Needing a base in which to continue their war against the weakened and depleted Federation the crew of The Liberator teleport to Obsidian , a planet full of pacifists who refuse to help the crew and also refuse to protect them from a Fedration pursuit party hot on their heels
Another episode from Allan Prior and another example of what's wrong with his contributions to the show . BLAKES 7 receives the constant criticism that it's a very cheap British rip off that's continually trying - and failing - to emulate STAR TREK and STAR WARS . Nothing could be further from the truth . Tery Nation , Chris Boucher and David Maloney have crafted a gritty pessimistic idiosyncratic drama . However you can understand the criticism of the episodes that aren't written by Nation or Boucher . Very often you do have a rather generic space opera that with some revision could easily be slotted in to any action adventure series set in outer space and Volcano is a good example of this
If Prior's script is substandard it's less than matched by director Desmond McCarthy who is possibly the worst director to have ever worked on the show and several scenes stick out in their level of ineptitude . McCarthy could claim he doesn't have the budget to realise some scenes in an effective manner such as the death of Mori which has to be seen to be believed ( That's not a compliment ) but we have a confusing scene where a couple of Obsidians give the impression they're jaunting in and out of another dimension and that's got nothing to do with a lack of budget
That said even with these flaws - and their big ones - Volcano still manages to find a semblance of the programme's unique ethos . The average life span of a guest character in BLAKES 7 is just under 45 minutes and the viewer sees a downbeat nihilistic ending to this one of he lesser episodes . You wan't happy life affirming feel good television ? Try EASTENDERS instead
There's also a nod to the internal continuity of the series by having the Intergalatic war with Andromeda being mentioned but after this episode it's like the war had never happened and the Federation become all powerful again and what would be obvious running threads across the season such as the Federation trying to rebuild a lost empire and The Liberator crew searching for Blake are never really touched upon
Another episode from Allan Prior and another example of what's wrong with his contributions to the show . BLAKES 7 receives the constant criticism that it's a very cheap British rip off that's continually trying - and failing - to emulate STAR TREK and STAR WARS . Nothing could be further from the truth . Tery Nation , Chris Boucher and David Maloney have crafted a gritty pessimistic idiosyncratic drama . However you can understand the criticism of the episodes that aren't written by Nation or Boucher . Very often you do have a rather generic space opera that with some revision could easily be slotted in to any action adventure series set in outer space and Volcano is a good example of this
If Prior's script is substandard it's less than matched by director Desmond McCarthy who is possibly the worst director to have ever worked on the show and several scenes stick out in their level of ineptitude . McCarthy could claim he doesn't have the budget to realise some scenes in an effective manner such as the death of Mori which has to be seen to be believed ( That's not a compliment ) but we have a confusing scene where a couple of Obsidians give the impression they're jaunting in and out of another dimension and that's got nothing to do with a lack of budget
That said even with these flaws - and their big ones - Volcano still manages to find a semblance of the programme's unique ethos . The average life span of a guest character in BLAKES 7 is just under 45 minutes and the viewer sees a downbeat nihilistic ending to this one of he lesser episodes . You wan't happy life affirming feel good television ? Try EASTENDERS instead
There's also a nod to the internal continuity of the series by having the Intergalatic war with Andromeda being mentioned but after this episode it's like the war had never happened and the Federation become all powerful again and what would be obvious running threads across the season such as the Federation trying to rebuild a lost empire and The Liberator crew searching for Blake are never really touched upon