Blakes 7 - Episodes 5 & 6 [VHS] [1978]

Cygnus Alpha:

Having escaped from transport to the prison planet of Cygnus Alpha with a couple of new followers (of uncertain loyalty), and captured an impressive if unusual ship, Blake sees a chance to strike at the federation, but first needs a crew.

He follows the prison transport from which he escaped to it's destination, to recover some of the prisoners who previously helped him. Unfortunately the prison planet is under control of a radical religion established by the first prisoners.

Blake's belief that people are generally good and reasonable proves to be a handicap (not for the last time) and his attempt to negotiate the new prisoners release with the fanatical religious leader fails. He has to fall back on a jailbreak with as many prisoners as he can get, and several he could have saved if he had tried this in the first place end up dead.

This episode is important in the relationships and characters it establishes: Blake's idealism is confirmed, Avon proves his total disregard for others was not just a front, while Jenna shows at least some sign of a real developing loyalty to Blake. Additionally the ship, now named the Liberator, is discovered to have a sophisticated and possible sentient computer called Zen, and a teleport system (a major plot device if ever I saw one).

Time Squad:

This episode shows the series is still in it's early days, and is mostly a matter of establishing characters and their skills.

In two parallel plots, Blake's crew discover a small craft in deep space which contains two humanoids in suspended animation. In classic science fiction style they start the re-awakening mechanism but fail to take any sensible security measures, and do not even investigate the locked rear compartment in the small craft.

Meanwhile, Blake is carrying out a plan to sabotage a major scanning array that co-ordinates much of the federation activities in space, both as a general attack on them and to help secure the Liberator's freedom from pursuit. The attack is un-memorable except for the introduction of Cally, a telepath who is the only survivor of a local resistance group (and is frequently mentioned as being an alien, although her telepathy is the only obvious thing that sets her apart).

We also learn that Vila is an expert at opening locks, although this had not been previously apparent - the rather feeble excuse being that he did not have the proper tools before.

Of course while most of the crew is away on this attack, the humanoids awake and turn out to be sociopaths escorting a cargo of genetic material that could be used to rapidly grow an invasion force. They are of course eventually overcome but not before we discover that Gan (the strongman of the crew) has a limiter that prevents him killing.

We also discover that Zen is extremely knowledgable (it appears he knew what this craft was from the start) but has limitations on what he can tell the crew - another plot device that should have made the crew very nervous of what he says but never seems to.

Finally, this episode demonstrates Blake as a man of action rather than just words, who is willing to engage in serious acts of terrorism for his cause. The apparent explosion at the end must have killed a lot of guards and technicians at the array, mnay of them with no greater crime than working for a corrupt and repressive government.

Xerxes