TV Review - Blake's 7: S1E06 Seek-Locate-Destroy

The final part of the B7 jigsaw slots into place in "Seek, Locate, Destroy" - that of regular recurring villains. Aside from Leylan and Artix (and they were only in it as a recap, with extant footage of Rayker, and if the couple of London crew members seen at the end of "The Way Back" are in "Space Fall" I haven't spotted them) no-one outside of the Liberator crew had been in more than one episode so far and only two non-crew characters (one of whom was recast) would be added to the list over the rest of the series (though both John Bryans and Michael Wisher's characters, Bercol and Rontaine, would return for one other episode. "Seek-Locate-Destroy" however would introduce a pair of regular Federation characters in the form of Servalan and Travis. The former would go on to appear in 28 of the remaining 46 episodes, the latter in 12 of the next 21 - basically just over half of each character's lifespan.

It's a format change I have rather conflicted thoughts on. Servalan herself is fantastic, with her progressive mix of short bob, steely authority and ballgowns. While Jacqueline Pearce can occasionally play to the camp she's hardly the only person in the series to do so and more often than not she's excellent at shifting moods and being entirely convincing as head of Space Command, so she's not the problem in herself and the character is deservedly possibly the show's most iconic. At the same time she almost totally dominates the Federation presence for the remainder of the series; I make it only three or four of the remaining episodes to feature a significant Federation presence don't feature her. It jives with the faceless bureaucracy of the Federation for it to have a recurring villain, basically, especially one that gradually makes things more personal. To be fair to the concept though one of the biggest problems with recurring antagonists on TV - villain decay due to recurring defeats - will be largely avoided for Servalan personally, who basically can't lose as long as she lives and the Federation isn't toppled (she will also occasionally actually come out ahead, though this won't come into use until later in the series); at this stage it's a little cowboys and indians - and beyond a lust for personal powers Servalan seems to have basically no ideology. 

However, there's probably only a certain mileage in one-episode bureaucratic button-pushers; it's nice to ponder now that some closer continuation of the Big Brother-style oppression and political warring would have made for a stronger series but it might very well have not. It's just that going forward more variety might have been nice, though everything points to the character being very well-received at the time and since (though this was the highest rated episode of the whole show, so theoretically everyone saw her and a certain proportion of them never watched it again, though this isn't exactly how ratings work). "Seek-Locate-Destroy" answers this by assigning her as head of a taskforce to bring Blake down (the episode does a good job of establishing that the crew have been a thorn in the Federation's side beyond the sole raid we've seen on-screen - no great loss to have missed out on a few missions of sneaking around power stations) but at times the familiarity and cosiness of the set-up can be tedious. That's not necessarily the fault of this episode though.

Travis is cut from less mould-breaking cloth than Servalan. An old enemy of Blake from his first uprising with the scars to show for it, he's basically the muscle, to give Blake someone he can beat up. As an underling he's perhaps more exposed to the pitfalls of villain decay than Servalan as each of his failures will be in person, for someone rapidly shown to have no time for failing underlings. Steven Greif isn't the problem; I prefer Brian Croucher (more of that when I get there) but Greif's not bad considering the character's writing isn't always great. Here he puts some good spins on his lines ("I'm always grateful for a rough analogy") and has a decent presence. He's just not particularly plausible as a war criminal.

The episode's plot itself is a variation on the power station raid seen in "Time Squad" with the simple twist of someone getting left behind unnoticed by the crew. It's not the last time even this season but here as a respectable device to cause jeopardy it more or less works and the script and cast do a decent job of selling it. Blake mainly delivers exposition about Travis while the others ask questions, meaning the rest of the regulars fight for scraps. It's probably a necessary evil to give the new additions space to breathe. Aside from the first (and penultimate) appearance of the awful Security Robot - a Star Wars inspired concession that didn't work and looked crap, rapidly being phased out despite heavily featuring in promotional materials and clearly being commissioned with an eye on merchandising opportunities - the action is decent and the actual plot of the episode is serviceable if unexciting. However, Blake catching Travis out in the same way Travis previously undid him - by staking out the battleground well in advance - really doesn't work and feels too much like someone pushing hard for a pat wrap-up which wasn't plausible or even necessary.

In summation it's a workable, competent episode which introduces two new regulars while maintaining some forward motion and doing a fair job of turning Blake and his crew from prisoners on the lam to a serious threat to the Federation. In places it lacks refinement and identity but overall it holds the attention.