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Blake's 7: Blake (1981)
Great episode aside from the ending
I agree with those who claim cop-out. Avon and Blake know each other well. When it came to Blake, Avon was not a "shoot first and ask questions later" kind of guy. He knew Blake was an undying idealist when it came to the Federation as well, and Avon's well-established perspicacity has suddenly vanished. Blake could tell that Avon was still not convinced though, so his advancing was also out of character. That whole scene was just a rushed way to kill off Gareth Thomas' character so that he would be able to move on with his career, but as another reviewer pointed out, it could have been devised more cleverly. Avon's being surrounded wordlessly is also ajar from what one would expect. Maybe we're making it all too sober a consideration, but it would have been nice to go out on one of Blakes 7's more sharply-defined notes, something echoing Series 1, and this just seems hurriedly struck up.
Doctor Who: The Keeper of Traken: Part One (1981)
Sheila Ruskin and Denis Carey
Review of all four parts:
As another reviewer alluded, the aforementioned as Kassia and The Keeper provide great performances. I confess a partiality towards Sheila Ruskin from loving her brief but effective Vipsania in "I, Claudius", and from the guilty pleasure of adoring her interesting visage again as Alta One in "Blakes 7". Carey seems appropriately cryptic as the Keeper. As I had checked out at Season 17 after City of Death, having read the reviews of The Creature From the Pit on through my "Fangoria" subscription in the states, this was my first viewing, after decades of 4th Doctor abstinence, of Adric as a companion. He works well here in my opinion. Nyssa plays a minor role thus far, but that birthday party crown is a strange touch indeed.
After City of Death the season before, Tom Baker infamously seemed to go camp in his portrayal of the Doctor. This serial reverses that trend from its beginning, with the Doctor humorously chastising Adric and referring to the Second Law of Thermodynamics therein. It seems we have the old Doctor back, and all seems to hold up well until Part Four when the Doctor channels Moe Howard in "thunking" two Fosters' heads together. Deus ex machina, a la Stooges. After Kassia's demise in Part Three the story became less involving for me, but the transferring of the Master to Tremas and the grandfather clock, hearkening back to The Deadly Assassin, are clever plot twists.
Red Dwarf: Cured (2017)
Doug is back...
"Cured" feels like a return to form for Doug Naylor. This and the subsequent episodes bear out a pattern of relatively disappointing series (7,9,11) interrupted by series that gel (8 (yes 8), 10, 12). The density of original humor trumps other aspects in each. I would say this might mirror business, or lack thereof, in the co-creator's personal life. The characteristic, rapid, effective one-liners come as fast as those in the first three seasons of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. In the case of the latter, the last three seasons were bombs that ruined the show's reputation. With Dwarf, one trepidatiously approaches each new series, but in the end, the on-again off-again nature of exemplar Dwarf humor, by series, facilitates one's embracing the good years that much the more. The specifics of "Cured" are of less import than the quality of jibes therein, which is smegging awesome.