Sep 29, 2014

RhoDeo 1439 Blake Seven fold

Hello, well the US failed to win the Rider cup back, Europe has clearly proved their players may not win that much money but they are the better golf players... Meanwhile Polish cyclist Michal Kwiatkowski  won the world road race championship, he'll be easy identifiable the coming year in every cycling race he partakes in, as he'll race in a rainbow shirt. Though this title comes with plenty prestige it rarely brings much glory in the following season. Ah those assertive Poles lets hope they don't declare war on Russia..

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Ok so the coming weeks we'll have some Blake's 7 audio drama's

Don’t let the opening put you off. The Sevenfold Crown begins with a dream so hammy you’ll be inclined to dismiss the whole production as a terrible nightmare long before a stonking continuity error tips you off that it’s a dream. Thankfully, things pick up after that.

Back in the days when Blake’s 7 was still on TV, it could be a little uneven. There were a handful of writers, including Chris Boucher and Tery Nation, who truly understood it, but the rest were a pack of hacks who treated it as a standard-issue space opera, leading to a glut of embarrassing robots and unconvincing monsters.

In that sense, The Sevenfold Crown isn’t proper Blake’s 7, as it doesn’t capture any of the political complexity which helped inspire JM Straczynski to create Babylon 5, but it’s considerably better than most of the series’ filler episodes. The plot is closer to Doctor Who than Blake’s 7, with Avon and Servalan battling for control of a psionic device created by an ancient civilisation in a manner worthy of the Doctor and the Master, but works well, though the Seven’s new-found tendency to help the poor and oppressed is rather out of character.

If the script is slightly off-target in recapturing the feel of the show, the cast slip right into their parts as if they’d never been away. The opening sequence aside, Paul Darrow and Jacqueline Pearce have scaled back some of the OTT campness which crept into their performances during the final season, and Michael Keating’s Vila remains the core of the show - cowardly, pathetic and commanding by turn. The revelation, however, is Steven Pacey, who’s matured hugely as an actor over the last 15 years. While Tarrant is recognisably the same character seen in the series, he’s gained a presence which makes him a genuine equal to Avon. Only Angela Bruce and Paula Wilcox prove disappointing as the new versions of Dayna and Soolin, and that’s more the fault of the script than anything. Though there’s a few references which establish them as hardened killers, they spend most of the time starting at frights like useless girlies.

The Sevenfold Crown isn’t Blake’s 7 at its best, but as star- spanning space opera it’s more than satisfying... And, best of all, it reunites the Seven ready for further adventures. More!

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Blake's 7 - The SevenFold Crown (ogg 83mb)

The SevenFold Crown 90:00

Paul Darrow as Avon, Michael Keating as Vila, Steven Pacey as Tarrant, Peter Tuddenham as Orac/Slave, Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan, Angela Bruce as Dayna and Paula Wilcox as Soolin Barry Letts 17 January 1998

Raiding Servalan's HQ, the crew discover that she possesses a jewel that belongs to an ancient, long-lost crown a mystical artefact of indescribable power. Suddenly the Scorpio crew are as determined as Servalan to acquire the circlet; but if they do, will absolute power corrupt Avon absolutely?

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