So true, but I wonder how much of that is the producers' fault.There are also some who just think their audience are morons.
Review BLAKE'S 7: THE WAY BACK - Episode 01
- Thread starter Doctor Omega
- Start date
It will be interesting to see how that theme develops over the series. Assuming it does of course. Way too many TV shows introduce fascinating concepts or potential plots and then just ignore them.
That's almost certainly the case most of the time. I've seen a few interviews with writers over the years where they tell stories about how they were forced to "dumb things down" for the audience. And I guess there's a little bit of logic in that the producers want to appeal to the widest possible audience, including morons. But, as I see it, there are plenty of shows available for morons to watch (*cough*realityTV*cough*). Lets have something for the intelligent viewers to enjoy
As a fellow non USAian, I think that this is true. The US Civil War seems to have largely been conflated, in many people's minds, into a pro-slave/anti-slave conflict, where, as far as I can tell, it was about a far wider range of issues, with slavery not really the main consideration, but that issue became important because the economic status of the South was built on slavery far more than the North. In fact, I've seen a quote attributed to Lincoln that if there was a way to end the conflict without changing the status of slavery he'd take it. I'm not sure if that's correctly attributed or not but it does line up with what I've read of the general thinking of the era.
I just hope that this doesn't result in some people racing ahead. Part of what I'm looking forward to with this group is the discussion of individual episodes and the developing story. If some people are several episodes ahead conversations may become stilted or influenced by things people have seen in future episodes.
Well, its about what you'd expect from a BBC TV show of that era. Sure the effects aren't great by today's standards, or movie standards of that time period, or US TV standards of that period. But, similar to Doctor Who of that era, given what the production team had to work with (in terms of both budget and time) they did a pretty good job and I've certainly seen worse. After all its not quite at Justice League Superman's moustache levels of bad.
Brimfin
Member: Rank 3
This was my first time using my TV’s Smartcast feature to watch a show on YouTube, instead of on my computer. While it’s nice to be able to watch a YouTube video on the TV, I was frustrated that I could not go backward or even start over again after it took a few minutes to get the sound level right; I couldn’t even see how much of the show was left when I would pause it. I thought of starting my review by saying, “Well that was a frustrating aggravating way to spend 48 minutes; I hope it gets better later,” and then continuing, “But enough about my first efforts with Smartcast; let’s talk about the show.”
Anyway, I’m brand new to the show and didn’t even read many of the posts of all of you discussing it, as I like to be surprised. This episode certainly didn’t fail to do that. We began with an introduction to our hero as a rather ordinary-seeming fellow being persuaded by two friends to leave his enclosed city to attend a secret meeting “outside.” He meets a secret organization trying to rally against the tyrannical government known as “the Federation.” (I couldn’t help but be amused by the irony that “The Federation” was the benevolent force in the STAR TREK series, and also that the symbol under the title BLAKE’S 7 looked like a sideways version of the insignias worn on the STAR TREK uniforms.) When they ask the man if he remembers someone named Blake who led an attempted insurrection it was only then I really suspected that he was the very Blake they were discussing. Sure enough, he is told of his capture and subsequent brainwashing and begins to remember some of it.
I begin to wonder if some of these people will be part of his “7”. But that is not to be. In the first major “surprise” of the story, futuristic police arrive on the scene. Even though the leader tells him they will surrender peacefully, they instead open fire and slaughter all of them. Blake alone is spared because the Federation fears he would become a martyr for the cause if killed. They try to convince him that he imagined it all while they plot another means to discredit him. Remembering that old principle that if you want to destroy someone’s reputation make them out to be a racist or a child molester, they plant false memories in children of being sexually assaulted by Blake. He is taken to court and quickly convicted and sentenced to a penal colony where new arrivals are often executed, if I heard correctly. Oddly enough, as I watched the trial I was reminded of an episode of LOST IN SPACE where a law enforcement officer declared that they only had time for an “instant trial.” A talking judge’s head appeared on a large display. The officer and the defendants entered data into the machine and it made a summary judgment. The concept was similar here albeit a little more sophisticated with computerized balls of data entered into the system before a verdict was rendered.
After the sentencing, the rest of the episode is really a macguffin of sorts. Blake’s lawyer gets suspicious about his case and investigates. He finds out what we already know – that Blake was framed. He gets evidence and even footage of the dead bodies from the massacre, that were conveniently still lying around rather than having been taken away and burned or something. He tries to arrange for Blake to be removed from the transport ship, but he’s not successful. And at the end of the story, both he and his helping hand wife are shown murdered. In short, the events keeps you occupied but they ultimately go nowhere – except that he did reveal to Blake for sure that he was set up.
While on the transport, Blake meets some other people – one a thief, one a powerful woman. I suspect that they and the other ragtag members of the ship will be the rest of his “7”. (And please do not tell me if I am right or not when I speculate like this. I want to be surprised one way or another. I don’t want someone to respond, “Yes, they will be his 7, and the girl will become his girlfriend whom he’ll marry in Season 3 and...” or “No, they will get massacred like the first group in next week’s show.” Thank you for your understanding.)
The end of the episode could also be like the end of a bleak movie. The attempted heroes are killed, and the traitor/spy of the resistance comments that a transporter accident will be forthcoming. The end. The bad guys win. But instead, as they pull away from the planet, Blake is told that’s the last he’ll ever see of it, but he says with hope and firmness, “No, I’m coming back.”
Overall, an interesting pilot episode. Some of the sets – particularly the courtroom – suffer from a scarcity of props or even walls. But a low budget is acceptable to me when the storylines are imaginative; that’s what I liked about the original DOCTOR WHO. I’ll give this episode an 8 out of 10.
Anyway, I’m brand new to the show and didn’t even read many of the posts of all of you discussing it, as I like to be surprised. This episode certainly didn’t fail to do that. We began with an introduction to our hero as a rather ordinary-seeming fellow being persuaded by two friends to leave his enclosed city to attend a secret meeting “outside.” He meets a secret organization trying to rally against the tyrannical government known as “the Federation.” (I couldn’t help but be amused by the irony that “The Federation” was the benevolent force in the STAR TREK series, and also that the symbol under the title BLAKE’S 7 looked like a sideways version of the insignias worn on the STAR TREK uniforms.) When they ask the man if he remembers someone named Blake who led an attempted insurrection it was only then I really suspected that he was the very Blake they were discussing. Sure enough, he is told of his capture and subsequent brainwashing and begins to remember some of it.
I begin to wonder if some of these people will be part of his “7”. But that is not to be. In the first major “surprise” of the story, futuristic police arrive on the scene. Even though the leader tells him they will surrender peacefully, they instead open fire and slaughter all of them. Blake alone is spared because the Federation fears he would become a martyr for the cause if killed. They try to convince him that he imagined it all while they plot another means to discredit him. Remembering that old principle that if you want to destroy someone’s reputation make them out to be a racist or a child molester, they plant false memories in children of being sexually assaulted by Blake. He is taken to court and quickly convicted and sentenced to a penal colony where new arrivals are often executed, if I heard correctly. Oddly enough, as I watched the trial I was reminded of an episode of LOST IN SPACE where a law enforcement officer declared that they only had time for an “instant trial.” A talking judge’s head appeared on a large display. The officer and the defendants entered data into the machine and it made a summary judgment. The concept was similar here albeit a little more sophisticated with computerized balls of data entered into the system before a verdict was rendered.
After the sentencing, the rest of the episode is really a macguffin of sorts. Blake’s lawyer gets suspicious about his case and investigates. He finds out what we already know – that Blake was framed. He gets evidence and even footage of the dead bodies from the massacre, that were conveniently still lying around rather than having been taken away and burned or something. He tries to arrange for Blake to be removed from the transport ship, but he’s not successful. And at the end of the story, both he and his helping hand wife are shown murdered. In short, the events keeps you occupied but they ultimately go nowhere – except that he did reveal to Blake for sure that he was set up.
While on the transport, Blake meets some other people – one a thief, one a powerful woman. I suspect that they and the other ragtag members of the ship will be the rest of his “7”. (And please do not tell me if I am right or not when I speculate like this. I want to be surprised one way or another. I don’t want someone to respond, “Yes, they will be his 7, and the girl will become his girlfriend whom he’ll marry in Season 3 and...” or “No, they will get massacred like the first group in next week’s show.” Thank you for your understanding.)
The end of the episode could also be like the end of a bleak movie. The attempted heroes are killed, and the traitor/spy of the resistance comments that a transporter accident will be forthcoming. The end. The bad guys win. But instead, as they pull away from the planet, Blake is told that’s the last he’ll ever see of it, but he says with hope and firmness, “No, I’m coming back.”
Overall, an interesting pilot episode. Some of the sets – particularly the courtroom – suffer from a scarcity of props or even walls. But a low budget is acceptable to me when the storylines are imaginative; that’s what I liked about the original DOCTOR WHO. I’ll give this episode an 8 out of 10.
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ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
I'm glad you enjoyed the first episode of BLAKE'S 7.
Sorry to hear of your "technical" difficulties. When I have problems with technology, I have a habit of hitting it until it either works or it doesn't. It can be an expensive habit, but it's always satisfying.
It's also nice to see another original Whovian around the place.
Yeah that bothered me too. Even at the extremely fast past that the legal case seemed to operate, there should have been time for this to be cleared up. I wonder if it says something about the arrogance of the government (or those involved in the conspiracy) that they honestly thought no one would find the evidence? Or possibly it's just lazy writing? Who knows?
If I recall correctly, I remember reading that Blake's 7 was often made using recycled Doctor Who sets and props and costumes.
ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
And vice versa...
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
Both true and false. There was a large number of abolitionists at the time who were trying to end slavery in the south by any means necessary. There were also business owners in the north who were upset that they had to pay wages to workers when there were those in the south who were making a large amount of money on the backs of slaves. The government knew they had two choices - end slavery completely and cause a rift in the nation, or keep going as we were, and allow the states with slavery still instated to keep on, but not allow it to spread to the territories, which was balked at by slave owners wishing to travel west. And yes, Lincoln did, indeed, state that he would have allowed it to continue if it it would end the war.
There are some who will also insist that the Civil War was fought not over slavery, but over state's rights. This is in essence true, but they brush over the fact that the rights being fought over were the rights to own other human beings. Which makes those people assholes.
Also, people will often bring up Lincoln enacting the draft, and that the rich were able to buy their way out of the draft. And while this is true, again, they miss the point that it was the rich who owned slaves, and the rich certainly weren't fighting for the cause. It was the poor, who never owned slaves, but believed that in such a society, they, too, could achieve that status. Oh, to dream of someday being rich enough to own other humans to do your work for you, so that you can make even more money. Again, assholes.
Okay, enough of my backward country, and its stain on history, and how I'm part Native American, and we know how our country continues to treat my people. Fuckwits.
Seeing :The Way Back" for the first time in far too many years, I was delighted in just how good it is. Sure, we can go on for hours about budget and effects and everything else, but dammit, this is a solid story. We are introduced to Roj Blake, a one-time revolutionary who was brainwashed into believing that he was led astray and became a model citizen. Terry Nation liked to take a lot of credit for many things, but he had some really great ideas, and like Roddenberry and Lucas, he created a brilliant futuristic story. The plot may seem to new audiences as somewhat cliche or derivative, but only because so much that has come since has been informed by this series. An innocent man is framed for a crime he didn't commit, and is sent away by a government who suppresses free thought and doesn't want him to be looked at as a martyr for any cause other than their own. Also, Blake isn't a classical hero, but comes off as an every man, who simply winds up in that "wrong place, wrong time" situation. He's charismatic enough to like, but not overly flashy or showboaty (is that a word? Screw it, it is now.). It is still as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. I am certainly looking forward to episode 2.
Oh yeah, my rating. Like others, I always go x/5. So to adjust I will say it was a solid 9/10. Brilliant script, good dialogue that keeps the story moving with no extemporaneous exposition (say that five times fast after a six pack of lager), and it gives us just enough to want to move forward without giving us a two-hour premiere that bogs us down in long paragraphs of backstory.
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chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
While this isn't a new concept by any means, it is intriguing that only a year before that, we saw something similar with the Stormtroopers in Star Wars. Another thing that does is it creates a lack of sympathy for characters like that, so when you see them die, you feel nothing for them, other than feeling that the bad guy got his comeuppances.
chainsaw_metal1
Member: Rank 8
It's been a big thing here for a few decades now, and while I don't mind it, it gives you a feature film feeds you everything you need to know - characters, backstory, motivations, locations, etc. While I like a little mystery on the journey, most Americans need to know everything about the show so they know what they are getting into. In that same vein, it's how you can't have an upcoming show or movie without multiple spoilers, bonus clips, teasers, and the like. Again, I don't mind seeing something to get me excited, but most audiences seem to want to know everything about a movie or show before they even watch it. If it's a genre I like, or a franchise I'm a fan of, etc., I'm going to watch it. Unfortunately, most of my fellow countrymen (and women) are too dumb and need everything spoon-fed to them.
Sweet!
ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
In the third century of the second calendar, Roj Blake is led outside of the city dome by friends and learns that he had once been the leader of a resistance group that had fought against the Federation. All food and drink is treated with suppressants, water is been recycled endlessly and the Civil Administration keeps the population in a state of permanently medicated tranquillity. As a result, Blake goes without food and drink for thirty-six hours before venturing outside - a forbidden area - with his friends, who reveal that they are members of the Resistance. They then introduce him to other members.
With all of his memories still hazy, they inform him that he was captured, placed into intensive therapy and had his mind erased - with new memories implanted to replace the old memories. Blake appealed to everyone to support the Civil Administration and said that he had been misguided. The Federation apparently allowed his captured followers - including his brother and sister - to emigrate to the outer worlds. However, upon their arrival on the planet Zeton Five, they were all executed. While Blake moves away from the group to process all of this new information, Federation security services suddenly appear and slaughter the members of the Resistance.
Blake returns to the city dome, where a traitor, Dev Tarrant, has arranged for him to be captured. He is charged with fabricated crimes all involving children and is placed on trial. He is eventually found guilty and is given a life sentence on the penal colony of Cygnus Alpha, under the crimes’ category nine rating. When his defence counsel detects inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, they begin to believe that Blake might have been framed and they set out to discover the truth. However, they are both killed by Dev Tarrant and Blake is shipped off to Cygnus Alpha, onboard the Civil Administration spacecraft London, with the final words, “I’m coming back.”
THE WAY BACK by Terry Nation gets BLAKE'S 7 off to a fine start with a compelling story and some interesting characters. Gareth Thomas does well as Roj Blake, as does Robert Beatty as Bran Foster, Jeremy Wilkin as Dev Tarrant and other supporting cast members such as Robert James, Michael Halsey, Pippa Steel and Gillian Bailey. Meanwhile, the introduction of Sally Knyvette as Jenna and Michael Keating as Vila near the end of the episode hopefully bodes well for the future.
4 / 5.
With all of his memories still hazy, they inform him that he was captured, placed into intensive therapy and had his mind erased - with new memories implanted to replace the old memories. Blake appealed to everyone to support the Civil Administration and said that he had been misguided. The Federation apparently allowed his captured followers - including his brother and sister - to emigrate to the outer worlds. However, upon their arrival on the planet Zeton Five, they were all executed. While Blake moves away from the group to process all of this new information, Federation security services suddenly appear and slaughter the members of the Resistance.
Blake returns to the city dome, where a traitor, Dev Tarrant, has arranged for him to be captured. He is charged with fabricated crimes all involving children and is placed on trial. He is eventually found guilty and is given a life sentence on the penal colony of Cygnus Alpha, under the crimes’ category nine rating. When his defence counsel detects inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence, they begin to believe that Blake might have been framed and they set out to discover the truth. However, they are both killed by Dev Tarrant and Blake is shipped off to Cygnus Alpha, onboard the Civil Administration spacecraft London, with the final words, “I’m coming back.”
THE WAY BACK by Terry Nation gets BLAKE'S 7 off to a fine start with a compelling story and some interesting characters. Gareth Thomas does well as Roj Blake, as does Robert Beatty as Bran Foster, Jeremy Wilkin as Dev Tarrant and other supporting cast members such as Robert James, Michael Halsey, Pippa Steel and Gillian Bailey. Meanwhile, the introduction of Sally Knyvette as Jenna and Michael Keating as Vila near the end of the episode hopefully bodes well for the future.
4 / 5.
In my opinion it is going to be almost impossible to prevent this kind of problem from happening. While I think it is a problem, it takes a lot of effort for someone, especially a big fan, to "pretend" they don't what happens next or make more superficial non-spoiler comments that don't give away information that newcomers don't have yet. But ideally, I'd like to stay as "virgin" as possible and find out things as they happen. I'll give two examples of how this has benefited me.
One of the most rewarding cinematic experiences I've had was the movie "Sleeping with the Enemy," with Julia Roberts. Not that the movie was anything special, but because it was one of those rare situations in which I just picked a room in the movie multiplex and entered without knowing anything about the movie at all, except that it starred Julia Roberts. I was thrilled about having no idea of what would happen after each scene.
MOre recently, I've watched "Suburbicon." I didn't know enough about the movie to spoil it (and watch out, I might give away some information you might not wish to know in case you haven't watched it and intent to watch it). I knew it starred Matt Damon and he played a kind of conformist regular guy, not his heroic Jason Bourne heroic version or somebody extremely resourceful as The Martian. But he's still Matt Damon, for chrissakes, so I assumed this would be one of those personal "overcoming one's own limitations" tale so he would start as meek and in the end he would rise up to the occasion to protect his family and end being victorious. Well, let's say I was surprised by the turn his character took, and that the movie started to look more and more like a Fargo episode.
Anyway, ideally, comments with spoilers should be posted on separate threads, not the ones commenting on the episode of the week. Eventually, that rule will break, but I hope it keeps more or less intact over the next few weeks and/or months.
Oh, so it is a unified Earth administration? I thought this was something else. Well, I wasn't sure what this was.
In Star Trek, the Federation is a federation because it comprises more than one planet. Notice that the Federation started after Star Trek: Enterprise ended, and Captain Archer became a central figure in the formation of the initial Federation composition with Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellerites, I think. In Blake's 7 "we" still don't know what this Federation includes exactly, if it's a Federation of a certain region on Earth (there could be independent nations on Earth still, or part of Earth could be a nuclear wasteland, what have you...), or it could include all the current Earth nations, or all Earth with human colonies in space, or even Earth + alien worlds. And please don't tell me which case it is.
I hate long pilots. I don't even know if I'm gonna enjoy the show and they already want me to commit two hours of my time to it. If I want to watch something that lasts two hours, I watch a movie, not a TV show.
Simian Jack
Member: Rank 1
Hi! (waves)
I was with the Sages for a short stint as IMDb died and had to bow out in the middle of Kolchak. If things turn out well over the next few weeks I hope to return and go through Blake and Star Cops with you.
Somewhere in this thread you guys were talking about the advocate Taron and his wife, whether they should not have been more aware how rigged the system is seeing as they are a part of it. Can't find where that went, but I'm speculating...maybe the reason Taron was assigned to Blake was to satisfy the appearance of a fair trial giving him counsel that was honest but naïve and inexperienced?
I was with the Sages for a short stint as IMDb died and had to bow out in the middle of Kolchak. If things turn out well over the next few weeks I hope to return and go through Blake and Star Cops with you.
Not props exactly, but I think I recognized some of the soft furniture as the same type used in Robots of Death. :) (establishing nerd cred)
Somewhere in this thread you guys were talking about the advocate Taron and his wife, whether they should not have been more aware how rigged the system is seeing as they are a part of it. Can't find where that went, but I'm speculating...maybe the reason Taron was assigned to Blake was to satisfy the appearance of a fair trial giving him counsel that was honest but naïve and inexperienced?
ant-mac
Member: Rank 9
Simian Jack
Member: Rank 1
The Way Back (S1E1)
Earth's future, at an unspecified date, in an unnamed country, under an interplanetary federation. Good citizen Roj Blake has a dodgy history. In fact he might have more than one, and dodgy in ways he doesn't even know.
Blake was once a dissident who, having recanted and renounced the rebel movement in his highly public trial, would like to move on. That's not easy to do when one of his friends is one of those annoying conspiracy theorists. She insists on thrusting her anti-government rap at him. Lately she's asked him to fast for a few days as she claims the food and water are secretly medicated to keep the populace sedate. Nutty, and yet he goes along with her request. Now she's got him going to meet some "friends", a meeting she didn't tell him would be highly illegal. Her friends turn out to be a group of rabble-rousers and legal outliers eager to begin a new revolt now the last is several years dead. Their leader has a shock for Blake: he says Roj's life is a lie. Blake, he contends, was brainwashed and his family murdered. They want him to reclaim his role as their spearhead.
Before Blake can process this, he witnesses government forces slaughter the group as they try to surrender peaceably. Welcome to the future.
So we have our world-building. Blake's Earth is a dystopian future under a faceless totalitarian regime - the police stormtroopers wear threatening gear that hides their faces and kill without reflection, the bureaucrats are mild-spoken folk who as a matter of routine decide Blake must be discredited all over again, and the populace is laced with spies that Stalin or McCarthy would be proud of (one such, Dev Tarrant, set up the dissidents to be butchered). Blake's 7 was a British television production of the late 70s, a natural development under the Doctor Who mold. That means its production values had to be curtailed, leading to some very sparse set design on obvious stages, and location work at numerous bleak-looking industrial installations. It may look cheap, but it is also well-suited to the tone set by the premise: bleak.
It's decided that the Federation's best interests would be served by making Blake out to be something so reprehensible that any decent citizen must balk at the idea he could be any kind of hero. Thus they charge him with molesting children, and proceed to manufacture evidence and witnesses. This means brainwashing children with false memories of having been sexually assaulted. This is decided in the same manner with which a committee might decide on a tax measure or work bill. It makes no difference to the children that the assaults never took place - they will now be scarred with the memories of it all the same, never knowing its not true. Projection - the government piously accuses an innocent of the very crimes they commit themselves. The very banality of the villains and their deliberations is the most chilling thing about them. It's not melodrama, just procedure. The villains look like school teachers, librarians, and kindly grandmothers.
As a protagonist, Roj Blake appears on the surface as the standard hero. He's earnest, forthright, and not unduly outraged at the injustices welling up around him. He's an everyman, one of us, an ordiary citizen. Who wouldn't identify with that? He's the hero we'd all like to be. Look a little deeper and he seems a bit flighty. Invited to break the law in a prticularly serious manner, he protests..then meekly goes right along with it. Told that everything he knows is a lie, he's quick to doubt his own experience for the word of a stranger who acts like an old comrade. Blake used to be a rebel leader, and they tend to be charismatics, firebrands, even True Believers. The Roj Blake we meet in The Way Back is no natural leader, but he does have the makings of a True Believer who will embrace an ideology at the drop of a hat and run with it.
Is Blake's 7 going to be run--of-the-mill science fiction or something that will subvert our expectations? I don't think creator Terry Nation chose to set the adversaries as "The Federation" as a coincidence but as a direct response toTrekdom's utopian vision. This may be a reactonary program about reactionary people.
We have two more protagonists in the advocate who takes on Blake's case, and the advocate's wife. The more Tel and Maja Varon investigate, the more they doubt their client's assured guilt. As the episode unfolds they begin to take the spotlight from the eponymous hero with a warm chemistry and empathy, and bewilderment at the corruption they're suddenly opening their eyes to that makes them more likable characters than Blake himself. I can see following them for a few seasons.
The exonerating evidence mounts. Victory races the clock as Blake is hauled to a transport to a penal colony. Blake's vindication is at hand as Act III is surely about to begin...and that's where the episode ends with Tel and Maja lying dead at Dev Tarrant's feet and Blake on his way to life in a penal colony.
The writing is sharp on some counts, less so on others. For example, science fiction has always had a weak spot for shortcuts, and trial scenes are usually whoppers. The one in The Way Back is one of the less convincing, letting the arguments to be weighed by data globes instantaneously so we the audience don't have to sit through them. Fans of due process should be tearing their hair out. It doesn't harm the show too much, and does reinforce the degree to which this society has twisted against its citizens to secure the state. A longer episode might have wrung more out of it for satire but not without slowing the pace of the space opera, and the tone set by The Way Back is oppressively humorless.
The production and fx of The Way Back are a marked improvement on Doctor Who. There is a shot of the transport ship on an arrival/departure platform that had me expecting to see names in the credits associated with Space: 1999. It was that good, budget discrepancies in mind. So is a sequence leaving a protective city-dome behind in the night.
8 Magic 8-Balls of Judicious Wisdom.
The abrupt ending is in line with a more serialized program but I couldn't help thinking it felt like one of those two-part pilot movies that's been chopped in half for syndication.