Recap / Blakes Seven S 4 E 6 Headhunter

They had one job. ONE JOB.

Written by Roger Parkes.
Directed by Mary Ridge.
Airdate: 2 November 1981.

"WHERE IS ORAC?"

Vila and Tarrant arrive on Pharos to pick up Dr. Muller, a brilliant cyberneticist that Avon hopes to recruit to their cause. Once aboard Scorpio, Muller reacts violently to a mysterious box Tarrant brings back with them. Vila tries to subdue Muller but ends up killing him when he strikes him with a wrench. Muller's body is put into a cryogenic capsule, but soon Scorpio loses power and life support. While the ship is stranded in orbit of Xenon, Tarrant and Vila are rescued by the others, but Muller, who was thought to be dead, has disappeared. It is soon learned that "Muller" is really an unstoppable android who killed his creator and took his severed head to trick everyone. The robot sneaks down to the base and plans to somehow "merge" with Orac, hoping their combined AI powers will make them invincible. The only solution to stop it may be the contents of the strange box – the android's real head.

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This episode has the following tropes:

• Action Fashionista:
  • While being chased around Xenon Base by a mad Muller, Avon leaves Vila alone so he can change from his rescue suit into his studded black leather outfit.
  • Soolin has braided her hair, but at least that happened before things got exciting.
• Action Figure Speech: The android starts Milking the Giant Cow after its head gets knocked off.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Almost Out of Oxygen: Orac puts Scorpio into Lock Down to prevent Muller from escaping. It responds by shutting down life support, but fortunately the crew get into rescue suits in time. Avon then has to break quarantine to rescue them, as the suits have limited oxygen supply.
• Answer Cut:
  Vila: Yes sir!
  Slave: (grudgingly) Sir!
  Vila: What's got into Slave?
  (cut to Muller in the medicapsule)
• Auto-Doc: The medicapsule, which is also used for cryogenic suspension in the hope Muller can be revived back at Xenon Base.
• The Bait: Orac is used to lure the android onto the bridge, which has been wired up to a generator plant. Good thing it was still working after that nuclear war and Luddite Year Zero.
• BBC Quarry: Averted; this part of Xenon is a nice woodland (Box Hill in Surrey).
• Bear Hug/Deadly Hug: Muller to Tarrant, and later his mistress (fatally).
• Berserk Button: Muller when he sees Tarrant has brought up the black box.
• Big Electric Switch: Required when you have a Frankenstein's monster IN SPACE!, but seeing as it's used to turn on an antique generator plant instead of a Mad Scientist Laboratory the trope is entirely justified.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: The android does this by overloading the circuits on the handguns.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: While Not Himself, Slave uses Zen's "Confirmed" instead of his sycophantic "Yes, Master."
• Break Out the Museum Piece: A hydroelectric plant that can't be affected by the android is used to electrocute him.
• Broken Record: "ORRRACC!"
• Call-Back: Muller was a student of Ensor, the creator of Orac.
• Cassandra Truth: Orac tries to warn everyone of the impending danger, but as the computer can't specify what the danger is, no-one is willing to listen. When Orac starts to get more specific, Soolin is willing to do so.
• Cleavage Window: And Vena has the chest for it.
• Cold Equation: Averted; as Orac can't specify what the danger is, Avon refuses to leave Tarrant and Vila to die on Scorpio.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Tarrant regarding Vila knocking out Muller. "That's a very valuable head you hit!"
• Cow Tools: Vila runs various beeping and whirring gadgets over the box until it opens.
• Cranial Processing Unit: The killer android keeps coming after our heroes even after a Robotic Reveal involving his head getting knocked off. Turns out the head was that of its creator, and the android's real head was a Restraining Bolt so it wouldn't Kill All Humans.
• Destruction Equals Off-Switch: Avon destroys a doorlock console to slow down the android.
• Deus est Machina
  Avon: You plan to unite with Orac.
  Android: One being.
  Vila: That could be a lot of power.
  Android: To you, it will be God!
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Muller breaks off the teleport handle trying to force Tarrant to take the box back. It's actually a blooper, but makes sense when we discover what Muller really is.
• Dramatic Thunder with Screen Shake every time Vila tries to open the box.
• Evil Is Hammy: And talks in Hulk Speak. The android becomes more articulate after losing his fake head, but compensates by gesturing with every word.
• Explosive Instrumentation: When Tarrant and Avon use the Big Electric Switch, the antique circuits burst into flame.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The Seven lose another scientist and potential weapon to fight the Federation, though on this occasion it's hard to blame them. Unless you're Avon.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Muller's headless body is lying under a table.
• Hair Flip: Vena and Avon do this after taking off their rescue helmets.
• He's Dead, Jim: Averted with Muller, who's put in the medicapsule to confirm this. Played straight with Vena, though as an unstoppable killer is standing over her body, we can forgive our heroes for not going over to take her pulse.
• Hulk Speak: Muller, presumably because the android would be limited in the amount of vocal articulation it could make through a surgically-attached human head. Once the android loses the head it becomes a lot more fluent (though no less hammy).
• In the Hood: Muller, which is probably for the best.
• Just Following Orders
  Orac: I am obliged to do as you tell me, even though I know it to be wrong.
  Avon: Only following orders? That's not very original, Orac.
  Orac: There is nothing very original about domination, as you will discover.
• Lockdown: Orac insists that no-one comes down from Scorpio until the problem is identified. So the android turns off life support, forcing them to turn on the teleport to rescue their colleagues.
• Ludd Was Right as usual. Surely everyone knows that the moment you create an android it goes mad, kills its creator and tries to take over the galaxy?
• Morality Chip: The box contains the android's head, which holds an inhibitor unit.
• Not a Morning Person: Vila
• Not Himself: Slave and Orac when they've been taken over by the android.
• Not Quite Dead: Muller
• Not so Dire: Vila hears approaching footsteps and hides in the cupboard. He's rather embarrassed when Soolin opens the door.
  Soolin: Is this a private game or can anyone play?
  Vila: We've been looking for you.
  Soolin: In there?
• Not So Stoic: Even Soolin can't repress a girly scream when Vila bumps into her in the dark while they're hiding from a mad headless android.
• Off with His Head!: Poor Muller. At least it was bloodless.
• Ominous Cube: The dreaded black box.
• Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future: Thanks to the computer technology of The '80s not being up to scratch, it takes seven seconds to count down from four.
• Out-of-Character Alert: In-Universe with Vila.
  Tarrant: [Avon] probably just wanted to get you away from the base, to avoid more bother over Muller's lady.
  Vila: I was a perfect gentleman towards her!
  Tarrant: That's what bothered us.
  • The usually servile Slave's curt response to every inquiry by the crew.
  Orac: It would be prudent to worry about the details now.
  Avon: When did you start offering gratuitous advice?
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "WHERE...IS...ORAC?!"
• Raygun Gothic: The rescue suits with their gold trim, finned helmets and open necks.
• Red Herring: Tarrant has to repeatedly warn Vila not to open the black box that Muller was so afraid of. Turns out the threat isn't there. Muller's head isn't in the box either — the android's head is.
• Resistance Is Futile so Join or Die
• Robotic Reveal: When Muller gets back on his feet after losing his head.
• Robots Are Just Better: The android is rampaging through the base looking for Orac who begs to be shut down before this happens, as with their combined powers they could dominate and eventually make extinct all organic humanoid life.
• Servile Snarker: Orac gets in the last word.
  Orac: Yes...Master!
• Shoulders of Doom: Particularly noticeable when the android loses its head. Perhaps it's going to rest Orac on top of them?
• Sticky Bomb: Though according to the blooper real, the actors had trouble making them stick.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Deciding there's No Kill like Overkill, Dayna attaches three magnetic bombs to the android and watches the subsequent pyrotechnic display with appreciation.
• Suddenly Shouting: Avon has to teleport to Scorpio to rescue his friends who are Almost Out of Oxygen, but Orac has shut down the teleport to prevent the android escaping.
  Avon: Restore the teleport to normal function.
  Orac: I urge you—
  Avon: RESTORE the teleport!
• Take It to the Bridge
• Tap on the Head: Zigzagged; Tarrant pistol-whips Technician 241 unconscious with no visible consequences. Then Vila hits Muller across the shoulders with a Wrench Whack and apparently kills him.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Avon risks his life placing the inhibitor head on the android, as he's eager to use it as a weapon. After he gets knocked unconscious, the others decide We Are Not Going Through That Again and blow the android up.
• Turned Against Their Masters
  Orac: All organic humanoid life faces domination, and eventual extinction!
• Unusual Euphemism: Vena's relationship with Muller is more...recreational.
• Wham Line: Tarrant does a Teleportation Rescue only for Vila to accidentally kill Muller when he attacks Tarrant for bringing the black box with him. Meanwhile back in Muller's laboratory...
  Technician: Muller's dead.
  Security Central: Dead?
  Technician: At least it could be Muller.
  Security Central: Clarify that.
  Technician: The head's not there.
  Security Central: What?
  Technician: His corpse. It's got no head.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough? to try putting the android's head back on.
  Avon: It will be Vila, or it will be me.
  Vila: It'll be you!
• World of Snark:
  • Avon...
  "Tarrant, what have you got up there apart from yourself, a halfwit and a corpse?"
  • Tarrant...
  Vila: A little hard work never hurt anyone.
  Tarrant: How would you know?
  • A Not Himself Orac tries to tempt Soolin.
  Orac: Join us, Soolin. We can fulfil your every desire.
  Soolin: [Turning Orac off] You wouldn't know where to start.
  • And finally Orac.
  Avon: You Fool!! It's superstitious half-wits like you who hold back every advance we make.
  Orac: And arrogance, Avon, like yours and Muller's which threaten to destroy—
  Avon: Shut up!
  Orac: Yes...Master!

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