Aftermath!

The question is, what do we call the series now? It’s like 1,000,000B.C. or The Tribe of Gum: just factually inaccurate. I mean, Blake never had ‘7’ in the first place: Messianic as he might have been, the poor man never actually talked about himself in the third person, and one of his ‘7’ was his spaceship. And if you count him, you have to count Orac, which makes 8. Till the death of Gan…

No, to avoid all confusion, I think they – or rather, I – will have to change the name by which we refer to this weird and wonderful sci-fi soap. Surely a prime contender would be ‘Space Babes’: Avon being Space Babe #1, of course. (And I’d also argue for his name being in the title, just to ensure he never leaves.)

But this story seemed overrun with space babes, and they all want a piece of Space Babe #1 (who can blame them?). First Avon is awoken in a cave with a kiss from new Liberator recruit Dayna. Then he gets a crème de menthe fuelled snog from deposed president Servalan. Perhaps we know that Dayna’s sister Lauren isn’t going to stick around because she doesn’t swoon at the sight of Paul Darrow; whereas Space Babe #5, Steven Pacey, is definitely interested.

I’d also like to put in a special mention for

Doctor Who Guest Star

and UNIT babe Richard Franklin, playing the great-great-great-great grandson of Captain Mike Yates. I was tremendously disappointed that Yates Jr. was exploded by Vikings within five minutes of the opening titles. It’s a terrible waste, as Invasion of the Dinosaurs proved he’s an excellent baddie.

I do hope we get a Nick Courtney cameo in an upcoming adventure. Can’t you just see Courtney squaring up to Darrow? Courtney’s got form as a villain too, as any fule kno. I’d cast him as Travis’s older, deadlier brother. I’d call the episode AVENGER. I think I’d probably film it in North Wales…

Anyway, before I drift off into one of my ‘if I made Blakes 7’ reveries, can I take a moment to ponder the disappearance of every single crewmember bar Space Babe #1 and Orac. Is this really it? Vila and Cally dispatched? Blake and Jenna zooming away on missions of destiny of their own?

If so, it’s an act of terrific chutzpah. It wasn’t long ago we had a spaceship heaving with have-a-go heroes in sci-fi tabards, being chased by not one but two supervillains. Now it’s Dayna and this mysterious, somewhat effeminate space pirate – in a universe where the Federation’s disintegrated and green blobby aliens are trying to invade – and Terry Nation is poised to endlessly recast the storylines of two of last year’s best adventures (‘Killer’ and ‘Countdown’) with Servalan as the unpredictable figure from Avon’s past.

And I’d definitely watch that. It’s tempting to say that in focusing on Avon in this adventure, he’s finally realised who’s the star of this show – but that would be untrue, because of course it’s Servalan, Servalan, Servalan, and Nation gives her some fantastic material here. It’s so bold and unexpected to have her suddenly cast defenceless into an alien environment: to see her manipulate, persuade, threaten and kill in cold blood.

If she isn’t over-used in Season 3, there’s no telling how amazing this character – and Jacqueline Pearce’s totally sublime performance – can go.

As for the rest of them, I really don’t know what to think yet. I’m sad to see Jenna leave (and offscreen, too), but I don’t blame Sally Knyvette for going: the most she got to do in that last run of stories was flirt with a man in a purple leather miniskirt, and nobody needs work that badly. As for Cally and Villa, I fully expect them to bounce back next episode, but doing only goodness knows what. This episode demonstrates how exciting characters can be when they’re not jostling for attention in a rugby scrum of space colleagues, when they don’t have a massive alien spaceship for protection and no comedy pratfalls to lighten the tone.

I like my Blakes 7 like I like my drinks: bright green, made of goodness knows what and liable to induce extremely arch dialogue.

Bounty!

Something that only bothered me last night: Roj Blake, Kerr Avon, Olag Gan, but Jenna Stannis and Cally – well, just Cally according to the internet. To confuse things, there's Vila Restal. Isn't this a bit like having a crew referring to each other as Bond, Smith, Jones, Emerson and Jennifer? And Phil? It's easy to forget Blake isn't his first name, and nobody (so far) has turned round and called him 'Roger', presumably because any suspended disbelief would immediately crash to the ground in flames.

What are we supposed to read into the name thing? Especially given that the only male member of the crew (Phil) exists almost solely for the running joke that he's the precise obverse of an alpha male – not just a coward but a clown coward. And that the two most powerful characters in the series so far (and probably forever) are Servalan and Travis? Unless we find out somewhere down the line that Servalan is her first name, and that her passport actually says Servalan McGee. Servalan Diamond. Servalan A-Ding-Dong.

The good thing about this names question is that women do pretty well in Blake's 7 in this season. There's not that many of them, but Servalan is the boss to rule all bosses. Patsy and Isla in Duel are super-super powerful and rather disdainful of Travis' posturing in his black leather underwear. The Mutoids are cool, Avalon is a valuable ally, there's a callous villain in Mission to Destiny and Cally, although not massively proving useful so far, is a tougher cookie than Phil and his sonic screwdrivers.

And Jenna is practically the lead character of the whole shebang. She knows how to drive the Liberator, and there are hints of complexity to her, perhaps more than any of the other crew, in her relationship with Blake and Avon.

In this story, we get a character from her past turn up – and for maybe ten seconds the audience might believe that Jenna has sided with the enemy and is selling them all out. She gets at least one brilliant scene with all the crew hating her guts. 'Avon, I didn't know you cared,' she says, coldly. 'He didn't,' says Phil,' and he was right!'

Naturally, the audience is never in any doubt of what Jenna's real plan is. Nation makes it very clear for us by having the dastardly villains of the piece dark-skinned, dressed in vaguely Middle Eastern robes, practically twirling their moustaches as they work. Which is a pity, because outside of this random throwback to the mores of 1960s telly,  I thought this was one of the best stories we've had this season. I loved the way the story played with our heads by having President Sarkoff

DOCTOR WHO GUEST STAR TO BE

T.P. McKenna

playing dress-up and driving about in a fancy car, in the middle of a wood on a nameless planet in the middle of nowhere. There's some chutzpah in the visual incongruity of a folly, a recreation of a folly at that, surrounded by Federation troops, with a heart of silver – and then a vintage gramophone.

And if I liked this story for stirring memories of Doctor bloody Who, the show played upon that by making its flamboyant exiled hero (with a young family member as his companion) a man in retreat, cynical and sad and content with his fancy car. It's almost the Terry Nation UNIT story we never had.

Not that we know that Tyce is his daughter until the eleventh hour. Perhaps there is something in that ambiguity over women's names, that we are supposed to assume for 40-odd minutes that Tyce is her surname, when it's just an unfortunate-sounded first name. And her position in questions of power fluctuates rather oddly throughout the story, too – is she shielding Sarkoff, manipulating him, perhaps ignoring her own responsibilities?

Overall, this was one of the show's more substantial episodes. Nicely paced, nicely written, just a little bit horribly racist in the final quarter of an hour.

And Phil – reluctantly going off to enter the fray and face terrible danger – got a good scene. Which is probably a first!