"Well, I never had a chance, did I? I chose the wrong parents."
REVIEW: The first of five episodes written by Allan Prior - who would become the third most represented writer in Blakes' 7, after Nation and Boucher - shows us what one-off episodes are likely to be like. Writers would be submitting scripts based on the first series, and possibly even just some of the first few episodes. Therefore, we not only have a "space problem of the week" (though the Federation is still front and center, thankfully), but also a reference to being on the prison ship in episode 2! It's a rather odd convenience that Blake had a relevant conversation with an inmate offscreen that can here be used to convince the puppet ruler of a far-off colony that his Federation masters are bad dudes, but we never really knew how long they were on that barge, so it's probably acceptable.
We almost get an R&R episode here, because the Seven talk about getting a MONTH'S necessary rest until they get pulled into mystery and adventure. Other space shows do make this point occasionally, but for this crew, non-stop stress and the lack of contact with other people has made them exhausted. There's an odd but interesting shot of them dissolved in with a star field to put this idea across, and truth be told, you could see in their faces in the previous episode (same director, who perhaps foregrounded it). But there's no rest for the wicked, and they'll instead go off after a Federation freighter that goes through a... wormhole? Cloaking shield? Whatever it is, there's a planet code-named Horizon on the other side that can't be seen from this one. A great location too, with dank caves and narrow, mossy ravines. As well as sets that present the "primitives" of this colonized world as having an ancient and complex culture.
This is the story of how the Federation (like many empires before it) grabs land, exploits resources, turns the natives into bona fide slaves, and gets away with it by minting a local ruler they can easily control. In this case, young Ro has recently taken over from his father who dared push back and was killed for it. Blake and crew are going to come in, expose this fact and others, and make Ro realize he should be pushing back too, culminating in his betrayal of the Komissar, the "true ruler" of Horizon (these administrators visit their governed planets on some schedule to make sure Federation plans are proceeding apace), in full traditional costume. They have the Horizon natives played by Asian actors, so the image is that of British-ruled India, even if the cutlure itself is a patchwork of others, including Polynesian and Mesoamerican. The Feds have plans to use Horizon as a place to launch offensives into other galaxies (ambitious!), but the lingering question is how Ro and his people will defend themselves from Feds trying to recapture the planet. I don't give them great chances.
And though Ro has the arc, the crew does get something to do this time. Blake, of course, carries the banner of freedom and is the main agent in Ro's awakening (Cally is the other, bringing key information to him). Watch how Blake also brings leadership and order in the mines when he's put on a chain gang. Jenna makes a connection with the woman who was supposed to be Ro's bride until she showed anti-Federation sentiments. Vila is taken to the mines to work for the first time in his life (amusing), but we also see him get some "soma" for his headaches, inching him ever closer to addiction (this is the second time we've seen him blissed out this season). Avon is left aboard ship, but without a pilot, because Blake doesn't trust him not to run off. He still explores if it's possible with the two computers' help, but we get the sense in his eventual rescue of the crew that he doesn't want to be alone. Add that to the list of things Avon would never admit to. As for Gan, he's sidelined through much of this, but I'll talk about the reason in the next episode's review.
NOT MY FEDERATION: Vila talks about R&R planets that have pleasure machines. Not quite Risa, but... We should also mention that Star Trek would eventually have a recurring character called Ro.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: The Empire has always had trouble with "primitives", probably because they underestimated them (see Ewoks).
WHO?: The natives of Horizon used blowguns to disable or kill (it takes two to drop Gan), which evokes Boucher's own creation of Janis thorns in The Face of Evil. The caves at Clearwell Scowles used here would not show up on Who until the new era, being featured in episodes like The Fires of Pompeii and The Satan Pit. William Squire (The Komissar) was unrecognizable as the Shadow in The Armageddon Factor. His assistant, Brian Miller, would do a little better as Dugdale in Snakedance and Barney in Deep Breath, but be even more invisible in Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks where he would be one of the Dalek voices. He also appears as Harry Sowersby in the Sarah Jane Adventures' The Mad Woman in the Attic, which is a neat coincidence because Souad Faress (Ro's consort Selma) was the older Rani Chandra in that episode!
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - A good, straightforward episode that uses the basic theme of Blake's 7 - freedom vs. oppression - as its basis.
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