Not a chocolate bar in sight “At the expense of your friends?” I had a reticent feeling about Bounty, though I’m not sure why. I have been concerned that the quality of Blake’s 7‘s episodes may drop towards the end of the season, though still hope it will end on a relative high. There are …
The edge of destruction “I’ve just had a comforting thought. We may all be dead before we find out why this is a danger zone.” On the surface, Blake’s 7’s Breakdown may appear to be about Gan. The episode’s plot is built around his urgent need for brain surgery, but as he is unconscious or …
Rebels and rescues “Another idealist. Poor but honest.” Until I encountered this Blake’s 7 episode, Avalon was simply the name of a Roxy Music song and album. Here she is an anti-Federation enthusiast that Travis uses to try to lure Team Blake into a trap – this is becoming a running theme. While Blake has …
A psychopath and bloody Blake the Hero. “I shall enjoy taking your life, Blake.” TRAVIS IS BACK. I had loved the introduction of the sadistic Travis in Seek-Locate-Destroy so was delighted to see him return so quickly. His confrontation with Blake enables us to glimpse further into both Travis and Blake’s characters. Elsewhere, I pondered …
Marple in Space “I don’t like an unsolved mystery.” Someone described Blake’s 7’s Mission to Destiny as ‘Marple in Space’. Avon is definitely playing the role of little old sweet detective. With a spaceship as isolated as any country house, the programme’s step into murder mystery made perfect sense. The episode opens with the murder …
A sadistic sod. “The man who killed 20 of my friends.” This was undoubtedly my favourite story so far, primarily because we meet a marvellous villain called Travis. I was also pleased to see some more worldbuilding as we start to learn about the Federation’s structure when we are introduced to Servalan. Once again Blake’s …
Team Blake They’re fighting for their lives. Who isn’t? We are Blake’s 7 at last! Having seven lead characters in each episode won’t always work. As previous episodes have already been doing, it is easier to split them up and take it in turns to go down to the planet each week. I’ll say one …
The Full Blake’s 7 “I’m just wondering how long we’re going to live to enjoy our newfound skills.” If we were in any doubt, in Time Squad Blake firmly asserts his leadership by dragging The Liberator’s crew to a planet so they can blow up a communications system. I gather this is Blake’s plan from …
Blake’s 5 “I’m free. And I intend to stay that way.“ It’s hard to pick one single aspect, but this was the episode that finally grabbed me enough to say, “This programme is brilliant and I am loving it.” The bizarre Blessed-led religious community, the vileness of Cygnus Alpha, the emerging contrast of Blake and …
Blake’s 3 “Wake up, Blake! You may not be tranquilised any longer but you’re still dreaming!“ With Blake having failed to escape the Federation’s swift and efficient justice, he’s on a spaceship with a group of fellow convicts, on their way to a penal colony on the planet Cygnus Alpha. In Space Fall we meet …
Blake’s 7 is something I have been planning to look into for years but I didn’t actually know much about it – a BBC science-fiction series with a bunch of people on a spaceship. Was it just going to be a duller, dryer, version of Red Dwarf? I’d first come across it in the pages …
A few years ago I stopped binge-watching television. It wasn’t an entirely conscious decision. I had begun viewing a few programmes and they were so good that I wanted to drag out having ‘new’ episodes of them for as long as possible. I didn’t want to race through them, be done with it and then …
Until last year, I believed Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was a sitcom set in a pet shop. I have no idea exactly why or when this image of a northern pet shop had formed in my mind. Suffice to say, it was a tad off the mark. One day, perhaps someone will write about the hilarious adventures of the …
I have been dragging myself through The Space Pirates and ‘dragging’ really is the most appropriate word. No one with any foreknowledge of it has ever happily sat through the entirety of The Space Pirates. I am now quite certain of this. All I knew was that there were six episodes and a few episodes in …
We’re back in telesnap land for the duration now. Despite this and despite it being The Space Pirates I… actually enjoyed this episode. I wasn’t expecting it. I was expecting the remaining four episodes to be a hard slog of space hell. But the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe became the focus of this episode, unlike the …
Episode 2 is the only episode of The Space Pirates to actually still exist. I was so bored by Episode 1 that it took a long time to convince myself to continue. A part of me wishes I hadn’t. Whilst the previous episode took fifteen minutes before the TARDIS crew showed up, in Episode 2 it still takes over …
The Space Pirates is the penultimate story in season six of Doctor Who. It is also the penultimate story for the second Doctor, who happens to be my favourite Doctor. It is the only one of his stories I have never watched. Until now. When Doctor Who returned to BBC1 in 2005 I consumed as much of …