Blake's 7 on Blu-ray!

[matthunter]

As for the interrogation room, Travis chose to hold Cally on the same base Blake had earlier infiltrated, rather than transferring her off-world. It's likely a facility like that only HAD one interrogation room (or, since it was meant to be a secret Federation comms facility, they weren't EXPECTING to have to interrogate anyone so had a room that could be repurposed) and Blake already had the schematics - either from researching his original raid or thereafter.

 

[Christopher]

Some notes on the sixth episode

• Gosh this robot is adorable.

I thought so too. It looks like it belongs on Futurama. Unfortunately, you'll only see it once more, since it was too time-consuming to work with on their tight location schedule.

• Villa and Blake take out two guards with a well-placed blow to the head. Don't they have helmets??? I'm puzzled.

Imperial Stormtroopers have supposedly high-tech body armor, but they can be killed by dinky little Ewok arrows that probably wouldn't pierce a good silk shirt.

• They arrive, plant bombs, steal a gizmo, EXPLOSIONS!!!! And all in the first 10 minutes! Compared to the previous episode this seems like the love child of John Wick and Fast And Furious!

What gets me is the part where Blake tells Vila “no noise” and then proceeds to give him a long lecture about the security in a voice no quieter than Vila’s was.

• ...They don't notice Cally is missing until it's too late..? Uh ok...

That's one of those frustratingly huge plot holes I mentioned before. They all arrive in the same teleport room, so you'd think they'd instantly notice she was gone. And it should be basic procedure to do a head count after a mission.

Paradoxically, the norm in this show is that whenever anyone teleports down, they immediately call up to the ship and confirm "Down and safe." Which is actually more sensible than how Star Trek does it. So you'd think they'd have an equivalent check when they come back up.

• A woman in a powerful role! And she has the vibes of an evil Mon Mothma! I love her already!

A lot sexier than Mon Mothma, though.

• Uh, in the first episode they didn't want to kill Blake so he wouldn't become a martyr, and now it's open season? What's changed..?

Ven Glynd didn't want to kill Blake (and we'll learn of a possible ulterior motive for that when the character returns in "Voice from the Past"), but that doesn't mean Servalan will agree. As we'll learn, Servalan isn't always on the same page as the civilian Federation government.

Besides, Blake didn't yet have a superpowerful alien starship when Glynd decided to keep him alive. The equation has changed since then.

• Powerplay between Servalan and Travis? Loving it!

You'll be seeing a lot of that.

• Uh, this scene between Servalan and Rai is quite creepy. She's touching him in a very inappropriate way! Where's HR when you need it???

I think it's pretty clearly implied that Rai has already been Servalan's consensual boy toy for some time.

• The bad guys have been watching the Liberator for at least an hour and they're only now warning Travis? And he's not mad that he wasn't warned sooner? I'm confused.

That's another plot hole. They know about the teleporter, they know the ship did a previous flyby, but it doesn't occur to them that Blake already beamed down.

• Travis says the Liberator is too far away to use the transporter. Uh, how does he know what the range of it is?

He's not wrong, though. It will sometimes be a plot point that the Liberator is out of teleport range if they have to break orbit for any reason.

Great episode, especially compared to the previous one. Great pace, plot twists, memorable characters! Now I'm starting to understand the charm of this series. I'm finally eager to see new episodes! (I have to say my enthusiasm had somewhat waned with Web...)

Yeah, it definitely hits its stride once Servalan and Travis finally arrive.

Servalan would likely be reported to HR for abuse of power dynamics these days but we still have a double standard when it comes to female bosses and male subordinates. It's implied in the episode (Travis' comment about her "decorative staff men") that Servalan often takes lovers from her staff, as much as a means of control/manipulation as any personal satisfaction (we'll later get her views on whether sex is better than power).

It will be established that Servalan got her job more through her personal connections than her qualifications. I took that to mean political schmoozing and favor-trading of the sort we see so much in right-wing political parties these days, and probably outright bribery and blackmail, but I suppose it could've been a euphemistic way of saying she slept her way to the top.

 

[Marc]

Servalan would likely be reported to HR for abuse of power dynamics these days but we still have a double standard when it comes to female bosses and male subordinates. It's implied in the episode (Travis' comment about her "decorative staff men") that Servalan often takes lovers from her staff, as much as a means of control/manipulation as any personal satisfaction (we'll later get her views on whether sex is better than power).

I think Servalan would have had HR done away with if it ever existed with in the Federation.

Villa and Blake take out two guards with a well-placed blow to the head. Don't they have helmets??? I'm puzzled.

The trooper helmets were probably more appereance (making the troops anoymous etc) still would have left areas like the base of neck vulnerable and probably bought from the same place the Empire got storm trooper armour

Question. Are the Big Finish audios (the ones with the original surviving cast) any good? Just spotted allusions to them on the B7 Fandom wiki today and had a good look at TV Tropes, but there's not THAT much to help judge.

Like much of the BF catalogue there's some good, some average and problem some that were bad.

Most of them were set in Season 3 and the last full cast audio (which had to have some edits/changes after the passing of Paul Darrow) leads right into the final ep of Series C.

There's also some good ones in the Liberator Chronicles.

3 which is about Servalan is chilling showing just how cold and ruthless she is.

Just went to check something on Big Finish's site (though they had the reminaged series but don't) and they've having a sale on B7 products with the titled "The sale that ruined Christmas riffing in the attitude at the time after the final ep aired.

 

[bdub76]

Some of the Blake's 7 Big Finish stories are available on Spotify if you want to try out some before you buy.

 

[Steve Roby]

Infodump alert!

On the subject of the audios... I think Blake's 7 is one of Big Finish's most consistently good ranges, along with Torchwood. They started with the Liberator Chronicles, stories that only featured one or two of the main cast, on various missions. The limited cast meant more focused stories and more character moments. Eventually they started the Classic Audio Adventures with as many of the cast as they could get, going for a more serial storytelling approach and bigger events. There's good stuff there, but it's a bit less consistent than the Chronicles. Then they lost several key cast members and created Worlds of Blake's 7, spinoffs featuring various characters, which I haven't gotten into yet. BF has also published a number of novels and anthologies, including some amazingly bad work by Paul (Avon) Darrow, as well as a series of first series novelizations based on early drafts, with the intention of showing how different things could have been.

Big Finish also now carries the B7 Media reboot that preceded their getting the licence; interesting, but unfinished. And at some point B7 Media started going from reboot with new cast to doing Early Years stories with original cast members. Overall, kind of a mess.

BBC did two audio stories in the 1990s. Original cast but not great. Kaldor City, as mentioned above, is a semi-official B7/Doctor Who crossover, with a character from a B7 episode in the Doctor Who universe along with a character played by Paul Darrow, who is sometimes implied to be Avon in disguise.

Overall, anyone who likes the TV series and likes audio dramas should really check out the BF audios. Anyone who likes those and Doctor Who and a fair amount of strangeness should check out Kaldor City; there's only about half a dozen of those, so it won't take a lot of your time.

 

[Marc]

Big Finish also now carries the B7 Media reboot that preceded their getting the licence; interesting, but unfinished.

I asked about that in the Doctor Who subforum some years back. A poster at the time had worked on said they weren't able to get funding for a second series.

Would have liked to have heard their take on the Auronar and whether Orac would have made an "appearance"

They seem to have doubled down on Darrow's attrocious writing (uggh the lucier trilogy) with Avon a Terrible Aspect coming out. Never read it but supposed to be very bad.

The novelisations of the early episodes would be interesting but not at $CA180 though given how Chris Boucher is credited with fixing up a lot of Terry Nation's work things could have been much worse or maybe they would have been better if there budget had been there.

and speaking of not getting funding there is a very good retrospective on the the first 3 series on youtube but they weren't able to get funding to cover series 4.

 

[Starkers]

Sadly, the one female character who got much agency in this show is:

Spoiler

Servalan, and even she's hit with the 70s stick when it comes to her slap-slap-kiss moments with Avon and Tarrant. And Jarvik in Harvest of Kairos

About the suggestion that:

Spoiler

Female criminals are subject to Mutoid conversion. Not sure. Travis implies the Mutoid he's paired with (and wants to pair with) in Duel "volunteered" for conversion. This might be a Federation euphemism, but he does claim she was "much admired" and she herself seems to think records of her old personality would have been removed from the databanks, implying some prior familiarity with the process.

That said, Rashel (Weapon) mentions "modification" as a punishment for rebellious slaves. But these may not be the same thing.

I just rewatched Duel (not intentionally it was literally the next one to see on the remastered box set) and with regard to Kiera

Spoiler

I heard nothing from Travis that suggests she volunteered for the process. He tells her what her name was and as you say that she was very much admired. Admittedly I'm hypothesising here but I always read that as perhaps some powerful man/men desired her and she refused their advances and in petty retaliation they had her arrested and converted which is a pretty horrible thought.

I'm somewhat surprised to see people slagging off the Federation trooper look. Don't get me wrong, B7 has some truly awful costumes at times (and some great ones) but I always thought the trooper outfit worked really well, it's simple and effective and has a timeless thuggish quality.

There are sadly quite a few episodes where they waste half the run time getting to the plot, though there isn't a single episode that doesn't have at least one plus point (yes, even Animals!)

Seek Locate Destroy almost feels like a soft reboot, but demonstrates what the show can do when the stars align. Duel is another one like that and having watched the remastered version again it really is one of Nation's stronger scripts, and weird thing to get annoyed at but I'm glad they've addressed the size disparity between Liberator and the Pursuit Ships. It still feels a trifle wrong but nowhere near as wrong as the original effects made it look.

As for Servalan and Travis, it's interesting to see the dynamic in their first episode, but that dynamic will

Spoiler

flip on its head all too soon as the show's real antagonist takes her rightful place

Maybe just me but I can't see Servalan sleeping her way to the top.

What are people's rankings of the series, just out of interest? I'd probably go C/B/D/A

 

[Skipper]

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[Christopher]

I'm somewhat surprised to see people slagging off the Federation trooper look. Don't get me wrong, B7 has some truly awful costumes at times (and some great ones) but I always thought the trooper outfit worked really well, it's simple and effective and has a timeless thuggish quality.

I can see both sides of it. At first glance, they're Evil Snoopy Faces with oversized adhesive-tape rolls for headbands. Once you get used to them, you can see how they're based on gas masks and other scary warlike and fascist images. And you often see characters wearing the uniforms without the helmets, and they work fine that way.

In "Bounty," we see a trooper helmet with its visor raised for the first time, and I think they had to build it specially that way, since the "tape rolls" usually don't seem to have any seams in the middle that could split open as shown, and since the actor never raises or lowers the visor, just has it permanently raised.

In Series C, they removed the "tape roll" part, which made the helmets less distinctive, for better or worse.

There are sadly quite a few episodes where they waste half the run time getting to the plot, though there isn't a single episode that doesn't have at least one plus point (yes, even Animals!)

I guess that's a budget issue, needing to spend a lot of time on the standing sets.

Seek Locate Destroy almost feels like a soft reboot, but demonstrates what the show can do when the stars align.

Both seasons A & B seem to split into two phases, episodes 1-5 and episodes 6-13. Although the way it happens is different, since "The Web" isn't a climax in any way, it's just the last episode before the second phase begins.

Maybe just me but I can't see Servalan sleeping her way to the top.

I think she's ambitious and calculating enough that she'd use any advantage at her disposal to gain power, and it's clear that she considers her sex appeal an asset rather than a liability (as in the closing moments of "Weapon"). And we overtly see her attempt to seduce

Spoiler

Avon in "Aftermath."

It's certainly not the only tool in her kit, but she wouldn't shy away from it if it benefitted her.

What are people's rankings of the series, just out of interest? I'd probably go C/B/D/A

I'm only up to early Series C in my current rewatch, but the last time, I considered D the weakest by a good margin. I'd probably put B over A, but they both have their duds.

 

[Skipper]

Few minutes in Mission To Destiny and I'm already actively disliking it. A murder... IN SPACE! I suppose people in 1978 were in awe for such a concept!

 

[Steve Roby]

They seem to have doubled down on Darrow's attrocious writing (uggh the lucier trilogy) with Avon a Terrible Aspect coming out. Never read it but supposed to be very bad.

There’s a reason it was known as Avon: A Terrible Novel. Many, in fact. Reading Darrow’s books, it’s impossible to believe he knew anything about science or science fiction, and almost as difficult to believe he knew anything about the show he was on.

The novelisations of the early episodes would be interesting but not at $CA180 though given how Chris Boucher is credited with fixing up a lot of Terry Nation's work things could have been much worse or maybe they would have been better if there budget had been there.

I convinced myself that if you divided the cost by the number of books it wasn’t actually that expensive. It’s a lot at one go, though. And unlike their previous B7 books, these ones didn’t include ebook versions. But some of what the authors said about the books sounded intriguing. I’d have hated myself if I didn’t get them.

 

[Skipper]

Few minutes in Mission To Destiny and I'm already actively disliking it. A murder... IN SPACE! I suppose people in 1978 were in awe for such a concept!

Just finished. An absolutely mediocre murder mystery where everyone suffers from a terminal case of stupidity but... IN SPACE!

I'll post my notes later...

 

[Marc]

There’s a reason it was known as Avon: A Terrible Novel. Many, in fact. Reading Darrow’s books, it’s impossible to believe he knew anything about science or science fiction, and almost as difficult to believe he knew anything about the show he was on.

it was very bad with the lucifer trilogy - the mighty Terran Federation rules across star systems yet back on the Earth you've got competing blocks almost in a Cold War situtation and with technology that's almost 21st century?

 

[Steve Roby]

I've still only read the first of the Lucifer books, though I have all three. The idea that the galactic Federation's most deadly enemy is the country of China just damn near stopped me dead. When BF announced the Lucifer books, I thought, well, okay, he'll have an editor, the weird mistakes and oddness from Avon: A Terrible Aspect are bound to be avoided. But no.

 

[Starkers]

I can see both sides of it. At first glance, they're Evil Snoopy Faces with oversized adhesive-tape rolls for headbands. Once you get used to them, you can see how they're based on gas masks and other scary warlike and fascist images. And you often see characters wearing the uniforms without the helmets, and they work fine that way.

In "Bounty," we see a trooper helmet with its visor raised for the first time, and I think they had to build it specially that way, since the "tape rolls" usually don't seem to have any seams in the middle that could split open as shown, and since the actor never raises or lowers the visor, just has it permanently raised.

In Series C, they removed the "tape roll" part, which made the helmets less distinctive, for better or worse.




I guess that's a budget issue, needing to spend a lot of time on the standing sets.




Both seasons A & B seem to split into two phases, episodes 1-5 and episodes 6-13. Although the way it happens is different, since "The Web" isn't a climax in any way, it's just the last episode before the second phase begins.




I think she's ambitious and calculating enough that she'd use any advantage at her disposal to gain power, and it's clear that she considers her sex appeal an asset rather than a liability (as in the closing moments of "Weapon"). And we overtly see her attempt to seduce

Spoiler

Avon in "Aftermath."

It's certainly not the only tool in her kit, but she wouldn't shy away from it if it benefitted her.




I'm only up to early Series C in my current rewatch, but the last time, I considered D the weakest by a good margin. I'd probably put B over A, but they both have their duds.

I could see Servalan dangling the promise of sex, and maybe that'd be enough.

That's an interesting point about the split in A&B, I hadn't noticed that before, it's definitely more intentional in Series B.

D has it's clangers, a lot of clangers, but it also has some absolute classics (Rescue is great and Games, Sand, Gold and Orbit might be the most consistent run of episodes in the entire series)

Just finished. An absolutely mediocre murder mystery where everyone suffers from a terminal case of stupidity but... IN SPACE!

I'll post my notes later...

Oh come on, how can you not love the wonder that is Mission to Destiny

It's not great, yet I've always had a soft spot for it, maybe because it's the first Avon/Cally team up, maybe because it's so wonderfully clunky.

I always say you can tell the B7 episodes that started out as ideas for Dr Who and I'd be amazed if this didn't, swap Avon for Tom Baker and Cally for Romana!

 

[Marc]

I could see Servalan dangling the promise of sex, and maybe that'd be enough.

we saw a prime example in Series C and the consequences though she did try it with some of our heroes.

Series A gave us some-one hot for Servalan, but even without a cockup I'm not sure he would have interested her.

The only explicit mention of a sexual interest (some-one she was actually involved with) for Servalan was in Series D and though perhaps it was just a put on.

 

[Christopher]

I always say you can tell the B7 episodes that started out as ideas for Dr Who and I'd be amazed if this didn't, swap Avon for Tom Baker and Cally for Romana!

I don't think so. "Mission to Destiny" is much more of a standard drawing-room murder mystery in space than it is a Doctor Who-type story. I see it as Paul Darrow's audition tape for the role of Sherlock Holmes. And it shows he would've been a pretty good Holmes.

 

[Skipper]

And now notes for... Mission to Destiny!!!

• Oh look, a new ship! It's a... ehm.. a ship.
  
• Uhhh murder! And the culprit is destroying the cockpit equipment! (For a series with such a tight budget it's amazing how many props routinely get smashed!)
• Jenna's got the dress with the weird stuff on the shoulders again. But someone point out to her, it's hideous!
• Ok our heroes find a ship whose communications are down and now they want to investigate: why? Out of pure kindness? For all they know it could even be a trap of the Evil Federation. And no one objects!
• Now they beam into the ship without any precautions! For all they know there might be no air! Or unbreathable! Or radiation! Or some virus or something. Their carelessness does not bode well for the future of the rebellion.
• Now they decide to investigate, and in the best tradition of horror movies they split up. They discover that some sleeping gas is released into the atmosphere of the ship. Why don't they immediately return to the Liberator instead of taking a risk in neutralizing it??? Why do characters, when faced with multiple choices, always make the stupidest one???
• Gas neutralized and Cally goes to the cockpit, opens the door and the pilot's dead body collapses on top of her. HOW THE HELL WAS THE CORPSE PERFECTLY UPRIGHT AND LEANING AGAINST A DOOR???
• Now the commander or whatever shows Blake, A COMPLETE STRANGER WHO LITERALLY APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE, the McGuffin of the episode. Some PRICELESS, I repeat, PRICELESS (do you get it, viewers?) gizmo. It could make ANYONE rich!!! I understand that some exposition was necessary, but unless Blake is transmitting some mysterious pheromone I don't understand all this trust placed in him.
• Oh no, without the spare part the ship is blind! But we can't trust Blake and give him the gizmo! What a moral dilemma! Well then, use the Liberator to go get the spare part and then come back. I don't think it's that hard. I just saved your planet. No need to thank.
• Some of the ship's crew objects that the gizmo is too much of a temptation to give to Blake. Well, if only Blake had a literal treasure aboard his ship to prove he doesn't need any more riches...
• Now a person is sent ALONE to get the PRICELESS GIZMO. The gizmo that has been repeated is in a safe that ONLY THE COMMANDER OR WHATEVER HIS TITLE CAN OPEN.
• Blake is given the briefcase BUT NO ONE CHECKS THE CONTENTS BEFORE HE LEAVES. And why does no one from the ship accompany him to make sure he gets it to its destination? How can such stupid people operate spaceships?
• Avon and Cally are left on the ship as "hostages". Without bracelets. And without weapons. Considering there is an armory on board, WHY???
• Now the body of the main suspect who was thought to have escaped is found! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE UNEXPECTED SURPRISE!!!.
• Now the Liberator has to cross an asteroid field! At this point I don't understand how FTL technology works in the B7 universe. Do you exceed the speed of light while remaining in normal space or what?
• Now on the Liberator they have to decide whether to cut power to the propulsion or to the "wall"! What a dilemma! Apparently inertia does not exist in this universe and if you cut the propulsion you remain exactly where you were.
• Meanwhile, on the ship they are playing "Ten Little Indians".
• Avon, who is a genius, realizes that the numbers are actually the word... "SARA"!!!!
• The aforementioned Sara pulls out a HUGE gun (and it is not clear where she pulls it from) and orders those present not to follow her (which they immediately do). Why doesn't she kill them all right away since this is supposed to be their end?
• Sara barricades herself in the cockpit waiting for her accomplices. Avon devises a ruse to get her out. Sara, being struck by terminal stupidity like most of the inhabitants of the B7 universe, falls for it.
• A fistfight ensues, where the actor playing Avon takes advantage of the situation to firmly grab the breasts of the actress playing Sara. The 70s were truly a different era.
• The Liberator, after it was discovered that the case was empty, immediately turns back. AFTER BEING REPEATEDLY TOLD THAT THE POWER WAS COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED.
• Blake tries to evacuate the ship before Sara's accomplices arrive!!! Why didn't he do it right away? Why the rush, when it has been said repeatedly that the Liberator is one of the most powerful ships in existence??? Can't they just shoot the bad guys?
• The End.

I'm seriously starting to think I'm not right for this show. I've been googling around and this seems like a fan-favorite episode. I enjoyed the dynamic between Avon and Cally, but otherwise I found it to be a thoroughly mediocre murder mystery that required a good portion of the main characters to be total idiots in order to work. Maybe I'm spoiled by the excessive seriality of modern series, but I find any deviation from the "rebels against dictatorship" plot irritating and a waste of time. Yes, character dynamics are interesting, but they can be interesting in stories that don't involve space webs or rejected Miss Marple's plots. Let's hope for the next episodes.

ETA: The good thing about this series, though, is that it makes me retroactively appreciate the care put into the stories and world building in TNG.

 

[Christopher]

And now notes for... Mission to Destiny!!!

• Oh look, a new ship! It's a... ehm.. a ship.
  

It's a Galaxy-class cruiser! But not that Galaxy class; we're nearly a decade too early for that.

• Ok our heroes find a ship whose communications are down and now they want to investigate: why? Out of pure kindness? For all they know it could even be a trap of the Evil Federation. And no one objects!

It's basic maritime tradition that you don't ignore a ship in distress. Blake is supposed to be a good guy, after all. He wants to overthrow the Federation because he wants people to be safe and free. So of course he's going to help someone in distress.

• Now they beam into the ship without any precautions! For all they know there might be no air! Or unbreathable! Or radiation! Or some virus or something. Their carelessness does not bode well for the future of the rebellion.

I'm surprised you didn't call out Blake's line, "According to the data banks, Galaxy Class cruisers are fitted with communicators." As if that were somehow unusual.

Their scans did determine that the hull was intact, so it stood to reason that there would be air. And hazardous radiation would probably be detectable from a distance. As for the lack of biohazard precautions, that's no worse than how Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate, and most other franchises handle things.

• Now they decide to investigate, and in the best tradition of horror movies they split up. They discover that some sleeping gas is released into the atmosphere of the ship. Why don't they immediately return to the Liberator instead of taking a risk in neutralizing it??? Why do characters, when faced with multiple choices, always make the stupidest one???

It's a mild, harmless tranqulizer they're familiar with, and Blake shakes off its effects with an effort of will. It's an inconvenience, not a threat to life and limb.

• Gas neutralized and Cally goes to the cockpit, opens the door and the pilot's dead body collapses on top of her. HOW THE HELL WAS THE CORPSE PERFECTLY UPRIGHT AND LEANING AGAINST A DOOR???

Obviously, because he didn't die instantly and was able to stagger to the door and fall against it (after writing the mystery message in his blood). It's a routine enough mystery trope.

• Now the commander or whatever shows Blake, A COMPLETE STRANGER WHO LITERALLY APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE, the McGuffin of the episode. Some PRICELESS, I repeat, PRICELESS (do you get it, viewers?) gizmo. It could make ANYONE rich!!! I understand that some exposition was necessary, but unless Blake is transmitting some mysterious pheromone I don't understand all this trust placed in him.

Dr. Kendall doesn't have a choice. The neutrotope has to get to Destiny as quickly as possible to save the population from starvation, and Blake's the only one with a working ship.

• Oh no, without the spare part the ship is blind! But we can't trust Blake and give him the gizmo! What a moral dilemma! Well then, use the Liberator to go get the spare part and then come back. I don't think it's that hard. I just saved your planet. No need to thank.

Again, the time pressure makes that too great a risk.

• Now a person is sent ALONE to get the PRICELESS GIZMO. The gizmo that has been repeated is in a safe that ONLY THE COMMANDER OR WHATEVER HIS TITLE CAN OPEN.
• Blake is given the briefcase BUT NO ONE CHECKS THE CONTENTS BEFORE HE LEAVES. And why does no one from the ship accompany him to make sure he gets it to its destination? How can such stupid people operate spaceships?

Okay, you've finally gotten to the two actual stupid plot holes. Although you missed the really dumb part about the first one, which is that Kendall never put the neutrotope back in the safe. He just left it sitting on the table, which is why he could send Sara to retrieve it.

As for why none of the Ortega crew go with them, remember that they're all suspects in a murder. Blake's within his rights to demand that none of them leave the scene of the crime until it's settled.

• Avon and Cally are left on the ship as "hostages". Without bracelets. And without weapons. Considering there is an armory on board, WHY???

I don't understand your question. Blake voluntarily leaves them behind as hostages to prove Blake's good intentions to the Ortega crew. It's a show of good faith, to demonstrate that he intends to come back for them.

• Now the body of the main suspect who was thought to have escaped is found! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE UNEXPECTED SURPRISE!!!.

Stunt coordinator Stuart Fell is credited for "playing" the corpse.

• Now the Liberator has to cross an asteroid field! At this point I don't understand how FTL technology works in the B7 universe. Do you exceed the speed of light while remaining in normal space or what?

Like most every other fictional stardrive, it works in whatever way is most dramatic. The asteroid field is mainly there to give the other characters something to do while Avon and Cally carry the main plot.

• Now on the Liberator they have to decide whether to cut power to the propulsion or to the "wall"! What a dilemma! Apparently inertia does not exist in this universe and if you cut the propulsion you remain exactly where you were.

Make up your mind. If it's an FTL drive, then normal-space inertia would be irrelevant, since it would be distorting spacetime in some way rather than merely coasting.

• The aforementioned Sara pulls out a HUGE gun (and it is not clear where she pulls it from)

Given the almost-live way the show was recorded, the prop was presumably already there on the set in a place where the actress could pull it out from. It could've been one one of the shelves in the room; she was off-camera for a fair length of time while Avon was spelling out her name. (Although it's odd that he was okay doing that with his back to her if he knew she was the culprit. Also, it annoys me that he has the original message prop upside-down relative to the sheet of paper he's writing on.)

• and orders those present not to follow her (which they immediately do). Why doesn't she kill them all right away since this is supposed to be their end?

Because she intends to leave that to the pirates she's rendezvousing with. Despite her threat, it would be difficult for her to kill them all if they charged her; at most, she could kill one of them before they stopped her, since she's small and easily overpowered. So it's safer for her to run, hide, and wait for her accomplices to board and kill them all.

Incidentally, I like the subtle clue that the murderer was unable to drag Dortmunn's body all the way to the life rocket and had to stash it instead. It's a clever hint that the murderer was someone small and lacking physical strength. Although that does raise the question of how she stashed him on the top shelf.

• The Liberator, after it was discovered that the case was empty, immediately turns back. AFTER BEING REPEATEDLY TOLD THAT THE POWER WAS COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED.

Also, the asteroid storm conveniently disappears when they turn back.

• Blake tries to evacuate the ship before Sara's accomplices arrive!!! Why didn't he do it right away? Why the rush, when it has been said repeatedly that the Liberator is one of the most powerful ships in existence??? Can't they just shoot the bad guys?

As you just acknowledged, the Liberator's power is depleted.

Personally, I thought it was very petty of Blake to rig a charge to kill the raiders when they opened the airlock. What was the point of that? Everyone was evacuated (except Sara, by her own choice), so there was nobody left to defend by killing the raiders. It was just a vindictive, gratuitous act of murder, out of character for Blake.

I'm seriously starting to think I'm not right for this show. I've been googling around and this seems like a fan-favorite episode. I enjoyed the dynamic between Avon and Cally, but otherwise I found it to be a thoroughly mediocre murder mystery that required a good portion of the main characters to be total idiots in order to work.

I think it's a decent enough mystery, aside from the massive logic holes and Idiot Ball moments that are trademarks of Series A. It gives Avon a chance to do something different by playing Sherlock Holmes, and that's its main appeal.

As I've said, I think fans appreciate the show more for its characters and cast than for its storylines. It's definitely a "cult classic," which means it's not for everyone.

Yes, character dynamics are interesting, but they can be interesting in stories that don't involve space webs or rejected Miss Marple's plots. Let's hope for the next episodes.

"Mission to Destiny" is the last episode in Series A that doesn't involve the conflict with the Federation and/or Travis & Servalan in some capacity. There will be an overall "quest" arc driving Blake through most of Series B, as he's driven to bring down the Federation once and for all, but sometimes it's more tenuous than others.

 

[Starkers]

Both Mission to Destiny and Time Squad, along with a couple of other examples as the series goes on, shows an almost schizophrenic attitude on behalf of the crew, especially Jenna. She is the expert amongst the crew and flits between "Ah the old ship in distress, a classic pirate move" and "They must be in trouble, there's no other explanation!"

I do think there was an opportunity to bring the Federation into this, even tangentially. Destiny has resisted joining the Federation but presumably if their crops continued to fail then the Federation could easily swoop in as saviours. In my head cannon the people coming to pick Sara and the Neutrotope up aren't criminals, they're Federation trooper (although possibly Sara doesn't realise this).

Not only does this give the episode a tad more focus, but it makes Blake's actions at the end a little less cold blooded and petty (as Christopher rightly noted).

For Brits of a certain age this episode is also notable for having Mr Hopwood from Grange Hill in it (the pilot murdered at the start), our next Grange Hill alum isn't till series C (a certain Section Leader Klegg).

Oh and this episode is worth it for the banter between Avon and Cally alone.