Paul Darrow bits and ancient interviews

[vilakins]

A friend asked me to copy some Paul Darrow footage off three different video tapes onto one. There was Paul in Robin Hood (selected Sheriff of Nottingham scenes) and as someone appropriately called Mad Jack in something called Haggard, and a music video of Avon and Servalan done by Kathy Hintze. There were also two interviews, really old ones, made when they were still filming Blake's 7.

The first one was of Paul Darrow, looking very early Avon. The picture was a bit degraded (due possibly to reception, the age of the tape, or it being a copy of a copy) but the sound was good. The interviewer raved about the amazingly good special effects (!!!) and Darrow agreed, praising the BBC's SFX department. Either they really were good for those days, or he had to be tactful. In response to a remark about what a cold person Avon was, Paul related a story of going into a pub in Scotland where a man came up to him and said, "You're in that Blake's 7, aren't you? A right hard bastard." -- then bought him a drink to Paul's relief. They also played with a Liberator gun and a teleport bracelet, and showed bloopers from something Paul was in where he had to play golf, a game he'd never played before.

The other interview was made during season 1, on some children's program shown on a Saturday morning at a time when guests Gareth Thomas and Jacqueline Pearce both said they'd normally be sleeping. After the first part of the interview, children phoned in to ask them questions which they both seemed to enjoy. At the end, Jacqueline drew a child's name from a barrel for the last week's prize (the belt Bill Connelly wore to his interview and two of his albums) and set the question for the next week: who composed the Planet Suite. The B7 prizes were a kitset of a space shuttle (did they have them back then?) a teleport bracelet, and Travis's eye patch, "given willingly". Lucky winner.

I shall copy all of these to DVD-R for myself; much better than tape.

Comments

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Not only did they have space shuttles back then, but most of the shuttles haven't seen a major refit since. A couple of years back there were stories all over about how NASA had to trawl Ebay to buy up ancient 8086 chips to repair the shuttle computers, because they haven't been manufactured in yonks and NASA needed a decent supply of 'em.

Not sure when the first shuttle came out. Something's telling me 1976.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

PS: Travis can willingly give me his eyepatch any day.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I believe the Enterprise prototype shuttle was rolled out in 1977. The first actual shuttle flight was the Columbia in 1981.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I actually looked it up; Enterprise was rolled out in mid/late 1976, but they didn't move it to a facility to do anything with it until 1977. I knew Enterprise didn't fly, but I'm surprised the first flight was as late as 1981; I'd vaguely thought there was '79 flight, or something.

Still, all dates compatible with shuttle kids as B7 promo prizes, anyway. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't doubt they had them (Gareth Thomas hardly made it up) but I was amazed they've been around that long. If I'd been asked to guess, I'd have put the first one in the 80s.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

The interviewer raved about the amazingly good special effects (!!!) and Darrow agreed, praising the BBC's SFX department. Either they really were good for those days, or he had to be tactful.


For their day they were good, just watch a few episodes of Star Trek TOS for comparison. Star Trek had more spent on one episode than B7 had spent on an entire series ( possibly all four series) and they still have their share of wobbly sets, and back lot outside scenes that lloked totally fake (B7 quarries were far more acceptable to me). Polystyrene rocks were my bete noir in Star Trek, they were every where and sooo obvious.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've seen TOS a couple of times and the rocks were seriously bad. I cracked up at the indoor sets with lighting that threw 6 shadows for every member of the crew.

IMO the worst 'special' effect in B7 was the painted backdrop of Blake's moonwalk in 'Voice from the Past'. They ought to have cut it and gone straight to the base.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

IMO the worst 'special' effect in B7 was the painted backdrop of Blake's moonwalk in 'Voice from the Past'.

Well, it was bad right enough but look at the competition! Dorian's monster, the Decimas, Brian....

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Nah, I think the moonwalk takes the prize, for me anyway. It was both incredibly bad and totally unnecessary. The other stuff's dreadful but it's a notch up.

The approaching Pyroans also annoy the hell out of me because it's once again totally unnecessary. The first time I saw that (a couple of years ago) I thought they had telekinesis. What on earth were they doing, making up their 50 minutes?

All the other cringe-making stuff is at least part of the plot and a fairly honest effort given the low budget. And funny too. :-)