A:05 The Web: Tangled Trouble for the Crew
Teleporting in—welcome to Federation Strike: A Journey Through Blake's 7!
Our crew finds themselves caught in a sticky situation—literally—when the Liberator becomes ensnared in creepy cosmic webbing. This episode features some wild characters, like the genetically engineered Lost and their quirky little minions, the Decimas. But does the detour from the main story impact the narrative flow through this first series so far?
We're teleporting out for now! Thanks for listening and don't forget to follow and subscribe on your preferred podcast app so you never miss an episode.
You can also join the conversation and stay updated by following us on Twitter/X and Bluesky, we'd love to hear your thoughts and theories!
Join us next time as we continue our journey through the universe of Blake’s 7.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to Federation Strike a journey through Blake's 7. My name's Garry. My name's Adam and welcome to episode five.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:I could leave that music running all day, mate.
Adam:I love the theme. It gets me going, doesn't it? It's just brilliant.
Garry:Very cool. Welcome back to another episode. Dear Blake's 7 listener, the ever present listener.
It's great to have you on board as we journey through Blake's 7 once more. And we're on to series A, episode 5 and our review of the web.
I hope you enjoyed the last couple of episodes that went out last, over the last few weeks. And we're almost halfway through the first series, which is scary.
Adam:Yeah, I'm glad we've got this far. I wasn't when we started it, I wasn't sure if you'd give up after the first episode, so. Yeah, well, here we are.
Garry:That's the thing, isn't it? I think Adam's been on Tenderhooks the entire time. Every time we've hit record, he's like, oh, God, is this gonna.
Are we gonna call it a day prematurely on Blake's 7? But no, no, it's been all great so far and I can't wait to dive into this particular episode of Blake's 7.
As we recorded last week, Adam said to me, I'm so intrigued to find out what your thoughts are for the web. It will be an interesting one. So can't wait to get onto all that, which is good.
And as I said, thank you very much for you, the listener, for, for joining us and for your. Your chats and your comments and everything over on the socials. It's been really cool actually to.
To chat with you all and really cool as well that those of you that have picked up the Blu Ray set after we said we were going to do this podcast, those of you that are watching along each week and watching your episodes and then joining us for our review and seeing what your thoughts and feelings are, that's been awesome. So over on Twitter or X or BlueSky, either of those two, do a search for Lake 7 podcast.
You can follow along with the chat there and we'll keep you updated on things. So it's been, it's been very cool to chat to all of you as well. So lovely community, dude, around Blake's 7.
Adam:Absolutely. Yeah.
I've had some nice comments and I just love the fact that people like you said, we've had quite a few comments saying, oh, I've been meaning to watch this show for a while now you guys are doing it. I'll Watch along.
It's this feeling of people watching along with us at the same time, whether they've seen the show before or whether they've, you know, this is the first time they're watching it. And yeah, that's really nice. It does feel like every week we're all sitting down together in a sense and, and watching Blake's 7. So I'm loving that.
Garry:Indeed. Yes. And one thing I want to pick up on, on that is I feel like I'm getting the benefit of.
Of watching the show as it was intended to be, to be consumed back in the day.
So when you and I have reviewed lots of Doctor who over the years, especially the classic stuff that's all multi part, you know, four and six parts and so on.
We've said oftentimes that having to, not having to, but binge watching those things all in one shot or even if you take a six part when you watch three and three, something like that, it can feel like a bit of a. Not a chore, but do you know what I mean? Like a lot of kind of cognitive load to go through those.
Because back in the day, like Blake's 7, they were designed to be broadcast once a week. You were left on a bit of a cliffhanger and then you were talking to your friends and you had some anticipation and the following week and you.
So I feel like I'm watching it in that intended fashion where I'm not sort of binge watching the entire. And there's nothing wrong with that.
If you've picked, especially if you've picked up the recent Blu Ray set and you've watched Series A all the way through, then thumbs up. That's all good for me. I feel especially as I'm not watching it with the newer effects as well.
Not at first, at least once I've watched the episode, I'll go back in and watch a few scenes where I know there's been teleportation effects or the Liberator flying through space or stuff like that, I'll go back and turn the effect, the newer effects on and have a look and. And do that stuff. But see, I feel like I'm in a bit of a time capsule, which is a great feeling for me, I think.
Adam:Yeah. When you said to me the other week that, you know, you were really enjoying this and you were just.
You almost want to just go on, you know, watch them, you know, almost binge watch it, and you were saying, no, you know, you're having to force yourself to watch one or two a week, you know, we're recording these two a week. Whatever I was thinking that is, I think that is enhancing your enjoyment because you're, it's that excitement to watch the next episode.
And also when you binge watch something especially like Blake's 7 because you are having that sort of a few days gap between next to watch one, you're coming at it fresh.
I think if you were watching, you know, two or three episodes in a row, there are bits in the stories we've reviewed so far that do drag a little bit or where the episode, you know, dips a bit in the middle. I think if you were to watch three in a row and have that, it might affect your enjoyment.
You would sort of think, yeah, yeah, it's a bit ploddy in places, but you know, when you have it as just a sort of 50 minute episode just on its own, I think it helps to enjoy the episode how it, as you said, was intended to be watched.
So, you know, you don't sort of get that fatigue of like you've watched three in a row and they were good, but you know, oh, two of them, they're a bit slow in the middle and by the time you've got third one, you've had enough, if you know what I mean. Just, just by having just that 50 minute slice of, of Blake's 7, I think that's perfect. So I think it's actually, yeah, it's, it's really.
And it's good for me as well. Even though I've, I've watched them loads, it's.
It's nice for me to watch them one at a time and have a break and it's really making me sort of assess them, if you like, in, in terms of reviewing them in a way that you don't do if you're just sitting there watching it, you know, for your own enjoyment or, or binge watching it. So it's, it's a sort of disciplined way of watching it. But like you said, it's, I think it is enhancing our enjoyment of, of the series in some way.
Garry:Agreed. 100%. Yeah, agreed.
So before we crack on with our review this week, then just make sure that you are following along with the podcast on your fave podcast app.
Especially if this is the first time you're listening to Federation Strike, hit the follow button in the app so that way you won't miss a new episode when it lands every Wednesday. And, and you also get your notifications let you know it's a new episode and all that stuff. So, yeah, whatever podcast app you use.
We're on all of those things and we'd love for you to listen along as we go through our seasonal podcast. Just a little reminder this is we'll review all of series A and then we'll have a break.
Hopefully the next Blu Ray set for series B will be launched in that time. Then we'll come back and do the next season. So yeah, love to have you following along and listening to every episode.
And as I mentioned, we're on the socials too. Come and chat with us and have a good old chin wag about Blake's 7 as we go through it over on X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it.
And bluesky, just do a Search or Lake 7 podcast and join some other very cool peeps that we have met and chatted to over there. Righty. We have gushed over Blake's 7 already for the first eight minutes of the podcast and how much we're enjoying it.
So let's see if we're going to continue with that. And our review episode this week, bud, is.
Adam:So we're on to episode five, the Web.
Trailer:We have waited. If you are coming for many years, welcome. It pleases us that you are here. Who are you?
We will meet shortly and then we shall answer all your questions. For now, it is only important that you understand the danger of your situation. Danger? Your shield is trapped. You cannot free yourselves. We can free ourselves at any time we wish. You underestimate the power of our ship.
Uncontrollably. You overestimate it. We have examined your ship most carefully through our daughter, Kali.
You would require to sustain your maximum power for 160 hours to break out of orbit. Your energy cells would be exhausted in less than 100.
Gravitational attraction would draw you back to your present position before your cells could be recharged. If we are trapped, then by who?
We do have some influence on your safety in that it is within our power to release you from the web. That we can and will do in return for assistance from you. What do you want from us?
In a few moments, we will transmit a homing signal. It will give you a precise landing position. We will talk again when you have landed.
Garry:Cool voice effect.
Adam:And Dudley doing his thing there, creating the suspense. Dudley Simpson.
Garry: January:It was, of course written by Terry Nation, directed by Michael E.
Bryant, this one overseen by Chris Bowsher and David Maloney, and the synopsis, the original One from the vhs, as always says, when an unexplainable gravitational pull traps the Liberator in an envelope, enveloping gossamer fungus near an unexpected.
Adam:It's a tongue twister.
Garry:It is, isn't it? In an enveloping gossamer fungus near an unexplored planet, the legend of Cali's people, the Lost, becomes a reality.
The break free from their web, Blake is asked to wipe out an entire species. So some foreboding and some. Some darkness to this one. Buddha and.
Okay, so we're almost halfway in and we had our crew established properly in the previous episode, the seven crew members to join Blake. And as we were going into this one, I was thinking, is this going to be.
Because they do this quite often with TV shows, even back in the day, where sometimes they have a mix of narrative running across a season or a series. And the best way to explain it is you have what I call lore episodes where you have this sort of underlying story arc that goes through the.
The series and then thrown in the mix periodically throughout the series. You have what's called these feature of the week or Creature. Do you know what I'm trying to say with that?
Adam:Yep. Yep.
Garry:So I thought to myself, right, okay, now we've got the crew established. Is this going to kick off with a Law episode? Is it going to be very Federation heavy?
Is it going to be very, you know, Blake wanting to do his thing and. And have. And orchestrate his next strike against the federation, etc. However, we got very much a. A very Creature of the week episode for me.
I think, dude, for this one, there was a couple of little bits in there, a little, Little bit of backstory for Cali and her people.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:But for the most part, it was, you know, these, the. The Silver people, you know, Navarro and Gila, and then the. The Decimus, the little. The little Oompa Loompa. Ewoks.
Adam:The squealing.
Garry:Yeah.
Adam:Fried eggs.
Garry:The Mini Zygons.
Adam:Yeah. They do look like these icons.
Garry:Yes. So, bud, before I dive into my thoughts on this stuff, as always, what. As a seasoned lifelong pro, what are your thoughts on your rewatch of the Web?
Adam:I find the Web quite an enjoyable episode. You are right. It's one that sort of dips out of the main sort of Federation, you know, storyline, if you'd like.
But I think that's nice in a way, because you, like you said, it's like a.
The story arc is all about Blake and the Federation, but you have these nice little Episodes where you, you go to other worlds and there's some nice building and you get to meet other characters and then don't worry, we will be getting back to the Federation in other stories to come, other episodes to come. So I think it's quite nice to have these little stories where you dip out and do different things.
And there's a couple of episodes like that in this series. And going forward for me, the Web, it's. I wouldn't put up there as a classic, but I find it enjoyable.
I do have to put some earplugs in towards the end of the episode where the decimals are smashing up the. Smashing up the tent because, you know, it's. Oh, it's so. It goes. It feels like it goes on forever, that scene.
And that's why I said to you last week if you needed to turn the volume down for Brian Blessed, you're definitely going to need to do it again with the Web. And I was thinking very much of that scene at the end where they're going mad. But yeah, it's, it's a.
I think there's some lovely ideas in this episode and weirdly, I'm intrigued to hear if you enjoyed it because I don't think when I was sort of first re. Watching Blake's 7 or when I.
When I first got the DVDs and was going back or actually would have been VHS's and was sort of going back through and watching Blake's 7 properly for the first time, I don't think the web really grabbed me as an episode for whatever reason. But watching it again in more recent times, I've grown to quite like it. And the whole storyline.
I think it's interesting they started with Cali, who's only really just been introduced. I think it's interesting they start off with her almost being evil.
Like, if you like you watching this for the first time, you've only just been introduced to Callie and then in the next episode she's hitting Villa across the head, you know, and you think, oh, is she bad? Has she turned? What's going on? Obviously it's just a bit of old possession that's going on. So it's quickly explained.
But I think that's an interesting choice because as a first time viewer, you know, you've only just met Callie and they're already throwing in this doubt which Jenna seems to have. Anyway, Jenna doesn't seem to be too pleased that Cal is on board. So that sort of plays into that storyline, which is quite nice.
But as an episode, mate, overall, yeah, I think it's a, a fun watch. I, I like the sort of concept of it. This planet with these creatures that have been, you know, genetically made.
They're sort of experiments that have kind of been thrown out, you know, to fend for themselves because they're no good. You've got these weird. This, this brother and sister that are also genetically created.
And then you've got this weird person, looks like a mini face of Beau who is sort of part of a lost tribe. That to do with Khalid's race from Arian. Arian is how they say it. Yeah. Arian. Yeah. Yeah. So there's, there's lots of nice things going on in this.
I think if, you know, you can pick up on lots of nice detail in this episode. Is it one of the best? No, I don't think it is. But is it enjoyable? I think so. I, I enjoyed it, but I'm intrigued to hear.
Hopefully the wheels haven't come off the cart. What did you think of it?
Garry:So I, I thought this was a pretty good watch.
Adam:Okay.
Garry:This one? Oh, yeah, I thought this was a pretty good one.
I think for me it's probably, I'm probably going to score this the lowest out of the episodes that we've done so far. That's not to say I'm going to give it a low score, but it's out of the ones we've watched. It's probably not up there with.
I didn't come away from it thinking, you know, that was an, that was just an amazing, you know, really cool, you know, watch of Blake's 7. Like, I had the first four episodes before this one, but I still thought it was a.
I still thought it was an enjoyable watch and I'm still loving the whole classic sci fi ness of it and the cheap sets and the cheap costumes and all that charm that just oozes out of the screen when you're watching this.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:You know, so I still love all that stuff. One thing I will say is I thought the performances were pretty good from, from, from the crew, as usual. Especially Jenna.
And Jenna and Blake and mate. Avon is still my fave.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:From the Liberator crew. Yeah. Still loving that tension between him and Blake and, and, and him not quite being fully on.
I don't know whether he's ever going to be fully on board with Blake. I'm, I'm loving the journey of finding out if that's going to be the case.
But so far, for now, he's still very much not agreeing with Blake's decisions. Not Quite on board, but kind of toeing the line for now.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:Which is cool. So I'm loving all that dynamic and stuff like that. So, yeah, it wasn't a bad watch.
And I think mainly the thing for me that that's probably going to bring the score down just a tad from the previous ones is I think this is the first departure we've had from really thundering the story along from the way back that that has felt like. I think I mentioned it in the last. The last episode or one before that.
I must have been the one before that because I said that the first three episodes for me I could easily watch as a kind of a feature film kind of thing. I know it'd be like a three hour film almost, but I could easily watch those three together.
And then the last one, the last one was still kind of like that. You know, it was still pushing the story forward, but we were sort of getting new characters. You know, Cali came on board and. And that was a.
A little bit Creature of the Week kind of thing, you know, with the, you know, with the guys in the suspended animation pods and. Oh yeah, and that kind of thing. But I think this one is properly the.
Now that we've got the crew established, this is the proper sort of departure from Blake wanting to take down the Federation, essentially. That's not to say that that's a bad thing. You know, I love when. When shows do that.
The X Files is a great example of that, where you have these lore episodes that push the series through and the whole thing, but then they litter these, you know, these almost isolated episodes with very little story lore and story progression in there and stuff. So I don't mind that at all.
So the only thing though is that when you do that, the Creature of the Creature of the Week thing needs to be fairly cool and. And watchable, etc. Now, was these guys the Lost? Were they. Were they good? Would they. Did they keep me captivated enough?
For the most part, I would say yes. I'd say for the most part. I was really intrigued to see what the. The little shrunken dude in the tank was about.
Yeah, at first I thought, bloody hell, even back then with no money, that is a. An absolutely cracking little animatronic head.
But it turns out it was just a guy, his actual face and you know, they'd used an effect to make him look tiny and stuff like that. So I thought, wow, they've, you know, somebody's making some very cool stuff with little money. So whoever did that Fair play.
But, yeah, so they did keep me fairly sort of captivated in that respect. So the. The usual suspects were behind that stuff.
So the visual effects designer, Ian Scoons, would have done a great job with that stuff, along with the electronics effect guy, A.J. mitchell. So there's. There was a. There's a few little sort of team of merry men there that were very impressively doing some.
Some reasonably good effects there with pocket change, it felt like. And. And just to hit you with some knowledge, dude, go for it. A bit of trivia. I'm sure Blake's 7, long time watchers and.
And pros will know this already, but the. The little dudes, the decimals there, we joked earlier, but their suits were actually repainted Zygon suits from Doctor who.
Adam:Were they?
Garry:They were. They were chopped up and refit and. And repainted. Yeah.
Adam:Wow. That looked like there was too many of them because I thought they only ever made about three or four Zygon suits.
Garry:Nah, dude. So the. And that kind of aligns with what I thought when I first saw those dudes. I said. You remember when I said that?
There's been a couple of occasions where I've been watching this and I've said out loud a couple of things. That's the first thing I said out loud. Watching this one. I was like, they look like Zygons from Doctor who.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:Straight away I was like, that's got to be. Especially the top half. You know, that's. Don't get me wrong, they haven't just transported the Zygon outfits and plonked them on them and.
And that sort of thing. They have modified them a little bit. But, yeah, dude, it's the. Apparently.
Adam:So the Zygon outfits, I mean, definitely the headpiece that I can sort of see that. I mean, I didn't realize that. See, this is the thing, mate. Even as a.
I thought as a Blake's 7 expert and even I am learning stuff from doing this podcast, which is. Which is great. So now I could totally see that. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say, mate, just before we move on, I. This is the episode.
So with the series, obviously, I've not really been able to predict how you're gonna feel about each episode, but I did feel with the Web, this is the first one where I. I felt like I knew what you were gonna make of it. I thought. I thought. I think he's gonna enjoy it, but it's not going to be up there.
As with the rest that you've watched so far, you know, it's the first one where I felt like I'd be able to predict what, you know, what you're going to think of it. And I think that is because it is just that type of episode where I think you could plonk it on.
And if someone hasn't watched Blake's 7, there are things in there to enjoy. You know, there are little moments, there are little scenes which make the episode enjoyable.
But as an episode overhole, overall, I think it just, yeah, doesn't quite hit the heights of, of the ones we've watched so far. But there are some lovely moments in this, like I said, mainly, you know, made up by the cast who are just so great in it.
I particularly love it when Avon arrives on the planet towards the end and Blake's like, I can't go through this because otherwise, you know, we, we're going to destroy the decimals. And Avon just like, well, if it's between them and us, what's the problem?
It's just so unbothered that a whole race, whole species is going to get wiped out. There's also some nice bits where. There's a bit where he saves Blake.
You know, there's that bomb and Avon saves Blake and Blake says, oh, something like, I'm surprised. And Avon's like, not as much as me. It was just a reaction.
He sort of underplays the fact that he's just saved him by saying, oh, it's just a natural reaction. I didn't, you know, I probably wouldn't do it again.
You know, there's still this sort of underlying tension between those two, but I do feel like they're starting to bond a little bit, albeit with. With Avon being quite. He seems to be holding back. He doesn't really want to like Blake.
But I do feel like the, you know, the friendship is slightly building between those two at this point, albeit there's still being quite a bit of tension there. So it's good to see those two down on the planet together anyway. I just, I just love it when those two are together.
Garry:Blake and did you also pick up on the color coded, very nice tracksuits that they've been assigned as they go down to the planet? I think before they just went down in their same clothes that they had on.
Adam:That's right, from previously.
Garry:But now they seem to have these swanky color coded tracksuits, which looks pretty good.
Adam:Yeah, I quite like them, actually. They're pretty cool.
Garry:Yeah. Story wise, I liked the, the opening scenes with Cali because you were immediately thrown a curveball.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:Which I love that.
Adam:Which is what I'd hoped as. Knowing that this is your first time watching this, I thought, is. Is Garry going to be sat there thinking, oh, no, is Cali bad?
I thought, hopefully it's thrown him and he doesn't know what's going on, so it doesn't last long. It's quickly explained, isn't it? But, yeah, that. Yeah, yeah. What were you thinking when you first saw us whack Villa and acting a weird.
And destroying the. The funny machine at the, you know, on the Liberator, the defense mechanism, whatever it was.
Garry:Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. I thought she's. She's really a baddie. I thought she. My initial thought was that she never wanted to join Blake's group in the first place.
She just saw this as an opportunity to. To either commandeer the ship or. Or do something. I wasn't sure, but I thought, yeah, they've. She.
She's put on a good show in the previous episode and she's now on board, but now she's showing her true colors kind of thing. And she's.
Adam:Yeah, she's.
Garry:She's up to no good. But obviously we find out that she's been. Because she's telepathic. And these guys that are down on the.
On the planet surface are kind of ancestors of hers from, you know, they were exiled from her home planet of Oron. So they're kind of the same, you know, telepathic link there. And the.
The leader of those guys, the Lost, his name's Saemon, he controls her mind and gets her to do this stuff, but you don't find out until later. But at the time, yeah, I thought, wow, Blake's made a bad call here. Like, he's only just got its crew together and they're on their way.
And here we go. He's dropped a clanger because it also feeds into they.
It was a good setup at the very end of the last episode because Jenna turns to Blake and says something like, you know, are you sure this is a good idea? Around those words, you know, she'd be.
Adam:Bringing aliens on board or something.
Garry:She says, exactly, yeah. And then at the beginning, she also reinforces.
At the beginning of this episode, she reinforces that fact because Callie's obviously flipped, which we don't find out why until a little bit later. But Gan sort of overpowers her and again she says, I knew it was a bad idea or something like that. I knew we shouldn't have brought her.
Adam:Yeah. Sort of backing her up. Isn't he? He's like, he's very distrustful of her. Even after all the others have, you know, worked out what's going on.
Avon's still not having any of it, is he?
Garry:Yeah, I love Avon, man. He's. He. I don't know if, if I was going to be a character in Blake's 7.
I'm pretty sure if you, if you were to do a personality match or something, I'd probably be Avon the computer expert. Probably.
Adam:Yes, just.
Garry:And also this. I love the fact that he, he shouts at Gan as well, doesn't he, as he's walking off down the corridor.
Adam:Yeah, yeah.
Garry:And he says, you know, I'm not sure Blake would be happy about that. And Avon says something like, that's the problem. Or, you know, that's.
Adam:Oh, he says, yeah, it's when he's talking about the auto repair and Avon's thinking he could make money, he think I could sell. And Gan says something and then Avon says, well, one day Blake won't be making the decisions, will he? Like that.
It's like he's already planning to take over and, and make money. And you know, he's always got a scheme just bubbling away in the background of his head, doesn't he? Avon, it seems.
Garry:Yeah. That was a good line though when he, he essentially insinuates that one day Blake might not be the captain that you all think he is to look up to.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:Kind of insinuating that maybe he would replace Blakers as captain. Who knows? But.
And there was a scene earlier on as well when somebody mentioned something else about Blake and he was like, yeah, that's the problem, you follow him or something like that. So the tension, like we said, is great with, with Avon and Blake, but at the same time, like you said, as.
I don't know is the best way to describe it. Two steps, one step forward, two steps back. Is that the best way to describe this? I'm not sure.
But when you think that, like you said to, their friendship is potentially growing a little bit, at least to a point of mutual understanding, perhaps you have these scenes where it goes back to square one where Avon just can't stand him.
It looks like, you know, he just can't stand the fact that Blake's on this kind of heartfelt heroic crusade and Avon's got nothing to do with that and doesn't want anything to do with it. But then we kind of flip flop back between those two having that. I love the scenes where they sometimes don't even say anything.
Where they just look at each other and they've got this kind of.
Adam:Display.
Garry:In this look at each other where they. Yeah, that.
Where Avon's got this almost eye roll sort of vibe about him and Blake's got this dismissive like, oh, whatever, you know, just do what I've asked you to do and everything will be fine. But then there's other looks that they give each other with this kind of little grin, this kind of mutual respect at times and stuff.
So that's been written, I must say, even from episode two, Space Fall, that's been written in really well with those two.
Adam:Yeah. And they play it brilliantly, don't they? Those two are so good together on screen. But yeah, I think that's the thing.
I think Avon, it doesn't want anything to do with Blake. He doesn't really want to get involved with all this stuff, but he finds himself having to be part of it.
And I think sometimes his guard drops and he sort of almost feels like. Like when he saves Blake, he just. It's a natural reaction and he almost feels like, oh, God, I don't want to be like, I've been too nice.
You know, almost sort of restrains himself after realizing that he's actually, you know, seems to be getting on with Blake and he's like, no, no, you know, I don't want to.
Don't want anything to do with this, you know, so he's, he's unintentionally, I think he is starting to like Blake and I think he is starting to get, you know, stuck in to the cause a little bit. But then he just, yeah, like you said, he takes two steps back of like, what am I doing? I don't want any of this.
And this thing that he's always in the back of his mind sort of plotting to. He just knows that what the day must come when he either takes over or leaves or does his own thing or how can he make money?
He's always sort of got number one. He's always looking after number one in the back of his mind, isn't he?
Which I think makes him quite an unpredictable and dangerous character, which is what I love about Avon.
One thing I just want to quickly say mate as well is because Jenna is so untrusting of Callie right from the get go, you know, from the, from the ending of the last episode. And like you said right at the start of this, she's still not sure that she's happy about Callie being brought on board.
So for Cali to sort of start you know, beating people up like poor old Villa. It plays into callous, plays into Jenna's suspicions. So there. I do find it odd that it's Jenna that says, that's not you. Is it Cali? She.
I don't understand how Jenna works that out. If Callie had sort of, you know, used her telepathy to tell her, I could have understood it.
But I don't know if that's down to the direction or the script, but I think that little scene's a bit unclear. Unless I miss something. I don't. Because surely Callie would be the last person to. To work. Sorry.
Surely Jenna would be the last person to work out that Callie was possessed. She would just assume Callie was bad. You know, I mean, I don't know. I just didn't quite work out how she works out.
She's the one that's possessed, if you know what I mean. Didn't. Didn't quite seem right.
Garry:But I think that's. I think it came down to just Jenna's intuition. That's just what. Because I think she said something along the lines of.
Did you see the look in her eyes? That wasn't. So I think Jenna's picked up on the fact that something wasn't quite right.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:With Cali's overall kind of demeanor and also the way she's looking and that kind of thing. So the other. The other guys, they just took it at face value, like Callie's gone mad. Callie's gone.
You know, she's going to blow the ship up or she's going to do whatever or disable the ship. They just assume that it is Callie. Whereas I think Jenna just looks at another level down. So just not at face value. This is Callie. She can sense.
That's what I took from that. Anyway.
Adam:She just senses it's not. Something's not right.
Garry:Just because of the. After. After Gan overpowers her when Jenna says, you know, something wasn't right. Did you see the look in her eyes?
So I think Jenna picked up on something being wrong there. And talking of the. Of the possession stuff, Jenna was really quite creepy when she was possessed by Saeman. That was. That was quite creepy.
And Sally Novette played that very well. That whole sort of frozen on the spot kind of creepy look on her face as she's. As she's doing it.
And I must say, props to whoever the sound designer was on this. I think it was. So in terms of studio sound, it's a guy called Tony Miller.
And then there was the credit that just said special Sound and that was Richard Yeoman Clark. So between the two of them, or whoever did that, the, the dubbing over of Saeman's voice was bang on.
Like it really did look like you have to suspend your belief a little bit with that stuff. But it, for the most part, it really did look like it was his voice coming out of it. So Richard Beale, who played Saeman, it was.
They've treated his voice, of course, and you know, it sounds very alien, but yeah, that whole scene was really good with Jenna when she was possessed.
Adam:Yeah.
And also, I mean, because there's a couple of scenes in this where people have to sort of lip sync to someone else's dialogue and that, you know, notoriously, especially back in the sort of 70s television, you know, it's done very well in this, you know, it wasn't always done so well. They managed to. Yeah, like you said, put the effect on nicely and it does come across quite, quite creepy, doesn't it?
So, yeah, it works well, I agree.
Garry:Yes. Yeah.
So I think, once again, though, I do think that, that Sally Navette had another good episode outside of the whole tension thing with, with Blake and Avon and some of the little bants between Gan and Villa. I think Jen is still holding her own, you know.
Adam:Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Garry:Yeah. She's. She's not taking any nonsense and she's still. There's no more. In this episode, at least there's no more discussion around.
Is she going to follow Avon if he starts playing silly buggers? She's going to stay with Blake, all that kind of thing that's kind of been put to bed for now for her at least. We'll see how that goes on.
I'm interested to see, as with many things with this show already, I'm interested in like a thousand things as we go on, but I'm sure that will. Her character will evolve like all the others and I'm interested to see how that goes. But yeah, I think Sally Nevette is having a great.
A great series so far, dude. And without any spoilers. Does she stay on with the show? Because I know a couple of people don't.
Adam:I can't really say, to be honest.
Garry:You can't say?
Adam:Well, I, I prefer. I think it's best that, you know, I bet. I think it's best I don't say anything to do with Jenna's character.
And also, I'll be honest with you, I can't. Well, no, I actually know. Gosh, I nearly said a big spoiler then. What am I Doing this is the Thing list, though it's very hard for me not to.
I'm constantly tripping over myself to not say things because Garry is obviously watching this for the first time and I don't want to ruin any of it. I'm also slight envious, actually, of.
Of you being able to watch this for the first time now because obviously it was so long ago that I watched this series.
I can't remember, you know, my reaction to all of these things, like whether I would have thought Cali was bad, you know, when I first watched that scene, or I.
I suppose I probably would have watched them out of order to begin with because I would have seen certain episodes on TV when I was really young and then I would have bought the. The VHS's and watch them from the beginning properly. So I've kind of.
Whereas you're just starting right at the beginning and watching it, you know, as it was intended. And I'm slightly jealous of that because my.
All my memories are kind of muddled up with this type of thing because of, you know, the way I've watched it over the years. So, yeah, you know, it's why, in a way, I'm sort of watching it through your eyes. That's why I'm asking you, like, what did you think when.
When Cali turned bad and what did you think of that?
Because I'm just, yeah, thinking what would I have thought watching this the first time I watched it all those years ago because I can't remember, to be honest with you. But I'm also tripping over myself not to say anything to do with the characters, which is, in some ways is a bit limiting.
I feel a little bit like I've got one of Gan's limiters in my head because, you know, there are things I would love to say about Jenna, for example, and what happens going forward.
Like, if we'd have both watched this and we knew this series well and we were just reviewing the episodes like we do with Doctor who, we'd now be saying, you know, oh, yes, of course, we're in series two, blah, blah, blah, Cali, Jenna, da ba ba. You know, but we can't do that. We can't talk about things that are to come because you don't know. And I don't want to ruin it.
So I am having to be very restrained. So I'm going to zip it and I'm just not going to say anything about Jenna, mate. Yeah, you'll just have to wait to see.
And actually, that's the Other thing, mate, you know, you were saying about watching these, you know, you know, pacing yourself and watching one or two a week. I think when you get to the end of series one, I don't know how you're going to resist not watching series two before the Blu ray comes out.
You know, I don't know if it's on ITVX anymore, but I don't know if it's out there on a medium that you can watch before the Blu ray comes out. But you'll have to restrain yourself. But I think you're going to be absolutely itching to get on to series two.
So let's hope they don't take too long getting the Blu ray out.
Garry:I hope not. I hope that's not going to be. I'm hoping for the end of this year at the latest for series B.
Adam:I'm hoping a lot sooner than that. I have no information, but I'm hoping.
Garry:Well, here's the thing.
Adam:June, July.
Garry:Yeah, here's the thing, because there's quite a lot that went into it that I wasn't aware of because I hadn't considered diving into Blake's 7 back then.
But watching some of the production diary stuff and the going back and those guys, Chris Thompson and all those guys doing the effects for the Liberator and so on, as well as those have things having some kind of visual effects treatment done in CG and whatnot, they actually built reasonably sized scale models for a lot of the ships and so on. And there's some famous. I say famous. There's some.
There's some photos that Chris had put on his Twitter and Instagram and some other people when they were filming this episode and they had to cover the Liberator and all this fake webbing and. Yeah, and all that stuff. So although I'm saying, you know, and we are both saying we really hope that the season two. Season two. Come on, Garry.
Series two or series B. You know, although we're saying that we're really hoping that that comes along reasonably soon.
At the same time, I'm not too mad if they take the time on it because I'd rather that it was, you know, done respectfully like they've done with Series A. Yeah, and all the things are good and the. The practical effects are there as well as the visual effects stuff. And it all looks really nice and.
And tidy. So, yeah, if you're listening to this, anybody that's involved in a production, I know a couple of people who are, which is great.
So thank you very much for listening. Take Your time with this stuff. Take your. Take your time and do your good work, your best work on it. And so. Yeah, but I'm.
I'm assuming it's not going to be years in between them. I'm hoping it's not going to be.
Adam:I'm just hoping we won't be in our 70s by the time we're reviewing season D. You know, like, I'd like to get. I'd like to. I'd like to be watching this series with you till the end. Yeah. Before we get. Before in the.
Before we're just brains in jars.
Garry:What are we doing this week? Who are you?
Adam:Who's Blake?
Garry:It's Garry.
Adam:Where's Blake?
Garry:What am I doing here? I'm teleported in.
Adam:Dread to think.
Garry:Yes, let's talk about some. Actually before we move on, I must say that Villa didn't have a very good. Sorry, very good. A very large part in this.
He got knocked out fairly early on by. By Cali.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:And then only has a couple of funny little one liners and that's. That's his lot. So Michael Keating, I think he just had his feet up with a. With a few brews making, you know, making this one.
Adam:He doesn't get a lot to do. I think this is the. I think I've said it last week as well. This is the only thing about Terry Nation having such a large cast for each episode.
In terms of the Liberator crew, it's very difficult to give them. Give all of them something to do. He's just about juggling it at the moment.
I think he manages to give each one of them a couple of nice scenes, even if they're not part of the main action. But I think two people that really suffer in this episode is. Is Villa and definitely Gan. Poor old Ganny does nothing in this. He just wanders around.
I mean, he does get to, you know, he does help when Cal is possessed. You know, he does manage to grab her so that they can save or whatever. But yeah, poor old Villa, he doesn't get much.
There is a lovely little look from him. Again, this is what's great about the cast. You know, even when they don't get much on the page, they just make the most of it.
There's a lovely look from Villa of relief when he thinks that Blake's gonna ask him to go down to the Planet. And it is very much unspoken. It's not even in the dialogue.
It's just the look of sort of fright that Villa gets when Blake says Says his name and then he's like, can you just teleport us down? He's like, oh, yeah, sure. He's just like, oh, thank God. Thought you're going to ask me, you know.
But again, it's all in the look and the acting, it's not in the dialogue. So, again, just Michael Keaton making the most of what very little he has to work with in this. In this episode. Yeah. Same again, though, mate.
He gets nothing to do, does he? Gets to wear those funky sun sunglasses that play music. I'd love a pair of them. Don't know what you'd call it. What, that futuristic Walkman.
Yes, he gets to wear that. But yeah, he. He looks thoroughly bored in this episode, doesn't he?
Garry:But I. I would imagine that would have been kind of par for the course, though, if you've got, as you mentioned, a cast of a reasonable size and then you.
You can't. You can't dedicate, can you? No, you can't dedicate loads of screen time to all of them, all of the time, because I imagine you have.
Well, I'm assuming when they were mapping out the story and getting the production stuff mapped out and rehearsals and that kind of thing, as they were going through all the scripts and stories, it would have been par for the course to say, look, we have to focus on Blake, right, because he's the. At this point in Series A, he's the star of the show. So him and his story and everything that has to. That has to be the driving force.
And all the other characters will, you know, weave them in and out of the stories as we go through. But we can't have them all being the star of the show all the time. There's just not enough. We had this with Doctor who, mate, didn't we, with.
With Doctors in their era where they have a fairly busy TARDIS crew. Yeah, it's okay if you've got one or two companions, it's not too bad.
But even then in some classic who you had one of them, that was felt a little bit of a.
Just a bit of a tag along at times, but especially when you get to sort of Davison's era, when you've got three or four people traveling with you, you know, it's difficult.
And then on top of that, you've got the baddies in the story, you've got exposition stuff to go through in some cases and all this stuff, you know what I mean? So I would imagine that the actors were fully clued up before going in. It's like David Jackson, Michael Keaton. You guys can just chill for this.
Adam:For rehearsal this week on set.
Garry:Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
You've got a couple of lines and, you know, just get in character and make sure you've got that reaction to the other actors and that kind of thing.
Adam:So I just wonder if Terry Nation slightly wrote himself into a bit of a corner by having Blake's seven because he then. Yeah, he's giving him a job of, of giving them something to do each week. I think up to this point, I think he's just about managed it.
Because even if you get characters like Villa and Ganu who don't have much on the page, they still get nice little scenes. Like, as I said, Gan doesn't really get anything to do in this, but there is a nice scene with him and Avon. You know, they.
They all get little moments, which is good. And what is absolutely holding the, the scripts together is the cast performances, because they're all gelling so well.
You know, I think even when characters aren't doing much, they still add something to the scene, like I said, about Villa's reaction. They're still good enough in their performance to, to make the crew work, if you know what I mean.
Even if they're not doing a lot, you still love the dynamic between all of them together in that spaceship. Because they're all quite tired in this episode, aren't they? They're all. They're all very short tempered.
Garry:Oh, yeah.
Adam:So especially at the start, you know, you sort of.
Which is nice because you get that feeling then there's like another continuity, really, that they have been on this spaceship for, you know, for, for a while and they are all worn out and they need a bit of a rest.
And you know, again, it just gives another element to all of the, the characters, you know, it makes them all rounded, you know, that they are all a bit tired and a bit short with each other and, you know, so.
Garry:Yeah, it was funny at the beginning when Jenna's on the, on the bridge and something's not right. You know, the speed is increasing.
Adam:Yeah. Blake's like, what is it now?
Garry:I just love that it's almost, it's. It's those little things that make the characters very relatable.
You know, we've all had that time where either one of the kids is trying to wake you up or the phone's ringing or something and he just. You just want five more minutes, do you know what I mean? And it's like, what do you want? Yeah, it's Very cool.
And then I think Gan has a similar reaction, doesn't he? He's knackered. And yeah, he's like, rest bridge to Gan. He's like, what do you want that kind of tone? Yeah, so that was very cool, mate.
I love those little, those little sort of 10 second scenes where ultimately the story doesn't. They don't need to be there to progress the story, but they're there because it fleshes out the more human side, I guess.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:Of these stories. Yeah. So those guys, I think they all had a good one, albeit, you know, Michael Keaton and Dave Jackson, who weren't in it that much.
Zen doesn't have too much going on. It's still a bit of a. I think Avon still, still miffed with him with them, should I say?
And yeah, even though it's a male voice, I think it's fair to say, you know, AI is not, not going to throw a gender at a computer. But Avon is still, still miffed that he's not getting the correct answers, is he?
Adam:I think Blake's getting quite annoyed with him as well because there's a bit where he's like, shall I put up the force walls? And he's like, well, yes, obviously, like, just do it, you know, why are you even asking?
Garry:Yeah, yeah. And it's.
You can tell that road to, to impatience has kicked off with Blake in this episode because he's like, well, how long until things go belly up and send like 12 minutes or something. Well, how long's the repair? And sends like, well, 11 minutes and something and some change. He's like, oh, that doesn't need very long.
And then he calls Avon and even Avon's like, I'm busy. You know, Avon's doing his own.
Adam:Oh yeah, that's right. He doesn't even rush, does he? He's like, Blake tells him to come and he's like, oh, in a minute. He's like, no.
Yeah, there's no urgency at all from Avon.
Garry:Yeah, I love that scene actually with Avon and Gan where again, that's a scene that didn't necessarily need to be in there, but it's a nice little interaction between those two. It just shows that Avon has got a lot more going on than just following Blake. Avon's got his own research and he's.
And it's a little reminder that we're watching futuristic sci fi as well.
Because even Avon admits to Ganny's like, look, we're dealing with technology that's far advanced, that I'm still Getting to grips with, I don't fully understand. So that, that's like a, that's a visual and, sorry, that's an audible cue to the, to the viewer.
It's like, look, we're still, you know, in a distant future somewhere and, and then we do this thing, doesn't he, where we try an experiment, blows the circuit board up and there's that downtrodden sort of all that didn't go too well. But then one thing that Avon has figured out that the, the circuitry is like self healing. So he's like, gan, you know, check this out.
Adam:And then I think I could sell it, sell that technology. What do you think about the auto repair thing?
Because I think it's a lovely idea and it definitely speeds up, you know, a little bit like the Sonic, it's like an easy fix. The Sonic in dot two, you know, I mean, you could say it's a bit of an easy get out is what I'm getting at.
But I just think it's nice because it's just okay. If the Liberator's in a battle, you can just say, okay, in half an hour it'll all be repaired again.
It's, it's an easy fix but it moves the story on quick.
You haven't got to think, oh, we've got to now, you know, have half an hour of explaining that, how we've repaired it and see Avon and we've got, have a montage of people welding stuff back together and cuts all that out. It's just like, yeah, just leave it. It's got auto repair, it will sort itself out. So I think it's quite a nice idea.
You could say it's a little bit lazy in terms of like, oh yes, all right, it'll be fine in five minutes, you know, in that sense. But I like it. I just wondered if you felt it was a bit of an easy get out or if you think it's quite a cool idea.
Garry:I'm in two minds about that stuff.
Adam:Oh, okay. All right.
Garry:Yeah, I think so. One half of my brain thinks that, like I just mentioned it.
Scenes like this and little mechanisms, if you will, sort of narrative mechanisms that just remind you that you're watching science fiction. And science fiction has these very cool things in there, otherwise it wouldn't be, you might as well be watching, you know, Downton Abbey, whatever.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:So you have to sort of propel yourself into another world and be in there.
So this whole auto repair and all that stuff, I think it's, I think it's great from that perspective just because it's a cool sci fi thing in terms of how that applies to writing and, and being a bit of a crutch in the story because you don't have to worry about the ship too much. Even if you get into a bit of a scrape and, and all this sort of thing, or if there's a problem, it can just, like you said, sort itself out.
But what I would say is that that then gives you a bit of a fork in the road for what stories you want to tell. Because on one hand it's like, we'll get that stuff auto repaired and move on because we've got other stories to tell.
On the other hand, you could go down this other road where, okay, well, we won't have such a thing as auto repair.
So if the Liberator gets into a spot of bother and it's damaged, they have to find the nearest planet or the nearest space station, dock there while they're repairing, and then that opens up doors to other stories. So while the ship is being repaired, they go off and they get into other scrapes or problems or meet other people, whatever.
So there's always opportunities, isn't there, whichever way you go when you're writing this stuff. But you've just got to make a decision, you know, do you go down this road or that road?
So termination was obviously like, well, we're not going to bother with having the Liberator docked for hours, days, weeks, whatever while it's being fixed. We'll just get it sorted and then we're off.
Adam:Yeah. And then also if there is big damage, I mean, it's not, you know, they do sort of play with it.
You know, if the Liberator's in a big battle, it can't just repair in five minutes. You know, Zen will say auto repairs are slow. You know, they do find ways around it. So it's not a, it's not invincible, the Liberator.
But I think it is a, is a good way of keeping the story moving if they need to use it, if you know what I mean? But they can get around it by saying, you know, oh, it's gonna take ages because yeah, that bit's, you know, really badly damaged sort of thing.
So, yeah, in that sense it's, it's not an easy get out, but agreed.
Garry:Yeah. And talking to Liberator, I love the, especially the, the version with the original effects.
I love this whole getting caught in this, in the web, spider like web and everything. It's initially As a newbie, I thought that we were going to have some kind of strange, scary space spiders. That's what I assumed.
Adam:Well, they hint at that, don't they?
Garry:Kind of, yeah. But I mean, like, visually having like an arachnid style alien threat and all that stuff.
I know you should never assume, of course, with anything makes an ass out of you and me, but I honestly thought, because there was actual webs that you would associate with spiders, I thought, you know, is the. If we are going to have a creature of the week, is it going to be a giant bunch of spiders, whatever. But it turned. No, visually it looked like that.
But the whole shots with the Liberator covered in all that fake webbing and the. The production side of things, when you get down to the planet.
And they've done their best, haven't they, to cover as much of this little forest area in loads of webs and. And whatnot. It does look pretty cool. So from a visual point of view, even with the original effects and those space scenes, it does look pretty good.
Adam:Yeah. I mean, even the scene, it's sort of, you could say it's a little bit laughable.
But I love it, you know, when they escape from the web and it's literally just. They just lift off the. They lift off the web, off the Liberator, and off it flies. You know, it's very basic stuff, but it looks.
I think the Liberator model itself looks absolutely gorgeous. You know, like you said, I love all that model work that's going on. So. Yeah, I agree. You know, visually, it looks great.
lly for the time it was made,: Garry:Yes, indeed. The Libre is such a gorgeous ship. Dude.
Adam:It's my favorite. It's my favorite ever. It just is gorgeous. Yeah.
Garry:Over the years, listener Adam has. When Adam's tried to talk to me about Doctor who, about Doctor who, about Blake's 7 without dropping any spoilers, one thing he said often is how.
How much he's in love with the Liberator as a. As a. As a ship design and everything. And you're not wrong, mate. It's. It's gorgeous.
Adam:Yeah, it is gorgeous. Yeah. I was just gonna say that's one of the things we get some lovely.
You know, when people joke about corridors in Doctor who, is the whole always running down corridors. I love the hexagonal. Is it hexagonal? Probably saying the wrong word there. But the corridors in the Liberator and stuff.
It's a very simple design, but it just looks so great on screen when they're. I don't even care if it' same one.
They're running down time and time again to make it look like five, you know, it just is such a nice design, isn't it? And the way it comes out onto the flight deck and. Yeah, I mean, I love the design of the Liberator inside and out. I just think it's.
It is my favorite spaceship in the galaxy. It really is. As much as I love the Enterprise, this is the Liberator. It's just the best.
Garry:You're not wrong with that, dude. Yeah. Let's finish up on a couple of the actual creatures then, that we see in this episode. So the first one being. So we have this. These exiled.
Actually we find out that they're. That they are sort of genetically engineered, aren't they? They're called the Lost. So from Cali's home planet of Oron, they were. They were exiled.
And they're on this planet, obviously, and they've created their own sort of race of people as they've been experimenting with their own genetic engineering stuff. And the little people, they're called the Decimas. And they intended those guys, I think, to be like their almost slaves, I guess. Like the work.
Adam:Sounds like it. Yeah.
Garry:Yeah, the work. The workforce for the planet, but obviously goes awry and they've revolted and, you know, and all that stuff.
So we got two genetically engineered species on this planet, one of them trying to take control. You know, again, this is another theme that's running through every episode that I found. The undertone is this.
This notion of wanting to control people.
Adam:Yeah, true. Yeah.
Garry:It's kicked off from the way back with the Federation, of course, the whole setup with things. And as we've gone through, you know, Vargas on Cygnus Alpha, his motives and. And that kind of thing.
And now we're in another situation where you've got this character Saemon, who has what. Wants to control and essentially eradicate this other species, the decimals and stuff. So he wants to control things as well. But anyway, the, the.
The Lost, I thought were very cool. I love the, the. The way that they were played. This kind of almost robotic, not quite human.
So Navarro played by Miles Fothergill and Gila, played by Ania Mars.
And those two were a good sort of tag team because they could tell that potentially in rehearsals or just on the day when the cameras are rolling, I'M not sure but they had this very like. If you didn't know what they were, you'd almost mistake them as androids or robots or something.
So they had this very cool non human esque but kind of human at the same time performance. And then obviously the decimals were just these wild, feral, almost crazy dudes. The lead, the lead guy for the decimals was.
You'd have heard this name a billion times. Guy called Deep Roy.
Adam:Deep Roy, yeah.
Garry:Yeah. So classic. Who fans will know him as Mr. Sin from Talons of Wang Chiang and then post kind of classic TV work.
He's then gone on to being in to be in some of the biggest Hollywood films of the last 20 years. It's quite.
Adam:It's quite incredible.
Garry:Yeah, it's quite incredible the amount of stuff he's been in. But he's the guy that. I think he's the actor at the beginning who asks Blake for help and then he gets surprised, you know, when.
Adam:The poor Decima dies and there's like a scene where they go mad and there's a bit where you see one of them cry and I think that might be Deep Roy.
Garry:I'm not sure because at the beginning when he asks Blake for help, he then gets killed by Navarro.
Adam:Yeah, you know, so sad.
Garry:Gets electrocuted, doesn't he? And yeah, stuff. So. So two very interesting groups of. Of characters here. Very similar in their genetic makeup of course, but very different motives.
The Decimals just want to take out, you know, the Lost and have the planet for their own and be happy and. And crack on. Almost like a. An old school tribe of. They've developed into.
Whereas the Lost have maintained that kind of scientific sort of way about them. But yeah, two, two very interesting characters, dude.
And ultimately as it's a good versus evil kind of show, the Lost get their comeuppance in a big way when the Decima's just break in and just destroy everything and everyone. So it's a kind of cool ending and yet a bit of a fist pump in the air for the Decima's. Who, who don't get wiped out essentially.
Adam:No. And Gila and no Valver. They're just reduced to like they get kicked.
They have the BLEEP kicked out and don't they literally they're just like these skeletons on the floor. That scene at the end as well where they're smashing up, I mean they're going wild, aren't they?
I bet they had a great time filming that, I got to say. Just hats off to the cast as well, the supporting cast. So Miles Fothergill, Annie Marson was it.
And Richard Beale who are given these characters which, you know, again, they get the memo. They absolutely play it perfectly. I think it's very easy to either underplay or overplay being a sort of very. This robotic sort of creation.
So to play it the way they do, they managed to give a bit of character to it without being too. I am a. Genetically, you know, just. They're very good, I think. But all of the cast in this and poor old Richard Beale being that head in a jar.
I mean, you know, I don't know how comfortable he was sticking his head in there. I don't know quite how they did it, whether he was sat under the, you know, under the set or whatever.
But again, he manages to convey something through all of that. So hats off to those guys. I think the supporting cast are really good in this.
Garry:Yes, very good. And that effect with Richard Beale, the same in the underwater tank and the. It was done really well.
Like I said earlier on, I initially thought that that was a little animatronic face that was moving quite lifelike. I thought, wow, that was. They've done a great job for that.
Adam:But I think that's one of those things that if someone now was to walk in and see you watch it would be like, what the hell is that? And they might laugh at it. But I think, yeah, watching it, as a sort of fan of this sort of era television stuff, you just think it's. It.
It's great what they've managed to do back then. It. Yeah, I think it's. It's really good.
Garry:Yes, agreed. And lastly for me, once again, I know we'll mention him every episode.
Adam:Well, we've got to, of course.
Garry:Yeah. Dudley Simpson, really good at the whole suspenseful build up incidental music in these episodes. I'm really liking the.
As well as the theme, of course, but these scenes where you have this. Of course it's a linear journey for some things. You've got, you know, what's going to happen with Cali? Is she gonna succeed and.
And cause problems on the Liberator or is somebody going to overpower her? So you've got that few minutes of build up and his music is really good for that. And then you've got the thing.
Where are they gonna, you know, are the loss gonna grab these power cells and is it going to work? And you got this build up and stuff like that.
So his, his ability to keep you sort of glued to the Screen alongside the performances from the actors and so on alongside. That is very good. And he. I just love the fact that he's owning his own music from start to finish with every episode. And you can see that as he.
As he's read through the scripts and has gone through the story, he thought, right, okay, I know I need some. Some sort of action music for this bit. I need some suspense for this bit. I need some sort of melancholy, sort of sad for this bit.
It just all comes together so nicely. He just does such a great job. I love it.
Adam:Yeah, music's brilliant in this. There seemed to be quite a bit of it as well. Even at the start. There's some really almost slightly bombastic music just of the Liberator deck.
It's like, really gets you into the episode, you know, it's like, okay, here we go. Yeah, I think Dudley's absolutely superb, you know, music in this.
I was just going to say, actually, you know, when they are smashing up the laboratory at the end, it's very lucky that they don't manage to smash up the crystals that they've just brought in and, you know, allowing them to escape from the web. I was thinking, God, get out of there before they smash them up. So that was lucky.
And also fancy leaving the door open, you know, I mean, they've just got their crystals, it's all going well. They've managed to keep the decimals out all this time. Then they go and leave the blooming door open and they come and smash the place up.
So unfortunate that. But, yeah, but anyway, Dudley Simpson, fantastic as always. I don't care if we mention him every week, he's brilliant.
And, you know, his score of Blake, 7.
Garry:And also like that at the end of each episode. Only we've only five episodes in of it, of course, but so far, at the end of From Space Fall onwards, it's.
It's not done in a similar way that other sort of British TV was done at the time, where, because it's a continuing journey and the storyline is ongoing from, you know, the start of the episode picks up pretty much from the end of the last one. I'm not sure if it's like a immediate, but, you know, it's very. The time frame is very close together. There's not these big cliffhangers.
It's not like, you know, Blake's not dangling on the end of a. Off the end of a cliff, and then it just cuts to the music and you think, oh, my God, is. You know what. But one thing I Do like, though, is the con.
The continuity between things that are said maybe an episode ago that now pick up here. So at the end of Time Squad, Blake says, you know, set a course for Centero.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:And obviously we don't get there in this episode because we're sidetracked by this whole thing with the Lost and. And everything. But then at the end of this, you know, he's like, you know, on our way sort of thing.
So I'm loving this continuity between Blake's overall mission and his journey and what he needs to do, but not necessarily getting there. Simply, you know, there's going to be these hurdles in the way and.
Adam:Yeah.
Garry:And other things. So it's very, very cool that. Because that you. You could have completely forgotten that at the end of Time Squad, this is where he wanted to go.
But then when you get to the end of this episode, he's picked that back up. So we'll see where we get. So. So the next. The next story is called Seek, Locate, Destroy.
Adam:Right.
Garry:So we will see if they get to Center.
Adam:Yeah. And it's something they do. They do that a few times in Black seven. And I love it.
Like you said, it just keeps the viewer reminded that, you know, it feels like it's properly plotted out, you know. Yeah. We haven't forgotten. We just had a little detail there. But we are going to, blah, blah.
And that does happen a couple of times because sometimes I put an episode on and they'll say they're going somewhere like that, for example, and I think, is that. Is this the episode where they go and say, oh, no, no, they. They do that next week, don't they? They just mention it this week.
You think you go in there, but, oh, something else has happened. But we'll go there next week. So, yeah, it is a nice continuation throughout the series that they do that.
Garry:Agreed. As always. Okay, time for scores.
Adam:Let's slap a score on it.
Garry:Indeed. I think it's you to go first, bud, this week.
Adam:Yeah, an enjoyable episode. I'm going to give it a 6.5. I. I enjoyed it as much as last week, Time Squad.
I do think it's an enjoyable watch and I, I think it's one mate that the next time you go back to this maybe, you know, after you finish series one and you're going back and rewatch a couple of episodes, I think it's one that slightly improves the second time because it certainly did for me. I don't remember this being as enjoyable the first time I watched it. And I But I very much enjoyed watching it again last night.
So it might grow on you a little bit, this one. But a strong. And I should say that because 6.5 might sound a bit low to some people, but a strong 6.5, I thought it was a good, enjoyable episode.
Garry:Cool, cool, cool. Okay, I'm going to give this a single digit. Six.
Adam:Six. I thought that's where you'd be. Yep.
Garry:So still a good watch for me. And it's just not. I didn't quite. I didn't come away from it thinking like the other ones that we'd reviewed thus far.
I didn't come away thinking that had some big memorable things in it, if you know what I mean. It was still a good watch, but fairly kind of expected as well of what was going on. Apart from the stuff with Cali, that. Those things.
In the beginning, I honestly thought that she had ulterior motives, put it that way, for being on the Liberator. And I thought that Blake's made a bit of. A. Bit of a. A. No, no. In bringing rogue aliens aboard. He should have listened to Jenna sort of thing.
But it turns out she was just being controlled telepathically and bit of the.
Adam:Old mind control and whatnot.
Garry:Yeah. So apart from that bit, as we went through the story, I felt like, you know, I felt like I was like. It was just an expected story. I kind of.
There wasn't any big twists in there. There were no curveballs really. And it was kind of predictable. As you got sort of to the halfway point, I felt like you kind of knew what was.
What was going to happen ultimately.
Adam:Yes, I do agree with that, mate, because that's just one of the things I was going to say is the ending a little bit like last. No, not last week, the week before, where things come together. But it does feel like a bit predictable. It's. I wouldn't say a quick wrap up.
It almost does feel a little bit slightly unsatisfying because you kind of just think there wasn't any other way the episode could end it really. You know, the decimals come in and. And they managed to escape from the web and that's it. And they just move on. It's. Yeah, I know what you mean.
I wouldn't say unsatisfying. That's. That's probably the wrong choice of words, but it does feel. Leave you feeling a bit like, well, that was good.
But yeah, ultimately, yeah, didn't really hit the heights of some of the other episodes.
Garry:Exactly. Yes. Okay, so a 6.5 from Adam, 6 from me. I know we've mentioned it already, but what's on the agenda for next week, bud?
Adam:Yeah, quite excited for this one. So Seek, Locate, Destroy is the next episode and I say excited for it because I think it's quite an important one in terms of certain characters.
So be interesting to see what you make of this one next week.
Garry:Okie dokie. We look forward to watching and reviewing that one, of course.
And until then, I think it's a good time to stick a pin in it there, dude, and wrap up episode five.
Adam:Alrighty.
Garry:Thank you very much for sticking with us as we go through series a of Blake's 7. And that was our review of episode five, the Web. That was a 6.5 from Adam and a 6 from me.
So not terrible scores, not great scores, but we felt it was a. A strong. A strong 6 and a 6.5, I think. Fairly decent watch. Still, remember to dig out the. Whichever format you've got it on.
If you've got the show from back in the day on VHS or if you've got the DVDs or the new Blu Rays or even a streaming service, I think it's on ITVX here in the UK.
I'm assuming it's somewhere in the US but however you watch Blake's 7, give the the next episode, episode 6, seek, locate and Destroy a watch and come back and join us as we review review that episode next week.
In the meantime, make sure that you are following this podcast on your fave podcast app so you don't miss a notification when new episodes land every single Wednesday. We're on the socials too, over on X and Bluesky. Just do a search or Lake 7 podcast and come and join in the chat over there.
There's also links in the show notes to those things as well. And we've had some really cool conversations and comments so far from the Blake's 7 community. So thank you very much for that as well.
And as part of Cosmic Echoes, which is our network, our podcast network, our other show, which is about Doctor who, the Big Blue Box podcast. Just do a search of the Big Blue Box or there's a link in the show notes.
Go and check out a whole decade's worth of Doctor who's goodness and new episodes that are dropping over there as well. Also, don't forget to check out my code Host channel over on YouTube. It's called the Geeks Handbag.
Adam:The Geek's Handbag, yeah. And I remembered I do have Blake's 7 videos on there. I did a. I did a video on a convention I went to, which was fantastic.
It may be a while ago, so search for it. But yeah, it's a really nice little, like, seven convention video on there. So do check out the Geeks Handbag.
Garry:Indeed. And Adam's on the socials as well, under the same name, the Geeks Handbag. So follow along for More Geekery and Blake's 7 and Doctor who.
Goodness and all that stuff. So until next time, bud. Thank you very much, all of you for coming back and listening, and we will see you next time. My name's Garry.
Adam:My name's Adam.
Garry:And that was Federation Strike. A journey through Blake's 7, episode 5 SA.
