WEBVTT NOTE This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 22:29:28 1 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.299 Maximal power. 2 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:15.539 Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Maximum Power, Blake Seven Podcast. 3 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:16.859 I'm Cy. 4 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:17.940 I'm Colin. 5 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:18.960 I'm James. 6 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:20.100 I'm Nathan. 7 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:21.120 And I'm Pete. 8 00:00:21.179 --> 00:00:27.780 This week, we're talking a good fight in Terry Nations, episode eight, Jewel. 9 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.300 So, Colin. 10 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:42.299 I wanted to ask you something to start this one off because this episode has a very different feel, thanks to Douglas Canfield coming in and using stock music rather than Dudley Simpson's music. 11 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:44.100 So how do you feel about that? 12 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:47.039 Uh, thank you for asking this. 13 00:00:47.100 --> 00:00:49.200 I really enjoy it. 14 00:00:49.259 --> 00:00:50.579 I think it's a highlight. 15 00:00:50.640 --> 00:01:04.260 It's the 1st episode where they use the teleport too, where there's no Ronnie Hazelhorse, the orchestra going bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, which always gets on my nerves. 16 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:05.579 But I like it. 17 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:10.200 I really think I'm just imagining, I think Dudley's does a really good job. 18 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:12.180 The theme music is awesome. 19 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:15.659 But I would love it to be a bit more radiophonic, you know? 20 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:17.819 It's it's sci-fi. 21 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:31.739 It should be all sort of ethereal and analogue since sort of bleating out stuff, which it does, and it kind of matches a lot of the visuals where Blake is kind of being weirdly kind of blinded by some visual effects. 22 00:01:31.739 --> 00:01:34.379 There's all these good sounds to go with it. 23 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.519 There's not like, you know, Blake's theme playing in the background. 24 00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:41.219 So, um, I'm a fan. 25 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:58.079 Yeah, there's a great bit where the liberator is 1st introduced and it's all the synth music and it looks and feels really brilliant and beautiful and different to how Dudley Simpson does it with his great big fanfare, which is fantastic. 26 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:06.599 But something about that synth music and the shots of the liberator that they use here that makes it feel very different to normal. 27 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:14.639 Yeah, it's really creepy. just there's this immediate creepiness and space spookiness, which is obviously exactly where the episode is going to take us. 28 00:02:14.819 --> 00:02:21.180 Sadly, it doesn't match the visual effects don't quite match, and we'll get to this, the pace of it. 29 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:26.280 It's like, you know, you've got some good music going on there, but it's like, all these ships are flying really, really fast to each other. 30 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:26.939 No, they're not. 31 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:28.680 They're not tall. 32 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:29.879 They're just sort of. 33 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.719 Sitting about ever so slowly moving. 34 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:37.020 It doesn't, it doesn't quite, quite match up. 35 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.780 But anyway, yeah, so dual. 36 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:41.340 What's going on here? 37 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:44.039 Is it Planet of the White Guardian and the Black Guardian? 38 00:02:44.099 --> 00:02:46.560 There's a nip in there's a nip in the air down on that planet. 39 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:47.400 It's quite chilly. 40 00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:48.180 I'll tell you that. 41 00:02:49.259 --> 00:02:51.900 Planet of Island Blair's nipples. 42 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:53.099 Yeah. 43 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:54.840 Yeah, she brought them with her. 44 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:57.419 I think they're actually the stars of the show. 45 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.539 Once they're there, you can't take your eyes off them. 46 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:02.759 I wasn't where I was going. 47 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:08.219 Colin, you've said intelligent and sensible things for nearly a minute. 48 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:10.860 The rest of us are going to drag it down now. then you like one that. 49 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:14.400 As our token heterosexual. 50 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.280 Resident heterosexual. that what you're going to say? 51 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:17.939 Yeah. 52 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:18.719 Thanks. 53 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:21.659 Anyway, well, that's all right. 54 00:03:21.719 --> 00:03:23.879 Well, let's talk about another female character. 55 00:03:23.939 --> 00:03:28.319 The mutoids, also known as the proto-Gem Hadar. 56 00:03:28.379 --> 00:03:29.819 What do we think about the mutoids? 57 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:30.960 Oh, explain that one. 58 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:32.520 What's a proto-Gem Hadak? 59 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:33.539 Because the mutos are awesome. 60 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:34.680 So the gem Hadar. 61 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:44.520 The Dominion in Deep Space Nine, and they also have pouches where they store a test tube of liquid to power them. 62 00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:47.039 So I was just noticing that this morning. 63 00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:51.780 They're a bit more of a warlike race, but they are also controlled by this chemical. 64 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:53.699 Is it also a close tick? 65 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:55.740 Uh, it's not a glow stick. 66 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:56.819 It a bit more milky. 67 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:01.800 Sentences you never expected to be saying 1st thing on a Sunday morning. 68 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.340 Carol Royal is brilliant, no. 69 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:08.520 The actress who plays that movie is because she could so easily slip. 70 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.800 It's a really tough call for an actor to do that. 71 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:16.920 So you're slightly zombie-ish, and that could so easy just get wooden, but she isn't at all. 72 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:35.699 She's, I think she just pictures it perfectly because she's creepy and, and there's a bit where Travis is talking to her, and I can't remember precisely what she says, but he gets into a great reaction behind her over her shoulder, whereas he's like going, ugh, when she talks about her, um, her requirement for, uh, for sustenance, uh, with the whole vampire motif that we're getting. 73 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:36.360 Yeah. 74 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:43.740 Yeah, and there's another brilliant scene where Travis is talking to her about who she was before, she was modified. 75 00:04:43.860 --> 00:04:48.360 And the way that she plays it, like, there's nothing. 76 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:50.100 I don't care about this. 77 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.379 It's not, well, it's not even, I don't care about this. 78 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:54.480 You just look confused about it. 79 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.660 And it's really, really fascinating. 80 00:04:57.720 --> 00:04:59.519 She plays it so well. 81 00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:01.199 Yeah, and there's a nice parallel with that. 82 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:20.939 The writing is just so good with that bit with the parallel of the scene with Jenna, talking to Blake, about her life before it and how she's, you know, she's taking these decisions and is doing this thing because it's, she feels it's right to do right now and then we cut to the nasty federation equivalent of that being erasure of your previous self instead of just instead of taking it forward. 83 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:28.740 This is, is this Travis's one week of thinking he's the main baddie in Blake 7 or does he get longer? 84 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:30.000 I can't remember. 85 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:31.800 Because he's he's loving it, isn't he? 86 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:36.120 Is this the only episode with Travis without Serverland? 87 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:37.379 I think it is? 88 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:37.860 Yes. 89 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:38.819 I think so. 90 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:39.540 Yeah. 91 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.939 I think he's amazing in it. 92 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:47.879 I love his reaction to that mutoids kind of refusal to take the bass. 93 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:58.379 I mean, he's taunting her about having had her past erased and she's absolutely not interested and just he pulls a face when it doesn't go anywhere. 94 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.019 He's really sort of terribly good in this. 95 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:03.120 He's terribly good in leather as well. 96 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:08.699 And I think that's really, he's setting a bit of a tone for the future starlings of the series as well. 97 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.759 They're all going to be dressed like him in a year or so, aren't they? 98 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:16.319 Well, but enough about your sex life. merely being aesthetic. 99 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:36.959 So, we arrive at this, this planet, which Jenna kindly reports that there's a breathable atmosphere, which is good, considering every single planet they've been to, has seems to have beable atmosphere. 100 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:38.699 I'm not quite sure why they're there. 101 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:41.759 They're there to sort of like recharge for a while. 102 00:06:41.819 --> 00:06:42.779 Okay, so we've got that. 103 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:44.759 But what do we think of? 104 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:45.839 The sort of concept behind this. 105 00:06:45.899 --> 00:06:47.879 Sherok and Cinepha. 106 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:48.600 What are they up to? 107 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:50.339 The world has been ravaged by war. 108 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.980 They're trying to prove that war is a bad thing, guys. 109 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:59.399 And they said, there's some interesting dialogue about, begins with the destruction of the others' beliefs and things like that. 110 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:00.720 There's a few good quotes in it. 111 00:07:00.779 --> 00:07:02.699 But is that concept successful? 112 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:03.300 What do we think? 113 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:08.399 Well, it's coming back to Terry Nation's kind of tropes, isn't it? 114 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:16.860 The devastation of nuclear war. you know, like, I mean, this is, this is, you know, something he comes back to again and again, maybe not in such an interesting way. 115 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:18.300 Yeah. 116 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:21.480 I hadn't realised until you explained, Delia, something. 117 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:30.300 This is, um, this is stock music, because I was thinking, this reminds me of the music to, um, Jeffrey Burgens, Doctor Who scores, Terra the Zygons and seeds of Doom. 118 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:31.379 Doom, yes. 119 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:32.759 Let's get that one on. 120 00:07:32.819 --> 00:07:36.720 Um, have got that same when when instruments are used. 121 00:07:36.779 --> 00:07:38.519 They just used in a really creepy manner. 122 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:47.579 And then underneath it, you've got a lot of special sound going on, which just makes this planet so ethereal and I keep saying creepy, but that's because it's creepy. 123 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:51.120 Uh, and let's, let's point to Douglas Canfield. 124 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:53.819 I mean, it is his only Blake 7 directing. 125 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:54.300 Yes, it is. 126 00:07:54.660 --> 00:08:02.639 And you've got these 2 fantastically cast Isle of Lair and Patsy Smart, who it would make an all sick if anyone else was cast in that box. 127 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:03.600 She's so good for it. 128 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:12.839 Our favourite ghoul from talons of weighing tayan, Doctor Who clacks and take a shot, but gets a merge that gets a proper role in this rather than just a little cameo that she's had in that. 129 00:08:12.899 --> 00:08:14.939 And she has to do it with her teeth in as well. 130 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:16.139 Yes. 131 00:08:16.500 --> 00:08:18.360 Maybe that was extra. 132 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:19.319 Maybe she charges extra. 133 00:08:19.379 --> 00:08:20.819 If you want me with my teeth. 134 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:23.279 And she's only like 60? 135 00:08:23.339 --> 00:08:24.899 I think... 136 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:27.420 The 70s were tough on people. 137 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:28.259 I really were. 138 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.959 But they're really interesting characters. 139 00:08:31.019 --> 00:08:43.080 I really like Zirok's naughtiness and her mischievousness, particularly when she pits Blake and Travis against each other right at the start because she just wanted to see what they might do. 140 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:52.679 And that's nicely balanced by cinophar being sort of the calm, beautiful sort of face of this argument. 141 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:58.320 It's sort of a really interesting and very, very well played relationship, I think. 142 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:03.240 I think this is an element of Blake 7 that gets kind of overlooked. 143 00:09:03.299 --> 00:09:11.100 I mean, 2 weeks ago, we had what was essentially just sort of space terrorists blowing things up and so on. 144 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:20.700 But every so often, Blake 7 goes really quite weird and reveals a kind of strange. 145 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:22.440 I don't know, there's a strange aesthetic. 146 00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:26.100 This is a weird corner of the universe that isn't like anything else. 147 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:29.519 And that sort of happens from time to time. 148 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:34.200 And I just think the fact that everything is so ill defined. 149 00:09:34.259 --> 00:09:36.299 Like, we don't quite know what's going on. 150 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:45.240 They're supposed to atone in some way for the for the devastation caused by the war, but it's not clear who set that up. 151 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:48.240 Their relationship with each other is unclear. 152 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:52.440 Like one has power, Sinifer has power, but Jirok sort of has power. 153 00:09:52.500 --> 00:10:04.259 And it's charming and interesting, particularly in a terri nation script for things to just go unexplained and for things to be allowed to be completely mysterious, I think. 154 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.059 Yeah, yeah. 155 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:12.179 Um, I'm having a complete brain freeze over Shakespeare and the island with the magician. 156 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:13.740 Tempest, thank you. 157 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:14.039 Yeah. 158 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:17.700 I get that vibe from them, despite not having remembered the name. 159 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:22.620 There's a real aerial and oh, Prospero. 160 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:23.340 Prospero, right. 161 00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:26.700 There's there's a real Ariel and and 2 Areola as well. 162 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:29.700 Sorry. 163 00:10:29.820 --> 00:10:32.879 Damn, that's so funny, it has to say now. 164 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:54.480 This is as close to magic as I've seen Blake 7 doing, and it comes with a little bit of, actually, it's science fiction magic, but I do, I love that, and it just gives you enough to give it, to make it tenable that this is a real civilisation, but also it's an episode being made with a very small cast, and only, only the, 4 extras on top of the regulars. 165 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:55.860 And the new forest. 166 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:57.899 And the CSO forest. 167 00:10:58.320 --> 00:11:00.600 Yes, we jump back, don't we? 168 00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:05.460 I guess did it just get dark and they ran out of time to shoot all of the scenes that they wanted to in the real forest. 169 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.220 So we had to do some catch-ups when we got back. 170 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:09.419 We got back to the studio, I guess. 171 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:18.360 Yeah, I think there was very short days. filming in winter at this point, so everything looks very cold, but also they haven't got a lot of daylight. 172 00:11:18.419 --> 00:11:21.240 But also, they've got night filming again. 173 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:27.419 There's a continual sort of set of night filming through this series that's quite unexpected. 174 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:34.860 I wonder if that's where the budget went because you retweeted, didn't you, that guy who'd found that estimate of the production cost of episodes of Blake 7? 175 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:36.600 at the time and it was really high. 176 00:11:36.659 --> 00:11:39.000 It was a newspaper estimating, I think, wasn't it? 177 00:11:39.059 --> 00:11:40.080 The mail, wasn't it? 178 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:41.100 Is that a newspaper? 179 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:41.820 No. 180 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:43.200 Not anymore. 181 00:11:43.259 --> 00:11:44.700 Sort of. 182 00:11:44.700 --> 00:11:45.659 Structurally. 183 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:46.320 Yeah, yeah. 184 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:56.519 And they were estimating a budget for Blake 7 Wayne, in excess of anything else that was on around the time, apart from Angels, the predecessor to casualty, which had an even bigger budget, but had a very big cast, I suppose. 185 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:59.399 But night filming is expensive, isn't it? 186 00:11:59.460 --> 00:12:02.340 That the point. and the BBC, if BBC is going to pay for you to do night filming. 187 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:03.720 They care about your series. 188 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:04.860 Do they? 189 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:06.899 I think they do. 190 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:07.620 Yeah, yeah. 191 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:13.860 I think I think the BBC have realised they've got a hit on their hands now and they don't quite know why. made on the budget of softly, softly, isn't it? 192 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:22.379 Yeah, but maybe they're just trying to sort of push what they can do with this show and say, look, actually, we haven't got much money, but we can do this. 193 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.019 But if you gave us some more, we could make it even better. 194 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:26.220 Put the money on screen. 195 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:33.480 And look, this season was, the budget was blown or something on series one on series A. On the opening episode. 196 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:34.019 Yes. 197 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:40.679 Yeah, like they overran and were over budget hugely on the 1st series. 198 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:54.899 So I was just thinking about the Liberator crew and their relationships and how they're developing, and I feel like there's a little bit more bitching going on. 199 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:00.960 So it starts with Blake saying to Zen, Enter Orbit, but don't do this. 200 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:05.220 Do this, but don't do this, because obviously that would, you know, destroy the ship. 201 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:08.340 And Zen's like, yeah, believe it or not, mate, I know that. 202 00:13:09.419 --> 00:13:21.120 And, you know, so Blake's very, very direct style of management, so to speak, or leadership, you know, don't allow others to think and just get on with it. 203 00:13:21.179 --> 00:13:30.539 And it's a little bit more clashing, a little bit more with Avon, his relationship with the villa is starting to be a bit more sort of a, you're an idiot kind of relationship. 204 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:32.940 How do you guys think it's evolving? 205 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.779 It's definitely Captain Blake this week. 206 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:45.840 Yeah, like, don't you think he's giving orders to all of his crew in a way that, um, it's probably done a bit in the past, but it seemed that that just seems much more clearly established now, yeah. 207 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:48.240 And you get even pushing back against it. 208 00:13:48.299 --> 00:13:56.700 There's one scene where they're kind of thrown together, like physically, you know, the camera lurches and the 2 of them end up in each other's arms. 209 00:13:56.700 --> 00:14:00.600 And so they're speaking sort of quite close to one another. 210 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:04.139 And there's that, you know, he's going to ram the ship. 211 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:05.940 He's going to ram Travis's ship. 212 00:14:05.940 --> 00:14:12.000 And, you know, it's madness and do we have an alternative and everyone's kind of expostulating and stuff. 213 00:14:12.059 --> 00:14:17.879 And um, there's something where um, I even asks him if he has a choice. 214 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:22.019 You know, are you going to go along with this and Avon says, do I have a choice? 215 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:27.059 And Blake says, yes, and he says, all right then, I'll go along with it. 216 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.580 And it is sort of very definite. 217 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:44.039 He's the one who is not going to take the orders or may choose to take the orders, but is emphasising that that's something that, yeah, he may not do in future. and there is a little necessary to the plot Yeah. 218 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:52.919 There's a little bit of disdain as well, I think, to towards everyone else's sort of willingness to obey, which is, you know, obviously something that'll come up quite a lot later. 219 00:14:53.039 --> 00:15:08.279 Well, there's also that great line, you know, when they're having the altercation, the interaction with Cinephar and Jirok, where Blake says, my crew are with me by their own choice, and you just cut to everyone, and he just goes, really? 220 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:11.460 Yeah. 221 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:23.759 I even gets the best line this week, which is obviously during the night shoot, you know, Blake's up a tree, Travis is up another tree, unless they start throwing nuts at each other. 222 00:15:23.879 --> 00:15:26.159 I don't see much chance of a fight developing. 223 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:28.500 Which is so great. 224 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:37.080 And then it's got to be Boucher this where he says, you know, I don't see why I need to become irrational to prove that I care. 225 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.120 And I think it's so good. 226 00:15:39.179 --> 00:15:47.039 You know, like he's the sort of spockish computer nerd or whatever at the beginning, but his character is really developing and I think it's Boucher doing it. 227 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:53.759 Yeah, all the dialogue feels very crisp out show, especially those scenes on the on the liberator where they're watching it. 228 00:15:53.820 --> 00:16:00.059 I felt like they were sitting in some kind of podcast commenting on the action that was going on around them. 229 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:01.740 Who did that? 230 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.080 Exactly. 231 00:16:04.139 --> 00:16:07.259 And Jenna says, how is it that we're actually seeing all of this? 232 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.779 Or does she give the answer? 233 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.299 I can't remember now who has the line, but they make a point of putting in that. 234 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:15.600 We better explain how come they are all sat watching Blake seven. 235 00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:17.159 We ran out of budget. 236 00:16:17.220 --> 00:16:18.720 We will go there again. 237 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:20.399 They take 2 of your location. 238 00:16:20.460 --> 00:16:22.080 I love it when we go to panic. 239 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:23.580 You know, the Enterprise has red alert. 240 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:29.580 The liberated clearly we now discover has panic stations mode, which they all go into at 10 minutes in when the fight suddenly starts. 241 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:32.940 And everyone just runs around, runs around, runs to a different run to a different panel. 242 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:34.379 They have Christmas lights mode. 243 00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:38.820 But there's such urgency and tension in those scenes. 244 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:42.419 Douglas Canfield is really sort of upping that this week. 245 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:49.440 And he's making all those scenes that could be quite flat and dull really exciting. 246 00:16:49.440 --> 00:17:03.179 And I think it's, again, the combination of the weird stock music and the sound effects that they're using and the sort of really intense sounds that they make when they put up the shields and things like that. 247 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:09.359 It's all just, you can feel the tension all the time and you're watching it thinking, 0 my god, they're in real trouble this week. 248 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:15.299 I think it's, I think it's partially successful with the, so there's 2 kind of battle scenes. 249 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:20.460 There's the spaceship battle scene and then there's it on the planet with the phallic knives battle scene. 250 00:17:20.579 --> 00:17:27.420 And so they, it is all just done through dialogue versus budget. 251 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:30.599 But which of those do we think is successful? 252 00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:36.900 You know, because I kind of feel like the on the on the planet sequence, it's like, okay, cool. 253 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:40.500 It's just like scouts or something for a while. 254 00:17:40.619 --> 00:17:42.599 I think it's really cool. 255 00:17:42.660 --> 00:17:43.440 It's really good. 256 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:56.640 And the bit where there's a brilliant bit where Blake carves out a wooden dagger for Jenna and hands it to her and her face is like somewhat phallic suggestion of disappointment on her face. 257 00:17:56.700 --> 00:18:00.059 It's better than nothing, and she says something like, not much better though. 258 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:08.160 But I think the underlying vampire theme that's set up at the start. 259 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:18.180 And yeah, admittedly, maybe the bats, what is it with the BBC thinking they can do realistic plastic bats on TV series because they just, but maybe they were just hoping the audience will just take it as red. 260 00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:23.099 The whole vampirism thing just gives it that edge that I think makes makes it one of my favourite episodes. 261 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:30.599 It's funny, this is really the only Blake 7 episode with mutoids in it, really properly, isn't it? 262 00:18:30.660 --> 00:18:33.180 The rest of the time they're just sort of people in hats. 263 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:38.220 Mutoids, um, muting around muting things. 264 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:43.019 Well, there's just, they're just set decoration apart from this, I think. 265 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:45.539 And it's so underused, isn't it? 266 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:45.839 Yeah. 267 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:46.980 Yeah. 268 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:48.299 It's great concept. 269 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:52.079 But it is, it's just thrown away, isn't it, after this episode? 270 00:18:52.140 --> 00:18:52.799 Yeah. 271 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:54.839 Yeah, no, you're totally right. 272 00:18:54.900 --> 00:18:55.680 It is a great concept. 273 00:18:55.740 --> 00:19:00.779 You could have found the factories where they make the mutoids or something like that and decided to blow them up or something. 274 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:03.119 Say it 3 times, it'll be a big finish series. 275 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:05.400 Yeah. 276 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:07.440 It's already done that one. 277 00:19:07.500 --> 00:19:10.799 I think I think next week we do get a bit more mutoids. 278 00:19:10.859 --> 00:19:15.059 We do get Su Lin before she's unprogrammed down at Wookiehole. 279 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:18.839 But after that, they're kind of like, you know, pretty much out the picture. 280 00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:24.839 I wonder if it's because Terry Nation doesn't write so many episodes. 281 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:32.519 And so, as other writers come in, they're fixating on different parts of Blake 7 and different characters. 282 00:19:32.579 --> 00:19:43.079 And so this is one of the things that obviously Terry Nation is setting up as a big thing, but kind of gets pushed into the background when everyone else starts having a go at writing stories. 283 00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.740 I think that's absolutely, almost certainly is. 284 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:57.180 I mean, they are such a terry nation creation and the name, you know, the low effort name that they have and and you know, like they're mutos or mutoids or whatever. 285 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:59.220 And I think they're weird. 286 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:04.259 Like, they do sit a little oddly in the sort of Blake 7 universe, and I'm totally here for that. 287 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.779 Like the less kind of consistent and the less gum that universe can be the better. 288 00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:20.519 But, you know, I think I said when I was on the podcast previously, the episodes Wonder 4 certainly don't take place in a federation that has mutoids in them. 289 00:20:20.579 --> 00:20:26.819 They are very strange, but I kind of love what they say about the Federation, though. 290 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:33.180 Like they they show how ethically and morally bankrupt. 291 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:44.579 It is that they take people and they rob them of their humanity. and reprogram them as these, you know, automata. 292 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.059 Yeah, it beefs up the whole evil empire. 293 00:20:48.119 --> 00:21:07.500 Federation is an even empire thing as being something that's unambiguous, whereas maybe in the earlier episodes, it was 80% evil, but there were people who didn't realise that it was evil, you know, for example, whereas now, if you've got these zombie vampire people going around being your slaves, you're losing the plausible deniability of not realising that you're actually part of an evil empire anymore. 294 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:09.900 Well exactly. 295 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:13.980 It's the ultimate dehumanising experience, isn't it? 296 00:21:14.039 --> 00:21:33.420 You've gone from drugging most of your populace so that they're not having a full human experience through to ultimately taking away what it is that makes them human and contrasting, uh, dlematic contrasting with the 7 being very human with all their flaws, uh, and therefore the good guys. 297 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:35.039 They're not the good guys because they're perfect. 298 00:21:35.099 --> 00:21:36.480 They're the good guys because they're flawed. 299 00:21:36.539 --> 00:21:49.680 Do you, do you also read that as, so the interaction where they talk about, you know, her past, do you read that as she made a choice to become this? 300 00:21:49.740 --> 00:22:00.599 Or that, like, because it kind of is implied that, you know, like that this wasn't done to her without her wanting it or agreeing to it for some reason? 301 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.319 I don't think there's any hint of that. 302 00:22:04.380 --> 00:22:06.059 She doesn't remember. 303 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:07.799 She absolutely doesn't know. 304 00:22:07.859 --> 00:22:12.660 And I always just assumed that it was a penalty for treason or something. 305 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:18.599 I mean, I guess it's possible because she is described as a federation officer. 306 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.119 And so she's going to be court-martialled. 307 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:24.480 So she's still kind of legally human in sort of some sense. 308 00:22:24.539 --> 00:22:27.480 Um, you know, maybe it's the officer program. 309 00:22:27.539 --> 00:22:39.480 Maybe she was a really shit pilot and wanted to join the federation or something and fly one of those things around and she had to agree to have the needle installed and to wear a big sort of medal and he's a green hair thing. 310 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:43.500 Is it just that that hair repainted black? 311 00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:45.299 don't know. 312 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:51.299 There's a, is in series 4, and I think it's in animals, there are people who are clearly... 313 00:22:51.299 --> 00:22:55.259 I'm sorry, sorry, series... series Delta. 314 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:59.339 In series three, that four. 315 00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:07.740 Damn, D. There are some, there are some people who, I'm gatekeeping you and I love it. 316 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:13.980 There are people who are clearly meant to be mutoids, but they have geometric bombs. 317 00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:18.059 Like it's, you know, they've just kind of forgotten what they are, I think, by then. 318 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:21.480 So they seem to very have a very small footprint. 319 00:23:21.539 --> 00:23:39.960 But they don't seem to have become a big part of the world and they do, you know, a size set kind of drop out. after series A. They just become generic bad guy stuff who we don't have to have any moral implications about killing because they're not really human, maybe as well. 320 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:44.339 They could be a bit more cannon foddery from the good guy's point of view as well. maybe, yeah. 321 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:47.519 Not that they ever have qualms about killing federation officers anyway. 322 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:49.140 Yeah. 323 00:23:53.519 --> 00:24:04.740 I wanted to talk about how incredibly posh Zen is, like the crew are all posh, and then Zen, when Zen starts talking about plasma boats, it sounded so posh. 324 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:06.660 I thought he was saying plasma boat at first. 325 00:24:07.500 --> 00:24:10.920 They're all very posh, but Zen is god-level posh. 326 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:15.599 I'm curious that no one seems to know how to pronounce the word stasis, though. 327 00:24:15.660 --> 00:24:17.039 Oh, stasis. 328 00:24:17.099 --> 00:24:19.920 Yeah, it's all stasis this week, isn't it? 329 00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:22.380 Yeah, that's a very odd thing. 330 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:24.779 It's as if they've only sort of ever read it before. 331 00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:26.160 Yeah. 332 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:38.700 You can track in British science fiction, the way the presentiation of data that started out as data in like the 50s, and then occasionally under American influences becomes data before settling on being data. 333 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:42.480 And it's, uh, it's one of those annoying things that once you notice it. 334 00:24:42.539 --> 00:24:46.500 Oh, well, no, what's I, what I. I blame Prince, but I annoyed me. 335 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:47.880 No one else, no one. 336 00:24:47.940 --> 00:24:50.339 Yeah, well, he but Brent Spinner. helped. 337 00:24:51.539 --> 00:24:55.740 But now to actually NASA point, do Americans now say data? 338 00:24:55.799 --> 00:25:07.079 Because of commander data being said in Patrick Stewart's British accent to avoid confusing him with any lines in the dialogue about data, this is a tangent. 339 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:07.680 Sorry. 340 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:16.619 There's definitely, there's an episode of Next Generation in season 2 where Dr. Pulaski, the best doctor has in next gen. 341 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:18.240 When are we doing the next gen podcast? 342 00:25:18.299 --> 00:25:18.900 Yeah. 343 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:24.000 She says something like, can you bring me that iPad data? 344 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.019 And he's like, what? 345 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:28.380 So I think they sort of lampoon it a little bit. 346 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:35.460 But um, yes, we're getting ahead of ourselves. into a different universe there. different podcast altogether. 347 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:36.299 Yeah exactly. 348 00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:38.039 We're not doing all of next generation. 349 00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:57.180 Is this, this really feels like a series that Blake and Jenna are the 2 lead characters in still, and I, which it often doesn't, and obviously having an ensemble cast means that they can mix that up week to week. 350 00:25:57.240 --> 00:26:00.779 But I guess this carries on throughout the time, but it's still in the credits at the end. 351 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:05.519 It's Gareth Thomas and Sally Nevette, who get the 1st 2 billings every week still. 352 00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:09.599 Um, even when, even though sometimes Jenna is an underused character. 353 00:26:09.660 --> 00:26:19.799 But in this, it's like they are, the Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, uh, beaming down on the mission, uh, in a way that, uh, I don't know how much, how many other times we get to see that. 354 00:26:19.859 --> 00:26:22.319 But I just think those 2 characters work together so well. 355 00:26:22.380 --> 00:26:26.519 Yeah, there's definite pairings coming up between parts of the crew. 356 00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:35.819 So last week we've had the 1st time that we've had Avon and Callie paired up together, which is a very interesting relationship and one that I really, really love. 357 00:26:35.880 --> 00:26:49.319 And obviously you've got the Avon and Villa partnership beginning to work here and lots of banter between them, and Blake and Jenna feel like they belong together, and then there's Gan at the side. somewhere. 358 00:26:49.380 --> 00:26:51.000 Complaining about his limiter. 359 00:26:51.180 --> 00:27:02.460 He did get to do something this week, though, and that, yeah, seen at the very beginning where the 3 of them teleport down is actually pretty good and good for him, I think. 360 00:27:02.819 --> 00:27:08.400 Yeah, and he's the one who sees the uh, the women 1st and those are sure whether he's having a vision or not. 361 00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:09.180 That right, isn't it? 362 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:13.259 maybe he's got his faulty, chips gone faulty, which we'll come back to later. remember that happening. 363 00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:15.359 It doesn't get much to do beyond that. 364 00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:22.500 There's one episode, I think it was a couple of weeks ago where he was making drinks and just handing them out to the crew on the... bless him. 365 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:30.119 But again, Villa doesn't get a great deal to do in this episode either, and he hasn't had much to do for a couple of episodes now. 366 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:45.059 So I wonder where this is sort of coming in the writing whether Terry Nation is thinking, oh, there's some characters I like writing for and some that I'm not so keen on and I'll just put those to the background for a bit and maybe bring them for an episode sort of later on. 367 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:54.839 I mean, I think this one's particularly unusual in that it's sort of structured around the relationship between Blake and Travis more than anything else. 368 00:27:55.019 --> 00:28:07.559 And although they met 2 weeks ago, this is really the 1st time we've seen them properly interact and seen how different they are from each other. 369 00:28:07.619 --> 00:28:19.619 And I think this does a really great job in beefing up that relationship, maybe more so than the sort of long backstory expositiony things we got in seeklocate, destroy. 370 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:21.900 Yeah, just getting to see them. 371 00:28:21.960 --> 00:28:40.380 I mean, Stephen Grief is so good, and just getting to see him and Gareth Thomas acting at each other in close quarters is what it really needs, because all of the being in spaceships, pressing buttons and looking at each other on scanners and screens has to be underwritten by real interactions like this. 372 00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:50.940 And if I didn't know, if I was a viewer, and this was, and I didn't know what was up and coming, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Servolan again, she did just seem to be the, as I know, was the original intent. 373 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.099 She turned up to send him off on his mission. 374 00:28:53.160 --> 00:29:00.000 But this feels like a story that's going to set up a real ongoing duel between these 2 guys that's going to run for the rest of the series. 375 00:29:00.660 --> 00:29:17.519 Yeah, you've got a real restatement of the key beliefs of Blake and Travis and why they are diametrically opposite to each other, which is a really good sort of recap for the viewers who haven't been there for a couple of weeks. 376 00:29:17.579 --> 00:29:19.740 And we, again, we haven't seen Travis. 377 00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:21.420 We didn't see Travis last week. 378 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:24.180 So it's useful just to restate. 379 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:26.279 This is Blake's moral stance. 380 00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:29.160 Travis is diametrically opposite to that. 381 00:29:29.220 --> 00:29:35.700 Yeah, um, they're out to kill each other and this is what the series is nominally about. 382 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:38.579 Yeah, if this was the 1st episode of Blake 7 you'd seen. 383 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:39.059 Youd be fine. 384 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:39.480 Off you go. 385 00:29:39.539 --> 00:29:44.579 You know, you'd want to come back next week, you wouldn't be thinking, oh, no, I've missed 6 weeks, 7 weeks of backstory. 386 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:58.799 I think two, uh, Si, you say that they're out to kill one another, but I think this definitely leans in the direction of them being different from one another because Blake isn't really out to kill Travis. 387 00:29:58.859 --> 00:30:05.160 Um, no, and that's actually the, the whole moral key of the, the episode, isn't it? 388 00:30:05.220 --> 00:30:06.420 Thinking about it, yeah. 389 00:30:06.660 --> 00:30:11.279 Yeah, but yeah, and it is a it's a plot twist in effect, isn't it? 390 00:30:11.339 --> 00:30:20.700 And that our hero nobly chooses to not, to not just smash his brain in with a hammer, which he very easily could have done if he'd had a hammer to handle, whatever, you know, metaphor. 391 00:30:20.819 --> 00:30:23.460 Well, I mean, he was about to when he gets teleported away. 392 00:30:23.460 --> 00:30:27.539 He would have done Well, you know, he was about to and then decided not to. 393 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:30.299 But, you know, he wasn't allowed to do it. 394 00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:31.140 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 395 00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:33.000 Yeah, but did he decide not to? 396 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:35.099 Or was he just snatched away? 397 00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:41.519 Yeah, no, he decided not to and then was snatched away before he reaped the inevitable consequences of not doing that. 398 00:30:41.579 --> 00:30:42.660 Yeah. 399 00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:53.460 This is one story where a DeSX Macina has actually been properly set up so that it's got the gods intervening at the end is what they said they were going to do, sort of thripe from the beginning. 400 00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:55.859 So it's not just the writer cop out for once for that to happen. 401 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:58.740 It is the point of the story, you know, right? 402 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:00.779 Yeah, and Blake turns around, doesn't he? 403 00:31:00.779 --> 00:31:04.140 and says, um, and the other thing is, I would have enjoyed it. 404 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:05.160 Yeah. 405 00:31:05.220 --> 00:31:08.579 Which is, yeah, he's had his, he's had his lesson. 406 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.420 And so, and, and so for says, perhaps there was nothing for you to learn. 407 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:16.019 So, you know, he's finished the adventure game. 408 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:17.220 It's come out unscathed. 409 00:31:17.339 --> 00:31:31.200 And that, and you've just made me realise by, by quoting that line, the parallel with the line in last week's episode, Mission to Destiny, where Avon, having a good old fight with the woman in that, tells them to get her out of here, I really rather enjoyed that. 410 00:31:31.259 --> 00:31:33.180 Yeah, did you guys talk about that? 411 00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:34.140 Oh, yes. 412 00:31:34.200 --> 00:31:35.220 Okay, good. 413 00:31:35.279 --> 00:31:36.539 That has been covered, yeah. 414 00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:40.140 Because what the fuck, but also, yeah, see what was going on. 415 00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:51.359 And it's interesting, isn't it, that when Avon's watching this on the screen in the Liberator, he's smiling and then shaking his head as Blake doesn't kill Travis. 416 00:31:51.420 --> 00:31:54.599 Yes, he knows that's going to happen. a moment. 417 00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:58.680 Of course he wasn't going to do it. 418 00:31:58.740 --> 00:32:00.900 Well, he's the viewer, isn't he? 419 00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:05.579 It's like, literally, he's the viewer, like, he... 420 00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:07.799 Yeah, like he is our point of reference. 421 00:32:07.859 --> 00:32:17.279 Like, we want, we want Blake, too, to do something, and, but also we don't, because, Where would the drummer be in that? 422 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:25.140 I think that's why the Avon Blake relationship is always the most interesting one on the show because they... 423 00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:26.160 Hashtag Blake. 424 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:29.400 Blavon, brilliant. 425 00:32:29.819 --> 00:32:31.259 Yeah. 426 00:32:31.259 --> 00:32:31.740 Yeah. 427 00:32:34.859 --> 00:32:36.599 Sometimes it would. 428 00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:54.900 You know how in Star Trek, original Star Trek, to which this episode owes like an incredible debt, you know, you think of Spock and McCoy as sort of 2 parts of Jim's personality, you know, that they, or coupling. 429 00:32:54.960 --> 00:33:01.680 Let's let's take a highbrow, you know, you've got Jeff and Patrick are both different aspects of of Steve. 430 00:33:01.740 --> 00:33:10.859 Um, so, you know, even the arguments between Avon and Blake are really the arguments that Blake is having with himself as well. 431 00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:27.359 And we'll see right up to his sort of final episode where he finally does make a decision where there's a calculus and he has to cause an enormous amount of harm in order to kind of justify what he's been doing all along. 432 00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:34.200 And, and so having him have someone to talk to about that is really the only way that we will ever see it. 433 00:33:34.259 --> 00:33:40.559 And so I just think the fact that that's what that relationship is about is what makes it so interesting. 434 00:33:40.619 --> 00:33:42.180 Yeah, yeah. 435 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:47.579 And I guess it's parallelled a little bit in the relationship as well between Cinaphire and Gyroc, Gyroc. 436 00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:48.480 I've forgotten what I'm saying. 437 00:33:49.079 --> 00:33:50.759 Oh, sure. 438 00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:51.299 Thank you. 439 00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:57.119 Growing up, I always thought her name was spilled like Sheer Rock. 440 00:33:57.180 --> 00:34:03.480 Like Shearer. because of the way that um, Isla Blepp, and then she is... 441 00:34:03.539 --> 00:34:06.240 Yeah, she went to a very good school, James, I think. 442 00:34:06.299 --> 00:34:07.619 Yeah, she went to Rada. 443 00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:09.179 And Rudin. 444 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:14.880 But Star War has got nothing on space Rider, has it? 445 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:17.219 How do you know if someone went to Space Rider? 446 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:18.840 They tell you, darling. 447 00:34:18.900 --> 00:34:20.400 They're in Blake 7. 448 00:34:23.099 --> 00:34:32.400 That relationship that you mentioned between Zerok and Sinifaris, again, really interesting because we don't know, we've given so little information about it. 449 00:34:32.460 --> 00:34:40.679 And something that Zerok is doing seems to imperil what the 2 of them are meant to be doing together and stuff like that. 450 00:34:40.739 --> 00:34:50.639 There's that weird line too, about somehow the existence of Travis and Travis's attitude is what keeps them trapped in this existence or something like that. 451 00:34:50.699 --> 00:34:56.639 You know, they both want to stop doing it, but they can't because, because what, people are warlike or something like that. 452 00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:58.920 I don't know Like they're addicted to it or something. 453 00:34:58.980 --> 00:35:11.460 Or I couldn't read it whether they were saying that they're dependent and addicted to the existence of war and violence in the same way that the mutoid is addicted and dependent on the substance, the blood that she needs. 454 00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:17.579 Or whether it's actually a physical thing, that they're actually trapped there because of some science fiction reason. 455 00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:21.000 I lean towards the spooky parallel sort of one instead. 456 00:35:21.059 --> 00:35:21.900 But you can take it either way. 457 00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:33.539 See, I kind of read it as, um, they're trapped there because both sides didn't make the right decision to end the conflict. 458 00:35:34.019 --> 00:35:48.840 And so no, you know, so because of the lack of growth and learning, they're trapped there to teach the next people that fall upon, you know, fall upon the planet, that war is not the answer. 459 00:35:48.900 --> 00:35:49.739 Of course. 460 00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:51.000 It's terrenation. 461 00:35:51.059 --> 00:35:53.699 No, that's a really great point, James, is that. 462 00:35:54.300 --> 00:36:03.719 I mean, I feel that if they had a bit more budget to be able to sort of, you know, because what they do is they sort of have a little bit of a polystyrene hill and there's a kind of a few kind of bones and stuff in the distance. 463 00:36:03.780 --> 00:36:18.659 But if you're able to see a shot of a total landscape where it's obviously just been a huge massacre, it would probably just hit home a bit better about what they were, what they've been through and what they're up to, of their, as we were saying, it's, it is an interesting relationship between them. 464 00:36:18.780 --> 00:36:27.420 I think, um, Cinema's much more interested in doing the whole Star Trek kind of, like, when you leave this planet, don't fucking kill anyone, all right? 465 00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:28.980 Because it's very normal. 466 00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:34.739 You know, so I think we would have succeeded a bit more if it just sort of went, really look at what happened to us. 467 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:40.019 We're the only 2 people left, and we're not even sort of sure if we're corporeal anymore, that kind of thing. 468 00:36:40.079 --> 00:36:48.059 But it just kind of leaves you with a feeling of, oh, I'm kind of not sure what they were doing, why there were 2 of them. 469 00:36:48.119 --> 00:37:00.179 It's very interesting that you mentioned Star Trek because this episode obviously has significant plot similarities to the episode arena from the original series of Star Trek. 470 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:01.559 I believe they call them antecedents. 471 00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:03.659 Ah okay. 472 00:37:03.719 --> 00:37:07.739 Don't you think this episode would have been better with a gone in it? 473 00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:11.639 Inevitably. 474 00:37:11.699 --> 00:37:13.079 Gone but not forgotten. 475 00:37:13.139 --> 00:37:18.659 Would a sunny and hot location have worked better than the dreary, wet, cold. 476 00:37:18.780 --> 00:37:19.920 No, no, no, no. 477 00:37:20.519 --> 00:37:23.639 It wouldn't be more Star Trek, but I love science fiction in the woods. 478 00:37:23.699 --> 00:37:24.420 Science fiction. 479 00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:25.980 I mean, wood is my absolute favourite. 480 00:37:26.039 --> 00:37:27.539 I want all sorts of vision to be. 481 00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:50.760 In fact, when Juro and Sinner talk about the forest, you know, something will have, you know, when you come to the forest, it did give it that kind of mythical fairy tale sort of feeling, you know, because we've been told that the planet has been completely devastated and there's no life left and but, you know, we have to shoot on location in New Forest or whatever. 482 00:37:50.820 --> 00:37:54.840 And so by hanging a lantern on it and just calling it the forest. 483 00:37:54.900 --> 00:37:58.860 I think it does become a place of a strange place of trials. 484 00:37:59.099 --> 00:38:04.260 I do wonder if Chris Boucher put a line through a script because this planet remains unnamed. 485 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:10.860 We can, we can imagine it might have previously been called something like, you know, Julius or Orange Julius. 486 00:38:17.099 --> 00:38:21.420 Isn't Travis horrible at the end when she says she could I can save that woman for you. 487 00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:22.920 And he's like, oh, don't bother. 488 00:38:22.980 --> 00:38:23.639 But then she does anyway. 489 00:38:23.699 --> 00:38:25.260 That just shows how nasty he is. 490 00:38:25.380 --> 00:38:27.480 Because if we hadn't noticed already. 491 00:38:27.719 --> 00:38:31.739 But yeah, so go back to the forest. 492 00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:33.960 It's all very heightened, isn't it? 493 00:38:34.019 --> 00:38:42.659 It's all the sound effects are really turned up, so you've got the old sound effect from Doctor Who of the alien planet with screeching creatures in the background. 494 00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:43.920 Metabilis 3. 495 00:38:44.099 --> 00:38:44.579 Yeah. 496 00:38:45.059 --> 00:38:51.119 But everything echos very oddly, which it wouldn't in a forest normally. 497 00:38:51.179 --> 00:38:54.780 All the sound is just so heightened and weird. 498 00:38:54.840 --> 00:38:56.699 The battle is like that too. 499 00:38:56.820 --> 00:39:04.559 Like their, their weapons kind of echo off one another, you know, really, really heightened and kind of hallucinatory kind of way. 500 00:39:04.619 --> 00:39:11.340 And I think we've mentioned the sound a couple of times before, but I think it is astonishingly good. 501 00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:18.840 Yeah, in the battle, there's that bit where you're not, there's this pulsing and it's the, you think, I was thinking, okay, that's the engines. 502 00:39:18.900 --> 00:39:21.000 And then I started thinking, hang on, is that, is that actually the music? 503 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:24.960 And it's only when they cut away from the liberator, that it's, and it stops, that you realise. 504 00:39:25.019 --> 00:39:27.119 No, that was, what's the word diuretic? 505 00:39:28.199 --> 00:39:30.000 Diarrhoea. 506 00:39:31.260 --> 00:39:33.000 Energetic. 507 00:39:33.059 --> 00:39:34.440 Diagetic. 508 00:39:34.500 --> 00:39:36.659 Your diarrhoea pushed me in the right direction, Jones. 509 00:39:36.719 --> 00:39:40.500 Meaning that it's the sound that the characters can hear as well as the audience. 510 00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:47.880 And but I forgot that because it pulled me in so much until you cut away, which is just director and special sound, I guess, for that bit. 511 00:39:47.940 --> 00:39:49.800 Uh, working together so well. 512 00:39:49.860 --> 00:39:57.840 It does create, you know, real heightened tension in both of the battles in the space battle and in the battle on the planet. 513 00:39:57.900 --> 00:40:05.219 Yeah, and again, there's also the feeling of what are you seeing, what is, what's real? 514 00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.159 Are they being showed edited highlights? 515 00:40:08.219 --> 00:40:11.639 Are they, do they have a real time feed to watch Blake? 516 00:40:11.699 --> 00:40:15.059 When are they cutting to Travis when they're watching on the Liberator? 517 00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:18.900 All of those things, which just makes it sort of more heightened and unreal. 518 00:40:19.260 --> 00:40:33.539 And because everything is also filtered with video effects as well, it just makes it all extra odd this week in a way that Blake 7 hasn't been up to this and probably actually isn't really again. 519 00:40:33.659 --> 00:40:34.920 You know what? 520 00:40:34.980 --> 00:40:36.059 You know what they are watching? 521 00:40:36.119 --> 00:40:40.019 The edited VHS compilation from the late 80s. 522 00:40:41.219 --> 00:40:47.280 At the end of the fight, they should get the old BBC video logo coming on with the. 523 00:40:47.340 --> 00:40:48.960 Well, there we go. 524 00:40:49.019 --> 00:40:49.679 That's all done. 525 00:40:49.739 --> 00:40:51.960 Still the best version of the boobies. 526 00:40:52.019 --> 00:40:52.440 Yeah. 527 00:40:52.500 --> 00:40:54.300 Don't forget to rewind the tape, Dan. 528 00:40:54.360 --> 00:40:54.900 That's your job. 529 00:40:57.300 --> 00:41:00.659 Douglas Campfield was just brilliant, wasn't he? 530 00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:01.260 He really was. 531 00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:03.599 What a shame he doesn't do any more after this. 532 00:41:03.659 --> 00:41:14.699 I just think he absolutely gets it and he knows how to use all the techniques to build tension without actually being able to necessarily show massive things happening. 533 00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:17.039 He can make someone pressing a button. 534 00:41:17.099 --> 00:41:20.940 More exciting than a lot of directors do. somehow. 535 00:41:21.059 --> 00:41:25.980 Yeah, remember the choice of the, of doing the space battle from their point of view. 536 00:41:26.039 --> 00:41:30.300 So having the the plasma bolts coming straight to the camera. 537 00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:41.579 And think about how NAF it would have been if it had just been those kind of models with little sort of video effect lines kind of firing at each other. 538 00:41:41.820 --> 00:41:44.579 He does a really, really good job of that. 539 00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:48.300 I think that space battle is good and I think it's entirely down to Campfield. 540 00:41:48.420 --> 00:41:52.199 Yeah, and it makes you think, okay, this episode is called Dual. 541 00:41:52.260 --> 00:41:53.699 It's about, he's playing with that as well. 542 00:41:53.760 --> 00:41:56.340 We're 10 minutes in and we're having a space battle. 543 00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:59.400 I guess this is going to be a half hour long space battle. 544 00:41:59.460 --> 00:42:06.539 But then you're off and you're in the woods and you're doing an outward bound course and trying to save yourself from vampire bats all of a sudden. 545 00:42:06.599 --> 00:42:08.940 I like it when you take an episode takes a turn like that. 546 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:11.579 You know, he died when he was 52. 547 00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:14.039 Was he the director of Inferno? 548 00:42:14.099 --> 00:42:15.599 I mean, did he have a heart attack? 549 00:42:15.659 --> 00:42:23.940 He had a heart attack or something like that, and his wife still had to continue acting for the rest of it, like, so he can't have been well since the 70s. 550 00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:34.199 He did, yes. right No one's credited with music on this episode, are they? 551 00:42:34.260 --> 00:42:38.880 And so it is all special sound that's responsible for this weird soundscape. 552 00:42:38.940 --> 00:42:44.400 Uh, this is the only one that uh, Dudley Simpsons not on. 553 00:42:44.460 --> 00:42:45.239 One of two. 554 00:42:45.300 --> 00:42:46.980 What's the other one he's not on? 555 00:42:47.099 --> 00:42:49.800 He's not on gambit. 556 00:42:50.579 --> 00:42:52.260 Oddly. 557 00:42:52.260 --> 00:42:58.920 So, yeah, Elizabeth Parker steps up and does weird electronic music for that episode. 558 00:42:58.980 --> 00:43:01.500 Is she doing sound for this episode? 559 00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:03.000 She's not at this point. 560 00:43:03.059 --> 00:43:13.800 So Richard Yeoman Clarke is on sound duties until midway through series B. I think then Elizabeth Parker takes over from hostage and does the rest of the series. 561 00:43:13.860 --> 00:43:15.960 It's stock music. 562 00:43:16.019 --> 00:43:19.440 The pieces are countdown, space panorama. 563 00:43:19.500 --> 00:43:19.980 Wow. 564 00:43:19.980 --> 00:43:21.960 And Genesis. 565 00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:29.219 Those sound like the most sort of space music. titles they could possibly have found in the library. 566 00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:33.900 Space panorama sounds like a program that they all sit around watching about politics in the future. 567 00:43:34.980 --> 00:43:37.679 Yeah, no, it's library music. 568 00:43:37.739 --> 00:43:40.980 So like it's from an album called Terrestrial Journey. 569 00:43:41.039 --> 00:43:43.019 Wow, I bet it's on Spotify. 570 00:43:52.079 --> 00:44:03.059 This episode also sees the debut of what I think is Jenna's best look, her kind of, I'm going to a space fancy dress party black with, um, silver blobs on it. 571 00:44:03.119 --> 00:44:18.000 I'm not selling it well, but it's, uh, it just, it, she looks a bit more piracy than usual, because her previous costumes were more sort of at the tax evasion end of the spectrum, I felt, a bit too presentable. whereas in this, come on, come on, she's a pirate. 572 00:44:18.059 --> 00:44:20.579 Give her something that she could really swagger about in a bit. 573 00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:25.199 But it's great that she's down there in a more an outfit that's got a bit more Hutzpah about it. 574 00:44:25.260 --> 00:44:27.659 It's got slits down the sleeves, doesn't it? 575 00:44:27.719 --> 00:44:29.039 Like that are sort of buttoned up. 576 00:44:29.099 --> 00:44:31.739 You can see, you know, her arms underneath there. 577 00:44:31.800 --> 00:44:33.000 It's almost indecent, really. 578 00:44:34.019 --> 00:44:39.659 She does end up with pretty bad hair, I have to say, in the new forest. 579 00:44:39.719 --> 00:44:44.940 It is clearly very damp there and the whole thing is not holding together. under the strain. 580 00:44:45.300 --> 00:44:59.400 Oh, could this be a contributor to that thing of the stories that you've hear about the production team saying they didn't want to take the girls on location because it took too long for them to get ready and that's why they get stuck on liberation and subsequent ones as if it's their fault. 581 00:44:59.639 --> 00:45:04.019 Yeah, you want me to have glamorous hair, then you have to make this happen. 582 00:45:04.199 --> 00:45:08.820 If you want me to have glamorous hair, don't take me to the New Forest in winter. 583 00:45:10.739 --> 00:45:16.980 I don't think that's the 1st time you've said that. had a ring of truth to it. 584 00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:18.719 Yeah, that'll be coming back. 585 00:45:19.380 --> 00:45:25.380 I mean, and it's like, this is the week that ABBA's take a chance on me, gets the number one in the UK chart. 586 00:45:25.440 --> 00:45:30.539 I think the late 70s were just a fascinating time of contrast, culturally, weren't they? 587 00:45:30.599 --> 00:45:37.199 We've got tinsely glamorous music in the charts, but the world itself was greater than it had ever been for a lot of people. 588 00:45:37.260 --> 00:45:40.320 Yeah, and there's a lot of glamorous hair in that video. 589 00:45:40.380 --> 00:45:41.280 That's true. 590 00:45:41.340 --> 00:45:49.500 Yeah, I don't think those 2 things, those 2 cultural phenomena are all that far apart, this episode, and take a chance on me. 591 00:45:49.559 --> 00:45:50.519 There's a balance. 592 00:45:50.579 --> 00:45:50.880 Yeah. 593 00:45:50.940 --> 00:45:53.219 I thought it was more like mama Mia. 594 00:45:53.280 --> 00:45:55.079 Oh, here we go again. 595 00:46:00.059 --> 00:46:07.440 Okay, so thank you very much for listening to us rambling about one of the great episodes of Blake 7 duel. 596 00:46:07.559 --> 00:46:14.219 Join us again next week when we go to Blake 7 by Numbers for Project Avalon. 597 00:46:14.280 --> 00:46:17.340 Thank you very much for listening and good night. 598 00:46:17.400 --> 00:46:18.719 Good night. 599 00:46:18.780 --> 00:46:19.980 Good night. 600 00:46:20.039 --> 00:46:20.579 Good night. 601 00:46:22.260 --> 00:46:24.420 Switching to manic. 602 00:46:24.480 --> 00:46:26.460 Maximum power on all drives. 603 00:46:29.579 --> 00:46:48.300 Max He, you know, for, uh... 604 00:46:48.300 --> 00:46:56.099 Um, uh, uh, phallic, uh, the rest of the time, they're just sort of people in hats. 605 00:46:59.159 --> 00:47:02.039 You know, I mean, they are such a terry nation creation. 606 00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:08.159 Getting ahead of ourselves into a different universe there. different podcast altogether. 607 00:47:08.219 --> 00:47:09.300 Yeah exactly. 608 00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:11.340 Not doing all of next championship. 609 00:47:11.880 --> 00:47:15.900 You could sneak it in between series C and series D, I would think. 610 00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:17.519 So every C and a half . 611 00:47:17.579 --> 00:47:19.320 Yeah, series C2. 612 00:47:19.559 --> 00:47:20.699 CB. 613 00:47:20.760 --> 00:47:21.300 Something. 614 00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:21.900 Anyway. 615 00:47:23.519 --> 00:47:25.559 We've broken Nathan. 616 00:47:25.619 --> 00:47:26.400 We've broken name. 617 00:47:26.460 --> 00:47:29.099 I forgotten what numbers are now. 618 00:47:29.400 --> 00:47:30.900 Believe me. 619 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:34.320 Number D. for saying, oh, I'm going to have to edit. 620 00:47:35.880 --> 00:47:38.760 I've got my head in my hands now. 621 00:47:39.239 --> 00:47:40.860 Sorry. 622 00:47:40.920 --> 00:47:42.900 I just can't enter. 623 00:47:43.440 --> 00:47:45.300 Or excitement. 624 00:47:45.360 --> 00:47:47.159 I'm keeping all of that in. 625 00:47:47.760 --> 00:47:49.679 This is finished. 626 00:47:50.159 --> 00:47:52.739 Bill Schmidt and Shingles. 627 00:47:53.579 --> 00:47:56.280 Is that something where union album? 628 00:47:57.960 --> 00:48:04.079 Like you are mining the planet Dulcus over there, James. unbelievable. 629 00:48:07.380 --> 00:48:13.019 The sort of long backstory exposition-y things we got in seeklocate, destroy. 630 00:48:13.139 --> 00:48:15.119 Yeah, just getting to see them. 631 00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:16.619 I mean, Stephen Green is so good. 632 00:48:16.679 --> 00:48:21.059 I'm just getting to see him and Gareth Thomas acting at each other, is what it really needs. 633 00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:21.960 Oh, good. 634 00:48:25.019 --> 00:48:26.820 Oh, dear. 635 00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:28.800 We've kind of lost the pot, haven't we? 636 00:48:28.860 --> 00:48:30.179 Yeah, do we have an hour? 637 00:48:30.239 --> 00:48:31.079 Where do we go? 638 00:48:31.139 --> 00:48:32.639 I think we had an out about 10 minutes ago. 639 00:48:32.820 --> 00:48:36.059 We did, and then we just didn't let that stop us. 640 00:48:36.179 --> 00:48:38.639 We just kind of wish it on for a bit longer. 641 00:48:38.699 --> 00:48:41.579 Well, I don't think we didn't do hellos, did we? 642 00:48:41.639 --> 00:48:42.780 No, we didn't. 643 00:48:42.780 --> 00:48:44.760 Oh, my God, we didn't, did we? 644 00:48:44.820 --> 00:48:46.500 Let's get back into that.