TV Review - Blake's 7: S1E09 Project Avalon

The alternating Federation/non-Federation pattern was short-lived (which is code for me forgetting "Project Avalon" was before "Breakdown") and this episode gives Travis an almost immediate rematch with Blake, though this time he's got Servalan on his back. In many ways it's the quintessential Season 1 episode, featuring a raid on a power station, Servalan, Travis and an over-complicated plot. It is the first sign that the 7 (or six, I was never really convinced Zen gave much of a shit) weren't the only ones fighting against the Federation, though the "other revolutionary we've not mentioned before and won't mention again" device would get a workout in several episodes before the end.



Here it's Avalon, a rather fetching young female rebel, battling away on an icy unnamed planet that's presumably a Federation colony. As her crew consists of a handful of suspicious stuntman-looking chaps so it's no surprise when they're wiped out in Wookey Hole before they can link up with the Liberator crew - big love for the bloke who does the massive leap into the water, he probably actually genuinely died doing that.  Blake and the gang then have to rescue Avalon from under the noses of Servalan and Travis, from a security facility that again looks strangely like a power station. 

Vila gets to unpick a few locks but at least Terry Nation remembers who he is; Michael Keating sells a couple of lines that no-one else could, notably the mucking around with the thermal suit and his big macho threats to an already captured Federation trooper. His willingness to take whatever he's given and run with it is a big part in the character gaining popularity and later avoiding the axe, so fair play. This was the point Sally Knyvette kicked off about not getting much to do so she's patched into the away team, shooting about eighty people, and Jenna gets to be the one who's met Avalon before. It's a bit of a reach that a non-aligned smuggler would know her when long-time revolutionaries Blake and Cally don't but we'll give it a pass. Cally gets a new job as unofficial medical officer to mix with her teleport detail and a few more lines while Avon is sidelined a little but does get to examine a gun in the most dramatic way imaginable and his skills provide the handwave for another pat little "Travis gets a taste of his own medicine" ending. All of which leaves poor old Gan, who gets naff-all to do apart from being overpowered by a robot. 

The plot itself is a bit convoluted, revolving around using a devastating manufactured virus delivered by an android copy of Avalon to get aboard the Liberator, which the Federation have decided they want in one piece. There's a certain amount of logic to proceedings but the stuff with the neutered rifles is a bit much; some poor Federation trooper actually gets Blake bang to rights and it's with a dud gun. If a couple of the crew had been killed but someone had lived to get Avalon back onboard the plan still would have worked and it's not like troopers with regular rifles have been massacring the Liberator crew, is it? Would it have been too meta to just assume they probably wouldn't kill the crew anyway? Probably, and I suppose archer turns from Servalan and Travis provide all the meta this one needs. Travis especially is really beginning to stagnate; another failure, another ironic defeat, another "I 'ate you Blake!" rant, bleargh. Why doesn't Servalan call up Dev Tarrant? He knew how to sort Blake out. She loses credibility by association as does Space Command if this serial loser is the best they can manage for what we're repeatedly told is the big problem of Blake and the Liberator.

Of the guest cast Julia Vidler makes for a damn good robot but a less impressive real person. David Baillie's not so bad as the only survivor of her team, making the best of being given an M-16 one of the effects crew brought in from home and lightly dusted with snow spray. I do keep getting distracted by his monobrow, though - I know he wasn't exactly trying to be a poster boy but I just want to reach into the telly and pluck the thing. There're 9.7 million people watching David, what will your mum think? Watch out for Glynnis Barber as one of the Mutoids too, she gets more lines than she will do in the average episode after she becomes a regular. I'm still struggling to work out what the Mutoids are for; there's a vague delineation that they're the black ops type division following Travis and the troopers are for more general work but the question of "why?" is still there. Yes, they fit nicely with his artificial adornments and all but what can they do that Federation troopers can't? Well, actually, the attempt to give one of the troopers dialogue, which is nearly inaudible even though you can tell from the cadence that the poor guy inside the acrylic helmet is basically yelling, might be a partial answer. And is that a male Mutoid I spot? That's unique, I think. Why are the rest of them women? If it's that the catsuits are to get the dads watching why the weird headpieces?

The action is hugely enjoyable in that "not very good but still fun" B7 way - there's the aforementioned cave massacre featuring lots of literal fireworks and guys in anoraks diving around dramatically, the second - and thankfully final - appearance of the hilarious Security Robot, those two Federation guards doing their super-slow "jump into the corridor and fire then jump back" routine and a moment when the casualties literally pile up like something out of Hot Shots! Part Deux plus isn't it lucky Chevner didn't keep firing his big boy gun when he was teleported up? It's brilliant. Oh, and if you're after terrible effects the robot Avalon's innards are a badly CSO'd shot of a few bits of bright perspex moving around, looking like a first year CDT project.

So yes, in a way it's the gold standard for the sort of trashy bargain-bin action-adventure the first series of B7 delivered, the playground stuff. Subtlety, characterisation and shades of grey would come later when Tel's more prosaic nature took more of a background seat but in the meantime "Project Avalon" is enjoyable borderline nonsense, flawed but entertaining.