This is gonna be quick, I'm playing catch-up. It was a good workout, with a hundred sit-ups and then over 7,200 steps on the treadmill. My weight continues to be frustrating, being as I have bounced back up over 270. So...  crap. Blah blah blah emotional bear trap.

So I'm not gonna think about it, and move on to Blake's 7.

The Harvest of Kairos

(Blake's 7 Wiki Recap)

When I complained yesterday about Tarrant being obviously slotted into an existing script written for Blake, perhaps I was wrong. Again in this episode he is in charge, and apparently that is just the New Normal. Newest recruit on the ship, and everyone just accepts him as boss, because.... why? He was a Federation officer? This crew, of all people, should have very little respect for that. I think, though, that viewing context matters. I am practically binge watching these episodes, whereas when they were originally broadcast there was time between each one to breathe. Obviously television writing styles have changed in the last forty years. In any case, Tarrant is running the show, and that's pretty much that.

This story has Avon spending most of his time obsessed with a rock that turns out to be sentient, while everyone else is wrapped up in a caper to get some Whatever Crystals to power the Liberator's weapons. It also gets back on the Servalan Train, with her hatching yet another plot to try to seize control of the Liberator. She mostly succeeds, even forcing Avon to tell Zen to recognize her voice print to issue commands. Oops.

Also in this episode, Servalan gets a little Sumpin' Sumpin' from a very Manly Man, in an actually pretty fun sub-plot. Sadly for her, Mister Manly Man unsurprisingly dies by the end of the story. Oops again.

In the end Avon uses the Brain Rock to do some Whatever, saves the day, boots Servalan right the hell off the Liberator, and the crew sails off to their next adventure.

The one really cool thing in this episode was the giant insectoid things that ran around the planet's surface. Yes, it's just a guy crab-walking inside an elaborate costume, but for 1979 it is a very effective, creepy, and menacing design. I really liked it, and bravo to the BBC effects people for pulling it off. It's hard to do a convincing non-human large monster, and this one was done very well indeed.

STATS:

Episode(s): Blake's 7: The Harvest of Kairos
Steps Walked: 7,209 today, 4,862,106 total
Distance Walked: 3.30 miles today, 2,520.64 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 11,995 total
Sit-ups Completed: 100 today, 7,265 total
Weight: 270.74 lbs (five day moving average), net change -36.56 lbs