It's Cally!

"You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off of you..."

Blake, Avon, even bloody Travis were given some background in B7; a sense of where they came from (Swansea, Dudley and Watford probably). But Cally? Ha, how they let her hang in anonymity. For too long the sultry temptress of the spaceways has lacked closure. No more! Let me tell you the story of the one they call Cally (sigh...)

Name: Cally

Is that it?: What do you want, jam on it? She's called Cally, or Miss Cally to the likes of you.

Age: Timeless. Okay, Thirties. Early thirties, yes thank you at the back!

Background: Cloned on Auron in a bio-replication plant. Strangely although the banks produce dozens of clones at a time Cally only has one sister, Zelda.

No mummy or daddy, sob!: Yhea and with dozens of clone siblings Christmas is a real pisser!

So what's Auron like?: Well it's got a dam, er had a dam. Servalan levelled the place after infecting everyone there with a killer virus. Zelda was killed and the last brood units evacuated to an uninhabited planet as Auron died.

Crikey, I bet Cally was pissed off!: She took it remarkably calmly and never mentioned the incident again.

She had a forgiving nature: No, she just had no decent dialogue after Season Two.

Why did she join the Liberator?: Plot reason - the last survivor of a resistance group on Saurian Major, unable to return to Auron because she has failed. Real reason - more crumpet needed on show and they already had one blonde.

Good team fit?: Apart from always being taken over by alien life forms and threatening the Liberator? Everyone likes Cally. Everyone apart from Jenna that is, who questions the wisdom of bringing aliens on board. Saucer of milk, table two...

Sex life?: Unknown. Being a clone she'd probably do it in a test tube. However Avon does give her a lot of looks, if you know what I mean. He's always caressing her, well picking her up when she's knocked unconscious, slapping her when she's taken over by aliens etc. But he's not going to come straight out and admit he fancies her. He's a bloke for God's sake!

How does she leave the series?: In the lamest way possible, an explosion on Terminal. Vila tries to save her, but let's face it he's hardly the Seventh Cavalry. He's barely the Women's Auxillary Baloon Corps.

Is Avon gutted?: Is he f**k!

She's a very unusual face: The phrase is 'unconventionally beautiful'. Like one of those French New Wave actresses. Cally brings a dark and mysterious femininity to what is otherwise The Red Hand Gang In Space.

And the hair?: It was the 70's for God's sake! Everyone had that hair. Bjorn Borg, Led Zeppelin, your mum...

But the outfits!: Ah yes, fashion has not been kind to Blake's 7 and Cally did bear the brunt of it. That pre-Raphaelite dress in Shadow, the green leather jumpsuit in Star One, the red motorcycle outfit in Time Squad. Don't get me started on Season Three...

And the eyeliner?: They went overboard sometimes trying to make her look all moist and vulnerable. There's a thin line between spaniel eyes and panda eyes and it was crossed with impunity by the BBC make-up department many a time.

You're being very defensive about her: Shut it!

So what did she add to the show?: Balance. In the beginning she was the professional freedom fighter backing Blake against the others. Later, with Blake dead she becomes the voice of reason on a factionalised Liberator.

How come nobody remembers much about her then?: Blame Chris Boucher and the rest of the scriptwriters for leaving her out to dry. No, blame fan politics for airbrushing her out of history because she didn't wear leather and camp about snarling at everyone. Actually, blame Jan Chappell for underplaying the role rather than going head first over the top like Paul Darrow or Brian Croucher. There's a lot to Cally in the three seasons she does, it just never all comes to a head. Not even in Children of Auron.

Memorable moments?: Shadow - threatening Space City, trapped in Orac's mind, playing with her pet moondisk. The cat fight with Jenna in Gambit. "May you die silent, and alone" from Time Squad. The Cally/Avon double act in City At the Edge of the World. Hugging her sister in Children of Auron. And you'd have to give Sarcophagus an honourable mention.

Should she have done Season Four?: No way. Cally in a Scorpio-style nylon anorak? You saw the threadbare scenes the scriptwriters gave Soolin in Season Four, imagine what Cally would have got! Doing the feng shui on Xenon base, dusting Slave, making the packed lunches...

Final words?: Sultry older woman brings conviction and balance to a fratricidal crew in a dystopian universe. Great legs too.

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