The Liberator is nearing an uncharted planet and is under attack by three well-armed Federation pursuit ships. As the attack depletes Liberator’s energy supply, Blake decides to wait for the two ships he predicts aren’t Travis’s to run out of energy and then tries to ram Travis’s ship. But as the Liberator prepares to rip through the pursuit ship’s hull, time is frozen by the two guardians on the planet below, who pit Blake and Jenna in hand-to-hand combat to the death against Travis and a vampire-like mutoid from his crew. But as Jenna defeats the mutoid and Blake traps Travis, before the eyes of both ships’ crews, Blake relents and the Liberator is released, while Travis returns to his ship in shame.
written by Terry Nation
directed by Douglas Camfield
music not creditedCast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Peter Tuddenham (Zen), Stephen Grief (Travis), Isla Blair (Sinofar), Patsy Smart (Giroc), Carol Royle (Mutoid)
Notes: This is the only Blake’s 7 episode which was not scored by Australian composer Dudley Simpson; Simpson created the theme for the series and did the music for every episode except this one, which was tracked with stock electronic-sounding music. Director Douglas Camfield did not like the style of music that Simpson employed on Doctor Who, several episodes of which Camfield also directed (and of which Simpson provided incidental music for more episodes than any other comporser), a decided to use library music rather than have Simpson score this episode. The pieces heard in this episode are “Countdown” and “Space Panorama” (both composed by Alan Hawkshaw and licensed from the Bruton music library and appearing on the Bruton library album Terrestrial Journey), and “Genesis” by John Cameron.
LogBook entry by Earl Green