Heist to see you, to see you heist.
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.
You got the power to know, you're indestructible.
Always believe it.
Gold, gold.
I'm joined today by a fantastically glittering panel.
I'm Peter.
I'm Cy.
I'm Tom.
And I'm Pete.
So yeah, welcome to the episode, everyone.
Tom, you're our guest of the week.
How did this one land for you?
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.
I think you could actually show this to a family member or a non- non-Blake 7 fan.
There's no like wobbly bits or embarrassing bits.
It's no animals. passes that test, doesn't it?
Suddenly after a few of those episodes, like you suddenly go, oh, hold on.
There's no special space crystal they're trying to locate or whatever. it's, oh, it's gold.
Oh, it's a crime show in space.
Yeah, Peter, what about you?
No, I think this is a really enjoyable episode.
It is one of the highlights of series D. It's really well written.
It's well directed, which is not something you can really count on this season for a lot of the time.
And there's also great character work.
So that's definitely not nothing.
In fact, it's most of what you could ask for.
I do have a problem with it, but I'll talk about that later.
Okay.
Simon, what about you?
You're going to be the one, you hate it, don't you?
I hate you.
No, no, no.
When I when I think of Blake 7.
And think of my favourites.
This one is some top 5 for me.
I absolutely adore this episode.
It's one that I remembered really well from seeing it back in 83.
It really stood out then and has always been a real favourite.
There are loads of, loads of great things in this episode and I'm sure we'll talk about them.
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.
It feels like for quite a while.
Everyone is really well defined and has a role to play in a proper heist adventure.
And that's that's what you want.
They're all using their skills and they're all brilliant.
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.
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.
Yeah, and he knows the characters inside out.
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.
Unless he'd done an Alan Pryor and come back and suddenly fallen off the cliff.
Yes, yeah, Colin Davis, he'd been writing radio drama's quite a bit, I think, and it got BBC connections that way.
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.
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.
And when you see that, and is that simple?
And it makes her, I mean, simple, it makes that clear.
And it makes her such an a distinct individual.
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.
Suling's not got much to hang her coat on.
And now she's just absolutely this sassy and sarcastic and I love it.
I love her performance.
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.
That was quite a Monday night.
She gets such great lines in this story as well.
And they're not, they're not really a side of a character that was seen before.
So that moment where she just says tequila.
I dislike greedy men, Keila, is just so, so much of an insight into her character that we haven't had before.
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?
And you're just saying, where's this Sulin bean?
She's great.
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.
So it's really good to see them paired off for a lot of this episode.
I think in that scene, she's finally learnt how to out Darrow Paul Darrow.
And so it is really fun.
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.
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.
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.
Do you know who Sharon smelled?
She reminds me of Jenna in her prime.
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.
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.
She's a really great gunslinger.
She's really good at her job.
But also, you left out the little bit in between, where he says, you know, that was great shacing you to.
Paul Darret turns to Sweden and says, not bad. and there's going round tequila and says, Sweden, shot them both.
Not bad is really what makes it.
And that's it.
That's what this script is.
It's funny as well as as exciting.
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.
But from the whole crew, everybody gets a good snappy line.
And Peter, you were right.
It feels like a Chris Boucher script because everybody is in sort of maximum, almost quip mode.
They're all it's all really quotable and really sayable dialogue, which it isn't always in Blake 7.
Yeah, and imagine Roy Kinnear there.
Yeah, let's talk about him a bit because this hinges on this. is a very big role, isn't it?
In terms of lines, he's probably easily getting as many as any of the central characters.
This is hung on this character.
And at the time, he was kind of ubiquitous.
He was a sort of actor who just turned up in an episode of anything.
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.
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.
And so when this comedic character actor gets the part.
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.
Also, he should have known how British television worked at the time.
Whenever he had a square jawed, tough guy, it's always going to be a blobby, middle-aged, rather lovey.
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.
It does create a bit of space, doesn't it?
Because Villa is such a scene stealer and always has the funniest line in everything that he's in.
It's a bit like Villa's Villa's dodgy uncle that's just turned up with a plan.
And yeah.
And more than in the other episodes, I noticed, because the object, it's a villa light episode this week, sort of.
Although he's still in several key scenes, but only on the Scorpio.
But when he has become front and centre face of the show alongside Darrow.
I noticed, though, in this episode, unlike other ones where some character doesn't get much to do.
Villa is mentioned lots in scenes that he's not in.
They keep they explain when they're down on the planet why he's not there with them.
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.
Rather than him just not being there.
It's like we do need to just explain to the audience why the funny one's not here. scene.
It's one of the aspects of this script, which I think is really great.
And like you said earlier, Colin Davis seems to have a real handle on the characters.
I love filler's role in this episode.
Even though he doesn't have much to do, he's really integral to it and he's written really well.
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.
And then later, after Avon and Sulin are presumed dead.
Did you notice how Villa seems to be the one who's taken charge?
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.
It's fascinating dynamic.
And, you know, he also saves Avon by teleport during that action sequence.
So he contributes a lot to this episode.
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.
And yeah, I think the way he just takes command quietly is incredible.
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.
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.
He's he's really proved his worth and Michael Keating really plays this one really seriously all the way through.
He's he's not jokey at all in this episode.
He's really yeah, really, really good.
It's one of the generally uncommented on narratives of series D, how competent Villa is in a lot of instances.
He's still written badly in episodes.
Like I can think of star drive and animals, which make him into a bit of a buffoon.
Um, but that's just poor writers doing it generally, and I can think back to rescue where he saves the day.
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.
And then all through the 2nd half of series D, where he is just astonishingly competent.
He saves Dana and Tarrant in games.
He is the conscience of the crew in sand when he tells off Sulin for talking about Kelly's death.
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.
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.
And of course, in Blake.
He has a lot to say for himself as well.
I think series D might actually be the best season for Villa's character.
You can't say that for everybody.
No.
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.
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.
Not at all.
No change in their dynamic whatsoever.
You just have to see.
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.
But he still has an edge when he kills Dr. Slayton.
That's the moment.
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.
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.
I started keeping a tally and I lost count.
But yeah, and like some of these people are just, you know, you're just a factory operative.
You didn't deserve to be shot in the head, by slowly.
You were just going through the fire drill.
They're processing some vegetables.
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.
Oh, and Sulin gets that brilliant line when the, somehow, hiding behind that, not huge thing in the control room of the, of the...
Yeah, that's...
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.
Otherwise, he would have got shot.
And Taron, there's a little reaction from Taron there about, she's enjoying this.
She was, she would have enjoyed the chance to kill this guy.
And she's, because she's been on a, on a spree this week.
Yeah.
But yeah, so yes, sticking with Roy Kinnear, he gets that fantastic line.
Uh, Zulian Asim says about the planet.
What's it like on the surface?
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?
It seeds that in a fairly clear spelled out way, but it's still well done.
It still lands really nicely, I think.
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.
You've got someone who's slight, a slight misfit who you think, okay, well why is he in charge of this spaceship?
And then, okay, so then he's got the history of, they just chuck in a line about him working for the Federation and...
On the president's personal staff.
Wow, yeah.
Which president?
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.
That's only knowable.
It's fun.
It's fun to then guests ahead of them.
Who could possibly be that high heeled wearing a black robed person walking on the curry?
Let's just hide her face to keep the pretence going.
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.
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.
We're going to do this.
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.
And that, yeah, that's really, really good.
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.
And those scenes that, yeah, they kind of reflect each other.
The 1st setup scene on board the silver carrier.
Is that right you're saying?
Space princess.
Wheeling's face.
What's the Space Princess?
The balance between those scenes, the height, the archetype or heist movies, I watched them.
I watched Ocean's 11, by the way, too, before...
How did that comp?
There are remarkable plot similarities, actually.
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.
So you pay for Frank Sinatra and you get George Clooney instead.
But that's sidetracked.
Does the climax happen on the Arc Rough Bennett complex?
But there is a lot made, a crucial thing is faking a CCTV image with a recording instead.
And that sent me off to TV tropes, which website.
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.
You get it in things all the time.
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.
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.
And then there's the Doctor Who episode, The Sun Makers, 1978, features the same thing.
Um, so that might have been what, what, what nudged it in this direction.
Yeah, also makes you think that maybe HG Wells saw animals before he wrote the island of Dr. Moro.
Seems likely.
So, so, these are absolutely classic heist movie moments. and those that scene where they're all talking to him for the 1st time.
They're all getting lines that chip in and come from their own perspective and then back on the on the Scorpio.
The same thing happens again, but the tables are turned a bit and now they're in the driving seat.
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.
Yeah.
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.
It's all very heist movie.
It makes you think they've sort of stumbled across a new way to make Blake 7.
There's a few episodes where they sort of try a slightly different format, quite a lot of the Chris Boucher episodes.
Although this, although this one isn't by him.
Like, you kind of think, yes, like they should do more of these because it just works so well.
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.
Chris Boucher famously said to me in the pub.
Um, that Blake 7 was his opportunity to do a lot of different genres.
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.
You can fully imagine him writing this episode as his heist movie.
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.
And hadn't it been said somewhere that this episode could have been a sort of template for a series E?
Chris Boucher said that.
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.
I seem to remember reading it there.
That is part of my problem with this episode, such as it is, but I will mention that later.
We want a little variety.
Yeah, we're going to run out of superlatives before the episode's done if you don't.
Just can I just talk about Roy Kaneer for a moment?
Because you mentioned earlier that he was ubiquitous on British television.
My only, because I grew up in Australia, obviously, um, My only experience of him was Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.
Um, and so I got a little thrill when he showed up um, because I recognised him from that.
And of course, Blake 7 in my childhood and Willy Wonka in a lot of people's childhood is like a really happy place.
And so it was this kind of collision of uh 2 things, you know, watching Willy Wonkram shock factory every Christmas on television.
That kind of thing.
I think Keila is one of the top guest turns of this season.
They needed someone who could not just play him as a square jawed type.
They need someone who could bring all of those levels to him.
And it is such a nervy and slimy performance that I think the episode would be not as great without him in it.
Yeah, and when that booby trap goes off in his face.
Yeah, the little bugs are all over him.
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.
And they just...
You're clear.
Yeah, but they're genuinely panky.
My heart rate absolutely went up during that scene.
I was not just watching those events unfold.
I was really startled by it. for real.
I knew it was coming, but I'd kind of forgotten.
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?
Yeah, it's a very sweaty performance in the in the right way for them.
Very watchable.
Definitely.
He's playing it for real all the way through.
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.
I also buy him as the purser of the space princess.
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.
Yeah, he's smarmy and creepy.
But yeah, but then is he coming enough to really be outwitting them all?
It just keeps you keeps you going.
Well, I wonder where where he knew Avon from.
He's just sort of painted... old friend and there's obviously a relationship between them and and things like that.
And he's always saying, old friend, old chum, all these things to reinforce that.
But we never get that backstory.
No, and Avon never gives him anything back.
Avon is just like who's an acquaintance.
I know.
And in between that, he was working for the Federation.
On the president's personal staff.
Yeah.
Can you imagine after?
Can you imagine that after work, Avon and Keila and the guy from Killer in series B would all go for a drink.
Hello, old friend, how are you?
I'm good old friend.
How are you?
And he's just waiting to snap them all in the back.
Yeah, and for those who don't know, it was a real shame.
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.
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.
So, yeah, that's why he very sadly disappeared.
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?
Instagram.
So, uh, yeah, no, that's, if he wasn't, that's good.
This whole episode would really be deeply harmed by it.
It needs someone who's not just doing that.
I'm doing a bit of Blake 7 this week, kind of acting, which some some guest stars can do that.
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.
It just shows you how much a role like this rides on good casting as well because he makes the episode.
I would say that Stratford Johns elevates games far beyond the blandness of the script a couple of weeks ago.
But then you look at something like animals where the casting of Justin is just completely wrong and it syncs the episode.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know how buoyant that episode would have been with a difference.
You're struggling to surface.
It's one of the factors. shall we say?
But it's a fun episode, still.
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.
My favourite being, so what's the snag?
Keila.
It seems very, very much written for Paul Darrow to say.
Yeah, yeah.
And he gets some brilliant reactions.
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.
There's a bit where Keeler gets the liner on the grapevine.
You're getting to be big news.
And his face is just instantly darkens at that, you know, like that is not what Avon wants to hear.
But also, is it Avon, just looking a bit darker?
I've been big news for years, which from with you?
He smiles an unusual amount in this episode, which is really good.
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.
But also, it also puts you on your guard because if he's smiling, everything is going to go to shit very quickly.
I think he's very good in those action sequences.
Like one of the best mounted action sequences in the series, I think, is the one where they're trying to steal the gold.
The other's wheeler to board Scorpio and then the connecting tube starts to disconnect.
I think that's an exceptionally well mounted action piece for a studio multicam drama.
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.
I remember sort of having that sigh of relief, the action sequences over and everything had gone well.
I just think it's a really well done piece of action for Blake 7 and Paul Darrow is great in it.
I think it's so well directed.
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.
And the writer, Conan Davis, it was his 1st broadcast TV.
And I'm just amazed that, you know, the level of direction in this is, you know, up there with some of the best.
And then the director also did Orbit, which is coming up, which again has some great moments.
An entirely different script directed just as well.
Yeah, yeah, this one's got lots of film, lots of action, shooting, explosions, everything.
Sorry, I'm just going to say on the negative side of Brian Lighthill.
He did produce the 2 Blake 7 radio plays in the 90s.
So no one is no one is flawless.
Even gold can be tarnished.
Can it, actually, no.
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.
And the series had been going for 4 years.
It wasn't going to attract top draw talent.
I think there might have been a feeling within the BBC.
They kind of outstayed its welcome a little bit.
And so you get a number of new directors this year.
Not a lot of them are very good.
I mean, Mary Ridge is obviously amazing, but even she drops the ball on something like animals.
David Sullivan Proudfoot doesn't do a very good job of Tracer and especially Stardrive.
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.
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.
Yeah, yeah.
And there's some really good moments that have to be solved.
I mean, I, I, for a moment, when everyone thought Avon and Sulan were dead, I kind of was worried about them as well.
It was so well sold.
And that's a very good moment from Dana.
Dana's not in the front and centre this week, but she's like everyone, she's got plenty to do.
And that scene was a particularly good moment for her, I think.
And the characterisation of Dana isn't being sidelined.
They've settled.
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.
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.
But then they're not they're not joined at the hip and get different things to do as well.
And she's still got a bomb in her pocket ready for any availability, even though she has no pockets.
And the way she leaps off that stretcher.
Yes, minutes after having been given the antidote.
It's quite nasty what they do to her.
They inject her with some kind of, um, psychotropic and she is really...
The acting in those scenes is really, really good.
You can really believe that she is suffering with something.
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.
And Stephen Pacey is balancing it off fantastically, as we've said.
Let's go into that a bit more because his polo neck stoner acting is magnificently.
That's Tarrant being a bad actor, proving that Stephen Pacey is a really good actor.
Is this the only time Stephen Pacey gets to do comedy apart from animals?
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.
And then the doctor turns to the camera and he's blocking Stephen Pacy.
You see Stephen Pacey smile broadly behind him.
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.
I wish we'd seen comedy from him more often.
I do wonder what the passengers of this cruise when they, when they went back to uh, zero.
Zerok?
Um, with a Zed.
Zero River Zed.
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.
Do you think it's meant to be a luxury cruise because it looks slightly tatty.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess that's very pastel.
Yeah, they haven't had a lot of money to spend onsets. this week.
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.
But yeah, they haven't been able to spend a lot of money convincing us this is a luxury liner.
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.
I suppose that's a parallel, isn't it?
Do they even know they're being shown those videos, aren't they?
of the person narrating the wonderful things that they're not really flying?
They're not even flying past.
They're just going straight to earth, aren't they?
I didn't notice that on the I missed that detail on the 1st watch of his.
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.
Presumably these are willing, willing citizens just going for a drugged up ride and getting up to God knows what, but...
I mean, worse things have happened on pleasure cruises in Blake 7 as we saw at the start of Star one.
At least they don't crash.
Those scenes support Space Princess, I think, are really well done.
And sometimes Blake 7 in its more sober days, you know, I'm thinking maybe mission to destiny.
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.
And I think that's probably down to Brian Lighthill as well.
The characters are having fun during those scenes and they're short and interesting ways.
I also think I have 3 things to say about the space princess.
One, it's a great design, the exterior model, and those effects sequence, tremendous.
I love too, the Space Princess soundtracks.
So that music is just unlike...
It's unlike anything else in Blake 7.
I don't know why they did it, but it really works well.
It's so hard to get that kind of thing right too.
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.
And then the actual score of the episode itself, cutting in just with that down.
At least on a really good week this week.
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.
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.
And it's still selling it really well.
It's really exciting opening, which is sort of unexpected.
But yeah, Dudley is really on it and really inspired by this one, I think.
Well, not only that, but the model shots.
They're on videotape, aren't they?
Yeah, I think so.
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.
Ah, okay.
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...
Yeah, you end up with terror of the vervoids.
Yeah, they can they can have just pure spaceship shots for like a minute and it works and they're so good.
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.
It's really, really good.
For Blake.
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.
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?
For model shots, you get the scale sometimes is harder to, even if it's a really lovely model.
It doesn't feel as big.
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.
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.
So I guess I guess it's the latter.
Well, I have to say, this is the era of the love boat and the Pacific Princess.
So those effect shots of the space princess could only have been improved with that theme over the top.
Is that the name of the ship?
never knew that.
Okay, well that's...
Hey, I now desperately want to see that done that way.
And be, okay, that clicks.
It's literally the love boat ship with space put in front of it.
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.
And so it's the same effects team coming in to do a lot of the model shots this year.
So it sort of works that way.
They worked out how to sort of map the effect shots quite successfully.
So they're going for that and it's fast cheap and it works.
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.
But here, I think it really sells it.
It's really really good.
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.
It does add a slightly sort of a off colour kind of vibe to the space princess, you know, the what is the word?
CD?
Yeah, CD. is that the CD?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not all that.
It's not all CD vibe.
Yeah, a little bit, a little bit tawdry.
Not quite, yeah.
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?
Slightly seedy, slightly off.
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.
And what's joy is we haven't had many scenes of Avon and Serverland this year.
So Chris Boucher and Via Lorrimer made a deliberate decision to separate them so they were not dominating the whole, the whole series.
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?
And they're they're really enjoying a chance to play off each other.
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.
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.
So it's just it's so nice to see Jacqueline Pierce enjoying herself immensely this episode.
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.
Savalan. at the best place.
Yes, what they hardly ever say in Blake 7 is we need less subtlety.
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?
And yeah, it's not it's not a shocking reveal, is it?
For anyone, but it's everything falling into place.
It's, of course it is, and here she is.
Um, and there's, there's a bit of, I, one of the, this episode is, is paced so quickly.
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.
You don't actually see them land on the planet.
And they're just there.
And that's fine.
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.
You just have a cut.
And the 1st time I watched, rewatched it.
I did get a little bit confused by that.
I thought they were still on the planet.
And so it's taking economies, but sometimes jumping you forward a bit.
And basically, you've got to bloody pay attention, isn't you?
That's what it demands of you.
And the reward for that is you get an episode that really cracks along like this.
Um, does Dana react enough to noticing its server land?
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.
Maybe she's finally thought, oh, well, Terrence Shagged, I should not be that bad.
She's suffered enough.
She killed my dad, but you know.
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.
It's like, who can this be?
Is it Travis come back?
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.
And so it's just like an aftermath, Rumours of Death, Death Watch, terminal, all those classic episodes.
And it makes you realise that even though it was a creative decision to keep Avon and Servland apart, it's a mistake.
It's one of the minor ways that series D drops the ball.
Hmm.
I mean, the, this, this sermon and Avon scene is probably one of my favourite scenes in the show ever, really.
Like the sort of reaction, Jacqueline Pierce.
I watched games before this, and she sort of carries on that kind of really coy, smiley but really powerful performance.
And then you've got Avon just Paul Darrow's pure Paul Darrow now.
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.
They're so close together.
It's like men nose to nose.
But it's almost better.
That might have been a bridge too far for Dana.
And Tarrant.
Exactly.
I mean, Tarrant wanted to kiss Avon.
There's parafanzines where that's gone into.
They're a wild 70s, 80s fanzines where that's gone into.
I mean, it's that thing where, you know, Avon, certain man knows Avon's works it out.
Avon knows Servan's been really clever and they're just the 2 brains behind it just some mutual appreciation.
Absolutely.
She knows that he knows that he's worked out.
Exactly.
And that bursts the bubble of any viewers who might be saying, oh, well, they could have figured that out.
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.
This is all a game to us.
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.
It just him spelling it out.
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?
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.
Like I said, but she's got another sting waiting for them afterwards that he doesn't know about.
But, yeah, yeah.
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.
I think of you as a future friend.
And and Keila meets his demise quite in a gloriously horrible serve language.
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.
That would have taken a while.
I'm laughing and disapproving at the same time.
But there's that wonderful line where Serverland turns to him and says, what use would money be to you?
Pause.
Here?
And that look of realisation on his face that he's not coming back.
Yeah, the penny that has been dropping so slowly for him throughout the entire episode finally drops.
I mean, he could have come back.
They've sort of left it almost open. don't quite, you know, we don't see him die.
Well, he's just laying there face down on the ground, isn't he?
But, um, it could be pretending.
Yeah, they could have just clashed him.
Yeah.
He could have showed up in the last episode of Blake taking off his helmet.
Who knows?
Maybe he will.
For the next season, they could have, you know, they could have revisited him.
Yeah, yeah.
You can write your way out of bigger holes in that.
Yeah.
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.
Yeah, these huge vistas of Corey, and actually it looks really good.
It looks really varied, kind of alien, desolate landscape.
Just for these short scenes.
Yeah.
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.
It's so good.
It's so brilliantly shot.
It's a wonderful moment.
I think Serverland showing up at the end of some episodes might be a bit of a disappointment.
It's like, why wasn't she in it?
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.
Well, yeah, that's good.
Should we go to that final scene?
Because it could have just ended on the planet, but of course, yeah, there's that twist to be revealed.
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.
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.
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.
They're trying to get things to build up their base.
That's their objective this year.
And so he decided, yeah, his was going to be one where they fail.
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.
And the characterisation is so perfect because he's the one delivering the bad news.
And he's he's in on the joke as much as Servilan is as much as the crew are.
And that's really, it's a really lovely performance from Peter Tottenham, who we don't always sort of celebrate.
But his his Aurak through this year has gone to operatic scales of acting.
He's so good.
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.
Yeah.
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.
He's loving delivering the bad news Yeah.
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.
It's great.
And it's great that he can. is perfectly situated to give a bit of breaking news that upends everything.
I think how much better that line would have been coming from slave.
Like, I'm the politans, master.
It is worse than that.
So what do we think of this plan?
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.
So they can't just sweep in to the refinery, steal the gold and come out again.
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.
It's kind of setting up the uh, hold on, we are in Blake 7 and we do have a teleport and everything.
But we're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way.
Yeah, they've had to think it, they've really had to think it through and come out with all these obstructions.
Um, one thing I love about when they talk about, they ask about the mine, what's it?
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?
But then we cut to a picture of the spaceship flying above the planet.
And the planet is a big ball of gold.
The people doing the planet backgrounds didn't quite get that memo.
Because on that basis, you could just land there and just scrape a trowel along the ground.
Sort of the lack of the teleport leads to Dana getting the wonderful line.
Well, it makes you realise how useful the teleport is.
Like it's just dawned on me.
It's really good because the clever plotting makes the characters clever as well.
No one is conspicuously stupid this episode and you can't always say that.
No, yeah.
Yeah.
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.
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.
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.
Right?
They're totally his game.
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.
How much do we think a 1000000000 credits is?
Well, how much were they going to pay for Aurak?
Oh. 1000000000 credits?
100 billion.
Was it billion?
I thought it was.
He wants 100 million. 100 million.
Are you sure whatever it is is worth that much?
It's worth 10 times that much.
So I agreed to buy it.
Do you have the authority?
No.
Ah, there we go.
Wow, well, there we go.
And then you see, and there's not that many gold bars there that they want for 10 billion.
And you wonder if, yeah, if inflation has gone up in the years.
Yeah, well, they do say the Federation has run out of, run out of gold.
So this is the last goal in the universe.
Yeah, I suppose the last unminded world.
Which I think some of the denominations of the notes and no one's ever seen currency that size.
Yeah, whopping great notes.
I wonder if Servoland's economic policies are on a par with Liz Tusses, perhaps, during her brief.
No reason she was overthrown.
Try getting a mortgage on Gouda Prime these days.
You're talking about gap the subprime.
But yet you don't get 1000000000s used that often in science fiction.
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.
Well, we just had the 70s, so it could be like a comment on inflation and how everything's really scarce.
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.
So I said at the start of the episode that I think this is a really great entry.
It's really well written, got a great guest star.
It's really well directed.
And I think Sile, Pete, you mentioned the fact that this was a potential template for series E doing kind of heist stories.
And I think Blake 7's good at high stories.
So the ones we've had in the past, like Gambit and Harvest of Chiros, they're really good in those type sequences.
But therein, I think, lies a slight problem as the only real problem with this episode.
It's kind of generic.
This story could have been told on any space opera.
So don't get me wrong.
I think it's highly enjoyable, well mounted, but the series, Blake 7, during this year has kind of lost its reason, Detra.
It was happening last year in series C.
Um, but seriously retained enough of the show's DNA and character work and had such good individual stories that it's my favourite.
Series D for every really good bleak 70 episode like orbit or sand or rescue.
You've got a pretty generic action episode like star drive or games or this.
So again, it's good episode, well done, really like it.
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.
Hmm.
I don't know, I, because I, I see your point.
Yeah.
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.
Um, so I think this lands it so well.
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?
So I was thinking of Firefly, which does episodes like this and also something like Farscape.
Um, yes.
And so any kind of space opera worth it salt will do a good heist episode like this.
And this is a really good heist episode, but it plays into that wider thing of series D, losing its Blake 7 identity slightly.
If it had been a one off in any of the other seasons, you would have just worn it and gone great.
But there is a number of episodes this year, which are just generic action stories.
Is this your yearning for the liberator to come back?
Is that what I'm really?
Pretty much if only DSV 3 had turned up at terminal at the start of the season.
It's interesting, isn't it?
Firefly and Farscape are often referred to as series that are inspired by Blake 7.
So there's obviously something that people have taken from that.
So maybe it is more Blake 70 than you think because they're doing this because Blake 7 did it.
It's good character work.
I don't know.
Any action series worth that salt can do an episode like this.
Obviously, this has got space trappings.
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.
I really enjoyed watching it.
The character is amazing.
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.
Mm-hmm.
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?
Well, they're just doing it for money.
Well, that's not really the aim of Blake 7 to begin with was to bring down the Federation.
Absolutely.
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.
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.
Gosh the hell out of that.
It could be so good for you.
God, I can see him thinking the theme.
Michael Keating would absolutely be up to that.
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.
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.
But the fact that there's actually a couple of entries this year that just follow this kind of standard action mould.
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.
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.
You know, it's quite action-y.
You got the, the industrial complex returns.
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.
Seeklocate, destroy.
Absolutely.
I can see the DNA with between this and that.
Clocate Destroy was built in as part of the fabric of the series.
It was telling a wider story as well.
Whereas this is a one-off.
This is just a caper without any kind of overarching importance to the series.
So I absolutely see what you mean.
Maybe it's a thing of the series just doesn't have a general direction now.
And so it's still telling the kind of stories that it used to, and I do love them.
Don't get me wrong on that.
Really great and enjoy watching them.
But without that forward thrust of the series, maybe.
Yeah, they they finish the episode where they start, basically.
They haven't they haven't won and they haven't gained anything by this.
I mean, at least in Stardrive, they've gained the new Stardrive by the end of it.
But this, they've they've had days of adventure, killed a lot of people. killed a lot of people. some vegetables.
They've got a suitcase full of out of date monopoly money to show for it.
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.
I, I keep, it's so hard to say Avon.
I just want to keep saying Paul Darrow because it's just Paul Darrow.
Yeah.
The, um, the, and again, he's up there with J.R.
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.
That laugh and that is he just, is he, is he, is this guy really going mad now?
Um, is this guy really unhinged?
Is the bit that it does play forward into the next episode.
Have we forgotten quite what type of person Avon actually always has been?
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?
He could barely raise a snicker when the liberator was destroyed.
Yeah, yeah, that just married a smirk, didn't it?
Yeah.
So yeah, and it's a really great shot with all the currency falling down.
Barber throws like 2 or 3 notes in the air and this bucket load of cash reigns down on Paul Darrow.
Someone's at the top throwing that down off a ladder.
It looks, but it looks really, really good.
I like to think it was fear.
Fear, fear.
I think the Scorpio air conditioning system finally kicking it.
Turning it into one of those grab, grab your lolly things where you're having in a booze with money blowing around.
Maybe in the same booth that they put mullah with the blue lighting.
I should imagine a cash being flown into there.
So, thank you very much for listening.
I hope you've enjoyed us going on about the episode as much as we have and enjoyed the episode itself.
That yeah, that was the episode before the episode before the penultimate episode of Blake 7.
There are only 3 left is what I'm trying to say. shockingly.
It's going to be an interesting run to the grand finale.
We hope you'll be there with us right through all the way to it.
For now.
We'll say goodbye.
And we'll speak to you again.
Bye for now.
Good night.
Bye.
Goodbye.
Maximal power.
Go, go. 30 seconds stress to maximum power.
Switching to manual.
Maximum power on all drives.
Maximum power.
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.
So I was imagining this kind of Bruce's 1000000 style, where they have to spend 100000000 credits in 7 days.
Or another base on Zen on it.
It's completely splash out, redecorate the Scorpio.
Yeah, everyone gets a new monitor on their desk. new set of clothes for everyone.
Yeah, afford a new outfit, yeah.
That would be nice.
Dana could finally get out of her costume based on slave.
It's nice that they gave her a costume to match the computer, but I'm not quite sure what.
Gerard's got that going round his neck in his costume here as well.
So, it's obviously a thing.
They got the branded uniforms like the ZVP, uh, vegetable plant.
Xerox vegetable. processing, yeah.
Well, you know, that could have been a template for series Z. They just all stand around and process vegetables for episode after.
Is it different chemical plants and kill as many staff as possible each week?
That's definitely a tag.