Big Gay Longcat reviews Blakes 7: Countdown

There's a bomb that's going to blow a whole planet up, and it's up to Blake and Vila and Avon to stop it.

This story, written by Terry Nation, comes in the middle of season 2, and reveals some of the backstory of Avon for the first time.

It starts with lots of mannys fighting each other. I don't know why they're fighting yet, but some of them are Federation so they must be the baddys. The other side appears to be winning, and one of them is CHAAAAADBON!

CHAAAAADBON!

His name is Del Grant, but he is played by CHAAAAADBON! I have seen him before in Doctor Who and Rumpole of the Bailey. He has a voice that makes me go CHAAAAADBON! when I hear it.

Avon appears after almost 7 minutes, along with Blake and the rest. Avon, Blake and Vila teleport down. They find a space rocket that has fuel to last 100 space-hours.

Blake gets caught, but it is by the goodys so they team up straight away and soon Avon knows what's going on. Space Major Provine is the baddy. He has a bomb to blow up the planet unless Avon can stop him. The Federation put the bomb in so people would do what they say, but now it is going to go off.

Blake and Vila try to find the bomb so Avon can turn it off, then Avon meets Del Grant, played by CHAAAAADBON, who wants to kill him.

Blake finds out about Provine while Avon and Del Grant teleport to where the bomb is. Blake says if anything happens to Avon then he'll come looking for Grant, because Avon is his best friend and Blake would be sad without him.

Avon finds the bomb inside some ice and he tries to axe his way into it, but it would take too long so he gets Grant to use the space-heaters. While they turn the bomb off, Avon tells Grant about his sad story of how he got arrested and Anna got killed. Anna was Del Grant's sister - he blamed Avon for Anna dying, but now he sees that Avon is sad about it.

Avon is in danger from three different things here: the bomb is still counting down (that's why the story is called Countdown!), and the roof is in danger of falling on his head any minute, and Grant wants to kill him. This is very clever writing by Terry Nation to have so many dangers at once for Avon. And it shows how brave Avon is that he and Grant take their teleport bracelets off so they can't be rescued until they have saved the planet. And then the roof does fall on them so Avon can only stop the bomb in the nick of time.

Avon and Del Grant finish as friends, and Blake finds out about Docholli and "Star One" from Provine. But that's another story...

This is an amazing episode. It is fast-paced and tense with a countdown going all the way through. Avon saves the day again because he is brave, and it is a whole planet he saves. Blake and Vila are also good in this, though there's not much of Jenna, Cally or the Liberator in this episode - there isn't time!

When it finished I was feeling excited and happy because it was so good. It is another one of my favourites. Now my excitement is going away and I am feeling sleepy, but still a happy cat! It is time for sleeps now. Bye bye. Zzzzz