Redemption

[altariel]

This is not the best episode of Blake's 7. In fact, it's the episode of Blake's 7 that made Mr A. give up buying the tapes. Still, I don't think it's the worst episode of Blake's 7. Have you seen the Cool Board on Top Gear? I would put 'Redemption' not in the farthest reaches of 'uncool', but slightly to the right of that. Tepid, I suppose.

I had two main problems. Firstly, the characters talk to each other like they're all complete strangers. This might just be because the actors have all been off doing other things like panto between seasons, and haven't got back into groove yet. Still, they all seem completely disconnected from each other and it just feels very weird (mostly I'm thinking of the scenes with Cally and Avon as they're fixing stuff; particularly empty of any chemistry, which is weird given they have some of the best scenes together in the show). Secondly, I kept on waiting for the plot start. Fond, foolish hope. It doesn't. Whether this is B7 being before its time in eschewing traditional narrative forms, or whether Somebody Had Had to Write Too Many Scripts By This Point, I leave to the reader to decide.

One thing that was commented upon: it looks and feels exactly like an episode of 1960s telly. Like something from Troughton-era Who. Turn down the colour, and it's just like 'The Space Pirates'. Planet of the Evil Women plot also. The lackeys are splendidly inept; without their shockstick thingies, their chief weapon appears to be flailing.

Points in its favour: Space Capes! (Gan and Cally.) Space Studs! (Avon.) Space Sleeves! (Blake.) Space New Romanticism! (Vila.) Space Leather Flares! (Avon again.)

Tenuous-influence-on-other-shows-because-B7-is-source-for-all-other-television-SF: The System looks a bit like the ship-munching thing in 'Our Mrs Reynolds'.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

But... but... Redemption also has Blake vs The Coil of Doom! And some great Blake/Avon UST scenes. Get back to your position is a very sexy line.*g*

More seriously, the Blake 'n Avon scenes truly are the reason why I rewatch this particular ep. I tend to fast forward through the rest.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Now, I was expecting to find the B'n'A scenes a lot more charged than I did, but they also came across as very muted. The character bits I like most in this episode are the brief bits of Avon and Jenna sitting in the cell, with Avon sitting completely back-straight, and Jenna slouched next to him.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

The Avon and Jenna bits were actually the ones that most struck me on rewatching it a while ago.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

He's in such a huff in them.

other things in its favour

[hafren.livejournal.com]

1. Avon's "how am I to get this inconvenient sleeping woman off my shoulder?" look.

2. and his perfectly genuine apology to Vila, which makes nonsense of all the "he can't apologise" fanon

3. Avon falling with an arm out to protect Blake just after furiously sniping at him - clever.

4. Jenna going for the guard who attacks Blake.

5. the Unnamed Slave who enables Blake to do his Joseph of Arimathea stunt.

6. "Get back to your position" - priceless.

Re: other things in its favour

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do like the Jenna-Avon scenes. The B'n'A ones just seemed a lot more muted than I remembered. Maybe it's something to do with seeing it on DVD.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I remember it being amongst my favourites, but on rewatching the other year I don't quite remember why. I think my favourite bits are the Jenna & Avon decidedly-not-getting-it-together-in-the-cell scenes. Which is strange, as I think they'd do better together than A/B, A/C or A/V.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Do you think J/A would do well? I think that eventually they would make good business partners, but there's no other chemistry. I started a story once which was about them working together, but it really sucked, so I never finished it.

[kathyh]

It's been years since I watched this episode but "Space Studs! (Avon.) brought it all back. I've come to the depressing conclusion that my enjoyment of a B7 episode does depend to a large degree on the clothes Avon was wearing. I didn't like the Space Studs so I don't watch the episode often. And don't get me started on the red suit in Weapon. I am very shallow!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

There are many disturbing things about the Space Stud Suit, but I think the leather flares are the most alarming aspect.


I've come to the depressing conclusion that my enjoyment of a B7 episode does depend to a large degree on the clothes Avon was wearing.

Hee: "I know what I like..."

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

And it features the only Gan costume that anyone remembers (I know because it's the only one anyone ever requests for him when ordering my pipecleaner models) even though it was the only episode in which he wore it. It was thrown together in a hurry from the BBC wardrobe room and David Jackson's own clothes because he refused to wear the outfit that had been specially designed for him, which was apparently the one that ended up on Travis instead.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You're right, I couldn't think of another.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm actually quite glad no one's suggested the string vest. That could be quite tricky to do...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Well, it was the second episode I ever saw (after catching Orac at the end of the first season - as I have explained many times, the first 12 clashed with my dancing class, but Orac was the first week of the Easter holidays), and the one that hooked me. Specifically the one that hooked me on B/A, so there must have been enough there to impress a 17-year-old, but it's bound to look a bit muted in comparison with fanon...

I think it's a pretty characteristic B7 episode in that the alien bits are crap (apart from the little pursuit ships and the System itself, and you're right, I kept wondering why that ship-muncher looked so familiar) but I find it a good setting out of the second season's stall as the Avon's-increasingly-desperate-struggles-to-elude-Blake's-control season.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention the Liber-ettes, which are absolutely the best thing about the episode, they're so cute and Libby-like.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think it's a pretty characteristic B7 episode in that the alien bits are crap

After a long think, I can only come up with the Ultras as potential non-crap B7 aliens.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

What about the Andromedans? not their fleet though, obviously

[altariel.livejournal.com]

They're a bit... Swarfega.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

ROTFL!

[executrix.livejournal.com]

without their shockstick thingies, their chief weapon appears to be flailing.
No one expects the System Inquisition!

I'mn convinced that Avon spends the early part of the series furiously trying to impress Jenna, and then gives up and furiously tries to impress Blake, so the point of the scene is to tell Jenna "you had your chance and you missed it."

I find this episode somewhat disturbing because until then Blake didn't know who the Liberator belonged to but now that he does he could at least make some arrangements about borrowing it (hard to think of what he'd make lease payments with except the Treasure Room, which is a little like Bassanio in Merchant of Venice offering Portia her own money as a legal fee). And I hate, hate, HATE the Androcles-and-the-Lion guy with his magic hidden elevator.

But as a klutz myself, I always like to see Avon running with no form whatsoever but still a lap ahead of the others.

The scary Space!Flares are the ones in Bounty, but it's the shoes with the lockpick in the heel that bring back shuddersome memories of the 1970s.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

While I watching I was having flashbacks to the lockpick heels. Bad place to be.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Whether this is B7 being before its time in eschewing traditional narrative forms, or whether Somebody Had Had to Write Too Many Scripts By This Point, I leave to the reader to decide.

ROFLOL! Okay, mention of the Gan!cape brings me to an ignorant question I've been meaning to ask you for forever. (Note that I've watched the whole series and read fanfic for years, but never really be "in" the fandom in a community sense, though I consider myself a fan of the show.) Why not more Gan in fanfic?

I know he's killed off rather early, but other secondary characters with less screen time get more attention from writers. It just seems to me that the premise behind Gan's Limiter, and his unique relationship with some of the characters (and thus his potential to act as a window into those other characters), could provide a little more fodder than it appears to have done. (I have read Ganfic, by the way. His appearances just seem few and far between.) Am I missing the whole legion of Ganiacs out there somewhere, or is there a community consensus about why Gan doesn't deserve more "page time"? Besides the fact he doesn't have a stud suit, of course. But hey, that just leaves more studs for Avon.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The reason he was killed off was that the character was basically superfluous to the set-up but, of course, that isn't a problem in fanfic. I wonder if the relative lack of Gan-fic is simply that he's surrounded by more immediately interesting and intriguing characters (Avon, Blake, Vila, Cally), and I'm including guest characters in this (e.g. Carnell, Anna Grant).

The authors of Liberation argue that Gan's part in the show was cut back; they make a case from lines that remain in the show and other scripts by Terry Nation that the original conception of the character was as a psychopathic killer (probably a serial rapist). I'm not sure they've got enough documentary or textual evidence to support this reading, but it's an interesting conjecture.

One fan gives out 'Oak Leaves' for sympathetic portrayals of Gan in fanfic.

Not Exactly a Haven for the Bruthas

[executrix.livejournal.com]

A time- well, maybe more honored in the breach than in the observance, but anyway one typical thing to happen in a horror movie is that 50 minutes in, a sympathetic black character gets killed. At that point they didn't *have* any black characters, and one theory is that Gan is a Salt of the Earth proletarian* so he got the chop.

As I said on Freedom City, the reason there's so little Ganfic is that he's BLOODY BORING.

*Personally, I think he was a merchant banker.

Re: Not Exactly a Haven for the Bruthas

[altariel.livejournal.com]

the reason there's so little Ganfic is that he's BLOODY BORING

Yeah, there's that too.

Re: Not Exactly a Haven for the Bruthas

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks, all! :)