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by Simon Hart |
After learning of the Lindor Strategy through the Federation Cipher machine, Blake goes to an unnamed planet to liberate President Sarkoff of the planet Lindor who is currently in exile. He plans to take Sarkoff back to Lindor and restore him as president, thus stopping the planned Federation take over of the planet… but will Sarkoff want to return?
In an audacious piece of planning, the Federation has started The Lindor Strategy. The Federation wanted the planet Lindor, but Sarkoff would not agree to join. He staged an election, the results of which were manipulated by the Federation to oust Sarkoff from power. He goes into exile, and the new leader of the planet is unable to keep control. Civil war begins and the Federation will arrive with a "peacekeeping" force, which will restore order. They will take over the administration of the planet and return Sarkoff to his people as a puppet leader. Brilliant!
The Liberator is sent a distress call from a ship in an erratic orbit. Gan goes to investigate and is teleported back… or is he? The ship is soon under the control of Tarvin and his band of Amagon Bounty Hunters… will they succeed in selling the Liberator and its crew to the Federation?
Blake He successfully liberates Sarkoff, and thanks to Jenna’s double crossing beats the Amagons too.
Blake kills an Amagon guard, as does Cally after her brilliant jump off the top of Sarkoff’s Folly.
Vila voices his doubts about the craft sending the distress signal: VILA: I don't like the look of that. Zen suggest Vila makes a personal investigation: ZEN: It will be necessary for you to make a
personal investigation.
Sarkoff wallows in self pity:
SARKOFF: I've wasted my life listening, listening to people who are arrogant, or vacuous, or just plain vicious. I smiled and acquiesced in the face of prejudice and stupidity. I've tolerated mediocrity and accepted the tyranny of second-class minds. But now all that is over. I am ready to die, here among the things I value. I am ready to let you kill me but I am not ready to listen to you justify the act. Blake explains the Lindor Strategy: BLAKE: President Sarkoff, your planet is in
total chaos. There are dozens of factions fighting for power. They're on
the brink of civil war.
Fed Tech: The Federation are using motion detectors around Sarkoff’s Folly. These are little white units, with what looks like a golf ball built into the top. They seem to work though, as they have previously detected the movements of nesting rodents and they of course also detect Blake and Cally too. Sarkoff is a collector of 20th century items, and Blake marvels at such technological wonders as a gramophone. These have clearly been superseded. The Amagons have microwave transmitters which control the neckbands put on their prisoners. When fastened round the neck of a prisoner the neckbands can’t be removed unless the device is deactivated. If it is removed without being deactivated, it will explode. The microwave transmitter device can also be used to explode the neckbands at any time, should the Amagons wish. Gan is seen using the Sennhesier headphones again! Fashion: Cally and Avon both wear new costumes this episode. Cally’s seems to be a reversal of her favourite green top, as it’s much the same, only a slightly pinkish colour. Can this be true? Anyway, rather wonderfully it is worn with a fake fur leopard skin print jacket, tight brown trousers and knee-high boots. It’s a triumph!
Avon wears his first black top! Hooray! Unfortunately it’s a pretty vile thing, another ¾ length sleeve affair, with thick silver piping all over it. There’s a big silver V around the top and more silver lines down the front. It’s worn over a green roll neck sweater (of course!) and black trousers.
The glam factor of this episode comes from the character of Tyce. She’s dressed in a red jacket with gold piping down it and black lapels, worn over a cream coloured top. She wears this with skintight Lycra leggings. Later she augments this with a black cloak.
In a stunningly sartorial episode, we also have the very elegant President Sarkoff. He wears a black velvet jacket with a paisley design on it. Under this is a fancy black waistcoat with gold piping and a white shirt with frilly cuffs that is worn with a black tie. He also wears a big black cloak when he’s out for a drive with Tyce and a rather nice black fedora.
In a rather odd piece of design the Amagons are all dressed like Arab Sheikhs in robes in various shades of blue with gold accessories on the headdress and down the front of the robes. You sense Rupert Jarvis was inspired by the casting of a cut price Omar Sharif as Tarvin.
As well as lots of scenes of characters wandering through the Liberator corridors, there’s also the glimpse of yet another new room. The crew are locked up in yet another control room of some kind. This one has a big blueish mushroom type object in its centre as well as another control panel that has disco wire connecting things together. Unfortunately the walls are yet again a dull grey colour.
With the story starting with Blake and Cally already down on the planet, it’s unclear who teleports them down. We also don’t see Gan teleport across to the Amagon ship, though, as Avon operates the teleport to bring him back, we could infer that he sends him across. Later, it’s again someone unseen who teleports Blake, Cally, Sarkoff and Tyce to the Liberator, but we do see Jenna teleport Sarkoff and Tyce down to Lindor.
No one loses a teleport bracelet this episode. Good thing too, because there aren’t many left.
Have Blake and Jenna been getting it on in-between episodes? That’s the hint I’m picking up this week. Blake is very quick to defend her when it looks like she’s sold them out to Tarvin, and thinks of the best of her when the rest of the crew are having a go at her. She responds by teasing him (with Cally admittedly) at the end of the episode about the way that Tyce has taken a shine to him. He seems to be totally oblivious to this!
T.P. (Thomas Patrick no less) McKenna is this episode’s only guest star to have appeared in Doctor Who. He appeared as Captain Cook, the eminent interplanetary explorer in 1988’s The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
This one is a quite camp for a season one episode, so since we’re not doing very well on the camp front so far I’ll go for quite a high rating.
Bounty is an episode I’d sort of dismissed as yet another dull one at the end of season one. I obviously wasn’t paying enough attention in the past. Starting the episode with the crew already well into their plot adds a nice bit of intrigue and this is actually a highly entertaining and quite a sophisticated episode for a political point of view. I sense the rewriting skills of Chris Boucher in this as this episode is far more sophisticated then your average Terry Nation one. The Federation’s Lindor Strategy is very clever and comes close to working. Indeed, it seems to have gained even more parallels today than it would have had back in 1978, what with the American policy of regime changes in the middle east and all… or am I just seeing things? Anyway, TP McKenna gives an outstanding performance as the broken President Sarkoff. His world-weary performance is very convincing, especially in the moments where he’s full of self-pity. His sparring with Blake, Cally and Tyce is good, and it’s satisfying to see that he regains some of his nerve at the end of the episode. Perhaps Lindor will be in safe hands after all?
It’s a shame though that the scenes with the Amagon Bounty Hunters don’t work quite as well. Jenna gets the best material from these scenes as her past catched up with her. Her deception is quite convincing, as is her flirting with Tarvin, but dressing the Amagons as Arab Sheikhs in space is a bizarre decision, no doubt inspired by the casting, that doesn’t really work for me. Still, this is quite tame compared to some of the costume "delights" we have coming up later in the series I suppose.
The scenes at Sarkoff’s Folly feel quite strange. It’s very odd to see a vintage car in Blake’s 7. I get the same feeling with the room housing Sarkoff’s collection of 20th century artefacts, even if the silver brickwork isn’t quite the standard 20th Century living quarters the script suggests! The juxtaposition works nicely, creating a rather odd feel to the episode. There’s some decent work film work too, Cally’s jump from the top of the wall and the teleporting from the moving car being two highlights.
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