I am not entirely sure where Blood & Earth is going with its revamped Auron mythology, but I'm here for it!
WRITTEN BY
Ben Aaronovitch, who is responsible for all the better reboot stories.
PLOT
Ariane Cally crashes in the damp, cold and deadly Cloud Forest, and has to survive with only the telepathic guidance of "Aunt Cally" on her side. Meanwhile, her sister Jorden Cally defies the government to keep up the rescue search.
ANALYSIS
There is an ominous mood throughout this story. The reboot universe is clearly setting up its own unique take on Auron, and because Blake's 7 audios love to employ heartbreaking plot twists, I kept wondering what horrible secret would be revealed. Is Jan Chappell's Cally the villain? Was Ariane dead or dying all along? Is Auron itself controlled by a totalitarian regime destined to consume all these characters?
There's a certain vagueness to the resolution. The new Auron is certainly oppressive, and Chappell's Aunt Cally is dubious at best. But they are fighting the Federation, and it's implied that clones used to be second class citizens, whereas now all of Auron have equal rights (or lack thereof). Is Aunt Cally's regime better, or just different? Is it really any different to how the Federation is run? There seems to be an implication that Aunt Cally went through a similar erosion of ethics as Blake in Spoils when she "compromised" on the future direction of Auron society, but at the same time, direct slavery seems to be gone... or is it? Do "citizen oaths" and drafting count as slavery? Is it just the same thing under different leadership? Cally seems to be obsessed with unity and seems to have instituted rules preventing the same kind of uprising that she herself led.
Fortunately, the next story also deals with Auron, so maybe that one will enlighten me more. I just wanted to convey the unease I felt whilst listening to this. But that aside, I really enjoyed it. I liked the modernisation in how Auron is depicted (especially how telepathic communication appears to be regulated somehow, like phone calls), Ariane's survivalist storyline was thrilling and of course Jan Chappell is a joy to listen to. The subplot about Jorden and the ludicrously named "Van Reich" (he's not even a villain!) could have been dropped, though. I'm not sure what the point of it was. We end up with Jorden being recruited to Aunt Cally's army, but it would have been far more satisfying if that was Ariane. I know Jorden defied the government and Ariane did not, but that could've been easily circumvented with an earlier scene of Ariane doing something illegal. I can only assume that these characters were meant to feature again, but these ideas were nixed when the reboot got cancelled.
CHARACTERS
We have four cast members in this story. There's not much to say about Jorden Cally and Van Reich. Their storyline is pretty throwaway, although I think that Barbara Joslyn and Julian Wadham both gave perfectly adequate performances. I didn't mind spending time with them, I just didn't understand what the point of their scenes was (aside from Jorden being the one to physically rescue Ariane).
But this is clearly Ariane and Aunty's story. Amy Humphreys is terrific as Ariane. The transformation from her snooty, hapless self to the confident survivalist is very convincing (in under 20 minutes!) and I love the cheeky sarcasm that she develops. I like to think that she would have ended up joining Blake on the Liberator if the reboot carried forward.
I can't help wondering if Jan Chappell's performance here had some influence on the depiction of Cally in the later Blake's 7 audios. The slight eccentricity, maternal attitude and wit that she displays here all seem to become trademarks later on. Not that the TV Cally never had any of that, but back then, the focus seemed to be on making Cally ethereal and wise above all. The slight goofiness didn't really seep in until now. Maybe it's some of Chappell's own personality crossing over? Whatever the case, she's very likable in this and I loved the dynamic she developed with her younger sister/niece. Much like Humphreys, Chappell has a duality to her. We don't see a lot of the manipulative military leader side, but again I assume that she would have been brought back in later stories. At least I can say she kept me wondering what her real intentions are.
NOTES
- Individuality is a social taboo on this Auron, with a version of Cally being sharply chastised for choosing to wear different colours from her sisters.
- Keeping with the modernity established on "Old Earth", Auron has planes and more importantly, cell phones (complete with cheesy tunes, which honestly put me off a bit).
- Only siblings seem to have direct telepathic contact.
- The head injury that causes Ariane's brain to "switch over" to hearing Aunt Cally instead of her own sisters is a rather convenient plot device. Why not just have Aunt Cally be nearer?
- Latin has survived on Auron.
- Cally clones were originally bred as worker slaves.
- According to van Reich, it should have taken the Federation 20 years to reach Auron, suggesting a much greater distance than implied in the television series.
- Cally describes her rebellion as the "children of Auron", obviously referencing the original series episode that featured the planet.
"We were the cool kids! We could do cool stuff!" - It was just funny hearing Chappell deliver that line.
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