TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E13 Terminal

For the conclusion of Season 3 Terry Nation returned as writer for his third script of the year, and the last of eighteen he penned. The story was famously planned to kill off the series but watching at home was Head of the BBC Bill Cotton, who was impressed and phoned the station while the finale was still on air so the continuity announcer could relay news that it would be back for another series, bypassing the then-closed production office. Which is a bit of a weird decision when you think about it; the majority of the cast were delighted to come back and before Season 3 wrapped it had already bounced back in the ratings, which were around 9-10m compared to the 6-7m of Season 2. Why go to all the effort of reworking the format in order to then wind the thing down? Anyway; "Terminal" works as a fine episode and a fine season finale but overall I'm glad it didn't end the whole series for several reasons.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E12 Death-Watch

Like "Moloch", "Death-Watch" was a late replacement script for a story by John Fletcher (apparently about Hell's Angels in space, though presumably not related to "Stardrive") written by Chris Boucher. This perhaps explains why the story goes over some ground uncomfortably close to that covered by other episodes - a key character is Del Tarrant's brother Deeta, with both parts played by Steven Pacey. While dialogue indicates Deeta is older the effect is that we've got another unannounced 'twin' sibling story (and twins will often call each other big/little brother even if there are only minutes in it) just four episodes after "Children of Auron". 

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E11 Moloch

If "Rumours of Death" and various other Servalan scenes across Season 3 suggested her empire was constantly at risk "Moloch" (a second story of the year from Ben Steed, this one being a late replacement for a Bob Holmes story that fell through) outright confronts it. After two episodes all but Federation-free it's nice to get back to the meat of the conflict. Jacqueline Pearce appears in nine of the year's 13 episodes; it's only one more than in Season 2 but whereas some of those were effectively cameos (e.g. "Hostage", "Voice from the Past") this year she's more central - and clearly being banked upon to help ease the show past Blake's departure (in Season 4, more sure there are legs in Avon as a lead, she'll only be in eight). This would be in danger of breeding overfamiliarity (think the Roger Delgado Master in Doctor Who, an excellent villain you're sick of the sight of rapidly) but the roving format means she can be put in a variety of situations, with most of them coming off well, compared to when she was always sat in her office at Space Command yelling at Travis.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E10 Ultraworld

The fourth and final addition to the scriptwriting team for the third series was Trevor Hoyle, who like Tanith Lee was primarily a writer of novels - though not especially acclaimed or famous, his Q series of sci-fi books had found enough of an audience to run to a trilogy. He had also written for B7 before in a way, penning the two official novelisations based on the series - Terry Nation's Blake's Seven adapting on the opening episodes and Project Avalon, covering the initial Travis/Servalan battles. It's been a while since I've read them but despite being based on scripts rather than finished episodes my memory is they were satisfactory; Hoyle would write a third in 1981, Scorpio Attack, based on the opening salvo of the fourth series. This would be his only script for the actual show, however, and it's really not very good.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E09 Sarcophagus

Sitting awkwardly alongside hacks like James Follett, Ben Steed and Trevor Hoyle as a new recruit was fantasy writer Tanith Lee, an actual proper author who even had an international deal and part of her Tales from Flat-Earth series would win a British Fantasy Award (the first woman to do so) the same year Season 3 was broadcast. She wasn't Tolkien or anything but it was a bold and imaginative idea for David Maloney and Chris Boucher to even approach her considering the series' critical stock, and Lee would contribute a story apiece to the next two series - she would also pitch to Doctor Who around this time; actually, considering Christopher H Bidmead's drive for the middlebrow on Who would be happening, so it's perhaps more likely she was re-directed to the slightly more grown-up unofficial sister series B7. Her works are probably the most curious, divisive and individual of the whole show; whereas there seems to be a broad consensus on most B7 episodes among fandom, hers seem to be very much an acquired taste.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E08 Rumours of Death

Just as "Children of Auron" explored how Cally came to be fighting on Saurian Major, "Rumours of Death" went into more detail as to how exactly Avon ended up on his way to Cygnus Alpha. Some broad hints have been dropped; Vila and Nova discuss his theft gone wrong in "Spacefall" while "Countdown" revealed that as a consequence of his failure his lover Anna Grant was captured and seemingly killed by the Federation. Avon is plainly Chris Boucher's favourite character so it's no surprise his second script of the year tackles this head on.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E07 Children of Auron

Roger Parkes' debut for B7 with "Voice from the Past" was not an auspicious one but I'm guessing he turned it in on time or worked cheap or something because he was asked back for the third year. Like his first - and to a lesser extent the third he would write for Season 4 - it once again displays a certain interest in continuity details, in this case Cally's precise relationship with her home planet of Auron and its' people. There have been various hints of how precisely she came to be exiled, some of it slightly contradictory, but Parkes' script actually takes her home and thus offers a definitive answer.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E06 City at the Edge of the World

Vila was a firm favourite with most viewers from an early time in the series, snaffling up funny lines which meshed perfectly with Michael Keating's sense of timing and the character being just the right amount of pathetic. However, in the first two seasons he didn't actually get a huge amount to do apart from make up the numbers and be the comic relief, especially as there haven't been as many locks to pick recently. However, Season 3 opted to rotate the 'lead' around a bit more than previous seasons and "City at the Edge of the World" - semi-famously devised after Keating relayed his daughter's unimpressed reaction to Vila back to Chris Boucher, who writes his first episode of the year - is Vila's day in the sun.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E05 The Harvest of Kairos

After two set-up episodes and two absolute dogs Season 3 was looking rather wobbly; thinking through the rest of the year's stories I can actually only pick out four or five that are good, which makes it odd that I count it as a favourite. Unconscious contrarianism and a nature of rooting for the underdog? Maybe, but I think it's more that Season 3 is a state of mind; the crew's rapidly growing resentment of each other and their listless lives makes up for a lot of the weekly plots being poor, while Avon and Vila, the two best characters, get a lot more to do. "Harvest of Kairos" isn't a great episode but it is finally a step in the right direction despite a few huge problems.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E04 Dawn of the Gods

With Terry Nation and Chris Boucher contributing three scripts apiece, Allan Prior being restricted to one (though there was possibly a second which was held over to Season 4) and Robert Holmes taking a year out to work on his teleplay Fothergill (and Jukes of Piccadilly - whatever the fuck that was - English remake of Dukes of Hazzard maybe, dunno, go to a proper website) new writers were needed for Season 3 - four in fact were recruited (well, three and a half what with Trevor Hoyle and all). James Follet would write one script this year and another for Season 4; he was mainly writing radio plays and the odd novel before this (clunking Lewis Collins vehicle and Iranian embassy cash-in Who Dares Wins was based on one of his books). While he did write the odd TV script before and after "Dawn of the Gods" suggests he didn't watch much of it. 

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E03 Volcano

With "Aftermath" and "Powerplay" largely dealing with the fallout of Season 2 and reconfiguring the Liberator crew "Volcano" is effectively the first 'regular' episode for the new-look crew. And it's written by Allan Prior. Oh dear. However, it starts off what will be low-key background themes for the rest of the season - the Liberator crew trying to work out what exactly they want to do while Servalan tries to consolidate a Federation that was hugely damaged by the battle with the Andromeda aliens. It's a shame both are only occasionally touched upon.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E02 Powerplay

The second episode of the third season follows on directly from the first, but this will be the last time one runs into another until the Season 3/4 handover. The result is largely dependent on watching "Aftermath", possibly moreso than any of the other 'second part' episodes, following directly on from the shock discovery that waiting for Avon and Dayna on the repaired Liberator are a squad of Federation troopers, let by a dashing young man with Blake's hair.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S3E01 Aftermath

Blake's 7 had always been one to leave plenty open for critics and Season 3 would give a cheap shot in that Blake was no longer in it. You could argue that the apostrophe meant they could still be his 7 not counting him, but then that would only work for the first five episodes of Season 2. Many programmes have tried to press on without the lead (and in this case the third lead as well) and it's usually a disaster but B7 largely span a victory out of it.

Custom DVD Cover: Union City

A much-underrated classic. Sadly the DVD release came out under Tartan, which meant a still on the front cover and that same old tiresome white and black spine. Why do that when there's a poster like that out? Simple matter to clone the skyline for a wrap cover. Not crazy about the crease on the tights but happy to go with it until I can find a better scan of the poster.

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Custom DVD Cover: The Shining

Replacement for the dull and pretentious "door" cover for the special edition. Always find it worth remembering that while The Shining is technically superb it's still an eighties 18-cert horror and deserves garish cover art to match.

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Film Review - The Hunter

Steve McQueen's final film is at least a bit of an improvement after the disappointing An Enemy of the People and Tom Horn. McQueen is a great fit as the Western hero born in the wrong era, giving a fine charismatic performance as Ralph Thorson (a real life modern bounty hunter, mainly bringing in bail jumpers) instead of just going through his action guy motions.