Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Vere Lorrimer
"There taking back what's there's. Redemption..."
The Liberator is attacked by unidentified ships. Despite Jenna's skills, the ship turns against it's former crew, and locks them out of it's systems. There can only be one explanation: the people who built the Liberator are reclaiming there property...
And all the time, Orac's prophecy hangs over the crew. Is this journey's end?
Well, I'm sorry to say it, but Redemption makes a poor second season opener for Blake's 7, filled with stilited moments and poor plotting. Remember The Way Back? Well, that feels like a age away from Redemption, which is so poor, it's merely a parody of Blake's 7 as it once was. And it's a shame, because there are some really strong ideas, but these are lost beneath a cheesy and childlike story.
The main issue I have with Redemption is that non of the danger feels real. It all feels manufactured, something to make the crew nervous, yes, but not something life threatening. It's all a bit safe and predictable, with non of the crew facing any 'real' danger. It's a shame, because a situation like that could have been really tense and thrilling: the ship turning against it's crew could have been a horrible shock, and could have been turned into a situation of gripping claustrophobia, however it seems to have been played for laughs: after all, who can take that power cable bloody seriously! It just looks stupid. Certainly, the ideas at source are strong, but most of it is just mockery. It still feels like Terry wrote this at the tail of end of series one, when he was running out of ideas and steam. And when we finally arrive on Spaceworld, it takes about five minutes for Blake to escape capture and find his crew. There's no dramatic potential etched into this scenario of Blake having his whole rebellion and his symbol of power taken away. We're just let with a laughably poor excuse for an escape, which is put down to Orac, but really just means that the aliens this week are completely incompetent! And as for Orac's prophecy, call the biggest deux ex machinima ever! (Apart from the whole universe getting reset in Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang). It's just poor writing sadly that's the cause of it.
And the directions noting really to speak of either. Vere Lorrimer's work on the first series was always pretty good, however here there seems to be a complete disconnection from what's in the script and what's been shown on screen. It's so clear that the power station used in this episode is the same as the one used in Time Squad, and the rest of the sets aren't much better. The whole of Spaceworld just looks shabby in all honesty, and the direction certainly helps reinforce that look. Vere doesn't really inject the script with much action, instead just presenting it as seems the most obvious way. There's no artistic flourishes, instead it's simply what happens as it happens. The cast do there best, but sadly all the guest actors are forced to remain oddly stilited, and unable to give performances that aren' to anything but wooden. The main cast do there best, with Peter Tuddenham finally stepping into the shoes of Orac and doing a much better job of it than Derek Farr ever did. Tuddenham's 'fussy bank clark' is hilarious, and Paul Darrow, as always, gets some of the best lines. However, the age old problem of the large cast is still a massive issue, now made worse by the inclusion of Orac into the team. Six regulars and two computers are too massive to deal with, and it's only a matter of time before someone must be given the boot...
Redemption, however, is a very poor example of Blake's 7, and is, in my view, best avoided. It's just pandering to all the public preconceptions about the show, which is a shame, because there's so much lost potential here.
Liberator Rating - 4/10
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