Desperate for parts to repair the Liberator, the crew try to find traces of the System.

There’s something very apt about Mark Wright’s script for this second box set opener, given events in the real world between its recording and release. There’s discussion about the inevitability of death, and how the aging process affects us all, with Paul Darrow and Michael Keating in particular on fine form – there’s a shocking moment that Tarrant points out has been coming for some time. It’s not Darrow’s last Blake’s 7 adventure – Hyperion, at the end of the set, is the last chronologically – but there’s an air about it that makes it feel as if the end of the Seven is coming. (And yes, before anyone points it out, of course I’m aware that they have to come back together for the rest of Series C, and – in the case of some characters – all of Series D!)

Carolyn Pickles guest stars as Vulkris, keen to keep her people’s innocence now that they have been freed from their shackles, and there are some cracking scenes between her, Keating and Yasmin Bannerman’s Dayna. David Roocroft’s sound design and score blend well and director John Ainsworth ensures that even very visual moments work well for the listener.

Verdict: An occasionally melancholy tale that spotlights the fractures within the team. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Restoration 2 is available now from Big Finish