Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham, with Jaqueline Pearce & Stephan Grief
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Verre Lorrimer
The Federation complex on Centero has become Blake's next target, his aim - to steal the Federation's cypher machine. With that, he'll be able to decode all Federation communications and transmissions.
But the plan goes horribly wrong when Cally is separated from her teleport bracelet and caught in the ensuing explosion. Blake wishes to go back, but with the Liberator now being pursued, turning back would result in the destruction of the ship.
However, worse is to come. Cally is found - alive in the wreckage. However, the supreme commander has assigned a new warrior to find and destroy Blake. Travis is coming for Blake, and his trap has already been prepeared...
Seek-Locate-Destroy may not seem, on paper, at least to be a very exciting story. The elements on the page mustn't have looked very interesting to Terry Nation when he wrote it. Seek-Locate-Destroy should, be rights, be, at best, a mediocre story.
But this is Blake's 7.
And Blake's 7 doesn't obey the rules.
Instead of a poor, weak story, with little to recommend it, Seek-Locate-Destroy very quickly climbs up to the very highest echelons of the good Blake's 7 stories. It may not be too deep, and the danger may not be as strong as in stories such as Countdown or The Way Back, but it's a barrel of fun. However, Seek-Locate-Destory isn't just good: it's memorable. And that's because of the two reacurring characters it introduces: Servalan and Travis.
The story itself is very strong, if very similar to the plot of Time Squad. Hell, both stories even feature communications outposts. However, here the plot of dealing with the Federation installation is handled much better here, because at least here it's given more focus than in Time Squad. And having Cally separated from the Liberator crew and believed dead is a brilliant idea, one that nowadays would have been played out across three or four episodes. There's no doubt here that Cally will rejoin the crew of the Liberator, but it's interesting to see what will come out of it. Terry Nation writes the situation so much better than how he handled Vicki's stranding in the Doctor Who episode The Chase. It's certainly tense, but not dwelled upon, allowing some of the backstory for Blake to come to the fore. Certainly, until now, Blake has been left behind in the development stakes in comparison to the other characters, but here Blake gets the chance to shine, with real development regarding how he was originally captured. And as for the introduction of Servalan and Travis, well Servalan certainly could have had a better introduction than what she gets here. But Travis, on the other hand, has some wonderful build up, really creating a sense of the character. He's a tough, hard, psychopathic madman, someone who you really wouldn't want to cross and someone who could be easily tipped over the edge. So you could think that Travis could get quite boring quite quickly, but one of the things that makes him so interesting is that he has a cold steel lurking underneath the surface. Many could feel that this would be enough, but couple that with Stephan Grief's performance, and you have a mesmerising character.
Stephan Grief is an actor who can really give something to his performances, and here, he really is fantastic, managing to turn from raging anger to quite menace in a simple sentence. That's the power of a really good actor, somebody who manages to be in complete control of everyone watching the programme. Gareth Thomas also really stands out, really ripping through the moral material and and finally getting the chance to delve into Blake's past. All of these moments are really strong, giving the character a chance to see how he became the man that we saw in The Way Back. The rest of the cast are very good, particularly Jaqueline Pearce and Sally Knyvette, who are excellent fodder for some of the best lines that Blake and Travis have in the whole series. Both give really killer performances, making this one of the most enjoyable Blake's 7 adventures there are.
So basically, Seek-Locate-Destory is one of the most enjoyable Blake's 7 episodes there are. It may not be deep, nor is it perfect, however it is still a really good adventure romp that's really fun and quickly rises to become one of the best Blake's 7 stories of all time.
Liberator Rating - 8/10
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