Accidentally left behind by the Liberator crew after narrowly escaping the trap laid for them using Fedorac as a lure, Vila is now Travis’ prisoner. Though he proves surprisingly resilient to Travis’ methods of persuading him to talk, and despite one escape attempt during which he’s able to send a distress signal, even Vila has limits to his endurance.
Zen detects Vila’s distress signal and traces its point of origin to an underground Federation facilitiy on an inhospitable ice planet, but en route, it is also discovered that the President of the Federation may be there as well, making an unannounced visit to that same top-secret facility. Blake becomes obsessed with what he perceives as an opportunity to behead the Federation’s power structure, and to the alarm of Jenna and the rest of his crew, seems to regard rescuing Vila as a minor mission objective.
Which is exactly what the President and Travis are counting on.
written by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright
directed by Ken Bentley
music by Alistair LockCast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), Jan Chappell (Cally), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Brian Croucher (Travis), Hugh Fraser (President), Anthony Howell (Gustav Nyrron), Caroline Langrishe (Dr. Tirus), Alistair Lock (Zen/Orac)
Notes: Travis reminds Vila of the events on the planet Exbar, from the television episode Hostage, a surprising callback since Hostage is, perhaps, not the best-regarded episode of the TV series. The President says that the Federation’s (frequently unsuccessful) cloning experiments are taking place without the knowledge or help of the Clone Masters (seen only once in Weapon). Gustav Nyrron was introduced in the Liberator Chronicles audiobook Wolf, while the scientist overseeing the cloning experiments is from Auron (Children Of Auron), where such technology is in frequent use, though one gets the impression she has knowledge of only part of that process.
LogBook entry and review by Earl Green
Review: A twisty, turny story of red herrings, misdirection, and “what exactly is happening here?”, Cold Fury‘s real meat is in dealing with Blake’s increasingly obsessive approach to fighting the Federation. With no plan and no real endgame in mind, Blake can’t pass up the opportunity to take a shot at the President of the Federation, even if the resulting tightening of security makes it exponentially harder to try to rescue Vila. Jenna and Avon are the voices of reason here, voices that Blake can’t bring himself to listen to because, as with the disastrous attack on “Central Control” (Pressure Point), Blake seems to think that the resulting power vacuum will somehow bring the Federation down in one swift stroke, rather than just rearranging the org chart. The other major event in Pressure Point is also brought back to the forefront here when Jenna reminds Blake that, if Gan were here, he’d be tearing the Federation base apart until he found Vila or died trying – something of which Blake is doing nearly the exact opposite. The sharply defined character interactions are the real beating heart of Blake’s 7, and this story succeeds impressively on that front.