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Reviews
Blake's 7: Rumours of Death (1980)
Almost Shakespearean tragedy
I've given this review a very pompous title. As with many B7 episodes it's really quite incredibly well put together & superbly acted.
Avon is still pursuing the people who are said to have killed the love of his life - Anna Grant. He captures one of the most feared Federation interrogators (in reality a torturer named Shrinker), takes him to a cave and tells him "talk or die. I have the gun"
Unsettlingly, Shrinker doesn't recognise a picture of Anna Grant, and claims Avon was being watched by the security agent "Bartolomew". They were on to him all along - anyone who knew Avon was rounded up at the same time he himself went into hiding.
Avon leaves Shrinker to die but is puzzled - if all his friends were rounded up, how come Shrinker never saw Anna? He is sure Servelan will know who secret agent Bartolomew really is, and decides on a crazy plan to get the truth out of her. But he and the crew arrive at her palace right in the middle of a serious revolt led by a high-ranking woman named Sula...Nobody is prepared for what happens next
The dialogue in the climactic scene is what made me think of Shakespeare. Suddenly everything goes quiet as Avon realises the truth behind the events of his life.
Blake's 7: Sarcophagus (1980)
Weirdly enjoyable. B7 doing something quite different
This starts off - very slowly - with about 5 minutes of 70s/80s BBC dramatic weirdness. And indeed the whole episode is in stark contrast to fast-moving episodes like Star One. I hope it's not controversial to say the writing has a more feminine touch - with much psychology & the most delicate of hints of fondness between 2 of the main characters.
There's the rather-too-common "Cally is taken over by a telepathic force" storyline. Apropos of nothing, really, we have Dayna playing a futuristic lyre & singing a song of the space traveller maiden; there are symbolic, other-worldly scenes of the main characters acting out little roles in bizarre outfits. This could all have ended up being a muddle, but in fact it's very effective.
An alien lady takes Cally's shape - and Jan Chappell was quite beautiful as the golden-skinned redhead who has a soft spot for Avon. Tarrant is obnoxious again
It's no bad thing to mix up the episode formats a bit. We'd just had 3 episodes dedicated to getting to know Vila, Cally & Avon in turn. There's no Servelan here; and danger but not much action. More of the crew's interactions...and it works for me.
Blake's 7: Gambit (1979)
Marvelous
One of the 3 best B7 episodes, along with "Star One" and "Rumours of Death"
There's still the storyline of the search for Star One, and Travis is - ominously - still one step ahead, with motives of his own. Blake takes the ladies to a gambling mecca ("a hive of scum an villainy") is the phrase that comes to mind) which manages to stay neutral from the Federation...and then Servelan rocks up
Avon & Vila are somewhat peeved at being ordered to wait at the teleport doing nothing - they decide to visit the gambling centre while the others are away anyway; and to use Orac to fleece the computer-controlled casino tables.
All human life is there, extravagantly dressed: thugs, swindlers, gamblers ready to put everything on the line, and a mysterious dwarf called the Klute who challenges everyone to speed chess. If they beat him they win a million, if they don't he gets to gleefully electrocute them.
Avon & Vila do indeed win millions, but the casino-owners are angry. They drug Vila and convince him to play the deadly Klute at chess (whilst barely conscious). Avon tells him that Orac will tell him the moves. "PLAY Vila!"...
Oh the search for Star One...well Blake, Jenna & Cally are kept busy looking for chap called Docholli, and playing their own game of 3-way chess against Servelan & Travis..
I think it's a timeless classic.
Blake's 7: Voice from the Past (1979)
Blake at his most infuriating
I don't know if I felt this when I first started watching this series, aged 6 or 7, but at some stage I started to prefer the Avon character to Blake.
As I've grown older I soon became pretty anti-authoritarian, which means I simply can't abide bossy people - those who assume leadership status over me based on nothing. The Blake character epitomises this trait. People - it is sometimes thought - need a leader to motivate and inspire them*, and to get them moving or otherwise they wouldn't achieve anything.
Blake's previous conditioning is exploited to lure him to another rebel group - and he becomes even more insufferable, announcing that "I run this ship"
The female resistance leader is quite good - trying to smile as horribly back at Servelan. It's rather tragic to see her tears when she sees she has been fatally outwitted by her hated adversary, and all her hopes in ruins
For some reason Avon saves Blake again. I wouldn't blame him if he just quietly dumped him at this stage
* I know people who say "you're either an employer or an employee" - I disagree.
Blake's 7: Star One (1979)
The extraordinary climax of Blake's fight
Surely the greatest B7 episode. (Why on earth anyone likes the disastrous final epsiode of series 4 more is beyond me. The story arc had disintegrated by then, and it became a meaningless slaughter)
As with the best Blakes 7 episodes, there is a lot happening at once in "Star One". Blake comes close to destroying the federation's vital computer complex. The crew argue bitterly about the deaths and chaos this will cause. The quarrel between Avon (who has never liked being a follower) & Blake (who is angered by Avon's constant sniping, but needs him to win his war) reaches a pitch...
Then it turns out their terrorism will assist the Andromedans in their attempt to invade our galaxy and subjugate humanity. Travis turns out to be helping the aliens, and there is a final showdown between him and Avon & Blake. Blake is seriously injured and the crew realise their priorities have completely changed.
SPOILER
Avon finishes off Travis & takes over, and the crew turns the Liberator around to face the alien fleet alone - while the federation navy races to get to this outlying planet . An injured Blake wanders off the flight-deck, telling Avon he has always trusted him, and the crew fire their first desperate salvo...
Blake's 7: Dawn of the Gods (1980)
Not the best B7 episode
It's still Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Peter Tuddenham etc, otherwise I'd give it a 5 or less.
This was absolutely great when I was young, but looks particularly dated now.
The story is a bit redolent of Star Trek ("we need an idea for an episode", "Okay, here's a silly one"), to me anyway. With the silly Caliph character and his absurd hat. Although Tharn doesn't look anywhere near as ridiculous as Moloch later on. Those deformed BBC-scifi characters were quite scary when I was a lad, watching in black & white. The episode did feel similar to Dr Who episodes of the time - no bad thing
Again, Cally getting taken over telepathically is a concept the writers used a few times too many.
Blake's 7: Aftermath (1980)
Good continuation of the story
This is, mainly, the story of what happens to Avon after the battle of Star One - and how he finds the first of the new crew-members. He's down on the planet Sarran - a planet seemingly populated with another primitive, murderous tribe (bit of a BBC/Blakes 7 cliche in those days) - with no useable weapon, and has to use his wits to survive.
He is saved by Dayna, who takes him to a buried spaceship where she and her father - a outlaw from the federation live and design defence systems...and then Servelan turns up and causes havoc in her usual smiling, deadly way. She gets a bit nastier in series 3 - without Travis around to be a dystopian cartoon villain.
Great stuff, as usual from Paul Darrow & Jacqueline Pearce. But nearly all the acting is of an exceptionally high standard in Blakes' 7, to my eye
This episode and the next get a lot of interest from seeing what happened to the main characters & the storyline after the magnificent last episodes of series 3.
Interesting that one other reviewer doesn't like Josette Simon as Dayna. I struggle to imagine how the (very attractive) Marina Sirtis would have done the role better. I never realised she had been in the running. I found Soolin a bit of a disappointment in series 4, but there's nothing wrong with Glynis Barber's acting, I just think Cally was as big a loss as Gan & Blake to the crew. Series 4 was a bit of a disaster, anyway
SPOILER
Jenna & Blake will be sorely missed. They're still alive, but both absent until Blake alone turns up in the excessively tragic last episode of series 4 - which I like to ignore. It actually seriously upset me as a10-year old.
Blake's 7: The Harvest of Kairos (1980)
So good you can ignore the silly monster
Acting first class; excellent writing (I think Terry Nation was involved), there's a lot of subtle stuff going on; fast moving; lots of interesting dynamics between the characters, who seem to have some depth here; and plenty of ideas about instinct vs computers & nature's defence mechanisms. And a great ending. It's a masterclass in how to weave a complex entertaining story together
Avon sits back & plays a game of tactics against Servelan & Jarvik (a superbly acted, cunning foe who outwits Tarrant & fascinates Servelan).
The ludicrous monster cost this a 10 rating from me. Kids used to Marvel might think the effects are awful. But they haven't seen acting like this..Andrew Burt is just magnificent. I had to search out his performances in other shows. Near the end Avon is trying to bamboozle Servelan into thinking a lunar module has suberb offensive capacity, and while she is panicking, Jarvik finds the whole bluff richly comic, in one of the funniest moments in B7..Wonderful.