The Cat-and-Mouse Approach

[00:03]

Maximum Power.

Hello and welcome to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast that recruits people for its mission, no matter what crimes they've committed on other podcasts.

This week we're talking about seek, locate, destroy.

I'm Pete.

I'm Colin.

I'm James.

I'm Nathan, and I'm Cy.

And we are giddy with excitement, I think, because we've reached a certain point in this series where, well, the game has been upped and the game has been changed, hasn't it?

Who wants to jump in with the 1st thought on this, Simon?

I haven't heard from you for a little while.

Okay, well, my 1st thought is isn't the robot shit?

Really?

This is the 1st shot you see after you've seen the planet and the announcement sort of over the screen and you see this robot wobble into shot and it's slow and it's clunky and it's absolutely bloody awful.

[01:05]

And they probably wasted half the budget of the episode on it, or even the season.

And it's little squirter.

I think that that mechanical acid squirter that it's got for, for, which is, like, some kind of chemical facility, some kind of very dangerous plant.

So equipping your security robot with a thing that sprays fire drenched acid everywhere as a means of improving the security of your workplace.

I think that's going to end up being reviewed in a meeting at some point.

Do you think it's more shit than an announcement telling everyone what planet they're on?

The planet Kent.

I mean, Cantoro.

Kent with a hard C.

That still, that sticks in my crawl.

Why is it pronounced that?

It should be sent.

Was it at the centre of something?

Well, it's a communication centre, isn't it?

So it's a very Terry nation name.

It's like a radius or, you know, refuses or something.

He didn't do refuses, but, you know, desperous then.

It's also a top security area because there's a sign that says so and there's no way you can get in, even if you, I don't know, climbed up the ladder that's next to it or go...

[02:18]

No, there's a sign, and if there's a sign, then you're then...

Top security.

We are flung straight into this story, though, aren't we?

barely one minute in and Blake is teleporting down into the industrial complex of the week.

And we get our very 1st down and safe. which become more hooray.

The rest of the series, which is fabulous.

That's not the name of the podcast.

It's also really our 1st traditional, or as will become traditional Blake 7 industrial location with lots of pipes.

They're at an old factory somewhere running around and we see a lot of this over the next few years. don't we?

Yeah, and is this augmented with one of those very clever glass paintings that they do.

So there's a bit more domes going on added to the complex.

Yeah, what shot?

There's definitely Federation Guards and it's between the sort of the all the pipe where we normally see and then another bit on the right hand side and in the distance.

There's a there's a map painting.

I'm sure of it.

Yeah, they're so, they're so subtly done.

[03:20]

The people who did these are just absolute geniuses.

Yeah they are.

I think this episode is a bit of a reboot immediately.

Look, so soon in, 6 episodes in, and it kind of goes, all right, this is what we're going to do now.

This is it.

And it may not know it's going to do that quite so much, but it's it's definitely, you know, this is it.

This is the direction it's going to take.

It's the cat and mouse approach now and really what the Federation is going to be like.

This is a pivotal episode for the series and it is nonstop, as you say, like Blake being, sorry, teleports down.

Villa packs his lunchbox and then pots down as well.

Yes, 1977. lunch box.

Exactly.

It's great.

It looks like a lot of it's on film as well.

It's well, it's definitely well.

And there's not a, there's not a moment where it isn't interesting.

No, and again, I think we also get sort of a restatement of everyone's skills in this cruise.

So we've got villa with his lock picking.

He's using his skills well and shows that he's sort of clever underneath his cowardice.

[04:22]

We've got Gan used to strong arm everyone and used his extra strength, Callie being hard, Avon using his computer skills.

So everyone has got a little role to play, apart from Jenna, who's stuck on the ship doing the driving.

Yes, yes.

She's stuck at reception, isn't she?

when everyone else has gone down the pub.

Someone's got to stay in the office, Jenna, and man the phones.

They're not going to man themselves while they're all down the pub.

Poor Jenna.

It is a bit of a strange sort of reboot though, isn't it?

Because do we know, was this whole thing shot before it went out?

Yeah, it's still, this is still being shot in December.

In fact, I think they shot something on Christmas Eve.

So this is maybe the last one to be filmed before it goes out actually.

So they're not doing it with any foreknowledge of how they get received.

I mean, there's sort of weird, strange ret cons and stuff.

I mean, things happened to Blake twice.

You know, the last time I was on, I talked about how he gets his memory wipe twice.

Now he gets sort of ambushed in a car park somewhere and all his friends are killed twice.

And he even sort of comments on it.

And it is this sort of strange thing as if they're having to course correct in the middle of it, but what there's no time to revise the earlier scripts or something.

[05:31]

It is an odd reboot.

I think it's, you know, brilliant and it's the direction that the show goes in and that ultimately really works.

But there's been a lot of wheel spinning to get to this point, I think.

Now, the dialogue is landing so well on the characters who do get it, and we can make jokes about Paul Jenna getting left out this week, but when they do have a good line, like, like Villa, there isn't a lock I can't open if I'm not scared enough.

It's such a brilliant villa line because that only he would say that and it gets the audience on side.

And, uh, uh, and yeah, he could have actually just climbed over that gate quite easily, I think.

That's not the point.

That's not the point.

This has got, I think, one of my favourite lines in any TV show ever, which is that fabulous little speech that Villa gives when he approaches the Federation Guards.

Oh, yes.

Oh, that's I'm a spy.

I've come to blow something up what you think would be most suitable.

That's such a doctorish line, isn't it?

[06:32]

I was a thief, but recently I've become interested in sabotage.

In a small way, you understand.

Nothing too ambitious.

I hate vulgarity, don't you?

Yeah, you can see like competing seizing the opportunity to take centre stage there and have his moment.

It's a proper comedy moment when he comes out the door as well, you know, there's this whole thing about how he can't really get through the gate in time or whatever.

And so he escapes by picking a lock, but we don't see it.

And Blake is shocked to have him come out through the door behind him.

I think it's really sort of funny.

And I don't know if it's Terry Nation.

I mean, Terry Nation's written comedy before or is it Chris Boucher sort of fixing the very thin Terry Nation script?

has been given?

Because, you know, all of that dialogue that you were commenting on is just Boucher being incredibly witty, I think.

And maybe the cast now having had a good month as a, as a troop really getting to know each other, are able in rehearsal to work it up a bit as well.

[07:35]

Maybe that's where that little bit with the villa popping out from the door came from.

It's great But it's not just our main cast that we're going to be talking about this week, is it?

Our heroes, our anti-heroes.

Because we've got an anti-hero on the scene now.

What do we all think about villainy in this episode?

Wow, it's fascinating, isn't it?

Because we've got Me our 2 big bads and obviously one is set up to be the bigger badge than the other.

And then as the series goes on, the lesser one takes centre stage.

I have to say, Servoland is my favourite character in the whole show.

So I'm so pleased to see her. in this show.

Yes.

And in every show.

I can tell you what.

I could tell you were holding back, I could tell.

What's what's really interesting here is how her performance is very different to what it becomes later on.

She's so still and quiet and icy.

I completely agree.

[08:36]

Yeah.

She can make the word secretary absolutely the most menacing word in the whole of the English language.

Which for some people it may be, but she can do it universally, yeah.

Considering what she becomes later on with the big flamboyant performances, this is fascinating to see the genesis of the character, and you can see why everyone instantly thought we have to bring her back.

There's something fabulous in her that we can really exploit and they really do.

Was she a one off character originally?

So originally she was written as a male character and she was in a script that they abandoned called location Destroy, which is originally episode four.

Right.

And despite the fact it has a similar name was actually plot wise, nothing like this episode, it was a weird cross between what became dual and deliverance.

Okay.

Yeah, that's really interesting.

The other, I wonder, I don't know if it was scripted for her to be surprisingly young, as well as the thing that strikes me coming to this, is how, I mean, I think she's in a, Jackie Pierce is actually in her 30s, but she doesn't look it.

[09:39]

She looks younger and just so.

So, so, she's so precise in her delivery, like you were saying, Psy.

It makes her this calm, big-eyed creature, the, the, the ruthlessness, but we get to see with her.

Well, how would you describe Ray, space race, but with an eye, her acquaintance?

There are layers to that, aren't there?

He's not just one of her, um, he's not just a henchman, is he?

I think the acting is very clearly telling us.

Yeah, it's really interesting because she's so flirty and warm in those scenes.

So we've seen many sort of disparate parts of her character and it shows how manipulative she is depending on who it is that she's talking to, which is really fascinating.

I think too, just she's actually surprisingly girly.

Like I was finding that a little bit shocking.

It is that sort of coquettishness and, you know, she's stroking his face and all of that sort of thing before it becomes absolutely clear that even someone that she has this relationship with.

She's not going to tolerate any sort of anti-federation sentiment from them.

[10:43]

And so having her turn makes her more surprising.

We don't see this serverland again, really ever, even Jarvik or other people that she's sort of presumably having sex with.

I was actually sort of impressed by how well drawn she is here and how they, they kind of disarm us a bit, partly with how she looks, but just with how she behaves in that 1st scene.

Jacqueline Pierce, in many interviews, said, she came in and they said, oh, we want to dress you in sort of combat gear and big boots, and she was the one who said, no, no, it would be much more fascinating if she's dressed very softly because it contrasts with her character so well.

And thank God they did because they created something to use the most overused word really iconic in that with her in her beautiful ballroom dresses striding round the galaxy.

Sort of like a beautiful venomous spider.

I wrote it back in the back in the 90s, uh, woman's hour on BBC radio 4 doing a feature on, on, on science fiction women, and I sent, sent them an email in those pre-social media days.

[11:52]

It's like you've got to talk about serverland, she was like Darth Vader in a ball gown.

And they read it and it was an American hosting the session and children.

I've had quite a lot of emails that seem to be from men of a certain age who are particularly impressed with a character called, I think, Sir of Alan?

Is that right?

I don't think she served apart from herself and the Federation.

Very true.

And of course, uh, we, well, at first, when you when you see her, she's, she's there with, she's surrounded by 2 of the most wonderful things from Doctor Who, and they are Nider, and and the space walls, uh, which, which are in the form of Secretary Montagne and and, and the walls that we see in BBC series throughout the decade.

The way that she plays the politics of the situation.

You immediately, you can see that she's a politician as well, not just, not just, you know, a manic baddie, because she's got, there are things that could go wrong for her and she's got to manipulate these rather dreary men, hasn't she?

Yeah, they are.

They are talking about this in political terms, in the sense that, and I wrote this note down, and then they actually said the line, that the federation are learning that Blake is turning into a legend, and that sets the motivation for exactly what's going on and that he's, you know, blowing up 70s power stations are, it's turning into something.

[13:10]

So it's got a good setup from that perspective and that when they bring in another certain character who's utterly ruthless, out of the way, they go about things, you can't, like the Federation is terrible and horrific, and but now they're just like, we don't care who we get or what we do.

We're just gonna stop this guy.

It just it just doesn't matter.

That sort of Nider and the other guy, they're sort of like, okay, you know?

Yeah, and the idea that she can be opposed.

You know, she has she has to lay down the law. with Ray, that disobeying her will not be tolerated.

Even though some of her some of her Nazi storm troopers are saying, oh, hang on, this this guy's a bit much.

We don't really, this, this Travis, this Travis, coming.

Come on, you know, genocide above and beyond beyond the call of duty.

That establishes that nice balance that there are people among the, among the federation who can be chipped away at.

Perhaps we should talk about the other main character that is joining us in their, in their 1st incarnation, which is Travis.

[14:14]

Well, it's Travis's left buttock, I think, initially, isn't it?

Long, long, lingering left button, exactly.

He does spend a lot of time watching Blake sex tapes.

Yes, don't you need to.

He's into torture porn, obviously.

Yeah, no, I had a note about his O face.

I mean, it is very clearly.

It's clearly what we're seeing on the Blake 07.

This is where the ratings have hit 10000000 at this point.

It's a bit meta, isn't it?

Blake is becoming a...

Yeah, but inching up towards 11, almost on the cusp of 11.

Blake is becoming a legend in his own schedule.

This is this is the highest rated episode of series A. The peak interesting.

And that's coming off the web, presumably.

Yeah, didn't put anyone off.

We were saying on that episode that it has its moments that we now might cringe at, but no, yeah, people loved it.

[15:14]

People laptops.

You didn't get any of that on Coronation Street, opposite it.

What's the hate about little baby green zygons?

No, I have no hate for them.

There will be the, they would, if only there'd been the marketing, they would have been the Christmas smash, every child would have wanted a clockwork, a clockwork decimal.

Decimal mania.

Some mania, yeah.

We also get a neat, there's a bit in here where Avon is decoding the message using the decoder, which we better go back because we've obviously we've leapt forward to Jacqueline Pierce because why wouldn't you?

But there's the whole, the antics on the, on the base what they're raiding and stealing the decoder.

It's, it's, there's the bit where Cali and Gan become rather unlikely hostage takers.

I don't know, and the beautiful Peter Craze, brother of Doctor Who's, Michael Craze, is held hostage by them.

And you can see by a look on his face that he knows he's been captured by the B team, basically.

But they block a door with a big computer, so that's a useful thing to do.

[16:18]

So then Gan has to smash something.

Do you find that Gan has to go into sort of Hulk smash mode and he's just so terribly, terribly polite about it.

Everyone is so fucking posh in this show.

I can't get over it.

Villa.

Like I was so struck by Villa's accent early on, but Gan takes the cake.

You know, he's this sort of big strong man, he's just perfectly shaved.

There's no hint of muscle in his physique.

He's just a sort of big, tall, fat guy.

You know, pulling out the decoder acting. is entirely his teeth.

You know, he's not moving his arms.

He's not really making any strenuous effort or even pretending to do that.

He's just gritting his teeth.

I think one of the reviews that I read of an earlier episode, critiqued him and said, it's often described as a gentle giant.

I would say massive moron was more appropriate.

One of the most horrifying moments of my life remains being a Doctor Who stroke Blake 7 convention in the late 90s.

[17:20]

Not being very au favoured Blake 7 and its world, and being in a corridor, going to a room, and my friend saying to me, oh, let's go down here and get seats ready for David Jackson.

And I went, who the fuck's David Jackson?

And he walked past. precise moment.

And I turned and made eye contact and wanted to die so very, very much.

I've been carrying that all these years.

Actually, it's quite nice to get it out.

He didn't look, he there was an impassive look on his face.

He probably got that quite a lot.

He probably got that, yeah.

From his wife.

His children.

His agent.

And it's a shame because he's an adorable guy and has given crumbs to work with and still manages to make something out of him.

Yeah, I think he's sort of very underrated.

I do think he is very good in spite of that.

And he has a great voice and he is criminally underwritten though.

[18:21]

Did he work much apart from Blake 7?

He did lots of bit parts in Bings?

He was always sort of turning up as in tiny roles all over the place.

I think he was quite busy, but never, this was his sort of big starring role, really.

And I don't know that it did very much for his career.

It was his big break, but it broke him.

Yeah.

Yeah, and there's the problem.

I mean, Blake's Evan suffered from the way that the 80s when it, one of the defining things of the early 80s was this obsession with the 70s having been the napist and crappest decade ever, that as a kid anyway, I was really conscious of in the, I mean, maybe every one of my that age thinks that of the previous decade.

I think Blake 7 suffered in the in the non-science fiction fan world in in the 80s by seeming to epitomise 19 the 1970s in a way.

And that might, I don't know if that hampered the cast being sort of date stamped as well as sort of typecast in what they went on to do later.

What do you think?

Who did have the best post-Blake 7 world.

I suppose Gareth Thomas did get.

He did get back onto all of his beloved Shakespeare and stage work that he'd always wanted, didn't he?

[19:22]

Yeah, I don't think any of them really hit the big time, did they?

I mean, Sally Nevette did a stint in Emmerdale Farm, as it was, married to Fraser Hines.

Oh of course, yeah.

I don't think any of them ever got huge roles ever again.

Paul Darrow did Dombey and Son and stuff, but was all wet.

I think they were all tarred by being in Blake 7.

Well, wasn't his last acting roles being vomited on by one of the race assault ladies in Little Britain?

Yeah, that was that's true.

He had a good line in Judges in Hollyoaks for some reason.

Who was the casting director?

Was it one of us?

Chris Thomas was quite a big name before Blake 7.

Like he was a well-known actor on television.

I think there have been some other ones from the folks that joined a little bit later.

So Josette Simon is in The Witcher, which only a few months ago was Netflix's biggest series.

So you can see her in that. when she turned up in that.

[20:26]

Yeah, me too.

Is she in the 2nd season of Broadchurch?

Yeah, and do you about Simon OBE, lest we forget?

A native of my hometown Leicester?

And she's actually responsible for my 2nd most embarrassing incident with an actor.

Oh, Simon, right?

Hold that off to a UC.

Yeah, okay, fair enough.

I will.

And she's also had a phenomenal stage career.

I saw her play Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra.

I saw more of Jothette Simon than anyone probably should.

Right, exactly.

Well, I was front row and that was my 2nd most embarrassing experience.

Yeah.

Well, I like how you feel.

But she was phenomenal. absolutely phenomenal.

She's she's on the national treasure path.

She's like she'd created a theatre company and everything.

You know, she's not as well as as well as acting.

She's the boss as well of her own her own theatre company.

[21:26]

But we'll get there in a year or three.

So yeah, so they steal this device.

And one of the 1st one of the 1st phrases that Avon decodes through it is that supreme command, the supreme commander has requested maximum cooperation.

Maybe that could become her catchphrase.

I don't know Maybe that should be the name of our podcast.

Exactly.

We really left that lying here, didn't we?

Although they succeed in their mission.

They also completely fail from a project management point of view. looking after their workforce.

But forgetting that one of the crew hasn't made it back.

No one purchases.

They're so quick.

It's difficult to count to 7 apparently.

Yeah, it's like David Cameron leaving his kids in the pub that time.

We were just, we all got into this and happily sailing away and yeah, they realised they forgot Cali, which is quite brutal.

[22:30]

It's only a 3rd episode, to be fair.

Terry Nation pulls the same crap in the chase, obviously, with Vicky, where, you know, they have a whole sort of scene and then suddenly realise, oh, where's Vicky?

It's him pulling out of his sort of back catalogue for a plot twist.

I was wondering why it seems so familiar.

And we get the response.

I wrote down one of my favourite Terry Nation words gets used because Villa says, we can't go back.

The place will be crawling with security interception.

Every nation loves crawling.

It comes up a lot.

Place is crawling with Daleks, which is such a...

One thing Daleks do not do is cruel. not where they're in the in the machines.

There's another trope as well, which is the bombs with the countdown on them, which everyone seems to have, and we love them so much this time that we're going to mix the footage together of the countdown.

Yeah, it's really helpful of all the bomb manufacturers to go the extra mile and put that nice big clock on the outside. it?

Absolutely And of course, we have our 1st someone's lost their teleport bracelet in a moment of absolute crisis when they need to be taken back up as well.

[23:38]

And we'll never see that again.

Do they?

Yeah, Crowley loses hers.

See, if they'd been teleport underpants, they wouldn't have lost them.

Yeah, yeah.

Telepants.

Teleport pants.

You wouldn't want something to go wrong, though.

No, I guess not.

And every time somebody tried to steal it off you, it would be complications.

The big problem is Jan Chappell has such slender arms that the teleport bracelet really needs to be about 3 quarters of the way up her arm to stay in place.

I like the little detachable cat collars that our cat has to stop getting snagged on a tree or anything that they automatically ping off in any sense of peril, which is not what you actually want with a teleport bracelet.

It should not be like a self-releasing cat collar.

Losing Cali does give Gareth Thomas some good moments to remote and a really good line from Jenna.

I really like her line where she says, oh, you've got to make pizza of yourself if you want to survive.

So showing Jenna's pragmatic attitude to life.

[24:39]

Yeah.

Yeah.

She also says, you know, like Kelly knew what she was getting in for and stuff and there's a very strange exchange where she says to Blake, Callie wasn't a child and Blake goes, wasn't she?

And I kind of think that's utterly baffling.

Well, depends how that is.

The character's written as quite young initially, I believe.

So maybe there's a hangover.

There's also that exchange between them about her condemning herself.

Did you think that's sort of a hangover from her almost sort of suicidal tendencies in time squad where she's going to go off and just blow herself up because that's what she's got because she's a gorilla fighter and that she's the only one left.

Could be, couldn't it?

Yeah, that has been set in her character, that she is someone who is prepared clearly prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in their mission, although just making a decoder doesn't really seem like a big enough deal.

I was actually a bit shocked by how kind of tough Callie presents when she's dealing with the hostages.

[25:41]

And I'm so used to sort of late, late series C, Cali, where, you know, she's just a nurse or whatever or teleport operator.

She gives him a good kicking, doesn't she?

Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad.

I mean, she does get punished for being a sort of uppity lady later on by being sort of smacked in the face and stuff, which is a little bit sort of unfortunate.

I was actually a bit surprised.

I haven't seen series A for a little while and she is much, much harder than I expected.

Yeah, and she gives Travis what for, doesn't she, when she's captured and being interrogated.

And she's talking back and she's very strongly written here.

Yeah, no, Travis is threatening with his ring of zing.

Um, she uh, she, she holds back.

She, she, she doesn't, she doesn't crumble.

Are we seeing, we've established, you know, there's a lot more to serverland than we've seen in this episode, though she makes a fantastic 1st impression.

Is Travis more, what we see is what we get?

Or are they going to be, because I can't remember quite so clearly whether there's going to be more layers to him as we go forward?

I mean, as long as he is the one that he is.

[26:43]

It's just leather all the way down, isn't it?

It's basically leather.

Black leather. slightly camped.

I mean, it's surprising we don't actually get that many episodes with him as Travis overall, and we're with Serverland for so long.

And so we can see and look back on how strongly she develops, whereas we don't get that much of a chance with the 1st Travis, I think to actually see anything.

And, you know, like he doesn't need to be particularly complicated.

This sort of character development next series, but it is a bit unfortunate.

I really rather they haven't.

Is that because Brian Crouch was playing him?

Yeah, no, and he's the only person in the semi-regular cast who isn't as posh as hell, and so they have to sort of kick him about a bit, I think.

Yeah, he regenerates into someone from East Asia.

That's right.

But in this episode, there is that moment where he puts his hand on Servoland's hand to stop her making a call, a phone call at one and I thought, oh, that's not how this is going to pan out.

[27:49]

This is still being written with her as the one behind the desk and him as the wild dog out there doing her dirty work.

He's got to become someone who can fail and who she can get angry at, I imagine.

Imagine if he'd done that to her in a later season.

He would have lost that hand.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

Even sort of later in the season, the dynamic between Travis and Servoland has changed completely.

When there's sort of a replay of Travis being brought into her office in deliverance, it's played completely differently to how it is here and he's far more subservient to her than he's betrayed right now.

Yeah, the civil and evolves into this dominatrix, that that gives him a very clear role that he's got that he's going to get, doesn't it, as a in sympathy with that.

But he also is shown to be quite clever.

He shows good, clever thinking, spotting the details that the technicians have missed about the missing cypher parts when they're doing the forensic bits and he's shown to be obsessed with Blake and that grows and grows and grows.

[28:54]

So yeah, there's a few layers to him.

Yeah, because he's got that back.

Of course he's got backstory with Blake, hasn't he?

That's the clever thing to have dropped in, and I guess there's going to be explored or at least referenced going forward.

In the early writing process, and we discussed this when we were talking about time squad, didn't we?

Um, that the, the character that's played by Kel Kelman from...

From the road to the sidemen, I can't remember the actor's name.

Jeremy Wilkin.

Thank you. was actually the same character that Travis becomes.

Well, I mean, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?

Because like you're setting everything up in the early episodes and clearly Travis is kind of a late addition to the writing process, otherwise he would have been there earlier.

It's very strange to kind of set him up in episode 6.

And to say, you know, that thing that happened in episode one.

Well, that happened before only with Travis.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, well, why wasn't he in episode one?

It was that question that I asked before.

There seems something to be, there seems to be something sort of terribly just disorganised about the way this is set up.

[29:59]

Well, that character was originally called Travis in the original drafts and was his name was later changed to Tarrant before the series started filming.

You know, my brother's called Travis.

We used to love that when I was a kid.

It was so good.

Does he strut around a lot in leather?

Is he a sadist?

Does he have a laser on destroyer built-in?

Yes.

Oh yes, absolutely.

Top quality.

You can see Chris Boucher there saying, oh yeah, I've got a good name for this.

Oh, I'd thought of something.

Yeah, yeah.

This is a shared universe, actually, isn't it?

I'll just drop the S from the 2nd S from it.

It was a brand name.

Okay, Laserson.

You can tell just looking at it in robots of death. of Laser on Destroyer. very clear.

There's some really nice directorial touches in this one.

I love it where Blake and Travis are just telling their backstory, uh, and you're sort of cutting between the 2 of them, each explaining it from their own point of view to their uh, to their respective cohorts.

[31:07]

I think that's Boucher too, don't you?

I think that must be Boucher doing that.

It seems like a little bit too kind of not quite straightforward enough for nation, I think.

Maybe, yeah, maybe maybe some scissors were just wielded to myself and give it that bit of tempo, yeah.

The other bit of directorial excellence, I thought, is that the all the technicians show up with their own name badges that look like they are at a lake 7 convention. finding available in reception afterwards.

I'll be signing photos in small print.

This is also a monumental thing in terms of the Blake's something we haven't touched on yet, in terms of the Blake 7s cultural standing in the world that it exists in.

This is the 1st episode of Blake 7 to be broadcast when Mull of Kintire is no longer the UK's number one single because it has been throughout the whole of Blake 7 so far.

And there's a, I just think, I don't know, that tells us something.

I don't know what, tells us something.

Tells us something about you.

[32:08]

Don't check my browser history.

The long dark winter is over.

Yeah, it's now uptown top ranking fact fans.

The world has gone reggae.

But they are still, they are only filming 5 weeks in advance.

That just...

Mind blowing.

They're really close to the bone here, aren't they?

And are they making an episode?

I guess they must be making one episode a week.

Although it has about the same episode, the same budget as Doctor Who, but minute per minute, but their mate got to make twice as much every week.

Yeah, because they do all the location filming sort of in blocks for all the episodes before they go into the studio and produce the episodes.

I think Gareth Thomas said at one point during the 1st season, because he complained about this, he was doing scenes from several different stories, sort of in the studio all at once, trying to catch up on bits.

So different directors would be coming in and saying, and then you're doing this bit now, and you're doing this bit now, and then this bit, and so that it was just a complete muddle, and I think they sort that out for series B, and they get the production side of it under control a bit more.

[33:14]

I think they're very much feeling their way and don't know how this is going to go and how much time they're going to need in the studio for all of these scenes and how technically difficult it's going to be to get it actually in the can.

The production line that's required for this is a monumental thing, isn't it?

compared to compared to regular BBC weekly drama serials, who do not have to visit a different planet every week.

Yeah, different factory.

Different gas works.

But I guess they've got connections, haven't they?

through the Doctor Who experience and such like with these various spicy places that they can use for starters.

So you can see how that helped them get it up.

Yeah, I think.

Beer Lorimer gives this episode a real pace and verve compared to how Pennant Roberts might have done it, for instance.

I know we pick Penn and Roberts every week and then go.

That's a contractual bit done.

But he does the action seems very well and there's a real sense of pace and particularly when you've got the alarms going off in the bass and everything else.

There's real tension in those scenes.

[34:15]

Yeah, yeah.

It's funny because I was finding it all just a little bit too relaxed, but perhaps that's the decades that have passed since then.

I guess the script has a lot to do and a lot going on, and, you know, we've had a few scripts that seem to have had long periods of sort of marking time up to this point.

But this one has, you know, the centro heist thing and then the rescue, but the introduction of Servolan and Travis.

It's just the right amount of incident for a 50 minute episode.

And so, I do think that it's also down just to the scripting of this one.

I just think it's a particularly good episode.

And, and, you know, Lorimer didn't have much choice but to keep things moving along because there was so much to get through in the time allotted, I thought.

The writing is pretty good.

I do love Blake playing Travis at his own game at the end as the twist and Travis missing the tiny detail of the ship coming in fast and then going back out and not thinking they teleported in at that moment because he's not expecting Blake to do that because he thinks he knows who Blake is and what Blake will do and that's why he loses this one at the end.

[35:30]

We see Blake becoming a better freedom fighter by virtue of hanging around with these dodgy characters who are sort of becoming making him think more tactically, perhaps, or perhaps he's learning to be a bit more Avon.

What do we think of the finale that of the ending?

to this story.

I am your death, Blake. isn't it a fantastic line?

I wish you delivered it a bit more like that, though.

You've done that. you've ruined it. ruined the original for me.

Or like Paul Darrow doing Richard III in timelash.

Run, Blake, run.

Damn, yours.

Kelly is gloating over the tiny little gun of Travis's that she's stolen.

Really not a very impressive gun.

I actually think that bit is particularly well directed with the blowing off his hand, but you don't actually see that as just out of shot, and what you get instead is Travis's reaction to it, and we're on film for some reason, even though we're indoors.

[36:31]

I just think that scene is really particularly good.

And then just the choice of making him monologue for no reason.

Do you know what I mean?

To Blake in his retreating spaceship gives it that kind of giant operatic feel.

There's no actual kind of in-story reason why he would say this.

And so it is just a sort of fantastic kind of declaration of, you know, like a statement of intent going forward.

I think it's wonderful.

He's not the only one that's doing it in this episode either.

There's a, there's that scene halfway through the episode with Servoland looking out the window.

Your time is running out, Blake.

It's like all the villains are just like soliloquising left, right, and centre.

It's almost like they know they're setting up the rest of the series and this is, it will be a game of cat and mouse between them from now on.

And we've got to state this just so that we know.

From now on, Travis will be chasing after Blake around the universe and this is where we're going.

Yes, oh, Blake.

[37:32]

Now you know I am a returning character.

I'm contributing the 3 episodes, Blake.

And I've parked my car in the disabled space outside broadcasting house and I don't even care.

She got orders to go and move her car while they were filming because she just parked across the entrance of the broadcasting house.

I didn't I didn't expect Blake 7 to have sort of cliffhangery endings.

It's more, but it does have, that feels like a, you know, I mean, obviously, I am your death, is word peril, hasht, uh, if I may.

It's that thing of this, that's...

I don't know why.

I've written down in my notes, stop that pigeon because it reminds me of those cartoons that would end that way, you know, we got it, I'm going to get you fist shaking moment.

Well, there is that theme where Servoland Hans, Travis, his orders and a piece of paper.

He goes, are these your orders?

Destroy Blake.

She's handed him a piece of paper with 2 words. for the rest of the show. pull it out for you.

[38:38]

It was the shortest one-to-one with a line manager.

I've been for quite a long. time.

And she says the thing.

Servolan says, seek, locate, destroy.

It's always good to get the episode title.

Yes.

Important to get those in the right order really.

And what is the difference between seek and locate, really?

No, no, it's falling apart now. from a very nation.

Well, you seek, and then you locate.

It's basically.

Locate is the end result of seeking.

Exactly, James.

That's exactly right.

Well, destroying is the end location.

I can't even talk anymore. should actually be called hunt, embark, declare, declaim, fail.

Try again, fail, try again.

Fail, try again, and then get fired.

Yeah, put on trial. and then fall down a hole.

For his 2nd identical massacre too, you know, like, um, the massacre on Oros, but they don't try him for that, they try him for a massacre on Sarcasta or something.

[39:38]

No one has seen the earlier episodes, I think, is the number one rule.

Not even the people that were in them.

No, or the ones making it.

Definitely not the script editor who writes that episode.

To be fair.

They literally were writing them like 5 minutes before they were being recorded.

I mean it is evident.

Look, this is the 1st episode of Blake 7.

Really isn't it?

Yeah, definitely what Blake 7 becomes.

Yeah No, it's a sixth.

Oh really?

No, I'm being overly looking. need to look at my schedule again.

By the way, did they they juggled the order about a bit when they were recording, weren't they?

Was that just for logistical purposes?

I don't know if we know, or whether there were some episodes that ended up being shunted back due to problems, but they didn't quite film them in broadcast order, which is surprising.

Was Ben Aronovic did the radio series thing?

many years later.

And it obviously has now the chance to introduce Servoland and Travis immediately from the beginning.

And there's a sense in which that might have made for a better series A, because don't know what we're doing for 5 weeks at all.

[40:45]

And then suddenly it kicks in and it's marvellous.

You know, I think this is clearly the best episode so far.

And part of the reason is that we actually kind of know what we're doing.

Like it's got a mission a project.

In some ways, this could be considered to be the 4th story of the season, though, because the 1st 3 episodes are basically the same plot arc.

Well, I mean, episode 3 is a plot arc in the sense that it's the same thing.

It was sort of another thing happening to the same people, I guess, but it does take a long while to get going, and I just can't help thinking that the whole season would have been a bit more fun if they had thought to bring Servolan and Travis in earlier.

It just looks like they're making it up as they go along.

See, I never got that feeling as a child because we had the VHS omnibus edition, so they were introduced in tape two.

Yeah, we see, I never became aware of Blake 7 until series C, I think.

I mean, I suppose there's a parallel with the Doctor Who reboot holding back, bringing in the Daleks for a few episodes.

[41:50]

I'm not claiming that they did that with this with that level of foresight, because yeah, I think they're worth just finding out let's do this series.

And, and, and I guess Terry Nation didn't have in his original pitch, and then 6 episodes in or introduced a fabulous villain and her henchman.

In his original pitch, maybe, maybe he did, but maybe it did evolve out of the, writing it and realising I know what this needs.

Once you feel it.

Yeah, the character Shevalan that became Servolan was only supposed to be in one episode and then they retooled the character and passed Jacqueline Pierce and then, well, let's bring her back every other week.

But it was still male or was that Terry Nation doing?

Hey, she's a villain.

Shervalan.

She's a Shervalon.

I think that comparison you made earlier with garlic is absolutely right, isn't it?

It's episode 6 and it's the thing that absolutely kicks it into gear.

It's a midseason premiere.

[42:50]

Yeah, it is a premiere.

Like we said before, we get everyone's skills restated, we get backstory for Blake that could have been in it before, but wasn't.

We get Serverland discussing the effect that Blake is having on the Federation.

It's almost as if we're expecting everyone to tune in this week for the 1st time.

And they did.

10.900000 of them.

Yeah, yeah.

Groves.

So 2nd pilot.

When we were talking about Time Squad, we were saying that in many ways, the lesser B plot on the planet is the same thing they're doing here, but here, they're doing it so much better.

They're infiltrating a base.

They're doing the same things, but actually they're doing it in a far better way.

It's more kinetic and with more kind of reversals and things.

Like there's, you know, stakes and unexpected things happening and stuff.

Yes, though, I'd like to correct something I just said, Si, which is that we didn't talk about.

No, we talked about anything but time sports.

[43:51]

We talked more about cyclicate destroy the times, God.

That's telling.

It is. you've got to find out how not to do it in order to find out how to do it.

Yeah, and I just wonder if there is a slight element of that going on, sort of behind the scenes.

They're making it up a little bit on the hoof when they discover something that works.

And I think we can do that again and do variations of this.

We can, oh, we've got this fabulous actress who can play the villain.

Actually, let's bring her back.

We're not planning to, but actually she's so good.

Let's give her a contract for another couple of episodes.

We can work her in.

We've still got enough time to make this happen.

Don't they use more explosive on Travis's hand than they do on blowing up the base?

in Times Squad as well?

It definitely, uh, definitely goes, goes with a bang.

Yeah, but poor Travis.

I'm wondering how much of him is going to be left by the end of series one if he's being gradually chipped away out.

I'm watching these episodes poised for things to nominate a shriek of the week.

[44:52]

And I have to say this is a shriek-free episode.

Um, possibly after a surface of them uh, with the web with the little shrieking creatures who do nothing but run around shrieking.

There's not much in the way of speaking.

Callie gets dragged down a corridor unconscious, which is an amazing bit of camera.

Travis scream when his hand gets shot.

Yeah.

It's so good.

It's so great.

I don't know that he makes a noise, does he?

But he's like neck, his neck, he sort of arches back and his mouth opens and stuff and he's shot in profile.

It's good.

One of their shots.

Yeah I had it down as a Yelp. rather than a shelf.

Yes, okay.

I give it that.

What's your review of that?

Yelp.

Oh, please.

Does the noise that I made when Serverland 1st appeared on screen count as...

I suspect that was a similar noise to the one I made.

Yeah, I think we're older, didn't we?

And so what is the what is the frock rating then, James, for her opening number?

I think it's a solid six.

Oh, you're kidding me.

It's much higher than that.

I think it is one of her best.

[45:53]

All the sort of silver chasing around the collar and stuff.

And, you know, like it's practical, but very feminine.

I'm I'm absolutely here for that. giving it an eight.

I just said that to get a reaction.

You're being frock troll.

Always happens.

I don't like the netting on the sleeves very much, but that's just me.

I'm not...

I'm not terribly fond of this costume.

I think she has much better white frocks later on.

You know what the colour reminds me of?

It's Anthony Ainley's master.

That kind of silvery sort of guilt work kind of thing.

But this is better because it doesn't have Anthony Ainley in it.

Now there would be an alternative performance.

Oh, Travis.

Okay.

Oh my dear Blake, you have been naive.

[46:54]

Is there anything else that we have done?

There is one more thing.

We get the introduction of the mutoids in a very small way.

So they're sort of mentioned.

I'm not sure, do we see any in this episode, but again, it's Terry Nation sort of setting things up for the future that Travis wants to work with not quite human people because he doesn't trust any human to do what he tells them properly or then or maybe it's just more that the mutoids are stupid enough to follow any of his his orders.

I think there are a really super weird creation.

I don't think episode one takes place in a universe with mutoids in it.

It's very, very strange, weird kind of thing.

I'm totally here for it.

It could have been much more boring.

And I do think, is it, is it the novel, you know, Blake 7 in the beginning that kind of ditches the word mutoids and calls them androids, which is just like a 100000000000 times less. doesn't it?

When Limito is finally introduced dual?

Yeah, properly.

Well, it's the 1st time we get a sort of real character piece with a musoid in it.

I think it's wonderful.

[47:54]

It's really, very good.

And their hair.

They're fabulous plastic.

Yeah, and that great big mushroom topped heads that they have originally are really good.

And then they go for a geometric bob in series D, but they're getting in head of ourselves.

Thank you very much for listening along with us.

We hope you have enjoyed being sought, located, and destroyed, and we hope you'll be back with us to talk about Mission to Destiny next time.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye, and goodbye from me.

Switching to Manny.

Maximum power on all drives.

Maximum power.