Episode 3: Weapon

Last week, Blake popped along to Space City to see if the Terra Nostra were interested in being buddies with him and perhaps overthrowing the Federation along the way. They were not. To make himself feel better, Blake tootled along to the Terra Nostra's secret drug planet, Zombar, in order to mess it right up.

This week's weirdo, Coser, is interested in buddying up with Blake, but things go about as well for him, I'm afraid. Travis gets to relieve some tension, but not in a sexy way (sorry, Travisina).

Playing the field

BOSH! The episode starts with a Spacemaster 5 blowing up on an unnamed planet's surface What is it with the special effects teams and blowing up Spacemaster 5's all to hell? . Coser and Rashel watch, from some nearby wheat. They're faking their own deaths, because they're on the lam from the Federation.

Eno (left) and Coser (right), his evil twin.

/img/characters/coser.png Coser Ex-team member of a secret Federation Weapons development facility Weirdo of the week Gallifrey army surplus Brian Eno The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Coser is played by John Bennett who had a long career which included Minority Report, The Fifth Element and Terry Nation's Survivors. Inevitably, he was also called up for a couple of stories of Doctor Who It was a bit like National Service in the 1970s . The later story he appeared in was ... problematic. I'll let Charlotte explain:

Invasion of the Dinosaurs John Bennett played General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs is classic Pertwee era: an earth bound story with monsters invading somewhere in the south of England . In this case: London. Apparently aliens in the 70s just couldn't keep their claws / prongs / mandibles / suckers off earth. They loved a bit of it. No one ever remembers these invasions, but then it was the 70s I suppose. The story also features , a sort of quasi military group the Doctor hangs out with a lot in this period. (The fourth Doctor doesn't seem as interested, preferring to mooch about space being grumpy.) I like the story, which involves a plan to revert London to pre-technology, but it's fair to say the dinosaurs look just the tiniest bit unrealistic. Talons of Weng Chiang John Bennett played Li H'sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang Talons voted up with Genesis as one of the top Doctor Who stories of all time. It's a Robert Holmes classic which I found quite scary. Basically it's a murder mystery, with added aliens, set in Victorian London. There are a Ripper parallels and the Doctor gets to play Sherlock. There's even a theatre and one of the best comedy double acts of all time in Doctor Who: Jago and Lightfoot. This being pre-new Who, they don't get dragged back for every season 'til we're sick of them. There's also a theatre and a very scary dummy. I should love it. So, why don't I? Perhaps because, even as a kid, I found the giant rat a bit rubbish, although Louise Jameson plays out the fear beautifully. This is also the first story where she gets to cover up, rather than wearing a shammy leather. Perhaps the plot is just a bit dark and confusing when you're small. Perhaps because I feel Tom is a little bit playing Sherlock rather than the Doctor. Or perhaps because even at the age of 11 I had difficulties with that face paint... Let's just out it down to it was a different time . Anyway you can't blame me because I wasn't born until midway through Invasion of Time. Oh come on. Everyone's worked out which Doctor Who story they were born in...

Womancipation

Coser recently freed Rashel from slavery, at least conceptually: he still treats her like a slave. They have strangely complementary clothes, although his neckline is more risqué.

Meanwhile, on another unnamed planet, we get a new Travis!

/img/characters/travis2.png Travis (2) Servalan's Blake Murder Sub-contractor Twelve stone of fury, attached to a blaster-ring Motörhead

Hey! Remember the nineties? Me neither. For about five minutes back then, morphing was all the rage. Prime Ministers did it. The Spice Girls did it. Morphing clubs sprung up across the British Isles. It was great. But - and I imagine you're ahead of me here - I wonder what it would be like if we could morph Stephen Greif (who played Travis in the first series) into Brian Croucher? (who plays him here) Well, a little bit like this, as a matter of fact: Right. Let's never speak of this again.

There seem to be two ways of dealing with new actors taking over old roles. The Doctor Who method: we're going to give you a reason in the script. So, the Doctor regenerates. This was also what they did in Due South, the show with the cute Mountie and his pet wolf. Well, not regeneration, but a plot based reason. Also in Allo Allo I recall. Anyway, the second is the Lucy from Neighbours approach, where no-one apparently notices they look completely different. At least Travis here has the same hair colour.

Itchy trigger finger

New Travis is a bit more working-class than the other one and is in a sort of amphitheatre. Travis has been sent to The Planet of The Clonemasters by Servalan. Shockingly, Blake walks out behind him and stands obediently to one side. Travis raises his Swiss Army Hand, and Blake pleads for his life. Travis lets loose with a finger-volley and Blake falls to the ground:

The eye patch is new, but the amber ring is still the same.

Blog admin That's the second unnamed planet we've encountered in this episode. Let's call it the Copy Shop from now on, to reduce confusion.

Bat for both sides

Clonemaster Fen descends the stairs of the amphitheatre dressed as a bat, to the sound of a choir. She's wearing a belt which ... subtly suggests her virility:

Spare the Roj and spoil the child

She's not happy that Travis killed Blake, but Travis reckons it's OK because she's been paid . Travis says he wants the other one , but she refuses. He insists, pointing his big silly ring at her and she makes a beckoning motion. Another Blake steps from the back of the room. He doesn't look happy at the sight of his corpse on the floor.

/img/characters/fen.png Clonemaster Fen Master of all the Clones, Head of Gibberish, Keeper of the Phallic Belt, Mistress of the Restricted Peripheral Vision Warning that guarding a secret weapon for too long can send you loopy

Back to the drawing board

On board The Liberator, Avon wants to deliver Orac's new attack strategy to Blake, which Orac printed out onto a circuit board, presumably as a sort of joke at the expense of Avon Last week, Avon planted a bomb inside Orac, for security reasons . No-one knows anything about this attack, apart from Cally, who suggested the target to Blake in the first place: a Federation weapons development facility.

Cally's reasoning is that if Blake intends to take on Federation command, they're going to need guns. Lots of guns. Blake joins them on the banquette on the bridge of The Liberator.

Back on the Copy Shop, Servalan is giving Travis a right old row because he's destroyed a very expensive, limited edition, mint-in-box, Blake replica. He's cross because he thinks she sent him there to test if he was willing to kill Blake, or something. Turns out he's right. Luckily for Servalan, Travis only managed to kill one clone.

I'm a bit baffled as to Servalan's plan here: she ordered two clones, then sends Travis to collect one of them, but doesn't tell him the whole story. But somehow he knows there's a spare anyway. Travis has been consistently out-smarted by Blake, but what has never been in question is his desire to bump Blake off, ideally with his jewelry. Perhaps Servalan should have tested Travis' ability to out-smart Blake, rather than murder an unarmed xerox of him.

Base instinct

On The Liberator, the crew are debating if they should attack the Federation base or not. Avon's against it, but everyone else is either in favour or Gan.

Blake questions Orac. His plan outlines that the base is on permanent alert but Orac's not sure why. Blake is determined to discover what originally caused this alert, because he suspects that some clever evil scientist has filched a super-weapon, which would be useful in his rebellion This is a bit of a stretch, but it turns out to be completely accurate .

Blog admin Look, I'm sorry about all these interruptions, but we're about to return to the other unnamed planet - the one where Coser and Rashel are hiding out. You know - the utterly nondescript, but inexplicably abandoned planet? With all the buildings on it? Anyway, henceforth, it shall be known as British Home Stores. I have no doubt this joke will age very gracefully. Considering the previous two episodes have had a space station called Space World and another one called Space City , I am grateful for this lack of nominature.

Back on British Home Stores, Rashel finds a deserted mess hall on the base It is, appropriately enough, in a bit of a mess . Coser is grumpy because someone was trying to take the credit for his work. Something in his tiny black suitcase will cause senior echelon to get right het-up.

The Great British Blakeoff

Meanwhile, at the Copy Shop, Servalan and Travis are hanging about, waiting to take ownership of Fake Blake. While they wait, Servalan and Travis bicker and we learn that Travis has been to a retraining therapist since Avon blew his hand off, at the end of Orac. Clone master Fen wafts up and Servalan bows, like she's a clone pope, or something Fen pronounces Servalan as if it's a French name - to rhyme with Louis Vuitton . I'd love to hear her take on Vin Diesel . .

We get some cloning back-story. It's been around for centuries, but was considered too dangerous. Speaking of cloning, Fen says But a weapon once created cannot be abandoned. It can only be contained . Foreshadowing alert. Turns out Fen comes from a long line of clones herself, but each one raised by their own predecessor.

This is quite an interesting idea - what kind of culture would result from the same ideas being recirculated endlessly, and each individual being exactly the same as the last? It would be easy to make a joke at the expense of another culture here, but I'll resist A religious, inflexible society seems quite plausible.

The Doctor and his duplicate android fight, during The Android Invasion I feel I should say something about cloning in Doctor Who but honestly if I listed all the times the Doctor has been duplicated we'd be here even longer than we have been already. The most unsatisfying in my mind is the tenth Doctor duplicate, that basically gives soppy fans a reason for Billy Piper and Doctor 10 to be together without delving too much into the practicalities of Time Lord / human biology issues. (Let's skip over the half human nonsense from the movie.) It's all terribly heart rending and romantic and I HATE IT. For those missing the lists, I've done one for the times the fourth Doctor gets copied / gets his mind taken over: Ark in Space (Wirrn brain)

Pyramids of Mars (Sutekh brain)

Android Invasion (Doctor robot)

Face of Evil (Computer mentalism)

Invisible Enemy (cloned AND virus brain)

Image of the Fendahl (skull paralysis)

Invasion of Time (apparently bonkers)

Armageddon Factor (brain take over fail)

Creature from the Pit (communication weirdness with a green blob)

Meglos (cactus breakout)

Keeper of Traken (forced to kneel to a statue) This is from memory. I may have missed some...

Wall flower

Fen talks about the rule of life , a vague philosophy which underpins their cloning work. I think it might be don't be evil The closest we get to a definition is all life is linked . But then so are sausages. Later, she mentioned that they're allowed to copy life, but not make new forms. . Turns out the very room they're in (and most of the city) is living and is derived from a vegetable This, surely, is Science gone mad. What next: Vegatable vestibules? Potato portcullis? Eggplant esplanades? . It responds to mood .

Travis receives a memo, because email is so 2010 The first email was sent in 1971, eight years before this show was broadcast . It's about Coser and his escape from That Secret Facility. Servalan wants him to get on it right away.

Even though Fen was in earshot of Servalan ordering Travis down to British Home Stores, Servalan tells Fen some cock-and-bull story about how she's ordered Travis back to Earth for a court martial. Fen realises Servalan is full of crap, and responds with a barbed reply: You understand the rule of life, Servalan. Almost as well as you understand ... trust .

Caste aspersions

On The Liberator, Blake's quizzing Orac about Coser and something called Imipak Blake spends a lot of time during this episode trying to persuade Orac to find information for him. It's like arguing with Google. . Because Coser is only a beta-class citizen Blake's an Alpha, don't you know , Blake assumes that Imipak is some sort of super weapon which Coser has pinched.

On Servalan's space doughnut, Travis is telling Servalan that Coser has killed everyone who worked with him on Imipak using Imipak to do so, because he has a rich sense of irony. Then he destroyed all information of what Imipak actually does and how you might make another one. Travis has narrowed his search for Coser down to three planets but Servalan is right furious with him. There's all kinds of shouting going on. Goodness me.

Carnell urges

Travis struts out and Servalan adjusts the lighting to the sexy disco setting, then calls for someone called Carnell, being careful to arrange herself by the window before he arrives.

/img/characters/carnell.png Carnell Psychostrategist / Puppeteer Servalan's weird love interest 11 Yngwie Malmsteen

Carnell is played by Scott Fredericks, who has appeared in both Image of the Fendahl (also written by Chris Boucher) and (briefly) Day of the Daleks, the first of which is a Tom Baker era episode. Charlotte, no doubt, has some trivia for them:

Maximillian Stael (left) from Image of the Fendahl Image of the Fendahl marks the end of (my favourite) gothic period of Doctor Who. It's also the last script to be edited by Robert Holmes, who we've mentioned just a few times in this blog. Fendahl is almost like watching am dram. The pace is slow but very creepy. The cult gathering is dark and disturbing, despite the dodgy eye make up Wanda Sherlock's mum Ventham wears on her closed eyelids so it looks like she's got freaky big eyes. It's also one of two occasions in this era where the Doctor apparently advocates suicide The other is a beautifully played scene in Planet of Evil between the Doctor and Sorensen as 'scientists'. . The basic plot of Fendahl is some scientists (Mummy Sherlock and two nice bits of boffin man candy) are in a mansion house that's haunted by a skull that is summoning slug/tapeworm things. The Doctor, knowing his basic gardening skills, defeats them with salt (because sluggit is poisonous and bad for the garden birds). There's also a nice joke about some cows. Day of the Daleks Boaz (centre) from Day of the Daleks A cyborg is sent to the past to kill a woman whose life will have great significance in the future...wait. No sorry that's the Terminator. Some guerrillas from the future go back in time to kill a man called Styles who they believe caused a century of war by blowing up a peace conference. It's like the Terminator, but with a man in a frilly shirt and velvet jacket. It also introduces the Blinovitch Limitation Effect which is a handy bit of techno babble the Doctor whips out to avoid discussions about temporal theory. The ogrons are like stupid gorillas with Terry Nutkins hair. They also appear in Romance of Crime a Doctor Who novelisation which has now been recorded on audio. I mention this because it reunites Tom and Lalla and there are some weird scenes where a character chats up Romana. That's like a man chatting up your ex, 40 years after you were married to them, in a play where you're both playing the age you were when you were married. #timetravelmarriageissues

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

Carnell is a silly cloaked sort of fellow, with lots of scrambled egg on his uniform and rather pretty eyes. He's a sort of strategist contractor, who has been pushing Coser toward a breakdown, which will help Servalan get her hands on Imipak.

Working within the system Although Servalan has the title Suprime Leader , she often has to lie and cheat and shadow-fund skunk works, in order to get her own way in the Federation. So it's not beyond comprehension that even though Coser developed Imipak in a Federation institute, Servalan has to scheme, in order to get her mitts on it.

Comparison between Coser and Travis The Federation's mental effects Travis Coser Pre-meddling state Obsessed with revenge, but consistently out-smarted Incorrectly classified as a delta grade. Unappreciated. Federation influence Packed off to a retraining therapist Pushed toward a mental breakdown, using forces unknown, by Carnell Post influence Volatile: swings between aggression and obedience. Good with guns, though. Volatile. Can't decide who to trust or what is a threat.

Blake has also narrowed down his search, but confusingly he highlights AN ENTIRE GALAXY using his tablet device: For context, the Milky Way galaxy, where we live, has ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILLION STARS. That's a large search area.

Blake polls the crew on whether they should go after Imipak or not. Most are in favour, so they set course for British Home Stores.

Announced mate

Travis does FaceTime™ with Servalan, to say he's found the remains of Coser's ship on British Home Stores. Carnell suggests that Coser exploded the ship on landing, while tinkering with a Fidelity Electronics Chess Challenger 7. Servalan and Carnell do some weird passive-aggressive flirting, then she gets back onto the blower to Travis and recalls his pursuit ships from the planet. Travis ain't happy. Carnell plans to get clone Blake to contact Coser and bring him in, to ensure that he doesn't destroy Imipak. Coser, you see, is so bonkers, he'll believe that a folk hero like Blake would turn up to recruit him. Carnell is certain that he's taken every eventuality into consideration, because humans are exactly like pieces on a chess board for him He says all this while awkwardly fumbling with his elaborate collar .

On British Home Stores, Coser and Rashel are having a wee kip in the cafeteria when there's some classic Radiophonic Workshop creature sounds outside the door. The beast fiddles with the latch for a bit, and they rush up and block the door with a table In the close-up of the door, you can see there's a latch. For some reason, they don't bother using it. .

Pipped to the post

Some curly-haired bloke wanders into Servalan's office looking for her, and finds Carnell instead, busy staring out the window He's arranged himself in front of the window in much the same way as Servalan did - perhaps for the same reasons . Carnell manipulates the officer into giving him the confidential report intended for Servalan, which contains instructions to bump Carnell off. He gives the officer the Fidelity Electronics Chess Challenger 7 as thanks for inadvertently saving his life.

/img/characters/officer.png He's not given one Officer Bungling postman Alexander the Great The Stupids

You might be quite reasonably wondering why I'm showing you the official Federation database entry for such a minor character. I have many (three) reasons: The unnamed hiker from Image of the Fendahl Because when I was going through the episode for screen grabs, he happened to be perfectly lined up for a (near) profile and front-on shot Man-candy In the Doctor Who story Image of the Fendahl, he played an unnamed hiker who gets killed and has an autopsy performed on him by the character played by the same actor he's handing the report to, in this episode of Blake's 7

Hitchhiker's Guide I quite like the fact these two actors are linked across the 70s dimensions. Fun fact for you: the Target novelisation of Fendahl starts with a nice quote from Coleridge's Ancient Mariner about a traveller being too scared to turn his head and see what's following him. It's not in the version. Sometimes the target novels had little bits of extra creative writing or literary references. Despite this, they still didn't recognise their merit when I brought them in for 'reading days' at my school.

How to treat crabs

Back in the haunted refectory, Coser checks the state of their flimsy barricade. It's intact and there's no sign of the shambling creature. Then the beast punches through the glass window in the door and Rashel busies herself with shrieking and rolling on the ground, while Coser angrily assembles Imipak and targets the creature's huge claws.

Imipak, it appears, is a gun which comes apart and looks like it's made by Dyson.

The beam appears to have no effect. When Rashel points out this slight flaw in the weapon, Coser says I haven't told it it's dead yet .

Coser gets out a lovely bit of late 1970's tech, and presses some buttons on it. Smoke starts pouring out of the claw and the shrieking beast is reduced to an oily puddle on the floor:

Imipak your bags

The next morning, Coser and Rashel are packing up. Coser is as irritable as usual and is just about to use Imipak on Rashel, when he hears Blake's voice. Coser immediately tries to give Blake Imipak and excitedly spells out the acronym, like an enormous nerd: Imipak was developed by a team of people. Perhaps Coser just worked in the marketing department, and his contribution was to come up with the acronym.

I nduced

nduced M olecular

olecular I nstability

nstability P rojector

rojector A nd

nd Key

Chronic acronyms I couldn't let this pass without a nod to the most famous Doctor Who acronym: . Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter insert lengthy discussion on time lord reproduction here introduces the ship as time and relative dimension in space . I mention this because it gave me occasion to correct an otherwise highly knowledgeable fellow fan who recently added an 'S' to the dimension. I don't normally allow myself moments of smug correction (shut up I don't) but on this occasion it was warranted. I note that now if you google they put the S in brackets. They're more forgiving than me.

Coser explains how Imipak works, for those who didn't follow his demo with crabby-crabby-crab-claws: you shoot a being and it doesn't feel anything. But when you press a button on the key , then the molecules in the creature go all unstable and fall apart, as long as they're in range of the key Coser says the range is a million miles , because he's not quite ready for metric units yet. . But if this is all a bit complicated for you, I've found the original Ikea instructions for Imipak, for you to download.

Imipak is more of a psychological weapon - Coser explains how you could use it to control where people go, or to just mess with their heads for fun. Fake Blake does this:

So Coser was part of a team which was developing something very powerful, but he felt sidelined and that he wasn't getting the recognition he deserved. The unique contribution he brought to the project was psychological in nature. Chris Boucher had worked on Blake's 7 from the start, but despite writing scripts for Doctor Who, he wasn't trusted to develop his own stories until the second series. Oh my goodness - what if Coser is Chris?

Off-key

After the sales pitch, Coser hands over Imipak and the key to Fake Blake as Servalan and Travis wander in. Coser is right peeved, but Servalan has a cure for his bad mood: Imipak. She marks him with the gun bit, then triggers the key too, for good measure, killing him instantly. It's all a bit ... sudden.

Comparison between cloning and Imipak The Federation's attitude to powerful technology Cloning Imipak Current status Rumours that it is banned, but really it continues in secret Not understood by any living person, apart from Coser Federation ambition To completely control cloning To completely control Imipak Potential uses To replace problematic citizens with clones which can be controlled To control any citizen marked by Imipak

Imipak is an excellent example of how dark Blake's 7 can be, despite its production values. Let's recap what it can do: It can kill outright anyone marked, at distances of up to one million miles

It can be used to mark people and force them to act against their will with the threat of death

You could claim that someone was marked, even if they weren't, and force them to act against their will

It can permanently exclude certain people from areas: if they enter those areas they will die Servalan sets the range on the Imipak key, when she kills Coser - this range can be set from meters to millions of miles Servalan very quickly decides that she needs to mark everyone Even her own allies with Imipak - presumably as a preventative measure. What if the Federation decided that all citizens from birth were to be thus marked - making it trivial to kill or exclude them at any point in the future, should the need to do so arise. Remember, civilians who have done nothing wrong have nothing to fear.

Making her mark

While Travis examines Coser's strangely-not-puddle-like corpse, Servalan shoots him in the back, with the gun bit of Imipak. Fake Blake protects Rashel, when he suspects Travis might kill her because all life must have reverence . He does this move, while he says it:

Rashel has to check that he's not reaching for her boobs.

Outside, Gan does some karate on one guard, while Avon and Blake use old-fashioned guns on the other two. Meanwhile, Servalan marks the fourth guard for death because by this time, the power of Imipak has gone to her head. Servalan instructs Travis to mark Blake and his crew. Amazingly, Travis manages this task immediately.

Blake, Avon and Gan enter the room where Servalan and Travis are lounging about, and hold them at blaster point. Travis lays the gun part of Imipak at their feet. They glance at it, but mostly ignore it.

Hide and seek

Servalan demonstrates Imipak's key on the guard then tells Blake and his crew they've been marked for death. For some godforsaken reason, she allows them to leave and gives them a head start, giving them no idea how long the range of the Imipak key is.

Blake and co. leg it, via the teleporter.

Servalan explains that she let them go because everyone will assume that Blake has Imipak. She's going to wait for him to leave orbit, and be witnessed doing so by her pursuit ships, then Travis can press the button. Because there's nothing quite so satisfying as getting revenge for losing an eye by pressing a button and assuming someone has died. Rashel ominously enters the room, and looks at the discarded Imipak on the ground.

Blake figures that if he leaves, Servalan will kill him, so he intends to use the planet as a shield between Servalan and The Liberator. It's a desperate move.

Rashel and Fake Blake, in a stand-off with Travis

You're never alone with a clone

Travis is just about to press the button, when Rashel tells him to stop, admitting that she's already marked them both. Travis raises his Swiss Army Hand in her direction, but Fake Blake enters, holding a gun.

The Liberator has hit a mine, trying to get behind the planet. Zen starts repairing the damage, but warns the crew that pursuit ships are inbound. Blake manages to escape from British Home Stores's gravity well.

Servalan is complemented by Carnell

The keys to the kingdom

Rashel's got Imipak's key Presumably the threat of a real gun made Servalan turn it over and tells Servalan to leave. Servalan tells her she'll ensure that Rashel will never leave the planet. She swanns out.

There's a weird scene where Rashel implies that her and Fake Blake are going to settle down on the planet and make it their own, after they contact Blake and tell him Imipak's key won't be used against him. Fake Blake seems utterly indifferent to this idea In Fake Blake's defence, he was literally born yesterday .

Servalan discovers that Carnell has escaped, but watches a message he's left for her, which could be paraphrased as I could have predicted this would happen, if I'd had all of the information . He complements her on her sexiness , which pleases her immensely.

One thing I really should have realised before now is that Blake's 7 has the single episode story format with arcing themes and end of season finale. I don't know much about it, but that seems much more like today's format than the 70s. Maybe I'm just comparing it to the Doctor Who 4-6 episodes with cliffhanger format. I feel the need to go and do some research on the topic. Except I can't be bothered.

Watch Weapon on YouTube