Blake's 7 (TV Series) Moloch (1980) User Reviews

Fraggle Rock have reported a missing member.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 25 August 2022]

The Liberator follows Servalan's ship to a very distant, strange planet.

It was going pretty averagely, until The Moloch appeared, then it just loses it completely. I personally love Series three, and I think we've been spoiled with the quality of the last bunch of episodes, the wheel had to fall off, and here it does spectacularly well.

It's quite a mixed bag, I'll start with the positives, I quite liked the characters of Doran and Grose, they were quite interesting, their treatment of Servalan was unusual to say the least, gave them a different edge.

The standout element, the scenes between Servalan and Villa, we didn't often see these two team up, but here they worked incredibly well together, and just about managed to salvage the episode.

The downside, Moloch, the awfulness of that thing cannot be played down, absolutely shocking, like a reject from The Fraggles. The story is very much paint by numbers, it just doesn't have anything unique happening.

Not a huge amount of love for this one, 6/10.

The absolute worst episode of the series

[GusF · 4/10 · 8 August 2014]

Considering that this was the only episode that I thought had no merit whatsoever when I watched the series for the first time in 2009, I was dreading this episode and put it off for several days but I decided to bite the bullet. With the obvious exception of Jacqueline Pearce, the guest cast is either terrible or complete non-entities with John Hartley as Grose being the worst. It's completely unbelievable that he could outwit the arch-manipulator Servalan.

Grose's plot should be exciting but it's deathly boring. On the bright side, Vila makes a friend, Doran, which is nice, but Doran is implied to be a woman-hating serial killer, which is less nice. I typically don't mind poor special effects too much but Moloch himself is the absolute worst special effect and worst looking alien in the series' history, making Saymon from "The Web" look brilliant in comparison. His death is a huge anti-climax as well. The only thing that I liked about this episode were the scenes between Vila and Servalan, who seldom have much significant interaction but that's not enough to even come close to making it bearable.

On The Muppet Show Tonight It's Moloch And Some Rapists

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 27 March 2013]

Following Servalan's spacecraft the crew of The Liberator are puzzled when the craft disappears . They find that she's landed on the Planet Sardos which is hidden by an energy barrier that makes the planet invisible

This the second episode of season three written by Ben Steed and I'm probably in a small minority in enjoying his previous contribution The Harvest Of Kairos . Okay I'm not saying Kairos was a good episode but it was entertaining due to its rabidly dated and sexist nature . That was however good natured sexism . Here everything is bad natured sexism

That's the major problem - it's impossible to enjoy something that alludes to gang rape and make no mistake here when the eponymous Moloch orders the Federation deserter Section Leader Grose to " Give her to your men " you are not left with the impression that she's being conscripted in to domestic chores

It's not just the the women who are in danger from rape . There's a supporting character called Doran who befriends Vila and the way he describes women and the histrionic way he reacts every time he thinks " my mate " has disappeared gives no room for doubt he's a homosexual , a nasty psychotic one . One realises the production team aren't working on children's television and aren't making a show for children as illustrated from the plot point in the opening episode where Blake is publicly branded a paedophile but that was dramatic and light of touch . Here the " adult " elements come across as entirely heavy handed and crass

What also makes this jarring is when the title character is exposed . According to legend a Moloch is a mythical Ammonite God . It'd be impossible in 1980 for a BBC television show to even try to realise a awe inspiring God like being on screen so they haven't tried . To their discredit they haven't even tried to make the Moloch anything other than laughable and one wonders if the BBC make up and special effects team are having a joke at the viewers expense . Rumours are during filming the cast couldn't look at the creature without bursting in to fits of laughter and in order to complete the climatic scene the Muppet ... oppps I mean Moloch was taken off screen and his scenes were shot on its own . If you watch this episode you have no problem believing this