A:07 Mission to Destiny: A Good Ol' Who Dunnit

Garry: 00:00:21

Hello there and welcome to Federation Strike A journey through Blake's 7. I'm Garry.

Adam: 00:00:26

And I'm Adam.

Garry: 00:00:27

And this is episode seven.

Adam: 00:00:44

I forgot to do me. Yeah. That's the first time in about 10.

Garry: 00:00:48

Years you've got your. Yeah.

Adam: 00:00:51

I don't even know how that started, but I've done that on every pod gone.

Garry: 00:00:54

Yeah.

Adam: 00:00:54

After the episodes and I just. I was looking at my notes, I was looking at my notes for the episode and then realized I'd forgot to do it. Oh, dear.

Garry: 00:01:04

Well, that massive disappointment aside.

Adam: 00:01:06

I know. Keep listening this now.

Garry: 00:01:09

Welcome to episode seven of Federation Strike. Hope you listened to last week, which was our review of Seek, Locate, Destroy. Important episode, that one.

Adam: 00:01:19

The introduction.

Garry: 00:01:20

Yeah, the introduction of sir lan and. And Travis. Space Commander Travis. Yeah, that was a good, A good story, that one. And we gave it some good scores. I think I gave that.

What did I give that? An 8.5. You gave it an 8. So some good scores for that one.

Adam: 00:01:37

Yeah.

Garry: 00:01:38

Yes. We are carrying through our journey though. We're at episode seven.

We're over halfway through now, Series A, which is, which is very cool but very sad at the same time because I'm loving this journey through this very cool classic British sci fi show. Those of you that have just joined, very welcome aboard. It's great to have you here as a new listener.

The dynamic of the show is quite simply, we're going to review every episode of Blake's 7, coming at it from two very different angles.

My co host Adam, is a lifelong Blake's 7 fan, has seen it all through multiple times over the last few decades and has watched it, I don't know, 20, 30 times, probably all the.

Adam: 00:02:20

Way through on multiple formats, from VHS to DVD to remastered DVD yet.

Garry: 00:02:26

Yes. Yeah. So he's seen it and done it all. Whereas I'm coming at it from a completely fresh perspective. This is all brand new for me.

I've never seen Bar episode one and a bit a couple of years ago. I've never seen the show before, so I'm not really counting that.

So I'm going through it, watching it as originally intended on the Blu Ray release set with the original effects and then I'm dipping in afterwards and checking out a lot of the scenes where the visual effects have been redone and model work and so on. So for me, I'm consuming all this stuff brand new and it's very, very cool.

And so if you are a newcomer, then make sure you're hitting the follow or the subscribe button in the app that you're listening to. The podcast on.

It'd be great to have you with us as we continue our journey and you can also go back and listen to the the first six episodes from the beginning. We are on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Music and all the usual sort of apps and networks and so on.

So it'd be great to have you here and those of you that have listened thus far and that you've given us some lovely feedback on the socials or whatever, then that's very much appreciated and it's very cool to chat to fellow Blake's 7 fans. And lastly, if you are listening on an app that supports reviews or ratings, if you like this podcast, we'd love it if you gave us gave us a rating.

I think Spotify do ratings. You can leave review on Apple. There's also podchaser.com and some other bits.

So yeah, if you want to do that, if you want to spare a second, that would be amazing. And thank you to those of you that have left your. Your very cool feedback so far.

So before we crack on with our review, I just want to give a wee spoiler, a wee spoiler to the some bonus episodes that we've got coming up at the end of our first season of Federation Strike.

So when we get to the end of series A, we're going to stop, have a break and then we're probably going to leave it until series B lands on Blu Ray and then we'll pick that up and then we'll, we'll, we'll go through all the reviews like we have with this one. But after we've got to the end of episode 13 or episode 13, Orac is the last one.

Adam: 00:04:36

Yeah.

Garry: 00:04:36

Yep. Once we got to the end of that, we've not going to leave it there.

We've actually got some cool bonus episodes that are going to land afterwards where we have chatted to some people who have been involved in the production of the Blu Ray set.

And let me tell you, I recorded the first one of those this week and it's, it's such a good chat with, with this particular person who was involved in it and I got very geeky and excited at a couple of points in the. Because although you guys unfortunately won't be able to see it, we did a video chat and I was shown a few. Very cool.

Yeah, I can't go into it too much, but we've got that one.

Adam: 00:05:15

You nearly gave it away then.

Garry: 00:05:17

Yeah.

So I think we've got three or four bonus episodes that are going to come up at the end of this season, make sure that you are following or subscribing. So when the episodes are done, you also get to listen to the call kind of behind the scenes of the Blu Ray set in terms of its production and.

And how that all came together and some specific things on. On that, which is going to be very cool. So, yeah, make sure you make sure you're following us for that one.

So, without further ado, buddy, I think we should. We should teleport in for our review this week and. What was it this week? Dude.

Adam: 00:05:50

Yes. Episode 7 of Blake's 7 called Mission to Destiny.

Trailer: 00:05:55

When we finished, you should have a ship that will navigate and get you back to Destiny. The problem is that without this, you will have to travel at sublight speeds.

I estimate that the journey will take you approximately five months to complete. But that'll be too late. We'll miss the planting season. It'll set us back a full year. When I heard the news, I was as concerned as you are.

A delay that long would be disastrous. But there is an alternative. Liberator can make the journey in four days.

What I've suggested is that Aidan and Callie stay here and help you with your repairs. I take the Neutral to Destiny and then come back and collect them. No, we can't do that.

We can't just hand over the neutraltope to some passing stranger. I agree. We've entrusted with this mission. We can't simply forget our responsibility. There are plenty of ready markets for the nutotype.

If it was stolen and sold, a man could be wealthy beyond. Beyond imagining. That thing is a temptation even for those of us with our homes, families and lives at stake. You have nothing at stake.

Nothing to lose. It is frequently easier to be honest when you have nothing to lose. The responsibility for the Neutraltope belongs to all of you.

There is a risk that if you entrust it to me, I may fly off, never to be seen again. You have to weigh that chance against the effects a year's delay would have on the possibility of your planet's recovery. We made the offer.

The choice is up to you. Remember that Avon and I will be staying. We will regard ourselves as hostages against Blake's return. Well, thank you, Callie. What a clever idea.

Blake will return. You can bet your life on it. In fact, you've just bet both our lives on it.

Garry: 00:07:31

What a great scene.

Adam: 00:07:32

Avon's face when she says that as well.

Garry: 00:07:34

February: 1978

So somebody had a very cool or a very boring Valentine's weekend planned on that weekend. It was written, of course, by Terry Nation, directed by Pennant Roberts, overseen by Chris Boucher and.

And David Maloney, and the synopsis from the original release, back on the old VHS tape says a tranquilized crew and a series of mysterious murders on board a drifting starship give Avon a dangerous puzzle to solve and Blake a risky mission to complete Ellipsis. So, mate, as the. As the resident expert and long timer on. On Blake's 7, I'm.

I'd love to get your thoughts on this one because not last episode but the one before we did speak about Blake's 7 sort of drifting in and out of these. How would you put it?

So the episode the Web was the last example of it where you have these episodes that are very, I would say deep Law based and have like an overarching thing that straddles the entire series with, with some key characters, etc. Then you have these, we called them Creature of the Week sort of thing last time and the Web was a good example of that.

I feel like this one's in a similar vein where there's not much going on that's about Blake versus the Federation. You know, this is more of an isolated little thing.

So how do you feel about going back to this kind of episode at this point in the series and what are your overall thoughts on this one?

Adam: 00:09:20

Yeah, I think it's nice actually, when you have had a sort of episode where it's quite heavy in the lore of what's, you know, like the main backbone of the series to have these little sort of isolated standalone stories. And I think this. Yeah, I think it's quite nice after last week to have this one just to sort of step away from it a bit and break it up.

I don't know that the episode is necessarily one of the better ones. I think it's an enjoyable enough watch but. But it's very much Terry Nation does Agatha Christie, isn't it? It's like a. A murder mystery in space.

how quickly you realize that: 54124

One of, you know, my first watches of this story, I pretty much clocked that straight away, I think because when they turn it round before they even say the numbers, you think, oh, they've written Sarah. And then they say, oh, it's five, four, one, two, four. Oh, it's not Sarah, it's numbers. But hang on, it says Sarah.

And then the character comes in called Sarah. For me, the mystery was kind of solved very quickly. I didn't really need Avon to go into Inspector Avon at the end and explain it.

But I think it's an enjoyable episode. But it's probably one of. It's probably the weakest we've had this far, I think, in the series in terms of overall, but I still don't think it's. It's.

It's bad. I think it's a fairly enjoyable. There's. There's some nice stuff going on. There's just.

I don't know, it's just a couple of sort of production things, really, in terms of, like I said, the. The sort of. The mystery behind who it is. I think it's quite easy to guess the. The crew getting picked off. It's. It's just a very.

I wouldn't say predictable story, but you can sort of see where it's going. And I think Avon's a bit out of character in this as well. I don't think he would be so keen to stay behind and on the ship.

I don't think he would care. I think the reasoning they give for it is very unaven. Like, he says he can't stand an unsolved mystery, so he's gonna stay there and solve.

And I think in. Now, the other thing Avon says is much more Ava. Like, where he's. Like, he says, I don't care if the planet explodes into a giant mushroom.

You know, I thought that's Avon. So I don't get why he would care about this mystery. So I don't really buy into that. But I do think Paul Darrow is great in the scenes he gets.

Because even though I think some of the dialogue in that is our character, for him, I think he relishes in. In doing the whole spiel at the end where he's almost got them all gathered in a room like an Agatha Christie story.

And he's sort of saying, I've worked it out, you see, and blah, blah, blah. You know, it's great to see him do that, but doesn't feel very Avon to me. That's the only thing.

But overall, mate, just to sort of sum up my feelings on this, I. I enjoy this episode, but I would say it's probably one of the weakest stories that we've had so far. But I still think it's quite good.

And one thing I Don't like that. Kind of. I'm gonna knock a point off for. Is the ending where Blake just blows up the ship. But because he's also.

Not only does he blow up the ship with Sarah on it, he blows up the ship that's coming to meet them and he doesn't even know who they are, does he? I'm thinking, so they can. They might not be bad people just because they've agreed to buy this neurotrope.

I don't know, it just seems a bit heartless to blow them up when you don't even know who they are. Like, just let them meet and sort it out to himself. So it felt like Terry Nation thought, I need to put an ending in there just to wrap it up.

So we'll see the ship explode and Blake's blowing them all to pieces, and off we go. Every. Everyone's happy.

So didn't really like the ending, but you'll have to tell me if I've misread that because I've watched this a few times, obviously, and that's always the impression I got that Blake just kills them all at the end and then off they go. Or kills the people he doesn't. Met. Hasn't met, you know, the people on the other ship that have come to meet them.

So you'll have to let me know if I've got that right. But yeah, Overall, mate, I would say a just above average episode for me.

Garry: 00:13:31

Just above average, yeah.

Adam: 00:13:33

Enjoyable. Not really reaching the heights of some of the other ones we've had this series, but enjoyable, but above average, I would say.

Garry: 00:13:40

Okay, gotcha. Wow. I mean, I thought you're. I thought you'd like this one more for some reason.

Adam: 00:13:47

Yeah.

Garry: 00:13:48

Yeah. I don't know why I just thought you'd like this one more. And this was supposedly Terry Nation's favorite episode of series A.

Adam: 00:13:55

Was it really? Yes. Didn't know that.

Garry: 00:13:58

Yeah. So you're at odds with Terry, mate.

Adam: 00:14:02

Well, this is the one that I thought you might struggle with. So just before you give your thoughts, when.

When I'm looking through the episode for this series, you know, there are ones that I thought, yeah, pretty sure he's going to like that one. No, you know, once I knew you'd got into the show, for example, last week's secret Locate, destroy. You know, you love that episode and I felt.

I felt you'd like that one. Mission to Destiny is one that I've sort of not been dreading.

Coming up, I thought, oh, this might be the one where you Think there' show, you know, the series is getting a bit boring or whatever. I don't know, I thought it might not be one that you particularly like. So come on, put me out my misery. What did you think of it?

Garry: 00:14:38

Yeah, do you know what? I actually quite like this one, mate.

Adam: 00:14:40

Oh, okay, good. All right.

Garry: 00:14:42

Yeah, I'm a sucker for, for a good old whodunit kind of story and this one is, I think you alluded to it, it's essentially like the Agatha Christie in space kind of, kind of classic. You know, it's the, it's the technician in the cargo hold with the lead pipe.

Adam: 00:15:01

Yeah.

Garry: 00:15:02

Kind of thing they're trying to get to the bottom of.

And the reason why I like this episode is because it, I mentioned at the beginning it's, it's a nice departure from the whole Blake wanting to take down the Federation story because if, if I think if you went down that road with every single episode and you, you brought that stuff into it, I think it would make the season or the series feel a lot longer than what it probably would be because you would have that constant like, you know, come on, you know, we've, we've, we've made these in ground, these inroads into causing problems for the Federation. We've done it loads and loads of times throughout the series. You know what's going to happen.

So I love these little mini departures off to do something else because let's face it, the galaxy is a big place. Right.

So if you're, if you're on this stolen ship and you're making your way from A to B, there's surely going to be loads of times where you encounter. And I think that's again part of the, the appeal to me was the simplicity of. Didn't need this big convoluted reason why they came across this ship.

There was just, you know, there was a sabotage plan aboard the ship to. I guess we should probably do we need to do this. I mean for new listeners have not seen it. Big spoilers by the way.

Adam: 00:16:29

I think I've already blown it.

Garry: 00:16:30

But yeah, because I know that there was a bunch of people who have, who are following along who plan to pick up the Blu Ray set and watch it eventually. So obviously there's going to be spoilers but the sabotage aboard the ship with basically due to greed.

So this, this, this item that they're carrying on the ship back to their home planet of, of Destiny, which is going to fix all of their sort of agricultural problems because it's been overrun by this fungus. And this, the. This whatever is there is so, so potent and successful in what it does that it's on the black market.

It's worth, you know, huge amounts of money.

So as a result of that greed, somebody has sabotaged a thing and they're in cahoots with these other people who, we don't really know who they are, but they turn up at the end to their own, you know, downfall. And, and that's it. That's. That's the crux of the story. There's no more to it than that. So the. I like the simplicity of it.

We don't have Blake and the crew, you know, get into this weird, mystical, like, you know, with the web. As they were going through that part, it was like, well, who are these people? Yeah, why. Why have they.

Why are they telepathically controlling the, you know, what's going on here? There was a lot of. There was a lot of stuff to unpack as you went through the episode, and then you find out, obviously what's going on.

But with this one, it's just cut and dry, you know, here's the thing. The only cool thing that did have you head scratching was you compiling a list of who you thought it was.

Adam: 00:18:08

Did you. Did you clock onto the. The, the letters or numbers, how quickly you didn't.

Okay, well, see, that's the thing, I think if you don't, if you don't pick up on that, I think the mystery does. Will probably carry you through a bit more of the episode.

And also the other thing, I'm just thinking as well, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, by the way, because I thought this might be the one that you found a bit hard going. So I'm. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am also curious now, though, about the rewatch ability of it knowing, you know, once you now that, you know.

So I'm thinking, I'm wondering if that's why when I watch it, I think it's fine, but I don't sort of get enthralled in it because as soon as I see the. The box with the blood written numbers, I know what's coming.

So it'd be interesting how much rewatch ability this episode has for you in the future, if you see what I mean. Because I'm pretty sure I would have liked this a lot more on a first watch, but so long ago I can't remember.

So do you know, I mean, the rewatch ability of this, I think will be interesting, but I am Glad you enjoyed it on your first watch and that you didn't spot, you know, the. The name. So that reveal when Avon does it. Were you pretty impressed by that? Did you think, oh, that's really cool that the.

The 1 and 2 are actually in the letter R. Did you think that was quite a cool.

Garry: 00:19:24

I did think that was cool, yeah.

Adam: 00:19:26

Because on paper, I would imagine that was really a bit jittery. Nation was really chuff himself. I would be, by the way. I do think it is a thing. Don't get me wrong. I think it's a really cool little idea.

But I think maybe that's the thing, because I know once you know that, I think it might affect, you know, rewatching it, if you see what I mean in terms of enjoyment.

Garry: 00:19:47

Yeah, no, I read you. It was a very cool little light bulb moment. Okay, that's cool. And I love the fact that it was Avon that was doing all that stuff.

Adam: 00:19:56

Yeah.

Garry: 00:19:57

Well, we'll come on to characters in a few minutes, but I must say, Avon again is stealing the show a.

Adam: 00:20:03

Little bit for me.

Garry: 00:20:05

Yeah, I think Blake has settled into this now. Anyway, we'll come on to characters after we've done some more plot stuff.

But yeah, it seems like Blake has kind of settled into this kind of Robin Hood character, for one of a better word. I mean, he's very much. Because you've still got the.

The common sense coming through from Villa and Avon, who, when they come across a ship with a distress signal or something's not right with a ship, those guys are just more than happy to just keep going. It's like, you know, whatever their problems are, they're their problems. You know, we've got our own. Our own stuff to deal with.

And whereas Blake's very much like, nope, we, you know, let's, let's. Because I think it's Jenna that. That lets Blake know what's going on. Like, we found the ship and it's just in this circular orbit.

Something's clearly wrong. And without hesitation, Blake's like, well, okay, let's go and investigate and see what's going on.

And then later on in the story, when they've gone through the asteroid field and all that drama and they realize that the. That the neutral tope is not in the case.

Adam: 00:21:15

Yeah, it's a real head palm moment, isn't it?

Garry: 00:21:18

Oh, yeah, it's. It's Blake again, without hesitation is like, well, we have to go back, you know, we have to go back immediately and save them.

So he's settled into this Robin Hood thing.

And, and that was really apparent in the scene where I played just before we started the review, where Blake essentially says, look, I'll help you out. You know, I'll take. I'll take the Nutritor. I'll go and deliver it for you.

I can get there a lot quicker as to, you know, to give you a bit of a guarantee that I am coming back. Callie and Avon will stay here on the ship. And that's that funny bit where Callie's like, we'll stay here as hostage, you know, confidently that.

With confidence that Blake will return. And Avon's like, you've just done it now, sort of thing. So.

Yeah, but that's very much Blake's doing and he comes to that, to that kind of deal, if you like having a nice little conversation with Kendall, which we'll come on to. But. So I think that's why I like it, dude. It's that simplicity and that the who done it aspect of it. I love those, those stories.

Adam: 00:22:23

And did you think it odd that one of the crew didn't go with Blake, though? When I was watching this last night, I was thinking, it's one thing to leave Callie and Avon there as sort of hostage, for one of a better word.

But surely at least one of the crew.

And I'm thinking probably Kendall would have said, well, I'll come with you, Blake, you know, to see, you know, we'll let you have it, we'll trust you, but I'm coming with you.

So I felt that was a bit odd that none of the crew went with Blake from the ship because surely one of them would at least just, you know, keep an eye on him sort of thing, make sure he doesn't run off with it. There's no reason why they couldn't, because he's coming back in four days. Oh, unless they're the killer, I suppose.

Unless he's thinking, I don't want to take one of you in case you're the killer.

Garry: 00:23:03

Well, that's. I was going to. Just going to say they've. At that point in the story, the, the murderer hasn't been revealed.

Adam: 00:23:10

True.

Garry: 00:23:10

So it would have been a bit weird for Blake to say, right, one of you can come because chances are it would be the murderer. Right. Because they'll probably want to kill Blake. Take the thing, take your ship.

Adam: 00:23:22

Yes, yes, that does make sense. Maybe they should. Terry should have just put a few lines in to explain that. I don't know. But that, that does make sense, doesn't it?

Garry: 00:23:29

Yeah. Come on, Terry, come on.

Adam: 00:23:31

What were you doing?

Garry: 00:23:32

What are you doing, man? But yes, that part of it was really cool. That whole scene where Avon kind of steps into that role a little bit better, I would say, than Blake.

Blake is fairly. I wouldn't say he's sort of chill about the whole thing, but he's more. He's more happy to run things from the sidelines, it looks like.

Whereas Avon's in the mix of it all, you know, he's the one that's got to do the repairs, explain it all and, and takes it upon himself, as you mentioned. It's slightly out of character of him, I guess, at this point where he says, like, you know, I love a good. What does he say? A mystery.

Or, you know, and so, and so he's into it. But the actual. Again, spoilers. The actual murderer in the story, Sarah, she was.

I had about two or three people on the list in my head mentally as I was watching it thinking, right, is it them? Is it them? And I have to say she was the person lowest on the list for me as I was watching it. I thought it was. I had two people.

I thought it was going to be. The obvious one was the guy with a bit of attitude, you know, Sondheim.

He's the one that, yeah, had a little bit of attitude and has that very uncomfortable conversation with Cali in the corridor. I must say that was a bit, A bit weird. You know, where he. Very weird, yeah, where she says like, you know, why are you following me? Sort of thing.

And his first reply is, well, you're a good looking girl sort of thing. And I was like, oh, God, where's this going? But it turns out it was just him being a bit of, a bit of a dick.

Adam: 00:25:02

He's trying to flirt just very badly.

Garry: 00:25:04

Yes. Yeah, very badly. Yeah. And. And so it was him. He was the obvious one for me. I thought, are they going to go. Go down the obvious route? And. And it's him.

The other one I had was actually Kendall. I thought, is. Is he. Because he's the leader of the, of the gang sort of thing, is he got the inside scoop on, on this stuff before or the other?

So he's more aware of the, the actual real world value of it all and the amount of money he could make and all that stuff because he came across as very friendly with Blake and they had a, a nice conversation. There's that really cool bit, actually where he's explaining to Blake what's going on.

He shows him a map of the Galaxy, like, this is our galaxy, and Destiny is down here, right on the outskirts of things. And Blake says, but you're not a part of the Federation. And Kendall's.

Yeah, well, they've approached us, but, you know, we told them to piss off sort of thing. And there's that little cool, little grin on Blake's face where he's got that kinship with him.

Adam: 00:26:04

Yeah.

Garry: 00:26:04

He's like, yes, I love the fact that you guys have resisted the Federation's reach and you're doing your own thing. So there was that. Cool. And I think actually it was that point there. I thought, he's probably not the murderer then, because they've got this.

This whole thing going on. And then Sarah was the one. She was on the list just because she was acting a little bit weird when they first came aboard.

So she was on the list for that reason, but she was like, in third place sort of thing.

Adam: 00:26:31

What's funny, I've seen this episode quite a few times, as you know, and watching this last night, I guess maybe it's not one that I go back to all that often, but I was thinking it was the other woman. I can't remember the character's name. I was actually, even though I knew it was Sarah, when the actress. When is it? Levitt.

Levitt, yeah, Levitt, yes, of course, when they were going round and you're trying to guess, you know, about midpoint the episode, I'm thinking, I know it's Sarah, but when they showed the actor, I was thinking, art her. Yeah, it's that one, isn't it? And then it was the other woman. I say, oh, God, even I've got it wrong. And I knew the murderer was. So.

Yeah, but I think that's the thing. There are some good red herrings in this. I think you've got a good sizable cast there to pick from. And they.

And it could be, up to a certain point, any of them.

I mean, John Leeson as Pasco, he's like, plays it quite quiet, keeps his head down, and I think he would have been a good contender to be like, a surprise or a dark horse. Yeah, dark horse, yeah. So there is some good red herrings, I think, in this. This episode.

Garry: 00:27:31

Yes, agreed. Yeah. Which is why. That's one of the reasons why I thought it could have possibly been Kendall, because he's fairly quiet.

Even though he's in charge, it seems he's not very. He's like the opposite to Brian Blessed's character, you know, not very shouty, very cool, very sort of calm with all this stuff going on.

Adam: 00:27:52

Neutral trope way well, roll like. Yeah. He doesn't go for it, does he?

Garry: 00:27:55

No, exactly. So for that reason I thought, yeah, he's a bit quiet, this guy. Even though he's in charge, he's a bit quiet. But yeah. So when.

I guess looking back on it now, the key moment would have been when he asked Sarah to go and get the new tope. He says, will you go and get it? And she goes off. And at that point, with hindsight, that's the key point, isn't it?

It's like that's when she took it out of the case. And then Blake's carrying and you know, he's carrying nothing back to the Liberator, essentially. So that had been the bit.

But again, I didn't clock that as I was watching the episode. I just was happy. Go lucky. Just enjoying, you know, what was going on. Especially what. We'll come on to Avon in a moment.

But the other thing that was cool about this episode, bud, was the. Was the way that Terry Nation wrote the. Normally with the whodunit stories, everybody is. Got that. Because everyone's basically a suspect.

Nobody's owning up to it, of course, but everyone is a suspect. And normally you have. You have little kind of factions that happen. You have like people that team up because you've got.

Because I think there were a couple of people that were in a relationship, right? You had Mandrian and Levitt, I think. Were they in a relationship possibly, or Mandarin And Sarah. Sorry.

Adam: 00:29:21

Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:29:22

So they were in relationships. They kind of teamed up. And then you had Pascal and who was the. The other Grovain? Those two. They look like they were in a little team.

Adam: 00:29:34

And Grove ain't the guy with a beard. Isn't he Gro?

Garry: 00:29:38

No. So the guy with a beard was Mandrian, is it?

Adam: 00:29:41

I get so confused with the character names, listeners. Forgive me. Even though it's in this loads.

Garry: 00:29:46

Grovain was the guy that was. It's fairly tall, receding hairline. Yeah. So what I'm trying to say is you get.

Normally you get these little team ups that happen and what was cool about that is that they only focused on one particular one. So at one point in the episode, you saw Mandrin hide the little homing beacon.

Adam: 00:30:06

Oh, yes. Yeah.

Garry: 00:30:07

In his bag.

Adam: 00:30:08

It falls apart when Callie takes it out from under the pillar. But she tries her best to carry on with the scene.

Garry: 00:30:12

Yeah, the double sided tape had not quite.

Adam: 00:30:15

Not stuck.

Garry: 00:30:16

Stuck at that point. Yeah. So it was at that point that I thought, right, because he's in cahoots with Sarah. Those two are clearly a thing. Something is going down there.

So that was the other thing that I thought, because I guess in a typical way of writing this, you would have focused on these little team ups a little bit more to give the viewer a little bit of, well, is it those guys that are in cahoots? Have they planned this sort of thing? Or is it these guys? But really it was those guys just getting on with their job.

And that was kind of remarkable about it because with all this going on and you're. If you were a crew member aboard the ship at that time, you probably would have thought, am I next?

You know, is it going to be me that's going to be bumped off next? But the way that Kendall handles it, he's like, look, we've all got a job to do. Go about your business as usual.

And I thought, wow, that's kind of, you know, is that the right thing to do? You know, because surely you would be like, okay, try and go about your business, but at least carry a weapon with you or something.

Look after yourselves, you know.

Adam: 00:31:18

Yeah, whatever.

Garry: 00:31:19

So because of that, they. The episode kind of reset a little bit.

At that point, everyone was just off doing their thing and Blake comes in and they see the technicians just doing stuff, and Avon and Cali are doing stuff and people are just going about their business. I found that remarkable about the story. And Terry Nation could have wrote that in a very different way.

He could have wrote that in a way that was like a lot more mini factions happening. But it wasn't. It was still a. A fairly expected but simple way of doing it. So I really appreciated that. And I think that made it a little bit more.

I think that opened up the characters a bit more as well, because you weren't so much. You weren't focused so much on all the story beats. It sort of quietened down and it allowed the characters to come to the front a bit more.

Adam: 00:32:07

And it doesn't allow. Because I think when.

When characters start getting bumped off, I think it's very hard to predict who's going to get killed next, if you know what I mean? Like, quite often with these sort of whodunit stories, you think, o, that one's got. He's gonna get killed, isn't he?

Because there's, you know, they're annoying or whatever. And maybe Sondheim is a little bit obvious, you think, because he's. But then they're going to keep him alive. Because everyone suspects him.

So, yeah, so there is a good bit of unpredictability in the story, I think, in terms of. Of the mystery. I don't know why Callie doesn't tell Avon sooner that she's found this beeping homing device. I mean, it's pretty obvious what it is.

She keeps it in her pocket and it's not till a couple of scenes later, isn't it, isn't it, that she says, oh, by the way, I've got this. He's like, aha. The missing ingredient. That must be a homing device. So all starts coming together at the end.

But it's very nicely played, that scene, isn't it, where Avon's piecing it all together and there's a. Just that one piece missing, but he's. He's getting there. I love that bit.

Even though I said it's a bit out of character of him, I still think Paul Darrow just takes the words on the page and he's so good in that scene, you know, he still is very good.

Garry: 00:33:14

Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Actually talk about some key characters in this, then. So it's got to be Avon, right on Blake's side.

Adam: 00:33:23

Yeah.

Garry: 00:33:25

I just love his voice as well, you know, Paul Darrow's voice. The way he. He has this really, really cool confidence about him without being overly sort of unlikable. You know, it's.

You know, when somebody's a bit of a know it all sometimes, you know, and they. They take charge a little bit. You're like, oh, God, here we go. Here's. Here's beep. I'm going to say a word there, but, you know, here's beep. Beep and.

And a bit of a note all. But he's got this quiet confidence about him. And.

And when he's giving that little speech, everybody's like, I've repaired the ship, but you won't get very far without this. You know, he pulls out the little sphere and.

And explains in, you know, enough detail that the crew get it, but he's not coming across like a know it all, so. And then there's another scene later on where he's very much like, you know, when he's explaining essentially who the murderer is. Yeah, yeah.

Instead of just saying it's Sarah, he. He shows everybody that, you know, he's worked it out and he's done it.

And again, he's got that confidence where everyone else is just silent and they're listening to what he's saying because he's got that sort of Air of confidence about him. So again, as mentioned earlier, Avon for me is still stealing the show a bit. And Paul Darrow is brilliant, dude.

Adam: 00:34:47

He is, isn't he? He does the. Yeah, I don't know. He's just. He's got a very unusual mannerism and delivery That's. That makes him unique. And it totally works.

Like the way he can do sarcasm, he can do this sort of underlying tension. It. He's really. Yeah, he's very, very good.

I mean, I have to say there's one scene in this which, you know, I find uncomfortable with Avon, but also, I don't know the way Paul Darrow does it. It's a scene that I should find a lot worse because there's a scene where he hits Sarah and he says, oh, you better take her away.

I really rather enjoyed that. I think. God, if anyone else, any other character had said that, I think I'd be absolutely appalled. And I feel I should be.

I shouldn't be excusing it because it's Avon. I should still be appalled.

Garry: 00:35:30

But.

Adam: 00:35:30

But I don't know, something about his delivery. And I'm not excusing it, by the way. I have to make that clear. I'm not excusing Avon hitting a woman. But it's.

It's an odd line of dialogue that he somehow manages to deliver. I don't know. It's. It's. I don't know about that. I always. When that scene's coming up, I always think, oh, no, I don't know how I feel about this, but.

Because I love the character of Avon, but it's just the fact he's like, yeah, I really enjoyed hitting. I think, oh, God, I know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:36:01

Exactly the same thought, dude, when I. When I watched it, I was like, oh, okay, that was a bit. Yeah. And there was another scene as well with.

With Avon where Blake has tasked him and Callie, especially him, with repairing the ship and the navigation and all that stuff.

And Blake goes off to do something else and then cuts to a little bit later where Avon has done all he can to repair what's there, but he needs replacement parts, which is the whole thing where he sends Callie off to get some equipment from the storeroom. That's where she finds. She finds Dortmund, who they think is the murderer. There's a bit of a red herring for everybody, right?

So they thought that this engineer, Dortmund, because he's missing, they assumed that, you know, he had. He. But that was a bit of a mind melter in itself. Just for A moment. Because you thought, well, it's not him because the newtop is still here.

So why has he murdered people and then buggered off in the escape pod for no reason kind of thing? Unless he's got a really bad memory. That's something that you and I would do without memories.

Adam: 00:37:06

Oh, definitely, yeah.

Garry: 00:37:07

It's like, you know, you're sort of.

Adam: 00:37:10

I'll be sending to you, saying, gary, have you got the neurotrope? Oh, didn't you bring it? No.

Garry: 00:37:15

Oh, God. I left it back on.

Adam: 00:37:16

Back on the ship on the thing.

Garry: 00:37:18

Yeah.

Adam: 00:37:18

Let's get out the asteroids. Bit like Blake, isn't it? Let's. Let's. We've just done two hours of asteroid battering and now we've got to turn around again. Much the village delight.

Garry: 00:37:30

Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah. That was so funny. We'll come on to that. And so, yeah, that was back to the scene with Avon, where he's done all he can.

So he goes back to report to Blake and he's talking to Kendall at the time. He does this weird. I know what you mean. Where he delivers certain lines in a weird way. He's just standing in the doorway.

He's propped up against the doorway. And Blake said, you know, if we. How are we doing? We all good? And he's like, I've repaired X, Y and Z. But he's got this really big grin on his face.

Adam: 00:37:57

Yeah.

Garry: 00:37:57

And he says, but we have a problem.

Adam: 00:38:00

And he almost looks happy about it.

Garry: 00:38:02

I was gonna say. Yeah, he almost looks thrilled that there's, you know, another spanner in the works.

Like, you know, surely you would be pretty miffed if you had got this far and then you were expecting to have this whole thing wrapped up and back to the Liberator. But now there's this other problem that needs to be sorted out. Plus there's a murder on the loose and all this stuff going on.

But, yeah, he seems, like, quite happy that there's a problem going on. So I found that quite weird. And it does. It's happened a couple of times over the.

Since I've started watching it with Avon, where 99% of the time, I think he's absolutely great. And the way that Paul Darrow plays that. He 100% got the memo with this part, didn't he? He was like, you need to be this kind of. You're a criminal.

And you need to remember that in most situations, you're not aligned with what Blake wants to do. However, at this point in the game, you kind of haven't got anything else going on.

Adam: 00:39:00

Yeah, I feel like that.

Garry: 00:39:01

Yeah. So you'll sort of follow Blake because you've got nothing else going on. But you're a bit of an opportunist as well.

If there's an opportunity that arises. Because we saw that, didn't we, back in. We know when him and Jenna are waiting for Blake to teleport back and there's the time.

Adam: 00:39:17

Oh, they found all the jewels and all that.

Garry: 00:39:18

Yes. Yeah. What was that? Cygnus Alpha.

Adam: 00:39:21

Cygnus Alpha, yeah.

Garry: 00:39:22

And Avon's all up for it. He's like, we're out of it. We've got everything we need. We. Let's leave Blake. We're gone.

So there are moments like that where he plays that stuff brilliantly. But then there's that 1%. Like the scenes we've mentioned in this episode where you think, why is he so happy that there's a problem? And why.

Why did he enjoy, you know, giving that, you know, a woman a right hook sort of thing? It's. I don't know, it's. Maybe it's just TV of its time, I guess.

Adam: 00:39:51

Well, I don't know. I think Paul Darrow is very unpredictable in his performance. I think he. He often.

And you will see this going forward, he often delivers lines completely in a way that then you wouldn't expect them to be delivered. I mean, like I said on page, the script would have said, we have a problem.

I think most actors would have said it quite alarmed, like, we've got a problem here. Not Avon. He does it with a smirk and a smile and it makes you think, is it, you know, is Able all right? Is he a bit unhinged?

He seems to be enjoying this a bit too much. And, mate, I'm not going to jump forward, but there will be a few times when he will smile or laugh even.

I'm thinking of one scene, but it's not till series four. But there is one scene where he laughs like a maniac. And I'm not gonna say why, but you're, as a viewer, you're like, what?

So this is the great thing with Avon, mate. He is very unpredictable and that's what I love about it. But that's got to be down to Paul Darrow, mate. I mean, the words are on the script.

He's decided.

Or the director, maybe, but I think more Paul Darry, he's decided to play the character like that, that, you know, I'm going to smile here because that's. That's the Opposite of what the viewer is expecting, I think.

Garry: 00:40:59

Yes, agreed. Yeah, I've got that already from. From Paul Darrow's performance. It's a bit. Don't get me wrong, brilliant for the.

You know, pretty much all of it is brilliant. But there's these little moments where you think, you're absolutely right, dude. You put. I've. I thought it back in.

I can't remember the first time I noticed it. I think it was Space four. And I thought to myself, exactly what you've just said there.

Was that Paul Darrow's decision to deliver a scene or a line that way, or was one of the directors like, no, Avon, we need to get it across to the viewer that, you know, X, Y and Z. So do it this way. Maybe. I don't know, but it's.

Adam: 00:41:37

I'm gonna guess it's Paul Darrow because when he's in an episode of Doctor who, he famously told the director he was gonna play it. Like, I think he said he was going to play the character like Richard III or something. And the director was like, what?

And they tried to talk him out of it, but he was having none of it. So he played exactly the way he wanted to. And it's quite a weird performance, to be quite frank.

And I love Paul Darrow, but it is a very odd performance. But that's the way he decided he was going to play it.

And apparently John Nathan Turner was in the gallery watching it being filmed, rolling his eyes, going, oh, dear, no, this is not working. But he carried on, so I think that's why, famously. Oh, yeah. So Colin Baker's in the episode of Blake's 7. He is so. Colin Baker in that episode.

He's brilliant, but very over the top. And I think Paul Darrow said to get him back for tune the scenery. He was going to do the same in dot 2, so the story goes.

So, yeah, I'm going to think this. A lot of the stuff we like with Avon is down to Paul Darrow, I think.

Garry: 00:42:38

So was that the. When he played. Was that in Time Lash?

Adam: 00:42:41

Time Lash, yeah. Yeah.

Garry: 00:42:43

He played Tekke. Yes, that's right. Yeah.

Adam: 00:42:45

Yeah, It's a very good. Yeah, I love Paul Darrow, but it is. It's an odd, odd choice.

Garry: 00:42:51

Okay, all right. Talking about Blake as well. We've mentioned him a few times.

Like I said, I think Blake, at this point in the series anyway, has really settled into that. That for me, just very. No hesitation to lend a hand with things, which is playing into the dynamic with some of the other Crew. Very, very cool.

Really well done. The way that Gareth Thomas is having this, you can tell that he's enjoying playing, Playing Blake in a way that he's got this. How do I not.

Like, he's got the moral high ground over people because he's not really getting into a fight with anybody, but he's just having to deal with little comments from people, you know, like Villa and Avon, about wanting to do things. And it's, it's really sort of indicative of the Blake that this. You can tell that before the way back.

You can tell that in the backstory of Blake, this is exactly how he was pre, like Mind Wipe and.

Adam: 00:44:04

Yeah.

Garry: 00:44:04

And all that stuff. So he's really. Blake.

Gareth Thomas has done a great job of settling back into the Blake that this is the true Blake, you know, before that stuff happened. And he's having to deal with some of these things. Like when they go back to.

When Blake goes back to the ship and tells Villa and Gan, etc that they're going back to. They're going to Destiny themselves to drop this off. Villa does the usual, like, oh, God, you know, he's, he's got the, he's.

He's got the negatives going on already. And then when you have the whole sort of asteroid field problem and they're two in and throwing with Zen about, you know, how much power have we got?

Will the shields hold up? All that stuff again? Blake is like, yeah, it's no problem. Like, I've made the decision.

We're gonna, we're gonna do this and stuff for the good of these guys and their planet and the people of that planet and so on.

Adam: 00:45:01

He's just got a big heart, hasn't he? Yes, basically. And he enjoys helping people and. Yeah, like you said, he's enjoying his freedom, isn't he? He's.

Now that he's back to being who he really is. Like you said, you, you see the. You can imagine the character he was before they suppressed him. He's sort of gone back to that.

And you can imagine him going out and trying to rally and people together and, you know, fight the fight and all this sort of thing. So, yeah, he's definitely enjoying being himself again. Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:45:28

And I liked, I like Gareth Thomas the way he, the way he doesn't. He doesn't need to show loads of range in every episode. So there's no big fallout with him shouting at anybody in this one.

There's no sort of big action sequence with him involved. It's just a series of conversations Essentially. And the only time you see him get a little bit more than that is when.

Is when he's explaining to everybody the situation. So he basically says, look, here's the problem. You know, if you stay on your ship, it's going to take you.

I think Avon tells them they've got five months journey, time to go back to Destiny.

Adam: 00:46:08

Yeah.

Garry: 00:46:08

And they all kick off. They're like, well, that's no good.

You know, we're going to miss the harvest season, the planet's going to be ruined, we're going to be too late, blah, blah, blah. And then Kendall's like, actually, there's another option, you know, over to Blake. And then he says, you know, I'll do this, I'll happily do it.

And then I think it's, yeah, it's Mandarin that steps up to him and says, look, this is not your responsibility, blah, blah, blah. And I think at that point he's like, look, I've given you an option to help. You take it or leave it.

Yeah, that was the only sort of bit that you see Blake go up a little gear, if you like. So he's. Yeah, I love that. But he didn't want to stand there and argue the point. He basically said, look, you guys are on the clock.

You either take my offer to help, I'll leave these guys here, I'll be back. It's all good. If you don't want to take the offer, we'll be out of here. Best of luck. So that was cool.

So although Blake has got a big heart and he really wanted to help, I like that Gareth Thomas just went up just a half a gear in that scene and just laid it out how it was. So that was cool. I love Gareth Thomas when he's cool. Got that kind of, yeah, cool collectedness about him.

Adam: 00:47:15

He's very comfortable in the role, isn't he, at this point? I think he was from the get go, actually. But he's very comfortable in his performance.

I like the bit when Villa's trying to decide if they can break the. The asteroid belt. And he's like, which is it, Villa? You know, again, he does that step up gear in that bit, doesn't he? Is it, you know, is it. Are we.

Can we do it? And Villa's a nervous wreck. He's like, it is. Oh, maybe it is, I'm not sure. And he's like, which is it, Villa? You know, get it right.

And it's more in the look than the tone, actually. They give. Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:47:46

I love old Blake and Kelly had some. Some stuff going on on this one as well.

Adam: 00:47:52

I felt a bit sorry. Oh, Callie, sorry. Yeah, I'm thinking of Jenna. Why do I keep getting those two mixed up? Yes. Cie gets again, some good stuff, doesn't she?

She is a strong character. I really like C. Yeah.

Garry: 00:48:05

And she's on the case as well. Yeah, she's. She sees Mandarin hiding the homing device in the bag under the mattress. So she very. She.

She gets a bit covert, you know, she goes in amongst the weeds a little bit, whereas Avon's just like, you know, this is what we're doing this and this is what's happening, people and blah, blah, blah. Kali's more like something's not quite right here. So I'm just going to have a little sneak around, have a little look, see?

And she uncovers this whole thing and, and you know, the little home advice and it was so funny, mate. It's just that. That old school, no budget charm when she picks it out the bag and it's falling apart a little bit, tries.

Adam: 00:48:47

To hold it together. So hoping, hoping no one has noticed. Yeah, yeah. No time for a reshoot.

Garry: 00:48:53

Yeah, no, it's cold.

Adam: 00:48:54

And yeah, she works well with Avon, doesn't she? I like Callie and Avon together, like.

Like that little clip we played at the start of the show when she's telepathically telling him Blake will come back and he's like, well, you. He better. Like, they're a good team, these two. They work well together, I think.

Garry: 00:49:10

Yes, agreed. Yeah, she's good.

Actually, let's talk about Jenna because we mentioned this in the last two episodes where now that the size of the crew with Blake is the. The infamous seven, you know, probably six actual people, there's not enough screen time to devote to all of them.

And when we, when we were going through the episode, not the web, what was it? It might be in the web. Sorry, sorry, no Time squad. Yeah, so Jenna has quite a lot to do in that episode. She.

She takes it upon herself to go by herself into the, into the. The landing bay and she has a couple of scraps with people and she's, you know, she handles business and she's good.

Fast forward to now and we don't really see her that much, do we? It's more about Callie as the female lead and with Avon and Blake and so on.

But I think Jenna still has those really cool conversations with, with Blake and so on. She. She just.

A couple of scenes in this one where she has that little, kind of a little Nod of the head or a raise of the eyebrows to Blake or to Villa. And so she's still very cool, but, yeah, she's not really doing much in this one. Understandably.

Adam: 00:50:29

Now, I feel a bit.

To be honest, I feel a bit sorry for Gan, Villa and Jenna because I think in the last couple of episodes they've kind of been resigned to being on the flight deck and not given anything to do, especially Gan.

And Villa even does the same gag that I enjoyed last week, I think, when he thinks that Blake's going to ask him to go with him, but he just says, oh, no, I just want you to operate the teleport. And Villa's like, oh, phew. And I'm thinking that's the gag we liked from last week. So even he sort of is sort of poorly served in the script.

But that's the problem, isn't it? If you've got seven main cast members, I think, you know, there are going to be episodes where they don't get anything to do.

The problem is it seems to be the same three people that for the last sort of few episodes have been left on the Liberator, for want of a better word. So, yeah, Jenna, she is a great character and she's got so much potential, but, yeah, she didn't get a lot to do in this episode, unfortunately.

Same for Gan, I have to say. And as much as I love him, poor old Villa, he didn't get much to do.

So those three, I think, have suffered in terms of things to do in the last couple of episodes. And I.

I think the thing is, when you've got Callie, you've got Callie and Jenna, who are two very good, strong female characters, and they're very different characters as well, which is what I love. They're completely different personalities. But it's, you know, it's going to be hard, I think, to find things for them to do in this type of story.

But Jenna, bless her, she definitely gets a bit left behind, I think, in this story, which is a shame, because you just want to see more of them, you know, but it's difficult, isn't it? I can see it from Terry Nation's point of view, like he's got that crew on the spaceship are all getting killed or picked off and what.

I can't think of anything that Jenna and that could have done other than what they're given in this story. In other words, you know, it's just the nature of it, unfortunately.

Garry: 00:52:19

I mean, we do have a little bit of screen time when we're back on the Liberator and they're on their way back to Destiny and they're going through, you know, that subplot with the. With the asteroids.

Adam: 00:52:30

Yeah.

Garry: 00:52:30

So we do get some of that. And Villa's very funny as usual in those scenes and he has a. He follows it up at the end of the episode, doesn't he, with a funny little quip.

He's like, can we go the long way around?

Adam: 00:52:42

Oh, yeah. I mean, he always gets great little one liners, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:52:47

But I know what you mean, though, for those three. They have. They've been sidelined, but I think it's just an unavoidable sort of effect of just having that many people mate on a. On a show. You can't.

Although the episodes are a decent runtime, they're all 50 minutes, that still doesn't mean that you can. It would just be a mess, wouldn't it, if you just had them all on screen all the time doing that stuff? You have to. You have to let some of some.

I guess there's a hierarchy. Right. And I think. Was it back in this time where with. With tv, where some.

Even the lead actor knowing Doctor who, for example, there would be some stories that were very Doctor Light.

Adam: 00:53:32

Yeah.

Garry: 00:53:32

Where, you know, it was more about the companions, especially back in the day, where quite incredibly, the lead actor would just go on holiday.

Adam: 00:53:41

William Hartnell, we're looking at you. Yeah, just. I'm off for a couple of weeks.

Garry: 00:53:45

Yeah, it's like, Bill, we're filming.

Adam: 00:53:48

I love William Hartnell, by the way, I must say that.

Garry: 00:53:50

But, yeah, we're filming a TV show, mate. Well, I just feel like I need a bit of sun, so I'm off. So you'll be right.

So I think at this point, I think TV audiences were kind of used to characters stepping up for certain episodes and being left behind a little bit in other ones, you know.

Adam: 00:54:08

Definitely, yeah.

Garry: 00:54:09

Sort of part of the course at this point.

Adam: 00:54:10

I just hope they sort of swing it the other way. So if, you know, and I genuinely. I'm looking at the episodes we've got in the rest of this series and I. I can't quite remember.

I think, you know, Jenna would definitely get more to do in upcoming episodes, but you could. She could have easily done the role that Cali did in this story, but obviously you can't have them both doing it, really, so.

Garry: 00:54:28

Exactly.

Adam: 00:54:29

You have to pick one. But yeah, hopefully we'll see a bit more from. From those guys coming up.

Garry: 00:54:35

Yes. Yeah, agreed. And not so much arguing and toing and throwing with Zen in this episode.

Adam: 00:54:41

No, they.

Garry: 00:54:42

They get. Apart from one or two, they get the answers that they've asked for. Pretty much.

Adam: 00:54:47

Yeah.

Garry: 00:54:47

And it's still funny, though, that little. The. The. The way that they've set up that interaction with Zen with all the characters where they ask a question and he.

He either answers them or say Zen answers them. Either. Exactly. Which is what they're not looking for. They're looking for a more simplified version.

So they've got this look on their face like, for Christ's sake, you know, just answer how a human would answer. It's that kind of response.

Adam: 00:55:16

Jenna gets a funny line, doesn't she? Doesn't she say something like, in other words, he doesn't know.

Garry: 00:55:20

In other words, doesn't know. Exactly. Yeah. That's gonna say. All the other response is some weird cryptic thing and you deflection. Yeah.

And then Jenna's like, he doesn't know what's going on. Yeah, they don't know. So it's. It. That's kind of cool.

The stuff with Zen is still not as funny and as on the nose as it has been in a few episodes prior, but it's still there, that. That dynamic, which is cool.

Adam: 00:55:42

I just love the fact it's just a. You know, that this computer has such a great character. It's just a flashing light on the.

On the screen, you know, but it is, you know, Peter Tudman and the script are just brilliant, aren't they? Even the. Just a few lines. They get great characters then for you. Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:56:00

Very cool. Yeah. Okay. Dude, have I got anything else in my notes to go through? I don't think so. Oh, sorry. The ending.

Let's talk about the ending, because that was.

You said that that was potentially out of character for Blake, where he had rigged that ship with the charges so he knows that when the other ship comes into the same proximity, they're both going to be destroyed, basically. So everyone on board is going to be killed, essentially. So you think that was out of character for Blake at that point?

Adam: 00:56:32

Well, I think the bit that I don't get is, okay, it's not his fault that Sara or Sarah takes a bracelet off. She's made that decision to stay. So that. In a way, that's not his fault that she's there when it blows up. But the bit I can't quite understand.

And again, I might. May. Maybe there's something in the story, but the people that are docking with the ship who have come to get the neurotrope.

They are blown up at the same time and Blake doesn't know them. I mean, just because they've come to buy something doesn't mean they're bad people. Right?

So I'm just thinking, so it's just blown up a random spaceship, a load of people he doesn't know, so that I was a little uncomfortable with. Because if it was the Federation coming together, you said, yes, he's just blown up some Federation ships. But am I right, mate?

They're just a random ship. He doesn't know those people. They could be really nice people who had been tricked into buying the Neurotra.

I don't know, they, you know, I just think it's a bit callous of Blake just to decide to blow them all up. But Sarah I know is not his problem, so I can excuse that, but am I right, mate, or not?

Well, do we ever find out who the people are who were, who were rendezvousing with them? Are they bad people? I guess we just assume they are. Right. You know, it's not something I'm going to get hung up on, but yeah.

Garry: 00:57:42

I mean, I don't know, it's just.

Adam: 00:57:45

The way he says, yeah, I just blew, you know, they're gone, let's go. You know, it's, it's a, it's a nice wrap up to the episode, I guess, you know, it's like a way to finish it.

Garry: 00:57:54

But there is that element and the other element to me as well. I'm not sure if the crew that were there were, they didn't seem particularly attached to the Ortega.

So when Blake is, you know, dishing out the, the teleport bracelets, none of them are, have got any hesitation. They're like, right, let's get, you know, let's get out of here.

And because Blake has rigged the, the entry hatch, he's the only one that knows what's going on. So at that point he went off to do that before they decided who was going to go back with them.

I mean, they all decided to go anyway, apart from Sarah. So at that point, Blake has already condemned whoever's going to stay to death anyway.

Adam: 00:58:35

Oh yeah, but I'm talking about the people on the ship that have come to rendezvous with them that, yeah, we don't know. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna justify it by saying we just assume they're bad people.

Garry: 00:58:45

Well, I think that's what they were hoping the, the viewer would come away from was that, yeah, these are all kind of, if These people are willing to buy this thing unofficially, you know, on the down low, then as a viewer, you're probably thinking these are shady people anyway, you know, and if they're willing to go to these lengths to get this, then chances are if they survive, they'll only go and do something just as bad.

Adam: 00:59:09

True.

Garry: 00:59:10

Down the line. So it's probably. I think it is slightly out of character for Blake in terms of, as you nailed it, you know, he doesn't know these people.

So they could be just, you know, innocent traders, I guess, who are being sort of lulled into this on, you know, been unbeknownst to them. I don't know, but I don't know because of the.

Because of the infamy around this thing, but which they're, you know, potentially going to buy this nutratrope, I think. Yeah, I think they do know 100 what it is and its power and. And everything.

Adam: 00:59:42

So they will assume they were shady. Let's assume there's a good chance that they were.

Garry: 00:59:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Potentially more pirates.

Adam: 00:59:50

I was thinking pirates. Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 00:59:53

Who knows? Lastly, mate, more good music from Dudders.

Adam: 01:00:00

I think Dudley is. I think Dudley is looked at the script and thought, oh, murder mystery, let's have a little bit of piano this week. It's. And I like it.

It's something a bit different for Dudley this week because it's been much more electronic music the last few episodes, which is great. But, yeah, Dudley's going back to old school piano music for some of this and it does work, surprisingly.

I think it's a cool little score from Dudley. It reminds me a little bit of the music from the Peter Cushing Doctor who movies, weirdly, you know, all that sort of jangling piano stuff.

So, yeah, good on Dudley for trying something a little bit different this week. It gives the episode a bit of a different feel to it. I liked it.

Garry: 01:00:44

Yeah. It was different. This was the first episode where I thought.

Because Adam, in my head, I was thinking, right, Adam told me that there's a couple of episodes where Dudley doesn't do the music.

Adam: 01:00:54

I think next week is one.

Garry: 01:00:56

Right. Gotcha.

Adam: 01:00:57

I think so, yeah.

Garry: 01:00:58

Yeah. As I was going through this episode, I thought, is this the first episode without Dudley? Is it a different. Because it's so different.

Adam: 01:01:04

It is different to the.

Garry: 01:01:06

To the previous scores that he had that he had worked up for the other episodes. But it was really cool like that. Just basic back to basics, you know, some piano, nice little riffs and stuff. It was good.

Adam: 01:01:18

Yeah. A bit of Bit of tension. I will have to remember to try and look at the credits next week, since it's an. It's next week is. Well, we'll come to it.

It's directed by Douglas Camfield and he famously used to take Dudley off and use someone else. So I'm gonna check. But I'm fairly sure it's a different composer next week doing the instrumental music.

Garry: 01:01:38

Right, gotcha.

Adam: 01:01:40

See if we can pick up if it's different.

Garry: 01:01:41

Yeah, okay. Yeah, we'll do that right here. Have you got anything else on your notes that you want to grace our listeners with?

Adam: 01:01:49

No, I think we're all cool, mate. The only thing I did notice last night, just lastly, and I just wanted to hear if you felt like if you'd notice this.

I have never noticed before, but I think the sets in this story were all redressed sets from previous stories we've had. So I think a lot of the sets were actually the London spaceship redressed.

And what actually made me think that's because the window that's in the wall looks like the one that Blake stares out of in. In the way back. And I just thought, oh, I think it's the London set. But they've taken away.

You know, they've obviously painted it different, changed a bit, but I think they've reused a lot sets. And also the other bit in the start where the guy gets quite viciously murdered, doesn't it? Very opening scene. Yeah, I think that might be.

So I reckon they. Very clear. And I've never noticed that before. I don't even know if I'm right. You know, I'll have to get like that gorgeous Blake's 7 book to find out.

But, yeah, it looked to me like they'd redressed the sets very well. As I said, I. I only noticed it last night. But if that is what they've done, well done. Because it's a good.

A good reuse of set, if that's what they've done. And actually the guy who got Mordred murdered, murdered at the start. He's actually. He's been in. He's quite a famous guy, isn't he?

We didn't mention him. So wasn't he like a main character in Coronation street for like millions of years or something?

Garry: 01:03:11

Yes. Yeah. Those of you.

Adam: 01:03:12

What's his name? Brian.

Garry: 01:03:14

Brian Capron. Yeah. So any UK soap fans who watch Corrie will know him as Richard Hillman from.

Adam: 01:03:21

That's it.

Garry: 01:03:22

Corrie. He was the baddie, wasn't he? Murdered.

Adam: 01:03:24

Big baddie. Yeah.

Garry: 01:03:25

Someone. Yeah. But yeah, he's only in this for what, three minutes or something?

Adam: 01:03:29

Yeah, if that.

Garry: 01:03:30

Yeah. So that was the character Raffert got bumped off quite quickly.

Adam: 01:03:34

Yeah.

Garry: 01:03:35

Yeah. But you're right, though. Yeah. Now that you've mentioned it, that's. I'll be honest with you, I didn't pick up on that. But now you've mentioned it.

Adam: 01:03:41

But I've never noticed it before, mate. And maybe it's just because we're watching them, you know, in order and quite, quite close together. What like, you know, it was just the window.

As soon as I noticed that window, I thought, is that the London set that they painted yellow? So, yeah, could be somebody out there will know.

Garry: 01:03:56

Yeah, they would do. Yeah. That would make perfect sense due to the, you know, limited budget and stuff to reuse things and so. Yeah, you're probably right, mate.

Right, scores. I think it's me to go first.

Adam: 01:04:07

You go for it. Come on. What's it gonna be?

Garry: 01:04:08

I'm gonna give this a 6.5.

Adam: 01:04:11

6 point.

Garry: 01:04:12

Yeah. I think this is a. I think this is a good watch. I enjoyed this one. It's. It's not quite as enjoyable as the pre.

Some of the previous stories that we've. That we've landed on because of it. It's just a nice little, simple, isolated story. But I do like the whole whodunit thing.

So, yeah, not up there with. With the best, but certainly not a bad watch at all. So, yeah, 6.5 for me. What about you, bud?

Adam: 01:04:37

I'm giving it a six, so I'm not far behind you, but it's a very, as I always say, a very strong six. There. There are no episodes that we've reviewed so far that I think are bad. I.

I find there's something to enjoy in all of them, and that's very much the case with this. I enjoy it as an episode, just don't think it's as strong as some of the others. So I'll give it a six.

Garry: 01:04:57

Six. Gotcha. Alrighty. So, right then, similar scores again this week. 6.5 for me. A 6 from Adam, and I think we'll wrap their.

Dude, let's call it for episode seven.

Adam: 01:05:11

Alrighty.

Garry: 01:05:26

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Federation Strike. And that was our review of Mission to Destiny, episode seven. What have we got coming up next week?

Adam: 01:05:36

Dude, Next week we've got an episode called Duel. Very excited to get your thoughts on this one.

Garry: 01:05:45

Yeah, Duel. So, as Adam said, Duel next week, which is episode eight.

So make sure that you are digging out your Blake's 7 stuff to give that a watch and follow us as we watch through that episode and review that as well. Grab your DVDs, even your old VHS tapes or even like modern day cool flashy stuff. Get your streaming service fired up. I think it's on itvx.

Adam: 01:06:11

It was. I don't know if it still is. I think it is. I'm not sure.

Garry: 01:06:14

And, and get that, get that one watched as we can all enjoy some Blake's 7 goodness together. In the meantime, make sure you are following or subscribing to Federation Strike, especially if you're a newbie to the show.

Hit the follow or subscribe button in whatever podcast app you listen to your podcasts on. That way you won't miss a notification when it drops every Wednesday. We are also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all that stuff.

We've also just been added to YouTube music, so if you use that for your music and podcast, we're on there as well. And yeah, just make sure you are you are following so we can enjoy some Blake seven watching through together. We're on the socials too.

We're over on Twitter and Bluesky. Just do a search for Lake 7 podcast. You'll find us on there.

Come and chat Blake's 7 throughout the week and in between episodes and we've had some really great chats and some great comments over there already. So join in and chat Blake's 7. Also, don't forget to remember to check out my co host channel on YouTube.

He has a very, very cool geeky YouTube channel. It's called the Geek's Handbag.

Adam: 01:07:21

The Geek's Handbag. And I'm also on all the socials under the name the Geeks Handbag.

Garry: 01:07:26

Yay. More geek stuff, eh? Yeah, Adam's got a very cool channel by the way.

I say this every time, but it's just chock a block full of loads of cool stuff to do with. There's a cup. There is a couple actually of Blake seven bits.

Adam: 01:07:41

There's a couple of Blakes. Yeah, yeah.

Garry: 01:07:42

But it's mainly Doctor who and also like on the spot movie reviews and unboxings and stuff. So go and go and check it all out.

Adam: 01:07:49

Indeed.

Garry: 01:07:50

Okay bud. Until next week for episode eight. My name's Garry.

Adam: 01:07:54

My name's Adam.

Garry: 01:07:55

And we will see you next time on Federation Strike, a journey through Blake's 7:17.