Blood & Earth written by Ben Aaronovitch
Flag & Flame written by Marc Platt
Directed by Dominic Devine

Review by Jackie Emery

The character of Cally holds considerable fascination for many fans and has long been the subject of much speculation and fan fiction. Her rebel background, her home planet of Auron with its cloning facility and her telepathic abilities have all contributed to make her one of the most popular characters in the series.

Bearing all this in mind, it is understandable that some fans will approach this CD with trepidation, because these audio plays provide a whole new version of Cally and Auron. Each play is a stand-alone story that features different characters and situations, but they complement each other in building up a detailed background to the planet: its inhabitants, its politics and its relationship with the Federation. In this version, Cally isn't a person, but a family surname – there are multitudes of telepathic Cally clones of every age, all descended from one original.

In Blood & Earth, Ariane Cally (Amy Humphreys) is the sole survivor of a plane crash. Having lost contact with the rest of her family, she finds herself in telepathic communication with an older Cally (Jan Chappell), who guides her in her attempts to survive in the wild.

Flag & Flame features twin pilots, Merrin and Katrina ('Skate') Cally. Katrina is sent on a reconnaissance mission to monitor Federation activity in an asteroid cluster, while Merrin remains on the flagship in telepathic contact, so that radio silence can be maintained.

As individual audio dramas, each one is very good. The first has the advantage of starring Jan Chappell – it was lovely to hear her again. However, as with his other story, When Vila Met Gan, I have a few niggles with Ben Aaronovitch's script. I dislike his use of contemporary technology (planes, phones) contemporary professions (Ariane Cally is a management consultant) and the use of the NATO phonetic alphabet (there are references to 'Camp Delta Foxtrot' and the plane 'Alpha Charlie'). There is also a descriptive continuity error: the scavenging animals who attack Ariane are called forest dogs and from the detailed description sound like a cross between wolves and hyenas. However, she later refers to them as 'carnivorous meerkats', which really jarred. Partly because meerkats look nothing like the creatures described, partly because meerkats are by nature carnivorous, so that felt like sloppy writing, but also because it made me think of Alexandr in the compare-the-meerkat-dot-com advertisements! It distracted me and killed the atmosphere at that point. However, those niggles aside, I still enjoyed the story. The acting was good, and I especially enjoyed Jan's portrayal of a warm but steely Cally elder. In interviews, Jan has often said that one of the things she enjoyed most in B7 was playing the different versions of Cally (the Sarcophagus Alien and Cally’s sister Zelda). In this play, I certainly got the impression that she relished the opportunity to play yet another version.

The second play, written by Marc Platt, is a better and more powerful story. There are no jarring contemporary references in the script, which really feels like it’s set on a distant planet in a future century, rather than on present-day Earth. The performances by Susannah Doyle and Natalie Walter, as twin sisters Katrina and Merrin, are terrific.

In both plays, the production values are high, with excellent sound design and post-production by Alistair Lock and incidental music by Dominic Glynn.

So, the plays are good – but are they Blake's 7? Certainly not in the classic sense – these multitudes of Callys bear no resemblance to the original in the TV series. I anticipate this new version of Auron and its people will eventually tie with the rebooted version being produced by B7 Media, and I’m now intrigued to find out which of the featured Callys will be the one who joins forces with Blake!

I would recommend this CD to those who enjoy quality radio drama, to fans who like the new audio series and to those who would like to hear Jan Chappell playing a very different Cally.

Overall rating: Blood & Earth – 7/10
Flag & Flame - 9/10

Starring Jan Chappell, Susanna Doyle, Michael Cochrane, Julian Wadham, Amy Humphreys, Natalie Walters

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