Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

Blake's 7 4.1: Rescue

Season Four, the season they didn’t expect to make. Which means there’s a certain amount of getting up to speed required in order for “status quo” stories to be told. If they choose to go that route. There’s no Liberator anymore as a starting point for stories; a situation the show hasn’t found itself in since Space Fall. So where do they go from here? Behind the scenes there’s no David Maloney either. Nor Terry Nation (I’d say that by this point that’s slightly less of an issue, but his three scripts for Season Three were among his best).

Blake's 7 3.13: Terminal

Like Logopolis, broadcast almost exactly a year later, Terminalis not without script problems. There are a number of rather large holes in terms of plot and (more particularly) character that leave you, if not scratching your head, viewing what unfolds slightly askance. But, like Logopolis, where the episode really scores is in evoking a palpable atmosphere. Mary Ridge imbues the story with a sense of finality and doom throughout, only punctured slightly by some laborious exposition when Servalan inevitably shows up.

Blake's 7 3.12: Death-Watch

Chris Boucher completes his trio of Season Three single character-centric episodes. If Death-Watchis the least of them, it nevertheless fits into the good side of a clear divide in quality this season, between crap but fun and very good-to-great. There’s not much between those poles as there has been in previous seasons (although I’ve enjoyed the crappy fare far more than many seem to).