"If I'm wrong, you can tell me 'I told you so', provided you can speak loudly and quickly."
REVIEW: Robert Holmes wrote this one and there is a lot of wit on show. But also perhaps too many characters? At the start of this new, bonus season, Blake's 7 is really spending the money, with a large cast, a really interesting location, matte paintings, and plenty of new sets. But it's catching us up to where the universe is now, and what the group's purpose is, that's making Traitor a little hard to follow at times. We meet villains and then other villains and then finally have our real villain show up. We have heroic rebels, then more rebels, and one of the rebels is a double agent (it's all very Episode 1), and happily, Tarrant and Dayna are down on planet Helotrix helping the Helots (great word), because we really need someone we have invested in up in this story.
The new status quo: Former Federation colonies are falling back into line at record speeds thanks to a new weapon (a "medical gun" that delivers a drug via energy effect - I've decided not to question this - that makes people compliant. It does seem a little slow to do this on a one-by-one basis, but perhaps the rebels have just learned not to drink from the water supply. Our heroes (and T&D are the most "heroic" of the group, and the most apt to be ACTION heroes) are tasked to find out what they can about the weapon/drug and indeed come back with a "blocker" and the formula for Orac to look at. But they also get involved in the rebellion, ferret out a double agent, save the cause, and spot Servalan, in spite of Avon's orders not to interfere. Well, the results speak for themselves, and the duo gets to do cool stuff. Dayna comes across the best, with a savage hand-to-hand fight and saving Tarrant's bacon when he's about to trigger a deadly trap.
Oh yeah, I mentioned Servalan, right? Well, it looks like she survived the destruction of the Liberator (or a coup, if we go by the confusing dialog of the Federation officers), which surprises me not at all. We have a lot of villains in this, and at first you think Christopher Neame's Quute will be the main baddie - the eyepatch recalls Travis, so - but no, he's a chump. (The performance is questionable, too. He's very restless and keep eying the camera.) Then what about the higher-ups in the office? Well, one of them gets killed by a mysterious figure who then also melts his full-length portrait of Servalan. Well played. It makes you think, is this a big, bold statement about having done away with Servalan? But the figure's silhouette sure does look like it could BE Servalan. Well, it was, and as it happens, she's murdering everyone who could identify her. Why? Don't know. Wouldn't that be billions of people since she was Federation president? We're missing something. She's up to the upper twenties already, adding three to her number in this episode, including the double-agent who plays kissy-face with her before getting stabbed in the neck. She's so evil. And indeed, learning that she's still alive gives Avon his new mission - to kill her personally. Okay, well, if it means more Servalan, I'm there.
NOT MY FEDERATION: The Helotrix city has flooring that looks like a holodeck surface.
BUT MIGHT BE MY EMPIRE: Between the Feds (imperials) and rebels, this is one of the most Star Warsy episodes there are. Christopher Neame played the Dark Jedi Emperor Jerec in the cut scenes for the Star Wars - Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II) video game.
WHO?: Christopher Neame also played Skagra in Shada. David Quilter (the Tracer, Quute's second banana) would play the butler Greeves in The Unicorn and the Wasp. George Lee (Igin, a member of the Resistance) played Corporal Forbes in Spearhead from Space and a farmworker in The Time Monster. The Binnegar Heath sandpits were used in Destiny of the Daleks, but not to such great effect.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - There's so much going on, with so many characters who are not OUR characters, one gets a little lost. But it's a strong action adventure for Dayna and Tarrant.
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