Big Gay Longcat reviews Blakes 7: Dawn of the Gods (part two)

"Welcome to Kraandor, my friends, an artificial planet, which is the palace of the Lord Thaarn, master of the universe. I am the Caliph of Kraandor."

The arrival of the preposterous character of the Caliph of Kraandor is the moment this episode goes irretrievably to shit. He pewpewpews Tarrant to demonstrate that he can dress as stupidly as he likes when he's the only one with a fuctioning pewpewpew gun, or "neuronic whip" as he calls it. Having captured them, the Caliph then goes onto the Liberator where he captures Dayna as well. At least Dayna can take some comfort that they could be bothered to capture her on-screen this time.

In a cell, Cally tells the others what she knows of the Thaarn:

"The story goes back through the mists of time, to the dawn of the gods."

Clang!

"There were seven gods who discovered the planet Auron, and on it left the first man and woman. A million years went by. The gods returned. They were no older even though a million years had passed."

"Not impossible if they had a spaceship capable of traveling at near the speed of light."

James Follett did research for this sci-fi script of his, and he wants to make sure we know it! Cally continues:

"The gods returned and were pleased with what they saw, and they bestowed on the people of Auron great gifts: new types of crops, which ended hunger, constant peace..."

"And telepathy?"

"...and telepathy was promised. But one of the gods was very jealous. He didn't believe that the people of Auron deserved all this. He was frightened they would one day become so powerful they would challenge the supremacy of the gods themselves. And in his rage, he killed another god. The five remaining gods were so angry, they built a chariot for him and sent him beyond the threshold of space and time. The mad god swore a terrible vengeance. He said that he would return again. He said that he alone would discover the eternal secrets and become the one great master of the universe. You see, a legend."

When the story is done, the Caliph brings Dayna in and takes Cally away to meet the Thaarn.

The Caliph introduces the others to Groff, who is played by Terry Scully, Henry vi from An Age of Kings. First Julian Glover in Breakdown, then Paul Daneman in Killer, and now Terry Scully for Dawn of the Gods. Did the BBC just round up actors from An Age of Kings to be in all the shit episodes of Blakes 7?

That probably means there's a parallel universe out there where...

"When wash the lasht time you felt the warmth of the Earth's shun on your naked back? Or lifted your face to the heavensh and laughed with the joy of being alive? How long shince you wept at the death of a friend? Doeshn't mean a thing to you, doesh it, Mish Moneyp... er, Madam Preshident? You've shurrounded yourself with machinesh and weaponsh, mindlesh men and heartlesh mutoidsh, and when they've done your work, and the machinesh have done your thinking, what ish there left in you that feelsh?"

Now I'm left wondering what Sean Connery would have looked like if he had been in Blakes 7?

Something a bit like this, I suppose. Mew.

Back at the plot, Groff and the Caliph want to know where Orac is, because they know he is one of the regular characters but not what he looks like (this is what happens if you read the Radio Times but don't actually watch the episodes). This leads to what is the only good bit in this otherwise awful second half of the story, where the Caliph whips out his neuronic whip and says

"The neuronic whip is on an automatic setting. It has only to sense one lie and it will boil your brains in your skull. Where is Orac?"

"If he's not on the ship, I don't know where he is."

"How tall is he?"

Tarrant indicates how high off the floor Orac usually is.

"A dwarf?"

"We never think of him as one."

"What is the color of his hair?"

"He hasn't got any. A bald dwarf shouldn't be too hard to find."

Lol, the Caliph is outwitted by Tarrant not lying.

Groff takes Avon and Tarrant to a room where he wants them to do W-Word. Oh noes!

Tarrant wants to at least be allowed to use a computer if he is going to be forced to do W-Word, presumably so that he can skive off and look at the internets when Groff isn't looking... er, I've heard that's something mannys do sometimes. Groff says that the Thaarn will not allow computers on Kraandor. Avon then starts asking Groff about the Thaarn's gravity generator that brought the Liberator here, claiming that he needs to know for the W-Word but we can tell that really he is only W-Wording on a plan to escape, lol.

Groff tells them that the Caliph has sent "a salvage team" to destroy the Liberator and steal all its Herculaneum, so they will not be able to use it to escape. It then cuts to show the salvage team trying to do this, but they are interrupted by the Liberator's self-defence mechanism, as seen all the way back (no, not quite that far back) in Space Fall. Despite them being baddys, Orac tries to warn the salvage team about the danger, but either they ignore him or it was already too late from them, as it pews them and they go

Cally is trying to have some sleeps while the Thaarn is watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos on his three TV sets (pretty impressive, since that series wouldn't be broadcast until later on in 1980), and he is also wittering on about taking over the universe using gravity:

"He who controls gravity, controls everything!"

Also considered as a possible slogan: The gravity must flow!

Cally doesn't want to be a ruler of the universe, clearly considering sleeps to be more important. Cally showing a sensible, cat-like sense of priorities here. The Thaarn eventually agrees to shut up and let her have some sleeps. Maybe he thinks she's just being grumpy and will agree to rule the universe with him after she wakes up?

Avon has deduced that "putting the gravity generator into full reverse would cause Krandor to disintegrate." To this Groff adds:

"Worse than that, it would blow up."

But they can't reverse the gravity generator while the "energy isolators" are on, and only the Thaarn has control of them.

Cally wakes up and pretends to join the Thaarn, tricking him into turning off his energy isolators. As soon as he does this, their pewpewpew guns start functioning again, and Avon and Tarrant immediately shoot their guards and escape, rescuing Vila and Dayna on the way out.

Cally pulls back the Thaarn's curtain (Blakes 7 not having had the budget for a giant Wizard of Oz head - nor even a giant Zardoz head - we have only heard his voice up until now) and we see that he is one of the Talosians who has escaped from Star Trek's The Cage. We even get a double jump cut to show him in dramatic close up.

This is a technique that is made more effective when it is not over-used, so we are lucky that it being used in this piss-poor excuse for an episode in no way detracts from the power of its use at the end of Blake.

Groff tries to aid their escape by reversing the gravity generator. The Caliph comes in, but before he can use his neural whip to stop Groff, Groff punches him and then they have a fight. The Caliph wins and pewpewpews Groff, but he still manages to finish pulling the big lever before he dies, which blows up Kraandor.

Cally catches up with the others and they get back into the Liberator and escape before the planet blows up. The Thaarn also escapes in his own spaceship. For reasons that are not made explicit, but may be due to her pitying the Thaarn for only ever appearing as the baddy in one episode, and an exceptionally shit one at that, Cally lies to the others and tells them she "never saw him." Avon says

"I suspect we have made another enemy."

Orac gets all huffy and says

"It is intolerable! There is insufficient room in the galaxy for his intellect and mine."

Tarrant says

"I don't know, he did have one redeeming feature. He didn't like computers."

and this weak put down passes for the end of episode joke.

Can I use "Dawn of the Gods" and "good" in the same sentence? Certainly: Dawn of the Gods is a good candidate for worst episode of Blakes 7. Perhaps only Ben Steed's episodes are worse, and at least Harvest of Kairos is a lot more fun than this.

Calling this Dawn of the Gods is an insult to both dawns and gods. I wouldn't like to be in James Follett's position when the Hoff hears about this!

Big Gay Longcat reviews Blakes 7: Dawn of the Gods

Dawn of the Gods is the 30th episode of Blakes 7. It was written by James Follett, the first of two - the other one was Stardrive in season four.

Avon, Vila, Cally, Dayna and Orac are playing Space Monopoly, which does not make for a riveting hook into the story. The dialogue for this bit is so trite it is a welcome relief to see Tarrant trying to get the plot started - the Liberator is starting to go off course and speed up, but Zen says that "all systems are functioning normally."

Tarrant suspects a "traction beam" is affecting them, but Zen's scan detects nothing that could be the source. They fly into "sector 12" which Tarrant says is uncharted. Avon wants to predict where they are being drawn towards, and Zen shows them a picture of where that is.

"Three guesses, if you need them."
"A black hole."

Orac is fascinated by black holes, and tells the mannys the facts that even cats know about them:

"Their gravitational pull is so massive that not even light can escape from them. A cubic inch of black hole matter can weigh a million tons."

I don't know much about the writer James Follett, but one fact I do know is that this is a picture of him doing his research for this episode:

The ship is now going so fast that it starts a special effect that knocks out all of the mannys, even as Avon and Tarrant start having a fight because Avon tried to escape in a spacesuit. The dialogue is distorted so we have no idea what Avon's full plan actually was, except that it was only "a faint chance for one of us."

Tarrant wakes up first and goes to wake up Avon. They're best friends again, d'aww, even as Tarrant says

"One day, Avon, I may have to kill you."
"It has been tried."

This is just them flirting.

Cally has been hurt and needs to be put in a small see-through tent to help make her better. Inside it, we can hear somebody communicating telepathically with her. It's the Tharn.

Sorry, I mean "it's the Thaarn." He wants to rule the universe together with Cally.

The others are more concerned with where the Liberator is now. Avon has a theory that they "have fallen through the black hole into the so-called negative universe of antimatter, where time and energy no longer exist."

Tarrant and Dayna decide to fire the neutron blasters, presumably just for the lols, but the shots rebound upon the Liberator. Cally comes in and suggests this is because "space is curved back on itself here."

Cally is surprised to hear from Tarrant that she was delirious and talking about the Thaarn, saying that

"Well, it seems absurd. The Thaarn is as mythical to me as dragons and unicorns are to the people of Earth."

My friend Dragon has been watching the episode along with me, and he would like me to point out that this statement is entirely precise and accurate.

There has been some damage to the outside of the ship, and they need Vila to put on a spacesuit. There is a classic instant reversal gag where Vila says

"Oh no, not me. Not a space suit. Well, it wasn't my idea. One of you can go outside. I never did trust those things. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the whole galaxy can or will persuade me to wear one. Not a chance."

and then it cuts to show him with the spacesuit on, roflmew. Vila goes outside the ship where he discovers there is gravity, and a floor when he falls onto it. This is actually quite a tense and interesting scene, with Vila facing unknown perils alone and only in touch with the other characters over the communicator.

The Thaarn starts communicating with Cally again, so she alerts the others to there being "something out there - a force, something all powerful and evil." That's quite an extrapolation, given all the Thaarn did was say

"Come to me, Cally, I need you."

like he had just invented a telepathic telephone and was testing it out for the first time.

Vila finds some wrecked parts of other spaceships, and then something comes towards him. It has lights on it that hypno-eyes him. Cally's telepathy comes in useful for a change, as she breaks the hypno-eyes and gets Vila to run away. He doesn't get far though because the thing chases him.

They shoot at the lights from the Liberator and that seems to scare it off, but they think Vila is ded when they see him having sleeps on the floor. Tarrant goes outside in a spacesuit next, and he finds that Vila is not ded but has discovered there is a breathable atmosphere.

Back in the Liberator, they analyse the rocks and spaceship parts that Vila found and they discover that all of the Herculaneum has been stolen, which is a neat trick to steal an ancient Roman town from out of a spaceship. Even more amazingly, Orac then says that the Liberator is made from Herculaneum.

Tarrant, Avon, Vila and Cally go outside of the ship and line up looking cool. Something comes towards them with less lights on it this time. Dayna tries to shoot it from back on the ship, but it somehow drains their energy banks so she can't.

It also drains the energy from their pewpewpew guns and then chases them around for a bit while looking derpy, because somebody has painted a silly-looking face on the front. Dragon wonders if this is another attempt by baddys to fake up a dragon, like the baddys in Dr. No did. Suffice to say, he doesn't like it. But if he thinks this is bad, I have seen this episode before and know what is coming next...

Oh noes.

TO BE CONTINUED

Big Gay Longcat reviews Blakes 7: Killer

Killer is the 20th episode of Blakes 7, and was the first of four episodes written by Robert Holmes. He may have written some of the best Doctor Who stories of all time, but even there he didn't start out with his strongest pieces, and it wasn't until he managed to get hold of some Quatermass tapes that he really got going.

Let's see if we can spot his inspiration for this story, shall we? There might be a line of dialogue that subtly hints at it if we really pay attention...

It starts with Avon and Vila teleporting from the Liberator to a location shoot while facing the wrong way, lol. They see a big dome in the distance and head towards it. While the dome is obviously a matte painting, there is a simple but good bit of SFX to superimpose them into the corner which helps sell the shot. This is a promising start, helped by the fact that we don't have to wait ages to see Avon like we did with, say, Animals.

Back on the Liberator, Blake looks at an old spaceship that Zen has spotted. Jenna and Cally are there too, and as this is season two they are doubtless desperate for something, anything, to do with the plot. Cally detects life on board, because her telepathic powers can apparently do that this week, but she is confused if it is a manny or not.

"They're ready. They're watching."

she says mysteriously, but she can't give Blake a straight answer when asked what that means, other than to say there is something "malignant" on the ship.

Avon and Vila stealth around the location - another power station no doubt - avoiding Federation soldiers. They are looking for the "base commander."

Back to the Liberator already, where Blake says "I don't like mysteries" and gets Orac to help him investigate the spaceship by looking up Federation records, trying to identify it. I think for a manny who claims not to like mysteries, he is going to a great deal of effort to involve himself in this one. Gamma Longcat thinks Blake means that he doesn't like unsolved mysteries, which I suppose would make sense.

Disguised by costumes that are particularly silly even by Blakes 7 standards, Avon and Vila get in to see Avon's old friend Tynus (Ronald "Evilest Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark" Lacey), and he seems pleased to see them... or Avon, at any rate, he mostly ignores Vila. I can't say I blame him, purr.

Avon soon tells Tynus why they've come to visit him, and in doing so gives us the exposition about the plot - they want to steal a crystal for use in breaking Federation codes, and Tynus has one here in his base. Avon has several plans for how to go about this, but Tynus doesn't like the risk to him if the Federation find out he helped Avon and Blake. When he leaves the room saying he'll have to think about it, Vila says

"I hope you can trust him."

"I told you, he's a friend of mine."

"Yes, I always knew you had a friend. I used to say to people, 'I bet Avon's got a friend... somewhere in the galaxy.'"

"And you were right. That must be a novel experience for you."

Tynus has received a warning from Blake about the (still vague and mysterious) danger of the spaceship, which he sends on to a manny called Dr Bellfriar who has taken charge of getting the spaceship to land on their planet Fosforon. But Tynus also takes the opportunity to send a message to Federation Headquarters about Avon being here.

Dr Bellfriar is played by Paul Daneman (who I have most recently seen playing Richard iii in An Age of Kings). He takes Blake's warning seriously enough to want "full quarantine" for the spaceship when it lands, which puts him one up on the British government.*

Tynus allows himself to be persuaded to help, but he introduces enough problems into Avon's plan to stretch it out and make it take 10 hours, so this could be a looooong episode!

Blake teleports down and meets with Bellfriar and his assistant Gambrill. He tells them what he knows, and that he is Blake, to which they reply

"Yes, but then we're absentminded scientists, you see. In fact, we've forgotten your name already. Haven't we, Gambrill?"

"Whose name, sir?"

Lol.

The mannys take a supposedly ded body out of the spaceship for Dr Wiler to examine ("standard drill with a space death," apparently). By the time Wiler gets started, Blake and Bellfriar are best friends and they sit down to watch the examination on TV together. Wiler finds identification on the body that confirms what Blake already found out from Orac, as well as confirming to us that mannys sometimes have their names on collars just like cats and doggys often do.

Wiler confirms that the manny is ded, which is a clever bit of writing from Robert Holmes for two reasons - firstly, because we know the manny has been ded for 700 years, so it gives us a quick lol to see him making sure, and, secondly, so that there is an extra-scary moment when it immediately afterwards comes back to life and strangles Wiler.

Wiler is killed, then the ded manny dies (again). Two mannys rush in to help Wiler too late, and they soon afterwards become ill. Bellfriar is worried that there might be "space contamination" (are we quite sure Terry Nation didn't write this?) and this is confirmed when the mannys who help them get ill too. It is serious enough that the first two mannys quickly die, and the sickbay they were taken to is sealed off. Probably should have done that already, but at least they're doing it now - if it was the British government in charge their top priority about now would be setting up a scheme to encourage the sick mannys to visit space restaurants.

Over in the other plot, Tynus starts his plan, which is a fire to distract the Federation mannys, allowing Avon and Vila to stealth to where the crystal they want to steal is. After they have set up the malfunction that is intended to allow them to get at the crystal (which they can't steal yet because, as Avon explains to Vila and therefore to us as well, they don't want the Federation to know they have stolen it, so they need the Federation to think it is borked so that they'll throw it in the bin) and are back in Tynus's office, Tynus tells Vila to get rid of the evidence that he started the fire.

As he is doing so, Vila accidentally sees traces of the message sent by Tynus to Federation Headquarters, enough to reconstruct the whole thing for reading to Avon (and us):

"Servalan, Federation HQ, urgent. Liberator in orbit, Fosforon. Detaining 10 hours. Make speed. Tynus, Q-Base."

Blake lays out his whole theory of what has happened to Bellfriar, including an analogy to an event that may just be Robert Holmes trying to be too clever by including his inspiration for the story as part of the story:

"Have you ever heard of Lord Jeffrey Ashley?"

"Who?"

No, Bellfriar, that's Dr Plaxton you're thinking of.

"Pre-space age, planet Earth. He was the commander of a British garrison in America, having trouble with hostile natives, redskins. Ashley ordered blankets from smallpox victims to be baled up and sent to the hostile tribes."

Blake teleports back to the Liberator to escape get Orac's help in curing the virus. All the mannys except Bellfriar start to panic and try to escape the lockdown. Gambrill catches the virus and he goes

The virus hasn't reached the plot with Avon and Vila in it yet, so they are still more concerned with Tynus's betrayal. They hear Tynus talking to Bellfriar about the other plot, and Avon decides that the virus is enough of a distraction for them to steal the crystal and make it look as though it was destroyed not stolen. Vila starts to panic and says

"I don't like bugs. You can't hear them, you can't see them and you can't feel them, then suddenly you're dead."

Tynus knocks out Vila and points his pewpewpew gun at Avon.

Vila distracts Tynus, allowing Avon to turn the tables on him. They have a fistfight that ends with Tynus getting electriced by his computer.

Avon and Vila then teleport away with the crystal they were after.

Bellfriar telephones Blake on the Liberator to tell him what he has found out about the virus, but before he can tell them about the cure he forgets how to read his own formula. That's unlucky, mew.

Avon thinks they can kill Servalan by letting her land on the planet and then catch the virus, but Blake wants to warn the Federation so they don't catch the virus, then leave, and take it with them to other planets.

"There has to be a warning, Jenna, there has to be."

Given the effect the coronavirus has had on world leaders who have had it, I would expect that if Servalan caught the virus she would only recover from it and then go on to be even more evil incompetent evil.

Killer is an interesting episode structurally, but it isn't particularly good and is one of the weaker episodes of season two. Robert Holmes writes well for Avon and Vila (and we see this again in later episodes written by him), but he doesn't seem to know how to properly write for the other characters, with the result that their plot is not as strong as it maybe could have been.

Killer is also not helped by its placing within season two. With the aftermath of the death of Gan in (no, not Aftermath) Trial immediately before it, and the start of the epic hunt for Star One beginning in Countdown two episodes after it, this leaves Killer (along with Hostage) stuck in between a number of far more memorable episodes, due to their significance to the ongoing plot of Blakes 7.

Killer? More like Filler.

Or at least this was the case until 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic happened to make the plot of Killer feel far more topical and memorable than any of us would ever have liked.

* Final score is Blakes 7, British government 0

Big Gay Longcat reviews Blakes 7: Breakdown

Breakdown is the 10th episode of Blakes 7. Just like all the other episodes from season one, it was written by Terry Nation.

It starts on the Liberator where Gan is so busy making faces he doesn't pay attention to Zen's warning about their approaching a "meteorite storm zone." He attacks Jenna (or at least her stunt double), and then when Blake comes in he attacks him too. There's some nice single camera action here that helps make the fight more dynamic and exciting than is typical for a four camera studio fight sequence. Avon, Vila and Cally arrive like the cavalry (Callyvalry?) but Gan fights all of them until Blake hits him over the head with a box.

With the fight over, Avon and Blake think it was caused by Gan's "limiter implant in his brain" and they discuss what they can do about it. Blake makes the suggestion that they could try to do surgery on Gan themselves with instructions from Zen, but Avon says

"There are quicker ways that you could kill him, but there are none more certain."

This is part of their characters' dynamic that was much missed after Blake left the series - Blake already knew that his suggestion was unfeasible, but he needed to put it out there for Avon to shut it down by pointing out all the flaws in his inimitably ruthless, practical style.

"We need a neurosurgeon."

concludes Blake.

They look for where they can get to one with the skills to save Gan, but all the ones that Zen tells them about are all on planets too far away. Avon knows about XK72, a "space laboratory" where they specialise in "space medicine" (thanks Terry Nation, I knew you wouldn't let me down). The only problem is that Zen says that "direct flight" to it would cross a "prohibited space zone" and going around the zone would take more than four times as long. When they order Zen to fly the Liberator to XK72 by the direct route anyway, it rejects the order so they are forced to fly "on manual."

Zen turns itself off along with all the computer systems, which worries Avon because this includes lots of things that they are used to happening automatically in the background to keep the Liberator functioning. Blake tells him to try and bypass Zen so that they can turn those systems back on because the alternative is to turn back, which Jenna refuses to do.

Gan wakes up and tries to escape from the science restraints they have put him in. When grunting and making faces don't help him, he tricks Cally into letting him out so that he can attack her. There is a very creepy moment as he smiles while he strangles her, as though enjoying it, before he wanders off and starts making faces and holding his head again.

Cally goes to the bridge to tell Blake what has happened:

"Gan has just tried to kill me."

"What?"

"I thought he was normal again."

"You mean you released him?"

Blake is obviously incredulous about how stupid Cally has been here, but he doesn't waste time, he runs off to look for Gan.

Gan comes into the computer room and has a fight with Avon, during which they both make a number of amusing faces.

Gan collapses, which I guess counts as a win for Avon then? Blake comes in and says

"He got away from Cally."

"Yes, well, I can see that!"

Avon is more incredulous about Blake's stating the obvious than Cally's mistaik.

The Liberator flies towards a red whirly thing in space.

Blake and Jenna agree to fly "straight for the centre" of the time hole, which prompts Avon to say

"Blake, in the unlikely event that we survive this, I'm finished. Staying with you requires a degree of stupidity of which I no longer feel capable."

Blake replies with a quip:

"Now you're just being modest."

Since this isn't the last episode, they do survive it. They arrive at XK72, where Jenna says

"Give me closer vision."

as an excuse for us to take an extended look at the model they've made.

When Blake teleports onto XK72 we finally see some guest cast, including Professor Kayn (Julian Glover, who has been in loads of things but who was most recently seen by me playing a variety of roles in An Age of Kings), the neurosurgeon who they hope can help Gan.

Blake takes Kayn back to the Liberator, then Avon teleports to XK72 to get Kayn's assistant but with the intention of not coming back. Avon offers Farren, the manny in charge of XK72, the secret of how to teleport if he can stay at XK72.

Kayn's assistant is Dr Renor, who isn't played by Leslie Phillips but he really should have been given his reaction when he meets Jenna:

"Hello, hello, hello!"

"Ah, Jenna, this is Professor Kayn's assistant, his name is..."

"Renor. And I had a feeling this was going to be a good day."

"Yes, well, don't let your feelings run away with you."

"Oh, a sense of humor, too. I love girls with a sense of humor."

"Yes, I can see where that would be an advantage."

Lol.

Kayn has deduced who Blake is, and he doesn't like it because he thinks our heroes are "maniacs." Even though he is supposed to be neutral, he likes the Federation and so he believes all their propaganda. He telephones the nearest Federation base (using a surprisingly modern-looking mobile 'phone device) to tell them the Liberator is at XK72.

Luckily for our heroes, Farren finds out what Kayn has done and tells Avon. He tries to tempt Avon to stay secretly on XK72, but Avon goes back to the Liberator to "collect a few things." It is not entirely clear if he means this or is just using it as an excuse to leave because he doesn't trust Farren.

Vila and Avon try to force Kayn to start operating on Gan, but he says the ship has to stay still while they're doing it, so they can't leave even though Federation ships are now on their way. Blake isn't often seen to be ruthless, but here he shows that he can be even more ruthless than Avon when he chooses to be, when instead of threatening to kill Kayn, he threatens him with:

"I shall destroy your hands."

Kayn and Renor do the operation in a montage, while the music makes a valiant but ultimately vain effort at keeping the tension up. They succeed, and then get teleported back to XK72 before the Liberator starts to leave. On XK72, Farren and Kayn have an argument and Farren touches Kayn's paw, which makes Kayn go mannycidal and he kills Farren. It turns out he was the real maniac all along.

The Federation ships shoot at the Liberator, and one of their plasma bolts misses and heads straight at XK72. Farren is busy being ded so can't tell his mannys what to do to save themselves, while Kayn is busy staring at his paws until XK72 gets blowed up.

The Liberator escapes, and then in the final scene they all stand around with Gan, who is back to normal, and have a laugh at the fact that he's not ded. This is a particularly poor example of the 'all stand around laughing' type of ending.

Despite having several points in its favour on paper, Breakdown is a below average episode of Blakes 7. For most of the run time the only characters we see are the regulars, but this 'bottle episode' nature will be handled much better in Sarcophagus. Then when guest characters do appear, they have one of the best actors to appear in the series in the form of Julian Glover, but Kayn just doesn't do enough to make a strong impression as a baddy, certainly not when compared against the likes of Travis or Servalan.

He chose... poorly... when deciding which episode to guest-star in, lol. 

I suppose the fundamental problem with the story is that its most memorable moments can be summed up as David Jackson making faces and Julian Glover staring at his paws. Meanwhile it is up against a lot of competition, even within the confines of only the first season.

The one way in which Breakdown really stands out from the crowd is that it is the only episode to focus on Gan (or at least the main plot revolves around his character, which is not quite the same thing, mew). Even then, he spends most of his time making faces, grunting, attacking the other main characters, or being unconscious. No wonder that, after this, Michael Keating never complained about the scarcity of episodes focusing on Vila!