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I've said it before, but the B7 team really know how to bring a series to a close. Rumour has it that this was supposed to be the end of the show for good, and that it was only renewed for a fourth series, at the eleventh hour, because the BBC1 controller liked it so much. How far that's true I don't know, but certainly the end of series three would have made a suitable finish to it all, and draws a clear line under everything that's come before.
Avon is being even more Avony than normal. He's all but barricaded himself onto the flight deck, where he's been for thirty hours, tracking a signal of some kind with Zen. Whatever the signal is, he considers it more important than anything else, and refuses to rest, or let any of the others know what's happening. When Tarrant tries to intervene, Avon pulls a gun on him. Clearly nothing can come between Avon and his signal. Barrelling onwards through space, refusing to steer around obstacles, he's like a man possessed. Sooner or later he might just be regretting his haste.
My beloved Liberator model. One last time (sob). I ought to hate you, Avon.
Avon and Tarrant have another of their growly stare-offs. I do enjoy their chemistry, even if it does mostly consist of glaring and being rude to each other.
Avon refuses to steer around a weird cloud up ahead, against the wishes of the crew, and even against the advice of Zen. As they eventually come out of it everything seems fine, but gradually it becomes clear that it's not.
Terminal, the semi-mythical, man-made planet that is the source of Avon's mysterious summons. Supposedly it was built to help recreate and study the beginnings of life on Earth, but if so, you'd think they'd have made an Earth-like planet, not a jellybean.
Avon and his spectacular gloves announce that they're going down to the planet. Nobody is to follow or he'll shoot them, and if he doesn't report in every hour without fail, they're to leave. He's even programmed in an uncountermandable failsafe, so that the ship will take them a long way away. I suppose it's nice of him to consider their safety to some degree; and how typically Avon that it's taken him until the supposedly final episode to start.
Never one to miss up the chance of a bit of peril, Tarrant immediately follows Avon. In a rare display of action, Cally does too. Look! Cally! On the surface of a planet! And without being possessed or kidnapped first. She doesn't actually do anything useful, but at least she's made it down there. In drinking game terms, that's probably worth a whole bottle.
Back up in space, things are looking bad for the Liberator. The exposure to the weird cloud has left the ship caramelised and leaking slime.
Things aren't a whole lot better down on Terminal either, which is populated by club-wielding, ape-like creatures. Supposedly they're what man will one day evolve into, although presumably only if the Earth somehow gets squished into a jellybean shape, and transported into a different environment, with a sped-up evolutionary cycle. Either way, they're not very friendly.
In an underground compound, Avon finds Blake, the source of the mysterious signal. He's discovered something that will make them unimaginably rich - although he doesn't explain how he's managed to do that from a hospital bed that he's been confined to for months. Presumably the unimaginable riches are the only reason Avon agreed to have anything else to do with the aggravating know-it-all though, so they were a necessary lure. Unfortunately for Avon, it's not Blake at all, and neither are there any riches. It's all just a computer-induced hallucination.
Courtesy of Servalan, who was hoping to offer Avon a swap. Pretend Blake (and his equally pretend unimaginable riches) for the Liberator.
Meanwhile, Cally and Tarrant are trying to contact the ship, which is increasingly under siege.
From a blistered and slime-encrusted teleport room, Dayna tells them that the ship is losing its battle against an unknown infection. Time is running out.
Back on the flight deck, Vila shares Zen's last moments. Poor Zen. He really was a good character.
Avon is not wildly pleased by Servalan's presence. Neither is he at all impressed by the terms of the deal, and even tries to get the gang to run away with the Liberator. Not something that they're able to do anymore, even if they had intended to. Tarrant and Cally, who arrive at this point in the clutches of some gloriously daft-looking guards, are more willing to be co-operative. Knowing what state the Liberator is in, Tarrant tells Dayna and Vila to surrender, and hand the ship over to Servalan.
You know, that would probably look a good deal more perilly if the guard wasn't dressed like a complete prat. And probably also if Tarrant wasn't wearing a jolly red jerkin covered in star-shaped sequins, although I'm less inclined to blame him.
As Dayna teleports down, Servalan and her guards prepare to take possession of the Liberator. Vila has remained behind to operate the teleport and, once they're aboard, he grabs Orac and goes down to join the others. Fortunately nobody seems to notice the slime that's dripping over everything. I guess Servalan's minions have no reason to suspect that anything is different to normal, and she's maybe blinded by ambition?
Before she leaves, Servalan tells Avon the truth about his hallucination, and also tells him that Blake is dead; she saw the body herself. Avon is faced with the realisation that he's been led into a trap by his own greed, and has lost the Liberator as a result - and all without a single unimaginable rich with which to sweeten the blow. The final irony is that the Liberator was full of ultra-unimaginable riches to begin with, so he needn't have gone looking for more. Now he's lost them as well. It's very hard to feel sorry for you right now, Avon, especially given what you did to Zen.
Blake's 7's most infamous piece of dialogue. "Maximum power!"
Which is precisely what she gets, as what's left of the Liberator shatters into a million fiery pieces.
Watching it all on a scanner screen down on the planet, the crew mourn their old life, before rolling up their sleeves and beginning their new one. They have a planet to escape from. There's no point in crying over spilt spaceships.
And so ends another series. It's all been wrapped up so neatly that it's easy to believe the creative team really had planned to leave it here. If you believe Servalan, then Blake is dead (or somebody who looks like him is - there is that clone knocking about of course). The Liberator is gone, and with it (although she did make a run for the teleport room) is Servalan. Meanwhile the gang are trapped on Terminal, with Servalan's crashed ship their only way off the planet. That's always supposing they can get to it, with a distinct lack of weaponry, and a planet full of furry future humans blocking their path. It's a downbeat ending in one sense, but in another it's surprisingly air-fist punchy. As the last of the Liberator's flames die out, Tarrant gives a rueful little smile and, in typically optimistic form, announces that they'd better get busy. One by one everybody turns around and walks off screen ready to go to work. Badly disadvantaged though they might be, it's a hell of a good place to leave them.
Avon is being even more Avony than normal. He's all but barricaded himself onto the flight deck, where he's been for thirty hours, tracking a signal of some kind with Zen. Whatever the signal is, he considers it more important than anything else, and refuses to rest, or let any of the others know what's happening. When Tarrant tries to intervene, Avon pulls a gun on him. Clearly nothing can come between Avon and his signal. Barrelling onwards through space, refusing to steer around obstacles, he's like a man possessed. Sooner or later he might just be regretting his haste.
My beloved Liberator model. One last time (sob). I ought to hate you, Avon.
Avon and Tarrant have another of their growly stare-offs. I do enjoy their chemistry, even if it does mostly consist of glaring and being rude to each other.
Avon refuses to steer around a weird cloud up ahead, against the wishes of the crew, and even against the advice of Zen. As they eventually come out of it everything seems fine, but gradually it becomes clear that it's not.
Terminal, the semi-mythical, man-made planet that is the source of Avon's mysterious summons. Supposedly it was built to help recreate and study the beginnings of life on Earth, but if so, you'd think they'd have made an Earth-like planet, not a jellybean.
Avon and his spectacular gloves announce that they're going down to the planet. Nobody is to follow or he'll shoot them, and if he doesn't report in every hour without fail, they're to leave. He's even programmed in an uncountermandable failsafe, so that the ship will take them a long way away. I suppose it's nice of him to consider their safety to some degree; and how typically Avon that it's taken him until the supposedly final episode to start.
Never one to miss up the chance of a bit of peril, Tarrant immediately follows Avon. In a rare display of action, Cally does too. Look! Cally! On the surface of a planet! And without being possessed or kidnapped first. She doesn't actually do anything useful, but at least she's made it down there. In drinking game terms, that's probably worth a whole bottle.
Back up in space, things are looking bad for the Liberator. The exposure to the weird cloud has left the ship caramelised and leaking slime.
Things aren't a whole lot better down on Terminal either, which is populated by club-wielding, ape-like creatures. Supposedly they're what man will one day evolve into, although presumably only if the Earth somehow gets squished into a jellybean shape, and transported into a different environment, with a sped-up evolutionary cycle. Either way, they're not very friendly.
In an underground compound, Avon finds Blake, the source of the mysterious signal. He's discovered something that will make them unimaginably rich - although he doesn't explain how he's managed to do that from a hospital bed that he's been confined to for months. Presumably the unimaginable riches are the only reason Avon agreed to have anything else to do with the aggravating know-it-all though, so they were a necessary lure. Unfortunately for Avon, it's not Blake at all, and neither are there any riches. It's all just a computer-induced hallucination.
Courtesy of Servalan, who was hoping to offer Avon a swap. Pretend Blake (and his equally pretend unimaginable riches) for the Liberator.
Meanwhile, Cally and Tarrant are trying to contact the ship, which is increasingly under siege.
From a blistered and slime-encrusted teleport room, Dayna tells them that the ship is losing its battle against an unknown infection. Time is running out.
Back on the flight deck, Vila shares Zen's last moments. Poor Zen. He really was a good character.
Avon is not wildly pleased by Servalan's presence. Neither is he at all impressed by the terms of the deal, and even tries to get the gang to run away with the Liberator. Not something that they're able to do anymore, even if they had intended to. Tarrant and Cally, who arrive at this point in the clutches of some gloriously daft-looking guards, are more willing to be co-operative. Knowing what state the Liberator is in, Tarrant tells Dayna and Vila to surrender, and hand the ship over to Servalan.
You know, that would probably look a good deal more perilly if the guard wasn't dressed like a complete prat. And probably also if Tarrant wasn't wearing a jolly red jerkin covered in star-shaped sequins, although I'm less inclined to blame him.
As Dayna teleports down, Servalan and her guards prepare to take possession of the Liberator. Vila has remained behind to operate the teleport and, once they're aboard, he grabs Orac and goes down to join the others. Fortunately nobody seems to notice the slime that's dripping over everything. I guess Servalan's minions have no reason to suspect that anything is different to normal, and she's maybe blinded by ambition?
Before she leaves, Servalan tells Avon the truth about his hallucination, and also tells him that Blake is dead; she saw the body herself. Avon is faced with the realisation that he's been led into a trap by his own greed, and has lost the Liberator as a result - and all without a single unimaginable rich with which to sweeten the blow. The final irony is that the Liberator was full of ultra-unimaginable riches to begin with, so he needn't have gone looking for more. Now he's lost them as well. It's very hard to feel sorry for you right now, Avon, especially given what you did to Zen.
Blake's 7's most infamous piece of dialogue. "Maximum power!"
Which is precisely what she gets, as what's left of the Liberator shatters into a million fiery pieces.
Watching it all on a scanner screen down on the planet, the crew mourn their old life, before rolling up their sleeves and beginning their new one. They have a planet to escape from. There's no point in crying over spilt spaceships.
And so ends another series. It's all been wrapped up so neatly that it's easy to believe the creative team really had planned to leave it here. If you believe Servalan, then Blake is dead (or somebody who looks like him is - there is that clone knocking about of course). The Liberator is gone, and with it (although she did make a run for the teleport room) is Servalan. Meanwhile the gang are trapped on Terminal, with Servalan's crashed ship their only way off the planet. That's always supposing they can get to it, with a distinct lack of weaponry, and a planet full of furry future humans blocking their path. It's a downbeat ending in one sense, but in another it's surprisingly air-fist punchy. As the last of the Liberator's flames die out, Tarrant gives a rueful little smile and, in typically optimistic form, announces that they'd better get busy. One by one everybody turns around and walks off screen ready to go to work. Badly disadvantaged though they might be, it's a hell of a good place to leave them.
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