Another “sighting” of Blake brings Cally and Avon closer together…

In the extras for this box set, new producer John Ainsworth notes that some of the stories proposed before Gareth Thomas’ death will still appear, albeit in print form in an anthology later this year. I rather suspect that Sophia McDougall’s story might have benefitted from this approach, rather than being pushed out to the full audio running time. There’s a solid Blake’s 7 tale at its heart, but perhaps not one that can be easily dramatized in this format, or one that needs an hour to be told.

It’s a story that focuses predominantly on Avon and Cally, and both Paul Darrow and Jan Chappell give it their all, but it doesn’t quite gel. It’s not helped by the earlier parts of the tale having rather a lot of “inner voice” as “outer” dialogue – people helpfully explaining their deeper feelings about their relationships with others (something which has occurred a few times recently in various audios and without exception feels forced onto the situation). That’s rather ironic given the nature of the story: the whole point is that Avon and Cally reveal things they’d otherwise have kept hidden, particularly given the way both characters retain their privacy, so to have at least one of them opening up earlier, or at the very least saying something that doesn’t need to be said, feels wrong.

Verdict: A solid concept that doesn’t quite work in the telling. 6/10

Paul Simpson