by Simon Hart

Blake seems to have been planning finding a way off the London from the moment he comes aboard. He wants to take over the ship and demand that he and the other prisoners be set down on the nearest planet. To do this he needs to take control of the ship’s computer and convince the computer genius he’s imprisoned with that it’s worth his while getting involved…

Now Blake is off Earth and seemingly discredited, The Federation lose interest. It’s down to Commander Leylan and his crew to get Blake to Cygnus Alpha, a job he has performed many times. There’s no special treatment for the "celebrity" prisoner, but clearly he’s seen as no more of a threat than the other prisoners on board the ship.

There’s an intergalactic battle happening in the same sector as the London’s flight path, and this is causing shockwaves that affect the running of the ship. The hull is punctured several times, killing one of the prisoners who is helping Blake at the time.

Later the London is flying blind, very close to one of the ships that has been involved in this battle. The salvage value of this ship to the Federation authorities make it worth the risk of sending a boarding party on board…

Blake.

Although his actions cause the slaughter of many prisoners on board the London, he gains a ship to begin his crusade against the Federation and the start of a crew. His revolutionary zeal has already won him several potential followers.

The guards and officers on the ship are responsible for the deaths of six prisoners during the escape attempt organised by Blake. Later, when Raiker takes desperate measures to get Blake out of the computer room another three are killed, one of which is after Blake has surrendered.

Blake’s crew is responsible for their first death at the end of this episode, when Raiker is killed trying to board the Liberator as Jenna begins to pilot it away from the London. His body is ejected into space as the transfer tube is uncoupled.

This little exchange between Raiker and Jenna shows that even though we’ve reached episode 2, Jenna is still allowed to be feisty:

RAIKER: Unfortunately, Jenna, there are no special facilities for female prisoners. But if you should find things difficult, I might be able to arrange something more comfortable.

JENNA: That's very considerate of you.

RAIKER: Why make it hard on yourself?

JENNA: Why indeed?

[Raiker slaps her across the face]

RAIKER: You'll come round! I can be VERY persuasive

Avon is established as a cynical self serving character from his first scene:

VILA: Blake -- Kerr Avon. When it comes to computers, he's the number two man in all the Federated worlds.

NOVA: Who's number one?

VILA: The guy who caught him. [To Avon] You've got nothing to be ashamed of. D'you know, he came close to stealing five million credits out of the Federation Banking System.

BLAKE: What went wrong?

AVON: I relied on other people. Why all the questions? Or is it merely a thirst for knowledge?

Finally, Blake decides where he stands and stands up for what he believes is right and Avon sets him up with the opposing view. The seeds are sown for the next two seasons!

BLAKE: Yes Earth. That's where the heart of the Federation is. I intend to see that heart torn out.

AVON:I thought you were probably insane.

BLAKE: That's possible! They butchered my family, my friends. They murdered my past and gave me tranquilized dreams.

JENNA: At least you're still alive.

BLAKE: No! Not until free men can think and speak. Not until power is back with the honest man.

AVON: Have you ever met an honest man?

JENNA: [Glances at Blake] Perhaps.

AVON: Listen to me. Wealth is the only reality. And the only way to obtain wealth is to take it away from somebody else. Wake up, Blake! You may not be tranquilized any longer, but you're still dreaming.

JENNA: Maybe some dreams are worth having.

AVON: You don't really believe that.

JENNA: No, but I'd like to.

The London we’re told is an old ship and it shows that the Federation isn’t entirely reliant on up the minute technology. Still, there is some interesting technology on board. For instance, the doors are all hand print operated, so that in theory only the crew of the ship can use them, though this doesn’t work to their advantage when they’ve got someone as strong as Gan to persuade them to open the door. The security cameras on board are of the same design as those seen in the city in The Way Back, which suggests that they are a universal design used all over the Federation.

The ship is controlled by a large central computer and we’re told if you "control the computer, then you control the ship". The computer itself is a grey, three sided affair, with lots of flashing lights and a few switches, with a panel underneath that reveal what look like large fuses that seem to control various functions on board the ship. One of which Avon knocks out with a probe that extends like a car aerial and it opens all the doors on The London. There is also a circuit that controls all the scanners on board the ship, and later Blake is commanded to watch Scanner 34, which is in the prisoners’ area. The Bridge control room scanner shows some exciting graphical displays of the space battle that is going on nearby, and can also show the courses taken by other ships in the same sector.

Raiker is seen using an electronic clipboard with a light pen and Artlix uses a personal teaching device that seems to have voices recorded on it while he’s studying for his command qualification. Communication on board the ship is by mini-microphones that broadcast through communication stations around the ship.

The ship has an automated airlock with a transfer tube that can dock with another ships airlock when necessary. This transfer tube can be pressurised and then walked along by any members of the crew who wish to board the other ship.

We’re on a prison ship for most of this episode and so there’s a lack of glamour on display, though we do still have Jenna in her iridescent costume from The Way Back. Otherwise all we see is functional drab clothes.

Avon’s first costume is far removed from the all over black leather look we’ll come to love later in the show’s run. He’s introduced wearing a grey shirt beneath a tabard in a slightly different shade of grey over a pair of flared grey trousers. Very grey. The computer technician on board The London wears a similarly drab set of clothes, all in grey, so it must be the standard uniform for the IT people of the future. The sooner this look is introduced into offices across the world, the better in my opinion.

In comparison Gan’s costume is positively multi-coloured. He wears a brown tabard over a checked grey shirt with light brown trousers and green boots. Most of the other prisoners wear variation on these two looks, in various dowdy colours.

The command crew are treated to matching dark blue tabards over lighter blue shirts worn with blue trousers. Depending on their rank (I imagine) they have stripes across the shoulders in slightly different colours. These are so subtle that it wasn’t until the slightly cleaned up DVD came out that I was able to spot this startling addition to their costumes.

Later we see the very fetching Exploration kits the crew wear to investigate the Liberator. These consist of white overalls, with a silver communicator attachment that sits over the left breast with silver air canisters on the right. This is topped off with a silver helmet. Very practical.

Again, as in The Way Back we’re told that the prisoners’ rations are heavily dosed with suppressants as Leylan "likes ‘em docile", but otherwise we don’t see the prisoners’ rations.

There is a glimpse later on of the officers’ food. On the bridge there seems to be a glass jar, full of what look like strawberries, although knowing Terry Nation, they’re probably Space Strawberries.

The crew are seen to eat from Tupperware containers and cups, which just goes to show that some things, like keeping your sandwiches fresh never go out of fashion.

This is our first glimpse of the Liberator and we first see the airlock, or rather we hear all about it. It’s a kind of cylinder that spins round to let people into the ship. Sounds exciting, but we never see it. We just see a big door, with no hint of a cylinder or anything!

Of course the most impressive sight is the flight deck. Jenna describes it very well, with her exclamation of "It’s beautiful!" It looks shiny and new, because of course, it hasn’t been blown up or damaged yet by the BBC Special Effects Department. It has five black bike saddle flight seats backed with three silver cushions each, flight station control panels with CSO screens we barely ever see. Each station also has angle poise attachments which are for the piloting of the ship- they can adjust speed and trajectory I imagine.

In front of the flight stations is a wonderfully comfortable looking cream leather sofa, all looking towards Zen who sits in the left had corner of the deck, and the view screen that lies straight ahead. The panels are all in browns, with some lovely lighting effects on the screens beneath Zen that make the ship look alive.

It remains one of the finest Space Ship flight decks ever, in my opinion, simply because of its grandeur, which on a BBC budget (and a miniscule one at that) is all the more impressive.

Raiker tells Jenna that there’s no special treatment for female prisoners aboard The London, but he can make life more "comfortable" for her. She spurns his offer with a whispered refusal (I imagine!) that results in a nasty slap round in the face from Raiker.

Other than this, there is very little in the way of sex, kissing or cuddling, though Jenna remains quite flirtatious with Blake, but she doesn’t touch his hair again, sadly.

Making their Blake’s 7 debuts in Spacefall are director Pennant Roberts and Roger Murray-Leach, the designer of the Hinchcliffe years of Doctor Who. Roberts directed six Doctor Who stories between 1976 and 1985, including the ill-fated Shada and the much derided Timelash. What this says about his talent, I wouldn’t like to say.

In the cast we have the debut of Paul Darrow who played Captain Hart in Doctor Who and the Silurians and would later play Mailyn Tekker in Timelash. Quite what that says about his talent, I really wouldn’t like to say.

All the members of the London’s command crew appeared in Doctor Who, Glyn Owen (Leylan) was Rohm Dutt in Power of Kroll, Leslie Schofield (Raiker) was Leroy in the War Games and Calib in The Face of Evil and Norman Tipton (Artlix) was Idas in Underworld. Tom Kelly (Nova) was a guard in both The Face of Evil and The Sun Makers and was Second Vardan in The Invasion of Time. He is killed by an old friend from Doctor Who’s fifth and sixth seasons, the foam machine!

Prop wise, the London seems to be made up of Doctor Who computer control panels. On the bridge you can see the panel from the controls of the Keller Machine from The Mind of Evil, and the panel that operates the airlock was attacked by the Doctor’s scarf, when it was the Auto-Guard Cut-out in The Ark in Space.

This episode isn’t nearly as bleak as The Way Back was but does maintain a grim feeling. There’s not really any campness evident yet either, so the campometer is veering towards the bleak side again, especially in light of Raiker’s actions after the rebellion.

This is an enjoyable episode which follows on nicely from The Way Back and continues to establish Blake’s 7 by adding more to the regular characters we met in the first episode and introduces two more of the regular cast., although it’d be fun to watch this episode and Cygnus Alpha without knowing who’s going to join the 7, as there are some characters who could be potential members of the team. For a while it looks like the likable Nova might make it, but it’s not be as he faces a foamy death.

Of course, the most notable character introduced in Space Fall is Avon, who from the start is established as a character that is not willing to blindly follow Blake like some of the others, but instead argues the opposing view to Blake’s wherever possible. This relationship creates some very entertaining scenes in this episode and will be developed as the series continues.

Interestingly, far from being the passive character he was in The Way Back, Blake seems to have discovered some revolutionary zest suddenly in this episode. The scene in the computer room with Jenna and Avon sets forward his vision very clearly and whether he’s naïve to believe that power should be in the hands of the "honest man" is difficult to say at this point, although since he keeps meeting corrupt members of the Federation, like Raiker, it’s an understandable aim. Still, Blake is has a very well defined sense of injustice and the way he stands up to Raiker and demands that he stands trial for his actions after the slaughter of the prisoners is admirable. It certainly wins him some followers, with Gan and Vila willingly and easily falling in with him and his plans.

It’s a good solid episode, there are moments where Pennant Roberts attempts to go beyond his normal pedestrian direction with some delightfully trippy moments on the Liberator flight deck when Blake, Avon and Jenna are attacked by the defence system. Again we get some close ups of the characters eyes that neatly match the shots in The Way Back. For the most part, however, these moments are out of the ordinary and will be increasingly unusual in the show.

The highlight of the episode for me though is the introduction of the Liberator. In a majestic model shot (all the model work in this episode is well shot) we see the magnificent ship hanging in space with a lovely green glow around it. It looks gorgeous and with a triumphant use of the series theme to accompany it (this would be a recurring feature of Dudley Simpson’s incidental music for the show); it really is a wonderful moment. It’s just a shame the model work blew the budget so early on and we have to endure some cheaply animated shots of the Liberator throughout the first season.