Close Enough (2017) Review

 

Close Enough is a slow burn, but then proves to be one of the most tender and sentimental Blake's 7 adventures. I loved it.

WRITTEN BY

Sophia McDougall's first script. This franchise is developing a pattern with female writers penning superb Avon/Cally stories...

PLOT

Cally insists on responding to a distress signal from a Federation research station on Talorin, unaware that it's a trap to capture her and harness her telepathic ability to create a new brainwashing device. When Avon is caught instead, he is granted telepathic abilities as part of the experiment, creating an unexpected connection between the two... 

ANALYSIS

The first act was very slow. There was no immediate hook beyond a vague trap, and the villains weren't threatening at all.  That, and we got a lot of what seems to be McDougall's biggest flaw as a writer: her inability to adequately describe the surroundings. There were mentions of a compound, a cliff, a base, but I really had no idea where the characters were supposed to be at any given time. It made it very hard to get attached to anything that was going on. Until Avon became telepathic, I wasn't really into it at all. 

But then... well... it became quite obvious what the story's really about. Let's talk about Avon and Cally. My own personal thoughts don't really differ from the general opinion I've seen online. They're pretty perfectly matched - the cold rational man with the heart of gold and the warm heroine with a steely backbone - and the fact that they never got together is just a sad downside of the era of television in which Blake's 7 was made. And the audios have to abide by the story of the original run... for the most part. 

One of the greatest blessings Big Finish has given us is the oppurtunity for writers to explore what could have been and more importantly, why it wasn't. This relationship, and certain other narrative choices like Blake's absence, Avon's mental issues and the lack of a storyline in Series C all happened simply because they were convenient for the production at the time. But now, the audios - equipped with enthusiastic fans for writers - can flesh out these decisions and give the overarching narrative the gravitas and attention it deserves. And the franchise is honestly so much better off for it. 

In stories like this and Mindset, their relationship is touched on in such beautiful and surprising ways. They never hammer you over the head with it, never make it sexual or puerile. It's a deep emotional bond that's always on the verge of becoming something more, but never quite gets there. Largely because of Avon's incredibly dysfunctional personality. And that just highlights what an incredibly tragic figure he is. The connection they establish with their telepathy is a heartbreaking tease of what could've been. They sound almost like a married couple, bickering over blood sugar and singing. Cally flatout offers to make her mind entirely open to him. But Avon's just incapable of fully letting go, and he lets another oppurtunity pass him by. Like he always does.

CHARACTERS

Hearing Paul Darrow belt out drinking songs was a lot of fun!

I think Avon is utilised extremely well in Close Enough. Being telepathically forced to enter Cally's mind put a great big spotlight on his discomfort with emotional attachments. Seeing him struggle to cope with that was very interesting, and gave Darrow a chance to portray a version of Avon who's genuinely scared and even repulsed, which is very rare. But damn the canon, he should have stayed telepathic. We all know he wanted to, deep down.

Jan Chappell shines just as much. Close Enough gives Cally a load of long-overdue action heroics as well as plenty of the tenderness that she brings so naturally. Similarly to Mindset and The Sea of Iron, she deals with being tempted by the potential of a telepathic partner, but we learn that she's learned her lesson (or been traumatised too much) and no longer desires to be surrounded by fellow telepaths out of fear of losing them again. That's awful. 

Dayna isn't in it very much, but Yasmin does get to show a little of her fun chaotic side when it's time to start throwing bombs around. It's honestly shocking how much more likable Dayna is in the audios.

There's a slight implication that Dr Kaverin (played with grandfatherly warmth by Keith Drinkel) is secretly a Dr Mengele type, which I felt could have gone a lot further. It's never really clear whether the friendship between him and Imra is genuine or not. They both seem to use the other for their own ends without being aware of it. That better not be a reflection of Avon and Cally!

Speaking of Imra, I rather liked the nerdiness that Charlotte Watson brought to her. It's always fun to meet the 'real people' in the Blake's 7 universe, especially on the Federation side. I wasn't very convinced by her heel turn at the end, though. It seemed like a cheap way to give the story a more exciting climax than it was otherwise going to have. They could've found any other reason to dump her unceremoniously.

NOTES

• It's unclear why the Federation began to ignore Station Alpha, as they were supposedly still in communication for a while after the Intergalactic War. Considering the scarcity of resources, you'd think Servalan would try and order everyone to return to whatever area of space she still controls, even if it's just some troopers on a carrier. 
• Cally's theme from Promises is reused in the soundtrack. 
• Orac designates Taleron as a "Class F" planet, which is a cute reference to the famous Vulcan classification system in Star Trek. 
• Avon using logical reasoning to decide what Blake would and would not categorize as a viable target based on what he knows about Blake's personality and emotional state is so awesome. I know Avon's clever, but he can still impress me.
• Avon is officially in command of the Liberator.
• Cally cracking Kaverin's lab open like an egg with the neutron blasters is so cool. 
• I find it interesting that no one really remembers the origin of Auron, or how they're related to the people from Earth. 
• The fact that the planet's convicts were apparently ok with letting Cally call the shots on their escape is rather funny. But I'm willing to go with it. We don't need an explanation for everything.

INFORMATION!

• Cally recites Anna Grant's dying words, setting this story after Rumours of Death. She also mentions Servalan's empire expanding, potentially setting it after Ultraworld as well (the first episode to bring this up).
• The destruction of Auron is discussed extensively by Cally and Imra. It occurred in Children of Auron.
• The Liberator investigates a rumour that Blake might be on Taleron. They've previously followed similar rumours in Volcano, Incentive and Capital.
• Vila and Tarrant are absent from this episode as they're busy on some other mission, implying that this story takes place at the same time as Outpost. However, the timeline doesn't line up, as Outpost is firmly set before The Harvest of Kairos. So I've no idea what they're up to lol. 
• Kaverin sets up a teleport dampener field, similar to what Travis used in Seek-Locate-Destroy.
• The homing device planted in Avon's neck (in Rumours of Death) is surgically removed.
• Kaverin helped create the limiter implants used on convicted criminals such as Gan.
• The idea of Kaverin's mind-control "circlet" is very similar to The Sevenfold Crown.
• Kaverin uses sonovapour to subdue the criminals on his ship. The chemical was previously featured in Mission to Destiny and Pressure Point.
• Kaverin's ship is a SpaceMaster series 4. A series 5 ship was seen in Deliverance. 

BEST QUOTE

CALLY: "Dayna and I can handle it if you won't."
AVON: "I'm still in command of this ship."
CALLY: "Her name is still the Liberator!"
AVON: "Does that place us at the disposal of every hard luck story?"
CALLY: "We already know you don't care, Avon."
AVON: "Are you sure you do? Will it really not matter when you find only strangers on that planet? Is this really about principle or obsession with the past?"
CALLY: "That's you, not me, Avon."
AVON: "Nothing comes back, Avon, never the way it was."
CALLY: "Do you have some other mission in mind, someone else you need to avenge? ... Avon, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
AVON: "Yes, you did. Though no doubt very briefly and you're right. We have no other business. One place is as good as another."
CALLY: "I'm sorry."

CONCLUSION

The dialogue and character work elevate it far above where it has any right to sit, given how messy the actual story is.