Recap / Blakes Seven S 1 E 6 Seek Locate Destroy

You might think they're the latest Villain of the Week but...

Written by Terry Nation.
Directed by Vere Lorrimer.
Airdate: 6 February 1978.

With the reputation of Blake's rebels growing, Supreme Commander Servalan gives Space Commander Travis (a former enemy of Blake) the responsibility of hunting down the Liberator. His first opportunity arises when Cally is captured during a raid on a Federation communications base.

This episode sees the introduction of Servalan and Travis.

This episode has the following tropes:

• And This Is for...: When Cally is missing presumed dead, Blake tells Zen to set course for a Federation repair depot for their cruisers that he plans to attack. "One for Cally."
• Arm Cannon: Travis has a lazeron destroyer built into the hand that Blake injured.
• Black-and-White Morality: Invoked re Travis.
  Servalan: He does his duty as he sees it, and he sees it clearly. He has no time for the dirty grey areas of your politics.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Which means blasting the hand when an Arm Cannon is involved.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Vila puts on a much posher accent when talking to the guards to distract them.
• Camp: Travis dresses all in leather and carries a very small gun. It doesn't help that the first thing we see of Travis is his leather-clad ass as he strides into Servalan's office and does a Dynamic Akimbo.
• The Caper: The first but not the last use of this trope in the series.
• Cassette Futurism: "It's all going on to micro-tape."
• Chair Reveal: In this case to show an empty chair (which Cally should be bound to).
• Comm Links: Pell's communicator is activated by being pressed against his throat like an electrolarynx.
• Damsel in Distress: Cally is captured.
• Dirty Coward: Though the scene where he distracts the guards implies that some of this is a facade.
  Vila: Tell him I've worked out a completely new strategy. It's called running away.
• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Servalan tells her aide to have Travis wait outside just to show him who's boss. Travis however pushes his way into her office, an act of insubordination which Servalan takes entirely in stride.
  Travis: Your aide said I was to wait. He was obviously mistaken. He doesn't realize the urgency of the matter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: If only from political embarrassment. Rai however also presents the objections of several officers to Servalan regarding Travis.
• Evil Wears Black: Played straight with Travis who is clad in all-black leather.
• Euphemism Buster
  Rontane: [Travis] has caused the Administration some political embarrassment in the past. In dealing with even minor insurrections, he has been, ah ... overzealous?
  Servalan: Oh, don't be afraid of the word, Secretary. Ruthless. Committed. He does his duty as he sees it, and he sees it clearly. He has no time for the dirty grey areas of your politics.
  • Servalan's written orders to Travis are simply: Destroy Blake.
• Failed a Spot Check: It takes a few minutes for everyone to notice that Cally didn't teleport back with them.
• Famed In-Story: The Federation has been censoring news about Blake's rebels, but the word is still spreading via the grapevine and growing with repetition, as every setback the Federation suffers is assumed to be Blake's work.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Rontane says that as well as the massacre on Auros (of which Servalan has officially 'cleared' Travis of any wrongdoing) there are other 'incidents' that have embarrassed the Administration. Travis is court-martialled for a massacre on a different planet in "Trial".
  • Servalan says that she's never avoided responsibility. She'll end up trying to use Travis as The Scapegoat for her own failure to capture the Liberator.
  • Rontane says that Controllers from some of the more rebellious Outer Worlds are using the Blake affair to stir up trouble. We see a plot around this in "Voice From The Past".
  • It's a lot easier to monitor intercepted Federation transmissions if you have a Magical Computer to do that for you.
• First-Name Basis: Servalan chides Rai for being overly formal.
• Get Out!: And when a technician is a bit slow Travis tosses him out.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy:
  • Two guards just look at each other in puzzlement as Vila rambles on about being a saboteur.
  • A guard turns his back on Cally for no apparent reason. He at least knows that Cally is a dangerous terrorist instead of some practical joker, so he has less excuse.
• Handwave:
  • Blake's memory erasure has started to fade, explaining how he knows he has an Arch-Nemesis from the past. Still, it was mentioned in the pilot that this could happen.
  • Centero is using 'emergency frequencies', to explain how they're still sending messages that Blake can intercept.
• Hired for Their Looks: Travis makes a snide comment about Servalan's "decorative staff men". As a field officer, he deliberately sets himself apart by refusing cosmetic surgery for his facial injury. We see Servalan talking with Rai, a rather handsome young officer whom she's implied to be in a relationship with.
• Hyperspeed Ambush: The Liberator does a quick in-and-out pass of Centero, making the Federation ambushers think it's doing a fast ground survey, but apparently they teleported Blake down in that time.
• History Repeats: Blake's description of his past with Travis is similar to what happened in "The Way Back".
• Idiot Ball:
  • The guards are not Bound and Gagged. One wakes up early from a Tap on the Head and sets off the alarm before Vila chases him down. Indeed, they are not even dragged inside but left OUTSIDE the door for anyone to see just walking past.
  • One would think that Jenna (operating the teleport) at least would have noticed that Cally hadn't come up with the others.
  • In general, Blake and his crew go out of their way to not kill their enemies at this point despite the fact that they are very much terrorists in a war to the knife where mercy is something that they cannot afford. Not executing the guards and control room staff lead to Cally being captured and Travis quickly determining the Cypher Machine had gone missing from witness reports. And not killing Travis when they could have (a repeating issue) led to genuinely Galactic consequences down the line...
• In the Back: Travis to Blake, but fortunately Cally realises what he's about to do.
• It's Personal: Blake saw his rebel group massacred after they surrendered to Travis without resistance.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Blake shot Travis, costing him an eye and an arm which he's replaced with an Eyepatch of Power and an Arm Cannon.
• Just One Man
  Servalan: Gentlemen, I share the President's grave concern. And I am aware of the danger should Blake become a legend. But let us keep this matter in its correct perspective. It is true that Blake has command of a superb space vehicle, but he is just a man, backed by a handful of criminals, and that is all. He is not invulnerable, nor is he superhuman. He is just a man, who has been extremely lucky to evade capture... so far.
  Secretary Rontane: With respect, Supreme Commander, we are aware of the facts. They are simply that with all the resources that the Federation can call upon, this one vulnerable, lucky man is still frrree to cause havoc.
• Keeping the Handicap: Travis refused cosmetic surgery, preferring to keep his eyepatch because he wanted Blake to remember him and what he'd done. It also sets him apart from the decorative staff men that Servalan uses.
• Killer Robot: The Federation security robot fires on anything that moves with a flamethrower.
• Layman's Terms
  Escon: A molecular shift detector, sir. Apparently there's an enormous kinetic potential set up by teleport communications. A rough analogy would be the static buildup during an electrical storm.
  Travis: Yes, well, I'm always grateful for a rough analogy. What does it do?
  Escon: It tells us exactly where and when they land.
• Leave No Man Behind: Blake's first reaction is to go back for Cally, but it's pointed out that she was presumably killed by the explosions, the place would be crawling with Security, and they'd have to pass through a swarm of pursuing missiles first. However when Travis discovers Blake is reading their codes, he sends a message revealing Cally's whereabouts so the Liberator will be Lured into a Trap.
• Light Is Not Good: Servalan is a dark-haired woman in a gorgeous white dress in a pristine white office. Who said evil had to involve black leather?
• The Little Detecto: Molecular Shift Detectors have been set up all over the complex to detect when and where someone teleports. No explanation is given as to why these devices are not installed in Federation bases as a matter of routine, given that dangerous rebels now have access to teleporter technology.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Blake uses Travis' idea of getting there beforehand.
• No Name Given: Servalan is only referred to as the Supreme Commander.
• No Peripheral Vision: Blake hides from the Security Robot by lying flat on a sloped piece of ground.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: It's Servalan, not Travis, who will leave her mark on the series as our heroes Arch-Nemesis.
• Not Quite Dead: This trope happens before the character is even introduced! Blake relates how he ambushed Travis and assumed that Noone Could Have Survived That.
  Blake: Travis! I thought he was dead. I was sure I'd killed him.
• Not Worth Killing: Blake just destroys Travis' gunhand and gives this trope, as the Federation would simply send someone else after him.
• Patrolling Mooks: Backed up by a Killer Robot.
• Perspective Flip: Travis is the emotionally-scarred yet dedicated investigator with no patience for politicians or bureaucrats, hunting down a gang of terrorists and criminals by any means necessary. Or he would be if this wasn't Blake's Seven.
• Plot Hole: Blake foiled Travis' plan by getting to Cally first, but they're using the base on Centero and Travis is already there. The novelisation fixes this by having Travis take Cally to an interrogation centre on another planet, but the Liberator gets there first.
  • It's easy to get confused by Travis' travelling back and forth, but he returns to Servalan's command station before finding out the cypher machine has been stolen and indicates he took Cally with him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Pell and Rai are shown to be decent people just trying to do their jobs.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Just a few years before the British government had revealed that the Allies had decrypted high level German radio and teleprinter codes, which played a key role in winning the Second World War.
• Scotty Time: When Pell informs Travis it could take months to get an inventory done, Travis tells him he has 20 hours.
• Shoot Everything That Moves
  • Blake flees as the Security Robot approaches, but bumps a hanging cable. Sensing a moving object where it shouldn't be, the robot torches it.
  • Travis is under a cloud for executing rebels after they agreed to surrender. Blake reveals this isn't the first time it's happened either.
• Shoot the Hostage: Travis urges his men to fire regardless of his being in the way.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Servalan is stroking her toy-boy, then does a Mood Whiplash to Supreme Commander mode when he questions her decision to appoint Travis.
• Sleep Cute: Vila proves you can do this with Gasmask Mooks.
• Space Station: Star Command
• Space "X": Space Commander Travis
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Vila when the Security Robot turns up. "There isn't a lock I can't open if I'm scared enough."
• Sticky Bomb + Time Bomb = Stuff Blowing Up.
• Survivor Guilt: Blake says this is why Cally refuses to return to her homeworld (though we later discover there are other reasons), and it's implied that Blake feels guilty himself for being the Sole Survivor when Travis massacred his friends, especially as he was brainwashed and made to publicly recant his own rebellion.
• Teleportation Rescue
  • The raiding party gets teleported up as the bombs tick down, but Cally has her bracelet knocked off during a struggle and can't find it before the bombs go off.
  • Travis shouts for his mooks to open fire regardless of him being in the way. As they charge into the room, Blake and Cally teleport out Just in Time.
• The Worf Effect: Cally was introduced as a hardcore veteran resistance fighter who could be entirely ruthless unlike the others who were pretty new to this whole life. Here she is guarding prisoners in a very tense situation and when she spots one trying to reach for something to use as a weapon, instead of putting a bolt of energy into his back to eliminate him and intimidate the rest into understanding disobedience results in death, she just tells him not to move again (spoiler alert; he will and successfully lead the others in overpowering her).
• Time Bomb: We get an overlay image of the bomb's timer ticking down as Cally frantically searches for her teleport bracelet.
• Title Drop
  Servalan: He will be exclusively concerned with the effort to seek, locate and destroy the Liberator.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Travis and Blake provide their mutual Back Story.
• Verbal Backspace: "She is now the property...the concern of the Interrogation Division."
• Villainous Valour: Pell keeps reaching for an Improvised Weapon to attack Cally, who's holding them at gunpoint. He eventually succeeds.
• We Need a Distraction:
  • Vila walks up to two Faceless Goons and tells them he's an escaped prisoner who's recently taken up sabotage and has come to blow something up. Meanwhile Blake sneaks up and clobbers them.
  Vila: Hello there. How are you? Excuse me wandering about your premises but I wonder if you can help me. I'm an escaped prisoner. I was a thief but recently I've become interested in sabotage, in a small way you understand, nothing too ambitious, I hate vulgarity, don't you? Anyway, I've come to blow something up. What do you think will be most suitable?
  • The Seven sabotages a communications centre, but it's to cover the theft of a Federation coding device. Travis however insists they sort through the rubble and account for every component.
• We Will Meet Again: The episode ends on Travis promising he'll hunt Blake down and kill him no matter how far and fast he runs.
• Your Door Was Open: Vila is smart enough to check if someone had been careless enough to leave a side door open, before trying his luck with the gate.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: Travis says, "Now this won't hurt" before activating a paralysis field. It does.

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