Maximum Power!
Beneath the cut is a mini-essay about the problems I have with the third season of one of my favourite shows, Blake's 7. I don't think any of you have ever watched it so feel free to skip it - it's just something I've wanted to get off my chest as fandom doesn't seem to agree with me. Spoilers, obviously.
I decided to resume my stalled Blake's 7 viewing this week and it's finally occurred to me that season three is easily its weakest, and by a pretty hefty margin at that. I really don't understand why season four gets scorn piled upon it when its predecessor has far more shortcomings, not to mention far more bad episodes. And that's a shame because I love the post-Blake crew. I love Avon as the main character - he's so much more interesting in every possible department. I love Dayna. I don't love Tarrant but at the same time he retains his interest value much more than Jenna did (Jenna started out so cool, too). Vila is obviously great. Cally I can take or leave. So an improved regular cast is definitely one thing season three also has going for it.
It also has a pretty fantastic premise, too: The Federation in tatters! Servalan is president, but president of a total shambles! The threat of a mass alien attack! And it does nothing with it - the Federation might as well be the same as it ever was. Servalan's presidency really means nothing in the long-term (apart from the fact she now can chase the Liberator every week in her daft-looking ship and try to capture it through increasingly complicated schemes) and we never hear of the aliens from Star One again. That for me is season three's most major mistake because it gives the crew nothing to do at all. They have no purpose, no real direction except for following their own agendas in some episodes and finding them stuck in the middle of some deeply rubbish scripts that were clearly rejected by Doctor Who, so un-Blake's 7 they are at times (Dawn of the Gods and Ultraworld in particular). This can be rationalised as intentional, but it's just not remotely compelling, particularly when you have so many scenes of them playing boardgames and whatnot. The previous two seasons had quite a few ongoing story threads that actually built up to something, but season three doesn't and that helps to rob Terminal, an episode that could've been a total masterpiece, of much of its impact. If the search for Blake had started after Rumours of Death then things might've been a bit more satisfying, but that's not the case.
Episode quality-wise things are totally all over the shop. Anything by Chris Boucher (City at the Edge of the World, Rumours of Death, Death-Watch) and Terry Nation (Aftermath, Powerplay, Terminal) ranges from very good to brilliant, and I have a huge soft spot for Tanith Lee's Sarcophagus where a great script manages to rise above some dodgy production values and because it basically outright states that Avon and Cally were shagging. Everything else veers from mediocre to absolutely appalling, which isn't a terribly good hit-rate. Moloch should be brilliant, a re-imagining of Apocalypse Now in space, but its good ideas are totally scuppered by another horribly misogynistic script from Ben Steed and some production elements that are laughably bad. And I'm so tolerant of bad special effects it's untrue, but Moloch simply goes too far with its obvious drawings doubling for exterior shots and the titular Moloch itself, which looks like a CBBC puppet mascot spliced with a roast chicken. Children of Auron should be a fantastic Cally showpiece, but it's terribly, terribly dull and has the most spectacularly misjudged ending I've ever seen - the crew share a good laugh after almost the entire population of Auron (including Cally's sister) gets decimated by a horrible plague, which I'm sure you'd agree is truly hilarious. The less said about the monumental shit pile Dawn of the Gods the better. And The Harvest of Kairos is like Blake's 7 as imagined by a woman-hating, psychopathic B-movie fanatic. It's so bad it reaches levels of almost operatic hilarity.
I haven't even mentioned Volcano (which boasts a robot represented by a silver-painted wetsuit, and tampon bombs), or the cliched, pulp sci-fi bollocks of Ultraworld, I don't have the energy. And yet the season certainly isn't a total wash - there are at least seven episodes there more than worthy of your time and some truly great character moments to boot (Rumours of Death is a masterpiece in that regard, as well in other regards), and Tarrant trying to oust Avon as leader in the first half is really fun to watch. But it's a lazy season that doesn't especially gel as a whole or really go anywhere in particular until Terminal decides we need a climatic season finale. Season four may divide people like nobody's business, but it gave the show a clarity of purpose and some real oomph again, even in the lesser episodes.
And just for the record I love Blake's 7. I hate bits of season three because I love. Honestly.
I decided to resume my stalled Blake's 7 viewing this week and it's finally occurred to me that season three is easily its weakest, and by a pretty hefty margin at that. I really don't understand why season four gets scorn piled upon it when its predecessor has far more shortcomings, not to mention far more bad episodes. And that's a shame because I love the post-Blake crew. I love Avon as the main character - he's so much more interesting in every possible department. I love Dayna. I don't love Tarrant but at the same time he retains his interest value much more than Jenna did (Jenna started out so cool, too). Vila is obviously great. Cally I can take or leave. So an improved regular cast is definitely one thing season three also has going for it.
It also has a pretty fantastic premise, too: The Federation in tatters! Servalan is president, but president of a total shambles! The threat of a mass alien attack! And it does nothing with it - the Federation might as well be the same as it ever was. Servalan's presidency really means nothing in the long-term (apart from the fact she now can chase the Liberator every week in her daft-looking ship and try to capture it through increasingly complicated schemes) and we never hear of the aliens from Star One again. That for me is season three's most major mistake because it gives the crew nothing to do at all. They have no purpose, no real direction except for following their own agendas in some episodes and finding them stuck in the middle of some deeply rubbish scripts that were clearly rejected by Doctor Who, so un-Blake's 7 they are at times (Dawn of the Gods and Ultraworld in particular). This can be rationalised as intentional, but it's just not remotely compelling, particularly when you have so many scenes of them playing boardgames and whatnot. The previous two seasons had quite a few ongoing story threads that actually built up to something, but season three doesn't and that helps to rob Terminal, an episode that could've been a total masterpiece, of much of its impact. If the search for Blake had started after Rumours of Death then things might've been a bit more satisfying, but that's not the case.
Episode quality-wise things are totally all over the shop. Anything by Chris Boucher (City at the Edge of the World, Rumours of Death, Death-Watch) and Terry Nation (Aftermath, Powerplay, Terminal) ranges from very good to brilliant, and I have a huge soft spot for Tanith Lee's Sarcophagus where a great script manages to rise above some dodgy production values and because it basically outright states that Avon and Cally were shagging. Everything else veers from mediocre to absolutely appalling, which isn't a terribly good hit-rate. Moloch should be brilliant, a re-imagining of Apocalypse Now in space, but its good ideas are totally scuppered by another horribly misogynistic script from Ben Steed and some production elements that are laughably bad. And I'm so tolerant of bad special effects it's untrue, but Moloch simply goes too far with its obvious drawings doubling for exterior shots and the titular Moloch itself, which looks like a CBBC puppet mascot spliced with a roast chicken. Children of Auron should be a fantastic Cally showpiece, but it's terribly, terribly dull and has the most spectacularly misjudged ending I've ever seen - the crew share a good laugh after almost the entire population of Auron (including Cally's sister) gets decimated by a horrible plague, which I'm sure you'd agree is truly hilarious. The less said about the monumental shit pile Dawn of the Gods the better. And The Harvest of Kairos is like Blake's 7 as imagined by a woman-hating, psychopathic B-movie fanatic. It's so bad it reaches levels of almost operatic hilarity.
I haven't even mentioned Volcano (which boasts a robot represented by a silver-painted wetsuit, and tampon bombs), or the cliched, pulp sci-fi bollocks of Ultraworld, I don't have the energy. And yet the season certainly isn't a total wash - there are at least seven episodes there more than worthy of your time and some truly great character moments to boot (Rumours of Death is a masterpiece in that regard, as well in other regards), and Tarrant trying to oust Avon as leader in the first half is really fun to watch. But it's a lazy season that doesn't especially gel as a whole or really go anywhere in particular until Terminal decides we need a climatic season finale. Season four may divide people like nobody's business, but it gave the show a clarity of purpose and some real oomph again, even in the lesser episodes.
And just for the record I love Blake's 7. I hate bits of season three because I love. Honestly.