User Reviews

Two rival powers The United Planets Of Teal and The United Vandor Confederacy Of Planets have abolished war and settle their disputes by choosing two warrior champions who fight to the death . The crew of The Liberator spectate at the most recent contest to find that the Teal champion is Tarrant's brother Deeta

It's difficult to defend the show about being Britain's unoriginal answer to STAR TREK when along comes an episode that conjures up a half remembered memories of a couple of other STAR TREK stories that had a very similar premise . That said from a pedantic and moral point of view it's not plagiarism and writer Chris Boucher does include a post modernist let's wink at the audience with " Space the final frontier as it was once known " and let's not forget BLAKES 7 brings its own presence to the telefantasy genre and has done nothing to be ashamed of

The episode is once again character-centric and this time it's Tarrant who gets his star moment . Steven Pacey is held in low regard amongst fans but to be fair to the actor his character was written for someone much older . On top of that he's often written as either a surrogate Blake or a surrogate Avon depending on plot mechanics from different writers and he does give a moving performance as he watches his brother die . He's maybe not so successful as Deeta since you realise it's Pacey wearing a wig and one wonders why the production just didn't cast another actor

The concept of a war between two star systems being decided by the result of a gladiatorial match in which only one man is killed is very interesting. It is essentially a war without war, which I find fascinating. However, the real strength in this episode lies in Steven Pacey's excellent dual performance as both Tarrant and his brother Deeta. While there was no real reason that Deeta had to be played by Pacey, I am glad that this was the case as it gave him a chance to shine. It is a little funny though that the Liberator has run into identical siblings of two of its crewmembers in such a short period of time! Pacey has no trouble differentiating his two characters, the cocksure Tarrant and the more world weary Deeta. I have to admit that part of me prefers Deeta to Tarrant as he's more of a badass! This episode is unusual as it focuses so much of its attention on a character other than one of the regulars, Servalan or, in earlier seasons, Travis.

As much as I enjoyed the Deeta storyline, my favourite scene is the one between Avon and Servalan on Teal in which he accuses her of sabotaging the combat in the hopes of starting an actual war between Teal and Vandor, after which her fleet will move in and take over. I love the fact that she claims to consider Avon not as an enemy but as a future friend. It's the best examination of their relationship since "Aftermath". Thankfully, Dayna is well treated as well as, for once, she gets something interesting to do. While she has had more screen time in other episodes, this episode features her putting her skills as a warrior to use when she monitors Vinni's fighting style through the receiver and realises that he is an android. I'd even go as far as to say that it's the best use of the character since "Powerplay". The somewhat undiplomatic diplomat Max, as very well played by Stewart Bevan, is one of the nicest and most genuine characters in "Blake's 7" history. Along with Docholli from "Gambit", he's one of the few such characters who doesn't end up dead by the end of the episode.