User Reviews

The Web is one of those stories that could have appeared in DOCTOR WHO or STAR TREK or any space opera based science fiction series . In other words it's rather generic where as the production team of BLAKES 7 tried to make their show idiosyncratic and unique . From the little I know about B7 fandom this episode isn't held in all that high regard but in its defence I will state I thoroughly enjoyed it and anyone with a casual interest in telefantasy will enjoy it too

The plot revolves around a moral dilemma where the hero must make a decision to help some aliens eliminate some other aliens . It's more down to Darwinian subtext rather than a straight fight between good and evil but Blake being the hero doesn't take kindly to having to commit genocide against benign sentinent beings but as Avon is more than quick to tell him it's the Decimas or us and there's no choice involved

What makes this episode more impressive than it's given credit for is the amount of visual imagination director Michael E Briant brings to the episode . You can see the production team balking at the thought of creating yet another planet that looks like a quarry just outside of London so they've gone to a woodland and stuck a few balloons and silvery web type stuff everywhere . It's probably the type of creativity that's inspired by desperation rather than genius and yet the production crew manage to pull it off superbly

The episode also features one of the most memorable species from the show - the Decimas . As I said in a previous episode review BLAKES 7 isn't really a show that's interested in aliens and monsters but certainly they'd be well regarded in any SF series in both the way they're written as a concept and the way they're realised on screen . Unfortunately Saymon is poorly realised being a head stuck through a backdrop and a body stuck on to a chin ( Stop laughing at the back ) but it still remains a highly enjoyable episode

As I was watching this I couldn't help but think just what I now notice another IMDb commentator has pointed out: with its possession, aliens in , and central moral dilemma it more closely resembles a story from the series' same-channel contemporary Doctor Who than the successor to the previous episodes of Blake's 7. That's not too shocking since Terry Nation also wrote several excellent Doctor Who serials, and for me it's not a problem since I'm a longtime fan of Doctor Who as well.

It means that the character development of the crewmembers of the Liberator is cut down to some occasional sniping, but this is somewhat balanced by the inclusion of a tantalizing revelation in what there is: Avon seems to be actively planning to overthrow Blake (even as he surprises himself by being willing to save his life). Unfortunately it also means that Cally doesn't get much of a full-episode introduction since she has been possessed for most of her screen time.

The neatness of the moral dilemma did not bother me since the story here develops from a very good science fiction idea which I won't spoil and will unfolds over the course of the running time. However, the threat element by which the scientists on the planet held power over Blake and company through controlling a huge space fungus and the power to dissipate it seemed rather too constructed.

The direction here is interesting as well. On the one hand, there are several very interesting shots and POV angles especially as CVally is taken over, and some time tense shooting, but on the other hand several moments between characters that should seem very weighty fall rather flat instead.

In all though, a fun, enjoyable episode even if it isn't what I gather would be called typically Blake's 7.

This was the second Blakes 7 I ever saw and this was at the time it was new. A long, long time ago now. It's cheap and a little fake, yet it has that slightly creepy and mysterious low-resolution atmosphere about it which made UK SF shows so addictive at the time. This one is notably very Dr Who-ish, with a space web and a hideous head with a wizened little body kept alive inside a bubbling tank. Visually, it's vivid if not totally convincing. Unlike the show Blakes 7 evolved into later, Blake here is a balanced hero, more interested in bargaining and negotiating than zapping people with laser guns or kicking backsides. The plot has some similarities to Terry Nation's Dr Who story Death to the Daleks, in which a primitive race offer to help an Earth mission crew in exchange for help annihilating a breakaway group. Nation once told a magazine interviewer he based that idea on a real life story he heard about. Here Blake is similarly in a dilemma when little alien-mutant creatures are going to be wiped out if he plays ball with the main baddie. But this is Blakes 7 and Nation deserves credit for what he does here. Firstly, the new crew-member, Cally, is a telepathic alien and Nation uses this, rather than just relegating her to pressing buttons on a console. She is telepathically taken over and causes mayhem in the early stages of the episode. She also reveals that the main baddie, Saymon, is an outcast of her own alien race. In Nation's scripts, Cally and Jenna had plenty to do. Another interesting aspect is that Blake sees callousness towards little, helpless beings on this planet and a plan to wipe them out. It's a parallel to the oppression he has left behind on Earth. The little people rebel against their would be destroyers in the end, something Blake wants to do. The dilemma Blake faces here is also a small version of the same problem he will later face in the episode Star One, when he wants to destroy the Federation, but has to content with aliens who want to destroy all humans, and once again things are morally shaded. So, it's an oddity, this one, a rare bit of Dr Who-ish alien creature business, but it adds to Blakes 7 in good and interesting ways all the same.