Models to Magic: A Chin Wag with Visual Effects Extraordinaire Chris Thompson

Garry: 00:00:16

Hello and welcome to Federation Strike a journey through Blake's 7. My name's Garry and this is our second special bonus episode to conclude our series a review. Welcome back to Federation Strike.

I hope you've enjoyed listening to all of our episodes over the last 13, 14 weeks now.

And also our first bonus episode last week which is our series a wrap up review where we just sit down and chat about the, all the cool bits, highs, lows, everything throughout series A, some thoughts on the Blu Ray set, the visual effects, some of the characters, some standouts, all that stuff. So if you've not listened to that yet, go and check that out. That's Adam and I just grabbing a cup of tea and talking about all those things.

To be honest with you, there weren't many lows with this first season of Blake's 7 or first series, should I say series A and there was a few little bits, but on the whole we are absolutely ecstatic to be going through Adam's favorite show and a show that I now have fallen in love with. Love, love Blake's 7.

And when we were going through the motions of planning out as you do with a podcast, you plan out your content for especially if it's a seasonal podcast like our one, you plan out all your stuff and you, you figure out what you want to do to extend that a little bit because you know, we don't want to just lock off the, the podcast at the end of episode 13 Orac and that's it and then you won't hear from us until later on in the year when series B Blu Ray set lands.

So we wanted to throw in some extra stuff and very kindly a couple of people who, who were involved with the making of the Blu Ray set, Series one and now series B series two that we know now is, is up for pre order and so on.

We're probably going to get some, an official unofficial announcement and some official details from the be at some point over the next, over the summer probably hopefully a little trailer, a wee trailer.

But anyway a couple of those guys that were involved in that, we're gonna have a chat to those, those guys and pick their brains, get into the, the meat and potatoes of, of what their involvement was.

And as we mentioned at the end of last week's episode, this week for bonus episode number two, it is a chat with Chris Thompson who is the, the, the visual effects supervisor and you'll know his name if you're a Doctor Who fan and you've picked up any of the Blu Ray special collection box sets. He's done A ton of work of those. He's done some really cool big finish covers.

His model work on the Blake's 7 stuff as well as the, the, the digital visual effects stuff is absolutely phenomenal. It's such a cool guy as well.

It was the first time I'd seen him a couple of times before at events down at the BFI in South bank and, and so on, but I'd never, I'd never approached him and shook his hand, which I will do the next time we meet. But he's, he agreed immediately to do this, gave up his time and he's such a cool guy.

I, There's a couple of bits in this interview where I get a little bit, yeah, a little bit fanboy, a little bit giddy. He starts to show me some model work that he's worked on things over the years and a couple of things that he's working on that he can't.

I can't tell you what they are. But needless to say, it was, it was a very, very cool chat. So we're. Without further ado, here is my. Adam couldn't join us, unfortunately he was.

Adam was busy for this one. So it's, it's just a straight up chat with Chris. So here we are. Enjoy that interview with Mr. Chris Thompson.

So, to kick off our series of bonus episodes at the tail end, if you will, of our first season, where we reviewed all of Blake's 7 Series A, as we're calling it on the, on the podcast, but series one, we're going to be chatting to a few people involved in the, the, the making, the production of that newly released Blu ray. So if you have picked up the Blu Ray, then you will know this person's name.

If you've checked out any of the cool little production details in terms of miniatures and visual effects on a few Doctor Who things, if you've come across some very, very cool alternate Dalek designs for Big Finish or just some other Big Finish covers, then you will know the name of the person I'm interviewing today. It is, of course, visual effects and Special effects extraordinaire, Mr. Chris Thompson. How are you, sir? Hello.

Chris: 00:04:52

I'm doing great. Thank you for the lovely introduction.

Garry: 00:04:55

You're welcome. Thank you very much for taking the time to hop on and chat, not just Blake7, but the world of special effects for TV and film in general.

I'm a huge fan of this stuff. My co host, Adam, who can't be with us today, but he wanted to say that he's also a massive fan of Your work and, and, and this stuff.

So I think our listeners will love this as well because there's always a lot of chatter, I feel, around classic television when it gets released into a newer format and you have this decision, do you go purist and keep it exactly as it was or do you sort of go the full, the full hog and, and, and invest some money into some new effects and stuff like that? So there's always that kind of chatter.

So I'm fascinated to hear some, some in production, as it were, stuff on that series one as you went through all that to get it to release and so on. So before we get into the nuts and bolts of that stuff though, as always, people will know you as, you know, a fantastic designer. Visually.

I think you're. I could be wrong, but I think you started out doing event artwork for things like Thunderbirds and whatnot back in the day.

Is that how you got into this whole. For your sins, this whole industry?

Chris: 00:06:08

So I'm a massive Thunderbirds fan, as you can maybe see by the Thunderbird 2 behind me.

Garry: 00:06:13

Very nice. Yeah.

Chris: 00:06:14

And I started doing. I'm a self taught 3D artist and animator and filmmaker.

of their conventions back in: 2010

And then whenever Jerry Anderson Pat passed away, his son Jamie reached out to me because they had a couple of ideas in the works and I started doing initially small stuff, but eventually over time I was doing concept designs and eventually books and films and that sort of thing. And then that led into. Because Jamie worked with Big Finish, I started doing stuff for Big Finish.

in the year of our Lord: 2025

Garry: 00:07:13

Wow. So it literally snowballed from you doing those early pieces of artwork.

It was just the people that you know in the industry, I guess, and recommendations and sort of. And here we are.

Chris: 00:07:26

It's nice to look back on it because I'm always quite glad.

I've never had like whenever you're a kid, you want a meteoric rise in your career and immediately start directing feature films and stuff where it's actually quite nice being able to piece together the slow incline of doing more and more over time.

Garry: 00:07:42

Oh, that's. That's very cool. Yeah. And in terms of you Being people approaching you and saying, we'd love you to work on, you know, whatever it might be.

Did you ever have a time where you thought. Because obviously doing it's all in the public eye.

I imagine you've got a healthy portfolio of work that you've done just on a personal level, your personal projects that we all have. But in terms of the IPs that you've worked on, these are not small, little, you know, tiny niche things. They are very popular worldwide things.

So in those early days when you were approached to do those, did you ever think, this is out of my league or did you have that really cool kind of newbie enthusiasm and just, you know, went for it?

Chris: 00:08:27

Mostly newbie enthusiasm, probably because the stuff. Doing stuff like Traders for Big Finish and things like that don't faze me that much.

ha Technical Manual for Space: 1999

Do you know the show at all?

Garry: 00:08:57

I do, yes.

Chris: 00:08:58

The Space: 1999

So that was probably the first time I kind of felt sort of the weight of responsibility. But it came out, they liked it. And yeah, we've been doing those ever since. The Doctor Who stuff as well, there's obviously, it's very.

People, like, a lot of people have opinions on it. A lot of people watch it. To me, like, I've got quite a high quality threshold.

Like there's a lot of stuff which if I'm not happy with, I'll keep doing. But also luckily I have Pete McTeague and like, Pete McTee is not afraid to tell you if something doesn't look good. So that sort of.

That helps a lot for me because you can sort of start doubting yourself if no one's giving you like, authentic feedback.

Garry: 00:09:58

I see. Right. So I know Pete is obviously involved with. Works with you on the. On the Doctor Who stuff as well as the Blake's 7. Is Pete on the Blake's 7 Blu Ray?

I believe so.

Chris: 00:10:11

I think he cut the trailer and he effectively sort of quality controlled the effects. So he'd be the one saying, this doesn't work. This looks too CG. This shot's not in 4x3. That kind of thing.

Garry: 00:10:26

Gotcha. Oh, okay. And how were you. When you first.

So when you first landed, say remembrance of the Daleks, you were tasked with doing the redo of those effects. Right, with the miniatures and so on.

For something like that, if you put something out and Pete came back or somebody said, nah, no good, or whatever. Not that they would, but is it something that you're okay to take that on board and do it?

Because I know that some creative, some designers can be a little bit precious.

Chris: 00:10:59

But, you know, it sort of depends. Like, I am one of those really frustrating type of creatives where I'll tend to, like you're told in the industry, never go with your first idea.

But I do tend to come at things fully formed. I can be a little rigid when coming out of things, but I also respect the hierarchy.

If somebody says, I think the Dalek shuttle should fly this way, then the Dalek shuttle should fly that way.

Garry: 00:11:24

Right, Gotcha. Yeah. I just know from my experience with working with. Because my industry is web and digital design and so I want to manage designers before.

And some of them love feedback to give it to me, it's all good. Others are like, eh, it's sort of.

Chris: 00:11:38

What I've gone on. I've tried to get into the sort of practical side of things because we started with the rooting on Horror of Fang Rock and that was almost entirely.

Well, partly it was born out of a love of special, like special effects in general. Part of it was I just wanted to make Doctor Who with my friends.

And on Snake Dance Enlightenment, it's just me by my computer and then obviously chatting through an email with Katon Russell.

Well, whereas with the rooting, we can go around to my friend AC's house, we can like put a black screen up, we can all take a tentacle and sort of puppet this thing.

Garry: 00:12:12

So sounds so much fun. I gotta be honest.

Chris: 00:12:16

For season 25, it was just an extension of that and just like, let's get a ton of models and the facts.

Garry: 00:12:25

You can't see this listener, but I think we've got a show and tell going on.

Chris: 00:12:29

Great for an audio medium, I'm afraid. But yeah, that's. That's the dalek shuttle.

Garry: 00:12:34

Wow. Doctor Who fans, especially McCoy fans, you're gonna be very jealous. What I'm looking at right now, this is the.

Chris: 00:12:41

It also opens up, even though you never saw it in the episode or in. On the miniature at least, and that.

Garry: 00:12:48

This is so cool. This is so cool. Chris is showing me all these cool models. Look, look. Oh, you can't see Thunderbirds.

Chris: 00:12:54

This is From Happiness Patrol.

Garry: 00:12:56

Happiness. Oh, Happiness Patrol. Of course. Yeah.

Chris: 00:12:59

This is quite close to the original model from the episode, but I just kind of made it a bit more colorful and have connected together because the original was just 2Y wings from Star wars stuck together.

Garry: 00:13:08

Oh, my God. Listener, I can't tell you how cool this is right now. I'm literally in. In the. In the belly of the.

The visual effects beast looking at all this stuff also. Oh, there's more.

Chris: 00:13:21

There's more. Because you've reached this episode is you recognize this guy.

Garry: 00:13:26

Oh, the floating capsule with the frozen guys in there from episode three.

Chris: 00:13:31

Yeah.

Garry: 00:13:32

Wow, that looks amazing.

Chris: 00:13:34

But also this thing pops up like a bunch of other times in the show in season one and two, so we made it that the tops could come out just in case we needed to redress it.

Garry: 00:13:45

Wow. So that's incredible.

Chris: 00:13:48

I've got other models here, but they're from episodes that you haven't seen yet, so.

Garry: 00:13:51

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Before we recorded Listener.

Chris: 00:13:55

Yet to know that one quite well.

Garry: 00:13:57

Right, right. Okay. Yeah. Before we recorded Listener, Chris was aware of the. The dynamic between him, Adam and me being a freshie.

So he was like, yep, I'll refrain from. So appreciated. Thank you very much.

That's incredible because I've been watching the episodes through with the original effects first, and then I've gone back afterwards and I've gone through and not watched the entire episode again. But I've looked at all of, you know, like, the. The wired establishing shots in space and the teleportation, everything like that.

Of all the model shots, I've gone back and looked at them and that what you've just showed me is fresh in my mind because literally only last week or the week before, I watched that. So that's incredible. That's so cool.

Chris: 00:14:39

I do have a lot of love for the original effects. Like, this is the thing I always try to get across is that, like, Blake's 7 has extremely. Had extremely talented people working on it.

And especially for the first couple episodes, they had a big shoot at Bray Studios, and the, like, all that stock Liberator stuff and stuff does look beautiful. Like, everything with the London looks beautiful. And that was incredibly difficult to. To sort of match up to.

But as the series goes on, you can kind of see how increasingly they were trying to push the budget and get the ingenuity across. And I always have a huge amount of respect for them for that.

But, yeah, that's always the rather interesting thing when you sort of come on board with the explicit task of changing the effects or at least updating them. Particularly whenever you have such love for the originals.

Garry: 00:15:41

Yeah, that makes sense. The fact that you've just shown me the miniatures, the models that you've very expertly built and look amazing.

It's clear that you're a sort of multimedia designer because you've obviously done, as I mentioned, the big finish covers, which is like 3D work and all the 2D stuff. But then you've got the visual effects where you've got CG based stuff that we for Doctor Who and Blake's 7.

But then you've got actual, you know, miniatures that are going to be photographed. Do you have a, do you lean towards one that you're looking forward to doing? Is there any particular medium that you prefer?

Chris: 00:16:19

So a lot of that kind of is born out of necessity. Like, like for a project such as Blake7 and Dr. We don't. We probably have less money than they did back in the day.

So for that reason a lot of the models you have to make yourself.

But for the Federation Pursuit ship that is built by my friend Richard Ashton, who's a professional model maker and if we were still in the age of miniatures, he would be working for ILM and those kind of things. So I'm like, it's important to make sure that like, if it's a hero ship, it looks good. Whereas I, I, I just kind of like all of it.

I'm sort of master, well, not a master of all trades, but what was a jack of all trades but a master of none. But it just comes from a career of people asking me can you do this? And me being like, yeah, sure. And then quickly Googling overnight how to do that.

Right. But no, I've been enjoying the practical stuff. It's like, I enjoy it. I definitely have got a lot better at filming it.

But I think particularly as we've gone on, I've been trying to delegate tasks to my friends and stuff.

Like for instance, if I need puppeteering, then my friends Ben Page and Conor Flanagan I'll turn to who are like, they have a lot of puppeteering experience. And also Ben's a really good videographer, are 3D printing stuff. And a lot of the painting is done by my friend Ryan, Ryan Wade.

And he's really good in that regard. AC is another one of our crew and he mainly just is basically the glue that holds us all together.

But he does a lot of like sort of production managing and making sure models don't fall over and stuff. So yeah, like it's trying to do everything but reaching out to other people whenever it's necessary. And, of course, that's the fun bit.

That's the collaboration is what it's all about.

Garry: 00:18:19

Yeah, that sounds so much fun, because I imagine you all geek out about, you know, those certain aspects of those things. If you're all wound together to get a model done and filmed and whatnot, that must be a good. A good afternoon.

I mean, I say that with, you know, a lot of ignorance on my part. It's probably two weeks worth of work, but it's a lot of work.

Chris: 00:18:39

But it is fun.

Like when we were shooting at the tail end of season 25, originally, we didn't have any model effects planned for Greatest Shown the Galaxy, but Pete wanted to reintroduce the TARDIS shots that were cut from the episode for being too dark.

So we went around to AC's house, put up a black curtain, got a TARDIS that we spun upside down, and then I went back and forth from it using my Steadicam, because there's a roll feature on it where you can actually rotate it that way.

And then we watched it back and it was like, it must be what the experience of watching football is like, because we're all just, like, watching the Tardis, like, fly through space, and we're just like, yeah.

Garry: 00:19:23

Oh, wow, that's so cool.

And where we're concerned, actually, the models and the miniatures and whatnot does that obviously comes with its own set of challenges versus, like, doing digital work with sort of rendered stuff in cg. Is it something where. Because it's a physical thing, if you make a mistake or something's not right, you have to trash it and start again.

Because unlike digital, you've got to save. Right. You can just go back.

Chris: 00:19:48

Yeah. So there's pluses and minuses. Like, if you're looking for a model effect type look, then obviously models are better.

But for instance, if you're airbrushing it, there's a sort of an element of. Once you paint the thing, you can do a thing that's kind.

It's called pre shading, which is kind of what brings all the sort of lines out, but you can kind of see it's darker on the corners and stuff. Yeah, because sort of coming in from the old Thunderbirds days, like, they used to really distress their models in order to make them look real.

And if you mess that up, then that's the paint job starting from scratch. And there's a few instances we had to do that, like, Federation Space Command from Seek, Locate, Destroy. I think I repainted, like three times.

Garry: 00:20:39

Wow.

Chris: 00:20:40

It's in the other room. Otherwise I'd show you it, but it is. It's big. Like, I think. I think it's bigger than the original model, but not by much.

Garry: 00:20:49

Still big, though. Big enough to, like, you know, having to paint it three times is a.

Chris: 00:20:54

But the problem with models is that they need to be fairly meticulously planned. And obviously you need that. Yeah, you just sort of need the organization and a lot of foreknowledge in order to shoot them properly.

And that was, I think I've mentioned before, season one of Blake's 7 or season A was basically season 25 and season A were done together effectively over the course of about four or five months, which was almost 800 special effects shots between them. And I think particularly we only had one day with the Liberator and it meant that we sort of couldn't. We sort of had to get what we got.

And then whenever we sort of realized down the line we're going to. We would need more shots with it.

I had to very quickly build a CG model which was quite representative of the miniature, but it was made in like 20 hours. So, like, it wasn't as good as it could be. But I don't know. I think looking back in Season one, I'm always like, I'm happy with the.

In regards to how, given the sort of the pressure we're under, like, I'm happy with how it looks. I do think there's potential to do better.

Garry: 00:22:13

Okay.

Chris: 00:22:14

With a bit more time and stuff. But, yeah, yeah, it's. But also, like, I think you get a lot of people talking about sort of CG quite negatively, whereas I do love it as a.

Like, As I come from a background of being a digital artist and it's quite freeing. So.

Garry: 00:22:32

Yeah, yeah, I understand that. And I guess for me, the best. The best visual effects are the ones that you probably don't see that jump out at you, I guess, is the best.

You know, when you see a lot of predominantly tv, I think, where, I don't know, Victorian street and they film like the lower third on set sort of thing. And then in the final thing, it's like recreated London and you don't really, you know, that sort of thing. It's all. It's all well done. So.

But yeah, I can imagine it's like the model stuff and having time and is that a blessing in disguise sometimes? Does it give you a kick up the ass to sort of get the work done or would you always want more time?

Because I imagine you must get to the end of it and you're like. Like you said, you know, potentially could.

Chris: 00:23:16

Be better, but always more time is nice. Like, I think there's definitely a too little time.

It was the same issue they had back in the day as well, but I've been able to shoot some miniatures for another Blu Ray more recently and we've had more time for it.

Particularly when you look at the stuff we did on season 25 and compare it to stuff we did in Blake's 7, there is, I would say, an upgrade in what we've done and that's improved again, significantly in the latest stuff we've done. So it's a learning curve. And it's because, like, it's not necessarily like, we have. Man.

On that first Liberator shoot, we did have Matt Irvine and Mike Tucker there, who were invaluable, but particularly the stuff that we shot here at Belfast, which was about, like, a lot of the guest models, there is an element of just having to relearn or rediscover this old craft all over again.

Garry: 00:24:13

Sounds wonderful, though. And have you. You've also been involved, I guess. I think I read that you've been involved in the shoots as well.

So I think for the big short that they did for. Was it the final battle?

Chris: 00:24:27

Final battle, yes.

Garry: 00:24:28

Yeah. You were on set, right, doing all the sort of advisory consultant stuff for the vfx.

Chris: 00:24:34

Yeah, that was pretty cool because that's the first, I think, the first time where I've officially been upgraded to VFX supervisor, but.

Garry: 00:24:41

Nice.

Chris: 00:24:41

Yeah. I got to go to the quarry at Maidstone and got to meet Louise Jamison for the first time.

And, yeah, and it's really, really nice because, Pete, like, it's nice to be listened to because I've worked on projects where there's been a. Oh, we'll fix it in post, like, whatever, like. But it's nice to be like, this is kind of what we want.

And I was like, right, well, we can put the green screen here and that way we get the benefit of this and that and that. But.

And then, yeah, we had a huge cliff as well, which, because they were really keen that the cliff that's in the digital part of the episode was actually there. We never actually used it except for one shot. Okay.

But yeah, that was quite fun and working with live action stuff and, yeah, pity we didn't have any live action Daleks. That would have been nice. But, yeah, got to Introduce another new color scheme just to keep the fans happy.

Garry: 00:25:41

Of course, yeah. Is that something that you'd like to do more of in the future?

Chris: 00:25:45

Oh, totally. Like, I know there's a sort of a pause on the live action trailers at the minute, but like, there's loads of potential to do cool stuff there.

So fingers crossed. I'm holding out for a Cyberman one eventually.

Garry: 00:26:00

Oh, that'd be cool. Well, yeah, that would be cool. It's one of those things, you know, where as you're on the other side of the fence, if you.

If that's the right way to say it, but on the other side, as fans just enjoying all this stuff, it's really cool to see those live action trailers and all the extra material on those Blu Ray sets sort of come to fruition.

And when we get them as fans and unbox them and watch them and everything, it really is one of those times where even on YouTube when those trailers drop and everything, it's one of those times where we think we're so lucky to have people who still consider that stuff important enough to do. So in terms of Doctor Who and now Blake's 7, that's also getting that treatment.

Are there any other shows sort of classic or predominantly classic that you, you would love to see get the same treatment as that and you'd like to be involved in that stuff?

Chris: 00:26:55

Well, oddly enough, over at ANST Entertainment, we've just got. Just started up doing Blu Rays for things and we did Space Precincts. I don't know if you remember that one.

Garry: 00:27:05

Oh yes.

Chris: 00:27:06

We've just released Space Precinct on Blu Ray and for that I shot a 20 minute movie like micro budget feature that was mostly on green screen that was effectively produced in a month. But people seem to like it.

We got to work with an actress called Jade O'Neill and we got Garry Martin, who voiced the little robot in the Slope, the show Somo to come back, but I can't say much better plans going ahead. But we do have. The Doctor Who sets are kind of the blueprint for Blu Rays going forward.

Because I think the casual sort of DVD Blu Ray market is sort of dying because of streaming, but what the BBC have done with Doctor Who sort of proved that if you can release something that is extremely special and also almost all encompassing, not only is this the best that a show could look, here is an alternate version of how the show looks. Here are five edits of Silver Nemesis.

We've literally did something that has everything like the last Doctor Who thing you need to buy until it's available to you in hologram. That's sort of hopefully the. The way of doing this going forward.

Garry: 00:28:24

Gotcha. Yeah. And what's your view on colorizing older black and white stuff you for that or it's just like. Nah, prefer the. The original.

Chris: 00:28:36

So I actually. So black and white Doctor Who is kind of my era because I same with Blake's 7. I grew up with it on UK Gold and if I remember correctly, they.

They did a run of Pertweeze and then went straight back to the start. So most of them. What I remember about Doctor of my kid is the black and white ones. I thought War Games look spectacular.

Garry: 00:28:55

As in colorized.

Chris: 00:28:56

Yeah, yeah. And I think the Daleks as well looked really, really good. The editing side of things.

Ben does his best and he's a really good editor and he's done like a lot of these in the past. I think trying to cut them down so much. Might like.

I think if they went for episodes like Tomb of the Cyberman, which is already the length that they need it to be, I think that would work. But again, back in the day we were colorizing like Supercar and Fireball Axel 5 and 4, but Feather Falls.

And when I did the Fireball XL5 manual, I colorized all the screen graphs. So the like, I think it's again, it's just another way of viewing it.

And if, if that's not what you want, then the non color version is always going to be the default version.

Garry: 00:29:45

Yeah, true. Yeah. That was weird.

When I remember when they announced the War Games in color, there was a portion of fandom that were in uproar that one of their favorite stories was going to be replaced. But I think they didn't quite read it right. It wasn't a replacement. It was just a cool version that's.

Chris: 00:30:04

Kind of the way of with the effects because a lot of people are kind of still reeling from the Star wars special editions where they came out and then all other versions were recalled. Whereas we're quite aware of that. So that's why in all cases the original version is the default.

Like when you put the disc in and you have to turn the alternate effects on.

Garry: 00:30:27

Yeah, I noticed that with the Blake's 7 episodes.

As I've been going through that, the very first episode that I watched, I went into the menu because Adam and I decided from the very beginning that I was going to watch it because he said you have to sort of experience it as, you know.

Chris: 00:30:44

Well, if you bear in mind this way, like you're used to classic Doctor Who. And therefore jumping over to Blake's 7 isn't really a problem.

Whereas the reason we do the effects initially, the reason they started to do the effects on the DVDs was because they were trying to get new series fans over to the classic stuff. Which is why you get stuff like the Enlightenment Special Edition, which is very, like, flashy and quite new series styled.

Whereas the new effects nowadays is an option if you know the original backwards or if you want to introduce it to a friend that maybe isn't quite as familiar with classic television because, like, not everybody is, unfortunately. So. And particularly as, like, it's not necessarily the quality of the effects in Blake's 7 because, like, they're quite good.

I think it's more the stock footage effect. Like, particularly by the time you get to season three, you've seen the same shots over and over again, right? Quite considerably.

And those are the bits where I'm like, okay, let's do something interesting. Like what's the. What's a slightly different angle on the Liberator kind of thing? Like, how many different ways can we shoot it?

Garry: 00:31:57

Oh, yeah, sounds cool. And imagine that's something that back in the day people were sort of less bothered about.

I guess if you were, you know, a teenager back then and you're watching Blake's 7, I guess that didn't really factor on your radar too much.

But, you know, with the beauty of hindsight and fast forward to now, it's like, yeah, we can improve those things and whatnot, or provide an alternative.

Chris: 00:32:19

I'm always reticent to say improve, of course.

Garry: 00:32:22

Yeah, yeah, it's absolutely right. An alternative which I think a lot of fans didn't read into. With the war game stuff, I thought a stalwart thing was going to happen.

Chris: 00:32:30

Stands out to me is like the very first episode of Thunderbirds. Do you know Trapped in the sky particularly well, or.

Garry: 00:32:35

No, I don't.

Chris: 00:32:37

The very first episode of Thunderbirds has probably the best rescue of the entire series. There's an aircraft with a bomb in its undercarriage that can't land or use its undercarriage effectively.

So International Rescue get these three elevator cars and it has to land on. On them on the Runway. And it is an incredibly edited sequence, but every time I come back to, isn't quite as cool as I remember it.

And one of the things that special effects does, and I think practical effects is really good for this. And the person who directed into the spider verse pointed this out, is that when there's less on screen, your imagination's more engaged.

So when you watch, for instance, the end of Trapped in the sky and then you remember it and presumably back in the day it would have thought it would be a one and done, you'll never see it again. Your brain will fill in all the gaps and suddenly it's the most epic sequence you've ever imagined.

on a tiny screen in the: 1970

Every shot of Liberator in your memory is going to be the most epic Star Trek the Motion Picture style flyby you've ever have.

Garry: 00:33:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that was one of the things that we speak about quite frequently about when we review any now with Blake's 7, but with classic Doctor Who as well, it's. I'm not sure what the effect is.

I think it's something called the Mandela effect or something like that, where your brain is kind of, you know, piecing things back together and how you remember things versus, you know, exactly how it is. So, yeah, it's fascinating stuff more coherently than I did. Are there any shows that you've seen over the years where you've thought, you know.

Because I think you're in agreement with me that restoring and making alternative versions to things like Blake's 7 and Doctor Who, where you can make them look as, you know, the best they've ever been and, you know, all that stuff is a great decision all round. I think that's. We're in agreement there.

Are there any shows that you've seen in the past where they've done this, where you've thought, actually, you probably, you know, this wasn't a great idea. I've got one to mind, but I don't know if you've got any. Any there.

Chris: 00:34:52

So I was watching a documentary on the remastered Red Dwarf last night.

Garry: 00:34:57

I was gonna say Red Dwarf. Go on.

Chris: 00:35:00

And I don't want to put them down because they had very specific reasons why they did that that way for the international markets and stuff. Effectively, they couldn't sell the show in its current state. And also it didn't look like the rest of the show at that point. So.

Yeah, but like, to be fair to it, it does look good.

It's just some of the decisions, like having the Scudders come on at random points, like the set extension stuff is lovely and the CG stuff is fine for the time. Like, it ties it in with Babylon 5 quite nicely, if that. It's like that kind of American audience.

It does intrigue me that they did build the really long Red Dwarf model and just never use it, which is a bit of a shame.

But I think Star Trek, the original series possibly is another one I do tend to think of because people didn't think that the original series was also restored at the same time. Like the new version was definitely the default in that one. And also if you wanted to watch the original episodes, it was buried in a menu somewhere.

And while I think the shots look really good, and I've actually been intrigued how a lot of the fan base tend to use the remastered shots for a lot of their videos as opposed to the original shots, I do think they weren't, as we try a lot harder to be sympathetic to the originals, I guess. So, like, I really try to make everything look like it's shot on film for one, like sometimes like 60 millimeter. That's why if it's a.

Like the Liberator will often be slightly jittery and there'll be like a slight softness to it.

Garry: 00:36:41

And that's an intentional thing from your end. Right, cool.

Chris: 00:36:44

Yeah. Same way with. Because I have different sort of focus points on things.

So for instance, on season 25, I was looking at space precincts and Red Dwarf and things of that stuff, which is like a lot more contrasty in space and it's always bounce lit by a color of some sort. Whereas in Blake's 7 it's very much Battlestar Galactica, Jason of Star Command and Of course Blake's 7.

And then Pete's a huge Star wars fan, so he's always sending me messages trying to get the stars to look like they did back on Star Wars 1.

Garry: 00:37:20

Oh, I see, the old classic. Yeah, cool. Yeah, that's. You picked on something that was going to be a question I was going on, so I might as well ask it now. It's.

I was going to mention Red Dwarf, actually. I think it was. They did a. I can't remember what it was.

I think it was called the Body Snatcher series or something like that, where they did this alternate thing with the newer effects and so on. And I remember thinking, oh, this is a bit. A bit ropey.

And I think you mentioned that you try to be sympathetic, I think is a great way of putting it. So I guess you're being respectful to the.

The guys that came before you that did all this stuff and not wanting it to look garish and out of place and. And all that sort of stuff.

Chris: 00:38:02

It's partly that, but it's also like, for instance, so there's a lot of stuff I love on the dvd, Doctor Who special effects. But there's a program called Particle Illusion, which is.

It used to be an off the shelf thing where you could have glowy lines and little swishy twirls and stuff. And a lot of the effects in the classic Dr. DVD range are just default effects in Particle Illusion, which they couldn't have done back in the day.

So my brain is immediately like, I know what that effect is. It's this, in this drop down menu here. They wouldn't be able to do that.

Or like if, for instance, if we had gone into Horror of Fang Rock and it had been a very new series style rootin, which was like sticking to walls and yelling at the camera.

Whereas we shot something, if you look at it, it's got a clear CSO compositing line around it, which basically to look like it was an effect that we dropped in kind of like the original, but we just. This one's a puppet as opposed to the original, which was a bit more blob, like so.

And that's the thing, like, even if you're a new series fan or someone who doesn't know classic television, as soon as something that doesn't fit pops up in like true 4K, you're immediately, your immersion is going to be broken and you're going to be like, oh, yeah, that's the new bit.

Garry: 00:39:27

Yeah.

And did you, in terms of Blake's 7 versus the Doctor Who set, especially like season 25 that you worked on specifically, do you, do you get the feeling that it's even more sympathetic for the Blake's 7?

Because with the Doctor Who stuff, alongside the additional effects, the newer stuff, the remaster of the picture and the cleanup and all that stuff, it's a lot more subtle. I found on Blake's 7 versus the Doctor Who. Do you think that's the right way to go or do you want to see it?

Because I think with Doctor Who, they tried to make it like, what's the best way to put it? If you're watching this on a, on a hdtv, you're going to get the most out of it. We've got a nice crisp picture.

Whereas Blake's 7, when, as I've been watching that, it's, it still has, you know, there's a, there's a few scratches left on the film that haven't been taken off. It's a little bit fuzzy here and there. Where would you go if you had the decision?

Would you keep it more like that, or would you try and get its best sort of crisp HD picture as possible.

Chris: 00:40:30

I'm a huge fan of what Paul did in Blake's 7. That's not to take away from what Peter Crocker does in Doctor Who. But so with Blake's 7 I think it looks a lot better.

And then part of that comes from Blake's 7 is just in a lot better condition for some reason. Four seasons of Blake seven is a lot easier to take care of than X amount of Doctor Who episodes.

But by the time you get to the penultimate episode, Deliverance, a lot of the location footage there is beautiful. Like in Secret Destroy, all the location footage survived.

So it looks super sharp and super like seeing it on the cinema screen was really, really cool. Whereas I think one Doctor Who, they're generally going from the masters and nothing else. So that does kind of come into it. So.

And that means you're sort of in a. Are you AI upscaling or are you going from original decent looking masters? And sometimes Doctor Who is just at a bit of a.

What's the best word to put this? Like it's at a bit of a disadvantage because what they're trying to upscale from just isn't as good as what Blake's 7 has.

Garry: 00:41:40

Right, that makes sense. Yeah.

Chris: 00:41:43

I think a really good example of it was in Horrifying Rock, the what's his name, the General. He's got like this white wig on the actor and there's like it's causing absolute havoc with the lighting around him. And I think that that means.

I think it messed up with the upscale a little bit. So you can sometimes see like a weird jagginess around him and you've just sort of. I think those are the type of things you've just sort of got to.

Got to live with, unfortunately.

Garry: 00:42:15

Yeah, yeah, no, I read you. I think with Blake's 7, I guess it plays.

I guess it's your individual view on it, but I think it plays into the classic, that old school British sort of sci fi charm a little bit more. You know, I think it comes to a point where you don't want it to look. Sounds silly, but you don't want it to look too hd, if that makes sense.

You want it to have that sort of charm about it that even somebody like me that's watching it fresh. You know, I love old school sort of British sci fi, so that's. It's been a joy to watch from that. From that point of view.

Chris: 00:42:47

But also it's kind of a house style. Like if Blake said was an ITC series, it would have all been shot in film. But because it's a BBC series, it looks like that.

though it's newer than Space: 1999

And particularly as Blake's 7 goes on and it becomes this much more colorful, slightly more out there show, I think it really, from a production design level, it just becomes more of its own thing and you wouldn't want to lose that.

Garry: 00:43:22

Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's a good point. Yeah.

I mean that the episodes I've seen so far are very, I guess from a visual storytelling, art direction perspective, it's quite a classic dystopian. You know, not much is going on in terms of positivity in this point, so. No, I certainly get that. And you mentioned seeing it on a big screen.

Hopefully as you've worked on this stuff, you've been over to the BFI and seen your work on the big screen. What's it like going from that initial concept and being hired to do it to then sitting and enjoying.

Are you sitting there thinking, oh my God, I should have done that better or I should have changed this? Or are you just like, yeah, this is amazing.

Chris: 00:44:05

It's never like, oh, this is amazing. Because I know where all the mistakes are. I'm looking at the bits, nobody else is. Yeah, you get used to it. Like something like Horrifying Rock.

I was able to preview what was sent up and said notes and stuff like that. So I knew what was going on the screen. So I wasn't that worried.

Whereas obviously what happened with Happiness Patrol, having to do that one twice just because there was a bit of a mix up, like, that was a bit more nerve wracking. Like we have to sort of do a little test before the show starts just to make sure it's the right one now.

Garry: 00:44:43

Oh, really? Yeah.

Chris: 00:44:44

But it meant I got to sit in when we did seek, locate, destroy and Orac. Yeah, we got. I got to sit in the empty theater with Russell and just watch it and like watch even the little effects reel that we did.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that was quite nice.

Garry: 00:44:59

Oh, that sounds cool. Yeah.

I was at that screening of the Happiness Patrol and I think that that was a really good testament to Classic who fans at that time, you know, because I think about five minutes in they paused and the lights came up and we were told obviously it was the wrong files and so on. Nobody cared. Like, you know, they just played the episode and it was. And it was very cool. But I think I did a second.

Chris: 00:45:23

Interesting experiment actually, because we went like sort of one week, didn't watch it, but watched the original and everyone had a good time. And I think for Half Vision Patrol it worked because I never reason realize those contingent of fans that hated the Happiness Patrol.

Garry: 00:45:38

That's nuts. Yeah.

Chris: 00:45:39

But it was quite interesting going back a couple of weeks later and watching it, the new one, and being able to sort of compare and see how it had changed and get people's reviews because obviously a lot of people at one were also at the other. But yeah, like I'm. I was. I didn't get a chance to see Spearhead just because I was bit because I was busy. But I heard it was a good show.

Garry: 00:46:01

It was a good show, that one. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing with the BFI is the seats. I have to stand up regularly. The seats give me a numb arse after sort of half an hour.

But it's a lovely sort of old school cinema, that. And yeah, Spearhead was good. I think it's one of those.

You can probably confirm this better than my knowledge, but I think Spearhead is one of the few sort of classic stuff that was done on 16 mil film. So it didn't really need too much of a cleanup.

Chris: 00:46:30

But it's the only one you can get a really true Blu Ray out of, really, because it's the only one completely sold in film.

Garry: 00:46:37

Gotcha. Right, Yeah. I did look cool though. Okay, moving back to Blake's 7, just for a second before we close up. Are you still re watching all this?

So the stuff that you work on? Because I know I've had this a few times with.

With other people I've interviewed over the years where they've worked on something and then for some reason they. They can detach themselves from that and still enjoy things as a fan and still, you know, continue to watch it.

And some of them are just like, I was burnt out, you know, doing that and now I just can't be. I can't, you know, don't want to watch it. Are you still a huge fan of. Of course. Thunderbirds listener? You're gonna be so jealous of me, by the way.

I can see all these lovely models in the background. It's. It's very cool. So do you still watch Thunderbirds and Blake and Doctor Who and stuff as a true fan and not think about the effects stuff?

Chris: 00:47:28

Well, interest.

So I got a bit burned out in Doctor Who for a bit, to be honest, just because I'd done so much I think by the end of season 25, like, other than working on the new series, there's not a whole lot of places I can go because I've kind of done everything but, like, then I'll get an email from Russell, could you have a look at this thing? And suddenly I'm back into it because, like, I'm always a huge fan, whatever I'm working on at the minute.

Blake's 7 was interesting because I actually hadn't revisited it since I was a kid. I used to watch it on UK Gold and then.

And like, I think I was rather familiar with the first three seasons and I knew where it ended, but I'd not really seen season four until my brother bought on dvd. But even by then I was working extremely hard just trying to get my career off the ground. So I caught a bit of an episode here and there.

So when at the Five Doctors, Russell came around and been like, have you ever heard of Blake's 7? I was like, yeah, I have and haven't thought about it for a while.

But so with Blake's 7, it's actually been quite interesting able to watch series one in isolation.

We didn't go beyond that because I didn't want to put too many, like, future references in and kind of become a fan of it all over again, I think is the way. So. And don't get me wrong, I needed a break after season one.

Thunderbirds and all the Gerry Anderson stuff is a bit different because again, I've been sort of knee deep in those for about 10 years, but. And like, I've pretty much done something with everything. Like, I worked on the big finish Captain Scarlet series.

I've written for the Thunder Bridge audio series. I've done books on the other shows, films here and there and whatnot. It wasn't, I remember, it was Covid.

I just started watching a couple of episodes of Thunderbirds again and I was like, oh, the show is actually really good. You sort of forget because you're spending most of your time, like, using them for references or business. So, yeah, healthy break.

Every so often I do try to watch a good amount of new stuff just because I don't believe that I'm not one of those people that thinks good sci fi is something that's only in the past. Like things like For All Mankind and Foundation and the Expanse and stuff are all really good, solid shows, so.

And also I'm a huge Godzilla fan and finding anything about Godzilla over here is an absolute nightmare. So every little crumb of Godzilla content I'll take.

Garry: 00:50:00

That's Cool. Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Expanse. And, yeah, Godzilla is a funny one. Yeah, it's.

It's one of those things where you see a blockbuster every few years and then nothing at all. You know, it's very low key.

Chris: 00:50:15

Godzilla vs. Mothra in, like,: 1992

then I think it was like, in: 1998

Garry: 00:50:38

Yeah.

Chris: 00:50:39

And it was like finding like, the new bit of the Rosetta Stone or the.

Garry: 00:50:44

Right.

Chris: 00:50:44

The Legend of Gigamesh or whatever.

Garry: 00:50:47

Yeah, no, I like our Godzilla. Actually, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen the recent two films. I think they branched out and I think one studio made one version.

Another studio, msr, need to win.

Chris: 00:50:58

This one's good. X Kong. Depends how much you like the original. Like Godzilla. X God's Godzilla versus Kong, but.

Garry: 00:51:05

Right, okay, yeah, I'll check them out. Yeah, it's on the list as there's like a billion other films and TV on the list, but are there actually talking about the stuff?

Are there any particular IPs that would be a dream project for you that you'd love to work on?

Chris: 00:51:22

Godzilla and Star Trek are probably the two big ones, and they're also, like, the reason, like, I think it's unlikely unless my fortunes totally reversed at some point that I'd get into them. But.

Well, like, I'd get on a Star Trek show or a Godzilla show because one heavily features creators from Japan and one heavily features creatives from America. And I'm over here in the uk. But yeah, I'd love to do something new.

Like, I would love to like, even just like some Star Trek audio drama or a Godzilla technical manual or something like something small. Like. That would be really, really nice.

Garry: 00:52:01

a similar vein to your Space: 1999

Chris: 00:52:05

Yeah. Try to work out how MechaGodzilla works.

Garry: 00:52:10

Yeah, that'd be cool. Well, your name is out there, dude. I mean, I first saw your name or heard your name with nothing to do with Doctor Who.

I work for a podcast hosting company called Captivate and we host the Joey Anderson podcast. And so as a result of us me finding out that they had hosted on our platform, I then listened to A bunch of episodes.

And you know, your name was mentioned a couple of times on oh cool on there. So yeah. And then fast forward to, you know, the Blu Ray sets for Doctor Who popping up and your name again. So your name is definitely out there.

I mean it's. Who knows? Who knows?

Chris: 00:52:49

It's funny because people assume multiple Chris Thompson's because I can be the same Chris Thompson that works on Doctor Who, that also does these books.

Garry: 00:52:59

Just doppelgangers running around. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And just to. To. To finish up then with a couple of things. First one is more.

Well, so you can't give away anything that you're working on that's confidential, of course, but is there anything coming up that you are particularly excited about? Even if you can't say what it is, you've just got that, yeah, I can't wait to start that thing or whatever.

Chris: 00:53:23

There's two projects that directly concern this podcast that I'm working on, which I'm sure we can have a chat about down the line or like your series of podcasts or whatever there is. I'm currently proofing the world Aquanaut Security Patrol Technical Operations Manual, which is the Stingray one.

We've done the fifth of the technical manuals I've done for the Anderson side of things. And then there's that slow movie I did for Space Precinct, which is coming out end of this month, I think.

Garry: 00:53:58

Oh, cool.

Chris: 00:53:59

There's a few bits and bobs, but yeah, we're keeping the models going, we're keeping the puppets going. Trying to sort of keep making cool stuff in the face of a potential AI apocalypse.

Garry: 00:54:12

So yeah, yeah, aren't we all? Yeah. Okay. And lastly, I know that we brought a load of listeners over to this podcast from our other podcast about Doctor Who, which we've.

e from. Sorry, We've run from: 2014

And over the years we've spoken to guys that have worked on the big finish covers and you know, various things to do with that. And we always get periodically up and coming people that want to do what you do and you know, be in the creative side of things in the industry.

Have you got any advice or any tips for anyone that's just really loves this stuff, whether it be, you know, just focusing on the model worker miniatures or they want to be a CG artist, anything like that? Any, any advice to aspiring newbies up and coming?

Chris: 00:55:03

Well, so the thing I always get to me about questions like that is that like I always have to then ask myself, have I made it?

Garry: 00:55:11

Of course. Come on.

Chris: 00:55:13

That element of like, not self sabotage, just like self doubt, like artistic introspection. So it depends what element, because obviously, like, I'm a writer, special effects artist and illustrator.

If you want to be a writer, then I would always tell people to affect how I got into it was being a good illustrator and animator and then being able to use that as leverage a small company to allow me to start writing things. In terms of animation, illustration and special effects, it is just a case of make things for your portfolio or just for fun.

We sort of live in a world where you can shoot decent model effects on your phone if you wanted to. Like, they may not necessarily be the best thing in the world, but, like, there's a couple of creators out there.

Like, one of my favorite creators is a chap called Mark Simpson Wedge, and he's currently doing a really simplified series of special effects and they're completely original vehicles and original design and original stories and he's just doing a really lovely job with it.

Garry: 00:56:24

Oh, wow.

Chris: 00:56:25

And, yeah, being able to showcase an ability to work on and come up with original ideas is also probably quite a useful one because there's a lot of people who are like, I want to work on Doctor Who, so I'm going to make the most awesome Doctor Who fan project.

And you'll find that a lot of people in the upper echelons can't necessarily watch those because they can't be seen to take ideas from people, so they have to by default not view them. So, yeah, demonstrating originality and stuff is incredibly important.

Garry: 00:56:56

Yeah, that's a very good shout. Yeah. And I imagine it's a case for. You alluded to it when I asked you about if there's any sort of dream IPs or projects you'd like to work on.

I imagine that's the case with lots of guys that would be responsible for looking at newer talent and that sort of thing. They also want to work on their own cool stuff.

They're not just, you know, you know, handcuffed to the thing that an aspiring artist potentially want to do. So I guess the takeaway is sort of have a bit of diversification with, you know, a few things. Don't just nail down one thing.

And yeah, and it's interesting you mentioned about the special effects being done on your phone and whatnot. I've seen more and more of that over the last decade of people using their smartphones to make stuff.

I guess it's more about the artistic intent and that sort of seeing an idea and bringing it to fruition rather than the intricacies and the details of the special effects. I guess it's more important that you're sort of creatively minded in that respect.

Chris: 00:57:52

Yeah, well, my first camera was a spy cam that could film 11 seconds with no sound. I made a 30 minute movie with that. I'm not saying it was any good, but it presented an interesting problem.

That sort of having the limitations is what made you become creative to overcome them. So. And be able to do that and come up with ideas on the fly. Like to make Federation Space Command spin.

It's on a lazy Susan in my friend's barn with a cap trying to knock it off called Ripley. There was some stuff we shot with the original pursuit ship for. Because we wanted to get the original model in just for a little bit of a Easter egg.

And so Mike Tucker just put two strings underneath it and we put it on a pole like sideways. And he's just doing that.

Garry: 00:58:46

Crazy. Yeah.

Chris: 00:58:48

It is also possibly, probably worth mentioning as well. Just what I think of it is that the guy who created the London, Simon Atkinson, did pass away a couple of days ago. It's probably a good.

Simon was really, really helpful. Like obviously he let us use the London for free. But also he's extremely nice and sent me a couple of messages on Facebook.

So I would just like to just take a second to say thank you, Simon. Like it was really, really cool.

Garry: 00:59:15

Yeah. Oh, it's a shame. But very cool that he got to. You got to work with him at least.

Chris: 00:59:21

I was really happy to see the London fly again.

Garry: 00:59:23

Yeah. Yeah. Talking of the London, actually just very quickly in the episode when we reviewed that one. It's the second one, isn't it? Space 4.

I actually said how bloody gorgeous that ship is because a lot of people focus on the last five minutes when you see the Liberator for the first time and how obviously great that ship is. But I said to my co host as towards the end of that review, I was like, I'm not going to lie, it's.

I don't think many people mention it, but that ship is really bloody cool. There's something about it. It's just. Yeah, it's an amazing ship.

Chris: 00:59:59

oxiness. Like it's very Space: 1999

So you've got that little crane and the idea is it's because Jenna says it's like a Converted freighter. It's got those little cargo pods that can like pop out and do stuff.

Interestingly, like for the special edition, if you watch the end of the way back when it launches. And the background is the original concept art for the original London, because originally it was red and it was rounded.

So I snuck the old, like the original design in there as well.

Garry: 01:00:33

Oh, so cool.

Chris: 01:00:34

And that the first shot of the London with.

Because in the original it's kind of in a black void and the camera turns around it, whereas in the new one I put it on an elevator going up and that's basically a Godzilla reference. They love their planes being on elevators.

Garry: 01:00:52

Oh, right, of course. Yeah, yeah. All those tiny details, see, that we wouldn't have never pieced together in the original episode.

Chris: 01:01:01

When the London leg takes off, there's two little plasticine figures in the foreground. And then the new one, it's me and A.C. just hold a blue screen.

Garry: 01:01:10

Oh, so you've got yourselves out and stuck. Oh, wow. Chris, I could chat to you all day about all these little bits and pieces, but I just want to say.

birds that you Love and Space: 1999

So it's for me, and I'm speaking on behalf of fandom as well, it's very, very much appreciated that you are not just sort of ham fisted pulling out some off the shelf software to do this all in cg. The fact that you take the time to do the models and. And photograph it all and all these little bits, and it's just so cool.

It really is the best thing for us fans. So I just want to say a huge thank you for taking your time and alluding to these little secrets that I don't think many fans would know about.

So it's been so cool. Thank you.

Chris: 01:02:15

No problem. Thank you.

Garry: 01:02:21

And there you go. A dive into the. The very clever mind of. Of Chris Thompson and his excellent views on the right way to do visual effects.

When you're restoring stuff from old classic tv.

You can tell just from the way that he explains the methods for certain things and how he approached certain things that this wasn't just a hit a button, also correct it and move on. A lot of so many hours went into the restoring the visual effects for this first Blake's 7 series.

And also all the model work and just the way he approaches these things, it's done with so much love and so much time. So, talking of time, thank you very much again, Chris, for your time for coming on to Federation Strike.

It was amazing to catch up with your apologies again for, for going a little bit excitable. And I mentioned at the beginning I was going to fanboy a little bit and yeah, I didn't disappoint in that respect.

But once again, thank you very much, Chris. Next time on Federation Strike for our final episode of our first season.

It's the third bonus episode and it's a chat with another person involved with the Blu Ray box set for Blake's 7. It is Paul Venezis and Paul is the guy that did the, the image picture restoration for everything.

So he's the guy responsible for taking the original tapes that Blake's 7 was recorded on and any other sources that he could get hold of from the archives and trying to put together a, a new visual picture for Blake's 7 that makes it look more modern so you can enjoy it on, you know, modern TVs and, and so on.

But at the same time walking that line and striking that balance between making it look like you're watching a program from the, from the, the 80s, but also with a bit of a, a cleanup and so on. And he goes, Paul, bless him, he went into so much detail. Yeah. It's just crazy.

So if your bag, if your wheelhouse is picture restoration, picture cleanup, all that stuff, then next week's chat is going to be awesome for you.

So that's, that's a really cool, really techy, really geeky and loads of stuff that Paul's worked on, not just Blake's 7, but other projects that he's done. He's a very cool guy and knows his stuff in that respect.

So tune in next week for that chat with Paul Venezis and I think I'll wrap it there for our second bonus episode of season one. Thank you very much for coming back and listening to another episode of Federation Strike, the journey through Blake's 7.

That was my interview with Chris Thompson and once again, a big thank you to Chris for his time. Will you see Chris back on the podcast for another chat after Series B, Series 2 has gone out? Who knows? Who knows?

You'll have to, you'll have to make sure that you are following or subscribing to the podcast in your preferred podcast app of choice. That way you, you won't miss any future notifications for when we do our reviews for series B. That's going to come up later on in the year.

Once the Blu ray set has landed, Adam and I will just rinse and repeat what we did for season one where we we check out the the the second series of Blake's 7 and review each episode and we'll put some bonus content together as well as we have done for this one. So yeah, your favorite podcast app of choice. That's where you're going to find out your notifications.

So we're on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Music, Amazon, all the, all the things. And if you're on an app that supports reviews or ratings, so Apple does this Spotify.

If you've enjoyed Federation Strike and you want to leave us a review or a rating or both, that would be amazing. Thank you so much. To those of you that have done that. You're very, very kind words and we very much appreciate it. So thank you very much.

And also in the absence of my co host, Adam, don't forget to check out his stuff. He has his own geeky channel over on YouTube. It's called the Geek's Handbag.

There's a link in the show notes loads of very cool geeky stuff on Adam's channel. He does reviews, unboxings, event roundups, the whole lot. Loads of Doctor Who stuff, a bit of Blake's 7 on there and just general geeky stuff.

So go and check out his stuff, the Geek's Handbag. We will be back next week for our final bonus episode and the last episode of our first season, our chat with Paul Venises. So don't miss that.

And until next time, once again, thank you very much for listening. It's been awesome to have you along on the journey. We'll see you next time on Federation Strike, a journey through Blake's 7 SA.