Due to time limitations, I had to watch the first 30 minutes of this episode one say and the remaining 22 minutes the next day. Oddly enough this worked out well, as this episode features two distinct stories.
We jump start right into the first story – Blake and Cally are rescuing Sarkoff, the former President of the planet Lindor whose been exiled to another planet. There’s some fast-moving action as the two of them avoid the guards in order to sneak into the fortress where the former President is being held. But when confronting Sarkoff, Blake is incredibly slow-moving in explaining his motives. Sarkoff thinks he’s an assassin and Blake lets the man pull a gun on him and fire without even trying to utter, “We’re here to rescue you.” Lucky for him, the gun wasn’t loaded.
The whole look of Sarkoff – the fancy clothes, the vintage jalopy car, even the residence modeled after old Earth, was reminiscent of the third Doctor Who, played by Jon Pertwee. He was the first Doctor Who that I encountered and will always be Doctor Who to me. I can’t help but wonder if this was a deliberate nod to that character and that maybe they even tried to get Pertwee to play the part, but he was either unavailable or unwilling. Anyway, Sarkoff thinks his people abandoned him because he lost his last election (due to Federation interference). His daughter tries to convince him to go back to Lindor and take his proper place, but it is only when Blake threatens to destroy his classic possessions that he reluctantly agrees to go. They flee in his jalopy and end up charging it at the guarded gate, until they are teleported up to the Liberator, leaving the driverless classic car to crash the gate and then just plain crash. End of first half-hour.
While Blake and Cally were on the planet, the Liberator received a distress call from a strange ship. Gan teleported over and then asked to be returned, saying the distress call was genuine. However, Zen recognizes that Gan’s voice was faked. Unfortunately, he only tells Vera on the bridge and not Avon in the transport room. By the time Vera tells Avon to hold off on the transport, something has already been brought aboard – but we don’t know what.
Blake and Cally arrive to find the ship apparently empty. He locates Jenna, who tells him they are all dead – and then he is knocked unconscious in a gas attack. They’ve all been captured by Tarvin, a bounty hunter from Amagon, who dresses like an Arab. Jenna was an old friend of his, so she feigns betraying the rest of the crew and playing up to him. He unlocks her explosive neck bracelet giving her enough freedom to waylay her guard and try to help her companions. Vera aids the effort by unlocking Blake’s explosive neck bracelet, and the others as well. Avon helps by getting the door open, though it takes lots longer than if Vera had done it. Sarkoff’s daughter Tyce helps by pulling a gun out of her boot and aiming it at Tarvin. He knocks the gun away but Sarkoff picks it up. Will he shoot? Tyce tells him to do it, but Tarvin says “You won’t.” Fortunately, Blake and Jenna distract him long enough for Sarkoff to shoot him dead. His confidence is restored and he’s ready to go back and lead his planet again.
Random thoughts:
Cally uses her telepathy to warn Blake about the guard activity on the planet. It was good to see her have an excuse to use her special ability again.
It was fun to see Jenna play the bad girl in this one. She and Tarvin have some good banter about old times, with the best exchange being:
Tarvin: You saved my life.
Jenna: We all make mistakes.
Earlier, I mentioned how everyone helped in this episode. I didn’t mention Gan, who sort of got them into the second mess, but his intentions were good. However the least valuable player was definitely Zen, who was no help at all this entire episode. Blake arrives on a seemingly empty ship and asks Zen where everybody is and gets a response similar to “Please rephrase the question.” What a dolt.
A good episode, though honestly I think Tyce would make a better ruler of Lindor than Sarkoff. She never gave up and was ready to fight all the way. I’ll give this one a 7.
