Blake's Seven: Restoration 2 Nov 2019

I won't put this whole post in 'spoilers', but there are a few dotted about, so beware!

I enjoyed The New Age – it didn’t seem particularly focussed on any member of the team, but ultimately it became Vila’s story. Hearing him and Avon actually involved in a physical scuffle was quite something – I wished Vila had gained the upper hand, but that would never do. Good, poignant stuff. Poor old Vila, far more than ‘the coward.’
Avon and Tarrant take centre stage in Happy Ever After, and here Paul Darrow is sounding more like his old self than in the previous story. This might be the closest thing Blake’s 7 came to a ‘fairy tale’, with poor old Del once again not quite finding happiness with a lass. Could it be a theme with this set, this ‘what if crew-members went their separate ways?’ thread that has run through the first two tales?
Siren brings Dayna and Cally to the fore. It doesn’t take long for Dayna to succumb to the weirdness of the ruined world they visit. This starts off as a good, creepy tale but soon gets bogged down a little with the kind of ‘talkiness’ uninterrupted by action, that blighted much of the Crossfire series for me.
It gives me no pleasure to notice Paul Darrow’s breathless line delivery in the first and last story, especially in view of the fact that he passed away not so long after recording this. Avon is still very much Avon however, and Hyperion brings this set to a close nicely. At first, it seemed that the much touted character of Selene Shan was going to be a kind of comedy character, but luckily that was not the case. Its nice also, to see the return of an etheric beam locator!
I don’t know if the cliffhanger, and Avon’s part in it, was recorded before Paul passed away, but reasons might well have been given for the character’s lack of presence in the next box set. It’s a bitter/sweet situation, waiting to see how things will turn out, but Restoration 3 promises to be very interesting.