The Whole Damn Show Retrospective

[00:03]

Maximal power.

Hello, dear listener and welcome back to Maximum Power, the only Blake 7 podcast that doesn't have a special intro this episode because we got renewed during a continuity announcement.

I'm Brendan.

I'm Cole.

I'm James.

I'm Nathan.

I'm Pete.

I'm Peter.

I'm Cy.

And I'm Simon.

But where's Mark?

Oh, Mark's gone with Blake.

I'm sure I'm sure everything will be perfectly all right then.

No blank spots for Big Finish to fill in.

Right, we've had a look at the BFI.

We've had a look at the new series B, Blu-ray box set, but what we are doing this episode is the whole damn show.

So from Earth to Aristo, from the System to Star One, from Sarin to Terminal, and from Xenon to Gouda Prime.

We are covering the whole damn thing this episode.

[01:08]

And to start off, I'd like to go back to our listener survey, and we're going to have a look at the character showdowns.

So we're going to start with Blake versus Avon.

He's got graphs, everyone.

I've got graphs.

But it's all right. clearing up.

Now, I will say that, remember, we got 123 responses, and I was quite surprised by the convincing winner of this category, which I don't think the winner himself is not a surprise.

It's Avon with 108 out of 123 votes.

He shoots him with a big gun.

Not controversial.

Whose show is this?

I was just wondering if anyone wanted to argue the case for Blake being better.

Absolutely.

Haven't we spent about 3 or 4 seasons working out that Avon's better than playing?

Pretty much.

Did we not have to have Blake in order to get Avon?

[02:11]

If the show had just started straight out with just Avon, would it have been fine?

Yeah, actually it would.

Well, I was going to say that Blake's better in the way back where there is no Avon, but actually, I think Avon's better.

Well, I think we can then leave that behind.

That's a pretty foregone conclusion.

And the next one is the Battle of the Pilots.

It's Jenna versus Tarrant.

Depends who's got the best hair.

James, pretend you haven't already seen the graph. text is so small, I can't actually read it, darling.

Who's your winner?

Well, Jenna.

Jenna.

I'm going for Tarrant.

So this is my choice of what I think people have said.

What do you think people have said?

Oh, I think people have said Jenna, but they're wrong.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah, I think people have said Jenna, and they're absolutely right.

Si?

Jenna definitely out of the two.

Looking at the comments we've had about Tarrant all the way through our polls, he's not as well liked as Jenna, so I think Jenna's going to get this.

[03:14]

Right.

Pete?

I think well, I don't know.

I think Tarrant might win it for his comedy value, and it does pick up in series four.

D. Thank you.

It's the Blu-ray.

I kicked the habit.

Blu-rays have made me slip again.

But it's Jenna.

Jenna is awesome.

Yep, Anne Colin.

I think probably Jenna would win it, but I mean, Tarrant crashed the Scorpio, right?

Yeah, yeah.

We're talking about pilots.

Yeah.

Okay, well, I don't think we're surprising anyone.

It's Jenna with 87.

So she doesn't have quite the convincing lead that Avon does, but it's still almost, it's still almost 3 quarters.

It's a convincing picture. a convincing victory.

No need for a recount.

No slide.

Anyone want to defend Tarrant there, although I think Colin said it brilliantly with, you know, Jenna didn't crash a ship.

I think Terrence actually really great.

He's a little bit annoying in series C, but I think in series D, Nathan, series D. I think he's actually a lot better.

And as we all know, it takes Tarrant to fly a dead ship.

[04:18]

Jen didn't get a chance to crash the liberator.

She had to evacuate from it. moving on to our next one.

And it was hard to choose who to put up against a villa, but I decided to put up against someone who I think is equally well loved.

So it's Villa versus Dana.

I thought you were going to say Villa versus George Spenton Foster.

I was going for Villa versus Aurac.

All right, does encourage Avan to kill it.

Okay.

And I'm not going to do a round-robin on this one because I don't think anyone's going to be surprised that Villa one.

You know, Dana is like... is the best actor on the show.

And really...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we love, obviously, we love Michael.

He superb, but...

Yeah, that was a tough one.

And I did actually have some people on social media because it was kind of sent me messages saying, don't make me choose.

[05:19]

But it's interesting, though, that it's, despite the fact that people are saying don't make me choose, that would have implied that it was going to be a tire to result.

It's not.

It's the same kind of thing.

No, it's, yeah.

It's Genevi Tarrant again, basically.

Yeah, what they're basically saying is, of course, Villa's going to win, but Dane is pretty good.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, Dana still gets a respectable 27 votes.

That's -15 when she met Justin.

Yes.

That is a huge crack factor.

We'll get to worst relationship later in the episode.

And this next one was also controversial.

I did have, um, I think it was friend of the podcast, Bob, sort of say to me, you're evil for this matchup.

It's Cali versus Serverland.

Yeah.

There's really, like, what's the point?

And you see, my, my, my logic here was just they are the 2 longest running women on the show, Kelly obviously has 36 episodes, and Silverland has 28.

[06:22]

Okay.

So just beating Jenna and Dana.

It really should have been Servland versus Gan.

Like we'll see a Gan landslide.

That's how they seed things at Wimbledon.

That's how he died.

How many of those 30, how many episodes?

36 episodes were her just sitting at the desk pressing button.

Yeah, true, true.

And does that include the episode where it's just a voiceover at the beginning of that rescue?

No, actually. didn't include that.

So we're up to we're up to 37.

It's basically a woman who was hired and told she was going to be one of the female leads of this show versus the woman who became the lead of this show.

Yeah, yeah.

Even when she wasn't in it.

Yes.

Yeah. episodes that she's not in are still about her.

Whenever Serverland is not on screen, everyone should be asking, where's Serverland?

I've got that.

We do.

We do.

Right.

[07:23]

So it's Servoland with 94 votes and Cali with 29.

Well, you know, Kelly did respectably there, considering. and these are my 2 favourite female characters in the show.

So, you know, I think that's a pretty respectable win for Cali against Serverland, considering.

I agree, Si.

And I think technically it's not.

It's a, well, it's a pretty spectacular showing for Callie.

Okay, server land then.

It's a moral victory, really.

Yeah, yeah.

Cerlin is clearly the more iconic character, but I would like to sport Cali here because when I think back on my childhood and how much I loved Blake 7 and series C in particular, the indelible memory.

Calli.

Yeah.

There's that setup.

We'll talk about it later, won't we?

Where those 2 Callie and Ava are the adults.

Yeah.

There's also, she gets some, it's really startout episodes like children of our Ron and sarcophagus where it's really, really just about Calli and you get to shine as much.

[08:26]

I don't think many of the characters get such episodes singularly devoted to them in that way.

And also, of course, they don't actually interact very often, but there is that wonderful scene in power play, the beachy scene on board the hospital ship, and also one of my favourite comedy Blake 7 moments ever, when Servoland teleports aboard the Liberator in Harvest of Cairos with Captain Chad, I think it is.

And Callie's there, very sour-faced, having operated the teleport and Servilant Turner and says, ah, Kelly, how lovely to see you again.

Now, speaking of lovely to see them again, we have 2 characters who bookend the series, Gan versus Zulen.

Does anyone think Gan won?

No.

Did he get a vote?

Gan did get votes.

Okay.

Gan did get votes.

Was it for his hair extension?

Pete doesn't even know who he is.

[09:27]

I've learned that now though.

The convention footage on the series A, Blu-ray, fortunately, does not include me making humiliating myself by asking somebody who he was while he was.

I'm very pleased that wasn't captured on camera and probably so.

That anecdote just coming up in the life of David Jackson.

Mentary.

So that's the crux of the whole thing.

Well, with 22 votes, presumably from all the people who think that Pete is evil for not recognising David Jackson, Gan has 22 votes versus Su Lin's 101.

So Gan is in, oh, 17 episodes to Sue Lynn's, 13, and arguably, it takes them longer to find Sue Lynn's character.

I mean, they find Gan's character very early on and then go, oh yeah, that's it.

I wish they hadn't.

They kind of lose it, don't they?

They find it and then lose it.

That's the other way around for Zulin.

[10:27]

Also, looking at those results, cut to Glynis Barber, saying fairly obvious from where I'm staying.

Can I just observe that that pie chart kind of reflects the last federal election?

I was just going to say, Brendan, I'm a little disappointed it's not a gant chart.

Oh, very good.

I don't know what that is You're lucky, lucky man.

I will say a realisation I had this week is Gan's defining feature.

His defining characteristic is that he can't kill anyone, whereas Sulin's defining feature is try and stop her killing people.

And it just, it kind of shows where the show goes.

Like the show starts with, if our characters have to kill someone, they'll morally question it and what have you.

And then in series D, it's like Dana's like, oh, this gun's great.

It's got micro grenades.

I'm gonna go half, you know.

The thing with that, I think why we've ended up with the characters. you know, the A versus B characters where they are, the possible exception of Villa versus Dana, because that's just grossly unfair.

[11:31]

Yeah. is that as a rule, the ones that were losing and losing by a substantial margin are ones where I find, as a rule, I'm just waiting for the scenes that they're in to be over.

Whereas, whereas the ones, the ones that they aren't in, the ones that the winners are in, as a rule, apart from Jenna and Tarant, because they're the other way around for me.

I really enjoy watching them.

Yeah, fair enough. there you go.

Yeah, makes sense.

Good metric.

Okay.

Travis versus Travis.

What, Rada, Travis and EastEnders, Travis, right?

Rather Travis, adding steps, Travis.

Yes, what about slaves, Travis?

V Lorimer.

Lex Travis, I did have way back in the series A, retrospect, too.

Gets less character than Gan, really.

Few lines.

Yeah.

My brother's name's Travis.

I don't know if I had mentioned that, but that was a source of great amusement to me when I was a child.

How have you gone 4 seasons without mentioning that?

[12:33]

Oh, my mum was called Serverland, did I not mention that?

He also has a bear called a Korean.

Well, Nathan, I regret to inform you that your brother didn't get any votes.

Really?

It looks like you got all of them.

We have almost a clean 75, 25% split.

It's actually 75.6 and 24.4.

Poor Brian Croucher.

If he gets 30 votes, so do all of you.

I'm going to speak in his defence.

I 2nd that.

Give it the word.

The word.

Because he just gets more to do and has a more interesting kind of character arc, whereas once his face just sort of comes in as just terribly posh and stuff and barely raises an eyebrow. whereas Krautus Travis has this whole trajectory that he's on and it's...

Again, I'm waiting for the scenes with Rada Travis to be over, whereas Brian Croucher.

I enjoy.

[13:33]

Yeah, only one of them can say cremos, probably.

I think Travis, the Travis character needs to be an EastEnders, Travis, rather than the rat.

I think you never quite know what Brian Crouch is going to do, whereas Stephen Griff is sort of always consistent, whereas Brian Croucher could go completely from being still and silent and quiet in something like trial to hostage his next episode where he's over the top and shouting and ranting.

So it's a, it's a really dangerous version of the character, I think, rather than Grife's more steady version.

Not to mention voice from the past.

We never mention poison.

Never done that episode.

Right.

Moving on to your metal and plastic friends who are fun to be with, we have a three-way showdown for the computers.

Oh, this is sad.

Yeah, Zen Aurak slave.

[14:34]

I'm very worried about that slither and colour that I see.

You're very worried about the one of these computers you've got 2 votes.

Oh, is it a sliver of slaves?

Oh, I'm very sorry I only got 2 votes, sir.

Yes, it is late.

I would be into that.

Yes.

Now, look, Valiant Effort, especially by Peter Tottenham, to give us, you know, such a different performance that it's still not immediately obvious that he's talking to himself occasionally, you know, but, yeah, it's like the ship is sort of cut price liberator.

He's cut price in.

I actually think he's more interesting again than Zen.

Like Zen is a little bit more, like, you know, he's mysterious and annoying in all of those kinds of things and he only helps out when it, you know, won't ruin the plot.

Whereas slave is, you know, like his camper and Celia, it's that sort of thing that we say about series four. which is that, you know, it's trying to be less camp and just absolutely failing at that.

[15:47]

And slave is absolutely that.

He's wonderful, I think.

It's Servland versus Cali again.

Zen is iconic, but I have a vast soft spot for slave.

Yeah.

And the prop is great too.

Yeah.

Prop's brilliant.

Yeah.

Right.

So that leaves us with our other 2 computers.

Zen commands a very respectable 48 votes.

Oh, confirmed.

Confirmed.

While Aurak lands with 73.

Well, a statement of fact cannot be insolent.

But by the way, Aurak is the only one that survives the series.

He's just in that fucking forest down the road, just sitting there gathering dust for the last time.

They're being pissed on by rules.

Paul Darrow's post-series novel Lucifer does actually have Avon going back for Aurak after 20 years.

And this isn't the exact line, but it's something to the effect of he switches Aurac on and the 1st line is, well, you took your fucking time.

[16:55]

Orac also very aggrieved that Blake took a leak on the tree that he is under.

So he was Welsh.

Well.

Now, um, 2 ships that are decidedly not Welsh.

Liberator and Scorpio.

Well, that's easy.

Is anyone going to speak up for Scorpio?

No.

Just in the context that just like Slave, Scorpio, I think, is what the show needs.

I mean, you start a season series D and it's all. you know, all those lovely, wonderful things have gone, but ultimately they wanted to do something different and it does that.

But yeah, it's a crapship is the whole point.

So obviously, I like the ship. not crap.

But it's kind of a crap crap ship.

It's the problem. isn't it?

You know what I mean?

It's not the Nostromo.

No, it's the Timu Maleleia.

Not the nostro.

Oh, no.

There needs to be a mess in there.

Do you know what I mean?

that's the problem.

The set is so boring.

It's too clean.

[17:55]

Yeah, there isn't even any clutter.

It's got BBC micros.

It's got BBC micros.

Yeah, that is cool.

But during the final crash scene, you're reminding me now, where Terence desk starts rolling across the floor.

We're supposed to think that it means the ship's falling apart, but it just emphasises that it's a little desk on wheel.

But I mean, they were in the Liberator as well, weren't they?

The whole liberator, things were all in cast.

It was on wheels.

Yeah, it's just, I think the model of Scorpio is great.

It's just the set inside is just a bit too static and gray and maybe it's not quite as interesting.

It's getting more 80s, you know, it feels like this, you know, it was they were trying to make an 80s Volvo instead of a 70s jag or something like that.

And I like the way I, you know, the idea that they used to have this amazing spaceship and now they've got a shared spaceship.

But I don't think, as you perhaps we're saying, it's like, it's not shit enough.

It's like it should be making their lives terrible all the time because it's just an old banger, but it kind of looks kind of slightly modern inside, you know, where they try to put computers in and stuff like that.

[19:04]

It should have been even more retro.

Like an old trunk.

It looks like it's made of colour bond.

It also is the Python ship from Elite. anyway, which people know about.

Yes.

And also, I think that in any other series in the 1980s, if you'd had Scorpio and that teleport effect, and those teleport bracelets and slave and those guns, it would have been perfectly acceptable.

It's only because we've had the liberator and those guns and those teleport bracelets and that teleport effect and Zen that it pales in comparison.

Cool.

I've just been looking over Brendan's shoulder at his at his pie graph.

And it's coloured blue and red.

And Scorpio's section looks a little like Scorpio.

It does actually.

It's a little tiny wedge. a triangle.

Red triangle. representing 11 of our listeners who would also engage in a spirited defence of Scorpio, as several people here have not very well stuffed, but beautifully mounted.

They must have had Ford Scorpios as kids.

[20:06]

But you can kind of see why they went in that direction because you've got you've got the teleport bay in the bridge area.

You don't have to they don't have to go to a separate room, which is completely unnecessary in the liberator.

Like you're just having to have more standing sets.

Well, in fact, they're using that space for the Xenon base.

Exactly.

But then they barely use that.

They stop.

Yeah, then they realise, oh, we're not going to really use...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All the money they wasted on those plastic plants they could have spent on Scorpio, yeah.

Now that leaves the liberator with 112.

If anyone would like to say something for the liberator, please do, but I think we have.

I want to remind you all.

I want to remind you all that Clive James called it a tasteless light fitting.

I think Clive James tastes the slight fitting. don't think he's entirely wrong.

Moving on behind the scenes.

Our 1st behind the scenes showdown is for writers, and don't worry, I haven't done every single writer, just the 2 who arguably shape the show the most, and it's Terry Nation versus Chris Boucher, and I would like to do a quick round to see who you think our audience has voted for Si.

[21:21]

Chris Boucher.

Okay, Pete?

Boucher.

Chris Boucher.

James.

Unfortunately, Brendan turned over his phone, so I can't actually tell you.

I think it's crispy.

Right, Nathan.

Bob Holmes.

Sure.

I think the audience have voted for Terry Nation.

Oh okay.

Pete.

I think the audience voted for Chris Boucher, but let me just say, it should be Terry Nation, because while this program would be half a quarter of the program that it is without Chris Boucher, Terry Nation gives us the show, and he sets it up well.

And when he writes for it at his peak in things like aftermath and power play, it is as good as Blake 7 ever was.

Yeah, very well said.

Well, I think it's true because he has help.

He has a filter and the filter is called Chris Boucher.

That is also...

I mean, survivors exist, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

And the remake.

The score is 19 versus 104.

And the winner is Chris Boucher.

[22:22]

Wow, okay.

Yeah.

But, you know, I think those 19 people who voted for Terry Nation, have a point.

Now, listeners are all nerds, aren't they?

They are staying to the very end of the closing credits.

Just to push back on Peter's point, though.

I think that I can't help myself.

And because it's right.

I get what you're saying that, Terry, but also I think that he demonstrates in too many other episodes that he can be a writer who kind of has his ideas and that's all he has and he doesn't extend himself very much.

There's, I think there's too many episodes in series A, um, and others listed elsewhere that are just kind of the, amongst the most unremarkable.

I mean, yeah, I do agree. unremarkable.

Let me that's different.

Let me push back on that slightly, though, and say yes, there are a few episodes in the series A, but when Terry Nation has to provide the same number of episodes that Chris Boucher does per season.

We get the aforementioned aftermath power plan terminal, and also redemption, pressure point, and countdown, which are all really great episodes.

[23:28]

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, like I was going to make the same point, but in the opposite direction, which is that he's writing a whole season.

And quickly figures out that's a bad idea.

Yeah.

But that was a bad idea.

That should have been foreseen as a bad idea before they even started. the only way that it was going to be made because they didn't have the budget and they said you have to write the entire season.

Right.

And he gets a less of a fee per episode or something.

But I think series D, Mrs. Terry Nation.

Oh, absolutely.

Steady hand.

Chris Boucher is good and is guiding it, but I think sometimes we just need that terry nation fun romp episode that we don't quite get.

There's too much at the start that feels a bit off.

And I think if Terry Nation had been there, we'd have had a steadier hand setting this series up, Chris Boucher does it really well, but I think Terry Nation is the master of the setup and run and then leaving other people to play with his toys.

It really needed that thing that Terry Nation does where he comes in, the show's lost its male and female lead, and he completely retools it and makes it something different and something that works incredibly well.

[24:41]

He have voucher introducing the kind of pylene 50 thing and stuff and none of that's anywhere near as interesting as the retooling that's done between series 2 and three.

You know, I said on our series D, retrospective, that series D, Mrs. Terry Nation's clarity of storytelling.

And I just think if we'd had a couple of really great terrination romps in that season, it would easily be the equal of any other season.

Just so long as they he didn't get the slot reserved for animals, actually.

No, no.

If he got the slot reserved for animals, we would have had a countdown or redemption.

Yeah, not animals.

Yeah.

Our final matchup, and it's our last behind the scenes category as well.

It's David Maloney versus Via Lorimer.

Oh, dear, dear.

And I just want to preface this by saying, I think they both do the absolute best job.

They can.

They both care about the series. and sorry, I don't think Via Lorma does the best job with that.

[25:42]

Maybe he does though.

Hey, Surverland walks somewhat briskly away from Dana with a gun in assassin.

What do you mean?

So anyway, we have Via Lorrimer with 25 votes and David Maloney with 98, which roughly it almost breaks down to how many episodes they produce as well.

You know.

So I think it comes down to whether people love the series D vision or love the vision of the 1st 3 series.

It's a hard job coming into a series that's already set up and where you've destroyed everything that is the setup of the series at the end of what you think is your final episode and someone's got to come in.

David Maloney isn't available.

And so Via Lorimer steps in.

He's someone who's been with the series from the start, so he does know what he's doing.

But, you know, he makes some good decisions, I think, to make the show sort of somewhat different to what's gone before and that's that's absolutely fine.

[26:50]

So, you know, he's just got a really tricky job to do.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah.

I will point out that both David Maloney and Violorma had a similar approach to costuming, because there is the story that June Hudson tells of, I think, the Michelin men in Silla, where she showed the designs to David Maloney, and he roared with laughter for about 20 seconds and went, oh, go on then.

And then there is the separate story of when Stratford John's turned up at Via Lorimo's office and said, darling, look at what they've put me in.

And Via said, darling, it's lovely.

And he said, okay, just for you, darling.

Please in the butchers, people.

I better go near a television studio.

That was the right decision.

The killer.

It was.

Yes it was.

I didn't really have much of an answer on this, so I just asked ChatGPT.

I don't care about its answer.

The correct answer is Mary Rich.

Oh, that I think she would have been an excellent choice.

[27:54]

I don't know if she ever produced anything, but she's such a good director. that.

Oh, sorry, sorry.

Well, in that case, I fucked up the question.

No, no, I think that's fine.

No, I have.

I quit.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Chat GPT's like, Mary Ridge.

Why not?

No, I think she could have been a great choice.

You know, it's like I look at I look at Doctor Who. and kind of go, Graham Harper would have been a great producer.

You know.

Thank you for rescuing me on this topic.

It could have been terminal, but we rescued.

Take a drink.

Now, that brings us to the question of favourite cruise.

And that is, Cruise, C-R-E-W-S, Space Princess.

Not, not, um...

No.

Now I split this up into five.

So we have the series A crew, which is Blake, Jenner, Avon Villa, Cali, Gan, and Zen.

[28:57]

We have series B dash one, Blake, Jenner, Avon Villa, Cali, Gan, Zen, and Aurak. series B dash 2, Blake Jenner, Avon Villa, Cali, Zenanorak, series C, Avon Villa, Cali, Dana, Tarrant, Aurak, Zen, and series D, Avon Villa, Dana, Tarrant, Sulin, Aurak, Slave.

Wait, what was the middle one again?

French toast.

Well, it's C, isn't it?

Absolutely seriously.

Yes, it is, absolutely.

Stop looking at the graph.

Is that green?

No, okay.

What do you want to know?

I am so confused.

There's two...

Everyone, then get Aurak, then lose Gan, then lose...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then get some good ones in to replace them.

Yeah, and then Glennis Barber.

I thought Gavin told me dead.

I'm saying Lennis Palp is not one of liquid ones.

[30:00]

Also, Poshba said, if they had changed Soulin for Ginka, serious D. If series D was split in half so that we had Sulin before anyone had figured out what to do with her and Sulin once she was good.

Yeah, that's interesting.

D2 would be my winner, but I'm going with two.

I want Jenna.

Even though it means keeping Blake. personally would go with 2B to be or not 2B. But, yeah.

Okay, I doubt that's one.

Do you know, Pete, I wrote a text story for the Blake 7 post mag in 1994. very long publication history.

I have more.

Unfortunately, they cancelled the issue that it was due to be in.

Never got published, but you probably would have enjoyed it because it dealt with a slightly alternate universe in which Blake Lift Liberator and Tarrant joined, but Jenna never did.

[31:04]

Ah.

Interesting. up my street.

Give her some good clots as well.

So, carrying on, Simon, who is your pick out of those crews?

Well, for me, I would go for serious C.

Seriously, feels like the greatest lineup of Blake 7 because you've got Dana and you've got Cali together and I think that dynamic really works.

So, no, it's like we described it.

We've got the 2 grown ups looking after the kids who are all mucking around and it's just such a strong lineup of actors as well as characters and I think that's the one that feels most right to me despite series D being a real favourite because they were my original crew.

But I just prefer Callie to Sulin.

So, yeah, perfect.

Yep.

Great.

It's that sort of fantastic dynamic of having 2 newcomers and 3 old hands.

[32:07]

And it's the 1st time it's happened by the time it happens with Sooley and it's less remarkable.

And I really like that.

And you know, whatever you say about the characters in Blake 7, it's mostly the actors performances, it's not really anything the writers are doing.

But it just emerges in series three, I think.

But also, I think, which helped by the fact that it's the best set of episodes as well, I think. as a whole.

Yeah, absolutely.

And also it allows dynamics which have been brewing to come to the fore.

And so Avon and Kelly's relationship has never really, I mean, they've had a couple of episodes together, but it's never really been a strong one in series A and B. Series C, foregrounds it and they get some really great scenes together.

I think also series C, there's always the possibility that Blake and Jenner might come back.

In series D, Kelly is dead.

Kelly's not coming back.

So if you really loved Cali and series D comes along that, you know, that may be a step too far for you, whereas if you really love Jenna and Blake, and they're mentioned in the 1st couple of episodes, oh, maybe we'll see them again, you know, and you keep watching and you learn and you grow to love these new characters, but you grow to love Dana.

[33:20]

But to be honest, a lot of people love Cali and no one loved Blake.

Yeah.

Right.

Okay.

So just going round the room.

I'm in here.

I'm in the series C cam.

Siri C.

C.

I want that to be an extra D. That sounds weird.

You always say that.

So we can fit Dorian in.

Okay, okay.

Oh, yeah.

I'd actually go for sea as well.

I kind of because I think those were the 1st ones I watched.

And what I'm going to do is go from the bottom of the list to the top.

So with 6 votes, it's series A. Dan's bringing them all down.

Jumping up to 19 votes.

So 3 times as many. and a bit is series D. Oh, yeah, more bullish on D than a lot of our listeners and a lot of fans.

Series B. 2nd set.

[34:22]

So just without Gan, gets 22 votes.

And just ahead of that is series B one with Gan with 23 votes.

That's miserable, isn't it?

That's so sad.

That is the ghost of David Jackson.

Who cares whether the gang is alive or dead?

No one.

That one guy.

David Jackson.

And that means we're 53 votes.

It's series C.

Yeah, the only logical choice.

Yeah.

Yep, I can totally, I can totally see why that is.

I still think they should have replaced Gan with decimers.

Now, this is a suggestion made by, I think, Peter to talk about favourite episodes.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Cool.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

[35:22]

You're going to need a lot of colours on your pie chart for that.

This sounds like a euphemism.

This is just amongst ourselves.

So this is everyone gets an even slice of the pie.

And I'm going to ask you first, Si.

Okay, to me, there's no doubt.

Terminal is the best episode of Blake 7.

It's got a sense of dread and doom throughout it that starts at the start where everything feels a bit off and ends with Avon smile, which feels justified.

It's just an amazing piece of work that I loved from reading a synopsis of it right through to seeing it as the final episode of Blake 7 that I ever saw.

So because I saw it in the wrong order, like we all do.

And just when you think it can't get any better.

Jacqueline Pierce arrives for the last 10 minutes and steals the show from everyone else.

And of course, she gets maximum power, which inspired the whole podcast name.

[36:26]

So, you know, it's just absolutely the perfect end until they do another end.

So, yeah, another 2 pieces.

So it sounds like you'd like to revise your choice of Chris Boucher to Terry Nation.

No, he would.

Okay, thank you.

Great answer there for terminal.

Pete, you're up.

The best episode of Blake 7.

I mean, Blake 7 mainly is a series that enables fruity character actors to get to do amazing little turns once in a while, and on that basis alone.

I'm sticking my flag in orbit.

John Savidant as a glory and gives a performance that just reaches to the stars even while he is kept in a basement throughout the entire episode.

The word, and it's not, you can do fruity dialogue like that on autopilot, and it isn't at all.

Robert Holmes is, um, it, it's setting things up and the, like, and you know, obviously the power play between him and Servolan is, uh, is, is funny.

She gets to, she, Jacqueline Pierce is clearly loving it. she loves everything, but particularly that her scenes with him.

[37:33]

And there's the teasing of a villa between and him and Avon, sort of both teasing their relative apprentices, almost, and there's layers to that.

Yeah, it's it's and it's dark and brutal.

And then we've got the end scene, of course, which is, I think, the most dramatic moment of television.

That wasn't being melodramatically.

That wasn't a melodramatic.

I was just clarifying that I had finished my sentence.

Oh, like the melodrama meta.

So, yeah.

Orbit very narrowly beating another episode by Robert Holmes that ends in bit to be my favourite episode.

Marvellous.

Thank you.

I think for me, because I really love bleak dystopian sci-fi. and I'm much more of a gun than a frock, I would say.

Blake, for me, because I just think it ends the series where it should have ended it and it ended it to me in a way that most TV series don't end.

[38:39]

And whoever was saying they're still alive, Mark, I think, because he's not here, whatever, or Pete when we recorded it.

They're all dead, by the way.

No, I love it.

I think direction's fantastic at the end.

I think terminal is probably a, you know, better constructed, um, story and I think Nathan, you said actually, also that Blake is a bit of a repeat of that, but I just think, because the ending is so brutal.

I love it.

So, it's cool.

Brilliant.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, got me to my TED talk.

Your dead talk.

That's a Travis 2 live delivery.

You're a dead talk.

James.

Well, well, I was going to say cyclic a destroy.

I think I didn't mean it.

No, I can't mean it.

No.

No, no, no, no.

No, for me, it's sick like head destroyed because I think that's where Blake 7 becomes Blake 7, at least for the first.

[39:43]

Yep.

You know, a couple of years of what it's formulated as before we retool it.

It brings in Servoland.

It brings in Travis, it brings in the revenge quest plot line, and it really kind of gives a structure to the end of the 1st season, which kicks it up a notch.

I agree.

I mean, I love the 1st 5 episodes, but cyclic cape destroyer just kind of feels like there's a huge new energy coming to the show from those 2 actors.

Great.

I did wonder if anyone was going to choose a series A episode.

Not because series A is bad, but just because what happens later, but no, that's a great choice.

So Siri is bad.

Tuesday is bad.

Kidding.

I love series.

This is terry nation.

I think it secretly because James loves the robot.

Yeah, kissing fire.

[40:44]

Didn't we almost call our episode?

Yes.

Get an antibiotic for that kind.

It's orange.

Peter.

I think that the run of Star One, Aftermath and PowerPlay remains the best television, certainly the best genre television I have ever seen.

I absolutely adore those episodes, but also I have a big soft spot for the children around, which I don't think gets nearly enough credit for being a great episode.

Yeah.

If you, if you had to, if you had to pick one.

Aftermath.

Aftermath.

I had a feeling you might say aftermath, just because what it does, how it reformats things.

Yeah.

Those were Peter's choices. felt them die.

Off them off is so confident of reboot.

It's possibly the most confident episode of the whole series.

It was the one I watched this morning before we did the recorded because it always feels like this is the start of something really exciting and yeah, you can see Terry Nation is really enjoying being back to do this.

[41:55]

There are more great scenes in aftermath than in all of 1980s Doctor Who.

That's a very big call.

I know.

Gasp.

So three.

Okay, I just want to say one per doctor.

The Australian contingent had dinner tonight before we recorded.

And we all waxed lyrical, including Rod, waxed lyrical on Paradise Tower.

That's true.

Yeah, I wasn't.

Yeah, Simon wishes to distance itself from that conversation.

But I would point out the part we were praising the most was the cliffhanger where Mel is covered in a crocheted blanket and threatened with a toasting.

Anyway, Simon.

Well, I said this as we were going through, but my favourite is Death Watch.

I think whilst it's not a perfect episode.

[42:56]

I think it's the best distillation of Blake 7 at its best for me.

It's got the right amount of camp with the right amount of action.

It's got the right amount of extra characters in it.

It feels like the galaxy is a big and interesting and diverse place with the different cultures that we're experiencing.

It just really, really speaks to me as about, I think, what the series could have done more of.

I do want to give just other honourable mentions without going into detail, Horizon, a killer, aftermath power play, because thanks to the omnibus, video release.

It is one episode, as Peter was kind of implying, and orbit, of course.

And Simon, I think you said when we did our Death Watch podcast, you said to me privately that Death Watch is the most Blake 70 of Blake 7 episodes, which I then stole and said on the podcast 1st just to annoy you.

Thank you for correcting that role.

Still not forgiven.

That's great.

Nathan.

Well, I'm going to take up something that Simon just said, which is I'm going to vote for killer.

[44:02]

Wow.

And look, partly I didn't want to trade it on everyone else's toes because I knew that we were doing this sort of round robin thing.

So I wanted to pick something that might have been overlooked, but you've got Bob Holmes coming into a show and instantly nailing what's great about it and producing like a standout episode.

And so it has all of the things.

It has weird Blake 7, you know, the 61 Signi thing and the Terran ague and like a zombie coming to life and murdering a guy and then a plague breaking out.

Like it's that weird, terrifying Blake 7 that there's something before, before Terry Nation does it in terminal, I think.

There's something terrifying out there that's unknowable and inimical to us.

I think that's incredible.

I think it's got good things for Villa and Avon, you know, who are paired up, and then you've got Blake off with Dr. Belfriar, which I think is really great.

[45:03]

All of these people are sort of experts.

The guest stars are really interesting.

Everything goes to hell.

It's bleak and dark. everyone dies.

That unforgettable moment when Bellfriar dies and goes, 0 my god, I've forgotten how to read and then puts his hands to his face and his hands are covered in blisters and and then the moral dilemma at the end.

You know, should we tell Silverland, or should we not?

And so it's got all of the elements that the show has. and they're just all kicked up a notch and all done incredibly well.

It's a normal episode of Blake 7, but I think it's one of the best normal episodes.

That's weird because it leaves me completely and utterly cold and I don't understand why I don't like it.

It's really bizarre.

That's because you caught the Terran Aiku.

It must be because you're wrong.

I'm usually wrong.

I mean, I think one of the reasons why I love it, and I'd suggest that basically all the episodes I suggested feel like they're slightly different, and I'm actually surprised that you really like killer that much because I'd have thought that'd be too bleak for you.

[46:07]

You'd like your Black 7, a little bit kind of stranger and...

It's still zany.

It's not zany.

Well, it's got Jean Hudson dressing everyone as con dogs.

Yes, but...

It's got a consistent world there and it's actually, it is that you said, it's quite bleak and it's also quite, one of the reasons I love it and I also love Horizon for the same reason.

It has a feeling for me that it's being made by grown-ups who are taking it seriously and that is really great.

But I think Death Watch distils the nature of the show and what the shaper becomes better.

I also believe that Alan Pryor had the Taryn Agu.

Oh my god.

I've forgotten how to write.

The one thing that lets it down, though, is that Blake explains the transmission of a virus to a virologist.

That's a very Blake thing to do.

He knows.

I have to find, I say, it's probably one of the episodes where Blake is least annoying despite that.

[47:11]

Yeah, despite the Blake explaining.

Yes, but...

Robert Holmes writes him very differently.

Robert Holmes writes him with kind of a vernacular of the 20th century, which he doesn't have anywhere else.

He's doing that.

We're talking about sandwiches and Lord Jeffrey Ashley and stuff like that, sandwich, the 1st occurrence of the word sandwich and maybe the only one in Blake 7.

Um, you know, because because Holmes is such a wordsmith and so interested in language.

You know, I think I think it's just it's a perfect thing, that episode, I think.

Thank you very much And how about you?

Well, killer was on my list and it's one of the ones that I didn't know much about before I watched it for the podcast, but my pick and Volcano.

The robot.

Correct series.

But my pick is one that has just stayed with me ever since I watched it as a kid and it's sarcophagus.

Oh, wow.

Oh good choice.

Yes.

And you know, I love a bottle show that's written well.

[48:14]

I love the fact that it does interesting things with the characters.

I love that it develops the Callie and Avon relationship in such a way that it doesn't really change it by the end of the episode and yet it tells you more about what they feel about each other than any other episode has.

That fantastic scene at the start where Avon comes calling on Callie in her cabin.

He says, that's why you've been in here for a week, just thinking about our on.

And she says, I'm all right.

He says, no, you're not, but you will be.

Yes.

It's absolutely, and it's a rare opportunity for Paul Darrow to play vulnerable without losing any of his character strength.

It's Avon being vulnerable to help Callie feel better.

I wish I could tell you that the sparkling company on the flight tech would take you out of yourself.

Exactly.

It's kind of like, okay, you know, I've been charming and nice now.

I have to insult someone in 30 seconds or I'm going to have an aneurism.

Yeah.

Also, that look between them at the very end of the episode says so much without them saying any words whatsoever.

[49:20]

It's a masterpiece of direction.

It's so good.

Yeah.

And also, I find that Villa, Dana and Tarrant being subjugated by the alien, very often when that sort of thing happens in science fiction, it's a result of the characters having behaved stupidly, and it's not here.

You know, they each do try to do something to overcome it that's clever and true to their characters, but it doesn't work.

You know, they don't fail because of a failing in themselves.

But the reason that Avon wins is, even though he can show that he cares, he can also switch that off.

But he does that because he cares about everyone.

Yeah, it's brilliant.

It's intelligent writing, intelligent direction, and we've only got our regulars, good performances.

Yes.

Yes.

Over the course of our many, many, many episodes.

Our GIF Master, Pete, has created all the wonderful gifts that have accompanied each episode.

[50:21]

You can find them on the website and they're in the process of being added to tenor.

And Pete, please tell us what are our top 5 most used gifts.

Well, it's quite remarkable.

Yeah, Tanner, since I've been uploading them to that, it sometimes takes them persuading, it doesn't like them if those people appear to be being shot or maimed, but when you have to use the right keywords, but the ones that I've put up there so far, I get stats on, and the top 5 may be surprising.

At number five, we've got everybody's faces wobbled you to G-Force, the 1st time they get on board, a liberator. 755 people have, at some point, found that a useful contribution to a conversation.

But do you have to put it into the search?

But I don't think people are typing in like 7 Facebook.

I think they're just looking, they're doing, you know, the stress or something like that.

Surprisingly, perhaps the most popular GIF of a spaceship with 838 shares is the Scorpio flying off into the distance. zooming away.

Oh, that, yeah, yeah.

[51:22]

Literally.

Liberator is not in the top five.

Very surprising.

Oh, gas.

Oh, is the credits every week?

Yeah.

It is one, some people have commented it looks like Wally because it's like, it's engines look like, what are you going away?

Yeah, yeah.

That's the last we're going to hear of any of our major cast members or spaceships as we get into the top three.

Oh, wow, okay.

In 3rd place, 2000 people have shared a spider climbing onto Glynis Barber's hand.

So it is actually Gloomis Barber's hand does make the top three.

Number two, there have been over 3000 shares of shrieking intensifies.

Like 7 superstar Beth Morris standing next to a door shrieking and screaming from mission to destiny.

But number one, and I get an email from Tenner.

Every time something gets shed more than a 100 times, and there was a fortnight where I was getting updates more than hourly about the runaway success of one which I used the caption, or the 1st tag I put on it was Old Man Screams.

[52:28]

And the other tags were Richard Herndel, like some assassin, because it's Richard Herndel turning and doing this very 1930s face where he gets murdered was being was being shared 1000s of times a day for about a week, about 6 months ago.

And I don't know why or by whom?

It really took off.

I was going to say, shrieking intensifies.

They probably just experienced the last 5 years.

Pretty much, you can't see why these moments chime.

This is Blake 7's relevance to the 2020s. definitely, yeah.

Yeah.

But also, there are a plethora of server land gifts that have all been shared 100 times each, because of course, there's so much to choose from, I suppose.

I don't have the time to do the maths.

Yeah.

So can I just say that the maximum power website hosts 1381 gifts from Blake 7's 52 episodes?

It's not enough.

And that they they take up 14.25 gigabytes of space compared to your bill soon compared to maximum power, which currently has 63 episodes and only takes up 5.06 gigabytes of space.

[53:41]

So essentially, maximum power is a gift repository more than it is a podcast.

The podcast attached.

There is a reservoir in Florida devoted to...

We're very grateful.

You guys over there better get to deleting those emails, I think.

The maximum power gift database weighs 73 kilos.

So this lake that's been used to cool down the server farm.

Is that a, what?

There's a lake being used to cool down server lap.

Her titlers are on fire.

Sorry. on fire.

Is it a flooded slave pit on a surprise?

Brendan, I enjoyed your introduction there of Peter's the gift master.

All I could think of was children of our own.

And now, since the untimely destruction of the gift master.

[54:44]

Well, once again, thank you, Pete, for all the incredible work you did on this, and I have to say my personal favourite gift is actually from rescue, and it's just the slow zooms on everyone's faces when Dorian's like, or are you?

And then slow zoom, slows zoom, slow zoom.

Slow zoom on Darrow, which you then push in further right up his nose.

Absolutely.

Because I'm watching waiting for it to end.

And I just was mercurating myself with amusement.

I think my favourite is the one that you did for the end of terminal where you kind of jump cut, that last shot of the old turning away from the screen.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Spiced it up a little bit, yeah.

I like the one.

I think my personal favourite is the link leaping out on top on onto Cali.

I added a rare...

[55:45]

I try not to because I could easily spend a lot more time making each gift than was made making the actual episodes of play.

I can't do count away with frame rates.

And probably more care.

I still love space grooving.

Yeah, me too.

The 1st ones.

Now, the last question we had on our listener survey was worst relationship.

Here are...

Filthiest.

Yeah.

Now, the nominees were.

Blake and Inger.

That kind of worst.

Avon and Anna.

Sue Len and Dorian, Dana and Justin, Taranton Ziona.

Oh, it's a good one.

And Blake and Avon.

I decided not to include Avon and Serverland for some reason, and I'm sure I knew what that was several months ago, but I don't now.

I'm just going to go through the bottom 4 really quickly.

[56:46]

So 3 votes is Avon and Anna.

Four votes is Sue Lynn and Dorian.

Five votes is Villa and Carol, and 6 votes is Blake and Avon.

What about Pennant Roberts and a camera script?

A fairly toxic relationship.

George Spenton Foster and drama.

And television.

Any comments on any of those.

So that was Blake and Avon, Villa and Carol, Avon and Anna, and Sue Leonard, Dorian.

I don't see how Sue Lin and Dorian can count because Dorian's gay.

That's why it's terrible.

No, it's great.

They're sharing makeup tips.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dorian and the C double, surely.

A series of sea devils wings.

And also, Pete, going back to what you said about Agrorian being a great performance that reaches for the stars, even though he spends the episode in a basement, I refer you to the sea devil.

[57:47]

I thought you were going to pump for agrorian and Pinder.

I don't know how I didn't put that in.

And I actually went and checked.

And they'd need someone to pump for them.

What about Tarrant and Serverland?

Yeah, I didn't put Surveline in and I don't know why.

Yeah.

Maybe I thought she'd be...

What about Terrant and Terrant?

What about Taron?

What about Taron?

Jarvis and Captain... wrong with me?

Surely any relationship with Surbilan, is it the best relationship until you're killed?

Yeah that's right.

I don't care.

You're dead on the floor of the control room and she treads over you.

She steps over.

I'm dead.

I don't care.

My writing would be for Avon and Dell Grant and they're looping up that shaft that they've got.

Get your hand in there.

My fingers are crapping.

[58:50]

He's talking around in there.

Oh no.

Right.

Quickly.

I will say that in in Lucifer.

Paul Darrow does describe a character as having 2 wives, one male, one female.

And it's just a throwaway line, and there's also other, wait, characters who referred to as having same-sex partners and what have you, and it's like, oh, the Federation's fine with that.

It's just like, you know, don't think for yourself.

Right. moving hastily along. from Tom Chadbond's fingers.

With 12 votes, we have Taranton Ziona.

I love that relationship.

So do I. I can't get past the nylon hair.

And what about the owner?

You both owe me money.

Is that because the static, Nathan?

You just can't get past.

That's what happens to her.

It's not the radio.

[59:50]

She takes her glove off and there's a massive static shock from a nylon hair.

Well, it looks like, does it?

Yeah. doesn't look like a virus.

Any thoughts on Taranton, Fiona, UK chaps.

Nope.

All just shit their heads. have nothing to say.

It's all right.

She's very much, she's got that Toya.

Look, Toya was up in the charts at the time.

It's better than I would have expected.

A tyrant gets a romantic interest who isn't server-out episode to be.

That would faint praise.

I think it's great, but actually the better chemistry in that episode is the owner in Sulin.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

That's true.

Coming in 2nd with 18 votes. is Blake and Cousin Inger.

Oh, what is wrong with that?

Can you stop listening at once?

You're going to find out what, you're going to find out what's number one.

I'm just saying.

I've just seen it.

[1:00:52]

Is it same on an a decimal?

and toys.

And it's the right thing.

I guess we can do 10 things.

Like it's got to range.

You mean Inga, the daughter of Blake's father's brother.

Yes, yes.

It's legal in many American states.

South of the Mason Dixon line.

It's just a bit icky, isn't it?

And she's so young compared to him as well.

So considering they haven't seen each other for some time, this is this is Dana, Justin, time again, and yeah, it's just not a good idea.

Oh, wait, I thought we were voting for good relationships.

No, no, it's worst relationship.

Okay, all right, fine.

Which, um, I withdraw the decimal same, I'm there.

Because that's a, that's a hanger.

I thought that was an insight.

Well, Cy has given me a wonderful segue there because with 75 votes, it's Dana and Justin as our worst relationship.

[1:02:00]

I think it's disgusting.

You know, I do I do wonder, you know, when Gisette talks about, I'm not going to go into detail, but I wasn't treated very well on the set.

Is it primarily this episode?

Wait, did Joseph say this?

one really bad week?

Yeah.

Oh wow.

I didn't know that actually.

What a shame.

But, you know, she doesn't, she doesn't sort of go, she doesn't sort of go into detail about whether she was talked down to or whatever, but it sounds like it was kind of, she just wasn't listened to.

You know, and maybe she maybe she kind of went.

He's old enough to be my grandfather.

Can we not?

So do you mean she wasn't listened to on the animal set?

Oh, she she says in general, I'm just wondering if it's this. if this is the if this is the turning point where she's just like, just shoot me.

Oh, Chris?

Okay, thanks.

Good.

Canadian.

One really bad week at the office can become your abiding memory of a job that you've left to cut it.

[1:03:02]

It's her worst performance as well, isn't it?

She can't find a way of making it work and she's magnificent in literally every other episode she's in.

But she's terrible in that.

And just, but also, let a lot of that, think about that episode, one more rewrite away from salvageability, somehow, putting some, like, you know, tweak it so that she's, like, as we discussed on the episode, you know, it's one of those ones where the wheels, the wheels didn't have to fall off.

So you've got the, but you've just gone through the script and crossed out Cali and put Dana in and and surprise, surprise, it doesn't work.

No, but all you would need to do is like remove the animals and the hypnotism chair.

Jumping script, Justin, or recast, Justin, and maybe reshoot the scene where Avon barrels into the into the underground base and nearly falls over.

Oh, no, don't reshoot that.

Actually, I think as I said on the episode, the only thing you really need to do is scribble out Callian writing Dana and then scribble out Dana and write in Sulin.

[1:04:02]

Yes.

Yeah, yes.

I think the concept of the animals is not such a terrible idea.

Making them look like they're in a Monty Python sketch is the terrible idea.

It's all contributing to the horny atmosphere.

I think it's more than one rewrite away from...

I think it's one rewrite away from just being terrible.

It requires a cure for the terran ague.

Oh, thank you.

Yes, I was just about to say, was that Bob Holmes going, tear nation, terenaicu, shark, shark, shark, shark.

Well-known fact, Taron Aiku was also a background character in the way back.

It's a very little known fact.

Colin has also suggested that we indulge in a little bit of fantasy casting.

[1:05:07]

Obviously, I'm not expecting us to go through a recast every single cast member.

So I'd just like us to take a moment and think if there were a modern big budget remake of Blake 7.

I'd just like everyone to think of one piece of recasting that they would do.

I would get Daisy Haggard to play everyone.

God, okay.

Thank you, Nathan.

Right, Cole.

I would cast as Avon, Ruth Wilson.

Oh, damn.

I was going to say that.

Me too.

Maybe I told you maybe I told you that for years ago or something.

I mean, I would also cast her as serverland.

Oh, actually, yeah.

Maybe you could play all of those.

Haggard's part.

It's Sean Pertwee as server.

Interesting.

No, yeah, Ruth Olson is Avon.

I mean, and I'm not thinking about his dark materials.

[1:06:09]

I'm thinking about her playing.

I think it was Alice from Luther.

She's fucking psychotic.

It's brilliant.

So that's why I think of her as Avon.

And, you know, I think I may have mentioned this a long, long time ago.

I was sitting in a meeting at Microsoft, when there were some people from the US presenting, and they said, we are bringing back Blake 7.

And I was like the only person that went, yay, and of course they never did it.

Okay, then, go on.

I will give us a recast of Villa.

And I'm going to go for Adrian Lester.

It's purely on the basis of his performance in hustle where he can do the sly sleight of hand stuff.

He can pull off the sort of changes of mood really well.

I think he would be be surprised.

Actually, he could probably play anyone in the cast and would be superb, but I think I could just see him sort of playing that playing it slightly more sinisterly than Michael Keating does, maybe a bit more like the way back version of Villa, and I think that would be really interesting.

[1:07:15]

I was going to say, I'd recast Aurak as the thing tune from Hustle.

No, Kenneth Williams for act.

Don't you remember his name?

like one episode?

I see.

It's very beepy.

I see.

All right.

I'm going to say Phoebe Waller Bridge as Travis.

Oh, awesome.

Awesome, awesome.

Yeah, just Stephen Grief, Travis.

Yeah, Stephen Gross.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, you know, the sort of disdain of fleabag. with the actual force to back it up.

Very.

Assuming budget is not a problem. budget is not a problem.

Rosamond Pike as Jenna.

Yes, I like that.

She's probably a bit old now, but I'm getting a bit old, but yeah.

Yeah.

I think we've been robbed of James Corden's Travis.

But actually, seriously.

[1:08:16]

I think Timothy Chalamet Tarrant.

And before you laugh, Timothy Chalamet is 10 years older than Stephen Pacy was.

Yes, right.

I think Timothy Challa makes too pretty though. and Stephen Pacy's not really...

Tarant 70s, pretty.

Yes, I suppose so.

I suppose so.

Yeah, actually, no, that works.

That works.

It's that thing, too, that when you see someone on television and you're a child.

They're just always...

Like he never looks like a 20 year old, which he actually is.

Ruth Wilson's being Avon rather than Servoland, then I think Tenia Miller is born to play Servoland.

And not just because she's got short cropped hair and big eyes.

She has the same outline, a shackling Pitts.

But that's not the only reason she's such a good actor and she's and she could be really scary and sinister.

She is in a sci-fi thing called Foundation.

Yes.

Did I say Sci-fi?

because that's how I thought it was pronounced until I was about 14.

No, you said sci-fi.

You're good. you got it right.

Okay.

Okay.

But Alan didn't embarrass myself by doing that.

[1:09:17]

She, um...

And in that, she's, but she's a very servolanic character in there.

She is possibly channelling Jackie Pierce deliberately or maybe maybe she's just come to that for this particular role in this in this series where she's very servile Annie.

So yes, she would, she would be awesome.

So like.

She does the same thing in the peripheral. which is on Amazon, which no one has seen, I don't think.

Foundation also has Alfie Enoch in it.

Very good, Siri.

See, he could be a good terrant as well, actually.

Yeah.

He would.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Keeping sort of gender and race the same, though.

Lashana Lynch. as Dana.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

She's seen, what's it, the Day of the Jackal?

No, I haven't seen that.

Oh, I have seen that, but I can't remember that.

Yeah, yeah.

And the replacement of 007.

She's like the main character I think.

No time to die.

Yeah, yeah.

I just don't think anyone, anyone could really better those original performances.

[1:10:19]

No, it would be...

It would be such, it would be such a new thing that I'd kind of, I'd, I'd be fine for it to be called Blake 7, but it's like aside from a Blake, create all new characters.

This show should never be rebooted.

It would be impossible to capture the alchemy.

I think if you're rebooting it, you would just take the very, very, very basis of the concept and create a completely different show.

Like you wouldn't try to retell any of the episodes and you certainly wouldn't try to have, as you're sort of suggesting, Brandon, you wouldn't have exactly the same characters, certainly not exactly the same order.

You might use them as inspiration, but I think you actually just take the term of the idea and do a 21st century version.

Yeah, I mean, that is Firefly.

And Firefly is an equally successful and wonderful series.

And as James mentioned as well, we've got, you know, there's firefly, there's intergalactic.

There's Farscape, you know, all... when are we doing that?

[1:11:23]

Is that the puppets one?

That's the, it's got puppets, puppets in Queensland.

It's all in fucking Queensland.

It's also Ben Browder in very tight...

Have you watched Animal?

It's also Ben Browder in very, very, very tight leather trousers.

And I have to say Claudia Black in very, very, very tiny open trousers.

But yeah, that is that is the interesting thing is that there's been a few series.

It seems like every 5 or 6 years, someone comes up with a series that it feels like the core idea of Blake 7 spun off in another direction.

You know, it's because it's such a good solid idea, but to push back on a lot of those series that were just mentioned, the only one that captures the character dynamic is Firefly, and that's the core of Blake 7.

Yeah.

See, the main problem that I have with the original program. which would be corrected with any, with any remake, is because I, I sort of always feel that it's never quite sure what it's being.

Yes.

Is it is it trying to tell this kind of overall story of these rebels trying to bring down the federation or is it just going from this place to this place and discovering a virus here and a put upon civilisation there and so on. you know what I mean?

[1:12:32]

Like, so it's a bit of everything.

And I think that's the thing.

That's the thing that kind of gives it a unique flavour, the fact that it's kind of just a bit of all this stuff and we're doing something different.

We're not sure what we're doing.

Whereas I think if you were making it now, perhaps unfortunately, all that would be kind of purified.

Yeah, there'd be a series Bible, which would tell you exactly how the Federation hierarchy works, et cetera.

I mean, one of the great things about Blake 7 is the Federation is different every week, as we've said before.

It's like an anthology show in a way.

And it's one of the things that I love about television is that it doesn't go according to plan. and that it discovers things about itself as the show goes along.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think Blake 7 definitely does that.

It ends up in a vastly different place from where it started.

And that's a good thing and it's super interesting and it's nothing that Terry Nation would ever have planned.

But the trajectory ends up being just massively interesting.

And so I think a reboot would absolutely smooth all of that over and sandpaper it down and and, you know, make it sort of glossy and sensible in a way that Blake 70s.

[1:13:44]

But I think that's one of the beauties of Blake 7 and is that by accident or design or like lack of time, the concept of the show is so sprawling.

Like, and I find that believable.

Like this Federation can be all these things.

It can be, you know, these weird colonial worlds.

It can be people drugged in a dome on earth.

It can, you know, have clone masters or whatever because there can be a 5th quadrant.

Yeah, I can have aliens made of pizzas.

You can fly spaceships made of colandists.

And that is, it makes it feel like a real universe to me because it's, it's so vast.

And part of the reason I think it has that feel is that while it has the territory deterination core, you've got that writing system where, yeah, a writer of the week can come in and can do anything and sometimes it works and sometimes it contradicts and it doesn't quite work in a world building sense, but it has that freedom to do that.

[1:14:58]

And I don't know if it shows TV shows now, even the ones I love, um, so cohesive and so on brand to their own vibe, that you don't tend to get that level, that sort of scatter on writing, which it ultimately is what gives Blake 7, the fascinating nooks and crannies, uh, that it has.

Absolutely.

And you wouldn't get all the interesting way that characters come to the fore.

So something like Jacqueline Pierce coming in and then realising that they've got an asset in her and so they get her back for some more episodes.

You wouldn't have that sort of evolution of Avon because everything would be so set and they'd all have a character arc that they're following that's mapped out from the start.

Whereas what I love about Blake 7 is that all of that is on the fly as they're sort of realising what assets they've got, who likes to write for which characters.

And so those characters gain prominence sort of over time.

So it's, it kind of works as a whole, but it's never planned, and there is no way you'd be watching Spacefall and think by the end of the series, this show would belong to Paul Darrow, not in the way that Paul Darrow grasps the show by the balls by the end of it and remakes it in his own image.

[1:16:17]

And the same for Jacqueline Pierce coming in and seeklocate destroy.

There is nothing there to suggest that she will become the outstanding villainous, that she becomes by the end of the show, and one of the one of the key images that people think of when they think of Blake 7 of an evil dictator in a ball gown on a beach striding in silver sandals, you know.

None of this is planned.

And because of that, it feels so natural because it's just going wherever it wants to go.

And that's what I love about the series.

Hear, hear.

It's also the fact that if I can kind of expand on that or sort of have the other side of the coin that we're sort of talking about, you know, we're talking about also a world where, I mean, there are deadlines, there are, we have to start rehearsals for this episode in this week because the filming's that weekend, this, we're in studio the following week.

These scripts are being delivered by mail.

If you want to change something.

[1:17:17]

You have to retype the entire thing.

You know, you're getting a script from one writer in the mail, a big thud through the door.

You have to read it.

You've already told, though, this other writer who's halfway through the script and is deciding to be in Majorca that week or something because they've gone there to write it and they're not mailing it back to you until next week.

So you can't possibly keep up with making the various blue page changes or whatever the hell they are and what they do now in a way that can iron out all those things.

It's not just that it's going in a direction wherever they want it to go as it progresses.

It's chaos.

They're not properly able to control how it's being made because they just can't keep up because the timelines just aren't allowed.

Yeah, and there's no writer's room.

And so Chris Boucher is the only common element.

One week you've got Robert Holmes doing his thing.

Next week you've got Taneth Lee doing hers.

Next week you've got Alan Pryde doing whatever he does.

And that's where the series organically springs from.

[1:18:18]

It's no one vision.

It's people off in their corners going, I think we'll do this with Blake 7 and it's just happening.

Yes, and the Chris Bouncers of the world, just softening it a little bit, uniting it a little bit, but there's only so much...

Yes.

And that's potentially why a lot of people don't rate series A is because it's all one person's vision.

It's too monolithic.

But I mean, even series A has that massive course correction in episode 6 where it's kind of like...

What of that?

we're doing this.

Yeah, exactly.

And the funny thing is, when you watch the episodes in order, you can see the prelude to that is we have the 1st 4 episodes, which assembles the crew.

And then we get the web, which is so weird and atypical because it's just like, oh, okay, we'll go to this alien planet and do this thing.

And you can almost hear the phone conversation between Chris Boucher and Terry Nation, where they're both saying to each other, hold on, isn't this about to, they're supposed to be about fighting some disasteredly federation.

[1:19:19]

Why are we going to this man in a tank and his like, and his muddy mud heap servants and one of the robots from the robots of death?

Why are we going over here?

And then Terry Dation's like, oh, I suppose we need a villain, you know?

Well, there's a certain amount of that built into the series structure because I seem to remember reading like an early warning drama synopsis or, you know, something for series B or whatever, where they'd planned the 1st half of the season, but not the 2nd half.

And so they just pencilled in, say, for episode 10, space adventure.

Yeah.

So it's like, this isn't going to be something which is about the Federation or the ongoing story.

It's going to be weird, Blake 7, is basically what they're saying.

It's time for one of those episodes.

It's going to be the theme music for the cybermen.

I think going back to kind of what you're saying about why we suddenly in this plays.

I wonder how much of that is because so many of the people involved with making the series are Doctor Who people.

Yes.

And so there is a certain part of their creative brain that will default to what you do in Doctor Who.

[1:20:21]

And I think that shows up in some episodes more than others.

Yes, fair.

I like that Yeah, the flexibility of the format. and there's the pro and cons of that, isn't it?

That means the BBC has Doctor Who knowledge in house.

Yeah. like they can sense themselves.

We're not going to do it, like, it's not Doctor Who.

We're going to do this differently.

But they've done it.

They've made these explosions happen before.

Look, I've been playing 7 may have finished, but people will go on watching it.

Like the BBC kept doing reruns.

Series D was still being shown into 1983 and they just, I wish they'd kept going, kept going with those reruns.

They shouldn't have given it up.

Like Casey and the Sunshine Band, who were singing that they shouldn't give it up that very week that Blake got repeated. in August 1983.

Oh, Pete.

And who might do it?

Who knows?

Maybe it will be back on BBC 11 day.

Absolutely brilliant.

It wouldn't be an episode with you in it without that.

Is that a casing in the sunshine band?

Hish, I Never knew.

Maybe it'll be back on BBC 11 day.

[1:21:34]

Speaking of what got us into Blake 7.

Now, clearly for Pete, it's the opportunity to link it to the charts.

But we're going to wrap up by talking about what Blake 7 means to each of us and also we're going to share each a personal favourite moment or favourite episode of the podcast.

So I'm going to start with you.

Sorry.

What blakes of them means to me?

Well, it's my 2nd favourite TV show.

And I think because I saw it as a kid and fell in love with series D that I remember being so desperate to see the rest of it and find out what Blake 7 was like before those episodes and having the long wait to see them, that that anticipation sort of got me through.

And, What I've, What I've sort of grown to find is that it's a series that really, um, rewards a rewatch, and you see it in different ways, sort of, at different times in your life, and um, different things sort of hit, and sort of watching the series in order, which this is only the 2nd time I've ever watched Blake 7 in order, which seems ridiculous.

[1:22:49]

But that's, that's sort of the nature of the way that I discovered the show was that you dip in and dip out.

Um, I found so much sort of does carry through and does get through and found new ways to appreciate it sort of by, by watching it with a bit of a critical eye this time.

So, yeah, I mean, it's just something I love and it's been embedded in my life since 1983.

So for the majority of my life, I've I've loved this show.

Sometimes it comes and goes, but it's something that I've watched with various partners down the years to smaller or lesser degrees.

My new partner, Jason, I got him to sit down and watch aftermath, and he even said that wasn't too bad.

I think that sort of says something. like him.

Yeah.

It just sort of goes on being part of my life to a bigger or smaller degree.

And I've loved sort of doing this with all of you guys and sort of getting to know all of you a bit better sort of through doing this.

[1:23:52]

And I think I'm desperately proud that we've done the series justice at last and we were possibly the 1st podcast to actually do all 52 episodes.

That's quite an incredible achievement.

And that's what me and Colin set out to do.

If we're going to do this, we're going to do the whole lot and we're not going to stop by star one.

So, yeah.

There are so many great moments that I've had podcasting about this series and so many laughs all the way through and so many really great discussions.

I'm really fond of our episode on Horizon, which was an episode I came into knowing that I really liked it.

Um, but I wasn't sure that anyone else did, and we had a really great discussion about that episode, which I think did it so much more justice than I was expecting it to do.

But the one that really will always stand out is voice from the past because of just the suppression that everyone had to go through before we got to the end of that episode.

[1:24:56]

I could feel it as the host that everyone just wanted to explode with laughter.

And it was just that sheer joy at the very end of the episode when everybody, we just did the Siobhan impression.

And that just set everyone off, so much so that I had to put the complete laughter in over the end credits because it just would have felt wrong to edit that. was such a joy.

And I think sometimes we've had more fun discussing the episodes that haven't quite worked than we have discussing the episodes that we all know are brilliant because there's so much where we can see ways that nearly got there and failed because of Pennant Roberts or Alan Pryor.

You know, and that's that's what I love doing this for, is to analyse why some things don't hit as much as the ones that do hit and that's been brilliant.

Brilliant.

[1:25:57]

Thank you, Si.

Nathan.

You know, I was going to nominate the Horizon episode, not because it's the one necessarily where I had the most fun, and special mansion goes to our episode odd weapon, which was hilarious, and we had a great time.

But it's exactly what you said, Cy.

I went into that.

I didn't think Horizon was all that good, and I have a really, really strong memory of watching it as a child.

And so I started watching it, and it's really interesting.

It's got a strong, you know, guest.

It's got an interesting thing to say about colonialism and the federation and power and all sorts of stuff.

And then to join in with a group of people who all also raised it for similar reasons, who had found it was a thing that was actually worth discussing, that there were things in it that were worth talking about as opposed to merely laughing at.

[1:27:02]

And Blake 7 provides lots of both of those types of things, I think.

And that's probably why I like it.

I also think, too, we're all sort of massive Doctor Who nerds and Doctor Who is huge and sprawling and goes on forever and you could never stop learning about it.

Blake 7 was sort of a nice contained thing to have a sort of level of expertise in, a little bit more manageable.

And so that was always fun.

But this silly show that made itself up as it went along. managed to produce some incredible television, some great moments and just some incredible nonsense as well throughout the years.

It's pretty great.

Look, I came to Blake 7 very late.

I knew about it.

I'd heard about it because, you know, it kept being referenced in all of these Doctor Who books that I'd read, you know, and if it was like the casting of Jacqueline Pearce and Paul Darrow in season 22, for instance, they were from Black 7.

I thought, gosh, when will I get to see that?

Now, it was on when I was watching Doctor Who.

[1:28:05]

I just didn't know it was on.

It was on late at night, quite late at night on the ABC.

And we had a program for many years called Back Chat, which allowed listeners to write in with their views on ABC programming.

And one of the things that seemed to be an ongoing thing in the late 80s was people writing in asking for a repeat of Blake 7 through. was me.

I heard a cry.

And all your alter egos too, it would seem, because there were quite a few letters.

And Tim Bowden kept reporting that the word from on high was that Blake 7 was telegenically dead. was an expression that I explicitly remembered sometime in the letter.

Cool, but fair.

But that didn't stop them repeating other things that were teleogenically dead, frankly.

Anyway, so I was introduced to it, as I've said a couple of times on this podcast, thanks to Peter and a VHS tape.

It would have been 1990, so I'm 18 years old.

It contains Dawn of the Gods, Harvest of Chiros, City at the Edge of the World, and Children of Our On. And so they were the 1st 4 episodes of Blake 7 I ever saw with Harvest of Caros being the 1st one, for some reason, because that's where the tape was up to.

[1:29:16]

And I loved it.

I was watching it though.

I was coming to it in 1990 where there was a void in my life, which had suddenly appeared.

And so for me, my relationship with Blake 7 is, I'm afraid, has always been a substitute for Doctor Who, because that's what it was.

And so I like you, I was watching it in a sort of a random order because I think after that I watched the way back and then I watched aftermath and then I watched something else. you know, it was all kind of all over the players.

And in fact, I think there was some, it took me years and years to finish off those last couple of episodes that I hadn't seen.

But yeah, it felt so comfortable to watch it when I was watching it in 1990.

It looked like certain aspects of the Graham Williams era in the early Jane Tera.

It also, of course, sounded like Doctor Who of the late 70s.

So many of the same people, Reddit.

So for me, it's like a, it was this comforting security blanket.

And for that reason, it will always have to be 2nd to Doctor Who, it's always Doctor Who's poor cousin.

[1:30:20]

Now that doesn't mean I don't like the poorer cousin.

It just means that it is always going to be secondary.

I'd love doing this podcast.

It's great.

I think, like you said, I think this is only the 2nd time that I've watched the whole series through in the correct order.

Obviously, voice from the past was the episode that we had the most fun on.

It was ridiculously hilarious to talk about and laugh with.

We're laughing.

We're always laughing with it.

We're not laughing at it so much.

The episode.

All right, you're laughing at it.

But we were also laughing with it.

We were laughing with the...

We were like, okay, we were laughing.

I suppose the and I did also find the Horizon episode a very rewarding episode because I was surprised because I was expecting everybody else to not like it because it was one that I thought I was sort of, you know, a minority of one.

But I think the other rewarding episode, I'd point to his orbit.

I thought that was a very, very good discussion of one of the top, top tier black 7 episodes.

And I think I said, even though I can say Death Watch before was my favourite Blake 7 episode, I'll reiterate that I think Orbit was the episode that Blake 7 was always working up to and Orbit is the reason Blake 7 exists.

[1:31:30]

That's a really good point.

Thank you, Simon.

So Blake 7, for me, was something that was sort of very shadowy as a child because it was scarier than Doctor Who.

Was it also redemption-y and weapony?

It was orbiting.

But, you know, aside from sort of very early memories of sarcophagus, which, of course, for a child was incredibly confusing.

I also came to it with the omnibus tape of the beginning and the security system aboard the liberator was terrifying.

And I remember the sound more than anything else.

And in terms of watching it, I'd only seen series A and series C all the way through when we started the podcast.

So coming to that, it's like, oh, you know, this is great because I understand how Doctor Who was being made at the time, so I understand how this was being made at the time.

And what that led to was when we did the episode on killer, which I had never seen before, it was suddenly going, this show can do... full-blooded horror sci-fi, yes, with some strange costumes thrown in, but aside from the Michelin men and the cockroach cloaks, everything is pulling in the same direction in this, and it is properly good drama, and there's that moment with Bellfriar you were talking about earlier, Nathan.

[1:32:54]

And that's, that's one of my favourite memory memories of recording it.

Because, of course, doing flight through entirety.

I'd seen all those stories again and again and again.

And then doing maximum power on an episode I hadn't seen and I had a preconception of because I have a preconception of, oh, you know, Blake 7, it's going to be a bit silly.

It's like, no, you get something like killer.

You get something like Horizon.

In the last series, you get, I'm trying to think of something very serious in the last series and I suppose Blake.

Sand, sand.

Actually, yes, sand is a good example.

On the other scale of that, doing star drive and just completely going off the deep end laughing on that one. was hilarious.

So that's been the wonderful thing about working with all of you is much like the show.

We go from the sublime and praising things unironically for being brilliant to the utterly ridiculous.

And yeah, I'm also thinking by the end of Moloch, we're all just sitting there like shell shocked, looking at it, looking at each other over webcams.

[1:33:59]

Is that because you knew there was another script coming?

Yes.

She will, but then she will.

Oh, God.

I think you guys have covered a lot of it.

I'm still in shock that some of you haven't watched it in the correct order every time in every episode.

It's like a big shot.

What?

It does, it, it, I have 2 sort of very distinct TV childhood memories.

One is Romano in Destiny of the Daleks in that sort of plastic tube, and the other is Sulin shooting herself, or the image of herself in games.

It's a bit of a theme there, I think.

But, and it was definitely something I watched as a kid, and I remember loving it.

And then I think I went for 20 years without seeing it.

And when I watched it again, I thought this is absolutely great.

And I think it's Nathan, for example, you were saying it was very contained. right?

And Peter, you've said in the past.

There isn't a bad episode of Blake 7.

There isn't, right?

It's all great, I think, if I've got that right.

[1:34:59]

And I think it just, it has, it's for contained seasons that don't have a chance to go wrong or to go bad and they stop it at the right point.

So I really love it because it's doing dystopian um future sci-fi.

I love that stuff.

It's bleak.

The characters are great.

It's become a template for many, many other things.

Yeah, I'm going to leave it another 20 years before I watch it again, I think, you know, and then listen, listen, listen to us.

I think I had the most.

I think I enjoyed our children of our episode most.

I think I remember really enjoying that and I think Simon, that was the one you hosted.

I think it was, we had a great discussion there.

So, um, but yeah, yeah, terrific hanging out with you space commanders.

Thanks, Colin.

James?

I was going to say, I'm not good to watch another 20 years to watch it again.

I'll probably waste another 20 minutes to watch this game.

I actually watch it when I get home from this podcast.

Good for you.

[1:36:00]

Blake 7 to me was the kind of, you know, naughty grown-up version of Doctor Who that I probably wasn't supposed to be watching.

My father, like with an earlier adopter of VHS tapes, We had VCR back in the early 80s, like a really clunky top loader, and he would spend so much of his money.

He still does with DVDs.

Not Blu-ray, though, strangely.

He would collect them all.

And so we had, I had a similar experience to Brendan.

We had all of the omnibus tapes and I got into Blake 7 sort of watching it from behind the sofa almost.

It was grown up and dangerous and naughty, like in a way that Doctor Who never really held that for me.

Doctor Who was for me, Blake 7 was something that was kind of grown up and forbidden.

[1:37:03]

And so like, that's what hooked me with Blake 7.

And that's why I like episodes like, you know, killer or, I mean, sick, like, hate destroy, because they're, like, it's, it's very gun.

I'm not a very gun person.

I'm quite a frock person, but it's because it's different.

It's so different from what those production teams were making for me as a child.

As in terms of favourite episode, probably one that I'm not on.

As in, I really enjoy listening to everybody else's opinions and I really enjoy with most of the podcasts that we're involved in.

I really enjoy helping make them happen.

And so I'm not really fussed about being on an episode.

I'd rather get the right people on that episode to talk about it.

And and so, I wouldn't be able to choose my favourite episode because they're all my favourites.

Yeah, so I couldn't, I've had such a wonderful time doing this podcast.

[1:38:07]

I couldn't have believed back during lockdown when it 1st got floated that this was something that I could contribute to as much as I have and then enjoy as much as I have and meet so many wonderful people and get to talk to so many wonderful people about this show.

Which, of course, is a moral.

I mean, it's a, it, it sets out, it's true nation's vision for how we should live our lives with morality, I think, just like Gene Roddenbury.

He was basically creating a religion for us.

And as long as we all adhere to his extremely cohesive worldview, then we'll be fine.

What I love the we keep going on that dot too, but we can't not.

It's this sweet and sour or whatever.

It's got that contrast.

The way it just bridges that really specific time period in our world from the late 70s to the early 80s where so much changed and, you know, the final episode.

It's built out of the same ingredients as the 1st episode, but it looks so different.

It changes from being a 70s show into an 80s show and then it stops.

It doesn't have to become a 90s show.

Uh, and it would have been amazing if it had, but the fact that it doesn't, does, it means it's this very solid thing that Doctor Who and other shows don't get to be, show that evolved and then, but then it's kind of locked down, despite all of the creative things that have been done with it since.

[1:39:20]

There's a humour to being a fan of Blake 7 about loving it when the wheels fall off just as much as when they don't, a universe without animals is just hard to imagine.

You said earlier, you're right, Terry Nation could have written a fantastic script to fill that slot, and it would be great, but it would just be another one of Terry Nation's scripts, even if it was a good one. having these occasional car crashes and still loving it is all part of the part of the experience.

And I don't know about picking up.

Yeah, it's impossible to pick for me to pick a favourite podcast episode, mainly because I've got memory like a sieve.

But even from the most recent batch, good examples of extremes are the episode for animals and the episode for gold, complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the consensus around the quality of the episode that we were reviewing, but it was just so much fun and getting to get into meet and talk to amazing people, getting to get into record of people like Kate Orman and Una McCormack.

It's just been amazing that those people have joined us and just had a good laugh with us as well.

It's been a heck of a ride.

[1:40:22]

So I think I've said before on the podcast that Blake 7 is my favourite series of all time.

It's the one that I can return to again and again, and as Colin just reminds us there, there are no bad episodes of Blake 7.

There are episodes which are great.

There are episodes which are great for different reasons.

I would refer you to Star one and then voice from the past.

I enjoy them both.

If not equally, kind of in different ways that I really love.

My favourite episodes of the podcast, I would also refer to Voice from the past and Harvest of Kyros, which were fun.

Also referring to our horizon discussion, something like Warlord, where we went in with a preconceived notion that it wasn't a very popular episode and then found huge numbers of things to love about the episode and realised that it was actually much stronger than the received wisdom would have you believe.

Blake 7 is indelibly linked with my childhood.

I watched the 1st runs, which were like 730 on weeknights.

[1:41:23]

Then there was a big repeat run of series A through C at close to midnight on Saturday night.

I was 8 years old.

My parents allowed me to stay up and watch this in the darkened living room while they went to bed on a Saturday night because obviously the next day was not a school day.

And when I think back on my childhood, that is some of my very, very happiest memories.

I can remember watching those episodes with them fresh in my mind, and the impact that they had on me, I think, formulated my ideas of what makes good drama, and to this day, is still probably based on that.

The only tantrum I ever threw as a child was when my grandmother refused to let me watch the repeat of power play because I was staying at her place, and my mum and dad were at a wedding, and you wouldn't believe the screaming fits that I had that I wasn't allowed to stay up and watch it.

I love this series.

I've loved doing this podcast and I think that I'll probably be watching Blake 7 next week.

[1:42:26]

I can actually attest to the fact that it's obviously your favourite series because you've actually bought merchandise in a way that you never did for Doctor Who.

Like, for instance, you have a teleport bracelet.

I do.

You don't have a police box or a dalek or anything like that.

No, the tell when I saw the teleport bracelet, I thought, how can I not have that?

And occasionally?

I still do put it on when I'm at home by myself.

But I will insist that this notion that there are no bad episodes with Lakes.

These are flawed premises.

When I saw your teleport bracelet.

I thought, how can I not put that on?

But I don't own one.

And I've never known anyone to not put it on and then instantly touch the button and say Callie.

It's always Kelly. because she's always at the teleport.

Just imagining Jan Chappel running on location and standing at a spot and lifting it up and Callie.

[1:43:28]

Look, but you're coming.

Yes, but I'm usually not here.

All that remains to be said is thank you to all of the panel.

Thank you to Mark, who, unfortunately, couldn't be with us today.

He's on the planet Morfennial, apparently.

Oh, okay.

We'll definitely, we'll definitely pop along there next week unless, unless some interesting volcano pops up or something.

No he's never coming back.

He took down a whole squadron of gunships.

There we are.

Joe's gone to stay at Dodo's aunt's house.

We'd also like to thank the many guest artistes we've had join us as well.

Pete's mentioned a few there.

But yeah, we've had absolutely amazing people.

And I don't think there's a single person.

We asked who said, oh, God, no, I'm not doing that old tag.

Not that I told you.

We had people queueing up to do it who weren't available or we just didn't have the right number of episodes to fit everyone in.

[1:44:32]

They need to make more blanks.

Yeah, well, we'll just have to get them on Avon a terrible aspect or the logic of empire.

That'll teach you.

Avon, a terrible novel.

I think I think the other thing, and you might be about to say this is a big, big thank you to James for organising us over the last 4 years.

No, you're absolutely right, and I think we should, I think we should leave that in.

Yes, big thank you, James, for tirelessly getting everyone's availability.

Yes.

I had hair at the start.

That's a lie.

I haven't had hair 20 years.

Every single every single time, that 4 or more people were able to gather around their computers at opposite ends of the world at the same time is thanks to James, getting got a sort of air fire.

Miraculous spreadsheet activity.

But I hope to never podcast at 9 AM ever again.

Well, all that remains, now that we have thanked the panel.

Thank James, thanked our many, many guest stars.

[1:45:34]

Thank Pete for all the gifts, is to thank you, dear listener, for following us through 60-something episodes, the five-star reviews sharing us on social media, following us when we abandoned a particular cesspit that used to be named after a bird, but is now a letter that he doesn't even have the rights to.

Yeah, brilliant marketing genius.

And you know what?

I've already signed off a finale of one podcast with this phrase and I'm going to sign off another one.

Thank you all so much for listening and good night.

Ta-ta.

Bye.

Bye bye.

Good night.

Bye.

Bye for now.

Good night.

That's the power.

Go, go!

30 seconds thrust, Maxi.

Switching command.

Maximum power on all drives.

Max 7 now.

[1:46:39]

Let's just figure out I'll go first, and then it's alphabetic order, which means it's me, Colin.

Nathan James.

James.

Okay.

And then Cy, Simon, Peter.

Okay.

Si, Simon, Pete, Peter is the end.

Psi doing this.

Can't sign do alphabetical order?

Okay. have to do this.

All right.

So I'm have to sign them.

Yes.

No, you're before...

No, you're before pizza.

Before Peter.

Yes.

Nathan before Peter.

Yeah, alphabetical.

Oh, Pete Peter Simon.

Yes, Pete Peter.

So I'm last, right?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

So after you, I do the Blake gag.

Okay, let's do that.

Okay.

Hello, dear listener and welcome back to Maximum Power, the only Blake 7 podcast that doesn't have a special intro this episode because we got renewed during a continuity announcement.

[1:47:42]

I'm Brendan.

I'm James I'm Cole.

So sorry.

I fucked already.

Anyway.

Okay, my noisy neighbours have just passed.

I had a more exciting title than animals.

Yeah, my noisy neighbours are just passing, but they'll be in their door in a moment.

What planet's animal said?

Buccol 2 Buccol.

We'd have been called Bisto.

Buccult too sounds like something you buy from a farmer.

Yeah, it does.

Well, I was going to make a funny joke about something, but I decided not to.

I was going to say space fall initially, but there was going to be a cum gag in there.

So maybe we should cut that.

Oh, is a cum gag and death watch.

Cali, I'm ready to come up now.

I need to change my trout.

Sorry, go on.

And of course, it's all about June Hudson's costumes, really, isn't it?

[1:48:44]

That's what I you know, completely.

Yeah.

And who's making episodes are yet to come?

We might have a commentary.

It's only because you want to do give justice to gambit Pete.

Yeah, if we're doing least favourite episodes.

It's gambit because everyone else was...

I'll be on that one.

You were horrible about camera.

So boring.

Maybe we should get...

It's probably the most overrated episode actually.

Just an off-mike moment.

Did anyone have to switch their choice because someone else said it.

No.

No.

Wow.

I was going to choose the web.

Oh okay.

Well, like, Colin, you think Gan should have been replaced with a decimal.

I always think that actually Star one is the best episode of Blake 7, but Terminal is my favourite and the 2 are slightly different.

I think Star one is just so confident and brilliant and tense, but terminal's got my heart.

Well, the Gale of Star one is amazing.

[1:49:45]

Music.

Yeah, that's what's interesting about it.

Suddenly, there's this world, you know, that we haven't had.

They did throw everything and the kitchen sink out.

Yeah.

They literally did.

Supermarket pizza.

It's an episode of Blake 7 that's written by the script editor and directed by the producer.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So this is me realising that that was my moment for doing a thing that I forgot to do.

Well, do it now, because we do the thing called editing.

What?

All this time?

I could have been there.

Maybe we should have a chat to Toby ahead of the series head of the series C box set and say, hey, what about a fan commentary on Moloch?

I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Give that to your women.

Right.