Blakes 7 - Cult Fiction

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This episode sees the Blakes 5 become Blakes 7... joining Blake's would-be rebel force is Cally, and Blake also acknowledges Zen (the Liberator's computer) as a crew member. As seems to be an emerging pattern, this episode seems to take place almost directly after the last episode, and the plotline, whilst linnear, doesn't always feel like a complete narrative - it feels more like an ongoing series of linked and not-so-linked subplots.

This episode contains two seperate storylines... Blake steers the ship towards Saurian Major, a once-independent colony planet that now houses a Federation communications relay complex. He intends to join forces with the local rebels on Saurian Major and blow up the complex. Meanwhile, the Liberator recieves distress signals from a small and mysterious ship seemingly devoid of life.

The crew bring the small ship onboard into their hull and discover it contains some bodies in suspended animation. Blake, Avon and Vila then decide to make their journey down onto Saurian Major, armed with a bomb that looks suspiciously like a red esky, and leave Gan and Jenna with the ship. Then everything goes wrong, as these things do... the suspended bodies on the ship are ressurected and turn out to be murderous and crazed aliens (the 'Time Squad' of the title), leaving Gan and Jenna with their hands full. Meanwhile, Blake has trouble contacting the local rebels - instead only getting the distrustful attention of a sole alien freedom fighter named Cally.

We learn more about Gan in this episode, about his background and also that he is physically unable to kill anyone thanks to a Federation-installed inhibitor in his head. This makes for an interesting development, considering he's meant to be the big strong guy of the group. There are also some more enigmatic hints about Zen, and I'm hoping we learn more about this computer soon.

This episode was okay. The aliens were pretty poxy. At first I thought the guys in suspended animation were humans, but it's established eventually that they're aliens (in a passing comment or two). They pretty much just look like humans with dodgy facial hair and biker-ish clothes... which was a bit disappointing. The subplot dealing with them (or should that be the main plot, considering the episode is named after them) seemed kind of half-formed and without any point.

The new member of Blake's crew, Cally, seemed a little more alien than the aforementioned leathered-up killers (though she too looks completely human). She's telepathic and is kitted out a bit differently to the other actors, and she kind of has an alien-ish look around her face (thanks to the actress playing her, not due to any prosphetics). A little bit of effort in making the aliens look more alien would've been appreciated though. Looking forward to some more development of this character too.

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Blakes 7

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Blakes 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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Posted By: Luke - Category: Blakes 7

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Blakes 7 - Space Fall

January 16th 2007 11:30

Space Fall

This is the second episode of the first series of Blakes 7. Picking up straight away after the last episode, Blake and his newfound prisoner-pals, the cowardly thief Vila (comic relief) and interplanetary smuggler Jenna (token female, so far rather ambiguous in her motivations as far as I can tell), are sitting pretty on board the transport ship London, headed for the remote prison planet Cygnus Alpha. Things aren't looking good, especially when it's rumoured that the prisoners might be instead dumped into space by the ship's crew (so they can collect payment for an easier trip) rather than taken to Cygnus Alpha. To make things even less pleasant, the ship's sub-commander, Raiker, is a rather sadistic, cruel and cold-hearted individual.

We're introduced to two more of the main cast in this episode who will become, along with Jenna and Vila, part of Blake's 'seven'. These are Olag, a friendly but extremely strong fellow, and Avon, a computer-fraud genius who cares very little for anyone but himself. Most of this episode goes into setting up the dynamic between Avon and Blake, and it's very clear that Avon's presence is going to make things interesting in future episodes... he's a rather duplicitous character, crafty and without loyalty, and takes a lot of reasoning on Blake's part to even get Avon interested in working with him. Avon is the sort of love-to-hate character that makes television worth watching.

Blake and co. decide to try and take over the ship, the first two thirds of the episode deals with this power struggle. The last part of the episode concerns the arrival and discovery of a mysterious alien ship. This ship looks like it is going to be very important to the series on the whole, and it's introduction is kind of spooky.

Some of this episode dragged a little, I was pretty much just waiting for it to get on with it, to get to the bit where Blake gets his team of seven together and starts fighting the good fight, ha ha ha. I liked Avon heaps though, I think he is my favourite character so far.

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Blakes 7

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Blakes 7 - The Way Back

January 11th 2007 10:30

An entry for all the sci-fi fans and cult TV enthusiasts out there... good news, I have in my possession the entire series of Blakes 7. I will be reviewing episodes here and there as I work my way through the series from beginning to end

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