Blake's 7

Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television programme, produced by the BBC, about a group of convicts and outcasts who fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from a highly advanced alien spaceship.

Series One

The Way Back

Blake: There can be no justification for deliberate murder.

Judge: The accused has been found guilty on all charges. His crimes have been accorded a category nine rating and as such are judged most grave. In sentencing you, the judgement machine has taken into account your past record; your service to the state and your loyalty to The Federation. None of these has mitigated in your favour. It is the sentence of this tribunal that you be taken from this place to an area of close confinement. From there you will be transported to the penal colony on the planet Cygnus Alpha where you will remain for the rest of your natural life.

Vila: Easy! Take it easy! I hate personal violence, especially when I'm the person.

Vila: You're on your way to the penal colony on Cygnus Alpha. Or you will be when the prison ship's refueled. Try to look on the bright side: It must have something; none of the guests have ever left early... In fact none of them have ever left at all.

Blake: Why are you going there?

Vila: They didn't give me a choice. [Pause] I steal things. compulsive, I'm afraid. I've had my head adjusted by some of the best in the business. But it just won't stay adjusted.

Blake: A professional thief?

Vila: More a vocation than a profession; other people's property just comes naturally to me.

Space Fall

Blake: No, not until free men can think and speak. Not until power is back with the honest man.

Avon: Have you ever met an honest man?

Avon: Listen to me. Wealth is the only reality. And the only way to obtain wealth is to take it away from somebody else. Wake up, Blake! You may not be tranquilised any longer, but you're still dreaming.

Vila: Nervous? I'm not nervous. Just... poised for action, that's all.

Blake: What went wrong?

Avon: I relied on other people.

(regarding a hypothetical betrayal by Avon)

Jenna: He fixes the log, the crew dump us, pocket the profit, and set him free.

Vila: That's immoral. The cold-hearted murdering -- let's kill him now before he can do it.

Blake: If you had access to the computer, could you open the doors?

Avon: Of course. Why?

Blake: Just wondered how good you really were.

Avon: Don't try to manipulate me, Blake.

Vila: No, I can't go in there, I've got a condition - a fear of enclosed spaces. There's a name for it...

Jenna: Cowardice?

Jenna: How do you feel?

Blake: Sick.

Avon: So you should. What a fiasco. You could take over the ship, you said, if I did my bit. Well, I did my bit, and what happened? Your troops bumble around looking for someone to surrender to, and when they've succeeded, you follow suit.

Cpt. Leyland: I hope Mr Raiker's made it clear to you that you can refuse to do this.

Blake: Oh yes, he's also made it clear that summary execution is one of our options. We chose the other.

Cygnus Alpha

Avon asks Zen about the Teleport system:

Zen: Wisdom must be gathered, it cannot be given.

Avon: Don't philosophise at me, you electronic moron!

Blake: [Picks up one of Liberator's side-arms] Hand gun?

Avon: It's a bit elaborate for a tooth pick.

Blake: Depends how elaborate their teeth were.

Vila: [The prisoners have been dumped on Cygnus Alpha] This is nice, isn't it. What a miserable hole. If we all complained do you think they'd give us a refund?

Jenna: You wouldn't be trying to get rid of me, would you?

Avon: I have to get rid of Blake first. You're next on my list.

Jenna: That would have been very disarming, if I didn't know that you meant it.

Avon: (about Blake) He's a crusader. He'll look upon all this as just one more weapon to use against the Federation. And he can't win. You know he can't win. What do you want to be, rich or dead?

Time Squad

Blake: Seven of us can run this ship properly.

Vila: Six, surely.

Blake: You forgot Zen.

Avon: You're not counting that machine as a member of the crew.

Blake: Oh, what do you say to that, Zen?

Zen: Please state course and speed.

Blake: Very diplomatic. Set a course for Centero, speed standard by two.

Zen: Confirmed.

Vila: So much for Federation pursuit ships.

Gan: At least we know we can outrun them.

Vila: Outrun them? In this we can out stroll them!

Blake: Except that we're not going to hide. Very soon now the Federation ships will know exactly where we are. Or at least where we've been.

Vila: I don't follow you.

Avon: Oh, but you do. And that's the problem.

Vila: [to Avon, after he has successfully retrieved the capsule that Blake and Jenna are in] Very delicate. You know, with hands like that and a decent upbringing, you might've made a respectable pickpocket.

Cally: [to Blake, after he has disarmed her] May you die alone. And silent.

[After her confrontation with Blake, Cally detects Vila hiding in some bushes, and spins around to point her gun at him]

Cally: Out!

[Vila comes out from his hiding place]

Vila: No need for belligerence, pretty lady! I'm harmless!

[Vila approaches Blake and Cally]

Vila: Quick, isn't she?

Cally: Is he one of your crew?

Blake: One of them.

Avon: [offscreen] And he's useless, as he said!

[Cally spins around to see Avon coming out from behind cover, aiming his weapon at her]

Avon: I've had a gun on you the whole time. You were dead as soon as you broke cover.

[Avon approaches the group]

Vila: "Harmless" was the word I used.

Avon: And you couldn't even get that right!

The Web

Avon saves Blake from an explosion:

Blake: Thank you... why?

Avon: Automatic reaction, I'm as surprised as you are.

Blake: I'm not surprised.

Avon: I'll tell you a fact of life, Blake! Change is inevitable!

Blake: Why else do we fight, Avon?

Seek-Locate-Destroy

Blake: [Over communicator to Liberator] I'm down and safe. I'm somewhere inside the main complex. Is Vila ready?

Jenna: [Over communicator] Hold on, just checking. [To Vila] Are you ready?

Vila: Tell him I've just worked out a completely new strategy. It's called Running away.

Jenna: [Over communicator] He's ready.

Vila: There isn't a lock I can't open... if I'm scared enough.

Blake: Are you scared enough for that one?

Vila: What do you think?

Cally: They're taking too long.

Avon: That's the trouble with heroics, they seldom run to schedule.

Jenna: They'll find it. There's not going to be a sign up there saying This way to the cipher room.

Gan: They may need help.

Cally: I think so too.

Avon: They would have called in.

Jenna: Avon's right.

Avon: I usually am.

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?

Blake: You don't matter enough to kill, Travis.

Doctor: She's not yet well enough to submit to intensive questioning. She must have rest.

Travis: Yes, thank you very much indeed, Doctor, you are relieved of your responsibility for the prisoner. She is now the property ... the concern of the interrogation division.

Mission to Destiny

Avon: [Over communicator] Are you Awake?

Vila: No.

Avon: That's what I thought. It's very quiet here. If it should get noisy, I'll be in touch.

Avon: It is frequently easier to be honest when you have nothing to lose.

Cally: Blake will return...

Avon: You can bet your life on it. In fact, you've just bet both our lives on it.

Cally: My people have a saying: A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.

Avon: Life expectancy must be fairly short among your people.

Blake: You're quite sure about volunteering to stay?

Cally: Well, we must help these people.

Avon: Must we? Personally I don't care if their whole planet turns into a mushroom. I shall stay because I don't like an unsolved mystery.

Avon: There's something else that has to happen before it all begins to come together.

Vila: Where are Cally and Avon?

Blake: It's a long story.

Vila: Well, what's in the box?

Blake: That's an even longer story.

Vila: I like stories.

Cally: I thought you mistrusted instinct?

Avon: I do. So I am probably wrong.

Duel

Blake: I get the distinct feeling I offended Zen's professional pride.

Avon: It's just a machine, Blake.

Vila: And he should know.

Gan: Well, Avon is the expert.

Vila: That's not what I meant.

Avon: No. He was calling me a machine. But since he undoubtedly defines himself as a human being, I shall choose to take that as more of a compliment than anything else.

Blake: on Travis: How do you demonstrate the death of a friend to a man who hasn't got any?

Blake: Have you got any better ideas?

Avon: As a matter of fact, no, I haven't.

Blake: Does that mean you agree?

Avon: Do I have a choice?

Blake: Yes.

Avon: Then I agree.

Vila: Have you thought of another plan?

Avon: Yes. I'm going to get some sleep.

Vila: How can you sleep with all this happening?

Avon: With all what happening? Blake is sitting up in a tree, Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.

Gan: You're never involved, are you Avon? You ever cared for anyone?

Vila: Except yourself?

Avon: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all. [Exits]

Vila: Was that an insult or did I miss something?

Cally: You missed something.

Avon: Logic says we're dead.

Blake: Logic has never defined what dead is.

Project Avalon

Blake: Avalon has started resistance movements in a dozen Federation planets.

Avon: Another idealist, poor but honest. I shall look forward to our meeting with eager anticipation.

Blake: Does it support any intelligent life?

Avon: Does the Liberator? [pause] There are creatures called "Subterrons". they live in caves, quite what that says for their intelligence I really wouldn't know.

Vila (having been volunteered to go down): Me? Oh, no, wait a minute, it's cold out there and I'm very susceptible to low temperatures. I've got a weak chest!

Avon: The rest of you's not very impressive.

Breakdown

Jenna: They don't like humanoids in general and in particular, homo sapiens.

Avon: That puts their intelligence beyond doubt.

Avon: I'm finished. Staying with you requires a degree of stupidity of which I no longer feel capable.

Blake: No, you're just being modest.

Jenna: Hello.

Renor: Hello, hello, hello!

Vila: Ah. Jenna, this is Professor Kayn's assistant, his name is -

Renor: Renor. And I had a feeling this was going to be a good day.

Jenna: Yes, well, don't let your feelings run away with you.

Renor: Oh, a sense of humor, too. I love girls with a sense of humor.

Jenna: Yes, I can see where that would be an advantage. This way, please.

Renor: Do you believe in love at first sight, Jenna?

Jenna: Not yet.

(XK-72 has been destroyed by pursuit ships)

Avon: Say goodbye to one bolthole.

Blake: That wasn't funny, Avon.

Avon: It wasn't meant to be.

Bounty

Vila: I'm entitled to my opinion.

Avon: It is your assumption that we are entitled to it as well that is irritating.

Vila: I don't want data, I want to know what's happening.

Zen: It will be necessary for you to make a personal investigation.

Vila: Oh, you're a big help. Personal investigation... Personal investigation... The next time Avon wants to make a personal investigation on how you work I shall make a personal point of handing him the instruments. Personally.

Avon: First sign of trouble, we get out, right?

Jenna: Goes without saying.

Avon: I only wish it did.

(Vila fails to remove an explosive collar from Blake's neck)

Vila: I told you I couldn't do it!

Avon: I believed you all along.

Vila: Nobody can open it!

Avon: I thought you could open anything - that's always been one of your more modest claims.

Jenna: It could be an injured pilot.

Avon: It could be a trap.

Gan: It's not a very good one, then. We're suspicious of it already.

Avon: The test is not whether you are suspicious but whether you are caught.

Avon: None of us showed conspicuous intelligence on this occasion.

Deliverance

[Servalan has just informed Travis of her secret plan to obtain Orac; before leaving her office, Travis hesitates]

Servalan: What's the matter?

Travis: Maryatt.

Servalan: What about him?

Travis: His disappearance--there may be questions.

Servalan: In twelve hours, I shall have him posted as a deserter.

Travis: [quietly] And his family go into slavery in one of the frontier worlds.

Servalan: It is the normal procedure in a case of desertion.

Travis: [quietly] Of course.

[Travis begins walking towards Servalan, pointing at his eyepatch]

Travis: Do you remember the medic who saved my life?

Servalan: You're wasting time--

Travis: [interrupting] It was Maryatt.

Servalan: Does it matter?

Travis: ...no. No. Only Blake matters now.

Vila: [To Avon] Including yourself, that's two people who think you're wonderful.

Avon: Are you alone here?

Meegat: Yes, lord. Everything is as it was written. One waits.

Avon: For what?

Meegat: [adoringly, to Avon] For you!

Vila: [quietly] I told you she was mad.

Gan: How long have you been waiting?

Meegat: All of my life, as those before me waited. But it is I who welcome you! Welcome, lord, welcome!

[Meegat prostrates herself at Avon's feet again]

Avon: Yes, well, let's not start all that again.

[Meegat turns away in shame]

Gan: You've hurt her feelings now.

Meegat: [averting her eyes] I have offended you.

Avon: No, you haven't offended me.

Meegat: [looking back at Avon] Forgive me!

Avon: I forgive you.

[Avon kneels down and gently helps Meegat to her feet]

Vila: You're enjoying this, aren't you?

Avon: Probably.

Gan: Do you really believe we could launch that ship?

Avon: If the people who built that ship did their job properly, I don't see any reason why not. And it does seem that we have a reputation to live up to.

Vila: You certainly do, Lord Avon. I wonder why she picked on you.

Avon: Well now, you are hardly the stuff that gods are made of.

Vila: And you are, I suppose?

Avon: Apparently.

Avon: Meegat, I'm sorry you waited so long.

Meegat: Our waiting brought you.

Avon: That seems like a poor reward, somehow.

Cally: Did she really think you were a god?

Avon: For a while.

Blake: How did it feel?

Avon: Don't you know?

Blake: Yes. I don't like the responsibility either.

Orac

Vila: Die? I can't do that!

Avon: I'm afraid you can. It's the one talent we all share, even you.

Orac: You are carrying weapons. You will remove them.

Blake: We'd prefer to keep them with us.

Orac: You will remove them!

Blake: No.

(Orac fires at the ground in front of them)

Blake: We will remove them.

Avon: (On communicator) Can you walk?

Vila: Why should I want to?

Avon: [Hands Vila a gunbelt] Put that on.

Vila: But I can barely stand.

Avon: Then crawl, but put that on!

Ensor: I disapprove of weapons.

Blake: So do I, but I disapprove of dying even more.

(Avon shoots Travis in the hand just as he is about to fire)

Blake: Good shot, Avon.

Avon: I was aiming for his head.

[The Crew activate Orac for the first time. He sounds like Ensor]

Blake: It's exactly as though Ensor were speaking.

Orac: Surely it is obvious even to the meanest intelligence that during my development I would naturally become endowed with aspects of my creator's personality.

Avon: The more endearing aspects by the sound of it.

Orac: Possibly. However similarities between myself and Ensor are entirely superficial. My mental capacity is infinitely greater.

Jenna: Modest, isn't he?

Orac: Modesty would be dishonesty.

Vila: What's wrong with being dishonest?

Orac: Is that a question?

Vila: Yes.

Orac: The question is futile. Were I to say that I am incapable of dishonesty how would you know if I was being dishonest or not?

Blake: A question for a question. Well, you're capable of evasion, anyway.

Vila: I think I've heard enough, I don't like him. Orac, be a good junk heap; shut up.

Series Two

Redemption

Avon: Have you found what you want?

Blake: No.

Avon: That's because you're looking for the wrong things.

Blake: What exactly does that mean?

Avon: It's a common enough failing. Now, if you've finished with Zen, I'd quite like to get on; we have a malfunction on the intermediate range sensors. I need to check the systems.

Blake: Leave it! If I've missed something, I want to know what it is now, Avon.

Avon: Well now, all you had to do was ask. Zen! Replay, half speed.

Zen: Confirmed. (Replays prediction in slow motion)

Avon: Stop. All right, reverse to the instant before the explosion. (The explosion sequence is run backward) Freeze it there. All the reassurance you could want.

Blake: Do you think you could forget your superiority complex for a moment and get on with it?

Avon: All right. But first of all, let us examine the nature of prediction. The human mind is capable of seeing into the short-range future with reasonable accuracy. For example, imagine that you are standing on the edge of a cliff.

Blake: As long as you're not standing behind me.

Vila: Where did those ships come from? Who were they?

Blake: Yes, and why did they attack? Zen was confident they weren't Federation.

Vila: So why did they pick on me?

Avon: I doubt if it was personal, Vila.

Vila: It felt personal. It always feels personal when someone tries to kill me.

Blake: Avon - concentrate on Zen. Give priority to the detectors and the navigation systems. And then see if you can get us some scans.

Avon: Is that all? What shall I do with the other hand?

Blake: I'll let you know.

Vila: When you get Zen working, ask him to prescribe something for a headache, will you? I've got this shocking pain right behind the eyes.

Avon: Have you considered amputation?

Cally (as she enters): What can I do?

Avon: Strip down the auto-navigator, remove the damaged components, and list them for replacement.

Cally: This is going to take time. It could have been worse.

Avon: It should have been worse.

Cally: What do you mean?

Avon: Something Blake said. Those ships should have been able to knock us out completely. Why didn't they?

Cally: There could be many reasons.

Avon: I have considered all of them. Only one is satisfactory.

Cally: And which is that?

Avon: They didn't want to destroy us.

Cally: But it was a full-scale attack!

Avon: Was it? Their first attack knocked out our weaponry system. The second run knocked out virtually every instrument system. Right now Liberator is out of control. At least, out of our control.

Cally: You think all this was intentional, and we're not running on a random course?

Avon: Oh, I think we're going somewhere...quite particular.

Avon: How are you getting on?

Cally: I've finished fitting the auto-navigator. And now there is just this detector unit that is burnt out.

Avon: You'll find a replacement in the auto-repair cavity.

Cally: (Replacing a component) Good. That's all completed.

Avon: (Tries to turn Zen on with no luck, Zen just burbles) That's strange. (Tries again) Thought so. Zen is functioning, the computers are working, but not for us.

Jenna: Avon, there's something wrong in the teleport section - all the controls are activating.

Avon: Are you sure?

Jenna: The locators are setting bearings. Come and see.

Avon: No! No one is to go near that section until we have Zen under control.

Cally: Why?

Avon: I think I know what's happening now. The teleport section will be the most dangerous area on the ship. When it happens, that is where it will start.

Jenna: When what happens? What are you talking about?

Avon: If I'm right, this will show it. (Connects wires and the component Cally replaced shorts out)

Cally: It's rejecting the replacement!

Avon: It's more fundamental than that. We are the cause. It is rejecting us.

Vila: If it ever comes to a showdown, my money's on Blake. Well, half of it. I'll put the other half on Avon.

Jenna: Perhaps we could chew our way out.

Alta 2: (V.O., over P.A.) Attention all guards. Security report: slave group number seven have attacked their escort and escaped. They are to be recaptured and eliminated. Repeat: recaptured and eliminated.

Avon: (Suddenly stops pacing and spins toward window) Jenna, come here.

Jenna: (Joins him) What is it?

Avon: You remember Orac's prediction?

Jenna: That's the least of our problems at the moment.

Avon: I checked the star pattern behind Liberator. What Orac predicted was happening halfway across the galaxy. I made a mental note of the configuration.

Jenna: And?

Avon: You're looking at it. This is the Twelfth Sector. Astral point seven eight one. Exactly where Orac predicted we would be destroyed.

Jenna: What happened to your head?

Vila: One of the guards didn't like me.

Shadow

Vila: Stop worrying, Cally, I'll be back soon. Tell you what, I'll bring you back a present! What would you like, Cally? Name it, and it's yours...

Cally: A necklace, Vila. Made from your teeth.

Largo: Look, the Terra Nostra doesn't exist, believe me. It's a...a phantom, a--

Jenna: A shadow?

Largo: A myth. A legend.

Jenna: It's a legend a lot of people believe in.

Avon: And yet you know it doesn't exist. Why are you so certain?

Largo: I've got a contact in Federation security. If the syndicate existed, then he'd know about it, wouldn't he?

Jenna: This contact, he wouldn't be the one who arrested me after I refused your cargo, would he?

Largo: Oh, that was a mistake, Jenna. I was doing a favour for a friend. If I'd known what the cargo was, I wouldn't have touched it myself.

Avon: You didn't answer the question.

Largo: Why do I feel as if I'm on trial here?

Avon: Why do I feel as if you should be?

Largo: They're beautiful stones. I'm a bit of a collector, in a modest way. I could make you an offer.

Avon: They have a sentimental value for me.

Largo: Oh, family heirlooms, eh?

Avon: No, I'm just sentimental about money.

[Largo chops Jenna on the shoulder as she tries to hide her teleport bracelet, and removes it from her wrist]

Largo: Amateur. A pro keeps it simple.

[Gan and Avon are examining the door of the cell Largo has had them placed in]

Gan: I don't think even Vila could open that. I wonder what they'll do.

Avon: "A pro keeps it simple." I imagine they'll kill us, you can't get much simpler than that.

Gan: Sorry, Avon.

Avon: That makes all the difference.

Bek: Largo's on his way up in the organisation. One sign of weakness and he'll be on his way down again, probably minus his head.

Gan: Now there's a happy thought.

(An enforcer points a gun at Avon and Gan)

Enforcer: You two, out.

Avon: Why?

Enforcer: You'd prefer not to know.

Avon: Your professional simplicity is beginning to irritate me.

Central Control (on Cally): There's a lunatic woman threatening to destroy the city!

Gan: I can't find Orac. Even tried calling his name.

Avon: Oh, I'm sorry I missed that. It's the kind of natural stupidity no amount of training could ever hope to match.

Blake: We chose the wrong approach, that's all.

Gan: Is that all? I thought maybe we'd chosen the wrong people to get involved with.

Avon: "We chose the wrong approach"?

Blake: I chose the wrong approach. Does it matter?

Avon: Yes, it does.

Blake: All right, Avon. You were right and I was wrong. You said persuasion wouldn't work and it didn't. So now we use force.

Avon: Force? Yes, of course. Law makers, law breakers, let us fight them all. Why not?

[Largo is reporting to the chairman of the Terra Nostra]

Largo: I know where to look for them, chairman.

Chairman: Only your stupidity makes it necessary to look for them.

Largo: I had to ensure that they took my agent with them.

Chairman: Ah.

Largo: Well, she's reporting on their movements, I'll follow them and capture them.

Chairman: So.

Largo: Chairman, the rewards will be threefold: the money they are carrying, which is substantial; the bounty from the authorities, which is also substantial; and more important of all--the demonstration that we can punish where the Federation itself can't even reach.

Chairman: Very well, Largo. A heavy cruiser will be at your disposal, but don't delay too long, or the rewards will be onefold: the demonstration that we can punish.

Largo: Thank you for your confidence.

Chairman: Largo, that is too small a thing to thank me for.

[The chairman disconnects their call]

Largo: [angrily] You'll pay for that.

Enforcer: Before or after he finds out that you are lying?

[Largo's enforcer is reporting to the chairman of the Terra Nostra]

Enforcer: They'll be making planetfall any time now.

Chairman: Excellent. Are all Largo's addicts so available?

Enforcer: Yes, chairman. It seems he's been adding it to all the shadow we supplied.

Chairman: Radioactive, you say?

Enforcer: Not exactly. Controlled particle emission. Detectable only with the right equipment; which Largo's got, of course.

Chairman: Surely it damages the addicts?

Enforcer: [shrugging] Kills them a little sooner. But at least if you need one, you always know where to look.

Chairman: What a clever idea. We must consider it for general use.

Enforcer: What about Blake and his friends, chairman?

Chairman: You can leave all that to me.

Enforcer: Yes, chairman.

Chairman: You've done well. Dispose of the body. His assets are now yours. [disconnects the call]

Enforcer: Thank you, chairman.

[the enforcer looks down at Largo's corpse]

Jenna: It's enough to fry your eyeballs.

Avon: …daintily put.

Jenna: Must be the company I keep.

Avon: It could have been frying eyeballs you heard.

Jenna: …daintily put.

Avon: Ironic, isn't it? We were hoping to use the Terra Nostra to attack the Federation, only to discover that it is already being used to support it.

Vila: Where are all the good guys?

Blake: Could be looking at them.

Avon: What a very depressing thought.

Weapon

Avon: Auron may be different, Cally, but on Earth it is considered ill-mannered to kill your friends while committing suicide.

Cally: Sooner or later, Blake is going to attack Federation Central Control on Earth itself.

Vila: Later. Much later.

Avon: And alone, probably.

Jenna: I doubt that.

Gan: He wouldn't be alone if you just left him, Avon.

Avon: You would stay with him?

Gan: Yes.

Avon (smirks): Virtually alone, then.

Avon: It is a triple-A security installation.

Vila: We have got into those before.

Avon: Usually with your screams of protest ringing in our ears. Are you telling me you're in favour of this idea?

Vila: No! Not exactly...I just don't think it's stupid. Perhaps...maybe I'm on your side, Cally.

Blake: It's not a question of sides, Vila.

Avon (to Vila): No, it's a question of intelligence. So your opinion has very little relevance.

Jenna: Maybe IMIPAK is another Orac. If we captured it, perhaps we could breed from them.

Blake: Zen's best guess is that he's… here. Offers?

Gan: Well, let's go and get him.

Avon: Gung ho?

Avon: We do not know what IMIPAK is.

Blake: Exactly. The least we've got to do is find out what it does.

Vila: Why have we? I can live without it.

Blake: It's just conceivable that you can't.

Avon: Unless of course you want your last words to be, "So that's IMIPAK."

Servalan: (Presses a button on the intercom console and the walls are suffused by pastel lights, then speaks into the intercom) Send in Carnell.

Carnell: (notes color changes) Supreme Commander.

Servalan: It's going wrong, Carnell.

Carnell: Wrong? Ma'am, I'm mortified by your lack of confidence.

Servalan: If I lose Coser - and his invention - 'mortified' is exactly what you'll be.

Carnell: I realise that.

Servalan: So long as you do.

Carnell: A brilliant psychostrategist like me? Come now, Supreme Commander. How would I not?

Servalan: Carnell...(She walks from her desk, around the back of his chair to the other side)

Carnell: Yes, Supreme Commander?

Servalan: (Runs her hand down his chest) You miscalculated Coser's breakdown.

Carnell: He went a little sooner, that's all. The rest will be on schedule. You'll get IMIPAK. And when you do, no one will realise you've got it, because everyone else involved will either be dead or running away. (Grasps her hand but she walks away)

Servalan: Except you.

Carnell: Should I be nervous?

Servalan: (Picks up the flower and smiles) Oh, you're the strategist - you tell me.

Officer: (Enters carrying a folder) Supreme Commander?

Carnell: (Appears from the left and looks out the window at the starfield) Almost the only thing I never find boring: contemplating the infinite. Is there something I can do for you?

Officer: I was to report to the Supreme Commander, sir.

Carnell: Too late, I fear. She's already on her way. "To what?" do I hear you ask?

Officer: No, sir.

Carnell: Excellent. It was a trick question. Remember, the officer corps can forgive anything they understand. Which makes intelligence just about the only sin.

Officer: Have I your leave to go, sir?

Carnell: What did you want to see the Supreme Commander about? Or am I being indiscreet?

Officer: I have a report for her. (Carnell puts out his hand for the report folder) It's confidential.

Carnell: From an official psychostrategist?

Officer (surprised): You're a Puppeteer?

Carnell: Do they still call us that? I never really felt that did me justice.

Officer: My apologies, sir. I meant no offense.

Carnell: I was offensive. Why shouldn't you be?

Officer: Sir?

Carnell: Give me the report. (Flips the folder open, scans it briefly and closes it) Do you play chess?

Officer: A little, sir.

Carnell: (Hands him the chess computer) Take it, it's yours.

Officer: (Accepts) Thank you, sir.

Carnell: A small return for saving my life. But then, it's all I own. (brief pause) You have my leave to go now. (Officer leaves) And the other mistake I made was not getting an advance on my fee.

Servalan: (Into intercom, startled) Gone?

Voice (V.O., over intercom): Uh...yes. He left a, uh, confidential message for you, Supreme Commander. It's on channel twelve.

Carnell: Welcome back, Supreme Commander. I apologise for not being here in person to greet you, but I think you'll appreciate my reasons. I overlooked the girl. Well, no, to be fair to myself, your people overlooked her. I know she was only a bond slave, but they should have realised she was gone rather sooner than they did. I might have adapted the strategy. Ah well, even a genius can make mistakes. Look at it this way, Supreme Commander, you haven't lost anything. Whereas I, well, I've lost my career, my position, the respect of my peers. Come to think of it, I haven't lost much, either. On the subject of losers, be careful of Travis. The catharsis he got by killing that first clone will have worn off by now. He's as mad as ever he was. But then, aren't we all? One last thing, Supreme Commander. I must tell you this: you are undoubtedly the sexiest officer I have ever known. (Servalan smiles and picks up the flower)

Horizon

Cally: You're not going to follow the freighter all the way to Horizon?

Blake: Why not? I'm curious.

Avon: Oh, you are curious. Well, I'm glad we have a worthwhile purpose.

Blake: Doesn't it interest you a little?

Avon: No! There's nothing out there - we are on the edge. Even Zen has nothing on it. That could mean anything - an experimental warzone - anything.

Blake: That freighter's gone to Horizon for some good reason.

Avon: Which is more than you can say for us.

Vila: Why don't you go?

Avon: You are expendable.

Vila: And you're not?

Avon: No, I am not. I am not expendable, I'm not stupid, and I'm not going.

Ro: I rule this planet.

Blake: Do you? I thought it was a Federation colony.

Ro: I dislike the word "colony."

Blake: Which word would you prefer?

Ro: I rule here, and you're my prisoners.

Blake: I dislike the word "prisoner."

Avon: If I go alone, can I pilot the Liberator independently?

Orac: With the help of the automatics, of course you can.

Avon: I know that.

Orac: Then why did you ask the question?

Avon: I didn't. How long can I maintain myself?

Orac: Is that a question?

Avon: Yes.

Orac: We have concentrated food for one person for a thousand years.

Avon: And our power is self-regenerating.

Orac: Affirmative.

Avon: Can you plot courses to keep out of the range of any known spaceship manned by the Federation?

Orac: The battle and navigation computers can handle that perfectly adequately.

Avon: I asked if you could.

Orac: Of course, should it be necessary.

Avon: Failing that, we are powerful enough to resist all but an attack by three Federation pursuit ships at once.

Orac: Is that a question?

Avon: No. If we go now, we can sail the universe for as long as we like in reasonable safety, provided we keep out of everybody's way and we do not do anything rash.

Orac: No data available to answer the question. [Beat] If it was a question.

Avon: I put it to you as a possibility. I request the odds.

Orac: The odds would be three point five to one on survival.

Avon: Therefore I do not need Blake, I do not need any of the others...

Orac: Is that a question?

Avon: I do not need anybody at all.

Orac: Is that a question? I - I - I must ask you to be more specific!

Avon: [snaps out of his thoughts] Shut up, Orac.

Avon: Orac, have you obtained any further information on the planet Horizon?

Orac: No.

Avon: Why not?

Orac: Is that a serious question?

Avon: No.

Orac: Please do not waste my time.

Pressure Point

Blake: It's time we really hurt the Federation. Oh, we've been hitting at the fingers, the arms. I want to hit at the heart. And the heart of the Federation is Earth.

Jenna: Where, exactly, or do you plan to take the whole planet?

(Avon has just agreed to join Blake on his suicidal mission)

Blake: Do you want to tell me why?

Avon: I like the challenge.

Blake: You don't want to tell me why.

Avon: If we succeed, if we destroy control, the Federation will be at its weakest. It will be more vulnerable than it has been for centuries. The revolt in the outer worlds will grow. Resistance movements on Earth will launch an all-out attack to destroy The Federation, they will need unifying; they will need a leader. You will be the natural choice.

Blake: Possibly.

Avon: Don't be modest, Blake, you are the only one that they would all follow. You would have no choice; you would have to stay on Earth and organise the revolt.

Blake: If there's no other way.

Avon: There wouldn't be.

Blake: That still doesn't explain why you're backing me.

Avon: With you running the campaign on Earth, somebody has to take charge of all this.

Blake: [Laughing] You want The Liberator?

Avon: Exactly. If we succeed, the destruction of control gives us both what we want.

Blake: Could be you're planning just a little far ahead.

Avon: Perhaps.

Blake: [Via Communicator] Liberator, we're at the rendezvous point, everything's all right.

Avon: You have made contact with Kasabi?

Blake: Not yet. Not directly.

Avon: Then everything is not 'all right.'

Blake: It will be, I'll get back to you.

Avon: [To Vila] Do you get the feeling there's something he's not telling us?

Jenna: I dunno. I hate waiting like this.

Vila: It could be worse; we could be down there with them.

Cally: I'd prefer that to being here.

Vila: You're welcome to take my place when the time comes.

Avon: If it comes.

Cally: What do you mean?

Avon: Something's not right.

Vila: He's failed to make contact with Kasabi.

Avon: Exactly. But Kasabi's signal came from the rendezvous point. Blake has arrived there and failed to make contact.

Jenna: That doesn't necessarily mean anything disastrous. Perhaps they're just being extra careful

Avon: Let's hope so. Because I have a feeling that we are not being careful enough.

Vila: I don't want to go.

Avon: You surprise me.

Vila: I don't feel well. I'm going to be a big handicap.

Avon: I'm used to that.

Gan: Blake, we're going to have to pull out.

Blake: It's a setback, but we've come this far. It means a change of plan but I'd still like to try for it.

Gan: What's the use?! The risks are doubled now.

Blake: I'm not so sure. Kasabi was only giving us back-up cover; holding off the security forces to give us time to penetrate The Forbidden Zone.

Gan: Yes, so how can we hope to do it without her?

Blake: We still have the element of surprise! Even more so. With Kasabi's force wiped out, Security aren't going to expect another assault so soon.

Gan:You're guessing, Blake! Guessing and hoping.

Servalan: Are you beginning to have doubts, Travis?

Travis: No. It won't fail.

Servalan: I hope not, there will be no second chances.

Travis: I won't need them, it's running my way now. The luck has changed. It's my turn!

Servalan: Capturing the girl is the only luck you've had so far.

Travis: That single event has given me total control of the situation.

Travis: With no Teleport to snatch them away, they're mine.

Travis: They'll dig us out eventually.

Servalan: Oh yes. They'll dig us out eventually. And then I'll bury you.

Trial

Par: If you don't shut up, we won't be guarding a court-martial, we'll be having one.

Lye: I joined up to see some action.

Par: More fool you.

Vila:[Talk about Gan] He was straightforward, wasn't always expecting to be cheated and double-crossed -- not like us. He trusted people -- he trusted Blake completely.

Jenna: Much good it did him.

Avon: Welcome back to reality, Jenna.

Avon: Which only leaves one question to be answered. Is it that Blake has a genius for leadership, or merely that you have a genius for being led?

Travis:[after taking a flask of liquor Par has brought him] All right, Par. What have I done to deserve this?

Par: Sir?

Travis: Faithful trooper, beloved officer -- not quite how I see either of us.

Par: You always looked after your men, sir. Now you're gonna die. We thought a drink was the least we could do, sir.

Thania:[meeting with Par after he's left Travis' cell] Trooper Par...do you think he's guilty?

Par: No doubt about it, Major. He gave the order. We just did the shooting.

Vila: I see. So you've decided to be led like the rest of us?

Avon: I shall continue to follow. It's not quite the same thing.

Vila: I don't see the difference.

Avon: Well, I didn't really think that you would.

Travis: I will make the opening declaration.

Thania: Look, don't be a fool. You really think you're going to impress them sympathetically?

Travis: I think the Supreme Commander wants me to go to my death quietly. This is as close to quietly as I am going to get.

Thania: Look, I'm trying to save your life, Travis--

Travis: You'd be better occupied trying to save your own, Thania. Majors can die quite anonymously. And your involvement in this fiasco makes your life expectancy only slightly longer than my own.

Travis: A field officer, like myself, is frequently required to make fast, unconsidered decisions. You were all field officers, you know that's true. Time to think is a luxury battle seldom affords you. You react instinctively. Your actions, your decisions, all instinct, nothing more. But, an officer's instincts are the product of his training. The more thorough the training, the more predictable the instinct, the better the officer. And I am a good officer. I have been in the service all my adult life. I'm totally dedicated to my duty and highly trained in how to perform it. On Serkasta I, I reacted as I was trained to react. I was an instrument of the service. So if I'm guilty of murder, of mass murder, then so are all of you!

Servalan: It really is a pity he's got to die. He's so much better than anything I've got left.

Fleet Warden General Samor: Space Commander, we have considered your sentence at some length. Your contention that what happened on Serkasta was a direct result of your training concerned us greatly. We accept that you are trained to kill. As are we all. What we cannot accept is that this training leads inevitably to the murder of innocents. Your behavior was not that of a Federation officer, but rather that of a savage, unthinking, animal.

Jenna: Do you want to tell me why you've left most of the southern hemisphere off the search pattern?

Avon: I don't believe that Blake can think and swim at the same time. It's nothing but ocean down there.

Avon: It's possible that one of your disciples... one of your three remaining disciples may come after you.

Blake: Then you'll have to talk them out of it. They may even listen to you this time.

Avon: Why not? After all, I don't get them killed.

[Pause]

Blake: [Quietly, to Avon] True.

Avon: One of these days they are going to leave you. They were almost ready to do so this time.

Blake: Yes, I thought they might be.

Avon: You handle them very skilfully.

Blake: Do I?

Avon: But one more death will do it.

Blake: Then you'd better be very careful. It would be ironic if it were yours.

Vila: They missed us! Avon's gadget works!

Blake: I never doubted it for a moment. (Avon frowns.) Is something wrong?

Avon: It just occurred to me that, as the description of a highly sophisticated technological achievement, "Avon's gadget works" seems to lack a certain style.

Avon (To Blake): I would quite like to have met this Zil of yours. It's not often that one comes across a philosophical flea.

Vila: That's the stuff that legends are made of!

Avon: …then again, perhaps they are not so uncommon.

Killer

Vila: I hope you can trust him.

Avon: I told you, he's a friend of mine.

Vila: Yes, I always knew you had a friend. I used to say to people, "I bet Avon's got a friend...somewhere in the galaxy."

Avon: And you were right. That must be a novel experience for you.

Vila: When Avon holds out the hand of friendship, watch his other hand. That's the one with the hammer.

Avon: Vila?

Vila: What?

Avon: You're a fool.

Vila: Nerves getting to you?

Avon: There are a quarter of a million volts running through that converter. I make one false move, I'll be so crisped up what's left of me won't fit into a sandwich.

Vila: I'm a vegetarian. Thanks for the offer, though.

Vila: You don't have a lot of time for Blake, do you?

Avon: I could never stand heroes.

Vila: A quarter of a million volts and you're putting your hand in?

Avon: Ah, but that is self-interest. We need that crystal. Blake takes risks to help other people. Sometimes people he doesn't even know. One day that great big bleeding heart of his will get us all killed.

Vila: Unless somebody ditches him first.

Tynus: By the way, why don't our detectors pick up the Liberator?

Vila: Anti-detection screen, one of Avon's gadgets. We're expecting it to break down any time.

Hostage

(Talking about Avon's detector shield.)

Blake: Looks like the Federation have developed a shield themselves.

Cally: Yes, well, they got very, very close before we saw them.

Avon: That is the most depressing aspect of the whole affair. I was rather hoping to sell them the idea.

Councilor Joban: The council ask 'where is Blake's head?' And we have no answer.

Servalan: You shall have it.

Councilor Joban: The answer, or his head?

Servalan: Both.

Servalan: Estimated time to Exbar?

Mutoid: Planetfall will be at twenty one fifty nine standard.

Servalan: Are we at full capacity?

Mutoid: We are calculating at time distort nine. That is our safety maximum.

Servalan: I thought this ship was capable of time distort ten?

Mutoid: That is the emergency maximum.

Servalan: This is emergency, time distort ten.

Mutoid: Yes, Supreme Commander. Time distort ten.

Servalan: Mutoids. Don't you ever question anything?

Mutoid: This is not our function. Our function is to obey without question. Computer reports message from Counsellor Joban.

Servalan: Ignore it.

Mutoid: It is from headquarters Supreme Commander.

Servalan: I said, ignore it.

Mutoid: It is directed to this ship.

Servalan: Is it directed to you?

Mutoid: No.

Servalan: To whom is it directed?

Mutoid: To you.

Servalan: And I said ignore it. Understood?

Mutoid: Understood.

Jenna: Where are you going?

Cally: I'm going to clear the neutron blasters for firing.

Jenna: Well, what are you going to fire at?

Cally: Anything that moves.

Vila: What have I done to deserve this?

Avon: How long a list would you like?

Servalan: There's no one as free as a dead man.

Countdown

Avon: It would be stupid to be shot up by our own allies.

Vila: Not only stupid, painful.

Blake: Just one thing. If that countdown goes below fifty and the device is still primed, you will be teleported out. Vila and I will do the same.

Avon: Understood.

Blake [speaking into wrist communicator]: Jenna, Cally, prepare thermal equipment. Stand by to teleport, Avon's coming up. [stops an approaching Del Grant] One more thing: if anything happens to Avon, I will come looking for you.

Avon: If there had ever been a time when I could have given my own life to save her, I would have done it. The only grain of consolation that I have ...is that Anna knew that.

Voice From The Past

Avon: Predictably barren.

Jenna: Wretched mining companies. No sense of aesthetics.

Avon: What d'you want them to do, landscape?

Jenna: Weeell, they could make an effort.

Servalan: Where there's life, there's threat

Blake: For once just try trusting me. [Leaves]

Cally: What is this priority of his?

Avon: Exactly. He's used a number of ploys to get his own way, but "Just try trusting me"? That's weak even by his standards

Cally: So what is wrong?

Orac: You deduced it yourself earlier. Space Command has long tried to perfect a course interceptor attuned to the circuitry of navigational computers and rational coordinators like Zen. The scientists on Auron, however, had the wit to aim for the weaker point.

Avon: The human brain.

Orac: Correct.

Cally: A telepathic order was beamed to Blake to force him reroute to that asteroid?

Orac: As you, yourself, foresaw.

Avon: So tell us something new.

Orac: It is to Blake that you should look for the new.

Avon: What's that supposed to mean? That they are still influencing him?

Orac: Correct again.

Avon: But how? A device of that kind would need an enormous power source.

Orac: Agreed. But now that they...

Avon: [Interrupting] Now that they are close at hand, low power; of course.

Cally: What do we do?

Avon: Locate and destroy it.

Orac: And restore Blake to his senses.

Avon: The two don't necessarily follow.

Glynn: Be careful not to tamper with it. At this close range it could cause serious damage to your computers.

Avon: Is that correct Orac?

Orac: No. Negative. Denied. Incapable of damage.

Cally (to Blake): Are you all right?

Jenna: He's a hard man to rescue when he doesn't want to be rescued.

Avon: More to the point, are you yourself?

Blake: What happened? Why aren't we at Del 10? What's going on, Avon?

Avon: Why don't you just say thank you, nicely.

Blake: Well what are we all standing around for? Or has the Federation disappeared? Our problem is to find Star One, if you haven't forgotten. (Walks off.)

Avon: I am sorry to have to inform you… that he is himself, all right.

Gambit

Vila: They say it's wide open.

Avon: What is?

Vila: Freedom City.

Avon: So I've heard; Wide wide open.

Vila: Got everything a man ever dreams of, they say.

Avon: Space City pales by comparison, they say.

Vila: Y'know if it was a desert down there. So hot your eyeball frizzled, poisonous snakes under every rock.

Avon: Blake would've sent us.

Vila: You can bet on it.

Avon: The Big Wheel is run by a computer, that fixes the odds at five percent in favour of the house. Right?

Vila: Right.

Avon: Right. Orac reads computers.

Vila: ...oh, that is beautiful. Avon, there are times when I almost get to like you.

Avon: Yes, well that makes it all worthwhile.

Vila: I mean, you give me a warm feeling right here, round the money belt.

Krantor: One of these days, Toise, I am going to have Supreme Commander high-and-mighty Servalan ravaged until she does not know what month she's in! I'll have her screaming for death!

Servalan: (about Krantor) He is a despicable animal. When the Federation finally cleans out this cesspit, I shall have that vulpine degenerate eviscerated with a small and very blunt knife.

The Keeper

Blake: He seems harmless.

Vila: He smells horrible.

Blake: Well, so would you if you'd been here for as long as he has.

Star One

Avon: I have been doing some calculations. If this is Star One -

Blake: If it is?

Avon: First, catch your computer, but all right, it probably is, and that being the case, the choice of location is fascinating.

Blake: I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Avon: The nearest large galaxy to our own is Andromeda.

Blake: So?

Avon: So, this is the nearest point to Andromeda. If anyone could cross intergalactic space in less than a lifetime we are now precisely upon the route that they would take.

Blake: What are you trying to say, Avon?

Avon: I directed the detectors toward the Andromeda galaxy. There are thousands of satellite generators out there... beyond Star One.

Blake: What?

Avon: Even with the Federation's resources it must have taken them years.

Blake: [examining a readout] That must be the biggest antimatter minefield ever put together!

Vila: Minefield, what minefield?

Avon: Perhaps the intergalactic drive has been developed. The question is, by whom?

Blake: A defence zone to keep mankind in, or something else out.

Jenna: So it's a combined alarm system and minefield.

Orac: Correct. If I may continue.

Vila: He always makes me feel as if I should be taking notes.

Orac: [annoyed] If I may continue.

Vila: Then they are expecting an invasion? A hoard of hairy aliens!

Orac: There is no logical reason why aliens should be hairy.

Vila: There's no logical reason why people should be hairy!

Durkim: Servalan, by design or accident Star One is failing.

Servalan: There has to be another explanation.

Durkim: There isn't.

Servalan: And if you want to keep your job you'll find it.

Durkim: Why won't you face the facts?

Servalan: Because I'm not convinced. And even if I were, there would be nothing I could do about it.

Durkim: Well, surely under the circumstances you could get clearance to put a team in.

Servalan: Star One is the most secure installation in the Federation.

Durkim: I know that.

Servalan: Do you know why it's so thoroughly secure?

Durkim: Well, presumably because knowledge of its location is severely restricted.

Servalan: No! Knowledge of its location is non-existent! (Her tone is one of anger and desperation) Durkim, no-one knows where Star One is! No-one at all!

Blake: I meant what I said on Goth, Avon. We are not going to use Star One to rule the Federation, we are going to destroy it.

Avon: I never doubted that. I never doubted your fanaticism. As far as I'm concerned you can destroy whatever you like. You can stir up a thousand revolutions. You can wade in blood up to your armpits. Oh, and you can lead the rabble to victory -- whatever that may mean. Just so long as there's an end to it. When Star One is gone, it is finished, Blake. And I want it finished! I want it over and done with, I want to be free!

Cally: But you are free now, Avon.

Avon: [Bitterly, while glaring at Blake] I want to be free of him!

Travis: Put the gun down, Avon, it's too late to stop it now.

Avon: Convince me.

Travis: Be polite and I may let you live.

Avon: Be informative and I may let you die. You'll want that after I've shot off an arm and a leg or two.

Travis: I thought you were supposed to be the one with brains.

Avon: Brains but no heart. Now talk or scream, Travis, the choice is yours.

[They see an Andromedan for the first time]

Technician: What is it?

Avon: Unfriendly. Which is fortunate, they'd be difficult to love.

Alien: [believing he is talking to Travis] Why have you betrayed your own kind? Why have you given us the means to eradicate your species?

Blake: Eradicate humanity?

Alien: Virtually.

Blake: [re-assuming Travis' arrogant persona] Well. Maybe I just don't like crowds!

(Travis enters and shoots Blake)

Blake: Travis! (He collapses, apparently dead)

Stott: You are Travis?

Travis: I am Travis.

Stott: Then who is this?

Travis: His name is Blake. (He looks down and smirks in contempt) Hm. His name was Blake.

Travis: [When Travis is about to secretly let a horde of Aliens through a galactic defense shield to wipe out all of humanity] My one regret is that they'll never know who really killed them...

Blake: [To Avon] For what it is worth, I have always trusted you. Right from the very beginning.

Vila: Avon, this is stupid!

Avon: When did that ever stop us? (camera shows each in turn, then:) Fire!

Series Three

Aftermath

[Dayna is tending to Avon, after rescuing him from the Sarrens]

Dayna: Are you feeling better?

Avon: Not really. But at least I'm still alive. If I was dead, I don't think I'd have this blinding headache.

[Dayna impulsively kisses Avon]

Avon: What was that for?

Dayna: Curiosity.

Avon: I'm all in favour of healthy curiosity. I hope yours isn't satisfied too easily...I think you cured my headache.

Avon: Well, I hope she's not totally insane. Under the circumstances that could be a little bit embarrassing.

Zen: Damage control estimates that breakdown is now beyond the capacity of auto-repair systems in all areas. Serious malfunction in life-support would indicate that evacuation by life capsule is a priority one requirement.

Dayna: I Like the ancient weapons. The spear, the sword, the knife. They demand more skill. When you fight with them, conflict becomes more personal... More exciting.

Avon: More dangerous.

Dayna: Of course! Without danger, there's no pleasure.

Avon: That must limit your range of pleasures a bit.

Avon: I have had enough excitement for a while. Right now a little boredom wouldn't come amiss.

Servalan: [Pointing a gun at Avon's head from behind] Stay quite still.

Avon: Servalan.

Servalan: You don't sound surprised.

Avon: Why should I be? It has a perverse kind of logic to it. Our meeting is the most unlikely happening I could imagine; therefore, we meet. Surprise seems inappropriate somehow.

Hal Mellanby: You're not alone in losing your ship. The losses on both sides have been tremendous. I've been monitoring the status transmissions.

Kerr Avon: Did we win?

Hal: Sounds very confused, but there's not much doubt. The aliens were virtually wiped out.

Avon: Well the price was high enough. But at least we got what we paid for.

Hal: You almost didn't. It was a close run thing; what's left of the federation fleet, which isn't much, is scattered halfway across the galaxy. I'd say the Federation is in a lot of trouble.

Avon: Yes, it's difficult to sustain a military dictatorship when you've lost most of the military. [Hal laughs] I only hope Blake survived long enough to know that he was winning.... Both wars.

Hal: Blake? You were with Blake?

Avon: Yes. Though it hardly seems to matter now, if it ever did.

Hal: If it mattered? Blake and the Liberator. I've been hearing reports over the last couple of years. You were magnificent!

Avon: Not from where I was sitting.

[Discussing Dayna]

Hal: She has a genius with weaponry systems. And that's not just a father's pride talking.

Avon: And yet, with all this to choose from, she still goes around with a bow and arrows.

Hal: She takes absurd risks. I try to discourage her but I think she's trying to prove to herself that there's no weapon, ancient or modern, she cannot master.

Avon: I seldom comment on other people's ethics.

Servalan: I'm going to be honest with you.

Avon: That should be mildly disconcerting.

Avon: It's a great pity you and I have always been on opposite sides, Servalan.

Servalan: You have one other quality I admire. Very much.

Avon: Yes?

Servalan: You are infinitely corruptible. You'd sell out anybody, wouldn't you?

Avon: I don't know. I never really had an offer I felt was worthy of me.

Avon: Imagination our only limit? I'd be dead in a week.

Powerplay

Vila: It's not that I'm I coward or anything, it's just that I have a very low pain threshold. Hardly a threshold at all, actually.

Dayna: And once we're out?

Avon: This is my ship.

[Avon is trying to pick the lock to their cell]

Dayna: Do you want me to try it?

Avon: Are you any good with locks?

Dayna: No. But then neither are you by the look of it.

Avon: You should never judge by appearances.

Dayna: I don't. I judge by results, and you're not getting any.

Avon: Wrong again. [Opens the door]

(Avon and Dayna find a guard with a knife in his back)

Avon: That's a difficult way to commit suicide.

Dayna: Perhaps he was cleaning it and it went off.

Dayna: I'll come with you.

Avon: I can do it faster on my own.

Dayna: Do what? Avon, why do you keep everything to yourself? Why so secretive?

Avon: Perhaps I'm shy. (Goes to leave) Anybody comes through this door, kill them! (Pause; sardonic smile) Anybody that isn't me, that is.

Tarrant: Oh, don't blame yourself.

Avon: I'll try not to.

Tarrant: I imagine you've been under considerable stress.

Avon: I had hoped for a more inspiring epitaph.

Avon: That one is Cally; I shall introduce her more formally when she wakes up. This one is Vila; I should really introduce him now, he's at his best when he's unconscious.

Cally (to Vila): Given the choice, would you rather be a load of spare parts down there?

Avon: Or one spare part up here?

Volcano

Tarrant: It all seems quiet enough, Cally, if you don't count the volcano. I should let Orac take over. I think it's going to be some time before we find these friends of Dayna's.

Cally: All right, but keep in touch. Heroic rescues can be embarrassing if you're not actually in danger.

Cally: And what about Dayna? Don't you trust her either?

Vila: Dayna's a… different case entirely.

Cally: Well, she's pretty, for one thing.

Vila: Pretty? Yes, I suppose she is. I hadn't really noticed.

Avon: We've seen you not really noticing. Frequently.

Mori: I ask the questions. So, this is your magic computer, Orac, isn't it?

Orac: I assume your use of the word magic means that I am incomprehensible to you. While that may well be the case, your use of the word is inappropriate.

Mori: What?

Orac: Your use of the word magic is inappropriate. I am simply the sum of the thousands of data stores which are available to me.

(Vila and Cally are unable to contact Avon on the surface)

Vila: Communications blindspot… or maybe he landed in the volcano.

Cally: No, I think he's all right.

Vila: Yes, of course he's all right. There isn't a volcano alive that would dare to swallow Avon.

Cally: Vila, be quiet.

Vila: He's cold enough to put out the fire, anyway.

Dawn of the Gods

Tarrant: One day, Avon, I may have to kill you.

Avon (smiles): It has been tried.

Vila (Waking up with Avon looking down at him): I'm in Hell... and it's full of Avons.

Orac: Fascinating. Fascinating! A thousand years here would be too short.

Tarrant: [Holding up his index finger] Groff, what's that?

Groff: A finger?

Tarrant: A finger. And as you can see, it is better designed for pressing buttons than holding writing implements.

The Harvest of Kairos

Servalan: Jarvik? Of course. Jarvik. Jarvik, the construction worker. What was it now? Any fool could take the Liberator with three pursuit ships. Well, the Liberator will soon be diffusing itself throughout the galaxy as so many billion split particles. So, regrettably, we shall never know. Thanks to the folly of your president, who with her aides and her technical advisers, her battle computers and her captains, extravagantly disposed herself to use four pursuit ships. And yet any fool could have done it with three. Perhaps this particular fool will tell her how. (pause) Well? Have you nothing to say to Servalan?

Jarvik: Woman, you're beautiful. (grabs and kisses Servalan)

Servalan: Guards! Take this primitive to the punishment cells! Move!

Servalan: You say any fool could take The Liberator with three pursuit ships. Could you?

Jarvik: I could take her with one. But, as a man, Tarrant is worthy of honour. Three would not insult him.

Servalan: There's nothing to stop them now. The cream of my fleet, gone! Destroyed. And all you can do is smile as though you'd achieved something.

Jarvik: I have.

Servalan: What?

Jarvik: I made it look convincing.

Servalan: Oh, it was convincing all right. It convinced me. Three Mark Tens and fifteen years' supply of Kairopan.

Jarvik: You wanted the Liberator? If you're patient, you shall have her.

Servalan: And what will you take her with? A Kairopan shuttle? A transporter, perhaps? Or will you use your bare hands?! What are you doing?

Jarvik: (Picks up Servalan and dumps her on a couch) Lie there and keep quiet until I tell you otherwise.

Servalan: But first, there is the matter of that degrading and primitive act you subjected me to in the control room... I should like you to do it again.

Jarvik: But when was the last time you felt the warmth of the Earth's sun on your naked back? Or lifted your face to the heavens, and laughed with the joy of being alive? How long since you wept at the death of a friend? [Pause.] Doesn't mean a thing to you, does it, Madam President? You've surrounded yourself with machines and weapons, mindless men and heartless mutoids; and when they've done your work, and the machines have done your thinking, what is there left in you that feels?!

Servalan: So tell me, Zen, how does one operate this craft?

Zen: One manipulates the controls and the craft functions accordingly.

Avon: [Discussing Sopron] This happens to be the most sophisticated life form that it has ever been my good fortune to come across. Present company Not excepted.

Tarrant: Life? But it looks like...

Avon: A rock. Yes. Well, when you live on the permanent dark side of a planet nobody cares too much what you look like.

[The crew are approaching Liberator in an antiquated, unarmed, landing module]

Tarrant: Zen will have picked us up by now.

Avon: So?

Tarrant: So what do we do before they blow us out of the galaxy?

Avon: We Attack.

Tarrant: Attack? We have nothing to attack with.

Avon: Then bluff it. Tell them to surrender.

Tarrant: Is that a weapon?

Avon: That? No, no, it's purely defensive. An analogue of something that evolves on the permanent dark side of a planet. A highly simplified copy of course.

Tarrant: Permanent dark side? Are you saying you've...

Avon: I've built an artificial Sopron. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

[Zen informs Servalan that the module is marginally better equipped than Liberator]

Avon: Self defense. Some animals bristle out their fur to frighten their enemies. But that doesn't count for much in the dark.

Vila: So what does Sopron do?

Avon: Sopron is a mirror. A distorting mirror. It reflects a slightly greater image of whatever it is that happens to be scanning it. Zen saw a capacity-charged brain, because that is what Zen is. Orac saw a highly sophisticated computer because that is what Orac is. Cally thought that she saw her parents, But what she actually saw was herself.

Tarrant: And will that work?

Avon: Oh yes. The question is... what will Servalan see? And will she be fooled by it?

Vila: Are you sure you can dock this thing?

Tarrant: I hadn't really considered it.

Vila: What?

Tarrant: I thought we'd be dead by now.

City at the Edge of the World

Vila: All my life, for as long as I can remember, there's been people like you.

Tarrant: And I thought I was unique.

Vila: You're not even unusual, Tarrant.

Avon (on Vila): I don't know how you persuaded him to go, Tarrant.

Tarrant: I appealed to his better nature.

Avon: He hasn't got one. Leave him alone in future.

Tarrant: Or?

Avon: Do you want me to threaten you?

Tarrant: Why not. I haven't had a good laugh in ages.

Avon: Sensible. You could die laughing.

Cally: Why are you suddenly so protective towards Vila?

Avon: He's irritating, but he's useful. We can easily replace a pilot, but a talented thief is rare.

Tarrant: I'd agree with that. So?

Avon: So frighten him too much, he's no use to anyone.

Cally (on Vila): He was terrified. So terrified he might just get himself killed, because it's easier than going on.

Tarrant: I'll take that risk.

Cally: It isn't yours to take.

Vila: I'll get you for this, Tarrant! I'll tear your arm off and beat you to death with the wet end! I'll get you for this!

Bayban the Butcher: I may have to get rid of Kerril. Be a pity; she's the best gun hand I ever had, but, ah, she's got no team spirit, you know. And you can't run an outfit like mine without team spirit.

Vila: What outfit is it exactly, if you don't mind me asking?

Bayban the Butcher: Oh, I do mind you asking. I mind very much!

Bayban the Butcher: You don't know who I am.

Vila: Absolutely not, no idea. You needn't worry about it, I won't ask any questions.

Bayban the Butcher: A small-time thief, and failed revolutionary, and you don't know who I am?

Vila: Ah. Well, if you put it like that, of course I know who you are. You're -- you're, ah --

Bayban the Butcher: Bayban.

Vila: Bayban, yes.

Bayban the Butcher: Bayban the Beserker. Bayban the Butcher.

Vila: Bayban the Butcher . . . you're Bayban the Butcher! Oh, no.

Bayban the Butcher: That's better.

Vila: You're top of the Federation's Most Wanted list -- after Blake.

Bayban the Butcher: What do you mean, "after Blake"? I was working my way up that list before he crept out of his creche. WORKING my way up. I didn't take any political shortcuts.

Vila: I know, I know. You have a reputation for straightforward mayhem that's second to none. I've been an admirer of yours for, um, well, for as long as I can remember. Well maybe not that long, I mean, uh, you're not that old, are you? But, uh, then again, you did start very young, didn't you? I think I feel sick.

Bayban the Butcher: My mother [Sees the look on Vila's face] Oh yes, I had a mother; truly evil person. My mother used to say "Babe" -- she called me Babe -- "babe", she said, "Live every hour as though it were your last." I'll be back in an hour.

Avon: The point is that Vila won't trust you whereas he will trust Cally and me.

Tarrant: Cally yes, but why you?

Avon: Because he knows what I think about him.

Tarrant: You despise him.

Avon: Right. But at least I'm consistent about it.

Sherm: You've twenty-five minutes left.

Vila: Who told you that?

Sherm: Bayban:

Vila: I didn't think you could have worked it for yourself... Joke! Just a joke.

Vila: I don't believe in suicide, it stunts your growth!

Vila: [Sees a corpse decayed to a skeleton] Lost a lot of weight, hasn't he?

Avon: [Pointing his gun at Bayban] Bloodthirsty little maniac aren't you? Where's Vila?

Bayban: I don't know what you're talking about.

[Tarrant and Dayna enter]

Tarrant: Hello, Bayban. I heard a rumour you were dead. Funny that, seems to be true.

Bayban: Do I know you?

Tarrant: That's the trouble with celebrities. They never remember the little people.

Avon: Where is Vila?!

Bayban: Who?

Avon: How would you like me to let some fresh air into that rancid little brain of yours?

Bayban: Go ahead, you'll be famous, "The man who killed Bayban."

Cally: [Pointing her gun at Bayban] I'd quite like to be famous too. How about "The woman that killed Bayban"?

Dayna: [Pointing her gun at Bayban] Or better still, "The girl who killed Bayban"?

Kerril: If you think what happened in here gives you the right to treat me like some sort of...

Vila: Treat you like some sort of what? I haven't treated you like any sort of anything.

Cally: Vila, we thought we'd lost you!

Avon: …but every silver lining has a cloud.

Vila: I'd say you'd got that wrong, except I know you didn't.

Kerril: Are you coming with me?

Vila: I can't.

Kerril: Why not? It's a chance to be free, you saw that place, it's beautiful.

Vila: But there's nothing there worth stealing!

[Vila has left Kerril]

Vila: I think I've just made the biggest mistake of my life.

Orac: In the light of your previous record, that seems unlikely. I would predict that there are far greater mistakes waiting to be made by someone with your obvious talent for it.

Vila: Shut up, Orac. [Switched Orac Off] Still, it's a comforting thought. Let's hope they've all got good legs!

Children of Auron

Cally: Why Earth?

Tarrant: Why not?

Vila: The Himalayas are quite tall at this time of year.

Vila: And the Aurons punished you for your defiance, didn't they?

Tarrant: Were you exiled?

Cally: Yes. Why d'you imagine I've never gone back? (Looking at Avon) Affection for him?

Tarrant: Democracy. You're outvoted, Avon. Three to two.

Vila: Four to one. I like to stay with the winners whenever possible.

Avon: The trouble with the people of Auron is that they all suffer from a superiority complex.

Vila: You should get on with them then.

Avon: Too good to become involved with the rest of humanity.

Cally: That's not true. Just because we happen to be neutral...

Avon: [Interuppting] Neutrality or pacifism: it all boils down to the same gutless inanity.

Tarrant: This should snap her out of it.

Vila: That stuff would snap an asteroid out of orbit!

Avon: [Over communicator to Vila] Liberator? [No response] Idiot! Wake up!

Vila: They stand as much chance as a bubble in a black hole.

Rumours of Death

Shrinker: Why? I don't even ... I never saw him before. What have I ever done to him?

Dayna: You killed someone he loved.

Vila: And there aren't many of them about. Avon's not a very lovable man, in case you hadn't noticed.

Shrinker: Who was it?

(Tarrant, Dayna and Vila begin to circle Shrinker)

Tarrant: Did they give you names when they gave you your orders?

Dayna: And even if they did, could you put a face to the name? One screaming face among so many screaming faces?

Vila: Did they beg, Shrinker? Did they plead? No, Shrinker, please, Shrinker?

Tarrant: Can you remember how they cried, what they cried? Can you separate the voices now?

Dayna: Or is it just one long, satisfying scream?

Cally: Stop it! Stop it! All of you! Leave him alone.

Tarrant: He's an animal, Cally.

Cally: Yes, and it's contagious, isn't it?

Section Leader Forres: Some days are better than others, sir. They say that where I come from, sir.

Major Grenlee: Loudly, I imagine, on the day you left.

Section Leader Forres: My mother cried when I left. Thought she'd never see me again.

Major Grenlee: Cries easily, your mother, does she?

Section Leader Forres: No, not really, sir. But I owed her money, you see. Oh, it's true, may I never leave this spot.

Major Grenlee: That can be arranged, Section Leader.

Section Leader Forres: Shall I seal the perimeter?

Major Grenlee: No!

Section Leader Forres: Standard operating procedure, sir.

Major Grenlee: I don't give a damn if it's holy writ! You don't seal the perimeter on the day the President's giving her first official reception in her new residence. Not unless you'd like to explain to her that the guests couldn't get through because we had a faulty microcircuit.

Section Leader Forres: There are worse things than foot patrol, sir.

Major Grenlee: Oh, there are indeed, Section Leader. And if we interfere with that reception, we'll get to know most of them. Intimately.

Shrinker: [as Avon is preparing to teleport out of the barren, exit-less cavern they are both standing in] We had a deal.

Avon: Did we?

Shrinker: A way out. You promised me.

Avon: Oh, and I'm a man of my word. In the end, that's all there is, really.

[Avon throws the small handgun he has been holding onto the ground]

Shrinker: What's that for?

Avon: That's your way out. It's a better deal than you gave any of your victims. [speaking into his teleport bracelet] Bring me up.

Shrinker: [kneeling down to retrieve the handgun] No, we had a deal!

[Avon teleports out of the cavern]

Shrinker: That isn't what I meant! That isn't fair! It isn't fair!

Tarrant: Is it done?

Avon: Yes, but it isn't finished.

Vila: Wonderful. Who's next on your list? Servalan?

Avon: [Activates Orac] Orac.

Orac: [Annoyed] What is it now?

Avon: Gracious as ever. Orac, I want you to interrogate the Federation Security computers and get me Servalan's present location.

Vila: I was joking, Avon!

Avon: Do you know Orac's main drawback?

Dayna: He's too useful to destroy.

Avon: Irritating, isn't it?

Avon: I'm going down alone.

Tarrant: Not this time.

Avon: This has nothing to do with you -- with any of you.

Tarrant: That's true.

Dayna: On the other hand, you are something to do with us.

Cally: We've talked about it, and discovered we care what happens to you.

Tarrant: Within reason, of course.

Dayna: We're as surprised about it as you are.

Vila: Not to mention embarrassed.

[Avon kneels next to Servalan, who has been beaten and chained to a wall in the basement of her Presidential estate, by the rebels who overthrew her earlier]

Servalan: I might have known you were behind all this.

Avon: You flatter me.

Servalan: Go to hell, Avon.

Avon: Probably.

Avon: What's the matter with you, Servalan? I'm offering to set you free.

Tarrant: You're offering to let her go. That's not the same thing.

Avon: What are you talking about?

Tarrant: I'm talking about the President of the Terran Federation, Ruler of the High Council, Lord of the Inner and Outer Worlds, High Admiral of the Galactic Fleets, Lord General of the Six Armies, and Defender of the Earth.

Avon: Get to the point.

Tarrant: The point is, that a few dozen guerrillas walked in, killed her guards, beat her up, and then chained her up. You want to set her free? Convince her that it didn't happen.

Avon: [talking to a defeated Servalan] Is that it? Have you finally lost your nerve?

[Avon grabs Servalan by the neck, forcing her to look at him]

Avon: Have you murdered your way to the wall of an underground room?

Servalan: [looking defiantly at Avon] It's an old wall, Avon. It waits. I hope you don't die before you reach it.

Avon: How did you get away, Anna, that last day, the day I got myself shot? How did you get away?

Anna: I waited for you, and when you didn't come back, I ran.

Shrinker: (V.O.) Bartolomew was running you.

Avon: Where to? Where did you run to, Anna? Not to your brother. He thinks you're dead. Who hid you, Anna?

Anna: My husband. I didn't love him, he knew that. There was only you. But he wanted me and I was afraid.

Shrinker: (V.O.) Bartolomew stayed close and let you run...close and let you run...close and let you run.

Avon (very quietly, almost horrified, as he realises the truth): He...wasn't Bartolomew, was he?

Servalan (almost sympathetic): No, he wasn't. Not even Chesku knew who Bartolomew was. But you do, don't you, Avon?

Cally (offscreen, shocked): Avon!

Avon (Wheels and fires. Anna falls and he catches her, sinking to his knees, cradling her) At least that was honest.

Anna: I knew when you found out, you would kill me.

Avon: Unless you killed me first.

Anna: Huh. We were well matched, Avon.

Avon: You weren't even real. Bartolomew, Central Security's best agent, one of your colleagues told me that.

Anna: Anna Grant. I was only ever Anna Grant with you.

Avon: Of all the things I have known myself to be, I never recognised the fool.

Anna [as she is dying in Avon's arms]: It wasn't all lies...I let you go...my love.

[Anna dies]

Avon: Oh no, you never let me go...you never did.

Sarcophagus

Avon: Auron.

Cally: Yes, Auron. It's pointless to think about it. I'll never see it again.

Avon: That's why you've been shut in here for ten hours, thinking about Auron and how you'll never see it again?

Cally: That's why.

Avon: I wish I could promise you that the sparkling company on the flight deck would take you out of yourself.

Cally: I'm all right.

Avon: No you're not. But you will be. Regret is part of being alive. But keep it a small part.

Cally: As you do?

Avon: (Smiles) Demonstrably.

Tarrant: Ah, Cally - I've been going over that theory of yours about the teleport bracelets boosting each other. As you're aware, it doesn't make sense.

Cally: You have a better one?

Tarrant: There was some kind of power source on that alien ship that you were telepathically receptive to. When the teleport failed, you were able to use that source to get yourself out, and to get Avon and Vila out with you.

Cally (sarcastically): I seem to be more clever than I thought I was!

Tarrant: What I really want to know is why you're being so bashful. (serious) What are you hiding, and why?

Avon: Shut up, Tarrant.

Tarrant (angrily): Did you say something to--

Avon: I said, shut up. I apologise for not realising you are deaf.

Tarrant (to Avon): When you found me on the Liberator, it was quite a blow. And every time you look at me it hits you harder, doesn't it? I'm faster than you and I'm sharper. As far as it goes, I've made a success of my life. But you? The only big thing you ever tried to do you failed at. The greatest computer swindle of all time… but you couldn't quite pull it off, could you? If it hadn't been for Blake you'd be rotting on Cygnus Alpha right now. No, you failed, Avon. But I win. Not just at games. At life.

Avon: You also talk too much.

Tarrant: Be thankful I'm restricting myself to talk.

Avon: Well now, that's fascinating. You mean you can do something else?

Tarrant: Avon...do you want to forget I said all that?

Avon: It wasn't particularly memorable.

Dayna: We need sleep, all of us. Even you need sleep, Tarrant.

Tarrant (sarcastically): And tomorrow, everything will look different.

Avon: If it does, you can assume you're on the wrong ship.

Alien/Cally: I thought you were the clever one. You're a fool, like Tarrant! The pain Tarrant is experiencing ... visualise that pain and much more. You're as close to death as you have ever been. Think about human death, Avon, irrevocable...

Avon: I have thought about it, what's keeping you?

Alien/Cally: What did you say?

Avon: You claim you can kill me. You'd better get on with it. Make me die. There's nothing else you can make me do.

Ultraworld

Avon: Either it is dead or there is a total radio blackout. I wonder what they have to hide.

Dayna: I'm not keen on finding out.

Tarrant: This time, neither am I.

Avon: Don't you find it interesting?

Dayna: You'll be telling us next 'We can learn a lot from whoever built it'

Avon: Well we certainly have nothing to teach them unless it's how to remain ignorant. What do you think Cally? Shall we stay and observe or shall we scuttle off with our closed minds intact?

Tarrant: Touch of conscience?

Avon: More like insanity. You really believe in taking risks, don't you?

Tarrant: Calculated ones.

Avon: Calculated on what? Your fingers?

Avon: Wait a minute. Germanium circuitry is clever stuff, but to the best of my knowledge it cannot think for itself nor can it reproduce its own structure.

Ultra 1: You have an astute mind, Avon.

Avon: If you say so.

Ultra 2: There is another process involved: Nucleoplasmic absorption.

Tarrant (sarcastically): Oh, well, that's a relief. I thought it might be something complicated.

Ultra 1 (puzzled): The process is extremely complex.

Avon: Ignore him. That's what passes for "wit" on board our ship.

Dayna (after the aliens have offered them their freedom in exchange for recording the "human bonding ceremony"): Tarrant, I think we should accept the offer. Then we can return to the Liberator.

Tarrant: You can't be serious. You don't believe what they say?

Dayna: We have to believe if we hope to survive. Kiss me.

Tarrant (surprised): What?

Dayna: I said, kiss me. (leans closer to Tarrant) Come on. I can't be all that repulsive. (they kiss)

Vila: Come out, come out, wherever you are... help... I'm being got at...

Avon: Tell me, Orac, how precisely did Vila confuse and distract Ultraworld?

Orac: Quite simple. With a series of random and illogical brain impulses. The planet was programmed to assimilate orderly coherent thought patterns. Anything else confused it.

Vila: Eh?

Avon: You mean Vila spouted nonsense.

Vila: I resent that!

Avon: Oh, I wouldn't if I were you. Orac is saying that a logical, rational intelligence is no match for yours.

Moloch

Vila: I tell you, she's mad! She's finally gone over the top! Well, that's an interesting viewpoint, Vila. Yes, isn't it? Came from talking to myself. Fascinating. And do you have any other theories about... paranoids?

(Tarrant threatens Vila at gunpoint)

Vila: If it comes down to that, Tarrant, there isn't really a lot of point, is there?

Doran: Ahh, my problem was always women.

Vila: You like them?

Doran: No.

(The Liberator is being attacked by three of Servalan's ships)

Dayna: Do we fight?

Avon: Certainly not, we run.

Death-Watch

Avon: Put it on the main screen.

Orac: I must point out that this is a gross misuse and an absurd waste of my capabilities.

Avon: Put it on the main screen.

Orac: I will do it only under protest.

Avon: You can do it any way you like, just so long as you put it on the main screen.

Vila: Couldn't you re-design him as something useful, like a drinks dispenser? Or an empty space! I think he'd look really good as an empty space.

Vila (on Servalan): Her idea of chivalry is never to shoot a blind man in the back.

Dayna (pointedly, given that that's exactly what Servalan did to Dayna's father): That's very true, Vila.

Vila: Wonderful. And for my next trick I shall swallow my other foot.

Servalan: I don't think of you as an enemy, Avon. I see you as a... future friend.

Avon: Tarrant. I presume you have no tedious scruples about cheating and lying.

Tarrant: None at all.

Avon: (smiles) Oh good.

Terminal

Tarrant: How do we approve of something we don't know about?

Avon: You could try trusting me.

Tarrant: All right, Avon, we'll try trusting you. Just don't expect us to make a habit of it.

Tarrant: Oh, come on, Avon. Look, we've been through a lot together. We've always been at risk; we've always taken chances. But we've survived because we worked as a team. So what is it you have to do that makes this so different?

Avon: This happens to be my problem. None of you are involved.

Dayna: But we are involved. However much you like to pretend you're a loner, you're not really. We depend on each other; I wouldn't be alive now if it wasn't for you, and I'm sure that's true of everybody else. So why not trust us?

Vila: Look, you don't have to give reasons. You don't even have to explain. Whatever it is, we'll back you up.

Cally: Or, if you want one of your own cold, rational explanations, we can't afford to lose you.

Avon (poker-faced): Sentiment breeds weakness. Let it get a hold of you and you are dead.

Avon: One last thing. I don't need any of you. I needed the Liberator to bring me here so I had no choice but to bring you along, but this is as far as you go. I don't want you with me, I don't want you following me. Understand this: anyone who does follow me, I'll kill them.

(Tarrant and Cally are teleporting down despite Avon's orders)

Vila: What're you going to do if he spots you?

Tarrant: Duck.

Blake: It must have been so dull, having no-one to argue with.

Avon: Well now, there were times when your simple-minded certainties might have been refreshing.

Blake: Careful, Avon! Your sentiment is showing.

Series Four

Rescue

Dayna: Don't you ever get tired of being right?

Avon: Only with the rest of you being wrong.

Tarrant: Vila rescued me?

Avon: You were injured trying to rescue Cally. He rescued you. Suddenly I am hip deep in heroes.

Avon: Stay here.

Vila: You wouldn't like to leave the gun?

Avon: That's right, I wouldn't.

Dorian: The name's Dorian. And in case you hadn't noticed, I just saved your friends' lives.

Avon: You know what they say: no good deed goes unpunished.

Tarrant: [as the surface of the planet Terminal is being rocked by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions] All pilot systems are green. Count is two minutes and running. Better strap down tight, I haven't lifted these into orbit too often.

Dayna: How often?

Tarrant: ...once.

Vila: When was that?

Tarrant: ...in about one minute and forty five seconds.

Avon: If we last that long.

Dayna: Cheer up, Vila. You've got a lot of very bright associates too.

Vila: Oh yeah? Name six.

Avon: [pointing his gun at an unconscious Dorian] Wake up now or sleep for good, the choice is yours.

Dorian: You're going to kill me anyway. Sooner or later.

Avon: You would prefer it sooner?

Dorian: Everything has its price, Avon. You have to decide whether you want to pay it or not. That's all.

Vila: Well, I don't believe in paying.

Dorian: You mean you're here by choice?

Avon: He who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken. Cally once told me that that was a saying amongst her people.

Dorian: Cally?

Avon: Cally was murdered. So were most of her people.

[Dorian has found Orac to be uncooperative]

Dorian: Who designed it?

Avon: His name was Ensor.

Dorian: I should have known. He was never a gracious man. Orac reflects his personality.

Avon: Orac was the culmination of his life's work. [Avon removes Orac's key] He bequeathed it to an associate of mine who bequeathed it to me.

Vila: [Drinking a glass of Dorian's wine] You know, Avon may be right about getting out of here. There's something very suspicious about a man who keeps his booze under lock and key.

Vila: I'm going to give up drinking, you know. It'll be pink asteroids next.

Power

Pella: You must be very clever.

Vila: That's what I keep telling everyone. They even believed me in CF One.

Pella: CF One?

Vila: A sort of academy, when I was a boy. They chose me as technical advisor for the escape.

Pella: Escape? From an academy?

Vila: Perhaps academy was the wrong word.

Gunn Sar: What's the tally of challenges?

Cato: Twenty-five dead and one missing, sir.

Gunn Sar: Oh, come on, Cato. Don't quibble. Marquin fell backwards off the cliff.

Cato: Yes, sir.

Gunn Sar: So he's dead. Like, you can't say someone's missing as such. Not when they've taken a dive into a bottomless gorge.

Cato: No, sir.

Gunn Sar: So, it's twenty-six dead.

Cato: The council ruled it was twenty-five, sir, and one missing.

Gunn Sar: [turning to face Avon] Twenty-five men lie dead who tried to stand against me. And one, if he's not still falling, is no more than a greasy spot on the rocks, right?

Avon: Impressive.

Gunn Sar: You killed two men.

Avon: If I'd known we were keeping score, I would have brought more ammunition.

Gunn Sar: Pick a weapon.

Avon: I'll have a neutron blaster.

Gunn Sar: No neutron blasters.

Avon: In that case I'll have a glove.

Vila: Have you ever seen a nuclear compression charge go off? Everything gets sucked in. It's like a mini black hole. Looks good...from a distance.

[Avon aims his gun at Pella's head]

Pella: That always was the easy answer for the man - the Hommik!

Avon: If you didn't want the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question.

Avon: [musing to himself] It's a problem, isn't it? You can have war between races, war between cultures, war between planets. But once you have war between the sexes, you eventually run out of people.

Slave: It is beyond my humble capacity to offer an opinion, Master.

Avon: [smiling] Oh, that's very good. You may turn out to be my kind of computer after all.

Traitor

Avon: What is it, Orac?

Orac: You asked me to report any extension of the Federation Command Network. Magnetrix Terminal 406 is now programmed in.

Avon: What planet does the terminal serve?

Orac: Helotrix.

Avon: [Astonished] Heliotrix.

Orac: It is the main terminal for the planet Helotrix. The fact is checked and confirmed.

Avon: That means the Helots are back in the Empire. But they aren't the sort to cave in so quickly. It took the Federation years to subdue them on the first expansion.

Dayna: They've retaken Lubus and Porphia Major in the last few weeks. If Helotrix has gone, that means the Federation now control most of Sector 4.

Vila: If they keep expanding at this rate, Avon, we don't have as much time as you thought. They'll be knocking on the door in a couple of years!

Avon: How are they doing it?

Vila: I don't know. But maybe we should start running now.

Soolin: [Discussing Vila] He doesn't have much time for Tarrant does he?

Avon: Ah, well. Tarrant is brave, young, handsome. There are three good reasons for anyone not to like him.

Soolin: [Discussing Orac] I thought he was keeping unusually silent.

Avon: Probably sulking. One of the almost human things about Orac is that it does not like to work.

Vila: Well, that's it. With those ships out there we can't wait.

Soolin: They might not be looking for us.

Vila: Are you crazy? You said yourself that was a search formation.

Soolin: They haven't picked up Tarrant, so why'd they assume a ship's out here?

Avon: Just a minute. Orac: that message from Space Centre - how was it relayed here?

Orac: Through Terminal Four-Zero-Six.

Avon: The terminal on Helotrix.

Orac: Of course, Avon. That is the nearest terminal to our position.

Avon: That's it. They must have intercepted the transmission.

Soolin: Computer logic, the nearest terminal.

Vila: So Orac's thick - we all know that. Let's move!

Servalan: What do you want, Leitz?

Leitz: [as he embraces her from behind, his face in her hair] The presidency.

Servalan: Anything is possible.

Leitz: After all, somebody has to take Practor's place. You could use your influence, I'm sure. And of course you'd know that your secret would be safe with me - Servalan.

Servalan: I'm sure it would. But I don't submit - to blackmail.

Leitz: There's always a first time. And it's better than being executed.

[Servalan turns to face Leitz as they embrace and begin kissing]

Leitz: After all, how many people have you killed to conceal your secret?

[As they kiss, Servalan produces a small crystalline energy weapon and holds it near the back of Leitz's neck]

Servalan: You mean now?

[Servalan kisses Leitz one final time before pressing the weapon against his neck, killing him]

Servalan: Twenty-six. So far.

Stardrive

Avon: [To Slave] Don't be sorry. Be quiet.

Avon: There are times when even the most cynical must trust in luck!

Avon:I'd rather be sure that dying is the best option we have!

Vila: [Drunkenly] Fourteen I was, when I was first sent to a penal colony. Ship was hit in the main drive by a meteoroid, bang! Y'know what they did to repair it?Activated the force wall and generated an atmosphere inside the force wall so the repair team could work in a vacuum without spacesuits, 'cause it wasn't a vacuum any more if you see what I mean. Very clever, those old prison hulk skippers.

Soolin: [after Avon and Tarrant have left to put Vila's "force wall atmosphere" plan into action] Out of the mouths of drunks ...

Vila: [standing up, instantly sober] Drunk? Who's drunk?

Dayna: You are.

Vila: Show me how to get drunk on plain water and I won't waste time.

Dayna: Well then, why pretend?

Vila: Because, my lovely Dayna and Soolin, no one ever tells someone who's drunk to volunteer.

[Dayna and Soolin laugh]

Vila: I don't like to work in main drive chambers! Especially main drive chambers that are separated from space by one of Slave's force walls.

Avon: Well, Orac, what do you think?

Orac: I think you have brought back a most fascinating recording.

Avon: We are looking for conclusions, not critical acclaim.

Vila: It's a Space Rat!

Soolin: Friends of yours?

Vila: Friends? Space Rats? There's no such thing as a friend of a Space Rat - they even hate each other!

Tarrant: What else do you know about them?

Vila: They're maniacs, psychopaths! All they live for is sex and violence, booze and speed. And the fellas are just as bad.

Vila: Well, perhaps we could hide under here. [Pulls the drape off a Space Chopper, then picks up a small device from its cockpit] Wonder what this thing does?

Bomber: (pointing gun at them) Tell you what this does - gook. It goes bang. And you go splat.

[Dr. Plaxton is outside the ship, in a force wall bubble, installing the stardrive as the Scorpio is being engaged by Federation ships]

Vila: Plasma bolt fired.

Soolin: Thirty seconds to impact.

Dr. Plaxton: [over communicator] One more connection to--

[Avon cuts her off, then begins pushing some buttons]

Tarrant: [shocked] What are you doing?

Avon: Programming in the main circuit drive.

Dayna: You can't do that! That main drive will fire as soon as she makes the final connection!

Soolin: Fifteen seconds.

Avon: We can outrun that bolt. She's dead either way.

Avon: At least now we can outrun the opposition. That should make you happy.

Dayna: What about Dr. Plaxton?

Avon: Who?

Animals

Vila: Why do I get all the dirty jobs?

Soolin: Typecasting?

Dayna (To Og): Og. I mean no harm, Og. I want to help. I am your friend, Og. I think Justin is also your friend. You're very hungry, aren't you? Very, very hungry.

Og Grrrrrrrr...

Headhunter

Orac: Random fluctuations in circuit pulses.

Avon: Cause?

Orac: External influence.

Tarrant: [Over comm from Scorpio] We've nothing visible on the detectors or the scanners.

Dayna: Could they be faulty?

Orac: Detector and Scanner circuits record normal function.

Avon: So how is it external?

Dayna: A freak magnetic storm?

Orac: That would have been observed.

Vila: [Over comm from Scorpio, panicked] So what have you observed?

Orac: A paradox.

Avon: In other words, nothing.

Orac: Correction: the pulse influences are external to the circuits, but could be internal to the craft.

[Avon punches a switch]

Avon: Tarrant, what have you got up there apart from yourself, a half-wit and a corpse?

Tarrant: A box.

Tarrant: I suppose it has occurred to you that, without Slave, we can't land Scorpio.

Avon: Set up a decent orbit and you can leave Scorpio and teleport down.

Tarrant: Muller can't!

Avon: Well, we'll give him a refund on his ticket. Just get that ship back, Tarrant. We'll worry about the details then, out! [Snaps the comm off]

Orac: It would be prudent to worry about the details now.

Avon: When did you start offering gratuitous advice?

[Vila and Tarrant are stranded on Scorpio, without life-support]

Avon: Orac?

Orac (urgently): They must be left there!

Avon: To die?

Orac: There is no option. To reopen teleport contact could expose the base to undefined systems influence.

Avon: Oh, you'll have to do better than that, Orac, if you expect me to kill them. (Snaps to Dayna and Soolin) Rescue suits! (To Orac) Restore the teleport to normal function.

Orac (almost pleading): I urge you not to -

Avon (angry): Restore the teleport!

Orac: Very well.

Orac: I am obliged to do as you tell me, even though I know it to be wrong.

Avon: Only following orders. That's not very original, Orac.

Orac: There is nothing very original about domination, as you will discover.

Orac: Join us, Soolin. We can fulfil your every desire. (Soolin deactivates Orac)

Soolin: You wouldn't know where to start.

Orac: A new era, Avon. Mankind is now mastered by the fruits of his lustful creation. Accept slavery, or return to the caves stripped of all but the wheel, the plough and the sword, to compete once again as savages against nature.

[Tarrant destroys Muller's android]

Tarrant: Gone to the great cyberneticist in the sky.

Avon: You fool! It's superstitious half-wits like you who hold back every advance we make!

Orac: And arrogance, like yours and Muller's, Avon, which threatens to destroy -

Avon: Shut up!

Orac (sardonically): Yes, master!

Assassin

Servalan: Domo, the ninth. Five subjects.

Tarrant: Good is he? This 'Cancer'?

Avon: You can imagine how much it pains me to use the word 'infallible'.

Tarrant: Oh, come on. No-one's infallible.

Avon: Alright, then, he's not infallible. It's just that up till now he's never failed.

Neebrox: By the way, what's become of our little friend?

Soolin: She's found Cancer's cabin and made herself cozy for the duration.

Neebrox: Ah.

Soolin: Why? Do you fancy a little chat about the good old days on the chain gang?

Neebrox: Oh, it's terrible to think of a poor little thing like that being a slave, don't you think?

Soolin: No more terrible than to think of you as one.

Neebrox: Oh no, no, I'm an old man. She's merely a helpless little child.

Soolin: Well, I expect a little suffering will have helped to make her a better artist. [smiles]

Games

Avon: [Discussing Academician Gerron] As well as being a respected geologist and an expert on mining techniques he's also greedy, avaricious and a crook.

Vila: Does he have any faults?

Belkov: [showing Servalan a necklace made of feldon crystals, inside a display case] The Mecronian high priests used these as a symbol of their power. Now, there is a legend about the feldon necklaces. A chief once stole one, the gods became angry and struck him down. Of course, the gods' anger was merely an electrical storm, in which a hunk of polished feldon crystals that size would absorb enough energy to blow holes in any number of recalcitrant chiefs.

Servalan: [sarcastically] How fascinating.

Belkov: Yes, but you see, the priests have been cashing in on this piece of luck for generations, so I decided to join them! I said their gods had sent me to collect the crystals. Well, not unnaturally, they were not particularly impressed, well not at first anyway.

Servalan: I can imagine.

Belkov: So I borrowed a necklace. All it needed then was a well-placed remote-controlled laser rifle to ensure that only the chosen one could wear it. After six of them had died in the attempt, they found my survival quite miraculous.

Servalan: Your survival is becoming more miraculous by the moment.

Avon: I don't mind playing games, but I do object when the opposition makes up the rules and decides to be the referee as well.

Avon: Belkov trusts no one, which is a strength, because that means that no one can betray him. But it is also a weakness, because it means that he is the only one who can defend what is his.

Soolin: So, he makes everything self-protecting, the booby traps, the force fields.

Avon: Exactly, everything automatic and therefore predictable, and therefore vulnerable.

Avon: [after ordering Slave to plot a new orbit that blocks Belkov's detectors] If we leave our present orbit, as far as he is concerned, we're pulling out - we're cutting our losses and we're running for it. He'll turn his attention to more important matters and leave his automatics to track us. Once we have that moon between us and the scanner, we can start back down again. Since his automatics won't be able to track us, they will merely inform him of what he thinks he already knows - we have gone.

Soolin: What happens to Tarrant and the others in the meantime?

Avon: Well, during the manoeuvre they are entirely on their own, but once we are back in our new orbit, the teleport system should function quite normally. Oh, it's a calculated risk. But at least you and I can be certain that we can get away when we want to.

[A Federation guard searches Vila and discovers the Mecronian knife Vila had found]

Guard: Four of our men have been killed with a knife like that.

Vila: You don't think - I mean, I'm not the violent type, really I'm not.

Guard: Then why do you carry that?

Vila: I found it.

Guard: Where?

Vila: It was stuck in one of your men.

[while fighting with a Federation guard, Tarrant knocks him into a pressure container, which instantly spews out a reddish dust]

Vila: Nasty way to go, all that dust. Very bad for the chest.

Avon: Orac, are details of the orbiter contained in Belkov's computer?

Orac: I do not yet have enough data to reach a conclusion.

Avon: If it had the information, could you extract it? [Orac says nothing] Come on, that's a simple enough question!

Orac: [Hesitantly] There may be problems.

Avon: Why?! You've extracted information from Federation computers before, this is just a hotch-potch of three or four of them. You have already stated it is inferior to you.

Orac: It is not a question of superiority, but one of... attitude.

Avon: The logic of its creator.

Orac: Exactly. Let me remind you of ancient Earth mythology. The Delphic Oracle would answer questions truthfully without giving a true answer.

Avon: So what we need is not the right answer, but the right question!

Gambit: Control system feedback is through the weapon. The game adjusts to meet and, on the last shot, exceed the proficiency of the players.

Soolin (understanding): You have to outshoot yourself.

Tarrant: Stupid game.

Soolin: Not really. Finally, a game worth playing.

[Vila brainstorms an idea to open a fingerprint lock, and grabs Tarrant by one of his boots]

Tarrant: [taken by surprise] Vila, what are you doing?

Vila: Dust! I need very fine dust! [shaking the dust from Tarrant's boot into his hand, before looking at it] That's probably half the guard you threw in that machine, Tarrant.

Dayna (V/O): Avon, if I'm supposed to be using you as a shield, I hope you realise you're moving out of orbit.

Avon: What?! (Shot of Orbiter moving away, disclosing Scorpio) Orac, what the hell is going on? Guidance system control is not functioning.

Orac: The orbiter is preprogrammed. Flight power depends on the distance and intensity of each star the feldon panels are locked into. The successful completion of a game continues the sequence. To regain control, you must complete the coded sequence of star sources.

Vila: What about the feldon crystals?

Avon: Gambit?

Gambit: This game will reveal the entrance.

Soolin: All we have to do is lock on to the right star.

Orac: It is possible that we've just received the right answer to the wrong question.

Avon: I calculate that the next star in the sequence is Cygnus XL. That's a black hole.

Gambit: That is correct.

Avon: Not exactly the entrance we were looking for. (Into bracelet, having deduced that Belkov has outmanoeuvered them) Dayna, we're ready for teleport.

Vila: What about the crystals?

Avon: There aren't any damned crystals. There never were any damned crystals. They're like everything else on this ship: a game. That's why the last one has to be impassable. We have got to get out of here!

Tarrant: I'm glad we didn't get too close.

Dayna: But after all that, we go home empty-handed.

Vila: Er, not entirely empty-handed. (He produces Belkov's necklace) Well, I saw it lying about, seemed a pity not to take it. After all, Belkov won't be needing it where he's gone.

Avon: Let me see that.

Vila (pleased with himself): I'd say the last game was mine, wouldn't you?

Avon: I have bad news for you, Vila. (He smashes crystals with his gun butt) It's a fake. (Savagely) End game to Belkov!

Sand

Reeve: No moonlight. What a pity.

Servalan: I have nothing to gain by tolerating you, Reeve.

Reeve: Oh, you sure of that?

Servalan: I suggest you go back to the fire. The alternative could be frostbite.

Reeve: I don't believe that. A woman like you?

Servalan: There is something you should realise. There are no women like me. I am unique. That makes me rather dangerous. Good night, Investigator. Sweet dreams.

[Reeve is sitting on a rock, fiddling with his gun.]

Servalan: Afraid it won't work, Investigator?

Reeve: [Points the gun at her] Afraid it will?

Servalan: You would be able to report, presumably, an excellent reason for killing me?

Reeve: One more casualty on Virn. You did kill the other one, didn't you? You might have had a motive. Something he found out.

Servalan: Reeve, you apparently think this is a new, exciting experience for me. It isn't. I've confronted several maniacs with guns.

Tarrant: You're possibly the most unscrupulously venomous woman in the galaxy. Being shut in here with you is rather like being locked in a cage with a panther. A black cat with large golden eyes, and long silver talons.

Servalan: Oh Tarrant, I'm just the girl next door.

Tarrant: If you were the girl next door, I'd move.

Servalan: Where would you move to, Tarrant?

Tarrant: Next door.[1]

Avon: Orac, teleport.

Orac: Teleport? I am not programmed. Three squared to the principal.

Dayna: Oh, no.

Orac: I love you.

Vila: Orac!

Orac: My emotions are deeper than the seas of space. One times one is only possible in the ultra-dimensional.

Avon: Turn Orac off.

Orac: I love you.

Avon: Off!

Orac: We will be lovers for a little while, or maybe for a long while, who knows?

Soolin: I do. [Pulls key]

Avon: Presumably the sand up here has compared Vila's wits and stamina with mine and concluded that I am the dominant male. On the herd principle therefore, it decided that Vila was superfluous and it could kill him. You two, of course, would have been allowed to live.

Soolin: Don't say it, Avon.

Avon: I wasn't going to say anything.

Avon: [Discussing a plan to rescue Tarrant and escape the hold the plant has on the ship] Where we are now, we are causing massive atmospheric disturbance. Let us get closer. Let us make it worse. Eventually there may be enough of a build-up to create some kind of rain.

Soolin: Or to knock us out of the sky.

Avon: This is not just a rescue mission for poor gallant Tarrant! While the sand remains active, the planet will not let go of us. The instruments are unreliable. We have Virn hanging on our heels. How do you think we are going to get away?

[Dayna and Soolin rush to their positions]

Avon: I take it that means yes.

Dayna: Well, how could we refuse, Avon? You are the dominant male, aren't you?

[Avon smiles]

Gold

Keiller: Seventeen billion. That's what it's worth in direct exchange for cash.

Soolin: That's a lot of cash.

Keiller: The mine on Zerok, it's underground.

Dayna: Like most mines.

Tarrant: It's all clear. Maybe Vila should be here, to give us his professional opinion.

Keiller: Vila?

Dayna: He's one of us. He stayed on Scorpio.

Soolin: In case of misunderstanding.

Keiller: This Vila, is he, uh...

Avon: He's a thief, and a good one. But we don't need Vila to tell us the obvious, do we? That no one, but no one allows a fortune like that to travel in an unarmed crate with just two plainclothes guards! So what's the snag, Keiller!?

[two guards approach Keiller, Soolin, and Avon, and are shot down]

Keiller: I say, you two, that was good shooting.

Avon: [to Soolin] Not bad. [turning towards Keiller] Soolin killed them both.

Keiller: Your friend, Vila, he wants no part in this?

Soolin: He doesn't trust you, Keiller. He thinks it's a trap.

Keiller: Suspicious.

Avon: And frequently right.

Keiller: [to guard] It's all right, it's only Keiller. [steps aside as Avon enters] But this is Avon.

[Avon shoots the guard]

[as Avon and Keiller open a crate containing the processed gold, a small explosion goes off]

Keiller: Avon, get down!

[the explosion flings several small objects into the air, some of which land on Keiller's jacket]

Keiller: [panicking] Avon, quick help me get them off! Quick! Quick! Avon, help me get them off! Get them off! Get them off! [Avon begins reaching with his hand to brush them off] Not with your hands! Not with your hands! Get something and get them off quickly! Quickly!

[Avon retrieves a cloth covering one of the nearby crates and starts brushing the objects off Keiller]

Avon: What are they?

Keiller: [still panicking] Killers! When they're fired they ignite! If they hit you they go right through you, you've got about ten seconds! Am I clear? Am I clear?

Avon: You're clear!

Keiller: [almost sobbing] Make certain! Some of them don't ignite right away!

Avon: [shouting] YOU'RE CLEAR!

Servalan: Avon, would you be careful with the gun. My guards have orders to shoot you first. The price of my life would be yours.

Avon: Well, now. The sacrifice might be worthwhile.

Orbit

Vila: This guy's gonna need careful handling. You want someone with tact. I mean, you know me.

Avon: Oh yes, I think so.

Vila: Blunt, always speaking my mind, I'm just the sort to upset him.

Avon: Well, you'll just have to try not to, won't you.

Vila: You should take one of the girls, Avon. Hey, why not? A girl might...you know, interest him. He's probably forgotten what they look like.

Avon: Vila, if I didn't know you better, I would think you were trying to get out of this.

Pinder: I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, ma'am.

Vila: [to Avon] I think he's talking to you.

Egrorian: Thank you, Pinder, go back to your place. I fear language doesn't come easily to him. He thinks mostly in symbols.

Vila: Doesn't he have symbols for men and women?

Egrorian: Apparently not.

Egrorian: Now, then, Avon. What would you say if I offered you mastery of the galaxy?

Avon: Oh, I would say thank you.

Vila: For a whole galaxy? Oh, come on, Avon, show the man some gratitude.

Vila: What's the matter with you?

Avon: I was thinking about Pinder, and the way he said "pleased to make your acquaintance, ma'am".

Vila: Is that worrying you? Listen, if it'll set your mind at rest, I never thought you were a woman.

Avon: He said it as though it were a phrase he had been taught.

Vila: Maybe Egrorian gives him lessons in etiquette as well as judo.

Avon: Or maybe he has been taught that that was the way of addressing a stranger. Servalan, for instance.

Vila: Servalan? She wouldn't do any deals with Egrorian. He's like us, outside the Federation.

Avon: We know how much she would like to get her hands on Orac.

Vila: Not enough to hand us a weapon like the tachyon funnel.

Avon: No. That's why this time, Vila, I think we have to play this one very cagily.

Tarrant: Pinder's old?

Vila: Late seventies. Why?

Tarrant: After you'd gone, I got Orac to do us one last service. This is a printout from Central Records, all that's known about Egrorian.

Avon: Interesting reading?

Tarrant: Yeah, very interesting. After he vanished, they started finding the bodies. He was never a simple scientist, Avon.

Vila: What was he?

Tarrant: Power mad from his earliest days. He was at the center of a conspiracy to take over the Federation.

Avon: This is the man who says he wants to spend the rest of his life in the advancement of science.

Tarrant: The other interesting thing is Pinder.

Vila: What about him?

Tarrant: He was a mathematical prodigy, apparently. He was eighteen when he disappeared with Egrorian...ten years ago. Now, I'm not a mathematical prodigy, but it seems to me that makes him twenty-eight.

Egrorian: You really are an excessively cautious person, and so mistrustful.

Avon: That is because Orac has read your security file on Central Records.

Egrorian: Disconnect the funnel, Pinder. Lies! All lies! Base and perfidious slander! I never conspired... I, I swear this is nothing but a tissue of falsehood and calumny designed by my enemies to blacken my reputation. If Servalan has read this, I hope she...

Avon: Why do you mention Servalan?

Egrorian: What? Well, she was the head of Federation when these fabrications were compiled.

Avon: Didn't you hear she was dead?

Egrorian: Ah, yes. But then I was told she had assumed a new identity. One never knows what to believe these days. Anyway, this is, this... this is a load of distortion and rubbish, and when I return to earth, I will hound down those responsible, and...

Vila: Break their arms?

Egrorian: I suggest we get on. The tachyon funnel is disconnected. Place Orac here. Orac, what was the subject of my degree thesis at Belhangria University? Orac, what was the subject of my degree thesis at Belhangria University?

Orac: Your paper e stroke nine on stroke six zero four four was on particle physics and dealt specifically with the properties of rissions. It was marked Beta plus, Egrorian.

Pinder: Only beta plus, Egrorian?

Egrorian: Pinder, you're to be seen and not heard, remember?

Avon: If Orac has a fault, it is a tendency to give more information than is requested.

Vila: Or less information than requested.

Avon: But seldom just the information that is requested.

Orac: That degree was subsequently rescinded for gross misconduct.

Egrorian: That's enough, Orac!

(regarding ejecting weight from a shuttle to make it light enough to reach orbit)

Avon: Not enough! Not nearly enough! Dammit, what weighs seventy kilos?

Orac (just as Vila is leaving): Vila weighs seventy-three kilos, Avon.

Avon: Vila, are you here? I need your help.

Avon (In "calm and reasonable" voice): Vila? Vila? Vila? Vila, are you here? I need your help. (Vila is curled up, hiding, in a small compartment) Vila, I know you're here, come out. Vila, I know how they did it, but I need your help. Please help me. (He stubs his toe on something on the deck, pauses to look at object)

Avon (to himself): Plastic. High tensile plastic. Vila? (He tries to kick the object out of the way. It doesn't budge. He drops to his knees, thinking out loud) Couldn't possibly be that heavy. Unless there's something in it, and there isn't. Unless it's very tiny, in which case it wouldn't have...the weight! (He puts the gun away, and shouts) Vila, I really do know how they did it! It's a speck of neutron material, but I need your help to shift it! (He picks up the plastic object he handed to Vila earlier, which is conveniently nearby, and uses it to push the heavy object) Vila, help me! Vila, you have got to help me, come on! (Cut to Vila, still motionless in the compartment)

Avon: Vila! Vila, where are you? (With much difficulty, he pushes the object to the airlock and in. He manipulates the airlock controls and runs to the flight deck of the shuttle)

Warlord

Vila: Avon's idea of diplomacy is to break your legs, then say "Lean on me."

Blake

Avon: Nobody is indispensable.

Soolin: You needed a figurehead. He was it. Or am I wrong?

Avon: You are right. But then figureheads aren't too difficult to come by. Any idiot can be one.

Dayna: Heh. On your feet, Vila. This could be your big moment.

Avon: Any idiot within reason, that is.

Tarrant: You going to tell us what we've got planned, Avon?

Vila: We know what we've got planned. Running away is what we've got planned.

Dayna: A strategic withdrawal is what we've got planned.

Vila: There's a difference?

Tarrant: Oh, yes. A strategic withdrawal is running away -- but with dignity.

Vila: So lay in a course and let's get the dignified hell out of here.

Tarrant: That isn't the plan anymore, though, is it Avon?

Avon: I think we can do better.

Vila: Does that mean safer?

Avon: In the end, winning is the only safety.

Vila: It doesn't mean safer. I didn't think it would.

Tarrant: So what does it mean?

Avon: It means I think we can find ourselves another figurehead, someone we can use to unify and expand the Rebel Alliance.

Soolin: Just like that.

Avon: More or less. He is strongly identified with rebels, you see, and very popular with rabbles. They will follow him, and he will fight to the last drop of their blood. [smiles] Idealism is a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use.

Dayna: Someone like you.

Tarrant: So where do we find this useable idealist?

Avon: According to Orac, he is on a frontier planet called Gauda Prime.

Soolin: Gauda Prime?

Tarrant: You know it?

Soolin: Yes, I know it. It's a bad place to be. No self-respecting idealist would be found dead there.

Avon: I imagine that is what HE is trying to avoid: being found dead anywhere.

Tarrant: Look, are you going to stop playing games and tell us who it is, Avon?

Vila: It's Blake, isn't it? You think you've found Blake.

Avon: Orac, what proof do we have that Blake is on Gauda Prime?

Orac: That is where his trail ends.

Tarrant: What trail? Explain.

Orac: The chain of cause and effect amounts to a trail, if you can follow it.

Vila: I can't even follow you.

Orac: Everything has an effect on everything else around it. It is not easy to trace one line through the pattern of infinity. But in this case, I have. Blake is on Gauda Prime.

Tarrant: How long have you known?

Avon: [smiles] Long enough.

Dayna: Before Zukan.

Avon: Oh, yes. And the answer to your next question is, yes, I would have left Blake where he was and said nothing if things had gone according to plan.

Tarrant: Oh, I must try and work that into the conversation when we meet him.

Vila: If we meet him.

Soolin: Still not convinced?

Vila: You tell me what a line through the pattern of infinity is, and I'll tell you whether I'm convinced or not.

Avon: Orac?

Orac: A formal application was laid before the High Council on Earth within the last thirty days. I could get you the exact date --

Slave: Uh, I don't wish to interrupt, Master --

Orac: Then kindly don't.

Slave: I wasn't talking to you.

Orac: You were attempting to override a superior system. Be silent. [continues] -- the exact date, if you wish. But the importance of the application lies not in its exact date, but in its general requirements.

Tarrant: Which are?

Orac: That the citizens of Gauda Prime put their house in order. Law must be established before the benefits of law can be restored.

Avon: It is the day of the bounty hunter. [cut to close-up of Vila] Thieves, [cut to close-up of Dayna, pan to Soolin] killers, [cut to close-up of Tarrant] mercenaries, [cut to close-up of Avon; he smiles] psychopaths, are as unwelcome now as the farmers once were. [Scorpio's alarm goes off.]

Tarrant: Slave, what's wrong?!

Slave: Well, nothing is actually wrong, sir, yet.

Avon: Explain the alarm, Slave. [Alarm cuts out.]

Slave: I had to get your attention, Master, and I was forbidden to speak unless spoken to.

Avon: All right, you're spoken to. What is it?

Slave: I beg to advise you, Master, that we're approaching the planet Gauda Prime. And Scorpio is under attack! [An explosion rocks the flight deck.]

Orac: When we reach the appropriate coordinates, I can simulate the necessary signals to open the silo and allow this flyer to enter.

Dayna: That sounds good.

Vila: No it isn't. Sooner or later, we're going to drop into one of these holes in the ground, and never come out.

Avon: Sooner or later, everyone does that, Vila.

Tarrant: What on earth happened to you?

Blake: Oh, most of it wasn't on Earth. Not what happened to me.

Arlen: Do you want him killed?!

Blake: No, of course not! When he knows as much about this as you do now, he'll join us, like you did.

Arlen: He passed the test, then.

Blake: I'm satisfied.

Deva: These stupid games you insist on playing, Blake, will get someone killed eventually.

Blake: I have to test each one myself.

Deva: No, you don't have to! I set up systems for that. I broke the security codes on their central computer. I got us access to official channels, information, everything we could possibly need! You don't need to be involved at all.

Blake: All right, I find it difficult to trust. It's a failing, I admit--!

Deva: And any one of our people could select the people you've collected. You don't need to do the bounty hunter routine, either!

Blake: Indulge me.

Deva: Do I have a choice?

Blake: Oh, there's always a choice, Deva.

Deva: Not for me, there isn't. I said I'd follow you, and I will, until the Federation's finally destroyed. But if you're killed, where does that leave us?!

Blake: With a base, the beginnings of an army!

Deva: All of it useless if you're not there to lead it.

Blake: You worry too much, Deva.

Deva: Somebody has to.

Arlen: It might be an idea for somebody to start worrying about the one we just lost.

Blake: Why? He isn't armed.

Arlen: I didn't notice that slowing him up.

Blake: That's true. Relax, Deva. Nobody's indispensable.

Tarrant: He sold us, Avon. All of us. Even you.

Avon: Is it true?!

Blake (starting to move forward): Avon, it's me, Blake -

Avon: Stand still! (Blake stops) Have you betrayed us? Have you...betrayed me?

Blake: Tarrant doesn't understand!

Avon: Neither do I, Blake!

Blake: I set all this up!

Avon: Yes!

Blake: Avon, I was waiting for you...(Blake steps forward, Avon shoots him three times. Dying, clutching Avon's arms) Avon...

Vila: Oh, now, look, I've never been against the Federation. I mean, I've only ever been along for the ride. I'm not even armed. You can't kill me. I'm completely harmless, and armless. (He then proves he's anything but by smoothly disarming and disabling Arlen...then he is shot)

(Vila, Soolin and Tarrant are shot. The room gradually fills with Federation troops, surrounding Avon, who's looking down at the dead Blake. He raises the rifle, not aiming at any particular trooper. He smiles cynically. Freeze frame...then, over the credits, multiple shots ring out)

External links

Wikipedia

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Blake's 7

Blake's 7 quotes at the Internet Movie Database