Robert Holmes
With Terry Nation having written the whole of the first series, script editor Chris Boucher had to find additional writers for the second series, and one of the first names on his list was Robert Holmes. Holmes was best known for his work on many Doctor Who stories dating from the late 60s up to the mid 80s. His episodes included The Krotons and The Space Pirates for Patrick Troughton, Spearhead from Space & Carnival of Monsters for Jon Pertwee, The Talons of Weng Chiang & The SunMakers for Tom Baker, The Caves of Androzani for Peter Davison and The Two Doctors & The Mysterious Planet for Colin Baker. During his time as script-editor on Doctor Who he commissioned Chris Boucher to write two stories – The Face of Evil (which introduced popular companion Leela) and The Robots of Death (which later spawned the Kaldor City audio range). Holmes had actually been David Maloney’s first choice for script-editing duties on Blake’s 7. Holmes declined as he had only just finished the same role on Doctor Who and was not keen to go back to such strenuous work so quickly. Instead, Holmes recommended Chris Boucher for the job who in turn commissioned Holmes to write for the show. However there was some initial resistance from the BBC about using Holmes as Chris Boucher recalled in an interview with Horizon in 1996. “We were told by the powers that be that Bob was burned out. This came after Bob had left his job as script editor on Doctor Who, and the new script editor decided – and told Ronnie Marsh, who was Head of Department – that Bob was burned out. What a dreadful thing to say about someone! Anyway, David and I insisted that it wasn’t true. We said that Bob was a good writer, we needed good writers and we’d very much like to use him on Blake’s 7, please sir! Ronnie Marsh was a decent man, and he agreed, so we were able to use Bob to good effect. Bob was a great writer, and I didn’t need to fiddle with his scripts at all.”
Blake’s 7 suited Holmes’s style of writing down to the ground, as its budgetary limitations placed the emphasis not on special effects but on its rich cast of characters and intelligent dialogue. Holmes, along with other new writers for the season, was invited to view episodes of the first series at the BBC in order to get a feel for the series. Holmes was initially lined up to write episode three which would feature Orac heavily. This then changed to episode four which would set up the ongoing Storm Mountain plotline that was to have run throughout the season. Further changes to the structure of the season meant that neither element featured in Holmes’ script. Having favoured the use of ‘double acts’ in several of his Doctor Who stories, Holmes elected to explore the relationship between Avon and Vila and he would return to this relationship in subsequent scripts for the series. The writer also chose to contrast the very different outlooks of Blake and Avon in two separate plot strands. He pairs Avon with Vila as they are despatched to a Federation base on Fosforon to break a new pulse code. Blake feels compelled to warn the same base of possible danger from a 700 year old spaceship they are recovering and to subsequently help identify a cure for the virus, meanwhile Avon on the other hand has no qualms about blackmailing the base commander (his old associate Tynus) into handing over the crystal, knowing that in doing so, Tynus is putting his own head on the block. Paul Darrow was initially concerned to hear that the script featured an old friend of Avon. “We had this one episode where Avon met his only friend in the universe. And David Maloney said, ‘Don’t worry – you kill him on the last page!’”
The First Draft
The script was commissioned on Friday 7th April and Holmes delivered the first draft on Tuesday 9th May. The script underwent a number of minor revisions. When the episode was later moved back to Episode 8 (and later moved again to Episode 7) it was rewritten to remove all lines originally given to Gan as David Jackson only appeared in the first five episodes of the season. This didn’t require much revision as Gan had only appeared briefly to operate the teleport. References to Travis working for the Federation were also removed for continuity reasons. Avon originally had the line “Blake, Servalan’s on her way here now – and Travis! If they land on Fosfurus they’ll get the plague – they’ll be off our backs for good.” The planet Fosforus was later renamed Fosforon and the K47 spaceship was changed from a Pioneer class ship to a Wanderer class. The scene where Blake explains about the teleport to Belfriar originally had a line about ‘frying your gonads’ but this was removed by the script editor. Boucher was also concerned that the script featured too many characters and he suggested losing the character of Gambrill. Ultimately Gambrill was retained but the script was amended slightly in order to reduce the number of cast members required on location.
Guest Cast
Paul Daneman was cast as Dr Bellfriar. Paul Darrow had previously worked with Daneman in a tour of Rebecca in Canada.
Paul Darrow also enjoyed working with Ronald Lacey who was cast as Tynus. He recalled working with Lacey in an interview with TV Zone in 1990. “Ronnie had a line: ‘if I get my hands dirty, people will notice’. All through the rehearsals he would say it as ‘If I get my hands…dirty people will notice’! Vere would watch and say ‘Lovely, but there’s something not quite right…’” Another scene featured Tynus painting his pet locusts in his office. “Vere was bored that these insects were dull colours. He asked Ronnie what colour he was going to paint them, and Ronnie said ‘Brown’. Vere said ‘That’s a boring colour – why can’t you do them blue?’ Ronnie argued that he was doing them from life, so Vere’s solution was to ask if it was possible to spray the locusts themselves with blue paint!”
Costume
June Hudson was the costume designer for the first half of Series 2. The male regulars retained the outfits they had worn in the previous episode, Redemption, but Knyvette and Chappell were given new costumes. June Hudson recalled her work on Killer in an interview with Joe Nazzaro in 1990 for the fanzine Terminal. “Sally I dressed in figure hugging things. I enjoyed putting on her the all over lycra bodysuits, and in fact they started a fashion, those science fiction bodysuits, which we started on Blake’s 7. She had that sort of chiffon, with the velvet pattern on it that you could see through, and she wore a body stocking underneath it. Jan Chappell was elegant, dark and interesting, she lent herself to what I would call mystery outfits. She was the one that wore that strange red dress, that frock coat outfit.” The guest cast were also provided with memorable costumes for Killer. “Ronald Lacey was wearing a carapace like the back of a beetle, made out of plastic. I laminated it using a shiny plastic, and I cut it out, and Ronald Lacey, who was wonderful and would wear anything – I put it on him, and he couldn’t move. Now I made trousers out of this stuff as well, and it was the most ridiculous costume! (He) got his costume on, and he looked at it, and he said, ‘Do you mind if you cut a bit off,’ so I said yes, alright. He also wanted his costume lined in blue to be different, so I said yes, alright. I remember this scene vividly, because he was so wicked; I got a great pair of scissors, and we kept cutting down this foam backed carapace. We’d cut a little off and he’d say, ‘It’s not too bad; could you cut a bit more off?’ He ended up with us cutting the costume off his back, so he was the only one who wasn’t lumbered with this strange carapace! I said, ‘Ronald, they’ve cut the costume off your back,’ and I was furious. He really led me along.” Perhaps the most infamous costumes to ever appear in Blake’s 7 were the protective suits used for the members of the boarding team on Fosforon which were actually Michelin Man suits. The Michelin Man was created in 1898 as a symbol for the Michelin tyre company and became one of the world’s most famous brand icons. Hudson recalled her way of working in an interview with TV Zone in 1990. “Inspiration came from everywhere, such as corrugated piping from washing machine manufacturers, and my friend Vere Lorrimer and I borrowed the Michelin Man from the tyre company. I became ever more outrageous, and the clothes became increasingly flamboyant.”
On Location
The director assigned to the episode was Vere Lorrimer, the only returning director from Series 1. Filming schedules for the first six episodes were put together on Wednesday 28th June with Redemption and Killer scheduled in for the first week. Filming commenced on Monday 31st July with 2 days allocated for Redemption followed by 2 days on Killer. The main location was Oldbury on-Severn nuclear power station near Bristol which had previously featured in Time Squad in Series 1. The nearby shoreline was used to represent the surface of Fosforon and the Q Base. Filming on Redemption overran by a day which resulted in Killer running on until Friday 4th August. Only Thomas, Darrow, Keating and some extras were required on location. A glass matte shot was used to depict Q Base on the distant horizon as Vila and Avon approach. One sequence required Michael Keating and Paul Darrow to climb through a tunnel. Paul Darrow recalled the scene in an interview with Joe Nazzaro. “I was wearing a very tight leather costume and there was a scene where we had to go through a grating. When I asked Vere how to get through it, he said, ‘Well, you use this thing,’ and showed me this bloody great saw-type prop. I asked him where I actually got this thing from, and he said, ‘You’ve got it in your pocket.’ When I reminded him that I was wearing skin-tight leather, he said, ‘Oh…all right then, just put your hand behind you, and the floor manager will hand it to you out of shot.’ It actually looks as though I’ve plucked this out of my backside and opened the grate!”
In The Studio
Model filming for the first six episodes of Series 2 commenced on Monday 21st August. The K47 spaceship was built by Mat Irvine. Stock footage of the London from Cygnus Alpha was used to depict the salvage ship. Rehearsals began at the end of August at North Acton and the first recording session at Studio 6, Television Centre, commenced from 8th September to 10th. Lorrimer elected to work on both his episodes at once. The first day in studio consisted mainly of the sequences set on the Liberator flight deck and this only required the presence of the regular cast. The second day featured all the scenes in the teleport bay. As Sally Knyvette and Jan Chappell only appeared in sequences set on board the Liberator this meant they finished up their work on the episode within the first two days. Rehearsals with the main cast for the episode started on Monday 11th September. The main recording session ran from 19th and 20th September, usually between the hours of 7.30 to 10.00pm. The mortuary sequence included a long and detailed makeup session for the zombie-like Wardin. In his autobiography Paul Darrow recalled an amusing incident during the recording session. “Paul (Daneman) and Gareth, thinking that Michael and I would use up our scheduled studio time to record our scenes and that they were unlikely to be required on set, repaired to the bar. Michael and I finished double quick time and two very good actors, slightly the worse for wear, had to play out one of their scenes. Gareth has forgiven us, but not forgotten!”
Broadcast
Lorrimer edited the episode from Thursday 5th and Friday 6th October. Only one small scene was removed. This scene showed Avon, Vila and Tynus leaving the radio room and was without dialogue. As usual, Dudley Simpson composed the incidental music score which was taped on Wednesday 25th October. Radio Times included a short preview of the episode in the week leading up to broadcast. “On the planet Fosforon Avon tries to persuade an old friend to hand over a vital component in the latest Federation cypher machine. On the Liberator, Blake and the others watch as an Earth ship, listed as missing centuries earlier, approaches the planet…” The episode was broadcast on BBC1 on Tuesday 20th February 1979 at 7.20pm. It was scheduled opposite Charlie’s Angels on ITV and was watched by 7.0m viewers.
