by Simon Hart

The Liberator is low on power, after a long pursuit by Federation pursuit ships. To recharge, Blake puts the ship into orbit above an unnamed planet. While down on the planet Travis catches up with them, and with the ship on low power, Blake is forced to take drastic action and ram Travis’s ship…

Ram!

Travis is relentlessly pursuing the Liberator with three pursuit ships. Cornering him above an unnamed planet, Travis begins an attack on the powerless Liberator. Has he finally got Blake, or will an unexpected power intervene?

Sinofar The Guardian and Giroc the Keeper

The planet isn’t as uninhabited as it appears to be. Two women, Giroc the Keeper and Sinofar the Guardian are all that remain of a once powerful race that was destroyed in an atomic war. They have tremendous powers that can stop ships and hold them in stasis, while the opposing members of the ships are forced to fight to learn the lessons that their race failed to learn. Will Blake and Travis be their next unwilling participants?

The Duellists

Blake.

By not killing Travis when he so easily could, Blake has the moral high ground, which is enough to impress Sinofar and stop the duel. For a while though it looks like Travis might win, as his battle strategy has Blake trapped and he seems to be the better fighter in the duel…

There are no deaths in this episode- even when Travis’s Mutoid expires; it is brought back to life by Sinofar.

There’s lots of sparkling dialogue in this episode.

BLAKE: [Laughs] I get the distinct feeling I offended Zen's professional pride then.
AVON: It's just a machine, Blake.
VILA: And he should know.
GAN: Well Avon is the expert.
VILA: That's not what I meant.
AVON: No, he was calling me a machine, but since he undoubtedly defines himself as a human being, I shall choose to accept that as more of a compliment than anything else.

I love Travis’s comeback to a little dig from Blake:

TRAVIS: You do realize that any hostile act against me will be regarded as a hostile act against the Federation. [Giroc laughs.] Have you any idea of the risk you're running? [Giroc laughs harder.]
BLAKE: They don't seem very impressed, Travis. [Laughs] Why don't you try stamping your foot?
TRAVIS: Oh, that's very amusing, Blake. For a dead man.

And this is a good insight into Avon:

VILA: How can you sleep with all this happening?
AVON: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.

GAN: You're never involved, are you Avon? You ever cared for anyone?
VILA: Except yourself?
AVON: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all. [Exits]
VILA: Was that an insult or did I miss something?
CALLY: You missed something.

The Federation uses Mutoids to aid its manpower. Mutoids are mutated (get it? Good old Terry Nation and his obvious naming of things) human beings. They have their personalities and memories erased while undergoing the mutation process. They rely on a green blood serum to function, which comes in the form of bottles that fit into their chests beneath their uniforms. They have a needle attachment in their right arms so they are able to ingest blood direct from a victim if it becomes necessary. The blood of some animals is incompatible.

Replacing the blood serum

Both Jenna and Cally wear new clothes this episode. Cally has chosen a top in green (can you believe it?) satin with a nice loose neckline.

Jenna's new clothes

Jenna’s new top is more stunning and is without doubt her finest costume yet. The top is back with silver polka dots of various sizes. It has a large collar with silver piping, and full length sleeves (which is in itself shocking!), which fasten up down the middle with lovely silver fasteners. She wears the top with tight black trousers and the whole look really suits her.

We see the female mutoid feeding on blood serum, but no-one else eats and drinks anything.

There are no new rooms in this episode, but once again, the Liberator’s power storage is of concern. Three of the powerbanks are exhausted after a protracted chase by Travis (whose ships are still at full power, despite being less advanced than The Liberator) and the use of the force wall exhausts the power reserves greatly.

We also get to see Blake use a light pen on board the Liberator to produce a highly advanced tactical display.

Blake's advanced Tactical display skills.

Vila operates the Teleport both times this episode, and even gets cosy behind the teleport controls while Blake, Jenna and Gan are down on the surface of the planet.

Vila on full alert at the teleport

No-one loses a teleport bracelet this episode.

Blake and Avon share another protracted clinch as the Liberator comes under attack from Travis’s pursuit ships. They never seem to want to let go of each other when the end up in each others arms!

Blake and Avon: Who'll let go first?

It’s rather telling that Sinofar and Giroc select Jenna to be Blake’s friend. They seem to be intent on selecting a female friend for their opponents, and the selection of Jenna implies that she is the female closest to him among the crew. Their relationship in this episode is rather nice. There’s no touching, but they’re laughing with each other while they’re up in the tree at night, and despite some rather weary cynicism from Jenna, they do seem to be close.

Later when Gan is asking what Sinofar was like, Blake replies that she was very beautiful which gets a very jealous reaction from Jenna.

You can see Sinfar’s nipples through her dress too. Some people might like that kind of thing…

Will Jenna be the friend who dies?

This episode is directed by Douglas Camfield, who remains Doctor Who’s most prolific director, having directed 9 Doctor Who stories including the epic The Daleks Masterplan.

Both Isla Blair (Sinofar) and Patsy Smart (Giroc) appeared in Doctor Who. Isla Blair was the Lady Isabella in The Kings Demons and Patsy Smart was, of course, The Ghoul in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

This episode sees the reuse of one of the most distinctive Doctor Who items ever- the alien planet/ jungle sound effect! You know the one with all the alien screeching and noises used in such stories as The Green Death, Planet of the Daleks and Meglos. It is used to good effect through the night scenes in the forest.

This one isn’t very camp at all, so a high bleak rating for its vicious fights and grim war memorials.

Crossfading Sinofar

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first; Duel takes the Star Trek episode Arena as its inspiration, but this is no bad thing, as the episode is one of the most stylish of the series. Douglas Camfield produces one of the better looking episodes of the first series- using lots of cross fades and close ups which makes it different from all those around it. There’s also good use of video effects to make the episode appear out of the ordinary conjuring up the kind of low level BBC psychedelia so often seen in 1970s TV. However, there are still the usual production problems- the use of photographic stills as CSO backgrounds convinces as much as it did when Michael E. Briant used them in the Doctor Who story The Green Death.

Travis and his friend "on location"

Still, in many ways this episode is a cut above the norm. Douglas Camfield gets some great performances out of cast- there’s a real sense of the desperation of the situation when the Liberator is cornered by Travis above the planet, the performances really help to raise the tension. There’s interesting material for them to work with too, as the script is really well written and a little wittier than normal. There’s some decent character stuff for everyone. The characters left on board the Liberator get to watch and comment on the action and make some rather interesting comments on the group dynamic, including a rather prescient line from Vila on their eventual fate. Meanwhile Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette and Stephen Greif have some good scenes, including some vicious and convincing fights in the very cold New Forest. The night filming is a luxury that future seasons couldn’t afford and adds much to the atmosphere.

Cally, Gan and Vila enjoy the show

The odd atmosphere is aided by the use of stock music. It gives it a very different feel to other episodes of the series, but it is very disconcerting to see Blake and Co teleport without hearing Dudley Simpson’s teleport theme.

Duel is a very good episode indeed and is rightly highly regarded by Blake’s 7 fans.