Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham, with Jacqueline Pearce & Stephen Greif
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by Michael E Briant
Blake gets a communication from resistance leader Avalon, who needs safe transport off planet. Before the Liberator arrives, however, Avalon is captured by Federation security, and detained in 'The Centre' by Travis. He has a devastating plan to capture the Liberator once and for all...
Can Blake free Avalon and stop the traitor in there midst, or will the Liberator crew succumb to the most lethal virus since the Black Death?
Project Avalon is very much like Seek-Locate-Destroy. It's a story, which, on paper, doesn't look very exciting, however it quickly becomes one of the most interesting episodes of the first season. There's something undefinably good about Project Avalon, because it's a story that is so simple, but it's something so obviously Blake's 7. There's not much that I can say, apart from how really strong this episode is - it's a big step up from Nation's previous script for Duel.
The idea of Travis trying to duplicate a killer android to stop Blake is a brilliant idea, and much more in keeping with the character we saw in Seek-Locate-Destroy, rather than the beat 'em up psycotic that came across in Duel. Here, Travis is much more cold and calculating, and that seems to fit with his character more, and his dedicated crusade against Blake. Certainly, it could be argued that the story starts to sag in the middle, with the rescue attempt seeming to take an absolute age. However, that's no disregard for the quality of the script, which manages to create an interesting scenerio, and then plays to it's strengths. It certainly as deep as scripts like Seek-Locate-Destroy or The Way Back, but it's certainly a story that allows for quality drama to arise out of a tense situation. And the idea that Blake was allowed to get to Avalon, and that she was swapped for an android without even the audience knowing is a neat one. It stops the audience from being able to guess the easy suspect, and instead pulls off a revelation that is far more shocking and suprising. A twist like Avalon being an android also reinforces the power of the Federation, and truly reminds us of how corrupt they are. They have the power to create truly sentient beings, but instead they use them as weapons of war and death. I don't know about you, but to me, that's an incredibly strong image. Life created to destroy other life. They may say that Blake's 7 is a space opera full of people with silly costumes, but, so far, it has played around with some really deep ideas such as totalitian control, religious power, sentient technology breaking free from it's desired place, the futility of war and even tricky subjects like female exploitation or child molestation. And for the most part it's been very successful.
The characters in this one are well written and acted too. Particular plaudits must go to David Balie's character, who we instantly suspect is the traitor in Blake's midst, particular considering his role in Doctor Who's Robots Of Death and Stephen Greif, who is fantastic as Travis. Small details like him making the Mutoid move before it gives it's report are small things, but they make all the difference, and really give us a feel for this character that he's playing. The rest of the cast are really strong, and it's nice to see that, after a few episodes of being stuck on the Liberator, Jenna gets another opportunity to shine. After a good few early episodes, Jenna started to become confined to the Liberator, but after this and Duel, it's clear that Jenna has made a ressurgence and that she is being found interesting things to do. By contrast, Gan, Cally and, yes, Avon are all starting to suffer from large cast syndrome. Basically, there's too many people, and no one knows what to do with them. Even Zen has had to loose a lot of what made him interesting in the first place. Now, he's starting to become standard computer, rather than the complex three dimensional character he was before. Certainly, Terry Nation is more interested in Blake, Travis and Sevalan and how they play off each other. The one thing that makes Servalan really work in Series 1 is Jacqueline Pearce, and it's really only once Travis is disposed of that Sevalan, as a character, becomes interesting. With Michael E Briant back in the direction chair, everything's clean and slick and stylish, with lovely depth of focus shots and other techniques that other directors from the same period often forget about. Whenever we see his name, it's a guaranteed stamp of quality.
Project Avalon is a really fun, exciting Blake's 7 story, but one with plenty of character and heart. Certainly, it flags in the middle, but that doesn't mean it isn't interesting. And while some ongoing issues are starting to present themselves about the series, they don't really detract from Project Avalon as a really solid slice of Blake's 7.
Liberator Rating - 8/10
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