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!