"Today prudence shall be our watchword, but tomorrow we soak the land in blood." It's a casual line. It shows an almost superhuman level of restraint on the part of Brian Blessed, who is well-known for being one of the most shouty people ever born. This is a man who can make Jeremy Clarkson's voice sound like a whisper. Look at basically anything he's in and see a man who is a force of nature. A man who tried to summit Everest three times, when we all know he just needed to shout at it until it collapsed. A man who whom "quiet" is a four-letter word. Oddly, he's slightly more restrained in this episode than he normally is. But, really, that just means he's taking it DOWN to eleven. He plays a barbarian warlord (naturally), who ends up either killing or marrying Peri, depending on which history one prefers. And he does it all in a way that would make any pig farmer weep with delight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1k-pvCZ2Kw
Chris Swanson is a freelance writer and blogger based in Phoenix, Arizona, where winter happens to other people. His blog is at wilybadger.wordpress.com
