much were they going to pay for Aurak?

639
00:55:48.900 --> 00:55:51.420
Oh. 1000000000 credits?

640
00:55:51.480 --> 00:55:52.800
100 billion.

641
00:55:52.860 --> 00:55:53.760
Was it billion?

642
00:55:53.820 --> 00:55:54.659
I thought it was.

643
00:55:56.219 --> 00:56:00.840
He wants 100 million. 100 million.

644
00:56:00.900 --> 00:56:02.880
Are you sure whatever it is is worth that much?

645
00:56:02.940 --> 00:56:04.860
It's worth 10 times that much.

646
00:56:05.280 --> 00:56:07.380
So I agreed to buy it.

647
00:56:07.559 --> 00:56:09.599
Do you have the authority?

648
00:56:09.659 --> 00:56:10.800
No.

649
00:56:14.460 --> 00:56:16.260
Ah, there we go.

650
00:56:16.320 --> 00:56:17.639
Wow, well, there we go.

651
00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:23.159
And then you see, and there's not that many gold bars there that they want for 10 billion.

652
00:56:23.280 --> 00:56:27.539
And you wonder if, yeah, if inflation has gone up in the years.

653
00:56:27.659 --> 00:56:31.679
Yeah, well, they do say the Federation has run out of, run out of gold.

654
00:56:32.400 --> 00:56:35.760
So this is the last goal in the universe.

655
00:56:35.820 --> 00:56:37.679
Yeah, I suppose the last unminded world.

656
00:56:37.739 --> 00:56:44.039
Which I think some of the denominations of the notes and no one's ever seen currency that size.

657
00:56:44.099 --> 00:56:46.260
Yeah, whopping great notes.

658
00:56:46.559 --> 00:56:52.619
I wonder if Servoland's economic policies are on a par with Liz Tusses, perhaps, during her brief.

659
00:56:52.679 --> 00:56:55.500
No reason she was overthrown.

660
00:56:56.400 --> 00:56:59.280
Try getting a mortgage on Gouda Prime these days.

661
00:57:00.719 --> 00:57:03.360
You're talking about gap the subprime.

662
00:57:05.699 --> 00:57:09.960
But yet you don't get 1000000000s used that often in science fiction.

663
00:57:10.019 --> 00:57:16.199
It sounds because it sounds like a silly made up number because back in the 80s you wouldn't that scale of thing wouldn't crop up much.

664
00:57:16.260 --> 00:57:24.539
Well, we just had the 70s, so it could be like a comment on inflation and how everything's really scarce.

665
00:57:24.599 --> 00:57:40.800
And I, in my head, that's why everything looks a bit cheap is because, you know, gold and all the other really expensive minerals are just completely, the stops have run so low that they have to start putting baking trays on the walls.

666
00:57:45.300 --> 00:57:51.599
So I said at the start of the episode that I think this is a really great entry.

667
00:57:51.659 --> 00:57:53.699
It's really well written, got a great guest star.

668
00:57:53.760 --> 00:57:55.139
It's really well directed.

669
00:57:55.260 --> 00:58:02.940
And I think Sile, Pete, you mentioned the fact that this was a potential template for series E doing kind of heist stories.

670
00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:04.679
And I think Blake 7's good at high stories.

671
00:58:04.739 --> 00:58:10.199
So the ones we've had in the past, like Gambit and Harvest of Chiros, they're really good in those type sequences.

672
00:58:10.260 --> 00:58:15.539
But therein, I think, lies a slight problem as the only real problem with this episode.

673
00:58:15.599 --> 00:58:16.920
It's kind of generic.

674
00:58:16.980 --> 00:58:20.940
This story could have been told on any space opera.

675
00:58:21.000 --> 00:58:22.739
So don't get me wrong.

676
00:58:22.800 --> 00:58:30.840
I think it's highly enjoyable, well mounted, but the series, Blake 7, during this year has kind of lost its reason, Detra.

677
00:58:30.900 --> 00:58:33.480
It was happening last year in series C.

678
00:58:33.539 --> 00:58:41.699
Um, but seriously retained enough of the show's DNA and character work and had such good individual stories that it's my favourite.

679
00:58:41.760 --> 00:58:49.440
Series D for every really good bleak 70 episode like orbit or sand or rescue.

680
00:58:49.500 --> 00:58:55.920
You've got a pretty generic action episode like star drive or games or this.

681
00:58:55.980 --> 00:58:59.639
So again, it's good episode, well done, really like it.

682
00:58:59.699 --> 00:59:08.219
But it's also not really about anything, and aside from the good character work, it's not really Blake 70, and I think that is a problem.

683
00:59:08.280 --> 00:59:09.659
Hmm.

684
00:59:09.659 --> 00:59:12.300
I don't know, I, because I, I see your point.

685
00:59:12.420 --> 00:59:12.599
Yeah.

686
00:59:12.659 --> 00:59:25.019
But I don't know if another, I can't think of another show that could handle this as, you know, doing the, in the same way that, you know, every, every science fiction show, does, does a Frankenstein episode, every science fiction show does a, you know, whatever.

687
00:59:25.079 --> 00:59:29.340
Um, so I think this lands it so well.

688
00:59:29.400 --> 00:59:36.000
But then I'm, I'm racking my brain, I'm trying to think, have I actually seen any other shows that do heist episodes, um, because it's, what's, what's a comparative?

689
00:59:36.059 --> 00:59:41.460
So I was thinking of Firefly, which does episodes like this and also something like Farscape.

690
00:59:41.519 --> 00:59:43.260
Um, yes.

691
00:59:43.739 --> 00:59:50.820
And so any kind of space opera worth it salt will do a good heist episode like this.

692
00:59:50.880 --> 00:59:58.559
And this is a really good heist episode, but it plays into that wider thing of series D, losing its Blake 7 identity slightly.

693
00:59:58.619 --> 01:00:02.340
If it had been a one off in any of the other seasons, you would have just worn it and gone great.

694
01:00:02.400 --> 01:00:06.659
But there is a number of episodes this year, which are just generic action stories.

695
01:00:06.780 --> 01:00:09.659
Is this your yearning for the liberator to come back?

696
01:00:09.719 --> 01:00:10.800
Is that what I'm really?

697
01:00:10.860 --> 01:00:15.539
Pretty much if only DSV 3 had turned up at terminal at the start of the season.

698
01:00:16.800 --> 01:00:18.960
It's interesting, isn't it?

699
01:00:19.019 --> 01:00:26.760
Firefly and Farscape are often referred to as series that are inspired by Blake 7.

700
01:00:26.820 --> 01:00:31.139
So there's obviously something that people have taken from that.

701
01:00:31.139 --> 01:00:37.320
So maybe it is more Blake 70 than you think because they're doing this because Blake 7 did it.

702
01:00:37.380 --> 01:00:38.880
It's good character work.

703
01:00:38.940 --> 01:00:39.360
I don't know.

704
01:00:39.780 --> 01:00:43.679
Any action series worth that salt can do an episode like this.

705
01:00:43.739 --> 01:00:45.360
Obviously, this has got space trappings.

706
01:00:45.420 --> 01:00:58.260
But any series that has a well-defined character dynamic can make a story like this entertaining, which gold absolutely is, it's just something that makes me think, yeah, really good episode of television.

707
01:00:58.320 --> 01:00:59.280
I really enjoyed watching it.

708
01:00:59.340 --> 01:01:00.300
The character is amazing.

709
01:01:00.360 --> 01:01:09.420
The writing is good, but the series, as a whole, has sometimes lost what made it really special is Blake 7, and I think that's a slight problem.

710
01:01:09.480 --> 01:01:10.920
Mm-hmm.

711
01:01:10.920 --> 01:01:33.480
I mean, you wouldn't have had the ending with Serverland, and maybe if they built up the kind of the Federation, certain land presence all the way through, it would have felt more like Bloke 7 to you because, well, you're describing is like, well, they could be in any any planet, any space system, and why are they doing it?

712
01:01:33.539 --> 01:01:34.739
Well, they're just doing it for money.

713
01:01:34.800 --> 01:01:41.159
Well, that's not really the aim of Blake 7 to begin with was to bring down the Federation.

714
01:01:41.219 --> 01:01:41.940
Absolutely.

715
01:01:42.000 --> 01:01:59.159
And if they were thinking of this as a template for series E. That would move it even further away to being just a generic science fiction series rather than what Blake 7 started with, which was a very solid inverse Star Trek template by Terry Nation, who I have to say, his presence is much missed this year.

716
01:01:59.820 --> 01:02:09.420
Well, you could almost have Series E as Villa going from planet to planet as a dodgy wheeler dealer where they wanted at his miner.

717
01:02:10.619 --> 01:02:12.840
Gosh the hell out of that.

718
01:02:16.920 --> 01:02:19.019
It could be so good for you.

719
01:02:20.159 --> 01:02:23.820
God, I can see him thinking the theme.

720
01:02:23.820 --> 01:02:26.039
Michael Keating would absolutely be up to that.

721
01:02:28.380 --> 01:02:44.340
But use the Ocean's 11 example, like this could be an Ocean's 11 plot, if you stripped away the space stuff, because what it relies on is just having a band of well-defined characters being quippy and beating the odds, which makes this great episode.

722
01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:52.440
But, yeah, I think my beef might actually be not so much with this episode, which is a great one often, like I say, would have been really good in any other year.

723
01:02:52.500 --> 01:02:59.219
But the fact that there's actually a couple of entries this year that just follow this kind of standard action mould.

724
01:02:59.280 --> 01:03:13.739
Um, and yeah, stripping away the aesthetic of the series and then doing fairly bland generic action just makes me go, I think they'd actually run out of ways to make this series work, despite all the good episodes.

725
01:03:14.699 --> 01:03:25.440
I mean, I was going to start by saying, um, it kind of almost reminded me of something like see, locate, destroy, that kind of, uh, although you haven't got the federation presence.

726
01:03:25.559 --> 01:03:27.239
You know, it's quite action-y.

727
01:03:27.300 --> 01:03:31.260
You got the, the industrial complex returns.

728
01:03:31.440 --> 01:03:43.800
Um, you've got, you know, uh, characters being left behind on the teleport and can back to rescue them and the seat, like I destroyed was the highest episode, really.

729
01:03:44.940 --> 01:03:47.280
Seeklocate, destroy.

730
01:03:47.340 --> 01:03:48.059
Absolutely.

731
01:03:48.119 --> 01:03:50.940
I can see the DNA with between this and that.

732
01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:54.000
Clocate Destroy was built in as part of the fabric of the series.

733
01:03:54.059 --> 01:03:55.559
It was telling a wider story as well.

734
01:03:55.619 --> 01:03:57.539
Whereas this is a one-off.

735
01:03:57.599 --> 01:04:02.519
This is just a caper without any kind of overarching importance to the series.

736
01:04:02.639 --> 01:04:05.219
So I absolutely see what you mean.

737
01:04:05.280 --> 01:04:10.380
Maybe it's a thing of the series just doesn't have a general direction now.

738
01:04:10.440 --> 01:04:14.219
And so it's still telling the kind of stories that it used to, and I do love them.

739
01:04:14.280 --> 01:04:15.960
Don't get me wrong on that.

740
01:04:16.019 --> 01:04:17.760
Really great and enjoy watching them.

741
01:04:17.820 --> 01:04:21.780
But without that forward thrust of the series, maybe.

742
01:04:21.840 --> 01:04:26.940
Yeah, they they finish the episode where they start, basically.

743
01:04:27.000 --> 01:04:30.539
They haven't they haven't won and they haven't gained anything by this.

744
01:04:30.599 --> 01:04:35.099
I mean, at least in Stardrive, they've gained the new Stardrive by the end of it.

745
01:04:35.159 --> 01:04:43.139
But this, they've they've had days of adventure, killed a lot of people. killed a lot of people. some vegetables.

746
01:04:43.199 --> 01:04:47.280
They've got a suitcase full of out of date monopoly money to show for it.

747
01:04:47.400 --> 01:05:01.260
And that is that final scene, though, um, where um, the penny drops and and, and Tarrant gets to, you know, we risked our lives for nothing and then Sulan gets the, the fantastic language, which their lives to make Servalan rich.

748
01:05:01.260 --> 01:05:05.460
I, I keep, it's so hard to say Avon.

749
01:05:05.519 --> 01:05:08.760
I just want to keep saying Paul Darrow because it's just Paul Darrow.

750
01:05:08.880 --> 01:05:09.480
Yeah.

751
01:05:09.539 --> 01:05:13.380
The, um, the, and again, he's up there with J.R.

752
01:05:13.380 --> 01:05:21.840
Ewing or it's just so, uh, the iconic has been such a devalued word now because it defines the kind of thing that he is back then.

753
01:05:21.900 --> 01:05:27.119
That laugh and that is he just, is he, is he, is this guy really going mad now?

754
01:05:27.179 --> 01:05:30.239
Um, is this guy really unhinged?

755
01:05:30.300 --> 01:05:34.079
Is the bit that it does play forward into the next episode.

756
01:05:34.139 --> 01:05:39.000
Have we forgotten quite what type of person Avon actually always has been?

757
01:05:39.119 --> 01:05:45.840
Um, and he's only been holding it together because of circumstances, or is he going to a new place that we've never seen him before?

758
01:05:45.900 --> 01:05:49.380
He could barely raise a snicker when the liberator was destroyed.

759
01:05:49.500 --> 01:05:52.320
Yeah, yeah, that just married a smirk, didn't it?

760
01:05:52.559 --> 01:05:53.940
Yeah.

761
01:05:54.059 --> 01:06:00.840
So yeah, and it's a really great shot with all the currency falling down.

762
01:06:00.900 --> 01:06:07.559
Barber throws like 2 or 3 notes in the air and this bucket load of cash reigns down on Paul Darrow.

763
01:06:07.679 --> 01:06:10.500
Someone's at the top throwing that down off a ladder.

764
01:06:10.559 --> 01:06:13.440
It looks, but it looks really, really good.

765
01:06:13.800 --> 01:06:16.019
I like to think it was fear.

766
01:06:16.260 --> 01:06:17.940
Fear, fear.

767
01:06:18.360 --> 01:06:21.900
I think the Scorpio air conditioning system finally kicking it.

768
01:06:22.440 --> 01:06:28.320
Turning it into one of those grab, grab your lolly things where you're having in a booze with money blowing around.

769
01:06:28.380 --> 01:06:32.340
Maybe in the same booth that they put mullah with the blue lighting.

770
01:06:32.400 --> 01:06:35.519
I should imagine a cash being flown into there.

771
01:06:43.079 --> 01:06:46.139
So, thank you very much for listening.

772
01:06:46.199 --> 01:06:51.539
I hope you've enjoyed us going on about the episode as much as we have and enjoyed the episode itself.

773
01:06:51.599 --> 01:06:57.059
That yeah, that was the episode before the episode before the penultimate episode of Blake 7.

774
01:06:57.119 --> 01:07:01.800
There are only 3 left is what I'm trying to say. shockingly.

775
01:07:01.860 --> 01:07:06.239
It's going to be an interesting run to the grand finale.

776
01:07:06.300 --> 01:07:09.179
We hope you'll be there with us right through all the way to it.

777
01:07:09.179 --> 01:07:10.019
For now.

778
01:07:10.079 --> 01:07:11.340
We'll say goodbye.

779
01:07:11.400 --> 01:07:13.380
And we'll speak to you again.

780
01:07:13.440 --> 01:07:14.460
Bye for now.

781
01:07:14.519 --> 01:07:15.780
Good night.

782
01:07:15.840 --> 01:07:16.440
Bye.

783
01:07:16.559 --> 01:07:17.039
Goodbye.

784
01:07:17.280 --> 01:07:19.199
Maximal power.

785
01:07:19.260 --> 01:07:24.179
Go, go. 30 seconds stress to maximum power.

786
01:07:24.239 --> 01:07:26.159
Switching to manual.

787
01:07:26.219 --> 01:07:28.199
Maximum power on all drives.

788
01:07:28.739 --> 01:07:31.380
Maximum power.

789
01:07:36.179 --> 01:07:49.019
So, the reveal at the end, when the currency is suddenly out of date, they reveal that because Zerok is ceded to the Federation, the currency will be out of date in 7 days.

790
01:07:49.380 --> 01:07:59.219
So I was imagining this kind of Bruce's 1000000 style, where they have to spend 100000000 credits in 7 days.

791
01:07:59.940 --> 01:08:02.820
Or another base on Zen on it.

792
01:08:03.539 --> 01:08:07.260
It's completely splash out, redecorate the Scorpio.

793
01:08:07.320 --> 01:08:12.719
Yeah, everyone gets a new monitor on their desk. new set of clothes for everyone.

794
01:08:12.780 --> 01:08:14.820
Yeah, afford a new outfit, yeah.

795
01:08:14.880 --> 01:08:16.439
That would be nice.

796
01:08:16.560 --> 01:08:20.460
Dana could finally get out of her costume based on slave.

797
01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:25.920
It's nice that they gave her a costume to match the computer, but I'm not quite sure what.

798
01:08:25.920 --> 01:08:29.939
Gerard's got that going round his neck in his costume here as well.

799
01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:31.979
So, it's obviously a thing.

800
01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:40.260
They got the branded uniforms like the ZVP, uh, vegetable plant.

801
01:08:40.319 --> 01:08:42.420
Xerox vegetable. processing, yeah.

802
01:08:43.020 --> 01:08:49.800
Well, you know, that could have been a template for series Z. They just all stand around and process vegetables for episode after.

803
01:08:49.859 --> 01:08:54.359
Is it different chemical plants and kill as many staff as possible each week?

804
01:08:57.840 --> 01:09:00.000
That's definitely a tag.