Still the rough edges abound, the solution to Orac being taken over is to fit him with a bomb so he explodes if it happens again. Hmm.

Weapon features some inspired scenery-chewing from John Bennett (Doctor Who: Talons of Weng-Chiang) and the delectable and seemingly vanished Candace Glendenning, and the return of Jacqui Pearce's Servalan, and Travis mk 2, now less subtly portrayed.

All in all, not the best 3 episodes so far, but no clunkers.

Blakes 7 at its peek
Review date: 2006-03-16 Rating: 10 out of 10

Season two begins where season one ended, with the crew facing Orac's prediction. Terry Nation's opening episode "Redemption" is a fast paced action adventure which clearly builds on the cliffhanger ending without letting the fans down. We finaly meet the race of beings that created the liberator, and Nation explores the idea of the ship being a "living entity", although the snake like powercable "bleeding" on the floor goes a bit too far ! There is one powerful scene where Zen gives a status report as Blake is being tortured showing that Blake has lost command, and confirming Zen's emotionless impartialy.
The scripting for the rest of the season was shared with other witers incluing Chris Boucher, Alan Prior and Robert Holmes. These writers all input their own ideas into the series, but still kept its dark tones. All the script writers made excelent use of Orac who / which was given some of the best lines in the series. Robert Holmes developed the "Avon Villa" relationship to the point that the unlikey pair became almost a comedy due. The main Story arc of Season two involves Blake and crew's search for Federation Central control. This results in a series of very powerful episodes. In "pressure point" a main character is killed off showing that the crew could be beaten. Cast and crew give some wonderfull perofrmances, including Jaqueline Pearce as the venomous Servalan. Her interactions with Karnel and Jobain in "Weapon" and "Hostage" respectivly show her at her most condescending...Brilliant!
Season two is let down by some poor prodction values. Asteroid PK72, for example, is a painting that would put a primary school production to shame, and seeing the Crimmos being killed by Polystyrene blocks in "hostage" just looks silly.
The series peeks in the last few episodes as the crew get closer and closer to Star One. The epsiode "Gambit" is a fantastic episode full of plotting, sub plotting, betrayal, double crossing, a game of chess, and the BBC costume departement going wild ! Aubrey wood gives a magnificently camp performance as Krantor and Pearce also gives one of her best performances, showing servalan at her most devious. The Costume department had a wonderful time in "The Keeper" showing that Sci Fi can take place in Low tech "dark age" style environments.
"Gambit" "The Keeper" (magnifent performance from Bruce Purhcase) and Star One" bring the story Arc to a fitting climax and Paul Darrow gives a wonderfull expression when Blake announces "For what it is worth, I have always trusted you". This performance is evelavted to retrospective shakespearian Irony after Season 4 is witnessed.....
The only other dissapointment is the casting of Brian Croucher as Travis. With all respect to Mr Croucher, his portrayel of the Space Commander as a bumbling cockney fool doesn not always work.
Minor isses aside, Season two is simply Blakes 7 at its peek. Some of the best episodes, best performances, and the strongest story arc of the entire series. Enjoy.

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