OK, so we start to see who the main characters are and these characters are beginning to look more than anonymous faces I care nothing about. However, I still don't know enough to care about them, except for Blake, who is the only character the writers have really bothered to develop so far.
OK, so Elegant Lady is Jenna Stannis, probably related to Stannis Baratheon, or perhaps her family took their last name as a tribute to an old TV show from early 21st century. (Oh, yeah, and there's the book as well.) The best part of learning her name is that hers was the only one said loud and clear, so this is good for us to remember the names. This reminds me of a scene from The Orville in which Captain Mercer tells a scientist they are rescuing,
"You follow Alara."
"Who's Alara? I haven't had time to memorize the names yet," says the scientist in a clear nod to the audience still getting used to the characters.
"I am," says a pretty alien girl, just entering the scene.
Well, as for Blake's 7, I only know the name of the other men because I looked in the credits. Apparently the show isn't very big on connecting the names with the faces. And remember how different that was in Star Trek, for instance, in which the names were regularly used.
So we meet this Kerr Avon guy who apparently is someone important in the show, considering that he appears in twice as many episodes as Blake himself. Which makes me wonder why this show isn't known as Avon's 7 (or whatever pertinent number) instead.
Avon is an interesting character, more cynical and with an ongoing bad disposition as if he eternally suffered from some annoying heartburn. Perhaps some anti-acid would lower the acidity of his humor (har, har har). No, seriously, I realize this is a harsh reality, and many people become jaded because they have to fight till death to survive, but right now the only thing we know that will make us care about him is the fact he's a prisoner. But then, he doesn't seem to be innocent, neither does he claim he is, so perhaps where Blake found him is right where he belongs?
Despotic regime or not, if you release the prisoners from a prison ship, you're bound to give freedom to some pretty nasty elements that will do more harm than good, and then you have to deal with the consequences. This is the kind of situation that made shows like Prison Break interesting.
Oh, we do know something else about Kerr Avon: our friend is a Socialist, since he believes the only reality is wealth and the only way to get wealth is take it away from somebody else. But if he were a Capitalist instead, he would know that there's also the possibility of Producing wealth, which is how wealth is created in the first place. Methinks the resistance could improve in their studies of economics and political sciences.
Jenna is very pretty and has fantastic hair for a prisoner! Say what you will about life in prison, but they always provide you with the required doses of shampoo and hair conditioning. And the character has potential and I'm interested besides the looks.
I admit I didn't recognize Avon even if I got tired of seeing that angry avatar all the time. But he looked younger in this episode. Anyway, our trio of heroes/misfits try to start a mutiny, but Raker, the bad guy, does what bad guys do and start killing te prisoners one by one until Blake surrendered. And it becomes clear that Avon wouldn't have surrendered. Well, I happen to agree with him as far as that is concerned. If the prisoners started dying on my screen I'd consider that awfully said and unfortunate and I would end their families my thoughts and prayers, but I'd also say, "Hey, I'm not killing those men, you are! I have absolutely nothing to do with your decisions." In other words, never give in to terrorists.
Let's talk about ships. The London will get to "Alpha Cygnus" (I'm assuming that's another star system, perhaps Alpha Centauri?) in eight months. Which is funny because it's too fast for conventional propulsion and way too slow for warp speed or hyperdrive. If it takes eight months to get to a nearby star, how long will it take to go from one extreme of the Federation to the other? Not practical. However what really annoyed me was that there was no visual indication that the ship was in hyperdrive and it looked more like it was leisurely cruising a tourist location on a vacation trip instead. Com on, would it kill the visual effects people to blur the stars and add a "whoosh" sound to show "hey, we're in hyperdrive factor 6" or something?
And then they find this strange alien (probably?) ship. And a hilarious thing happens. Running out of minions, the commander of the "Empire" ship has the brilliant idea (actually the idea came from Raker, the resident bad guy and look at what good that got him in the end) of having Blake, Avon and Stannis go see why his men were dropping like flies on that ship. "}If you don't succeed, you won't have problems anymore." I like that already because I hate problems!
Anyway, the brilliant idea is to send Blake and his friends to investigate, and they do it so well they decide to borrow the ship for themselves. Really? the most powerful new force in the universe and you hand the keys to a prisoner? Considering what a bleeding heart Blake is, if I were the commander I would've sent Blake and Avon, and kept Jenna as a hostage, of course. Avon wouldn't come back for her, but Blake surely would. But no, instead, they had no reason to stay so they stole the ship. Clever, Commander.
Now, i don't believe in coincidences. I mean in real life a coincidence is a coincidence and we have to accept that. But in fiction, a coincidence is just lazy writing. and it's awfully convenient that when they are trying to escape a magical super powerful ship just happens to be nearby and empty. So, there's has to be some causality there and the writers had better show that sooner or later, otherwise this is just their lucky day and that's not the way to develop a story properly.
Blake's 7 has an interesting story (at least it promises to become more interesting soon), but by comparing it to the famous shows you could watch on that decade, even productions from the previous decade such as Star Trek and even Lost in Space, we can see that the visual effects, the cinematography, set design, general direction and, especially, show's pacing were vastly superior. But then, on the other hand, the difference in the budget of Blake's 7 and that of these other American shows must have been, well, astronomical. Still, those early British productions could take a lesson or two on directing and pacing from their more famous sci-fi counterparts.
Let's watch out for what happens next. This episode of Blake's 7 gets 7 honest men you'll probably never find according to a cynic.