New subject: iains episode reviews: TWB

12 May 2001


      "Iain Walker" wrote
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I *did* watch the episode!!!
Good boy :-).
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The Way Back
A tremendous first episode that sets the scene for the whole series.  We
get>insight to how the federation works, Blakes background, indications
that
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you can't trust anyone, noone is totally good or bad.
I don't agree. There are some extremely evil people at work in this story,
but the fact that they are not directly recognised scares me to death.
Another indication of imperfect
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drugging is the public address announcement: "President to answer
questions
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on population control".  So clearly there are people questioning
authority
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and public announcements about it
Or it's just a pretence that you have a say.
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so even the fact that people question

authority is not hidden.
Again, it is just a placebo. They pretend to be one thing, but in fact are
something completely different. "Look! We're giving you a forum! Aren't we 
democratic!" While at the same time hiding the real nastiness that goes on. 
A bit like the use of "IMO".
This implies that the administration needs some
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sort of popular support.
Doesn't always follow. The fact that it drugs its populace, has surveillance
cameras everywhere and armed guards, suggests that they prefer control to
popular support, assuming there is a difference of course. And control 
includes propaganda and the appearance of good government.
Is it possible that there are elections to some
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positions within the administration?  So Blake may be fighting a
democracy
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(albeit a pretty dodgy one).
Any elections would be fixed. Drugging the populace clearly shows an utter
contempt for other peoples right to freedom.
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Blake asks Ravella why the administration would suppress us [with drugs]?
Is he blind. everyone we see looks drugged.  Is part of the drugging
(even
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after 36 hours without drugs) stopping him from seeing this?
Yes, but you are talking from the perspective of an outsider looking in. To
the ant in the glass tank, everything seems normal. It's only when you kick
against the traces that the true nature of the establishment is revealed.
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I live in a dome.
People live in domes, but it is possible to live outside - they are not
surrounded by wasteland, the air is safe to breathe and the water is safe
to
drink (as Blake and Ravella do later in this episode).
It is illegal to
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leave the domes - presumably because then people would not be drugged.
The
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doors to outside are also locked (so the drugging isn't perfect) and
require
special equipment to open them.  I wonder what drove everyone into the
domes
to begin with
Control and all that. It's a Brave New World (Aldous Huxley).
- I am sure the writers want us to believe some global
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nuclear
or biological war.
No. There were never any atomic wars. The reference to "pre-atomic" in ROD
is a reference to the atomic age not an atomic war. The "Galaxy wide atomic
wars" crap only appeared in the pre-publicity hand outs for season 4. It is
never referenced in the series itself.
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Get a job.
Blake (and presumably others?) is being "looked after": constant
observation
and following and faked tapes from his relatives (needing actors that
look
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just like his family).
Or computer generated images.
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This must be a huge industry in the federation
employing lots of people.
As in Orwell's 1984.
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You can't trust anyone anymore.  Why is Tarrant following them?  And why
is
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he following them if there are surveillance cameras everywhere? This is
another indication that the total control is not perfect - there must be
parts of the domes not covered by the cameras so they need to be followed
in person).
No. He's following them because he knows where they are going. Outside.
There are no cameras outside.
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These people are as ruthless as the federation
No, it's a totally different scale. They're risking all their lives 
contacting Blake, and so are acting out of fear. As you would.
...

they have prepared

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documents to implicate Blake in their activities.  Why would this worry
Blake? - the federation watch him all the time and know that he has not
been
in contact with the resistance.
1/ Blake doesn't know this. 2/ He's gone outside. And in the Federation
"looking guilty is all that it takes."
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Conspiracy theories galore.
Are Tarrant and Foster both double agents?  Tarrant asks Foster "what do
you
think?", to which Foster replies "there's not much left of the man I
knew".
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Foster sounds sincere so I don't think he is a double agent, but this
might
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be evidence that Foster is being "run" by Tarrant because Tarrant doesn't
care what Foster thinks really because he has arranged a massacre!  I am
even more confused by their wanting to trap Blake if he is a reformed
character.
It's the rebels that have introduced the "Blake factor" not the Federation.
Though Tarrant would have known about this plan.
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When the troopers come in, a trooper looks at Blake in his hiding place
and
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does nothing: have they all been briefed to let Blake live (but then the
"mastermind" would have to do something to all the troopers so they don't
blab about this. This kind of thing is always a problem with too complex
conspiracy theories - you have to keep too many people silent!).
A pro keeps it simple. If you watch that scene, the trooper doesn't see 
Blake in the shadows; his comlink clicks just before he comes into position. 
If
Blake had been with the group when the soldiers attacked, then he would have
been shot down like the rest. See also Gauda Prime.
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Why are all the bodies left lying around?  To provoke Blake?
No one goes outside. And if they do then they are either Federation security
or enemies of the state.
After all,
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they are waiting for him when he returns to the dome: the expect him to
survive!,
Tarrant would have known if Blake had survived or not. He would have checked
the bodies.
and get captured! And return to the dome!!  He could just have
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run off into the countryside.
He could have, but where would he have gone? Better to return home.
Was he saved because he would have become a
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martyr?
He was saved by fate. As a dead body, lying in a deserted concrete
underground building, he's just another voiceless corpse. Alive though,
that's a different story.
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Then they try to frame Blake with the child molesting charges.
This is baffling if they have caught him with the resistance.  Is it the
"avoiding martyrdom" problem
That what Morag says.
- i.e. child molesting will put everyone off.
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But then why set him up with the resistance?
They didn't.
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What's going on???
Perfectly logical plot development if you ask me.
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when
the lawyer and his S.O. are killed - their bodies are left lying around
outside the dome.  Won't these bodies be found by the outsiders and
incite
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them further?
Oh dear. Are you sure you've just watched this episode :-)? Tarrant says, "I
think a transporter accident. Very tragic." Turns to Guard, "See to it will
you?"
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Interior decorating taste aside, Glynd is concerned that justice has to
be
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seen to be done.
Yes he does. What a vile hypocritical piece of shit.
When Blake meets Varon, Varon says "of course not" when
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Blake says the charges aren't true.  How does he know, or was he just
being
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cynical?
He's supposed to be representing him, remember? But the way he says it and
what he says later during the same conversation shows that he in fact
believes Blake to be guilty.
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At the trial, why did Tarrant come to gloat.  Very unprofessional!
Because he is a vile piece of shit as well; he knows Blake can't touch him. 
It's a twist of the knife.
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The legal records technician is a character beaureaucrat - listening to
music instead of working.  Like all small minded people with a little
power
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he is actually happy that they do not have the right security clearance.
But he is easily bribed.  Varon is very naïve - if someone is easy to
bribe
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you have just established that they can't be trusted - it then becomes
obvious that he will stab you in the back and turn you in to the
authorities.
No it isn't. You don't report people who give you money; it makes you look 
bad.
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(or - as part of the conspiracy he was told to take a bribe.).
Blake is political dynamite. You'd want to keep an eye on things until Blake
has been deported. The weakness in the plan is the  records relating to the
children. That's the point they are going to watch.
Also, interestingly, Varon misses something which means that the Federation
has been messing about with dates. If the Federation didn't know that Blake
was going to go AWOL then there is no way they could have set up the kids
with the false memories before Blake's arrest. Therefore the offences
"happened" after Blake was brought into custody. It's the perfect alibi for
Blake of course, and would prove his absolute innocence and the
Administration's absolute coruptness. But of course the authorites will have
changed the date of Blake's arrest.
Another thing. They take three children out of school and implant in their
minds a horror that will destroy their lives. They then accuse an innocent
man of the crime, and say "Justice must be seen to be done." This is a crime
of the most horrendous evil. They are mentally raping these children, but
for what? Because
they can. We are not talking about the sad, pathetic inadequacies of Gan
here. We are talking about the ultimate demonstration evil, and its casual
banality tells us that, within the Administration, such evil is common
place.
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New neighbourhood, new friends.
New enemies?
Vila is the first one he meets.  Vila
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knows
Blake the name,
No he doesn't.
This implies that people (even
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potential followers) don't know what Blake looks like, so why don't the
federation simply eliminate him?
Because like all totalitarian dictatorships the are paranoid. They hate the
idea of anyone having a different opinion to their own. And they take it
personally as well. They don't just what to kill you. They want to smash
you. Make you beg, humiliate you. Tear you apart for having a different
opinion. For having the temerity to stand up and say, "no". See Stalinist
Russia, see Hitler's Germany, and on a smaller scale, see Horizon the B7 fan
club, see the darker elements on Lysator. All these things are within us
all. Society, the world, England, The Falkland Islands, Sally Manton, Jenny
Kaye, Iain Walker, Blake's 7, Terry Nation, Vila Restal. it's all there. We
are all looking into a mirror and seeing ourselves reflected back.
They can have a "Fake Blake" and noone
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will know.
They want to discredit Blake and everything he stands for. They only want
one voice to be heard, and that is their own.
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(However, Jenna looks like she recognises Blake?)
She doesn't.
The
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federation
has failed to "adjust" Vilas brain too - a kindred spirit for Blake.
Vila
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knows Jenna and Jenna knows Vila.  Have they worked together before?
If they've met before it would have been in the holding cell, (a pro keeps
it simple) however, watching the scene, I don't think they know each other 
at
all. Watch how Jenna stands back during the earlier part of the conversation
between Blake and Vila. The only connection is that she apparently fancies 
Blake.
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The way they talk it does not sound like they have just met.
Disagree. I think it does.
At first Jenna is very aggressive, she says to Blake: "Better get used to
the idea that noone
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out there gives a damn about you.".
She is irritated at Blake professing innocence. A lot of people in prison
will profess their own innocence, and yet will be totally dismissive of
anyone else who does the same.
Then she goes soft, reassuring Blake
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with "don't worry, they'll get it" when discussing the holding order.
She
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also reassures him again on the ship.  (She MUST fancy him - it is the
ONLY
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explanation.)
It's not the only explanation. She also is starting to believe in his
innocence as well. Again, another phenomenon of prison life. If elements of
the establishment start to put themselves out for you, then by definition
you must be innocent. Strange that isn't it? That people in captivity start
to believe in the establishment's honesty. That's one of the reasons why
jailed policemen have to be segregated. A policeman who has behaved like a
criminal is an affront to every crook and con in the joint. He's not playing
the game!
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Next week: Space Fall
Good. Nice one Iain.
Jenny
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Re: [B7L] iains episode reviews: TWB