Well That Escalated Quickly

[00:08]

Hello, and welcome back to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast that's full of thieves, killers, mercenaries, and psychopaths.

I'm Psy.

I'm Cole.

I'm Mark, and I'm feet.

And which one of us got a close-up on which of those words?

That's what I want to know, Mary?

We'll take bets.

So it's December the 21st, 1981.

We've had 12 weeks of exciting adventures, a new format that's finally coming to its own, characters that we have grown to love, cherish.

And now they're all going to be taken away from us because it's time for us to talk about Blake.

We are one of 2 episodes, discussing Blake on maximum power because we decided that having a group of 9 of us on one episode would be far too much.

So today you've got the UK version of maximum power, coming together to do their episode of Blake, and we hope that we draw different conclusions to the Australians and see it in a completely different way.

[01:15]

But of course, we've got the advantage over them in that, although 3 of us have seen this episode many times, we have Mark, who has seen it for the very 1st time this week.

So I think we're going to throw this over to Mark 1st to say, how did you find it?

Yeah, so I watched it for the 1st time last night.

I wanted my reaction to be as fresh as possible.

I really, really enjoyed it.

Obviously, the ending was pretty shocking.

I don't think I was expecting that.

I know obviously I've seen a lot of talk on social media over the years about the impact that the last episode had on people, especially kind of a formative age.

And I suppose thinking about it since then.

It is dystopian fiction, which always has an unhappy ending.

So I don't know, you know, that I was, I should have been expecting anything differently.

But yeah, the way it builds, seeing Gareth Thomas back as Blake is, is absolutely brilliant as well.

I really, really enjoyed having him back.

[02:16]

Maybe of, like to see him interact with the characters a bit more, but then you couldn't have, you couldn't, couldn't have played out the way that it did.

And I suppose my only disappointment. is that Cervlon isn't in it, which, um, it'd be interesting to talk about what the kind of the, you know, the fan consensus or what the backstage reasons were for that.

But I was fully expecting as the camera panned around that control room at the end.

And there was Federation troops kind of coming in from every doorway for one of them to reveal Servland stepping in and kind of smiling triumphantly or something like that.

So that was, That was something quite shocking, even on top of everything else that happened when the credits were all.

I was like, oh, where's Avalance, a moment of triumph?

Yeah, I think it is better without her.

I think it works so much better without her because I think it would just, it would just be this camp moment of her walking in in a spectacular dress, sort of walking over all their bodies and just sort of laughing and turning away.

[03:17]

And I think that would have wrecked it.

I really do.

I think the last 5 minutes of this episode is some of the best ever television on the BBC, the best ever.

And I keep, I've been thinking, what, what shows that I've watched have better endings in terms of quality and not being like a mess, like, I don't know, some people think lost is a mess at the end.

The expanse. galactica.

I think so, but that's that's Swan Si is still working his way through.

But I agree.

I agree.

That's another.

But I agree, actually.

But do you know that, like, I think it is so...

Well done, the last 3 or so minutes, the editing, the lighting, the sound design, and I was thinking when I was watching this earlier, again, I should, I really want to stop watching this because I don't want it to ever degrade in my mind and get bored of it.

But it didn't happen.

I actually felt more moved this time, just that it is, I love bleak and dystopian endings.

Of which Westgor has one, so spoiler alert there.

[04:19]

But I think it's much better without her.

It's much darker.

It's much bleaker.

It, it, it just, it leaves the ending more ambiguous.

We're saying this, if you really are Colin, because we haven't seen you for a year.

And suddenly we found you on this podcast episode.

I'm the clone.

Are you really a clone, of course. the clone of the clone full of blood.

I'm full of blood.

What does that what?

That's what that's what Gareth Thomas says he has in his chest thing on the on the commentary.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves so much.

I wanted serve lad to pop up during the end credits, actually.

That would have been great.

Avon.

Well, that's what I think.

I think just a moment of her locking eyes with Avon and Avon realising that he's been beaten by her.

And even maybe her picking up Aurak because that's ultimately all they've achieved is...

Oh, that's why she is.

The credits should have been Aurac just sitting in a forest going, fucking hell, where are they?

[05:22]

There's just some crows nesting, you know, the most intelligent thing ever created in the universe.

And he's going, I don't believe it.

Um, yeah.

I mean, as much as I would have loved to serve on there, I can see it would have been like terminal 2 this time, it's terminal.

If if Servlan had just come back and it had been the same climax with a different ending.

So yeah, I can see how they were trying to not to not just repeat last year because that was a perfect climax for a confrontation reserve land.

So yeah, I could see why they went that way. we have rather got ahead of ourselves.

We not just going to talk about the last 30 seconds.

Well, sorry, what do you think of the last?

It's absolutely perfect.

You're quite right.

I think the clue to this is the line that Villa says, where he says, sooner or later, we're going to drop into one of these holes in the ground and we're never coming out.

And that's it.

The Federation, getting the better of them without it being Servoland, without it being Travis, without it.

It's just a 17 year old kid in charge of a federation platoon who finally defeats them.

[06:28]

And it's so good that it's the faceless federation that we've seen in the way back doing the massacre in an underground bunker.

Oh my god, I just thought of this.

And then this is mirrored at the very end of the series with them in an underground bunker being massacred by...

It's the only time.

It's the only times in the series, the 1st episode on the last episode where they've shot straight.

Yes.

Yeah.

They finally.

Yeah, they've learned how to do it.

But yeah, or have they?

Well, that's the good.

That's a discussion for later.

Yeah, just I think it's brutal and it's bleak and it's absolutely the way this show should finish.

But anyway, the episode... with lots of rather funky music from old Dudley.

Good form for the...

It like he knows it's the last episode and he's giving it his all.

[07:30]

It starts very much like terminal where the atmosphere is suddenly all slightly wrong.

And so it starts in a very season 4 way with the with the wonderful model shot of Scorpio in the bunker coming up.

And then as soon as it exits the rock, the whole thing blows up brilliantly and it just undercuts you all the way through this episode, which is what I know.

And I think that's it.

Yeah, and I think they're really, they're deliberately playing with that.

This isn't Tracy fucking Island with that because, because there's a bit of that when it's taking off.

It's very Thunderbird 2.

It's takeoff everywhere, and we're going through the same bit again, and kids love that sort of thing.

But this is Blake 7, so we're just going to blow the bloody place up.

I think model work is very good in this.

Very, very good.

Yes.

Sometime. we'll get on to other bits with the Scorpio, but like I just thought it was turning around and going up.

I had, you know, I've not seen all of this season again recently.

So I just sort of thought, yeah, that's really, really good.

[08:31]

And I think compounded the death of, Hang on.

Ziona, was that, was that the girl's name?

Last week, yeah.

It compounded the death of Zion because the reason they sent her back down was to try and salvage the base.

But Avon's kind of such a tactical thinker.

Surely he was already thinking, well, the base is compromised now because we don't know if Zukan told the Federation about it, and if not somebody else would.

So, did they really need to send her down to her death?

So I thought it was a thing that, um, that could have been picked up with Tarrant there as well.

I mean, there's a little bit of that, isn't there, where Terrant is not comments about Zukan and the man who kills his own daughter and things like that.

So the continuity, as you would expect from Chris Boucher is very good.

And we're, we're, it does feel like we're picking up minutes after they've, they've done this and and off they go.

But I mean, quite what their prospects are, they've got Scorpio, they don't seem to have packed anything to take with them.

[09:33]

So know where they're going and what they're going to do some after this.

I don't know if they had any kind of plan, but fortunately, anyone did.

Well, it's got increasingly desperate the last few episodes because, you know, lots of them have sort of ended, you know, in them just screwing up, basically, we get endgame to Belkoff and we get, um, we've just made Servolan Ridge, uh, and then they just do it up all the time.

And it's just like they have nowhere else to go.

They keep making mistakes.

Like, for example, why not leave those bombs as traps?

So when the Federation do find them, you could take it out.

I don't know, maybe they ran out of trap equipment, but they had bombs.

It just compounds the fat, you know, it's like Una once said, is that, you know, Avon's continued misfortune in his life.

That's what the whole thing is about.

Yeah, Blake's lucky.

Avon isn't.

And that's, well, totally.

Exactly.

So fun.

That's spoilers.

[10:34]

I can actually stop sitting spoilers at some point.

Yeah, we could actually say not do spoilers at all now because Marcus see the whole thing.

I would say, I really appreciate everybody's efforts in not spoiling in the end because it was definitely worth it, yeah.

I remember the episode where Gatton dies.

I can't remember if you were on that one or if we were just talking about his death at some other and you were saying something and everyone was just like, oh boy.

You're like, yeah, it's amazing that they would actually kill one of their central characters on this show.

I'm paraphrasing, but that was the joke.

And I think everyone else was just like, yep, yep.

I think so, we were, we've been over a couple of walks over the years and I've kind of gone to you.

Does he know?

Has he does he actually know?

don't know.

Is he just humouring us?

Yeah.

We've had that.

Yeah, he's just...

He's just humouring us Of course he knows.

Doesn't everyone know?

Isn't this on the primary school curriculum?

all die.

Or do they?

Avon really does go full slightly drunk Tom Baker in this 1st scene where he's revealing his mad plan.

[11:36]

And Glynis Barber is fantastic standing up to him.

She's the one who just got the fire and took to really stand up to him.

I love that opening conflict between the 2 of them.

Her freshness in the team still is the thing that makes her the one, the one, I guess, who isn't used to putting up with his shit.

So she's like the one who's more likely to just flat out defy him to his face.

There's some great line delivery though.

Like Darrow has really reached a point of whatever line he can overexaggerate, he will.

It's just like, I am just popping out to Tesco for some milk.

On the commentary track, they, on the DVD that he, he even, it's so funny, the contrast between him and Gareth Thomas has a vague recollection of ones having been in some show called Blake's something or other.

It's kind of watching things happen and it does jog memories for him.

So he has got some things to say.

But Darrow's a whole other thing, but then there's one bit in this scene where he's watching on the commentary and he finishes off his own line because he likes it.

[12:40]

You can just imagine watching it with him for real and that being exactly what he'd do and it would be absolutely perfect.

You can tell that Chris Boucher's back because the dialogue is insanely good all the way through this.

I, half my notes are actually just quotes of lines that are worth mentioning.

I'm from, but then figureheads are easy to come by.

Any idiot can be one.

The dialogue is really, really good here.

It's like the final swan song for everyone.

Everyone gets some really good meaty stuff to deliver, which is good.

There's a shot on the bridge early on that I don't think we've seen before. sort of on the side and it looks like there's a bed or a bunk in the foreground and then there's the seat.

Yeah, the hammocks.

They have hammocks down the front in one episode, don't they?

that they sort of, well, not hammocks, but sort of, like lounges, recliners kind of thing.

Yeah, lounges.

I might be wrong, but it's only for a few seconds, but it looks like there was sort of a bed and I wonder if that's what it was supposed to be or maybe I've imagined it.

[13:42]

Perhaps that's the one thing they've taken from the zenon base is all the...

Bring the camp base.

We're all going to have to sleep somewhere on this ship.

Right.

But yeah, I mean, we've got Mary Rich back as well. directed half of the 1st half of the season, or not even more than half, in fact.

So, and then she comes back to do the final episode, yeah, is really, really fantastic.

It is fantastically well directed.

Like the one scene where they're in that hut that they find and Dana's casting a shadow on Sulin and they keep moving in and out of these shadows.

They don't have the budget to show ships flying over them.

So they just show them looking up. like unlike a fan blowing leaves at Paul Darrow and stuff like...

You know what?

Again, like the server line thing.

I think that's better because you would have had some crappy CSO ship and it wouldn't look good.

But the, the, seeing their reaction is more interesting a little bit.

[14:43]

Um, and her use of very little music, right?

You get the whole ship going out and then the gun run.

Yeah, planet.

It's just Liz Parker.

I think she's probably the star of the show, particularly.

And again, when you get to the final 3 minutes or so, you get the siren, and then you get an extra siren, and then it stops when it zooms in on Avon at the end.

That sound design is Fabulous.

It's just brilliant good off to her.

I think she's the real, you know, her and Mary Ridge really make it.

Definitely, yeah.

And the tone of it, it's starting with Dudley Simpson going crazy, I'm blowing up the bass, and you get your big dramatic thing at the start.

And then the tone of it is that thing of things gradually slipping out of control and the sense that things are gradually going wrong.

Because the one thing that did surprise me when I 1st sort of, so I think I just missed this when it went out.

I didn't know the show was ending and I didn't know it was the last episode.

I watched it most weeks, but it was just sort of if we weren't in that week, then I wouldn't or something.

[15:46]

So I saw it for the 1st time in the 90s on VHS.

And I think I'd been told sort of what was happening, but I still didn't quite believe it.

I wasn't sure if I'd got that story straight.

But, um, the fact that it's not building up to a crescendo big shootout.

Here they come.

It's not, you know, a Lord of the Rings style, which obviously for obvious reasons.

But budgetary wise, if nothing else.

But yeah, that they do all the loud big stuff in act one and then it gets just gets quieter and darker.

Yeah.

But Gouda Prime, Planet of Cheese is the only thing I can think of every time they mention it.

I don't why name your planet after a cheese?

I don't understand what you're doing there, Chris.

It has felt like this season, it sort of started off and they were kind of reclaiming everything they had where they got the teleport back and then they got the star drive that made it one of the fastest ships and and then the 2nd half of the series was all emissions failing and them not getting any of their objectives and everything and then kind of ultimately sort of coming to this and yeah, having nothing left and the last desperate thing is to try and recruit Blake and then that going disastrously wrong as well.

[17:03]

It's yeah, it sort of felt like a bit of kind of a roller coaster. was quite optimistic to start off with and then, uh, the 2nd half very, very much bad, bad run of form.

So should we talk about Blake himself because this is an episode that is very much about him.

And I think this is possibly Gareth Thomas's best ever performance in the show.

He's been away for the best part of 2 years.

He's been back for a couple of lines in terminal.

And in that time, It really feels like Blake has changed since Star one.

And he hasn't necessarily learnt any lessons and he's still as mistrustful of people, but he's not, he's actually more mistrustful of people than he used to be.

Whereas he seemed always a bit naive previously.

Now he's gone to the other lengths, and this is what ultimately ends up in his death because he doesn't trust the one person who actually, he probably should.

[18:08]

And I think it's a tremendous performance.

I know in the, he's got his wonderful scar down, down his face and the slightly closed eye, and the original plan from Chris Boucher was to give him an eye patch to show.

That he's become like Travis.

And to give you that bit of extra thing, is he with the Federation?

Is he?

Because there's all of that all the way through.

Is he?

Which side is he on?

And yeah, and that just that mirroring.

And I think Gareth Thomas said, no, no, no, that's just a step too far.

Just give me a scar.

It's enough to suggest it.

The iPad will be a bit on the nose if that's not.

And he's very different in this.

His voice is much more rounded.

I don't quite know how to put it, but he's giving a warmer voiced performance.

It's less RP, basically, is what you're saying.

Yes, yes, yes.

That too.

[19:08]

Yeah, that.

But then also, and also because when he's pretending, yeah, and when we 1st see him and we cut Mary Ridge doesn't hang about, his name's in the flipping credits.

She's not teasing us with that.

He's straight to him, there he is, cooking a rabbit.

Pretending to be now, it's pretending to be a bounty hunter with some other people who really are bounty hunters in order to catch someone who really is a rebel, but she's pretending to be in the federation, although we'll come to...

It's like Smiley's people on acid.

Please explain it because... am I stupid?

you know, when I was watching it.

I was like, what, what, what?

I thought you were going to explain it.

This is sort of part of his ruse, is that he is going to be the big rebel leader and lead it back.

But for the moment, while he's on Gouda Prime, as the core of his base.

Acting as the bounty hunter is an act.

Diva calls him out on this and says you don't have to do the big bounty hunter thing and it's an indulgence on Blake's part like he wants to play this this role and do this because then when he captures people.

[20:16]

He can screen them to see whether he, whether they're worthy of joining him or not.

He's got a better idea.

That's how I understand it.

Yeah, he wants to do it personally, doesn't he?

He doesn't he doesn't trust divas people to properly screen them because a federation officer mightn't get through or something like that.

Oh, and so it's people of the Federation.

So it's people that the Federation have put a price on their head that mean that he wants to get in touch with them and try and recruit them.

Yes, and see wherever that.

And also, it's just struck me.

We haven't got Jacqueline Pierce, but we have got diva.

David Collins.

Oh, we haven't got Jacqueline Fierce, but we have got server light.

Alan is an interesting character, isn't she?

Refers to herself with a 3rd person sometimes.

Yes, this is Sasha Mitchell, who is 17 when she records this.

Wow, bless her.

She hasn't really done a huge amount of acting. and is wins the part. and it's going to, it's going for that late 70s, early 80s thing of the, of the young female revolutionary, isn't it?

[21:28]

that Leela comes out of and um, um, Avalon and, you know, and Palfrey's character, um, um, earlier in series two. are both from that mould too, aren't they?

Yeah.

Yeah, and she's got the fabulous early 80s haircut.

I remember very well. from older people around me and...

Oh, I thought you were saying you had it.

No, I didn't.

I had a terrible haircut.

In 1981.

You don't want to see that.

Did you have a mullet?

Hope you had a mullet.

I had a primary school. ambulance of decency.

But I think she's really, really good.

Yes.

Yeah, really impressive for 17.

She's obviously been fast tracked through the Federation ranks, hasn't she then?

Mm-hmm.

Well, but then I see put, oh, that's parallel with Servoland.

Yeah, in there, because that's what you were talking about.

She was Servant's daughter.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Sasha Mitchell revealed this and said, this is what she was told, but then those bits of the script got cut out.

[22:35]

This is why it's better.

Do you know?

All these things that could have been cliches.

Serverland, the eye patch, him being the daughter.

It just makes this self-referential thing. you know, whereas this is not.

It's just a very clean.

Uh, ending.

It's a show enough for Dr. Pierce as the 3rd longest serving cast member that she didn't have a more dramatic or memorable exit.

Because I think in warlord.

She just sort of sets a bomb and flounces out, doesn't she?

I don't think it's so it's a shame.

Yeah, that there wasn't something, even if they didn't want to use her in the finale, that the last episode didn't have something bigger for her, maybe.

Yeah, I mean, they said the reason that she wasn't in the last episode was because they'd used up all her contracted episodes and that was it.

And that's coming from the script editor.

Who could have shifted this around if you want?

Yeah, they go, oh, sorry, we've run out of Cerverland.

I think it's really...

[23:36]

Serve hours.

Right.

But yeah, I mean, so yeah, Blake is in a fascinating position here.

And I think it's one of his best costumes ever.

It's how many eight.

Yeah.

No, yeah.

But there's still...

Or is he Falstaff?

The fat drunk.

I think he's Falstaff, yeah, now I'm thinking about it.

Shakespeare, he wants to do Shakespeare. right.

We'll give you the tragic, the tragic loner who thinks he's really special and isn't.

And that's...

So what I wasn't sure about was...

Did he, in some way, deliberately reveal himself so that Orak could find him?

Because that would have made more sense, but I don't remember that being said.

Because the thing they were all just like, oh, yeah, well, obviously he's on that planet.

I'll just figure it out.

Yeah, but he hasn't been able to find it because it's the finale.

[24:37]

Yeah he's been able to find him for all these years until fairly recently.

So I wondered if Blake had done something that he knew Aurak would be able to pick the trail up in some way off.

Because otherwise, it does seem like he is at some point expecting the, well, some of his old crew and their new friends.

When he, you know, he said, oh, I'm going to go and check out this crashed ship and then, so it's either that or he doesn't know it's them until he is a slave, say Tarrant.

And then he's maybe just kind of heard about them, I guess, that Terrence joined Avon.

Oh, my God, I'm in a Blake.

I in a Terry Nation series.

He's something he realises at that moment.

But then in that case, didn't he meet someone called Tarant in the 1st episode, actually. wasn't there a mirror?

Isn't there a bit just before Avon shoots him that he says, I arranged all this?

He says I've I set all this up and I've been waiting for you, Avon, which it could just be that he thinks, well, I know Avon's going to be out there recruiting people and he'll get it eventually.

[25:40]

But if Blake didn't instigate the event.

What does Avon think that Blake's done to betray him?

Because otherwise they've done anything, everything to get that has been under their own volition.

It's a great point.

It's what Terence says, isn't it?

Terrence says he's sold us, Avon, even you.

That's right.

He believes Tarran over Blake because...

And both of the things, and what Blake says is deliberately really ambiguous.

And, like, you would really struggle to come up with words that ambiguous when it's on this point, like your head. not quite sure.

He sort of goes, yes, it was all me or meaning, I've faked it all to get your attention, but from Avon's point of view, he's confessing that it's all him that he's has become a Federation sellout, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah, but yeah, never, never give extremely ambiguous dialogue when someone with a grudge against you is pointing a gun at your chest. one of the central messages of Blake 7, I think.

[26:41]

If someone says...

I get the impression that Aurak always knew where Blake was.

He was just waiting for someone to actually say, Aurak, tell us where Blake is.

Ask him nicely enough.

Yeah.

There's a nice bit, or I can slave get a little bit of interactions, but before they get shot down by the space dodges.

There's a little bit of that, which is like a last little gasp of comic relief.

Yeah, yeah. lovely, isn't it?

Slave gets some really good lines in this, actually.

So I love the way he says, I can find no flight controls, master.

The ground is very close.

And it's like slave was like right.

And all, you know, Aurac was being, you know, presumptuous and up, you know, really up itself.

Slave is like, uh, I'm just going to set the alarms off to get your attention, guys.

And then he goes, and by the way, we're under attack.

[27:42]

Yeah, you're approaching the crime.

Yeah, perfect comic timing.

I like this.

They've got a nice final scene as well. like Zen did, not quite as moving, but that he, he did, you know, kind of, he said, oh, I hope, basically you're not dying as well.

And then and then uses his name, which they just normally says master, doesn't he?

Yeah.

And, and, and it's, um, it's sort of very fitting for this particular episode that that, or slave's final words are given to, I think he's actually, Tara's unconscious or while, while he's saying them. whereas at whereas Zen got this heroic death of a god, slave is just like, oh, don't mind me, I'm just going to quietly die.

Terribly sorry for inconvenience.

And it is, and yeah, so it isn't a dramatic height like Zen's departure was, but it is, yeah, it's fitting in sort of poor old slave.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, those space dodgems that are they to shoot you for the attack, of all the things, they could never have taken down the liberator.

They've got like registration plates on them or, you know, like 45 dash 6 or something.

[28:47]

Shall we talk a bit about the ship crash?

Yes.

Tarrant really does become the marina assertis of this episode.

He's given the car keys for the 1st time.

And I, I, I, like, because stuff generations was 13 years later, which is a strange thing to say anyway.

They crossed a ship in that one, a bunch through a bunch of trees.

And A, it's very, very similar, and B, the effects, the difference in the effects is not that much.

You watch Star Trek Generation, and it's like, okay, those are those are definitely model trees and obviously they're model trees in this.

But it's, it's, it's done really well and it cuts at the right time and then the ship kind of starts to fall down a crevice or something and then in front of the camera.

And starts flying around and moving, moving down and sort of falls down.

We get the ramp, the same ramp, the same ramp from liberated, demise.

I think they did a great job considering. you know, where they sacrifice doing these shots of looking up and seeing ships or whatever, and you get those dodging car things, but they did a really good job, really good job.

[29:55]

And the oil and everything comes inside it is really cool as well.

You get the impression without showing us that it's been just rent open and yeah, it's great.

Yeah And I think this is as well as being the finale.

This is the Blake 7 Christmas special because Scorpio is destroyed by Christmas trees.

It's like a Christmas tree, smash in through the window.

Taryn gives an amazing scream as he slides down that ground.

Yeah, just enough.

But it wasn't on the cover of the radio times though.

I mean, but before that, we've got Paul Darrow's masterclass of the ship is bucking across in various ways and he's throwing himself against the set all the way across.

Every biggie is skipping across him with Aorak in his hands as well.

Slaves console the whole lot.

I must tell the listeners Colin treated us to an amazing recreation of this scene in his room with a laundry basket. flinging his way from, if I can turn that into a GIF, I will.

[30:57]

You will not.

Will not.

Okay, I'll go.

You got friends in high places, you'd have me banned from the internet if I did that.

But it's that bit where he, I was, I'd forgot more he says to Taryn.

Uh, because I thought he was going to say, you know, thank you, Taryn, but no, that's not that's not what Ivan would say.

Uh, just like, uh, because he says good luck to everyone else. sort of just goes, goodbye, you know, and it's, again, great, great line.

And then when he's down on the planet, Avon is when he finds the rest of them, he's in that zone of, oh, fuck, this has gone really badly wrong, hasn't it?

You know, they kind of like serene about it and then sort of he doesn't, like, takes a lot to move him, but you can tell he's affected by it in a way, and that, which leads up to that very, very cool smile right at the end of the episode, which we'll get, we'll, uh, 4 years of been leading. leading up to that smile, that kind of like, uh, you know, oh, this is just, this has just been a bit of a laugh, hasn't it?

[32:02]

You know?

And the when there's the great confrontation where Villa is demanding, well, they're all acting away in the shed.

And it's Michael Keating's got that look on his face that he's thought of something that other people haven't, which is, where's Tarrant, admittedly, is not the 1st question you would ask.

Seeing that Avon hasn't even got a witty repost of an answer is like a, oh, that's this is, he's losing it here.

He's not, he's not even just saying equip to distract them.

Yeah.

I love the way Villa keeps going back to that and he's waiting for the answer and he keeps saying, where's Taryn?

If you're here, where's Tara?

It's that constant, you're going to have to tell us what's gone on.

And this is after Sulin's wonderful bit where I've got to say, where she turns around to him and said, if you've set us up, I really could be quite annoyed.

And you believe her?

You believe it.

He's in trouble with her.

Yeah.

Because Phil's the only one showing any concern, isn't he?

[33:05]

Because, like you say, Col, when Avon teleports off the ship, He doesn't say thank you or, you know, he kind of, uh, anything for Taron potentially sacrificing himself there.

It's like the end of last week that when Dana doesn't offer Tarrant any comfort when his girlfriend's just been killed.

And then even when the, when they get attacked in the little shed, and villas unconscious, as Sulin just goes, is he dead?

It's just, there's not, but not in a way like, oh, is he dead?

It's just like, is he dead?

Either way is fine for me.

So yeah, it's nice, nice.

I think Villa is the one that's sort of concerned about Tarrant, and he gets a couple of little bits where he's the one that realises that Avon's found Blake, and he's the one that thinks about teleporting off the ship.

And if he didn't have those bits, he'd just be such a complete idiot by this stage, like he's got like worse, as the series has gone on, they treat him more of an idiot and he seems to be a bit more of an idiot.

Like when they do the joke about, you know, did Zukon tell a federation and he says, what about the wine?

[34:08]

And he doesn't even seem to be joking then.

He seems to have...

He needs to be doing that quite, quite earnestly.

So, I think another thing about this episode, it would have been nice, maybe if you had one last chance to use his skill set of lock picking and that kind of thing, maybe even to get into a flyer or to get into the base at the end or something like that, because as this has gone on, he's been the butt of the jokes quite a lot, hasn't he?

I know there's always been an element of that.

But it does seem like he's treated as the fool more than he used to be.

And yeah, right at the end, he's the hero.

He's the one who knocks Arla out.

He's the one who disarms her and knocks her out and is the 1st one to sort of step forward and say, oh, I'm harmless and he takes, yeah, he does that.

That's a really big hero moment for him and quite right too.

I think of all of them standing there.

He's the one who deserved that.

Hitting a 17 year old girl.

Come to a different.

He does apologise, and he immediately apologises, even though she's just shot his mate. in front of him.

[35:10]

Don't really sorry.

If you, I don't know if you notice, but if you watch back, I've only just picked up on it now, it's when Darrow shoots his wife.

She's kind of, goes, oh, that really hurts.

You can imagine discussions in the Darrow household about that.

How do you hear from Darrow?

I'm going to have to shoot you this week.

My wife has been murdered.

By me.

I really like the scene, that scene of Blake and Tarrant talking, although they're at night, you know, and it's sort of just before sunrise.

And apparently that was the last scene they ever shot because they got all the action sequences that you get them in the bag 1st in case anything goes wrong.

And that, yeah, that was pointedly the last scene they ever filmed, those 2 together, when them having never met before.

It was a, but, um, but their mutual, their perms both started making me think of Harry Enfield's scousers.

[36:16]

Calm down, come.

It was a particular point in time to experience that.

And we found out about Jenna, or do we?

Do we believe him?

Sally Nevette.

Very doesn't. very wisely.

Not happen.

But it's lovely.

And I think that's a really nice scene because he's obviously looking for a reaction from Tarran at that moment where he mentions a young smuggler of his acquaintance.

Her name was Jenna, just to see with her, A, whether Avon's told him tales of what they used to do on the Liberator before he took it on and B, to see, obviously, sort of a character moment, see, oh, yeah, if you know about Jenna, then you know, then you're definitely the Tarrant, I think you are.

Didn't mention about Gan to him because like, well, they wouldn't have told him about that.

They would have told him about Gam.

No point, that name were a bit cropped up.

But maybe Jenna did.

Let's test on it on that.

Yeah, because Callie gets a mention as well, but yeah, Gan's the only one that doesn't get a mention.

[37:17]

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Poor old can.

Yeah, I don't think it's true.

Jenna is alive somewhere and she's the only one and she'll, she's probably back on earth killing everyone else.

No, they're all dead.

Oh sorry.

Alrek's still alive.

Yes, that's right Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

He's still there.

We should pop down to Yatley Heathwood and see if we can still there.

Maybe it's filled up with water and farmyard. forest animals and squirrels are just drinking out of it.

Well, his brain continues.

It's calculated the precise meaning of the universe and the answer to the question, meaning it life, and then the squirrel comes along and just does a little drink out of it.

It's like a, look, a blue plaque on one of the trees saying this, yeah, this is where Aurak fell.

I was thinking that the only thing they've really achieved is keeping Aurak out of the Federation's hands for 3 years.

[38:18]

That's...

That's some total of all...

Or I could have been being extremely unhelpful and patronising to the Federation instead.

I haven't actually done anything useful for them.

I don't know.

So Blake suddenly announces to Tarrant that actually I've, ha, ha, I've captured you.

I'm actually a bounty hunter.

And like, and diva plays along with it.

And it's like, why?

It is.

Oh, but that's the test, isn't it?

That is the test is.

Can you put up with this nonsense?

For some reason.

Yeah, for some reason.

Yeah, and that's exactly why Taryn doesn't get to see like when he like rushes off behind the bit of scenery.

They all sort of go, hey, we got him, you know.

He just, you know, it's good to see that.

It's why the whole thing goes wrong at the end because he does...

He was like, are you sure this is a good idea?

It's like, yeah, what's the worst that could happen?

Exactly.

Ocean credit sequences, diva waking up going, I told you.

[39:24]

It's very, it's like sitcom structure that, isn't it?

some characters know some things and then there's there's like double meanings, like you say, what Blake says so that they go off and think, yeah, that's that's a completely different meaning.

So, yeah, that's what occurred to me. the thing in sitcoms sometimes you think, God, if you just sat down and just spoke to each other and communicated effectively.

Uh, yeah, yes.

Yeah, then the Tarrant comes back with a gorilla suit. dry cleaners.

Not that type of gorilla.

Blake's good life.

I did think, well, talking of the good life, it did strike me that, well, she is very young playing, what's her name, Alan.

I just think who, if they cast a bigger name as someone, and that meets me, that made me think, imagine, um, Penelope Keith as, as the, as the buddy in this, as Alan.

[40:30]

I would have just loved that.

The biggest stars of 1981.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's probably too busy.

Probably.

But they could have come out too expensive.

Again, I think it...

I mean, I think it would be hilarious, but it works because like there's only 3 extra characters.

You don't know who they are.

You're not focussing on the fact that they're a big star.

You don't know if they're going to switch either way.

But sort of, you know, fantasy Blake 7 recasting, we can get to that inner retrospective, I think.

A lot of that.

Pollings is very good.

If he wasn't, it would be in trouble.

Yeah, yeah.

Because he and he's the one who's got that job.

Like when Blake says to him, indulge me.

We've got to believe that Diva does think Blake's rather ridiculous scheme despite the fact that it's frustrating him.

It's all right then, and him sort of playing along with it.

Tells us to play along with it too.

Or at least to give it a degree of credence why anyone would play along with it.

[41:31]

Because if, yeah, if he was, if you didn't have that conviction and just sort of ordinariness that he, that he has this really hard to pin down, then, then the episode would struggle without him doing that that well.

This is Blake's been doing what Avon's been trying to do this season as well, and hasn't he's been trying to recruit people to the cause and kind of build a bit of a bit of a rebel, well, rebel.

He actually says rebel alliance, doesn't he?

Star Wars.

I think it's the only time I've heard him say that.

He says, um, they needed sort of a leader of this, this rebel alliance.

So Blake's kind of been doing that on Galda Prime and the people he's bounty hunted.

Uh, you know, seeing which ones that would be sympathetic to the cause and everything.

So, yeah, it is frustrate, they almost get what they need, which is another base, a figurehead for the, for the, for the alliance, and it just, yeah, it just falls apart.

Well, no, I suppose because Ireland's already, presumably at that point, contacted the Federation and to send the troops in, hasn't she?

[42:33]

So that's...

Yeah, she's been sent to investigate it anyway.

Yeah, it's in there.

It's in their sights.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, it wouldn't quite have worked.

That it just proves to the fact that they're actually both a bit crap.

At this rebel stuff and they're not going to pick it anywhere.

Yeah, the Federation deserves to win.

I mean, who are these idiots?

Would Blake have done so well if he hadn't had the liberator on his side in the early days.

Who knows?

And and teleporting here there and everywhere, and still they manage to cock everything up, despite the fact that you can just beam that beam straight down into anybody's headquarters whenever you want.

Beep down, blow it up.

Get out.

Yeah, you know, yeah.

I think what you've alluded to, Pete, is that we only see squibs go off on Blake, don't we?

[43:37]

So he's the only one that seems to finish dead.

So was this just in case it came back, they could say the others were stunned?

Because they all, it sounds like a gunshot, doesn't it?

They don't sound like laser blasts and then they all, so they get a slow motion falling down, but there's no sign of bullet hole or blood on any of them.

So if that was a deliberate ploy in case what I thought, just in case we come back, we can say they all got stunned and captured.

Well, Chris Boucher says, as much as he was concerned, he was writing a cliffhanger, not an absolute end.

And he, I think he hadn't decided exactly how he was going to resolve it, but he's always hinted, hasn't he?

Is he just, is he still, did he spend his entire rest of his life just dropping hints that he would have come up with something?

that he hadn't.

I think he did say something like, you know, he would have found a way to bring some of them back if they signed back on again.

But I think I think the fact, I think this is definitive, and I don't like, you know, this is the way it ended, right?

And to me, But I, uh, I take the point that, uh, about the guns, but, but actually, I don't, I can't remember there being blood in any of the other shootings and the, the, the federation guns don't tend to have, you know, the, stun setting, uh, Mr. Riker.

[44:53]

Do you know, they, it's always, they always just kill people.

Um, and they, they, they, they, they, Sorry, I was going to say, the one time that they, um, that they specifically don't kill people is a plot point in Project Avalon where they've got special issue guns that just knock people over or whatever and don't kill them.

So they don't have a generally a stun facility.

I'm just, I'm just like, I'm really glad it ended like this, right?

I, you know, because the quality of the 4 seasons has always been really, really high.

Right?

And it gets better.

This, you know, it's a really, really strong run of episodes towards the end of this season as well, that it goes out on a high.

It doesn't have a chance to go.

Star Trek, next generation, season 7 and just go out on a just like a mess, do you know?

It's really, uh, uh, uh, and and having not plotted it like that and to have written it like a cliffhanger, it means you can, like you do, you almost do a Stephen Moffatt and throw everything at it and fuck it, we'll think next year.

[46:00]

But they, uh, it means they just went, they just went for it.

And I think it went for it.

And it is great to fantasise about what if they came back and they weren't dead and what does it mean?

And like, oh, and, um, you know, they all get up at the end and go, oh, that was fun.

That was another test.

Or all the cabbages scrolls back and it's like, well, now then, okay, those 1st set of clones we made of ourselves. quite and convincing.

Let's make some more clone masters.

There's all sorts of things you can come up with.

But yeah, it wouldn't then be the one of the greatest endings of a TV series of all time that everybody talks about.

So yeah, you wouldn't really want that.

I love that, but even the start of the scene doesn't scream, this is it.

This is the beginning of the, unless you know.

And unless you're watching the time.

In fact, and watching it when I watched it the other day for the 1st time in a few years, it had that effect of, oh, we're here.

It's this scene already, nothing's been going ramping, ramping, ramping, ramping up.

It's being dramatic.

But then suddenly they all run in and it's like they've arrived in a scene that they're not meant to be in yet.

[47:03]

Because of that, because it's not been doing that structural stuff that you expect from a grand cretendo finale.

That's what's so unnerving about it, as well as, like you said, Elizabeth Parker's special sound is just is always really good at that eeriness.

No, that was my immediate reaction as well, which I text to you guys was, well, that escalated quickly.

Yeah, we sort of had a plan where I might record my instant reaction or kind of over the final scene, but I kind of didn't realise it was the final scene and then I was just kind of hooked by it and it was over and I was like, oh, I didn't, I didn't record anything because, yeah, it just, it just happens and plays out and it's, although it's a bit of a sort of a feeling of doom right from the beginning of the episode, that, that particular crescendo doesn't, uh, Yeah, and they all just die together as well.

It's not like throughout the episode or anything, is it?

It's all just one after the other, really relentless.

Yeah.

I wonder if there was other, because we could have, Tarron could have died in the crash, then one of the, one, a Villa could have got killed by the, by the, by the people on, when they were hiding in the shed. and they could have just picked off one, until you left with it, left with only Avon at the end.

[48:09]

That would be perfectly...

I straight for a perfectly sensible way of doing it, but giving them all the last shoot at the big shootout at the waggons in a circle.

Yeah. moment that is suddenly, but it's sprung upon them.

They don't really know what room.

They're just in this room and then suddenly they're all being killed, you know?

It's yeah.

And it happens that quickly.

It's that thing of the, you know, we got a decent amount of federation guards, like they're all flooding in.

There's at least 10 of them.

And they, the whole circular motion, like they're completely surrounded.

There's no way out.

And normally in episodes of Blake 7, as you say, Servolam would walk in and go, well, I see you have discovered my secret base, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then they'd be like, lots of exposition and da da da.

But, It's not what you expect at all because it's uh, it is so shockingly and quickly delivered.

I think the slow mode does work.

Uh, because you are kind of, otherwise you're thinking, well, what just happened and it's very, very clear what has happened.

[49:09]

And it gives each of the actors, their big close-up and their deaf mean something sort of televisually.

Do you think they all practised their death faces the night before they were?

They must have, I would.

One day in the Axon Hilton.

Josette really got...

Yeah, absolutely.

I think she wins.

They should have got some tips from the lady in Assassin, shouldn't they?

That would...

And then there's just that amazing moment as Paul Darrow, or even Avon, maybe.

Look, Avon looks Blake straight in the eyes and says, don't, don't you want me?

Just joining in with the human league at the UK.

I knew you'd say that.

Got to complete the series.

It's a great number one to go out with.

It is.

Five years later on.

You've got the world at your feet.

But everything keeps crescendoing in the direction as well.

Yes.

It's like you get all...

[50:11]

And then it stands over...

Blake's body and while they're still coming in, he's looking down and you see him on the ground and it's looking back up and then the lights sort of come up a bit and the sound stops, all the alarms go off.

And it's just slowly, what's going to happen?

And so the question is, guys, what, I mean, I, you know, canonically, I think the ending is, they tend to shoot him.

Um, but, uh, the fact that it's left like that and it, you know, oh, he suddenly ducks and shoots 10 of them and rolls under, what's the other alternative?

What would be, what would be the, the?

I mean, what happened that didn't Paul Darrow write a book?

Did he explain what?

Free books, explaining how he got out of it.

I don't know.

I've not read it.

Or was it just somehow Avon escaped.

Yeah.

That's what you could think if they had been united and they hadn't had that misunderstanding.

[51:16]

They could have worked.

It could have stood together and they would have had some warning maybe that the Federation was coming if Daryl's wife had still been alive and they could have...

Yeah, she was about to warn them, would they?

They could have potentially, you know, kind of defended themselves or locked the doors or something.

So it's just that frustration, isn't it?

That, that, the way, the way they were mistrustful of each other and the misunderstanding and all that all led in many different ways to their downfall.

And how do you think Darrow plays that finals, that the shooting of Blake specifically, because it looks, his face is just hot fear.

He looks, what am I doing?

He looks like he's, and I guess it's because at that moment he, because he's misunderstood, um, the ambiguous statement from Blake and because Tarrant has told him Blake's definitely betrayed them.

He's just completely believed that.

But I think after he's pulled the 1st shot, it's like he already regrets it, but he's like in for a penny for a pound.

I think it just went off in his hand.

In the struggle.

[52:17]

That's part of me that thinks he can't quite believe that he's actually he's actually done it.

I'll do it again.

He plays it completely shocked when he actually sees Blake from across the room like, there's his friend, his enemy, this person that he's built up in his head in lots of ways.

And then the way he reacts, he wrecks so quickly with the gun and shoots him down. like, I can't believe it.

And then he shoots him again, just to make sure.

It's, yeah, it's really interestingly, interestingly played by Darrow and a lot of, there's a lot going on on his face that you can't quite work out.

Yeah.

Yeah, because he's not just angrily scowling or, you know, which would be a straightforward thing to do.

It's different to that.

Yeah.

It's about as emotional as you've seen him when he says, have you betrayed me?

Like that, he's normally much more kind of reserved, isn't he, and cool, and that's, yeah, probably about as...

[53:24]

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, like, instead of saying, no. says, I set all this up.

Terence doesn't understand.

No, bloody Tarrant.

It's actually his fault.

Yeah, because he just, yeah, Hannah was right all along.

If he'd only died in the crash.

The rest of them must be fine.

I love the way the debt sounds, like, jumping right back.

But I love that during the crash where his little the desk sort of trundles across the room.

I mean, Saturday.

It's not technical, desk is a rock console.

That's the word, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's like they're all on wheels.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

I think that, um, yeah, what actually happens is Avon shoots out the lights and shoots a sprinkler and so, and then it's all chaos with water everywhere.

It's pitch black.

Everyone's shooting their stun guns into the air and everybody crawls away to escape.

That's a great theory, but it's bollocks.

[54:25]

Well, we've missed you this series, Cole.

I've missed you.

Also, I have to say, sort of direction wise, Mary Ridge's choice to do the jump cut, to the close-up, the ever closer up close-up of Chris Barrow. is amazing.

It shouldn't work and it really, really does.

Like I said before, I think that's some of the best 5 minutes of TV.

Mm-hmm, you know?

And the light, yeah, on the light and the music and then the smile.

It's just that is the only shot that the, and he gets to, he's, I think Avon is, is, I think he's smiling because he's actually living in a world that doesn't have Blake in it suddenly. and suddenly he's he's suddenly the most important.

Yeah, he's suddenly the most important person in the rebellion or the most, and even though it's only going to, he knows that he's beaten Blake, he's lived 30 seconds longer than Blake did.

[55:26]

That is so he's the way.

That is a great theory.

It's bollocks though.

He's smiling because he's realised how ridiculous this whole thing has become and how fatalistic his entire life has been and it's all been for nothing and how much he's screwed up.

I agree.

I think that's a great theory, by the way.

I really do.

You're one, you know?

It's just so great that you can interpret these things in so many different ways, you know?

And when I watched it the other day, I was like, it's been a good, good part of the next day just thinking about it.

And the other great thing, guys.

Is we can watch it all again.

It's great.

You can start.

And then, you know, they're all aligned.

Blu-ray.

Yeah, on Blu-ray, yeah.

Exactly.

Black and white and backwards, if you like, as well.

And hopefully the Blu-ray is going to be up.

This episode on DVD has terrible picture quality.

On the outside, yeah, especially the outside, although the inside too just seemed a bit blocky than usual, but maybe it was the outside stuff was just biasingly.

[56:28]

But yeah, I think they're going to struggle.

And I know it's really misty and the film print isn't, it's obviously not on lavish film stock.

I hope they can do something.

I watched the bloopers reel afterwards because I needed cheering up.

Uh, and uh, there's some scenes in in the in the forest and they look fantastic.

So I don't know if they did something to make it look quite sort of blurry up.

Misty kind of filthy or something.

But the DVD doesn't resolve that very well because it's very, very... very, very rocky.

It might look better on VA.

Yeah, it might look better.

Yeah, because it's not got the compression.

Yeah, literally, yeah. a great point.

It's like the difference between a wave and an MP3.

Yeah, exactly.

But I think they might, if they've still got all that film footage on film. then they can make it look great.

But there is a bit where, um, there's a bunch of missed stroke fog, and I wasn't sure if there was just someone, you know, winding a machine off camera producing it all, or it was actually like really, really real missed.

[57:31]

I think it probably was real mist.

It looks great.

I think there was there was certainly rain on that location shoot.

Darrow's hair changes between outside and inside.

But it's quite a nice looking planet compared to a lot of the planets they've been to for it being this incredibly dangerous, lawless place.

I suppose the idea is it was a farming planet, so I suppose it's got to look quite kind of lush and everything, but we talked about this a bit before we started, but the Google Maps reviews of that location, say, this used to be a nice woods.

It's now been turned into a quarry, which has ruined it, and it's the irony.

The irony.

It's now been cut up by illegal motocrosses and fly tippers.

When is a word not a word?

When humans destroy it, like everything else in this world?

Humans are the vermin.

So it's my mother Blake 7 fan.

Chris Boucher has written the Google Maps reviews.

[58:39]

But nobody can feel shortchanged by this episode.

Even the, I mean, you know, Dana and Sulin and Villa are sort of kept together as a group, but they're all they're all getting good lines.

They're all getting snappy moments.

And that's why we've got so few guest cast, of course, you know, so there's less of that to be shared around.

Yeah, it's awesome.

And they're all, and they're all in character.

Nobody has to do anything preposterously out of character.

Apart from me, and even like Villa slugs the girl at the end, she has just shot his mate.

That's him behaving in an unusual way, but he's trying to save all their lives.

And he's doing it by, you know, deviously pretending, and he obviously pretending to be siding with the Federation, or is it, knowing good old Villary, probably would if he could get away with it.

But that's the thing.

It is all in character, including Blake having a ridiculous scheme that goes completely wrong and backfires.

Even having a ridiculously cunning scheme doesn't work.

What a great show this is.

What a great love it.

Isn't it just, like you say, Cole, this is the series going out on high, and so many people would say this is the best episode of the whole series, you know, and you can absolutely see why.

[59:49]

And I always forget because it's not one that I just think, oh, well, do you know what today?

I'm just going to put on Blake.

Because that never happens.

You're never in that that mood.

So, you know, it always feels a bit of a special moment when I actually get there because of the way we've done this podcast over the last 4 years.

It's felt like we've been on the long course to this episode and we've done it.

We've got to the end and that's a pretty amazing thing in itself.

And so I think sort of adding that extra layer onto it this time made it feel like a real event like, wow. we're here.

Yes, how have we got here?

Yes, well, at the end of this, podcast, we're all going to be surrounded and shot by Federation.

The Australians are all going to burst in behind us any moment.

I think what happens at the end is that Avon surrenders is arrested, has a sure trial, and then is sentenced to Signus Alpha.

[1:00:54]

Do you know Mark, there is.

There's a fan audio play made a few years ago, which basically does that.

They, um, the Avon is captured.

He's on a on a prison planet.

He's in prison.

He has his final conversation with Servolan, where she explains that this is something that happens in the Federation every, every 10 years or so, someone comes up, um, they need someone to fight against the Federation so that the Federation can keep going, and it's always someone called Blake, and the audio finishes with the 1st scene of um, the way back, only with Paul Darrow as Blake, because Avon has been.

Um, conditioned and brainwashed to believe that he's he's Blake and the new Blake is in place to go through this all over again.

It's brilliant.

[1:01:54]

It's really really good.

That's a great, like, I think if any of them survived. and there was a season five, E, uh, that that bringing back Paul Darrow would have been the only thing to do, whereas the others would have just been a, you know, a not a great way to not great way to do it.

And you could almost have done a like a soft reset, written reboot and have him having to just be on his own again.

Yeah, maybe he's got his own maybe he's got his own radio show based somewhere like Chicago, he's got a British housekeeper. his old dad moves in, played by Gareth Thomas.

Oh, Gary Jones would have loved that playing Paul Darrell.

I could run and run.

Took me a minute.

Can Glenis Barber do a Manchester accent?

I don't think that's a prerequisite.

That's the story, the Matrix, isn't it?

In the kind of rubbish matrix sequels, isn't that?

[1:02:55]

Is that not the idea that there always has to be a chosen one that they try to bring down?

I thought you meant the phrases.

Oh, yeah.

I think Lake 7 casts a much longer shadow than a lot of people would think. over other series, not does a few that talk about it.

Maybe even ones that end with an odd number that were made in the 90s.

I'm set aboard a spaceship that we could maybe I don't know if there was some kind of podcast going on that had a little bit of leftover, extra time.

They could do some an episode or two.

We are not doing Stargate SG1.

I really want to do galloping galaxies, but nobody's up to that.

But we have got other episodes up our sleeve.

Not quite a series E, but a series D-A. One of which is going to be about the footprint of it's got a better name than that of Blake 7. and what it inspired.

[1:03:57]

Yeah, what it continues to inspire.

So that'll be an interesting conversation to have.

We've got our end of series review to come before that, though.

Yeah, our series D retrospective and I look at Bick Finish and books and all the ephemera of Blake 7 as well.

Hopefully someone will read Avon a terrible aspect so that I don't have to read it ever again.

You have read it. have read it.

Well, that's another episode.

Yes, so the credits role with the sound of gumfire before we go back into the Ronnie Hazlehurst...

Oh, the 1st time of the scene.

And there was such a missed moment because if any episode of this year deserved the original theme coming back, the end credits.

It was this one And suddenly, to go into the, the, bollocks.

Bollocks?

Again, sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

There should have been no music at all.

It should have just been...

[1:04:57]

Like earth shock.

Yeah, but like not with like, uh, I don't know, uh, Aurax activating chip, just on the ground.

But no, just like it really jars.

As your right side, it should have been the original theme and not this the Ron Hazelhurst version.

Or else just the alarm still going all the way through.

Or the wind, all the sound effects that Elizabeth Parker did.

It should have been that.

So yeah, that winds me up as well.

Yeah.

The ballroom dancing version.

Well, yeah, the listeners have been spared your rants about the series theme.

It was spared by rants forevermore because that's it.

The title sequence of shit as well.

What have you got against pitching your?

Very educational.

[1:06:01]

That's it.

Cool.

We've done it.

Mark, we've survived it for the 1st time.

Yeah, no, you've made a new fan.

There we go.

That's one more saleable blue race to come.

Yes.

If you turned out to, if you just hated it, Mark.

Really awkward.

I know, that's it.

Middle of series 2, you would have had to stop, you would have been able to keep faking it.

He'd left and we'd had to replace him with another...

Your contract's only up till series 2.

After that you could go.

You suddenly became a cockney after that.

No, but nobody ever mentioned why.

If I'm a podcast, sir, sir, all are you.

Any last words before we sign off?

It has been a pleasure doing this with all of you, and thank you to everyone that has contributed from all of our contributors, and it's just been a real hoot.

I loved it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

[1:07:02]

All of our, all of, thank you so much to everyone who's contributed to everyone who's participated, everyone who's interacted with us on Twitter.

Everyone who shared the gifts, the gifts are still out there.

I'm going to find ways for them to be preserved forever.

Thank you to you guys for including me.

It's been really fun.

I've really enjoyed the series and even more.

I've enjoyed talking to you all about it So, yeah, thanks to everyone.

All it took was a space plague.

Sending on.

Yeah.

Thank you for COVID.

And I would just like to say a big thank you to Colin for having the conversations before we started to say, come on, Si, we should just do a Blake 7 podcast.

Let's go do this and let's do it properly.

And you know what?

I'm really proud of what we've done.

I think we've done this series justice at last.

It's been so much fun and I've loved sharing it with you and all the Australian crew as well.

It's absolutely.

It's been amazing.

Yeah. loved it.

Definitely.

Fantastic.

[1:08:02]

Right?

Thank you very much, everyone, for listening, and I hope you've enjoyed our look at Blake.

We'll be back.

Oh.

We will be back somehow.

We'll be back.

We'll be back for the retrospective of series D and I look back over the 13 episodes and I look back over all 52 episodes as well, as Pete mentioned, still several episodes to come.

So you've not rid of us yet.

We got through Blake and I'd just like to say, thank you very much for listening and goodbye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye bye.