Blake's 7 - The Web / Seek, Locate, Destroy - Episodes 5 And 6 [VHS] [1978]

The Web:

Cally is controlled by an outside force, that turns out to be a remnant of her race exiled long ago, although we do not discover why.

She sabotages the Liberator to bring it to a planet where the exiles live. They maintain a small isolated research station investigating various banned areas, mainly in Genetic engineering. Their power source is nearly exhausted and they need it replenished, which is easily done by the Liberator, but Blake has misgivings about the uses to which they will put it, especially the planned eradication of some of the creatures created in their experiments, who have escaped control and apparently achieved sentience.

In the end the power sources are handed over but do them little good. The ending is rather unsatisfying, depending on a rather stupid oversight, although this does fit with the general feel of the series, where things happen as often due to chance and simple human failings as to great heroism or evil.

Both sets and costumes bear mention in this episode. Although the outside set is obviously woodland draped with some type of cloth fibre, this is much more effective than the sterile polystyrene rock scenes or garish colours that were common in TV science fiction at the time, likewise the research station looks more like a real construction rather than the overly enthusiaistic attempts to look "futuristic" that other series used.

The outfits and creature costumes are ambitious considering the low budget, and although obviously children & dwarves in latex suits the monsters do work within the plot, and it's a lot better than current science fistion that seems to depict almost all aliens as humans with slightly differently shaped noses and foreheads.

Seek - Locate - Destroy:

A major episode, if only for the introduction of the two major villains of the whole series. Supreme Commander Servalan is one of the strongest women characters in any science fiction (I think only Ripley in the Alien saga is more impressive) and is intelligent, utterly ruthless, and undeniably sexy.

She is responsible for trying to eliminate Blake, and appoints Space Commander Travis, an equally ruthless individual who was on the point of being cashiered for the most recent in a career of "over-zealous" supressions of enemies of the federation.

Travis has history with Blake, being the man responsible for the destruction of Blake's original rebellion, although Blake wounded him severely in the process and Travis carries the scars of this in his face patch and artificial hand.

During a raid on a Federation base to steal a communications cypher machine, Cally is captured and Travis uses her as bait to trap Blake. Blake turns the tables using the same methods of ambush that Travis used against him years before.

Once again the use of real industrial sites with a minimum of cosmetic alteration is effective and builds the general impression of the Federation as a place that depends on fairly basic heavy industry rather than lots of wonderful scientific miracles. It also contrasts nicely with the gleaming white luxurious offices used by the corrupt leaders such as Servalan.

Xerxes