In the second episode of Down and Safe, Michael, Liz, Scott, and Amal share how to make cathedrals and candles, what super rusty space guns have in common with The Vagina Monologues, and discuss the third episode of Blake’s 7: Cygnus Alpha.
Apologies for this episode’s slight delay. There were some Scottish technical difficulties involving ancient disintegrating wiring.
This is a useful reminder this podcast is very probably not safe for work.
Download Episode 2 or listen now:
Down and Safe 
Pingback: Down and Safe: Episode 2 – Worshipping Brian Blessed | Amal El-Mohtar
Loving this. Hope you have as much fun making it as I do listening to it. Also thanks for the apostrophe into “Blakes” as a slight pedant it always annoyed me that there wasn’t one in the show titles.
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One can never accuse Brian Blessed of holding back in a role…
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ok. heres a link to my thoughts on ep 3
loving your show. im banking my summer output so… im recorded upto ep 8 now… anyway cheers – Michael
[audio src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/tindog/TDP_493_BLAKES703_Cygnus_Alpha.mp3" /]
ps. if you ever need another UK voice… just shout
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Again,we have the issue of,” Since the federation clearly has no issue with just liquidating people, why do they bather with the whole farce of penal colony?”
Well, clearly this is part of the facade: At lest with the ‘inner planets” (those densely populated, apparently in the first wave of colonization), the feds want to maintains at least the public impression of actual government,; If the actually go through the motions of maintaining this facade, if word gets about that there are massacres, they can claim that clearly this can’t be happening, because it’s well known that the federation is a loving, caring organization that rehabilitates it’s ne’er do wells.
Also, you didn’t’ notice that there is a difference here: these people aren’t just liquidated because these aren’t political dissidents, as in the way back: these are honest to goodness professional criminals. So, the feds treat them with some humanity because they aren’t a direct threat to the government: ‘real’ criminals get treated with ‘penal policy’, rather than a quick blast in a dark corridor.
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As to what is going on with the Cygnus, the federation clearly don’t’ care what’s going to happen to the prisoners once they get there.
Since the federation clearly doesn’t see cygnus as a prime world to develop, they aren’t doing anything to support the penal colony there: note the lack of any ‘modern’ ‘space’ technology, tools, building materiel, etc. So they what they clearly have in mind is a zero expenditure colonization plan: the prisoners will eventually come up with their own infrastructure because they have to…and it doesn’t cost the federation a bit. In the meantime, a lot of the prisoners are going to be expended, which if fine by the feds. It’s a win-win for the feds.
.The ‘scarey cult’ is actually quite understandable: brain the awesome admits himself that the ‘curse’ and the scary cult are just tools used to band the colonist together and organize them: it’s actually a remarkably humane and workable plan, considering the alternatives, and quite effective: brain ha got criminals into a working society that is moving forward, having started with nothing, which is now apparently able to provide food, shelter, and purpose.
They could do worse, and let’s face it: I originally rather expected cygnus to be either an outer space concentration camp (more like the original penal colonies) or see them eaten on sight by degenerated previous transportees.
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A word about Vila Restal: It’s rather unfair to characterize Vila as a clown, because he has that facile jokiness about him and intentionally tries to create the impression that’s hes incompetent and untrustworthy.
As we will find out later, vila, unlike th rest of the crew, is of the ‘lower classes’ from a backwater world. In his life, clearly he’s had little control over his own life…so, his act is essentially just a way of manipulation other people out of trying to get him to do things he finds reprehensible.
The truth of the matter is, vils in fact is defined by being a pacifist: he really cares about other people (he apparently worries about their feelings) and doesn’t’ want to see anybody get hurt. So, he intentionally tries to see to it that he isn’t put in the situation of harming someone else. This comes up may times in the series.
He’s not weak, or cowardly…he prefers people THINK he’s weak and cowardly, because that way they wont’ demand he fight or kill anybody.
Of course, this does not mean he wants to be put in danger, either: he’s rather like a sucker fish: attach yourself to a bigger, more dangerous host and stand back while THEY do the violence and/or endanger themselves.
By his own lights, vila is an honorable man.
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I agree the idea of Vila as a pacifist and always wonder at Blake assigning him to the neutron blasters. (Well, maybe not wonder with a question mark since I see Blake as The Great Manipulator.) Vila is a really complex character and I wish he’d been better treated by some of the writers.
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