D13: BLAKE
All good things must come to an end...
The super-secret base is blown to pieces to prevent the Federation finding out where they've gone and being shot down, despite only lasting about 20 minutes before being shot down. There are soooo many planets near Xenon it makes the line in Terminal about that area of sector six being virtually empty even more silly.
So to the episode. Avon is as paranoid as ever, chancing the lives of the crew to track down Blake, as - with it also being mentioned in the episode - the last time they went after Blake they lost the ship. It's interesting how Boucher tackles the finale, as the ship has always been an intergral part of the series since the third episode, but here Boucher writes it off before the half way mark is done. Slave gets his final scene, while not as emotional as Zen's departure, this isn't too bad, and he isn't as dead as Zen was. With some repair be might be salvageable, though the local population on GP are hardly the sort to repair chashed planet hoppers.
Mary Ridge is brought back for her sixth and final time as director, and it make perfect sense. Her style is excellent and she already has experience at destroying well know space ships in Blake's 7 before...
Gareth Thomas does a great guest role as Blake, it has to be said. For most of the episode you believe he's actually the bounty hunter, and yet towards the end you start to see the Blake of old, but even more so. He's got the paranoia of Avon, the cunning of Servalan and - probably deliberately - the physical injury of Travis.
Everyone gets their own little bit of dialogue, with Soolin's homeworld and Vila's worries. Michael Keating of course starring in his 52nd episode, making him the only actor to appear in all episodes of the series. Jenna and Cally get a mention (in fact the only characters not mentioned are Gan and Zen), Servalan is nowhere to be seen (as I said in my last review of Warlord is makes sense to only focus on the Seven for the closing chapters).
And then there's the shootout. Orac is absent (cue fan fiction), Avon's paranoia reaches it's peak and guns down Blake as he tries to explain his base is actually an anti-Federation recruitment drive, but doesn't get the chance. Everyone then gets blown away, leaving Avon to stand over his old comrade, realising he's finally won, because "winning is the only safety", and in this drug-filled universe of the Federation the only winning you can do is, basically, die.
It's not 100% perfect; Scorpio's sets fall apart at random, Tarrant suddenly ends up beside Slave and slides in the opposite direction, only to end up back near the consoles. Scorpio itself seems to survive almost intact when it stops sliding about on the planet's surface but is later seen to be torn apart. When Avon shoots the hunters in the cabin his gun has no clip in it. The flyer Blake shoots from within Scorpio at night crashes and explodes in daylight. But these are minor issues.
The episode is great, and a very egnimatic and memorable way to end the series. I can still remember shaking as a 9 year old in 1987 watching the closing credits roll, trying to comprehend what I'd just watched. I'd grown up on Star Trek so where was the happy ending??
Well... that's it. I suppose I could review Blake's Junction 7...
(Thanks for reading!)
). Zukan plays a calculating villain who tries to hold his own against Servalan, and, naturally, ultimately fails. The cast get some good dialogue. Soolin uses her brains and saves Avon on Betafarl. The ending is predictable with all the characters involved, and leaves the series with a great cliffhanger leading into the finale - now what? Jacqueline Pierce's final episode is little more than a cameo; an episode like Sand would've been more appropriate but then Boucher and Lorrimere clearly wanted to focus the final two episodes on the Seven.
