Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Pennant Roberts
With full control of the Liberator, Blake and his crew set there sights on the Federation's communications complex on Saurian Major. En route, however, they pick up an alien ship, bringing it aboard for further study.
While Blake, Villa and Avon go down to the planet in search of allies, Jenna and Gan are left to guard the Liberator. However, the capsule that was brought on board isn't as empty as was first thought, and very soon, they find themselves under attack from all sides...
Down on the surface of Saurian Major, Blake runs into freedom fighter and telepath Cally. With just the four of them, Blake hopes they can destroy the complex. But with security guards closing in, can they sabotage the station and get out before there blown to kingdom come?
By now, Blake's 7 has very much entered into a formula of how the episodes are going to work, and Time Squad exemplifies this to a tee. The basic structure of the story can be transplanted into most other stories from the show. However, as is often the case, there's one small twist that makes the story unique: something that could have been done at any time in Blake's 7, but manages to stop the story from becoming too formulaic. And certainly, the double pronged attack is something that is an obvious starting point for Blake's 7's first 'bog standard' story.
The two handed menace that we come across in this story isn't unique to sci fi (Doctor Who tried it in The Invasion Of Time, brodcast a few weeks later) or even to Blake's 7, but here it's executed well, making the danger feel real and tense. Blake's 7 has always had an edgy pace to it, however here the tension at points is very real. A lot of this is down to Pennant Roberts, the director, who may not be the most dynamic in the industry, but really manages to inject the tense action scenes with a bit of pace, particularly the film sequences. However, one thing that let's this story down is...well, the story. Terry Nation's a brilliant ideas man, but it seems like that he had too many ideas buzzing around his head when he came up with the script for this story. The two narratives are completely disconnected, and the lack of harmony is quite annoying. Without it, the script would be much stronger if it gave precedence to one of those ideas. However, with both stories running at the same time, and with both getting equal coverage, both plots end rather quickly. For example, the alien guardians of the capsule are disposed off rather quickly, and the Federation complex is blown up pretty fast too, meaning that the coherence of the plot is rather limited. It just feels incomplete, like both ideas should have been longer. It's written with great technical skill, but it suffers from merging two polar opposite ideas together.
The characters in this are pretty good too. The main point of note is the introduction of Cally, who wonderfully come to life, with a hell of a lot of gusto and strength. Jan Chappell is brilliant at this, and really gives Cally the hardened edge that she needs, but with a more obvious vulnerable side to her than Jenna. She is an inspiration, and it's nice to have a character where the telepathy isn't a super power. Here, it's treated simply as a quirk of biology, rather than any miracle bestowed upon her. And it's nice to be able to see that. It's just a shame Cally's costume is god damm awful. The rest of the cast aren't abandoned too, with Gan and Zen getting particular focus. With both having remained in the sidelines since there introduction, it's nice to see them getting focus, with Gan being developed in interesting directions. He gets proberbly his best development here (which really says something about his character in every other story) and it's just a shame that some of the other stories never really picked up on this, because it would have been so interesting. A killer motivated by a sexual drive. That's something that could have proven controversial at the time, but it would have been so convention breaking. Zen, however, is made all the more mysterious, and that's what makes him so interesting. Even in series A, Terry Nation was sowing the seeds that made up the season B opener, and the idea that Zen can only be of some assistance is terrifying. After all, he's the main drive behind the ship. If all that was to be turned off, that would be horrifying. The rest of the cast are more in there generic parts, but there all wonderfully played. The aliens, however, have no real characteristics outside generic alien facets. It's a shame, because they could have been so interesting, had they been able to, oh I don't know, speak, maybe.
So, Time Squad is a very mixed bag. I enjoyed it more than Cygnus Alpha, but less than the first two gripping instalments. It has some strong ideas and great direction and acting. However, the double plot is like a double-edged sword, and the production team fell on the wrong side with this story. There are worse Blake's 7's and there are better Blake's 7's, so Time Squad is distinctly middle of the road.
Liberator Rating - 7/10
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