Well, as its Easter time, I thought I would do another post and I did a top 10 best Blake's 7 episodes list a few years ago, so figured I would do a list of some of the worst episodes of the series and the show did have some clangers among the good ones.
So, with that said, let's take a look at some of the worst episodes from this sci-fi classic show.
5. The Web (Series 1)
So, at No.5 is this clunker from the first series, The Web, which is the first really naff episode of the show in general imho. In the episode, Cally (Jan Chappell) the sole telepath of the crew, comes under a strange influence, which soon traps the Liberator (Blake's ship) in a large web. So, Blake (Gareth Thomas) and Avon (Paul Darrow) teleport down to the planet surface and discover the race, the Lost, are descendants of Cally's people, the Auron, however they the Lost in return for freeing the Liberator, want power cells, but its soon revealed they want them to destroy a race they also created on the planet, the Decima.
So, this is overall a pretty dull episode with some boring enemies and also some clunky aliens in the Decmia, who are small people running round in weird outfits. Its poorly paced and frankly boring but to be fair the idea of Cally being taken is not a bad one and its something they would expxlore later in the series again although not in a satisfactory way either but nonethless it does knock the viewer off initially when she does turn on them at first. But the execution of this episode overall doesn't work and its climactic scene of the Decima destroying their creators is just messy and also unpleasant to watch as it is silly.
However despite it all. there is still worse to go on the list but The Web certainly deserves its place on here as its series 1's lowest point.
4. Voice From The Past (Series 2)
At No.4 is this one from the second series, which is an intriguing concept but ultimately its poorly executed as Blake's mind comes under control from a mysterious force and he relives harrowing memories of his mind conditioning after his initial capture by the Federation. Blake also begins acting strangely as a result of this and changes course to a different planet and ropes Villa into believing the others plot against him, so he has them locked away. Blake then soon meets with a group led by Ven Glynd, who previously had him convicted but now claims he is a defector. However there is also another man present, wearing a mask and heavinly bandaged up named Shivan, who is soon revealed to be a familiar face...
So, yeah this episode had potential but sadly it was squandered by including the supporting characters, all of whom are pretty dull and uninteresting and of course (SPOILER!!!) we find out that the masked man, Shivan is none other than Travis himself and his reveal while a slight surprise, it shows the writers were starting to get pretty desparate with what to do with Travis's character. It also highlights how Villa is easily misled and again its getting a bit predictable that they pick on him to manipulate the situation. However, it also has to be said that given Travis's blind hatred for Blake, its funny how he doesn't try and kill him as soon as he sees him!
Anyway, so Voice from the past, is definitely a poor episode from the series and one that's really not worth bothering with any time soon for sure and well worth on the list.
3. Weapon (Series 2)
At No 3 is another clunker from Series 2 (which had a fair few!) which involves the Federation's interest (or rather Servalan's) in a powerful weapon called IMIPAK, which can kill someone by placing a target on them and after kill them from any distance up to 1 million miles away. In the episode, we also get the return of Travis, who helps Servalan in trying to get the weapon but she also has clone of Blake created to trick its creator, Coser (John Bennett) into buying it from him.
So, yeah this episode really is very dull and the supporting characters of Coser and Rashel are both as uninteresting as Blake's own clone happens to be also! The idea of the weapon itself is somewhat interesting and there is a fun moment where we see Servalan blatantly target everyone in sight around here including Travis! The recasting of Travis also falls flat here as Brian Croucher takes over in this episode from Stephen Grief, who was far better in the role and his back and forths with Jacquline Pearce come off as less entertaining and more hollow.
So, overall, Weapon is definitely a weak episode in the series and one that is well worth skipping if you plan to revisit the show.
2. Sand (Series 4)
So, the runner-up here is this crapper from the fourth series, Sand, which would be more suited in a Mills and Boon love novel than an episode of Blake's 7. However, unfortunately that is what we get here as Liberator or rather Scorpio crew member, Tarrant (Steven Spacey who was in Series 3 and 4 and replaced Gareth Thomas in those series) has a somewhat romantic encounter with Servalan on an alien planet where the sand is deadly and they are trapped in a bunker and must find a way to survive it.
This really is a god awful episode from the series and its slapped own love fest between Servalan and Tarrant is frankly nauseating and simply doesn't work as Servalan had a hankering for Avon for a while but now turns her attentions to Tarrant. Its admittedly an intriguing idea to have the sand as a hostile lifeform and how unlikely the two of them are together in this situation but it doesn't help relieve the tedium of this episode overall.
So, for me this is certainly one of the worst Blake's 7 episodes with the series penchant for romance permeating its way into the show from Series 3 onward, it culminates in one of its worst episodes right here in Sand.
So, the worst episode of Blake's 7 is....
1. The Keeper (Series 2)
Yep, at No.1 is this unappealing turd (sorry!) of an episode from Series 2, The Keeper where Blake and his crew head to the planet Goth, to try and find the location of the "keeper" who knows the location of Star One, the control centre of the Federation, which Blake is desparate to destroy. On the planet however, we find the natives are a medieval type race, who's leader has Jenna be his consort, Vila his new jester (replacing the old one temporarily who plays a pivotal part later on in all this). Its pretty tedious all round really! However, one thing this episode does have going for it is how Avon thinks he has destroyed Travis by blowing up a ship he thinks Travis is on, only to find out later he wasn't! So, it does allow for a decent exchange between Blake and Avon, when Avon left him stranded temporarily on Goth while Avon took care of Travis and Blake angrily asks "Where the hell where you???!" and Avon tells him "We just got Travis for you!!" and Blake in disbelief says "What???".
This is really bottom of the barrel stuff as far as Blake's 7 episodes go as far as I am concerned as its nothing but filler before Series 2 signficantly better finale, Star One and that's pretty much its worth offense that we need to sit through this BEFORE we can get to it. What is worse is that the concept of how the location of Star One is revealed could have been handled so much better than they did here, where in the end the Jester character on Goth, eventually reveals it in a conditioned memory. The episode while it does make good use of Jenna, most of the others are completely wasted in this story.
So, in the end, The Keeper is a waste of 50 minutes of television and its a pity they didn't skip this one or simply do a rewrite into something better, either way this is the worst episode in Blake's 7.
So, that's it for this one folks, hope you enjoyed it and have a good Easter (and plenty of eggs!).
Until the next one, its bye for now!
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