Recap / Blakes Seven S 2 E 8 Hostage

"Blake, I have your...cousin."

Written by Allan Prior.
Directed by Vere Lorrimer.
Airdate: 27 February 1979.

After the Liberator barely escapes an ambush by Federation pursuit ships, Blake is contacted by Travis, now also a renegade from the Federation. He is holding Blake's cousin Inga hostage and demands a face-to-face meeting. Travis claims he wants them to join forces, but what he actually wants is the Liberator.

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This episode has the following tropes:

• Action Prologue: IN SPACE! to contrast the rest of the action on land.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: Travis locks our heroes in an airlock and starts to pump out the oxygen.
• Anti-Hero: On being told the Federation has developed their own Invisibility Cloak, Avon gripes that he can't sell them his own design now. Later he tips off Servalan to Travis' location.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: There's a lot of rock-throwing and hitting people with sticks despite this being the future.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Vila wants to know how many minutes they have left before they die of oxygen deprivation. Avon's reply? "I'll let you know."
• BBC Quarry: Though this time some effort is made to justify it. The place has been mined out by the Federation, and the lack of oxygen hampers the growth of plant life.
  Zen: The atmosphere on Exbar is breathable, but the envelope is narrow and oxygen begins to run out at relatively low altitudes. The terrain supports minimum vegetation which becomes increasingly sparse at higher altitudes. Near the top of the chalk escarpments, which are a feature of the area specified, the air is dangerously thin.
• Bear Trap: Blake gets caught in one set by Travis. Fortunately he's wearing a spacesuit boot that protects his foot from any serious damage, but it pins Blake in place out of reach of his teleport bracelet, leading to his capture.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ushton takes out two of the crimos, only to be jumped by the third. Then Travis ambushes Avon and Blake. Just when he's about to kill them, a net thrown by Ushton drops on his head. Turns out the third crimo stepped in the bear trap.
• Blind Obedience: Servalan orders a dangerous level of speed, then when the mutoids obey gripes, "Mutoids! Don't you ever question anything?"
• Booby Trap: Bear Traps and Inescapable Nets are used to trap our heroes.
• Boxed Crook: Crimos, though their exact role vis-a-vis the Federation is unstated. Their matching uniforms imply they are members of a military penal unit, but the fact that they're serving a known renegade suggests they're mercenaries instead.
• Can't Stop the Signal: When Joban says that word of Blake and Travis has spread despite Federation censorship, Servalan demands the names of those people who are talking. Veteran politician that he is, Joban just ignores her obfuscation. The problem is Servalan's failure to maintain Order, not the fact that people are talking about it.
• Chewing the Scenery: Travis calling for his "CRIMOS!" and demanding "THE WORD, THE WORD, THE WORD!"
• Colour Wash: A blue filter is used to convey the sense of a cold planet.
• Comm Links: The Space Commander, Travis, and Ushton all use them.
• Counting to Three: Molok takes Cally hostage and orders Jenna at gunpoint to teleport them both down to the planet on the count of three. On two Cally kicks him in the groin and Jenna teleports him into space instead.
• Covert Distress Code: Averted; Travis demands at Arm Cannon-point to know what word Vila would use to get teleported up. The word is just a terrified Vila shouting "TELEPORT!" Hearing Vila in apparent danger, Jenna complies only to receive Molok, who's wearing Vila's bracelet.
• Cut Phone Lines: Blake loses his bracelet after being thrown down a slope by a crimo.
• Dodgy Toupee: The Space Commander's Bridge Bunnies are mutoids wearing obvious blonde wigs. Servalan's mutoids have the usual cybernetic headpiece, implying that the Space Commander prefers his mutoids maintain a façade of human appearance.
• Economy Cast: The population of Exbar consists of Ushton and Inga.
• Enemy Mine: Travis claims that, as a fugitive from the Federation, he wants to discuss teaming up with Blake. Turns out he just wants the Liberator. When Travis fails to get it he forms an alliance with Servalan instead. If he helps lead her to Blake, she'll have him listed as dead. "There's no-one as free as a dead man."
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Travis tries to rile up Blake about Ushton's betrayal. Knowing that Ushton did it to protect his daughter, Blake doesn't hold a grudge.
  Travis: Ushton betrayed you. You must hate him; I would in your place.
  Blake: That is the difference between us Travis. [Travis backhands Blake.] That, too.
• Evil Wears Black: Travis and the crimos wear black.
• Exact Words: Servalan gets a mutoid to ignore a message from Councillor Joban this way, as it's directed to her personally, therefore it's her business if she chooses to ignore it.
• Fakeout Escape: Inga pretends to escape so the crimos will chase after her, but she doubles back and helps her father free Blake.
• Famed In-Story:
  Joban: All sorts of citizens from Alphas to labour grades know of Blake's defiance of the Federation. They talk of him as a sort of hero, many of them.
• Fanservice: Inga is somewhat underdressed for such a cold planet, though in fairness she's been locked up in the tower instead of out in the cold like Ushton.
• Frontline General: Under pressure to conclude the Blake affair, Servalan takes her own command ship to investigate Exbar.
• Girl in the Tower: Travis and his hostage are holed up in an abandoned communication tower at the top of a cliff. Though thanks to invokedNo Budget we only see the tower in a distant shot, and the studio interior.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Jenna doesn't look happy when she teleports down to find Blake kissing and Holding Hands with Inga. There's a distinct chill from her on the flight deck afterwards.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A crimo gets caught in a Bear Trap, and Travis gets caught in the Inescapable Net.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: But Blake has no intention of handing over the Liberator no matter who Travis has hostage. Ushton is entirely willing to betray Blake, but when Travis makes it clear that he's going to kill Blake, Ushton turns the tables on him.
• I Choose to Stay: Inga and Ushton chose to stay on Exbar. Turns out the tower that Travis was using as his lair is stocked with food concentrates that the inhabitants can use to survive.
• Idiot Ball: Presumably the lack of oxygen that Zen mentioned is why everyone holds the Idiot Ball with both hands.
  • Blake goes alone to rescue Inga instead of coming up with a clever plan using his crew, like he did when Cally was captured. No-one seriously believes the crew will abandon Blake by this stage, so why go through the charade?
  • Vila is sent down to watch Ushton and falls asleep on the job.
  • Avon secretly tips off Servalan to Travis whereabouts hoping she'll get there first, which is unlikely given the Liberator's speed. As Servalan clearly suspects Travis being in the same sector as Blake is not a coincidence, she could just have easily turned up with those twenty pursuit ships if she hadn't been so eager to nab the Liberator herself.
  • The crew of the Liberator never work out a Trust Password or Covert Distress Code to let the person operating the teleport know when a message is being faked or their crewmates are transmitting under duress, despite this plot device being used in several episodes (e.g. "Bounty", "Volcano" and "Moloch").
  • Molok tells Cally and Jenna their crewmates are dead, instead of letting them know they're hostages down on the surface. Therefore they have no incentive not to kill him.
  • When the crimos rush after Inga, they don't bring their guns with them.
• I Have Your Wife: Travis sends Blake a message that he has his cousin hostage. If he doesn't come for a meeting the girl, regretfully, DIES!
• I Lied:
  Avon: I thought you wanted to do a deal with us, Travis?
  Travis: I've changed my mind, Avon.
  Avon: [to Vila] And you believed him.
  Vila: How was I to know he'd change his mind?
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Vila pleads to Cally for a relaxant after they escape certain death.
  • Servalan pours herself a drink after getting news of her minion's failure, though that doesn't stop her from pretending to Joban moments later that she prefers to keep a clear head.
  • Ushton takes a drink after sending Blake into a trap.
• I Told You So:
  Avon: The old man betrayed us. I won't say that I told you so.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: The episode opens with Vila and Avon saying how quiet everything is. Moments later twenty Federation pursuit ships launch a coordinated attack on the Liberator.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: Avon tells Blake to leave him after being wounded. Travis captures them while they're debating the subject.
• Kill Him Already!:
  • Ushton says, "Let's get them before they get us" after tossing Travis down a slope instead of slitting his throat while he was unconscious.
  • Avon wants to kill Travis while they have the chance, but Blake thinks he's inflicting Laser-Guided Karma by leaving Travis for Federation justice. Unfortunately Servalan has her own agenda. You'd think Blake would know better after pulling the same stunt in "Orac".
• Kissing Cousins: Inga is the daughter of Blake's uncle, but that doesn't deter a Big Damn Kiss.^note  First cousin marriage is legal in the UK, for the record.
• Lensman Arms Race: The Federation have come up with its own detector shield, enabling them to launch an ambush.
• Ludicrous Speed: Servalan insists her vessel travel at Time Distort Ten, despite the danger. The Space Commander is dumbfounded when the Liberator does a Hyperspeed Escape at Time Distort 20.
• Malevolent Masked Men: The crimos wear oxygen masks for fighting in the low oxygen upper regions. The main characters don't, of course.
• The Millstone: Vila does not come off well in this episode, falling asleep when told to watch Ushton and thus getting captured by him, and spilling the beans on Avon's presence and the teleport system. When they escape, he claims to be too weak to assist in the final battle.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Ushton offers Blake his knife because it's quieter than his firearm, but Blake refuses it.
• New Old Flame: Inga
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Vila falls asleep when he should be watching Ushton, and gets captured by him.
• No Kill like Overkill: Twenty pursuit ships take part in a coordinated ambush of the Liberator (in "Horizon", Orac said that three ships were enough to challenge them). However it's their coordination that proves their undoing, as they can't manouvre easily in response to Blake making an unexpected move.
• No Sympathy: When Vila complains that he's freezing, Avon tells him to freeze in silence.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: The Space Commander thinks he has the Liberator trapped.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Avon even gives the "just a scratch" line.
• Outfit Decoy: Travis uses string to move a branch. Avon fires on the moving bush, then runs out of cover to inflict the Coup de Grâce only for Travis to shoot him.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Avon is the first to go down after Blake. It's later revealed that this is because he sent a message to Servalan telling her that Travis was on Exbar, hoping that she would get to him first.
• Ranked by I.Q.: Molok warns Cally and Jenna not to try anything as he has a high intelligence quotient. They soon demonstrate he's Too Dumb to Live.
• Rogue Agent: Travis. At the end of the episode, he also becomes the deniable agent kind for Servalan.
• Scavenger World: Used to justify the Economy Cast as all the other inhabitants of the former Penal Colony are spread out across the planet foraging to survive. Inga discovers a storeroom full of food concentrates that will enable them to gather together and pool their resources.
• Shoot Everything That Moves
  Jenna: Where are you going?
  Cally: I'm going to clear the neutron blasters for firing.
  Jenna: Well, what are you going to fire at?
  Cally: Anything that moves.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Servalan chews out her underling for failing to destroy the Liberator, then pours on the charm for Councillor Joban.
• The Snark Knight
  Avon: Zen, can we withstand an attack of this magnitude?
  Zen: No information.
  Avon: Thank you, that's very helpful.
  Vila: He said we should pool our resources and I still say he may have a point.
  Avon: You turn your back on him you might find it between your shoulder blades.
  Vila: What have I done to deserve this?
  Avon: How long a list would you like?
• Space Clothes: The silver thermal suits worn by the Liberator crew.
• Space Clouds: The Liberator tries to hide in a cloud of ionized particles. Just when they're congratulating themselves on evading their pursuers, they get hit by the real ambush.
• Stock Footage: Molok exploding in space is actually BRIAN BLESSED exploding in "Cygnus Alpha".
• Styrofoam Rocks: Travis and his two hired thugs flee in terror from an ambush involving large rolling rocks that bounce across their bodies without squashing them. You'd think as they were in a BBC Quarry our heroes could find some genuine rocks.
• Tele-Frag: Molok tries to teleport down with Cally as a hostage. Cally hits him in the groin, and Jenna uses the distraction to teleport Molok out into space. Explosive Decompression ensues.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Ushton claims he can't climb up to where Travis is holding his daughter because of an old leg injury. Avon is secretly watching them, and notices Ushton's limp disappears after Blake leaves.
• Trap Is the Only Option: Blake doesn't believe that Travis wants to reconcile. He's just going to save Inga.
  Blake: I want to save that girl, if I can. If I can't I might as well be a Federation slave like everyone else! As might you all.
• We Will Use WikiWords in the Future: Visplay, spacecast, crimos.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the mutoids that Servalan gave to Travis in "Trial"?
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Given how young the actress playing Inga is, one wonders what age Inga was during this childhood romance with Blake. Maybe those paedophile accusations were true after all?
• You Have 48 Hours: Travis gives Blake 25 time units to respond to his message.
• You Have Failed Me: Despite inflicting severe damage on the Liberator and nearly bringing it to heel, Servalan orders the Space Commander's mutoid to arrest him for failure. Which is a bit much given the amount of times Travis has failed, but Servalan is clearly under pressure to get results as her subsequent meeting with Johan shows. This is likely why she spares Travis later — he can help Servalan capture Blake, while enabling her to get all the credit.