Review BLAKE'S 7: PROJECT AVALON - Episode 09

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
A good episode again, with a nice early appearance from Glynis Barber. Again Trevor Hoyle's novelisation was the first exposure to this story. :emoji_alien:

Servalan continues to impress.


There's that pesky....

7 out of 10 again!
 
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michaellevenson

Member: Rank 8
Top episode, excellent in all respects. Travis and Servalan look on their faces when the prisoner is experimented on and dies is extremely telling. They almost look like they're getting an emotional kick out of it.
I wonder if the troopers that survived Blake's attack to free Avalon worked it out that something was up with their guns. Perhaps they confronted Travis about it? Then again maybe they just stayed quiet.
I think the scene of Avon removing Avalon's faceplate was well done, overall a very good episode, possibly the best of series one.
10/10
 
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michaellevenson

Member: Rank 8
Episode Cast

Gareth Thomas......BLAKE
Paul Darrow.........AVON
Sally Knyvette.......JENNA
Jan Chappell.......CALLY
Michael Keating.....VILA
David Jackson........GAN
Peter Tuddenham....ZEN
Jacqueline Pearce.....SERVALAN
Stephen Greif........TRAVIS
Julia Vidler........AVALON
David Bailie......CHEVNER
Glynis Barber.....MUTOID
John Baker. .........SCIENTIST
John Rolfe.........TERLOC

Written by Terry Nation
Director Michael E Briant
Transmitted 27 February 1978.
 

Brimfin

Member: Rank 3
Blake’s mission takes him to a distant cold planet (with minus 121 degrees for 8 years at a time) to help Resistance leader Avalon escape in order to continue her work. But she is captured by Travis before he gets there and her fellow Resisters gunned down in a scene reminiscent of the pilot episode. Travis is still working with a female Mutoid, but a different one this week. He leaves the homing beacon there for Blake to follow. I couldn’t help wondering why he didn’t just wait for Blake and then capture or kill him. Just the ill logic of the pursuer, it seemed. However, it turned out Travis was actually playing the long game and had a clever plan to both kill Blake and capture the Liberator.

Blake arrives on the cold planet only to kind the dead bodies except for one survivor Chevner. He calls Vila down to help him, although Vila dislikes the cold. “I have a weak chest” he complains. “The rest of you is not so great either,” agreed Avon. “It’s annoying sometimes being indispensable,” moans Restal.

There’s plenty of action as Blake, Jenna, and Vila track down the captured Avalon while Avon has to take the ship off course to avoid the Federation fighters. They get back just in the nick of time as Blake is calling for transport up. They are telly-ported up just before the fighter robot fires a lethal charge.

Oh, but here’s where the cunning came in. Travis had replaced Avalon with an android, geared to set off a deadly chemical weapon which would kill them all and leave the Liberator ready for salvaging. Blake gets suspicious when he realizes their escape was a little too easy. He tests one of the weapons they stole from the Feds and finds it was effectively set on stun. He thinks the plan was to get Chevner on board the ship to sabotage it, only to find he is just barely alive and Avalon was the plant. Blake stops the mechanized Avalon from setting off the weapon. Avon is able to reprogram her just enough for Blake to beam down and force them to trade the real Avalon for the privilege of not being killed by their own insidious gas. They escape and Travis is in big trouble with the Federation for failing once again. His flaw was in not trusting his crew. Had he trusted them to fire at Blake and company without hitting them instead of childproofing their guns, Blake would have had no reason to be suspicious and would have perished when robot Avalon set off the gas. Live and learn.

A clever caper with a couple of good twists, aided by a good guest cast and decent sets and effects. I’ll give this one a 9.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
Another one I remember from the novelisation. Which unfortunately means there were no surprises in this episode. But I imagine seeing this for the first time would have been fascinating. And I doubt I'd have worked out in advance who the mole was. Good to see more of the crew involved this week although I don't think we've seen Gan do much at all since the first few episodes. And Avon seems to be limited to snarking from the main control room (although I do enjoy his snarking so I don't mind that so much). The main problem was the overly convoluted plan, which is hand-waved by Travis saying they want the Liberator intact (which didn't seem to be an issue with the previous episode). I can see why they might want to get their hands on some of Liberator's advanced technology but I would have thought that getting Blake out of the way would be a much higher priority.
I wonder if the troopers that survived Blake's attack to free Avalon worked it out that something was up with their guns.
I got the impression that they were in on it. Travis made a comment about one of the troopers having got the new issue and I assumed they knew it was set to stun but I guess there's nothing to indicate that one way or the other.

Travis is already in trouble for his failures. It will be interesting to see how he gets out of that as I'm aware hes around for a while longer yet.

Overall a great episode - 9 out of 10.
 

The Seeker

Member: Rank 6
Vidler does a magnificent job as a robot.

Poor Travis. He’s cunning, but Blake’s too smart for him. Servalon is always a delight to watch.

The episode certainly had some clever twists, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat, even though you know the good guys have to win. 9/10
 

ant-mac

Member: Rank 9
Since the news of Blake's exploits have spread throughout the Federation, there have been two attempts on Servalan's life. In recent days, there has also been some criticism from within the Civil Administration about Travis's unsuccessful campaign to seek, locate and destroy Blake and his followers. Meanwhile, Blake has arranged a rendezvous on an icy planet with a resistance leader, whom Jenna has met once before, known as Avalon. However, before the planned meeting can take place, Avalon is kidnapped by Travis and placed in a security cell in a nearby Federation base, while most of her followers are massacred. Therefore, Blake, Jenna, Vila and Chevner, the lone survivor of the slaughter of Avalon's resistance group, break into the Federation complex to rescue her.

The personal at the Federation installation allow the rescuers to find, release and escape with Avalon. However, at a later stage onboard the Liberator, Blake and his crew discover that she is not the real Avalon, but is in fact an android copy that has been programmed to release a deadly virus once it is on the Liberator, that will kill all of them, but will leave the spacecraft intact and undamaged.

Realising this, the Liberator crew manages to overpower and disable the android. Avon then manages to reprogram it to follow some crude and simple orders. They then return to rescue the real Avalon from the Federation. Blake teleports back down to the Federation base with the android, which is programmed to crush a sphere containing the deadly virus if Servalan does not release Avalon or attempts to stop them from leaving. Once the fugitives have escaped, Servalan orders the pursuit ships to be launched. Due to yet another failure on this mission, Travis is relieved of duty by Servalan, pending a full enquiry.

PROJECT AVALON was a highly enjoyable episode, that features an intriguing plot, some imaginative plot twists, an interesting cast, along with convincing set and special effects. It was good to see the return of the Federation robots from SEEK-LOCATE-DESTROY, but once again, I can’t help but think they were placed in the wrong environment to look really effective.

Of the regulars, Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette, Paul Darrow and Michael Keating seem to get the best material, whilst the semi-regulars, Stephen Greif and Jacqueline Pearce are both in fine form. Finally, of the guest cast, Julia Vidver as Avalon and David Bailie as Chevner are the most obvious standouts - although a special mention should be made for Glynis Barber as a mutoid. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of her in the future. :emoji_wink:

5/5.
 

ant-mac

Member: Rank 9
Vidler does a magnificent job as a robot.

Poor Travis. He’s cunning, but Blake’s too smart for him. Servalon is always a delight to watch.

The episode certainly had some clever twists, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat, even though you know the good guys have to win. 9/10
The good guys don't always win in BLAKE'S 7.

And when they lose, they lose big.
 

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
Servalan never fails to impress during the first series of Blakes 7! she seems very sinister, clever and sexy all in one package! But without Greif to fire upon she becomes a bit dull and the ridiculous need to shave her head nearly bald all the time in the third series was quite annoying!
JB
 
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