Dawn Of The Gods (1980) Review

Dawn Of The Gods is a fascinating and atmospheric entry to the series.

WRITTEN BY

James Follett, a freelance science fiction writer. According to Wikipedia, a lot of his works accurately predicted future technology. Now that I think about it, this story does kind of have the feel of a short story being adapted to fit the Blake's 7 narrative.

PLOT

Thanks to Orac's machinations, the Liberator is drawn into a mysterious black hole where it is captured by the Lord Thaarn, one of the seven progenitors of the Auronar race. As the crew are enslaved to assist in his scheme of universal domination, it's up to Cally to outwit the mad god.

ANALYSIS

Dawn Of The Gods immediately got off on the right foot with me by spending a shocking 30 minutes on build-up. It's full of great character interactions("I'm in Hell and it's full of Avons!") and intriguing mystery that deepens layer by layer - the black hole and why we're going there, the non-space it inhabits after going through, the nature of the villains.

It's bizarre and eye-catching, in no small part thanks to the dynamic direction of Desmond McCarthy, who employs handheld filming and brilliantly minimalistic set design to accentuate the bizarreness of the situation.

And let me just say: if you want my interest, there is simply no better way to start a story than by focusing purely on the regulars exploring a new alien environment. Seeing them make the discoveries right alongside the audience is exhilarating and makes me feel like I'm going along on the adventure.

However, once the crew are properly introduced to Krandor towards the end, it falls apart. The payoff is lame, really lame. And it's not even the Thaarn's Doctor Who-esque plan of domination that bothers me(I'm fine with Blake's 7 doing something different every once in a while), but the fact that Krandor is such a dull and uninteresting place that doesn't feel threatening whatsoever. Slavery and shipwrecking aside, our characters are barely harassed once they get there. In fact, the dude with the top hat is literally the only guy who threatens anyone physically.

As a result, defeating the Thaarn feels more like taking care of an irritating nuisance than battling some Lovecraftian demon that it should've been. I mean, imagine if we never saw him and he was just some eerie disembodied presence constantly observing everyone, really giving the impression that our characters cannot just walk out of this and that it's only his weakness towards Cally that allows the heroes to temporarily subdue him, only to realise at the end that he could return at any time in the future and they wouldn't even notice until it was too late. A threat that would hang over them for the rest of their lives.

That simple fix would've made Dawn Of The Gods a classic as far as I'm concerned, but as it stands, it's a really great story for most of the runtime, until quickly devolving into a pedestrian runaround at the very end. I'm so disappointed.

CHARACTERS

We're introduced to the main trope of Series C - the crew playing board games. It's a symptom of a problem I have with this entire season, that I shall discuss later on(perhaps in a separate article). But for now, it's actually a pretty great scene. The prop looks like a Monopoly board, but the dialogue suggests something akin to Risk.
My favourite thing about the scene is the inclusion of Avon and Orac, two characters whom I'd never have imagined playing games with the rest of the crew, but I love that they get some downtime to enjoy the simpler things in life.

Since they're the only characters for most of the story, I have to say the crew in this one are exceptionally well written. Tarrant is rather subdued, only going up against Avon for moral reasons. It might not fit his Federation backstory, but I think I prefer Tarrant when he's trying to do the right thing. Nobility suits Pacey the best.

Jan Chappell gets to show multiple facets of Cally's personality - both empathy and ruthlessness in regards to her treatment of the Thaarn, serenity when she's telling the crew a story.

Vila has that awesome sequence of him exploring Krandor's surface - for once, Keating gets to be the action guy whilst the rest stay onboard! It's short-lived, but still, I'm always glad to see Vila out of the stock comic relief role that he's often pigeoned into.

Orac is such a piece of s**t, isn't he? I'm not sure what he was thinking when flying the ship into a black hole - like, did he know they'd survive? He didn't seem to be aware of Krandor's existence when they got there. I guess maybe something about the black hole's nature told him the ship would be fine, but he didn't say it out loud, because he's a piece of s**t. Makes for great television, though. Tuddenham's sad delivery of "what about the game?" is priceless. I'm fully convinced that Orac would be sociopathic enough to mimic human behaviour and try and draw the crew's attention back to the game in order to carry out his black hole-exploring scheme.

Groff is played by Terry Scully, who is one of the most watchable character actors you'll ever see. His sad sack face and strange accent are endlessly captivating. I felt really bad for him too. It sucks that he had to stay behind and never got to see his family again. Should've let him join the crew. He'd be a nice change of pace.

Sam Dastor also brings a lot of presence to the Caliph. Wonderfully smug, has that great quirky outfit and best of all is his ability to just teleport into any scene he wants.

NOTES

*According to Tarrant, the Liberator was on the edge of the galaxy and heading into "spiral space". I'm not sure that's a thing, because the only spiral-related space jargon that I could find referred to spiral galaxies, which are clusters of stars simply shaped like spirals.

*Ships don't return from Sector 12, marking yet another Bermuda triangle homage for Blake's 7(also see: "The Darkling Zone" and "the Derelict Zone").

*I kinda wish they'd recreated the shot from Space Fall where the intense gravity of the ship's high speed forced the skin on the crew's faces back. Because apparently this time the Liberator was going at a velocity in excess of its design limitations. You'd think they'd be jelly against the floor. But Avon even has strength to put on a spacesuit!

*Which, now that I think about it, is an entirely useless thing to do. What's he gonna do with a spacesuit inside a black hole? What "slim chance" does he think he has?

*Cally is possessed yet again(previous two possessions being in The Web, which was another Auron-centred episode, and Shadow)

*There's a new medbay set, and it looks like rubbish compared to the one in Series A. Silver doesn't really scream Liberator to me. Would've fitted better on the Scorpio if I'm honest.

*I've never been able to understand if Orac works when he's switched off. I mean, here they act like he doesn't and they'll be safe when they take the key off, but sometimes they switch him on and shout "Orac, what have you found??"

*There's no sound when Vila opens the hatch to the outside, which would imply vacuum, but later on, we find out that Krandor does have an atmosphere!

*An exception to the otherwise great direction - the scene where Cally is possessed and the rest of the crew hang around waiting for their cue. And at the end, where they're all just waiting for Cally to rescue Vila.

*I love their explanation for why the wrecked ship parts look like they're made out of plastic. That's neat thinking from the writer.

*How come the crew didn't get the same work jumpsuits that the Thaarn's other slaves did?

*I am going to be on the lookout now. If somebody uses "graphite writing sticks", I'm gonna call BS on them being purely in museums.

*This marks the first, possibly only episode where Orac and Zen talk to each other. "Fascinating!" "Confirmed."

*I was taken offguard by Groff's knowledge of the Liberator - it implies that he's only been there for 2-3 years as opposed to the decades I thought. It just makes it stranger that he'd choose not to try and get back to his family. How would the crew even find his family? They never seem to ask his last name or anything. There may be thousands of Groffs on that planet.

*Cally's request for the Thaarn to switch off the energy isolators was ridiculously transparent, clear proof of an episode that just wanted to wrap it up and go home.

*The Auronar are incorrectly referred to as "Aurons" throughout the episode.

*I like the reference to Newton's first law of motion. Something for the kids to latch onto there.

INFORMATION!

*As part of the board game, Dayna owns a hotel in Space City, where she invites Vila to stay with "all his favourite extras", an obvious callback to Vila's actual visit to Space City in Shadow.  Another reference to Shadow comes later on when Tarrant theorizes that Cally may have telekinetic powers that she's kept hidden from them.

*There's a lot of Auron references. It appears to be the Liberator's reference point, Tarrant brings up her exile and the unknown reason for its cause(which was actually explained in Time Squad, but none of the OG trio bring it up) and of course the Thaarn is a vital part of Auron mythology, being the "first story in the Book Of Auron".

*Tarrant mentions his stay at the Federation Space Academy. He was established to have trained as a captain in Powerplay. He also claims to have taken a course in "dynamic flux mathematics", though that's probably a lie.

*Zen uses his defense system for the first time since Space Fall.

*Cally was previously possessed in The Web.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE

VILA: I may not be the bravest man in the galaxy-
AVON: Are you sure?

CONCLUSION

I always enjoy the experience of watching it, but I hate that it falls flat on its face at the end.