At their worst, they’re an excuse to save money.Īnd then there is “Sarcophagus.” It starts with a shadow play which, frankly, gives you the whole episode. At best, they’re used to give the actors a chance to interact, show their characters in a different light. They show up on Science Fiction shows all the time because they save money and production time. If you’re unfamiliar with a term, a “bottle” episode comes from ‘ship in a bottle.’ It’s a budget saving episode, designed to take place in pre-constructed sets with minimal guest actors and other items which could bloat the budget. The first was in the series 3 episode of Blake’s 7, “Sarcophagus.” You can find some lovely reviews of it out there (including its own TV Tropes page) but I adore it as a near perfect “bottle” episode. This was, in some ways, Lee and Darrow’s third collaboration. You can check this entry on Kill the Dead here but anyone who reads the book will easily hear Darrow’s voice in the main character.Īnd, sorry Tanith, I did hear Michael Keating in the other role, intentional or not. He is, as far as I know, one of two actors cast by my favorite author, Tanith Lee, in a novel. You can check out any number of memorials, especially about his work on Blake’s 7, but for me, he had another honor. Actor Paul Darrow passed away this week after a brief illness, and the world is the lesser for it.
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