Goths Go Shaky

Allan Prior’s first Blake script seemed to find him attempting to emulate the theatrical style of a writer like Caryl Churchill or Edward Bond, in an allegorical piece about the nature of colonialism. His second saw him progress to seemingly try very hard to write in the style of Terry Nation himself, which was fairly successful as a technical exercise but practically a disaster in terms of it working as a piece of drama. His third episode of the year, The Keeper, sees him moving on to bigger dramatic game than even Terry Nation.

Still pursuing the elusive location of Star One, the Liberator is on course for the primitive planet Goth, where the natives live underground to avoid toxic gases (and also the expense of filming on location). Decor and couture are all very much in the style of about 6th-century Wessex: not so much Space Age as Dark Ages. What they have learned is that one member of the ruling house of Goth has the only copy of a brain-print revealing where Star One is, which they wear on a thong around their neck (according to one report, says Cally, it’s not just the print, it’s the whole brain). Find the print and find Star One, which will give them the power (finally) to destroy the Federation.

Of course, it has occurred to Avon that they don’t necessarily need to destroy the Federation – with Star One, they could just as easily take the place over and run it between them. Blake, of course, takes the boring old principled stance that no-one should wield that much authority, and they will go ahead with the plan to blow Star One up (as it turns out, there turn out to be very good reasons for not blowing it up, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Also on their minds is the fact that Travis is ahead of them somewhere, and is unlikely to share Blake’s selfless ethical view.

Another one of those very understated guest performances this week.

This week it’s Vila and Jenna who get to beam down with Blake to Goth, leaving Avon in charge. Almost at once the ship detects a Federation ship leaving Goth, which Avon instantly identifies as Travis’ vessel (quite how, it is not made clear, but this is something else which we will be coming back to). Scenting a chance to solve at least one problem for good, Avon takes the Liberator out of orbit to destroy the other ship – but, wouldn’t you know it, the Goths choose just this interlude to attack Blake and the others, soundtracked by a music cue in which Dudley Simpson does his best to channel the spirit of Basil Poledouris. Jenna and Vila get grabbed by the natives, leaving Blake to escape back to the ship and give Avon a proper telling-off.

Naturally, Blake still opts to go back down to Goth by himself, leaving Avon with the strictest of strict instructions not to go off the reservation again in his absence – it’s one of those casual Blake’s 7 ironies that this results, eventually, in the Intergalactic War, the destruction of Star One, the collapse and reconstruction of the Federation and ultimately arguably the deaths of Blake, Avon, and everyone else. (This time Avon is obliged to obey orders, which means passing up a genuine chance to kill Travis.) It’s not a fantastic excursion for Blake, as – despite making friends with one of the local nobility, Rod – he spends most of his time hiding in a dungeon. Goth architecture features fewer arches and flying buttresses than you might expect, but a lot more tents – erected in caves, for no immediately logical reason, and with their own dungeons. It’s a funny old planet, this one.

Jenna, meanwhile, is getting much more to do than usual, as she is (in a manner of speaking) romanced by the rough-and-ready leader of the Goths, Gola. (There is some irony to this, as it was Sally Knyvette’s good relationship with Bruce Purchase, who played Gola, that influenced her decision to leave the series at the end of the year.) Vila, meanwhile, gets a job as Gola’s court Fool, rather to the chagrin of the previous incumbent. It turns out that the children of the previous king of Goth have deposed him and then fallen out rather viciously – or, to put it another way, Blake and the others have walked into the latter stages of a version of King Lear.

You can’t fault Prior’s ambition in trying to pull a stunt like this one, and it’s not as if the roots are particularly well-concealed: there’s something very BBC Shakespeare about many of the sets and costumes – although, as was customary with a lot of the corporation’s drama of this period, it’s all very over-lit, considering. The problem is that the script just doesn’t sparkle – Blake and the others go from royal to royal, looking for the brain-print, while the royals themselves engage in fairly laborious power-politics and declaim at anyone in sight. Leaving Avon on the ship all episode probably doesn’t help much.

Somehow the setting and premise of the episode never really grab the interest: in my case, anyway, less than some of the other odd elements Prior inserts into the script. For example, Travis and Servalan are both on Goth, too, and are apparently in alliance again despite strong suggestions otherwise last week (putting a bomb in someone’s prosthetic limb is not usually a sign of affection or a good foundation for a working relationship). They are both now looking for Star One as well, having figured out they can use it to rule the Federation too. (The delineation between the generally-bad institution of the Federation and the specifically-bad prospect of Servalan’s tyranny is clearly established.) But still – when did this happen? Why are they working together once more? How come Avon can recognise Travis’ ship on sight? The whole storyline of what’s happened to Travis since Trial, his agenda, his standing, his relationships, has just been a mess virtually every step of the way. In this episode he even leaves the story half-way through, without even trying to find and kill Blake (supposedly his overriding obsession).

Well, it’s not one of the very worst shows of the season, but that’s only because some of them were so extremely bad. The Keeper kind of passes the time acceptably, and it does trail the prospect of a momentous conclusion to the series (the Liberator sets course, finally, for Star One, where the destiny of the crew and the Federation itself will be decided). But given how inconsistent this series has been – the episodes by Nation, Chris Boucher, and Robert Holmes have all been reasonably watchable, everything else not so much – expectations for the end of the year are inevitably subject to downward management.