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by Simon Hart |
The Liberator is orbit around the planet Centero, the home of Federation communication. Blake has come here to steal the Federation cipher, which would give him access to all the encoded communications made by the Federation. He hopes that by destroying the room around the machine he’ll be able to fool the Federation into thinking he didn’t steal it and thus he will be able to monitor their communications in secret for sometime.
Blake is becoming a legend. This is worrying the Senior Echelon of the High Council so much that they send Senator Bercol and Secretary Rontaine to Space Command to meet Supreme Commander Servalan to try and sort the Blake problem out for good.
Servalan has put Space Commander Travis in charge of the Blake affair: his only orders being to seek, locate and utterly destroy Blake. The Centero incident is the perfect place for him to begin his task, especially when he finds one of Blake’s crew alive in the base…
I’m not sure anyone really wins this one. Blake gets the Cipher, but it’s of no use once the episode is over, as the Federation know he’s got it. The Federation don’t get Blake, but they do work he has the Cipher machine, so they stop hearing all their encrypted messages. A draw then I reckon.
Blake kills one guard in this episode after he appears at the door of the cipher room.
The Federation stack up no more kills.
Servalan quickly establishes her view of Blake: Gentlemen: I share the President's grave concern. And I am aware of the danger should Blake become a legend. But let us keep this matter in its correct perspective. It is true that Blake has command of a superb space vehicle, but he is just a man, backed by a handful of criminals, and that is all. He is not invulnerable, nor is he superhuman. He is just a man, who has been extremely lucky to evade capture --- so far. Blake is certain he’ll remember Travis when he sees him: The man who killed twenty of my friends? Oh yes. I’ll recognise him Travis settles on his task for the rest of the season: Run Blake, run. As far and as fast as you like. I’ll find you. You can’t hide from me Blake. I am your death, Blake.
Fed Tech:
This episode sees our first and almost last glimpse of the Federation Security Robot. This impressive piece of hardware has a head that swivels 360 degrees, with scanners built into it and a really impressive flame thrower that comes out of it’s chest. It moves very fat when on patrol and doesn’t let any intruders into the Centero base, and if they are stupid enough to make their way in, it soon deals with them. Well sort of. The robot was actually rubbish and despite it’s appearance in early publicity photos, only appeared in two episodes because it was completely impractical to use on location and looked a more than a bit rubbish on screen!
We see Vila a work on locks this episode. The first of these operates a pattern recognition system, with the face of each authorised user stored as a recognised pattern. The face is scanned, then verified by the central computer in the complex before opening the security gate. There’s a delay between the authorisation and recognition and Vila is able to intercept the feedback from the central computer and override the information it sends letting himself and Blake through the gate. Simple, huh?
The Federation Cipher Machine is what the crew have come to steal. This decodes all the communications sent by hyperspace sub-beam which have been converted to zeta 3 particles and scrambled into an unbreakable code. A code this is unbreakable without the cipher device anyway.
Vila is again seen to have a probe for every occasion, this time carried in what looks suspiciously like a red cool box. Perhaps he takes the crew’s sandwiches down with him too? The Centero Base Commander sets up an MSD- a Molecular Shift Detector around the base. Teleporting apparently causes a massive telekinetic potential to build up, so an MSD will be able to detect when anyone teleports in and where they arrive. Fashion: The Liberator crew don’t wear any new clothes this episode, but Blake has taken to wearing his clothes from The Web with a grey shirt that has the collar turned up. Good for him. We do have our first appearance from Supreme Commander Servalan though. Her first costume is quite restrained compared to some of her later ones, this being a white satin dress with ¾ length sleeves worn over a grey top of some sort. There is some nice fancy needlework around the neckline and some little oval jewels have been sewn into the collar.
Space Commander Travis wears a practical version of the standard Federation uniform in heavy duty black leather. It has the Federation symbol nicely detailed across the centre of his chest. Food and Drink: We see Jenna take a sip of some drink from a Liberator cup (a polystyrene cup with silver tape around the top and the bottom!), but we don’t know what it is or even what colour it is.
There are no new rooms seen on The Liberator this episode.
Jenna is left in control of the teleport this episode and we see her operate it three times in all. No-one else gets a look in.
There’s a rather nice shot of Cally grasping for her lost teleport bracelet after the charges have gone off in the Centero base, but it turns out that this teleport bracelet has survived the blast. (This is rather ironic really, as Jan Chappell notoriously had very slender wrists and her teleport bracelets were extra padded so that they would stay on her wrists- look out for them sliding up her arms in some episodes, particularly Shadow in season 2)
So no more bracelets have been lost. Yet!
There’s not much in the way of sex or even implied affection in this episode. Servalan rather tenderly strokes Rai’s hair in one scene. There’s also a much understated reaction from Avon about Cally, who when she is finally rescued says rather impassively "Yes, I’m glad you are all right." There’s something going on there I tell you. Avon doesn’t show even that level of concern to any other member of the crew!
Servalan’s scene with Rai is interesting, as we see a side of her not often witnessed in the show, her softer side. We don’t really see the character this close to anyone else in the series’ run, at least we don’t see a relationship that means so much to her (until Sand, perhaps). She really seems hurt and confused when Rae decides to talk openly about his feelings on her appointing Travis to catch Blake. The way she suddenly snaps and her voice turns hard goes to show that she doesn’t appreciate being disagreed with.
Five actors from this episode appeared in Doctor Who: Jacqueline Pearce would go on to arguably recreate her Servalan performance as Chessene in The Two Doctors; Peter Miles who played Secretary Rontaine appeared in Doctor Who three times in the 1970s, firstly as Dr. Lawrence in Doctor Who and the Silurians, then as Professor Whittaker in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and finally, and most famously he played Davros’ right hand man, Nyder in the 1975 story, Genesis of the Daleks. He also starred in the radio story, The Paradise of Death in 1993. Rontaine’s associate Senator Bercol was played by John Bryans who would later appear as Torvin, the leader of the metal loving bandits in Creature from the Pit in 1979. Peter Craze who played Prell would also appear in the 17th season of Doctor Who, playing Waterguard Costa in Nightmare of Eden. He had earlier appeared as Du Pont in The War Games and as Dako in The Space Museum. Another actor in this episode to have starred with William Hartnell’s Doctor was Ian Cullen who had played Ixta in The Aztecs way back in 1964. Is it just a co-incidence that Travis has a Laseron Destroyer built into his damaged hand, or is this a neat reference to Robots of Death?
This is another episode that’s rather difficult to pin down. Since it is quite grim in places, I’ve gone for a tentative step towards bleakness for this episode.
This is one of the most important episodes of the show, as it sets the format for the rest of the series. Now Servalan and Travis have become the faces of the Federation and have begun the chase of the Blake and the Liberator the series has become essentially like the Robin Hood in Space Terry Nation wanted it to be, with Blake and Co as the Merry Men and Servalan and Travis as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisbourne: Goodies vs. Baddies. Watching the show from the beginning has made me realise that The Federation was all the more powerful and scary as a faceless power, especially as Travis would prove to be rather inept at actually capturing Blake. This fact is compounded by most of Travis’s episodes ending with him saying he’ll get Blake next time. It makes him seem like a cartoon villain- The Hooded Claw springs to mind from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
Still, despite this I admit to a great love for the character of Servalan, and she makes an immediate impression here. The malice she manages to squeeze into lines where there’s no real malice at all is quite astounding, and she steals the screen every time we see her. This could be a side effect of the character originally being written as a man, as Terry Nation is renowned for his strong female characters (aside from Survivors’ Abby Grant perhaps) but it works here. This episode does, however, highlight Blake’s rather selfish side, as it’s almost laughable that he’s so wrapped up in the triumph of stealing the cipher machine that he manages to miss the fact that Cally is missing. It just goes to show how entertaining this episode is that the viewer accepts this without thinking how odd that is!
He does do the right things at the end and rescues her, and manages to use Travis’s old trick of getting there first, which makes for a neat resolution to the story.
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