Synopsis: By John Bensalhia
Stuck on the planet Terminal, things are not going well for the stranded crew. Avon and Dayna have witnessed Servalan’s ship explode in a booby-trapped ball of flame. The living quarters have also been booby-trapped, and while Vila and an unconscious Tarrant have made it out alive (thanks to Vila), Cally is trapped in the explosions and dies.
On board the freighter ship Scorpio, a man called Dorian (Geoffrey Burridge) is enquiring about the time to planetfall to the ship’s computer Slave (voiced by Peter Tuddenham). With Scorpio approaching Terminal, Dorian picks up a heavy radiation shadow on the scanners, suggesting that a vessel like the Liberator could have exploded, generating more power than any normal ship would have done.
Avon tells the others that Cally has died, and prepares to move again in the morning. When dawn comes, Tarrant collapses again, leaving Avon to find him. Vila and Dayna, however, have fallen down a steep ravine and are holding on for dear life in order to avoid ending up as dinner for a large snake-like creature. Their problem is solved by the appearance of Dorian, who shoots the creature dead and hauls them back to safety. Avon confronts Dorian and orders that he take them back to his ship.
Dorian tells Avon that he is a salvage man and has come to Terminal to strip the planet of all its valuable wealth. Intriguingly, Dorian has heard of Avon and Vila, who has become aware of what looks like a teleport system. Before they can speculate further, Slave informs Dorian that Terminal is starting to disintegrate, as the ship is rocked about by heavy explosions and lava from outside. Having refused to co-operate with Avon’s hijack, Dorian moves to take the ship up, but an outside explosion causes him to fall and knock himself out on one of the ship’s pillars. It’s left to Tarrant to get the scruffy bag of bolts into the air and into space, as Terminal disintegrates.
Now in space, the ship is suddenly locked off and moves into a flight pattern of its own choosing. Avon deduces that Dorian has pre-programmed the flight computer to take him home. Avon asks Dayna to look around and for Tarrant to try and work out where they are going. Dayna, to her delight, finds a stash of advanced guns with a whole range of bullets. Avon has also found that Slave is a much too advanced computer for a salvage man, as is the teleport. Tarrant tells Avon that they are en route for a planet called Xenon, a destination that’s outside Federation territory and could almost be safe – if they only knew what was waiting for them.
The arrival of Scorpio is picked up at Xenon base by Dorian’s girlfriend Soolin (Glynis Barber). She makes contact with Scorpio, as Avon forces Dorian (who had been pretending to be unconscious for the last few minutes) to prepare for final docking. Scorpio enters through an entrance in a rock face on Xenon where it lands in an underground silo that leads them to Dorian’s plush living quarters.
Dorian takes the inactive Orac and leads the others through as the silo door closes. The door can only be opened by Dorian, who is now starting to act oddly. He looks and sounds slightly older and considerably more tired than when he first met Avon and the others. Now technically stranded on Xenon base, Avon has no choice but to follow their host into the living quarters.
They are greeted by Soolin and some well-deserved wine, although oddly, she has laid out seven glasses rather than six – almost as if they were expected. Dorian greets Soolin and tells Avon that he is most welcome here. With things to do, Dorian leaves as Avon muses to Tarrant that Dorian’s taste in wine and women is impeccable.
In an underground cavern which resounds with an eerie rising and falling sighing noise, Dorian makes his way down a flight of stairs – now bent over and hunched, and a lot older. The aged Dorian speaks to a creature in the cavern and tells them that his new guests can be used for some unknown purpose – the creature demands that it be soon as the room seems to drain the life out of Dorian, who starts to scream and writhe in pain.
Tarrant and Dayna look for another way off of the base, as Vila gives up trying to open the silo door – instead he checks out Dorian’s considerable stash of booze. Dayna finds the underground room, where she encounters the creature. To her horror, the room seals itself shut, leaving Tarrant powerless to open it.
Dorian, now recovered, and younger again, has repaired Orac, much to the amazement of Avon. Avon asks if Dorian created Slave, the guns and modified the living quarters. Dorian confirms that he did, and after Avon is further puzzled by his knowledge of Ensor, a man that a 30-year-old would have no knowledge of, Dorian confirms that he isn’t all that he seems. Avon pulls a gun on Dorian, but Soolin had replaced the bullet with a dummy. With a real gun now trained on Avon, Dorian forces him to the living quarters.
Dorian tells Avon that he is 200 years old, and that the mysterious underground room contains a being that allows him to stay young. The creature has absorbed all of Dorian’s vices and years, meaning that Dorian will stay young forever. Soolin enters the room and quizzes Dorian over the room, but is horrified that even her gun’s bullets have been removed by her boyfriend. Dorian forces the two out of the room and leads them to the underground cavern, where Tarrant and Dayna will be waiting. Vila, who has eavesdropped on the conversation, is torn between drowning his sorrows in more wine, or following them with a gun that works.
In the underground cavern, Dorian tells Avon that his group will become a gestalt, and that they will basically be used to give the creature more power, and make it strong. The eerie sighing gets louder and the room becomes brighter as a delighted Dorian realises that his plan will work.
Avon surmises that the creature was once a man, which Dorian confirms was once his partner. Despite Avon’s insistence that Dorian is one man short for his plan to work, Dorian says that Vila will join them later, and implores them to make their goodbyes. Laughing maniacally, Dorian looks on as the group convulses in agony – but fails to notice Vila coming to the rescue with one of the old guns.
Avon grabs it and shoots the creature dead. With his power source gone, Dorian, screaming in agony, falls to the floor in a writhing heap, and slowly ages and rots away to a skeletal cadaver and then dust. The creature has been replaced by a dead young man – Dorian’s partner. As Soolin sadly slips away up the stairs, Vila muses that he’s going to stop drinking, before he starts seeing pink asteroids…
Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/blakes-7/20165/blakes-7-series-4-episode-1-rescue#ixzz4L4D1Tkc1
Cast
Roj Blake - Gareth Thomas
Jenna Stannis - Sally Knyvette
Vila Restal - Michael Keating
Guest Stars: Geoffrey Burridge (as Dorian), Rob Middleton (as Creature)
Introducing: Glynis Barber as Soolin, Peter Tuddenham as voice of Slave
Credits
Director -
Producer -
Writer -
Script Editor -
Episode Information
Originally Broadcast: on BBC1
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