Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Jacqueline Pearce, Brian Croucher, Bruce Purchase, Freda Jackson, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham
Written by Allan Prior
Directed by Derek Martinus
The Liberator is on it's way to Goth, where the final barrier to getting hold of the location of Star One awaits. Before they can get there hands on it, however, Blake, Jenna and Vila are attacked and Jenna is declared to be the chieftain's bride to be.
Blake, meanwhile, attempts to rescue them by allying with his brother. And all the while, Servalan and Travis are also looking for the brain print that holds the key...
The two sides are closing in - but who will get to Star One's location first?
The Keeper is essentially the beginning of the final act of Blake's 7 second season story arc. And, while it has it's plus points, it once again shows that the creators of the show haven't really thought this through. The Keeper is a bit of a dull, mid season filler story, rather than the gripping penultimate epsiode it should have been. And once more, it uses the Blake's 7 trope of having a primitive culture, but it's one trope in Blake's 7 that never works.
Here, however, Allan Prior does do his best to mask this, by having his guest characters playing off each other, trying to get hold of the throne. Tara, in particular, could be seen in the same vein as Lady Macbeth, because in a way, this story has a very Shakespearian world. They may not speak like Shakespeare's characters, but there structure, and the games that they play with each other reminded me of Macbeth. However, unlike that, here the characters are very over the top, to the point where it really starts to grate. There steriotypes: oppressive king, valiant brother, manipulating sister, a fool, who knows more than he's letting on. So, because there steriotypes, they don't really intrest the viewer at all. Certainly, however, Prior knows how to handle the Star One arc, threading the search for the brain print throughout the episode. Whereas in Gambit, it was consigned to the B-plot, here it's the most important part of the story, with plenty to keep us intrested. I certainly didn't see the final twist with the brain print being grabbed by Travis, and then discovering that the fool had a hypnotic trigger with Star One's location inside him. It's an interesting twist, but one that doesn't really temper the more awful aspects of the story. It's ridiculously camp, it's outrageous and it's very, very sexist. In a way, it's outrageously sexist, but I suppose it was 1979. But in reality, this is a very odd story that doesn't really give good roles to the opposite gender. Certainly Jenna gets a better role than some of the parts that she's had recently, but it's a completely obvious and not very interesting role. It's a shame, because it could have been so involving, however it's just played completely wrong. It doesn't give Sally Knyvette the opportunities that she deserves to have.
As mentioned, Sally Knyvette does her best with the material, but she's fighting a losing battle with nothing really falling in her favour, except maybe her beautiful costume. Michael Keating and Gareth Thomas get moderately interesting parts, but Thomas looks board stiff and Keating's material is virtually non existent. And Paul Darrow and Jan Chappell are left on board the Liberator with virtually nothing to do. Certainly, the subplot about destroying Travis' ship is an interesting one, but it's virtually forgotten by the second half of the story. And I wonder why they bothered putting Servalan and Travis in this one, because they barely show up. In fact, there relationship seems to have gone backwards, despite stories like Trial and Gambit having turned Travis against the Supreme Commander. The script is too out of synch with the show's continuity to match up with everything that has gone before. The rest of the cast struggle gaimly with the material they've been given, but they really are fighting a losing battle. Bruce Purchase comes off much worse here than in Pirate Planet, and Freda Jackson is reduced to a cackling crone. The rest of the cast don't impress at all, but at least Derek Martinus' direction is fluent and makes the story look nice. Although, frankly, it doesn't deserve it at all. Never the less, it certainly helps that the direction is stronger, because it means that the story is slightly more interesting than it would be.
The Keeper isn't interesting. It isn't that fun, nor is it exciting. It's Blake's 7 at it's most average, and that's a real shame, because it could have been so interesting. However, there are little glimmers of goodness and there has been ideas that do work. It's just a shame that most of them really don't, because there's a lot of potential here.
Liberator Rating - 5/10
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