Blakes' 7: Season One
Episode Details
Seeking information about his family, Roj Blake accompanies a couple
of activists out of the dome city. Once outside he meets a man who appears
to know him, who tells Blake that he was once the leader of a powerful
underground faction but was captured and has been brainwashed by the
authorities.
Shocked by these revelations, Blake asks for some time to consider and
walks off through the underground tunnels; while there he hears troops
and hides. He witnesses the slaughter of all of the activists, and
then attempts to sneak back into the dome but is caught.
Awaking in a prison cell, he discovers that he is being charged with
child molesting.
He convinces his lawyer that the charges are false, but when the lawyer
uncovers evidence to corroborate this, Blake's deportation is accelerated.
The departure of the prison ship London is brought forward to
ensure that Blake does not receive a reprieve, and the long journey
to the prison planet Cygnus Alpha starts.
Here Blake, with the aid of other prisoners
including Vila Restal, Jenna Stannis, Kerr Avon
and Oleg Gan, gains control of the ships computer room.
The first officer, Sub-Commander Raiker, starts executing one of
prisoners every thirty seconds until Jenna, Avon and Blake surrender.
Despite Avon's complaints, they surrender rapidly.
The prisoners back in their cell, the crew of the London detect a large
apparently derelict ship floating nearby and decide to attempt to salvage it.
After several crew members are lost in the attempt, the captain decides to
send Jenna, Blake and Avon into the derelict ship to recover the lost crewmen.
Within the alien ship, they start to succumb to a self-defence system
that uses your memory against you, but Blake's knowledge that
his memories are falsified allows him to duck the illusions it generates
and save the others.
The three of them gain control of the alien ship which Blake names
The Liberator,
and fly the ship away, with the help of the ship's computer Zen.
Raiker is killed in the escape attempt.
Blake uses the Liberator to trail the London to the prison planet
Cygnus Alpha.
Avon discovers that the Liberator is equipped with a teleport device, so
Blake is able to teleport down to the planet.
Once there, he discovers that the inhabitants of Cygnus Alpha have formed
a strange religious order, and that a deadly disease has infected the
other prisoners.
This disease can be treated, but not cured, by the monks.
Blake eventually discovers that the disease is a sham, perpetrated to force
new prisoners to convert to the prevailing religion. The prisoners break out
aided by Blake, but he only manages to rescue Vila and Gan - most of the others
are killed. Vila and Gan join Blake, Avon and Jenna on the Liberator.
The Liberator encounters a small slow space craft which contains a
cryogenically frozen crew. They take the ship inside the hold and
start the lengthy process to defrost the crew.
Meanwhile, Blake and Avon go to meet some resistance fighters and
hopes that together they can
attack a major communications relay station belonging to the Federation.
He in the end makes contact with the sole survivor of the resistance
cell, a telepath from the Planet Auron called Cally.
While Blake, Cally and Avon are down on the planet,
the rest of the crew have problems on board the Liberator when the crew of
the spacecraft awake from their sleep and turn out to be far from friendly.
At the end of the episode, Cally decides to join the Liberator's crew.
The Liberator starts to accelerate unexpectedly, and loses all forward
sensors. The crew eventually bring the Liberator back under control,
and find themselves in an unexplored area of space infested with a cobweb
like material which cocoons the Liberator and renders it unable to move.
They are then contacted by renegades of Cally's world, called the Lost.
Blake teleports down and encounters two of the Lost and a race of hostile
out-of-control creations called the Decimas. The base is running out of
energy, and the Lost propose a trade - energy cells in exchange for a way
out of the Web that envelopes the Liberator.
However, it becomes clear that the Lost intend to wipe out the rapidly
evolving race of Decimas with their new supply of energy, so Blake refuses
to give them the energy cells they need. The Decimas gain entry to the base,
overrunning it and destroying the Lost.
The Liberator arrives at Kentero, a planet hosting a strategic Federation
Communications Centre. Blake, Vila, Gan, Avon and Cally break in, and steal
the vital Cypher machine that will enable them to read all the Federation's
messages. They sabotage the centre to cover their tracks, and leave, but
Cally is left behind accidentally.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Commander of the Federation forces, Servalan,
assigns the ruthless Space Commandor Travis to find and destroy Blake
and the Liberator.
Travis insists on three experimental (Sunburst class) high speed pursuit
ships crewed by genetically modified humans called mutoids.
Realising Blake has captured the cypher machine, Travis sends a fake high
security message about Cally, in order to lay a trap for Blake and the others.
Finding an old Galaxy-class transport ship in a circular holding pattern in
deep space, Blake, Avon and Cally teleport over to investigate. They
find a drugged crew, a murdered pilot and evidence of sabotage.
The crew were transporting a cylinder containing an urgently needed (and
hugely expensive) chemical to the planet Destiny, to prevent an agricultural
disaster. The ship's drive has been damaged, rendering it only capable of
sub-light drive. To get the vital cylinder to
Destiny in time, Blake offers to take it in the Liberator, leaving Avon and
Cally behind to help with repairs and to detect the murderer.
As they begin their investigations, more murders occur. With the cylinder
safe on board the Liberator, what can the murderer hope to gain?
Travis' forces ensnare the Liberator in a lethal trap in orbit around a remote
and unknown planet. However, at the moment the attack is launched, the
inhabitants of the planet freeze time and abduct Blake and Jenna, Travis and
one of his Mutoid crew, taking them down to the planet surface to settle their
differences in a duel without high technology weapons.
Blake and Jenna must try to stay alive against Travis' cunning - but should
Blake kill Travis if he gets the chance?
Blake and the crew head toward a Federation planet with an active resistance
unit, headed by the mysterious Avalon. Unfortunately, Travis and his Mutoid
crew arrive first, and ambush a resistance meeting, killing most of the
activists and capturing Avalon. Blake and Jenna teleport down, find a survivor
and determine to rescue Avalon before she breaks down under interrogation and
names all the resistance leaders in the entire sector!
However, Travis's scientists are constructing an android double of Avalon,
with the specific intention to let the double be rescued, taken aboard
the Liberator and then either destroy it or capture it.
Can the crew survive this latest threat?
Gan's aggression limiter malfunctions, placing his life in jeopardy.
The only source of the replacement parts, and medical expertise, needed to
save Gan is a Federation-aligned medical and weapons research centre.
The crew must persuade the researchers to treat Gan,
without putting themselves in danger.
They attempt to pass the Liberator off as an advanced Federation
prototype ship to deflect suspicion. However, they do not fool the Doctor
who must treat Gan, who contacts the Federation and delays the
operation to buy time for the Federation Pursuit ships that are coming!
The crew land on the planet Lindor, where a deposed leader has
been held in exile. Blake and Cally ask him to return to his
people. Meanwhile, a ship in distress is helped by the
Liberator, only to encounter a group of bounty hunters who seek
to turn Blake and the Liberator over to the Federation.
When a small shuttle craft is wracked by an explosion after leaving a
Federation base, the crew of the Liberator rescue a survivor,
who begs them to fly to a distant planet where his father is dying
because the batteries in his cardiac-support
device are running out of power.
The crew discover that the Federation has agreed to pay an
enormous sum of money for an incredibly advanced portable supercomputer
called Orac, that promises to be able to outperform all the Federation's
computers put together.
Blake agrees to go on a mission of mercy, and the survivor then dies, leaving
them to deliver the batteries to the dying inventor.
Blake and his group decide Orac could swing the balance of power for or
against them, and decide they must have it. They seek out the reclusive
computer genius who has invented the portable supercomputer called Orac, with
the Federation in hot pursuit. Eventually, they manage to frustrate the
Federation's plans and take Orac themselves. However, the inventor is
killed by the Federation soldiers in the scrap.
Back on board the Liberator, Blake asks for a demonstration of Orac's
capabilities, and in response Orac throws up a video clip of the near future
predicting the Liberator's total destruction.
This is the season cliffhanger.
Choose: onwards to season two episodes, or
back to Blakes 7 front page.
B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk & D.White@ee.surrey.ac.uk
19th July 1995