Blake's 7 #34: Rumours of Death

"What's the matter? Did I bleed on the wrong bit of floor?"

IN THIS ONE... Avon seeks revenge for the death of Anna Grant.

REVIEW: Avon is a cold one. In this episode, he makes good on his threat to get revenge on the torturer who killed his beloved Anna (as per Countdown), spending days in the Federation prison system getting tortured until they call the big gun, Shrinker, who he believes is the culprit. He really commits. The plan is to kidnap him, force him to admit to his crimes, and kill him in a cave with no entrance or exit, while a painting of Anna stares down at him. I mean, this couldn't be Avon's old lair, could it? He didn't have a teleporter back then..? So it's all very involved, and things get more complicated when Shrinker he's innocent and that all of Avon's contacts were instead captured and killed by a mysterious agent code-named Bartholomew. Shrinker is left to dig himself out with a small blaster and off we go.

Meanwhile, there's an amazing scene where a rich Federation couple walk the grounds of Servalan's new presidential palace, a reconstructed piece of history that cost as much as rebuilding two cities. Apparently, Blake's rebellion overturned the Federation (at least on Earth) and caused a lot of destruction, but the Feds are back in place. Then the woman turns on her partner - she's a rebel! It's especially funny when he says "but you're my wife!", but we're in good hands with Chris Boucher here, who makes much of the dialog crackle and includes a pair of surveillance officers (though I wish they'd used another word for that as surveillance and Servalan are easily confused) that are right out of the Robert Holmes comedy double act playbook. It actually took me a couple scenes to realize that she was the same woman as in Avon's pillow-talk flashbacks and the cave painting. So Anna was alive all along and either was Batholomew herself or was in cahoots with him. It'll be a while before Avon finds this out, however, and Anna (or "Sula", as she is currently known) is enacting a very good plan of attack on the Fed president. I wish Blake had been so competent! Watching the rebel plan play out is one of the joys of the episode, and there are some interesting politics involved too, as Anna wants to keep Servalan alive to give the coup some semblance of legitimacy, while her men just want her killed even if it creates a power vacuum that will do nothing to destroy the Federation.

Boucher gives each member of the cast something to do (and a lot of great lines), from Vila's being drunk on the job to Cally outraged at torture's infectious power when the others seem willing to use it, to Tarrant using his leadership voice to manipulate Fed guards. There's some fun to be had at Orac's expense as well, with the criticism that he's "too useful to destroy" sounding like a writer's complaint. And when Avon gets ready to beam down to the presidential palace to find "Bartholomew", the whole team decides to help, somewhat embarrassed that, having talked it over, they like Avon more than reportedly. The trail of crumbs leads Avon to the palace's wine cellar where Servalan has been abused and chained to a wall. I don't think we've ever seen her this vulnerable, not just physically but in attitude. A man of his word, Avon will free her for information (even if it's not strictly required by that point), but she's the scorpion to his frog and he'll only escape her turning on him thanks to the slimmest of distractions.

Speaking of turning on someone, this is where he's reunited with Anna, and it's a moment I'm not sure works. She seems sincere when she acts like she missed him and hoped he would return for her sooner. She admits she was reporting back about his activities, but again sounds like she was honestly in love with him, explaining how he managed to escape the trap when none of his associates did. And look, whoever she may have worked for, she IS working with the rebels now, so more or less on the same side as Blake's 7. The problem is, if you're not willing to make Anna a member of the crew, you need to get rid of her. Perhaps Servalan could have done it (free her first, etc.), but they instead have Anna pull a weapon on Avon's turned back (why?) and him shooting her in self-defense. Did it have to end this way? But like I said, Avon is a cold one. And like a good little sociopath, he hardly shows emotion about the even once he's back aboard the ship. She DID betray him and she WAS, in a sense, the one who killed "Anna", but still.

MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Avon mentions that his treacherous contact, all those years ago, "shot first".

WHO?: Directed by Fiona Cumming, a celebrated Doctor Who director (Snakedance, Enlightenment and others). John Bryans (Shrinker) was Torvin in The Creature from the Pit. Donald Douglas (the older surveillance officer Grenlee) was Vural in The Sontaran Experiment. His junior, Forres, is played by David Haig (Pangol in The Leisure Hive). One of the rebels, Balon, is played by Philip Bloomfield; he will be a Foster in The Keeper of Traken a year later.

REWATCHABILITY: High - Though the ending doesn't QUITE work, this is still a smart script and a great episode for Avon that nevertheless doesn't forget the rest of the cast.