On course for recreation planet Del Ten, Blake is attacked by a high-pitched tone oscillation only he and Cally can hear. This makes him react irrationally and change course to asteroid PK118. Just what does he want to go there for, and what will he find waiting for him when he arrives?

Hyper Tense Blake

It’s time for the annual conference of the Interplanetary Governors. Servalan is on hand to offer advice on security matters, but she seems to be in a very good, very playful mood. Just what can she be up to?

Governor Le Grand

Governor Le-Grand of Outer Gaul has offered haven to Ven Glynd, the arbiter at Blake’s trial, who has gone rogue with sensitive secrets about Servalan and the Federation High Council. She’s also been contacted by Shivan, Blake’s old colleague from his days in the Freedom Party. What can the three of them be plotting and what influence does an artificial telepathic transmitter obtained covertly from Auron have on Blake?

Servalan.

Despite not getting the Liberator, or killing Blake, she does foil Le Grand and Ven Glynd’s plat to overthrow the Administration, and she seems to having a wonderful doing it too.

Travis kills Nagu while disguised as Shivan.

The Federation soldiers kill both Le Grand and Ven Glynd. More deaths occur off screen.

The Liberator crew don’t appreciate Blake’s leadership:

AVON: Why are we diverting to some discarded rock? Any reason, Blake, or simply a whim, a guessing game, perhaps?
BLAKE: Priority mission.
AVON: Whose?
VILA: Why?
AVON: Objective?
BLAKE: I command this ship.
AVON: Do you indeed?
JENNA: You lead. We don't take commands.
VILA: You've always explained, given us reasons for things.
AVON: When he had any.
BLAKE: This time I choose not to.
JENNA: But, Blake, if you...
BLAKE: For once just try trusting me. [Exits]
CALLY: What is this priority of his?
AVON: Exactly. He's used a number of ploys to get his own way, but, "Just try trusting me," that's weak even by his standards.

Four out of seven disagree with Blake

Blake puts the seed of suspicion into Vila’s mind:

BLAKE: You know what's happening, don't you?
VILA: Happening?
BLAKE: Avon and Cally.
VILA: What about them?
BLAKE: Paired up. Mutual affinities.
VILA: You mean?
BLAKE: Oh, it's been going on for some time now. I didn't realize it had gone as far as this.

Servalan has some fun at the expense of Governor Le Grand:

SERVALAN: Of course. Your renowned attention to detail.
LE GRAND: A habit of office.
SERVALAN: Quite so. Just as my habit was to suspect some threat of a plot.
LE GRAND: A plot?
SERVALAN: [V.O.] We have heard rumours, nothing confirmed, of course, concerning the rebel Shivan.
LE GRAND: Shivan's still alive?
SERVALAN: Severely incapacitated. A mere shell, in fact. But as we both have learned, while there's life, there's threat.
LE GRAND: A shrewd maxim, Supreme Commander.
SERVALAN: The fugitive Blake is another. As long as he lives -- if only as a symbol to the malcontents -- security is threatened.
LE GRAND: A theme which, with your permission, of course, I should like to stress at the Atlay meeting.
SERVALAN: Oh, feel free, Your Excellency. From strength, as we say, to unity. [Breaks contact] One day, very soon, the crimino therapists will have their sport with you

Where there's threat there's Servalan

Now on the BIG Screen: Supreme Commander Servalan:

SERVALAN: Governor Le Grand. You are completely surrounded. If you wish to avoid bloodshed you'll instruct your bodyguard to put down their weapons. [Le Grand's eyes fill with tears] Le Grand, the High Council have been aware of your pathetic plot from the beginning. Our only surprise is that you have come this far without realizing how transparent your intentions have been. I repeat, your bodyguard will put down their weapons. [Lights come on showing Federation troopers]

Le Grand not enjoying Servalan's latest film

Blake has a space suit that doesn’t require an air tank.

Artificial telepathic transmission was a process developed on Auron. The technology is used here to beam an oscillating tone into Blake’s head. This is a trigger signal implanted in Blake’s brain during one of his sessions with the crimino-therapists on Earth before one of his trials (it’s unclear which). The trigger signal is used as a form of hypnotism to pacify difficult criminal. Used in conjunction with drugs, after a few days the tone is enough to bring about pacification in the criminal. Eventually the tone triggers a hypnotic illusion to eliminate true memory. The trigger system is a small opaque black plastic box with flashing lights inside.

Jenna goes into therapy

Ven Glynd’s evidence is stored on micro tapes kept in a silver plastic briefcase.

Cally achieves a Zen state?

Both Avon and Blake have new clothes to relax in while doing Cally’s meditative relaxation exercises. Both have karate style robes on. Avon’s, naturally, are black silk, while Blake’s, for contrast are white.

Jenna gets a new full-length navy blue dress. It is mostly a plain design, with material gathered at the top, with a small necklace and bracelet.

Servalan has a plain white dress with a chest panel fastened by 6 BIG buttons.

Travis has dispensed with his Federation uniform and has decided to wear brown overalls with a black leather patch around the neckline.

The representatives of Outer Gaul all wear long grey robes, again much like karate robes only knee length. The robes all have thick edging around the edges. Underneath these the various delegates wear either black or white tops.

Tonight Matthew I'm going to be the rebel Shivan

What else could it be, but Shivan’s bizarre costume? He’s wearing what looks like a green curtain with a pink plastic medallion accessory. His head is covered in bandages over a neck brace, and one of his eyes seems to have been replaced by one of those eyes you’d find of teddy bears. Quite how Governor Le Grand was taken in remains a mystery.

Again no one eats or drinks anything.

The crew are seen relaxing in a previously unseen room. It’s a pretty standard Liberator design, very grey with benches and chairs within and a hexagonal window looking out into space. It has a large, heavy octagonal door at the far right hand side of the room operated by a control on the wall next to the door (on both sides of the door).

The Liberator also has a chair with restraints built into the arm just in case any of the crew goes mad and needs restraining, obviously!

Vila teleports Blake down to the asteroid PK118 and Cally later sends Jenna and Avon down after him.

Presumably none of the crew retrieve the ones worn by Travis, Le Grand and Ven Glynd, so another three have been lost.

Orac is able to monitor the telepathic tones beamed at Blake and identify them. He is able to suggest two ways of treating Blake, one of which is immediately dismissed, as it would mean removing the lock on Orac receiving telepathic transmissions, as applied in Shadow. Instead he supervises the dual therapy with Jenna acting as a control subject.

There’s not a lot of it in this episode, but it in interesting that when the hypnotised Blake is trying to get Vila on his side he plays on the relationship between Cally and Avon. That Vila falls for the ruse shows that there’s obviously some sort of obvious closeness between Avon and Cally that everyone has noticed. Thus it’s a plausible ruse for Blake to use.

Blake manipulates Vila

This is a great episode for Servalan, despite her not actually being in it a great deal. Aside from her playful and very knowing communications with Governor Le Grand, this episode contains one of the most iconic Servalan moments from the entire series. You all know the one. Yes, it’s when Servalan send Le Grand to an empty conference hall, the lights go down and then on the big cinema screen Servalan’s face appears to tell them that she knows what’s going on, that the pathetic attempt to take control has been foiled and the rebels are completely surrounded by Servalan’s guards! Then, she tells them to open fire with a single, icy "Now!" It’s a wonderful Servalan moment!

Now on the big screen, in colour!

Martyn Read who played Nagu in this episode played the Windsor Castle security man in 1988’s Silver Nemesis.

Pat Gorman also appears again. Hooray!

This is a pretty camp episode. It shouldn’t be, but every scene with Jacqueline Pearce raises it a little higher than it should be!

Buried somewhere in this episode is the spark of a good idea, but it’s been lost underneath a sea of poor acting, miscasting, recasting and some poor realisation. The idea of bringing back one of the people involved in Blake’s trial is potentially very exciting, and could have lead to lots of interesting soul searching for Blake, who at this point in the series only needs a little push before he falls from the moral high ground. This could have been the trigger for wanting to destroy the Federation totally, but instead we merely have him manipulated into submission and left not remembering what has happened. Still, Gareth Thomas really works hard with the material he has and gives an extremely good performance. His early scenes are fantastic, and convincingly show a very manipulative Blake.

Recasting Ven Glynd was a matter of necessity, as Robert James was not available to reprise the role, but it does mean it’s difficult to tie up the events with those of The Way Back. This isn’t helped by the confused continuity that conflates Blake’s two trials, handily glossing over the paedophilia charges laid against him in the first episode. This is a shame as there are plenty of other good pieces of continuity in the episode that shows the writer (or script editor) has been paying attention. It is possible that Blake was a member of The Freedom Party with Shivan, but it seems strange that Blake has not mentioned this important fact before.

Ven Glynd's new face

This leads me to Shivan himself. The costume is terrible and the acting isn’t much better. Brian Croucher’s accent is bizarre to say the least and most of the actual lines are both inaudible and incomprehensible. In plot terms the revelation that Shivan is actually Travis makes little sense, except to explain why Servalan was so keen to get Travis to work with her again at the end of Hostage. Perhaps there was no one else desperate to do something so mind bogglingly silly. Quite how anyone was taken is a mystery. Or maybe not, when you think about Governor Le Grand, who has to be one of the stupidest people ever to become a governor. Putting aside the atrocious performance from Frieda Knorr, this character is still incredibly silly, or at the very least naïve, and gives herself away to Servalan at every given opportunity. Quite how she thought she was going to get away her plan is a mystery!

Oh my! It's Travis in there!

Despite this, the episode is reasonably entertaining, and doesn’t feel as dull as some of the episodes that preceded it. There’s some good model work, but poor CSO, so that balances out, but it’s been a long while since we’ve had a truly great episode.

Blake's CSO on PK118