Blake's 7: Warlord

“I see my bad dreams in other people’s eyes.”

Oh my word. Not long now at all, and this episode hints heavily that the end is nigh. Servalan knows where they all live, for one thing.

I’m always going on about new writers, so I won’t start with that here! It’s a most interesting beginning, though: a council of bizarrely dressed people. It’s clear that Avon’s strategy of recruiting allies is coming to a head, and successfully. And his opening speech makes it clear that the Federation’s use of the Pylene-50 drug is accelerating. Indeed, we see some disturbing scenes which are as reminiscent of Brave New World as they are of 1984.

The most interesting (and powerful) of these new allies is Zukan. He and his stowaway daughter Zeeona, it seems, hail from the Planet of Great Hair. These are very interesting scenes, though, and not just for the squabbling. Or, indeed, for the presence of Rick James, the worst actor ever to appear in Doctor Who. We learn that, although our heroes have the antitoxin to the drug, they have no means of mass-producing it on their own: stalemate.

We also learn, as if we didn’t know, that Tarrant is an utter twonk. Yes, it’s nice that he and Zeeona have a thing for each other and yes, Zukan is being a bit of a controlling tyrant figure to his daughter. But Tarrant is being utterly stupid in jeopardising such an important conference, in which the lives of billions are at stake, by gratuitously pissing off the most powerful delegate. Admittedly, the fact that said delegate turns out to be in the pay of Servalan doesn’t help that argument. But still…

Soolin bonds with Zeeona (who is rather attractive!), and actually lets slip a bit of hinterland; her dad got killed when she was eight and she later get her revenge. A bit slim for a backstory, yes, but at least it’s something. In the nick of time, too, considering how close to the end we are…

Of course, Zukan finds out about his daughter, but the upshot is that she ends up back on Xenon, her father ostensibly flies home, and Avon and a rather prattish Soolin head after him to check out all this industrial equipment he’s apparently got. Unfortunately, he’s done a deal with Servalan, interestingly foreshadowed a little earlier in an eloquent little speech about darkness and light. There’s a fascinating depth to Zukan, the warlord of the title, in both writing and performance.

The episode hinges on two parallel betrayals and two bombs. The first, left to Zukan by Servalan and his “reward”, leaves him helpless in his ship (a nice bit of early CGI here!), awaiting death unless he is rescued. And the bomb at our heroes’ base (paralleling the start of the season, and something for which there can be no reset button!), leaves Tarrant, Dayna, Vila and Zeeona facing eventual death by either virus or decapitation. This leads out to a very interesting falling-out between Tarrant and Vila, digging up all the darker elements of their somewhat unhappy relationship.

It’s left to Avon and Soolin to discover Zukan’s betrayal and get captured, but fortunately Soolin redeems her earlier foolishness by rescuing Avon in a rather clever way. Soon we end up with a complex three-way communication of everyone’s problems, which are neatly solved by Avon cleverly working out what to do and getting Tarrant to do as he says. That’s one to Avon, methinks.

That done, Zukan is fittingly blown up along with his ship. Everyone seems to be fine otherwise, though, as they are all teleported up to Scorpio. Zeeona volunteers to go down and check the virus has gone, and it’s honourable of her to take the risk after what her father has done. Still, it seems she’ll be ok, although that lingering kiss she gives to Tarrant gives us a hint that she may not be. The ending is powerful, leaving us in no doubt that she has committed suicide out of shame.