Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Stephan Greif, Isla Blair, Michael Keating, Sally Kvyette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Douglas Camfield
The Liberator is running low on power, but just as the crew think there safe, Travis and his squad of pusuit ships attack, leaving the Liberator pinned down with no chance of escape...
Meanwhile, on the unknown planet below them, two individuals watch this duel. They have a lesson for Blake and Travis to learn, and are intent for there conflict to end...even if that means one of them has to die...
I've seen reviews where people call this one of the best Blake's 7 episodes that there is. In a way, those views aren't unfounded. However, this episode leaves me with very mixed feelings, more so than possibly any other Blake's 7 episode. On the one hand, it's wonderfully acted, with some brilliant direction and really strong film work and use of computer graphics, but on the other hand, it's incredibly slow, the idea has been ripped out of a Star Trek episode for sure and most of the crew are sidelined for a massive chunk of the story. It's a story that creates mixed emotions in me.
The main bulk of the story is a look at the damage that conflict can do to a world and how these so called 'ultimate deterrents' can end up condemning a world to destruction. Now, obviously no one thought to tell Terry Nation that not only was this a classic sci fi idea, but it was one that he popularised in the second Doctor Who story The Daleks and revisited only three years before in Genesis Of The Daleks. The war even ends up going on for a thousand years, just like the Kaled/Thal war. These blatant rip offs are more detrimental to the story than they should be, because you get the feeling that we're simply going over retrodden ground. This has all been covered before, so why do we needed rehashed again? This would be less of an issue, if the concept of a 'fight to the death with a moral message' hadn't blatantly been torn out of Star Trek. The whole episode feels like it was made more for the kind of light, fluffy trat that that show puts out, rather than than the hard sci-fi that this show puts out. The alien's powers are completely unexplained and it all feels slightly unreal. And here's my massive problem with this episode: it's too unrealistic. Blake's 7 up till this point has felt like a real world (yes, even The Web!), but everything that we see and hear in Duel feels like it's been torn out of what would be best described as a Fairytale. Yes, it's that bad, because the ending is so predictable: goody defeats baddy, goody doesn't kill baddy, good gets to go free, and the moral of the story is... It's that poor. It's like kiddies Blake's 7, not deep, but with blatant morals being enforced upon the audience. I hate that, and fortunately programmes like Doctor Who and Blake's 7 never really stray into that area too much, instead presenting a situation, and allowing it's audience to find there own morals within that. But when programmes do, I find it so degrading to it's audience. That's prehaps why I hate most TV made especially for kids, especially recent TV, because it treats them like kids. When drama like Doctor Who or Blake's 7 speaks to it's audience in a mature, normal fashion, it allows a greater connection with it's audience than programmes that don't. That's why, if I ever had kids, I would try to make them watch shows for the family earlier than most. Don't sugar coat it, just make it enjoyable and digestible.
Despite all these bad elements, Duel has some really good elements, particularly it's direction and acting. Douglas Camfield's work on Doctor Who was always some of the best from the 60's and 70's, so to see him handle Blake's 7 is brilliant. Sadly, because of his dispute with Dudly Simpson, the editing team had to use stock library music, which just doesn't feel right when put with Blake's 7. It's a programme musically defined by Dudly, so whenever anyone else, obviously excluding the Big Finish audios, composes the music, it's increadibly jarring. However, Douglas' innovative use of techniques which have only really been used by Michael E Briant in Blake's 7 before, really give the programme a slick look that it's rarely had before or since. The acting in this is of really top quality, really top collar stuff, espcially from Isla Blair, Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette and Stephan Grief. But in general, it's clear that Terry ran out of things to do with all but six of his characters, and four of them could have been pushed more. Most of the Liberator crew (four of them this time!) are relegated to the ship, just watching the action unfold. It's quickly becoming obvious that the Liberator is too crowded and someone needs to go. After all, both Gan and Villa have had little development, and Jenna's only now getting a real chance to get off the ship. And Cally's not really had much to do since The Web, so a Blake's 7 really going to have to up it's game in order to convince me that this crew don't need to be culled...
Duel, however, is a story that stirs anger but also a feeling of goodness. Blake's 7 episodes rarely divide my opinion as much as they do, and therefore Duel sits very much on the fence with me. There are really good things and really bad things, so it becomes a story very much of two halves. It's like the best of Blake's 7 and the worst of Blake's 7 put together.
Liberator Rating - 6/10
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