Arnold
CibbuanoBlakes 7 - Cygnus Alpha
January 19th 2007 09:08
Following on the previous episode of Blakes 7, 'Cygnus Alpha' shows Blake's crew coming together and introduces us to the prison planet the prisoners were heading towards. We learn that the ship that has fallen into Blake's hands is called The Liberator, and that is appears to be sentient and rather highly advanced (featuring teleportation technology). Blake decides to head to Cygnus Alpha to rescue the rest of the prisoners, in the hope that they will crew this new ship and help him fight against the Federation. Meanwhile, Cygnus Alpha itself though appears to be a puzzlingly un-prison-like place... there are no guards, no prisons, and the locals appear to be loyal to a strange and harsh religion.
This episode is pretty good, I enjoyed it a lot - more so than 'Space Fall'. The mighty, roaring Brian Blessed guest stars as Vargas, the leader of the religious cult that the prisoners on Cygnus Alpha have formed. Blessed - whilst still giving a very characteristically lively and boisterous performance - doesn't ham it up as much as he is sometimes inclined too, and his role as the villain of the piece is very effective, especially the scenes where he faces off with Blake.
The previous prisoners of Cygnus Alpha have set up home on this desolate and unforgiving world, using whatever means are available to them (EG. Religion, tyranny, execution) to survive - an indication of the harsh rule of the Federation and the kinds of societies it is spawning in it's wake. Blake shows himself to be a resourceful leader whilst squaring off against Vargas and his acolytes, and Olag gets a bit more screen time and character development too. Meanwhile, Avon and Jenna explore The Liberator and find it a very interesting ship... Avon is keen to ditch Blake and make off with the spoils, but - once again keeping the ambiguity of the character intact - he is convinced otherwise, much to his own despondence.
There are a few gaps in logic in the script that left me scratching my head. The opening scenes of Blake and co. onboard their new ship indicate that no time has passed since the last episode. Yet the London arrives at Cygnus Alpha concurrently with these scenes, implying that 8 months have passed since it left Earth. Where did these 8 months go? Did I miss something? Anyway, it's a minor quibble. The episode was pretty good, a bit dark and scary in the depiction of the planet - but I likes that sort of thing.
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