There is an issue with the episode Killer which we should probably address before we get on to the good stuff (of which there is no shortage): this is one of those scripts where the male regulars get to do all the beaming down and running about and plot-developing, while the female characters spend the whole episode stuck on the ship playing with the teleporter controls. This happens in lots of episodes, but Killer is a particularly blatant offender – Avon and Vila get their storyline, Blake gets his, and both strands of the plot are fairly meaty. The lack of material for Sally Knyvette and Jan Chappell is rather obvious. Perhaps this is just a consequence for the shift in the format of the show – a few weeks earlier, it’s likely that one of the other characters would get sidelined, too, but with the departure of Gan there is (in theory) more plot to go around, and it’s more obvious who isn’t getting their share of it.
There’s not much you can say in defence of this, certainly from a 21st century viewpoint – suggesting that Blake’s 7 deserves plaudits for creating one of the strongest female characters in the history of TV SF isn’t much of a fig-leaf considering how badly so many of the others are treated. So let us admit that it is a regrettable fact and move on.
Killer was written by Robert Holmes, the first of four scripts for the series: possibly he was hired by Chris Boucher out of gratitude for Holmes recommending him for the script editor’s job when Blake was first being set up. Either way, it was a good call as Robert Holmes is the kind of writer that any intelligent SF or thriller series would want on the payroll. For those of my former tribe, Holmes will always be – as he was memorably and accurately described a few years after his premature death – the Grand Master of Dr Who, and while pure SF wasn’t quite his speciality, he was a great creator and handler of characters and had a knack for a brilliant set-piece, both skills which serve Blake’s 7 very well.
The Liberator is discreetly visiting the planet Fosforon (dress code: chocolate-brown pleather ponchos and white pleather Michelin Man outfits), for Blake is set upon acquiring something called a TP crystal, which he needs to monitor coded Federation transmissions (if a question beginning something like ‘Why don’t they just use Orac to…?’ is heading for your consciousness, hush. Just hush, all right? It’s Plot). The command technician of the Federation base there is an old friend (using the term somewhat loosely) of Avon’s, and so he and Vila are sent down to talk (i.e. bully and/or blackmail) him into helping. The old friend is played by Ronald Lacey, an actor probably best remembered for his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and someone quite capable of holding the screen against Paul Darrow. For his part, Holmes seems to have very quickly figured out the potential for some cracking dialogue between Avon and Vila – more than any other two members of the crew, these two seem to have an understanding of each other’s outlooks and abilities, although this obviously doesn’t mean there’s any love lost between them.
Meanwhile, back on the ship, another storyline is bubbling up: an ancient Earth ship, lost for centuries, has appeared on approach to Fosforon. Cally senses something malevolent on board, while Orac’s research in the main Federation ship registry (hush again, it’s still Plot) reveals it went missing on the fringes of the Darkling Zone, an area of largely-unexplored space believed to be the home of a hostile alien civilisation.
Let’s be honest and admit that Blake’s 7, for all that it is on some level an SF show, does not do aliens especially well. Partly this is a production value issue, of course – and it may be that an awareness of the show’s limitations may be responsible for the decision to stick largely to aliens who are essentially indistinguishable from Terrans – like the Auronar, the inhabitants of Spaceworld, and so on – or aliens who stay permanently off-screen, like the ones here. Both of these are sensible policies, but even so, you still get the sense that the show isn’t really about alien civilisations in the way that Star Trek or Babylon 5 often are – they’re included because the makers of the show believe they’re a necessary feature of the genre, not because they have anything particularly interesting or important to add to the central narrative of the series (which is the conflict between the main characters and the Federation).
Killer makes you aware of this more than most episodes, because on the one hand it’s a rather bleak story about an attempt by aliens to wipe out the human race (or at least, that portion of it which has travelled beyond the solar system), but on the other it’s essentially another filler story – very good, effective filler, but not contributing substantially to the ongoing storyline of the series.
It’s not initially clear, but the plot about Avon and Vila’s Mission: Impossible-style shenanigans to steal the TP crystal turns out to be the B-story of the episode, which is relly about the aforementioned alien plot. On the old ship is a cybernetic zombie, who is infected with a virus that is rapidly and nastily lethal to any human being who’s travelled into deep space. The zombie and the plague outbreak give Holmes a chance to indulge himself in some of the genuine horror which is often a feature of his best work – there are some genuinely disturbing moments as guest characters succumb to the lurgy.
Of course, one has to point out that it doesn’t seem to be exactly the most thought-through plan on behalf of the aliens – the nature of the virus is such that its R-number must be pretty low, so the chances of it wiping out more than just this one planet seem vanishingly low. The script also plays it fast and loose when it comes to the regular characters’ miraculous immunity to the virus: people around them contract it and rapidly die, but Blake, Avon and Vila are barely touched. Slightly tighter scripting, or possibly just a line about the teleport having an automatic decontamination function, would have fixed this quite easily.
Nevertheless, it’s a strong episode with a lot to enjoy, even if you’re always quietly aware that its events, momentous though they surely are, are probably not going to be mentioned again. Holmes gets the series’ downbeat, mordantly witty style pretty much from the word go, and it’s a shame he didn’t write more for it. This is still a confident and impressive first contribution.