From: Igenlode Wordsmith (Igenlode@nym.alias.net)
Subject: Synchro-watch: Redemption
Newsgroups: alt.fan.blakes-7
Date: 2001-09-24 17:30:52 PST
Better late than never...
I finally managed to watch Redemption this weekend. Comments follow: - I've scrupulously avoided reading any of the other postings in this thread so far, in order to avoid being influenced, so forgive me if I seem to be repeating what has been said before.
I can't actually say that I found 'Redemption' a terribly inspiring episode; it was quite hard to find many points to make this time [Later: retrospective hollow laugh after noting length of posting...] I've seen this start to the second season summed up elsewhere as a 'standard run-around' and I'm afraid that on rewatching the programme I have to agree, though I'm not sure why. It has some good ideas, quite a few quotable lines of dialogue, and a decent share of that Blake's 7 speciality, conflict/tension between the main characters - yet somehow for me, and apparently for others, it doesn't quite 'click'.
As far as continuity goes, several differences mark this out as a second-season episode rather than a direct follow-up to 'Orac', although judging by the plot the time-lapse between the two episodes is supposed to be a matter of only a few hours. Changes in costumes and hair - Blake and Cally respectively - are the most obvious. The other stark change, which I discussed at some length in my earlier article on 'Orac', is in the Avon/Blake relationship.
From the very first scene - where Avon openly tells Blake that he has been withholding information in order to undermine the others' confidence in Blake as leader - to the last, where Blake faces down Avon's challenge in silence, the practically civilised, helpful Avon which Terry Nation had allowed to develop over the last three or four episodes of the previous season has clearly been 'rewound' back to the antagonistic and self-centred character to whom we were originally introduced in 'Spacefall'. No in-plot reason is given for this change in emphasis, which is to become characteristic of the second season - indeed, to be one of the principal reasons cited by those who claim this season as their favourite - but my guess would be that it dates from Chris Boucher's increasing input into the character from this period on.
The only person who appears to find this development surprising is Vila. "What's the matter with him?" he asks, as Avon apostrophises Blake (not for the last time) as 'our Fearless Leader'. And even he can see something's brewing up: "My money's on Blake - well, half of it, anyway, I'll put the other half on Avon"...
Avon's increasing challenge to Blake's authority is matched - as a Blake fan, I'm tempted to speculate in his defence that it is indeed possibly provoked - by an increasing tendency on Blake's part to resort to 'because I say so' instead of giving reasons. We see in 'Redemption', I suppose, the first steps along the road that is to lead us - and both characters - to Star One.
The idea of having the Liberator meet up with her original owners is an interesting development - given the short time-span over which the "Blake's 7" concept was developed, one wonders from early a stage Terry Nation had this planned. Was it already envisaged in 'Spacefall', when the ship was introduced as the product of an unknown and advanced technology? Probably not, though it would be nice to think so...
The main trouble with giving cultures - and villains - this sort of lengthy build-up is that when they actually appear they may well fail to live up to the viewer's expectations. This is all very well for comic effect, as when we discover that the Wizard of Oz is actually a scared little man hiding behind a screen, but it is less satisfactory, for example, when we come face to face with the evil from the dawn of time in Stephen King's 'It' and find it no more than a giant spider.
I feel that what we see of 'the System' probably suffers from this 'Evil Overlord' syndrome. The culture that built the Liberator ought to be light-years in technology beyond the Federation (who are themselves supposed to be considerably in advance of modern-day science). When all we know is that the Liberator is under the influence of some external power and beyond even Avon's skill to control, there is some chance of pulling this off. But when we actually meet the mysterious builders and find them to be standard quasi-fascist Nation villains, with a handful of black-suited guards, grubby slaves (high-tech or what?) and a dedication to mindless violence, I for one ended up with the knee-jerk reaction "these people can't possibly be responsible for anything as sophisticated as the Liberator!"
And yet there are some interesting points here. The concept of a computer system which uses people much as we today use machines - downloading instructions into them and sending them out to do the dirty work in places we can't go. The design of the attack ships - clearly derived from the same principles as Liberator, yet all engine and guns without the living quarters. The weapons that are obviously related to those on board the Liberator, yet perform a different function (indicated none too subtly by the use of different-coloured lights!) The use of familiar hexagonal motifs from the Liberator in the System's viewscreens and doors. The choice to film in a genuinely space-age building - a real gigantic nuclear power station.
(I've always admired the skilful use of outside locations in Blake's 7, particularly for a series where so much of the action takes place on rather grubby and backward-looking planets and hence where industrial sites can provide a realistic grimy look. In contrast, planet surface scenes in the earlier 'Star Trek' are all too obviously, all too often, studio-bound.)
Most of my other observations relate to special effects or minor plot points.
The fluid that oozes from the 'dead' power cable after Avon's explosion is a nice creepy touch, echoed later by the glimpse of Vila's blood on the wall. Indeed, there are elements of horror movie about the whole first half of the episode, as individual crew members go off alone and one by one disappear - leaving the last few huddled together and determined not to separate.
I was a little puzzled by the fact that the Altas are green-skinned when they first arrive on the flight deck - but during the rest of the episode revert to their previous icy-tinged skin tone. Presumably the constraints of shooting the whole episode with a green light on those actresses alone would have made it impossible - but why introduce that one shot? There doesn't seem to be any plot significance to it. Was it just left over from an early experimental shot which there was no time later to re-film?
I was impressed by the thickness of the hatch door via which the prisoners emerge into the space station. On first viewing I assumed this must be the Liberator's outer hatch, representing the hull thickness, but judging by the sequence towards the end of the episode where the guards are forced back through it, overcome by the effects of the Liberator's drive at close quarters, it must have been part of the station itself. In which case, given that the Liberator had pulled away at this stage, it should have been open to hard vacuum, evacuating the entire complex almost instantly... Evidently the space station has some kind of atmospheric retention field across the entrance the the docking area. This probably allows it to double as a 'dry dock' so that ships' hulls can be maintained more easily!
Once again, in the course of this episode Cally is depicted as having considerable technical knowledge/ability, second only to Avon.
The limiter doesn't seem to impede Gan much here. He volunteers himself for the task of fighting three guards, and appears to perform this duty with considerable enthusiasm, no doubt fuelled by their use of their torture weapons during his capture. Presumably he gets away with it because he isn't actually killing them...
It's a nice touch that 'unplugging' the Alta appears to disable her - but I'm not quite clear where the plug leads. It can hardly be directly into the computer, since it appears to lead back into her own body. Perhaps to some kind of implanted control transmitter?
The scene where the guards appear, prepare to throw their grenades at Gan and Cally and then get teleported back into the space station just at the critical moment before the missiles are launched is effective in theory - but (probably due to teleport special effect constraints) doesn't really work too well in practice, due to the amount of time they seem to spend, after reappearing, in looking around them before they actually throw. The impression given is that they realise where they are... and then decide to let loose anyway!
Finally, there is an interesting little exercise in paradox that is rather skated over, concerning Orac's prediction. Orac deliberately blows up the sister-ship, saving them all, merely in order to ensure that his own prediction comes true. No doubt the reason why he refuses to help earlier is because this would invalidate said prediction...
--
Igenlode
Lurker Extraordinaire
