Blake's 7 Synchro-Watch - Series 1, Episode 13, 'Orac' (LONG) =============================================================

This episode opens with an interesting establishing shot - we see Gan in the surgical unit, attempting to treat himself for unspecified symptoms. It's thus made clear to the audience that all is not well - and it's perhaps a small but worthwhile piece of characterization that while Jenna attempts to soldier on, Avon tries to deny that anything is wrong with him and Vila goes immediately to pieces, Gan's straightforward reaction to feeling ill is to go and do something about it... This is one of the few broadcast snippets - along with Gan's recognition of and experimentation with the flight-deck first-aid kit in 'Time Squad' - that support the fan theory that Gan had some degree of medical knowledge.

Presumably he had failed to diagnose the problem as radiation sickness, however, since whatever medication he is taking cannot possibly be decontaminant drugs. It is more likely that he is simply helping himself to an aspirin, or the future equivalent.

Up on the flight deck, the "captain's log" sequence awakens somewhat jarring parallels with 'Star Trek'. I am not really quite clear why this insert was considered necessary; obviously it was felt to be required as a continuity device in an era where the concept of the 'story arc' had yet to become common currency, but in that case I should have expected similar segments during the first three or four episodes of this season, which are also pretty closely linked.

Story-wise, it doesn't make a great deal of sense either. After all, Avon was himself present during most of the events being narrated - which is more than Blake was! - so why should Blake feel the need for Avon in particular to watch?

Incidentally, with the benefit of hindsight we can recognise an additional parallel with the "Play it again, Zen" sequence at the start of Season Two (of which more later). On this occasion, replaying the vital moments in slow-motion turns out to provide the clue Blake is seeking; presumably why he is so convinced in 'Redemption' that this technique will eventually pay off!

It is strange that the Liberator does not carry any anti-radiation drugs - particularly when we consider Blake's later statement to Ensor that the ship possesses "one of the finest surgical units I've ever seen". And yet these drugs are evidently common enough in Blake's universe for him to be able to assume at least a strong possibility that even Ensor's obscure hideout will have some in stock.

Given what we later learn about the Liberator's origins, I wonder if it is too far-fetched to hypothesise that her original owners may not have been susceptible to radiation sickness? Alternatively, might they have had an utterly different method of treating the condition - so different that Cally, who was looking for orally-administered medication of some kind, totally failed to recognise it?

The blue drink in Ensor's hideout; even by BBC standards, this really is unusually revolting. I have to say that it looks for all the world like cold wallpaper paste - note that Ensor, no doubt wisely given the state of his health, never actually gets round to taking his first sip!

Again, with the benefit of hindsight, we can observe that Orac's voice and characterization are discernably different in this episode from what was to become the later 'norm'. Of course, the performance here was in fact the original template which Peter Tuddenham was instructed to imitate - but while he does a good job, the form in which the character Orac eventually became established definitely evolved away from this initial presentation. It is hard to imagine the later Orac displaying any concern for the 'humane' treatment of outsiders, particularly those diagnosed as a possible threat to his base and hence his existence.

Special effects-wise, the beach scenes are very convincing. It wasn't until I read "Blake's 7: the Inside Story" that it even occurred to me that the story had in fact been filmed in the same old quarry, and nowhere near the sea at all! If you know what to look for, you can spot how it's done; but the background sound effects and the strong breeze blowing give the viewer little cause to doubt that the scene is taking place on a pebble beach, on a planet whose landmass is dwarfed by ocean. A beautiful example of economy of effort (and budget).

Is this the first time in the series we see Servalan personally "out in the field", so to speak? So far she has been very much the Supreme Commander, marshalling her forces and scheming from behind a desk - or, as in 'Project Avalon', attending as observer what is anticipated to be a demonstration of easy victory.

The dynamic between her and Travis has certainly changed for this episode, despite the fact that Travis is supposedly in disgrace. From time to time Servalan appears almost timid and hesitant, while the seasoned field commander, her nominal subordinate, is clearly very much in his element for this operation. If Servalan was ever a serving officer, rather than a social butterfly who slept her way up the career ladder (and later episodes suggest that she is no fool where military operations are concerned), then it is still possible that it has been some time since she was on active service.

For whatever reason, Servalan does not acquit herself well against the Phibians, displaying a vulnerability that is not to be in evidence again until 'Rumours of Death'. It is a little odd that neither she nor Travis carries a gun which she could have used in self-defence - but of course they are expecting to deal only with one dying old man, and Travis' hand is a built-in weapon.

She has obviously given some thought to the practicalities of the expedition, since her costume is much better suited to negotiating tunnels and climbing rockfalls than her usual skimpy 'office-wear'. Admittedly white is perhaps not the most practical colour, but no doubt, having conceded as far as to wear trousers, she felt she had to put her foot down somewhere.

As for Travis - is he really fool enough to imagine that Servalan will present the acquisition of Orac for the Federation as a joint success, as she warmly promises? Probably not; but I doubt he actually cares. I imagine Travis would be quite content to let Servalan claim all the glory, provided he is permitted to get back to his overriding goal of catching Blake. However, he doesn't seem too worried either by the definite possibility that Servalan may feel compelled to dispose of him in order to cover up the distinctly unorthodox methods she has used to obtain Orac...

Note that, despite the Liberator's speed and Blake's earlier assurances to the others on the flight deck, the Federation, in the persons of Servalan and Travis, do actually reach Aristo first! Presumably this is because they set off as soon as the crash took place on Cephlon, while thanks to young Ensor the Liberator made an aborted double trip?

One wonders why Orac did not take over Servalan's small craft when it arrived in the same way that he usurps control of Zen. It is possible that Servalan came straight in to land rather than adopting a stationary orbit, thus not giving Orac enough time or a close enough range to adopt control. However, given the (unusually great) powers Orac displays in this episode, it seems unlikely. Perhaps the craft was so small that it did not contain a sophisticated tarial cell computer which could be remotely controlled - or maybe it was just too small to be perceived as a potential threat.

It is also worth noting that Orac appears unsurprised by the Liberator's teleport facilities, despite the fact that these do not exist anywhere in the Federation. We know that matter transmission research was however taking place at this period, since both Avon and Blake separately were involved. With his access to computer systems, Orac is presumably aware of the principles involved and capable of deducing their correct operation, once supplied with a working example.

Incidentally, just how does Orac take over Zen anyway? Presumably the Liberator's master computer must therefore contain tarial cells - but these had only been invented sixty years or so previously. Had the concept really spread all the way to the Liberator's own designers so fast?

More on costumes - Cally is now sporting a neat 'uniform' parka to match those issued to the others, in place of the decidedly improbable leopardskin camouflage jacket adopted in 'Bounty'. At the time I assumed she was wearing this as the odd one out - as the last member of the crew to join the ship, maybe she found they had run out of parkas? Obviously not; so one can only assume that it was her own choice, and give thanks that she had sufficient taste left to abandon the garment after a single outing.

A minor plot puzzler - on the way in, Orac's remote (the flying robot) is used to open the force barrier ahead of Blake and Cally. Why doesn't Ensor later send it up to lower the force barrier remotely so that he, Blake and Cally can teleport out directly from his workroom? It wouldn't have worked anyway, as Servalan and Travis are already on their way down and would almost certainly have broken in before the robot could reach the surface barrier - but Ensor doesn't know that... On the other hand, Blake, who was expecting to make a simple delivery rather than escort a guest back to the Liberator, hasn't brought a spare bracelet, so it wouldn't really have helped.

And, on the subject of teleport/Star Trek: earlier on, the phrase 'beam us back up' is used. I don't think this is the normal Liberator terminology, as it certainly jarred in my hearing on this occasion. "Bring us back up' is what I'd expect from Blake's 7. However, this is a Terry Nation-penned episode, so one can hardly blame the author for being untrue to the original concept

Special effects: just how did they do those shots of Cally and Blake walking around the transporter? I can only imagine there was some kind of colossal crane arm rigged in the quarry - or very clever post-production work. The effects for the transporter descending - the bands of light travelling upwards across the characters' faces, coupled with slight swaying and a final jerk as they hit the bottom - are simple but also very convincing.

Down in Ensor's workroom, we get some enjoyable talk at cross-purposes between the sick man and the supposed doctors. It's always pleasantly quirky when rescue victims turn out to be somewhat less than grateful and co-operative!

Blake makes the interesting statement here that he 'disapproves of weapons' in principle; not an attitude I'm sure is borne out by the rest of the series, although admittedly in this context he is trying to make the point that weapons can, however, help avert worse evils.

Personally, I was always rather worried by the thought of the eventual fate of Ensor's plants and fish. He expects to leave them for a few hours - in fact, he will never return, and the extra water and food he makes a point of providing before he leaves only emphasise the fact that soon the fish will starve while the plants wither... Given the average body-count in a Blake's 7 episode, perhaps I'm being morbidly sensitive here.

In the tunnels: Blake's strategy for bringing down the roof (remove a few small rocks from above your own head) doesn't look too convincing - but then, of course, he never actually succeeds in bringing it down.

Why does Ensor not anticipate any attack from the Phibians, given that he earlier relied upon them to kill any Federation trespassers passing this way? Perhaps over the last forty years the two sets of inhabitants of the underwater tunnels have come to some unspoken agreement of mutual tolerance - which, as we find out, obviously does not extend to the newcomers!

Like Servalan, Cally reacts very incompetently to being grabbed from behind. Unlike Servalan, she has less excuse - given her normal combat record, one would assume her to be quite capable of handling an enemy while unarmed. On the other hand, being clawed from behind is enough to take anyone off-balance, at least momentarily.

The final showdown: neither for the first time nor the last, the script writer has to come up with some justification for why the heroes don't kill their pursuers when they have the opportunity (of which more later). This one is not entirely plausible. Does Blake really expect his own word to be believed at Space Headquarters over that of the Supreme Commander - or assume that she won't somehow manage to wriggle out of it?

Rather than attempting to set her up as a traitor to the Federation by falsely claiming that she let him take Orac, it would be much more effective to kill her himself. Perhaps at this stage he does not perceive her as a nemesis - in which case it is an omission that will cost them all dearly later on - but even so, and even with a temporarily disabled weapon hand, this is hardly an argument that can apply to Travis.

Finally - without discussing the cliffhanger - I note the classic downward-falling sparks and debris from the explosion in space... It's a pity that the BBC never adopted Gerry Anderson's ingenious scheme of filming explosions supposedly taking place in vacuum from below, so that the debris appears to be flung out evenly in all directions.

Blake's 7 Synchro-Watch - Series 1 as a Whole =============================================

As it happens, Series 1 has always been my favourite. It has more of a dashing 'Errol Flynn' style, and less of the gritty and wisecracking 'Clint Eastwood' feel that most fans seem to value as the true spirit of Blake's 7, marking it out from its overly-optimistic rivals... but then I had the bad taste thoroughly to enjoy the showing of "Charge of the Light Brigade" (panned by the newspaper TV critics) on Channel 4 last week, and fully expect to watch the 'Boys Own' rollicking "Four Feathers" on Sunday with equal enjoyment. Maybe it's just that my taste in entertainment happens to coincide with that of the era that influenced Terry Nation?

'Bounty' is probably my favourite episode out of the first thirteen, but both ends of the run are good, and while the middle section of the season contains a few duds ("The Web", 'Mission to Destiny') they remains good ideas in principle that somehow (like 'Horizon' in the 2nd series) never quite come off in practice. There are no real cringe-makers among the episodes in this series, unlike the Tanith Lee scripts in the third and fourth seasons.

(Sorry, Cardinal Zorak - but I like Tanith Lee's novels, and I went into those episodes fully expecting to enjoy them. It was through no prejudice of my own that the only words I can find to sum up my reaction to 'Sand' and 'Sarcophagus' are "wince" and "cringe". Tanith Lee is a good writer - but not, please, for Blake's 7.)

'Duel' is a particularly interesting example of an extremely hackneyed concept - even more so now than it was then, since so many other shows have featured a similar episode - where the hero and his nemesis are forced into hand-to-hand combat at the whim of an omnipotent third party. In fact, it provides a very successful episode, fleshing out the character of Travis and showing him to be a dangerous and worthy opponent, first in space battle and then by the (almost successful) trap he constructs for Blake down on the planet.

It also features what is probably the most convincing example of one of the quirkier aspects of Blake's 7 - the frequent need for the heroes to rationalise not killing the villain when they have the opportunity. Obviously you can't have a regular villain character if he gets killed off - but super-villains like The Hood in 'Thunderbirds' or The Master in 'Dr Who', who are forever getting blown up and miraculously surviving, don't really cut the mustard. In this case, we are provided with two reasons, both psychologically convincing: Blake thoroughly dislikes the idea of killing to entertain an eager audience, and he knows that he can beat Travis - while a replacement would be an unknown quantity.

The reason why I consider this recurring script-writer's dilemma to be 'quirky' (and laudable) is that it is all too common for shows to be required to produce increasingly improbable reasons for the villain to avoid killing the heroes - who thus escape not by their own merits but merely by virtue of the villain's incompetence! Blake's 7 does very well on avoiding this.

The heroes get captured, but either get rescued by other members of the cast (i.e. Blake & Cally by Avon in 'Orac', the entire crew by Jenna in 'Pressure Point') or escape using their own resourcefulness. Above all, we never get the feeling (alas, all too common in many films/TV series) that the villains are not really ruthless enough to kill.

'Orac' provides a good example of this. Servalan and Travis have Blake and Cally held at gun-point. Now, Servalan does not waste time gloating. She does not set up an elaborate trap featuring a room slowly filling with water, man-eating ants, a time-bomb triggered by a burning candle, or any other spy/thriller-style staples. She actually does the sensible thing and orders Travis to kill them.

I have to say that Blake, as I commented above, shows rather less sense in not returning the compliment when the tables are then turned!

Other characters:

When we consider the central role that Orac is to assume in the general perception of Blake's 7 - how many fan-fiction stories fail to feature Orac? - it is strange to consider, at the end of episode 13, that the cast have somehow managed to survive an entire series already without him!

Avon has definitely mellowed over the course of this series, to the point where he actually volunteers to endanger himself in unsolicited rescues in both 'Orac' and 'Deliverance'. He is still jibing against Blake and entertaining himself by firing off sharp witticisms to demonstrate his intellect at the others' expense, but it feels almost like a reflex habit at this stage.

The transition to the really vicious rivalry with Blake that provides a major contribution to the on-board tension that characterizes the darker second series is particularly marked if you watch 'Orac' and 'Redemption' back-to-back. Compare, for example, the "Play it again, Zen" scene in 'Redemption', where he is deliberately withholding vital knowledge to score a point, to the thematically very similar sequence at the beginning of 'Orac' where he and Blake are co-operating as full equals.

My immediate reaction on first seeing the new series was "What on earth has got into Avon?" I assume Chris Boucher had a lot to do with this reversion to the original cynical, hard-edged character.

One final thought:

'Orac', where Blake gains control of multi-million-credits' worth of computer under the Federation's very nose, is the culmination of the first season and Blake's ultimate successful coup - and, in a way, perhaps, the high point of his entire career. During 'Project Avalon', 'Bounty' and 'Orac' he has achieved material successes against the Federation. At this point he is really having some effect. From now on, though he does not know it, more and more of his time will be taken up either by reacting to external threats or by failed attempts to respond to this problem by the increasingly desperate chase after the chimera of Star One.

At the end of the first series, the heroes can be said to be winning. It is for the last and only time. Throughout most of the forthcoming series, they will be lucky on average just to survive.

[And to those who have made it down to the bottom of my little essay - have a Brownie point... Well, I did warn you!]

Lurker Extraordinaire

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