TV Review - Blake's 7: S2E05 Pressure Point

For a show that's known for killing off most of the cast there's only one occasion before five minutes from the end of the last episode that a regular crew member actually dies onscreen, and this is in "Pressure Point". The episode - written like several of the more "significant" ones over the next couple of years by a returning Terry Nation - effectively launches the season off on an arc that will technically run up until the finale, namely Blake's attempts to destroy the Federation's key computer Control. And it does a lot more besides.

The plot of trying to destroy the Federation nerve-centre is an excellent one. Really for all the stolen supercomputers, cracked cyphers, Travis humiliations and (possibly, though we never go back to see how the likes of Sarkoff and Ro actually do) toppled colonies the Federation is no closer to collapse than it was at the start of the show. Control gives a  plausible way to cripple such a huge monolithic organisation and a tangible goal for the crew to aim for. It also means a return to Earth, where Blake hopes to link up with Kasabi, the head of the planet's resistance. She however is captured and her troops wiped out by Servalan. This nearly wrecks her rendezvous with Blake, if it wasn't for the fact he's now firmly on the road to fanatic territory.

Blake springs his plan on the crew near the start and then bully-rams it through in spite of all the bad signs. As Kasabi is in custody and her troops largely dead his plan's in ruins from the start, yet he presses on and leads in the away team without telling them. It's interesting that the teleport party is all-boy - it might be the start of the girls being basically relegated to ship duties for the rest of the year, but it also includes the pliant Vila and Gan. And Avon, who here makes it clear that he wants Blake to succeed as he believes it would leave him in charge of the Liberator while Blake himself would be occupied with the battle, therefore meaning he will also fall in line where both Jenna and Cally seem more wary of Blake's headstrong behaviour. It's a fantastic dynamic which hands near-total control of the operation over to a hasty, bullheaded revolutionary and once again it's clear we're meant to be doubting the lead's judgement.

The plan goes even more badly wrong when the four boys are betrayed and set up by Kasabi's daughter Veron. It's a bit of a reach that she isn't required to slit their throats while they're unconscious or anything but it's a passable contrivance which basically locks them on to the assault on Control, which does at least spare Blake any further questions. The actual mission is then pure Nation, but in a good way as the quartet negotiate a minefield of computer wiring and coloured lighting with some typical jeopardy (the most notable being that suffered by Paul Darrow, nearly blown up for real by the BBC's insane pyrotechnics division and unable to keep out a genuine flash of relief when David Jackson grabs him).

All of this time the team are being stalked by Travis and his Mutoids and it all comes together in one of the show's finest scenes as Vila picks the lock of the Control Complex just before Blake barges past declaring "we've done it!" and then "I've done it!", utterly oblivious to the room being empty until a furious Avon points it out seconds before Travis ambles in and reveals the truth. Control was moved from Earth 30 years ago to a secret location, with the empty complex just there to draw out threats like Blake. It's actually very smart in a Terry Nation sort of way and the whole scene buzzes as Travis crows, with Blake just down on his knees, broken.

Of course they get away once again and it's really the episode's one weakness, but surrounded by so much good stuff it's not much of a bother. Kasabi (a well-characterised former Federation instructor who had Servalan as one of her pupils; their exchanges are actually strangely affecting in places and Kasabi very briefly succeeds in shaking Servalan's iron resolve) has died under questioning despite Travis' promises so Veron somehow makes contact with Jenna and Cally on the Liberator, allowing Jenna to arrive (the "Who are you?" scene is incidentally a fantastic use of the fact she and Servalan hadn't met up to this point), take Servalan at gunpoint to Control and get Travis called off all in the nick of time, which is a bit of a contrivance even if it just about holds up.

It would be a typical shit Travis episode ending (Veron even disappears, a teenage girl left alone in the middle of a Federation stronghold with no allies but apparently planning to become another revolutionary, which is very strange considering Jenna considers her young and vulnerable enough to think it appropriate to place a maternal hand on her hair throughout) but for once we see the escape and this time Travis isn't listening, throwing a grenade that brings down the roof and kills Gan. It's quite brilliant that this is almost tacked on to the plot just when - despite the seismic news about Control and the psychological gut-punch Blake's just suffered - any viewer lucky enough not to know this is the episode Gan dies would be expecting a scene on the Liberator's bridge with Vila making some daft joke. That it's such a stupid, pointless death as well, the sort of scrape that characters escape from all the time (Gan's even developed a mini-trope in "Deliverance" and "Redemption" of telling the crew to leave him behind and just thumping everyone) but here it's fatal and quite affecting for a character that's never really done anything.

On Gan it's a shame in a way. "Shadow" showed albeit briefly that there was some potential in the loyal character questioning Blake's means, and in some ways Gan was more idealistic than any of them. It might have been interesting to have such a dissenting voice on the ship for the rest of the year (instead it's split between Jenna and Cally and given short shrift even then, making the pair sound like clucking hens). Of course, the rest of "Shadow" and everything else Gan did in Season 2 showed that the writers weren't particularly interested in exploring him and as the friendliest crew member he makes a plausible sacrifice, removing some reason from the Liberator and leaving them even more hard-line. Vila was apparently Nation's choice for the chop but Chris Boucher and (crucially) the audience liked him, so this was definitely the best call. Apparently there were apparently plans to have Veron kill Gan unseen and then come onboard as a traitor, which interestingly calls back to Nation's plans to have Arco (when he was planned as what would become Avon) eventually betray the crew but I'm not sure how sustainable this would be. Plus we'd have lost that great shot of Gan's empty chair at the end.

The action-packed plot, sharp dialogue (especially the fatalistic banter on the way to the Control complex), the grey side to Blake's character and actual consequences coming from his impetuousness all add up to one of the series' strongest episodes. Avon and Servalan both get good scenes as well while Travis is loving it in Control there's not a dull moment, firmly setting up what will be the series' longest arc. Not all the following episodes make the best use of the avenues "Pressure Point" opens up or maintains its' fantastic set of character interactions but on its' own merits it's a classic.