On the “civil administration ship” London en route to Cygnus Alpha, the prisoners are shown their small accomodations. Subcommander Raiker, the first officer, chastises Blake, propositions Jenna, and basically gives the other prisoners hell. Blake is introduced to some of the other prisoners, including the colossal giant Gan, young Nova – not very experienced, but willing to fight – and Avon, a computer hacker sentenced to Cygnus Alpha after an attempt to bleed the Federation banking cartel dry. Blake, using the others for cover, gets deep into the ship and locates the main computer. During his reconnaissance, the London is buffeted by energy waves from a nearby space battle. Blake sends Avon to sabotage the computer and to open every door on the ship so the prisoners can hijack her. After the ship is in the hands of the prisoners, things start to go wrong. Through a careless mistake on Vila’s part, many of the prisoners are recaptured, and Raiker starts executing them. Blake, Jenna and Avon, in the main computer area, surrender to the crew of the London and are put in restraints. The London’s sensors return to normal function after being knocked out by the energy waves and indicate a gigantic starship nearby. The London crew send three officers across to the ship to investigate, but they are all killed. Not ready to give up the prize money that would come from salvaging an alien ship, Raiker suggests sending Blake, Avon and Jenna across. They discover that the ship’s self-defense mechanism is responsible for the officers’ deaths and deactivate it before it kills them as well. Raiker tries to board the ship and manages to graze Blake with a laser gun, but the alien ship disengages from the London, and Raiker is swept out of the airlock into open space and dies. Blake returns to the flight deck and orders a heading for Cygnus Alpha to rescue the rest of the prisoners.
written by Terry Nation
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Dudley SimpsonCast: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan), Glyn Owen (Leylan), Leslie Schofield (Raiker), Norman Tipton (Artix), David Hayward (Teague), Brett Forrest (Krell), Tom Kelly (Nova), Michael MacKenzie (Dainer), Bill Weston (Garton)
LogBook entry by Earl Green