TV Review - Blake's 7: S4E05 Animals

Season 4 continues to run on the spot with the fifth and final contribution from the much-maligned but actually genuinely awful Allan Prior. It's clear that at least early on Vere Lorrimer and Chris Boucher were concerned more with seasoned pros who could turn in a script on time than in exploring a brave new direction. Prior's debut "Horizon" was poor and since then "Hostage", "The Keeper" and "Volcano" have seen a decline. So the signs for a script originally written with a major role for Cally in a format that's still like quicksand by possibly the series' worst writer is not exactly a recipe for success. 

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: S2E12 The Keeper

As mentioned before B7 didn't really handle arcs well because the BBC and TV in general of the time wasn't really set up for it. With few video recorders episode-to-episode continuity had to be crisp and clear, meaning that if any information was to be carried over it had to be the sort of thing that could easily be put in The Radio Times, so any sort of complexity was impossible. Each episode was effectively a mini-production with different crew, also leading to a certain amount of self-containment as Director A might be less than co-operative about compromising their episode to set something up for Director B's. The other problem was that a certain amount of flex was needed so stories could be reordered if there were production issues; Season 2 saw "Killer" and "Horizon" switched around and probably massive gratitude that there were some less arch-driven episodes to bring forward (and as it was it required late rewrites around both to reflect Gan's mortality). After that the crew would never try even the slightest link between more than three episodes ever again, and then only in the more controlled environment of season openers, before the money and time ran low.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S2E08 Hostage

Allan Prior's debut B7 script wasn't without promise even if it was strangely unsatisfying and not anything like good. His second is an absolute unqualified turd, setting the tone for basically the rest of his input. The plot is wafer thin, it's unexciting , it adds nothing to the ongoing plot and is mainly remembered for the bad performances it draws from the cast and for one painfully awkward development for Blake.

TV Review - Blake's 7: S2E04 Horizon

Three new writers were added to the B7 pool for the second season, with the first script not by creator Terry Nation or story editor Chris Boucher coming from Allan Prior. Co-creator of Z-Cars, Prior would write five times for the series, with three of them in season 2. None of them are all that good; indeed, if you were to quickly scribble a list of the ten worst episodes there's a decent chance he would have half of it sewn up. "Horizon" is probably his best and it ain't great, though it is difficult to put a finger on exactly why.