B13 Star One

EPISODE: B13 Star One
BROADCAST: 03/04/1979
WRITTEN BY: Chris Boucher
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Chris Boucher
PRODUCER: David Maloney
DVD: Blake's 7 - Series 2

"As far as I'm concerned you can destroy whatever you like. You can stir up a thousand revolutions. You can wade in blood up to your armpits. Oh, and you can lead the rabble to victory -- whatever that may mean. Just so long as there's an end to it. When Star One is gone, it is finished, Blake. And I want it finished! I want it over and done with, I want to be free!"

All over the Federation accidents start happening & weather control fails as Star One's control breaks down. Servalan refuses to believe the evidence placed in front of her. The Liberator is approaching Star One's coordinates on the edge of the galaxy and Blake plans to destroy it. All the crew have doubts except for Avon who wants the Liberator when the attack is over and Blake has won. Servalan uses the situation to have the Federation Council taken into custody staging a coup. She locks down Space Command, forcing her staff to begin a search for clues to it's location.On Star One Technician Lurena becomes suspicious of her colleagues who turn on her forcing her to flee as they hunt her down. Avon locates a planet orbiting a dying white dwarf: they deduce that is the location of Star One. Lurena is found by one of her colleagues but when she shoots him the body begins to change. Avon discovers that Star One's location is at the nearest point in the galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy and on the most likely route between the two. Beyond Star One lies a massive minefield grid which Blake wonders is to keep mankind in or something else out? Lurena finds a room in the complex filled with the bodies of Star One's crew. Cally locates an entrance to an underground complex. Avon, Cally and Blake teleport to the surface. Blake & Cally are captured as they enter the base but a suspicious Avon, telepathically alerted by Cally, escapes. Jenna detects a ship making a surface landing on Star One. Blake & Cally are taken to see chief scientist Stot who mistakes him for their ally Travis. Avon finds the real Travis on the surface. Orac analyses the minefield controlled from Star One. Left alone Blake and Cally start laying charges. Avon & Travis enter the base but when Avon finds Lurena Travis escapes. She shows Avon the crews bodies and tells them copies are walking around alive. One attacks Avon and he shoots it turning it into a green alien corpse. Stot explains to Blake how they have duplicated both the bodies and brain patterns of the crew. Travis enters the room and shoots Blake. Avon & Lurena find Cally. The alien technician prepares the mechanism to deactivate the defence zone. Jenna has Orac send a message to space command warning them of the incoming invasion fleet. Zen detects the defence zone deactivating. The wounded Blake shoots Travis, his guards attempt to kill Blake but Avon shoots them and then Travis, causing him to plummet over a balcony to his death. Avon and Cally begin removing the charges to preserve what's left of the defence grid. Servalan scrambled the Federation Fleet in response to Orac's message. Blake sends Lurena to remove a charge he hid but she is found by the alien invaders. Cally throws the charges out onto the surface of Star One where they explode. The crew teleport back to the Liberator where the wounded Blake is placed in the medical unit. Avon, faced with relief from the Federation fleet being hours away, elects to keep the Liberator at Star One and defend against the oncoming alien fleet.

And so after many episodes bouncing back and forth between various people who *might* know where Star One is (see last episode) we finally get there ...... only to find that some Aliens from Andromeda have beaten us to it! Now they've been there a while, certainly long enough to murder all the crew and take their place, which makes me think they weren't relying on Travis' information to find it so why didn't they just tell him to meet them there? Why has he spent the last few episodes mucking around trying to find it's location? And how did it take Travis so long to get there from Goth if he left before the Liberator? Yes I suppose you could argue the Liberator is faster....

But once we get there the episode cracks on nicely thanks in part to making the wise choice of giving Avon lots of lines and screen time. Paul Darrow, once again clothed in his shiny silver Surface Gear, is fab throughout this episode. Blake's absent for most of the second half after having been shot by Travis so Avon's effectively running the show and does a pretty good job of it: disposing of Travis, dealing with the charges and taking the decision to stay and fight leading to Blake's 7 second great end of season cliffhanger as Avon orders he Liberator to open fire.

OK so if the Andromeda aliens want the minefield deactivated so they can get into our galaxy how come they are already there? Orac's analysis indicates there's been some sort of prior contact with them which they theorise was a scout ship. I think there's been an Andromedan presence in our Galaxy for sometime. If I was joining the dots together - and there are quite a few of them laid out in the series - I'd say that there's been an Andromedan colony in The Darkling Zone near Earth (Killer) and they're responsible for the plague weapon in the same episode. Further I'd even point the finger at them being the other party in the Space Battle the London witnesses in Space Fall that results in Deep Space Vehicle 2 being abandoned and encountering the prison ship. They're the only other real major force we see in the series. The plague is an attempt to attack the humans deliberately and at the same time they've somehow made contact with Travis (how? There's no indication he's working with anyone else or anything other than a loyal, albeit scapegoated, Federation officer before this episode) which has led to them finding Star One.

The Andromedans must be terminally stupid if they fall for Blake's "She's my mother" line when introducing Cally. Surely "she's my Bodyguard would be more sensible?"

Of course it may not have originally been Andromedans in this episode: Rumours persist that Terry Nation was very keen to have his original creations the Daleks in Blake's 7: here would have been an ideal point to involve them. It's notable that Terry Nation doesn't write this episode after having kicked off the Star One plot thread: script editor Chris Boucher does. Couple that with the presence of producer David Maloney behind the camera for the first time this series and there a hint of some behind the scenes last minute difficulties here.
There's a few familiar elements in this episode: the slow space model sequence at the start and radio exchange reminds me a lot of Chris Boucher's later work Star Cops. I'm sure the Star One sets incorporate the computer banks from UFO..... And I think that the round rooms are a redress of similar sets for the bar and casino from Gambit while Old Lightmoor Colliery in Cinderford, Gloucestershire provides the location for the surface of Star One. Yes Avon's silver jacket is back - why haven't the others bothered putting extra gear on to go down to the surface? It's as if Avon presciently knew he'd be spending longer outside ;-) I don't recall their being a blood splatter from the effect of the Liberator's guns before.... but then again it is the first time Avon's shot an Andromedan. We never get to see their native form just a steaming pile of green goo after death.

If you're watching along at home and haven't seen beyond this point then look away NOW!
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This is the last episode of Blake's 7 for THREE of the main cast. Obviously Brian Croucher has gone, with Travis being shot by Avon and then plummeting to his death! Sorry Brian I much preferred Stephen Greif in the role! The other two departures are less obvious from a narrative point of view: both Sally Knyvette (Jenna) and Gareth Thomas (Blake) declined to return for season 3. Come back next week to see how the story writes the characters out. You'll need to wait till the very end of the series to discover their eventual fates and even then there's room for ambiguity. Yes even for Blake! Neither has a particularly great last episode as a regular: Jenna's stuck on the ship while Blake is effectively removed from the action just after half way through when Travis shoots him. Jenna's last line "they can't all come through that gap at once" is particularly lacklustre but Blake's " For what it is worth, I have always trusted you. Right from the very beginning" to Avon is a bit special. Would you trust Avon?

Sally Knyvette went on to appear in Emmerdale Farm where she played Kate Hughes/Sugden who was married to Joe Sugden a character played by former Doctor Who companion Frazer Hines. Gareth Thomas meanwhile returned to the Theatre, and in particular the RSC. He appeared in many further television productions over the years, including two return guest spots, and probably has had the most successful career post Blake's 7 of any of the cast.

I can see one obvious name on the cast list: Gareth Armstrong plays Parton, one of the Star One technicians and he was in Doctor Who Masque of Mandragora as Giuliano. Servalan's aide Durkim was played by John Bown who was in Doomwatch as Commander Neil Stafford in 12 episodes. And from my youth we have Michael Mayard playing Leeth (another Star one technician) who was a presenter on the 1979 series of You and Me and was Frederick Crossfield in the 1985 series of No 73!

(with thanks to http://www.hermit.org/blakes7/Episodes/scripts/ for helping me figure out which character was which!)

Most of the uncredited extras have some Doctor Who form but unfairly uncredited is Michael Spice, the voice of the Nova Queen Pilot at the start of the episode. He worked on two Doctor Who stories: Brain of Morbius as the Voice of Morbius & Talons of Weng-Chiang as Magnus Greel.

Series 2 wanders around all over the place. After Orac it doesn't really get going till Pressure point a few episodes later kill Gan and introduces the idea that there's a central control computer for the Federation..... at which point we get bogged down in a long off again on again plot to find Star One and bounced from person to person who might know where it is. A nice idea, but poorly executed. Thankfully the final resolution shown here is rather good! Best episodes? Star One, Countdown, Pressure Point and Redemption. Still can't decide if Gambit is genius or madness!

Star One was released on video on 05 November 1991 as part of Blake's 7 tape 13 with the previous episode The Keeper and alongside Tape 14 Aftermath & Powerplay. The Blake's 7 season 2 DVD containing this episode was released on 17 January 2005.