TV Review - Blake's 7: S1E12 Deliverance

After a cycle of episodes that - the debut of Servalan and Travis happening ahead of any of their other appearances aside - could have been shown in any order Blake's 7 returns to a plot arc for the first time since its' formative episodes. "Deliverance" has the same A/B plot format as the previous episode but here one of the plot-lines is actually kept open at the end of the episode, leading directly to season closer "Orac". After the variable quality and tone of recent adventures it's actually well-placed and gives the season a thread to follow through to avoid just petering out as the money and ideas ran out. On paper.

"Deliverance" and its' direct follow-ups "Orac" and "Redemption" were edited into a 1986 VHS release by the BBC which was the first B7 I ever saw, with "Deliverance" stripped down to basically the advancing plot line (which made the discovery of a whole other storyline something of a surprise when I got the unedited tapes). This involves the Liberator running into a shuttle in space which promptly explodes, with the crew deciding to help the two-man crew - one of whom is rapidly brought onboard seriously injured, the other killed on impact with the planet Celphlon. The set-up feels strangely repetitive - this is the fourth time by my count ("Time Squad", "Mission to Destiny" and "Bounty") that the Liberator's more or less bumbled into another ship in the nine episodes the crew have had possession, all of which have seen the crew of largely self-interested rebels act like an intergalactic RAC despite the fact the chances of finding friends being low. 

Thankfully the stronger lead-in time for the remaining seasons will see this rather obvious way of launching a plot on coincidence phased out but it signs off with an absolute doozy - piloting the space shuttle the Liberator's ran into by complete accident is one Ensor (as we soon find out, Ensor Jr.) who's just struck a deal with Servalan to sell the Federation something mysterious called Orac for ten million credits and medical aid in the form of surgeon companion Maryatt, along to replace his father's failing pacemaker. Not only that but she decides to activate her cunning plan of blowing up the shuttle to avoid paying without realising the Liberator's right there. Odds on that happening in the vastness of space? Colossal.

The B-plot here is the more important one - there's a big clue to which is going to be more important when Blake elects to stay on the Liberator rather than join the away team for the first time. This does actually feel a bit more natural. He and Cally (back to nursing detail but at least not competing with everyone else) deal with the injured Ensor when he's teleported up only to find themselves held hostage and the Liberator forced to make for Aristo, where Ensor Sr. is holed up with his failing heart. Ensor the Younger is played gamely by Tony Caunter, aka Roy off EastEnders, who basically has to deliver great big horrible chunks of exposition about his dad and Orac to Blake and Cally, all while being seriously injured. The result isn't one of B7's most nuanced performances but to be fair Ensor Jr is a plot device character to introduce a plot device character to introduce a plot device, so yeah.

Tying into this thread are Servalan and Travis, who make their first appearance where they aren't actively confronting the Liberator crew (not actually meeting them or even being aware that they've come into contact with Ensor), with the latter very much in the doghouse - stripped of his rank following "Project Avalon" for what that's worth, though his plot function and personality are unchanged.. Servalan's plan is another fudge, though - having decided she's going to kill Ensor Jr and wait for Ensor Sr to expire then collect Orac for free why does she bother letting the former fly halfway home and then blow up his shuttle? It's couched in her ambitions of going beyond Space Command and behind the President's back but it still makes no sens. If she had to let him leave why not follow him all the way to his dad and get the job, seeing as she and Travis will do that the next episode? Why not bring Maryatt in on it and have him secure Orac on Aristo? If she knows Ensor is on Aristo why not just set out there with Travis and some Mutoids instantly? I mean, it's great to have her sheer ambition signposted and there's a great scene for Travis, initially conflicted about the death of Maryatt (who saved his life when he was seriously injured by Blake) before his desire for revenge wins out, but it smacks of comic supervillain evil planning. Of course, if she hadn't blown up the ship Blake would never even have known about Orac and that's the real reason.it happens. I wish I could say that it's some intentional irony that her own greed and ruthlessness costs her Orac but the script repeatedly uses the phrase "Space Surgeon" so that's probably a "no".

The nominal A-plot (it's what's referenced in the title) is pure cheese, recycling both earlier B7 (Jenna is left behind after confirming Maryatt's death so the team have to beam back down) and Star Trek-style space opera as Cephlon contains a group of hostile primitives. They kidnap Jenna and the rest have to get her back, along the way stumbling across a more advanced girl called Meegat, looking after a rocket full of genetic data which if launched correctly will allow a fresh civilisation to flower on another planet. The away team naturally is composed of Jenna, Avon, Vila and Gan and their characterisation actually makes up for the shitty plot. Avon is clearly relishing being in charge of even a single mission and gets mistaken for a godlike saviour by Meegat to his slight discomfort, though Paul Darrow nails his dialogue and you wonder if this was one of the moments when Chris Boucher and David Maloney began to see if he could shoulder more of the action. Jenna doesn't get to do much beyond be kidnapped and Vila is unlocking stuff of course but they all knock around some good lines (if you squint there's the earliest signs of the Avon/Vila double-act in there) while Gan gets to throw around a few Scavengers, which is probably about as much as the guy could hope for at this stage. 

Letting the side down a little is Meegat; Suzan Farmer isn't bad in herself (and the series did well to land her for a small part considering her Hammer pedigree) but grouped with her costume, voice and the worship of Avon she comes a lot closer to one of the horny nuns from Castle Anthrax than anyone intended. Plus after launching the rocket, what, they just leave her there in an empty and now pointless silo on a planet full of savage Scavengers? There are some desperate attempts in B7 to justify why whichever allies the crew have made and that have actually survived the fifty minutes aren't added to the crew (the real reason being that six human regulars were all the budget could sustain) but this one doesn't even address it. It's all a fairly obvious run-around to keep most of the regulars down on Celphlon and prevent them from just rushing Ensor on the Liberator.

So yeah, it's a mess, and it's a distinct irony that the show's return to a more linked plot structure sees the quality drop off a cliff. It's one of the most blatantly padded (everything about Ensor and Orac could have been naturally compacted into about a minute quite naturally the second Ensor Jr teleports onboard) and the "away" plot is only really notable for mixing up the series' dynamic to date. Viewing it as the first part of a two-parter doesn't really make this more forgivable, it's more like a single episode has been drastically expanded and split in half. I don't think I missed much with that heavily edited VHS tape after all; even with the personal nostalgia of it being my first B7 it's still one of the weaker episodes of Season 1, probably ahead of only "The Web" up to this point.