Blake's 7 (1978) s02e09 Episode Script

GUNFIRE DISTANT EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE Selson Sir That's the third staircase, isn't it? Yes, sir They're getting closer every minute, sir I can see that Where are they now? They're just about here, sir GUNFIRE COMMUNICATOR CHIME Control Mm Right The Albians have broken though into the outer gallery, sir The field commander reports that despite severe losses, our men are putting up a courageous defence Yes, spare me the propaganda, Selson Can he hold them? He's concentrating what's left of his force to make a stand at levelthree, sir If they beat him at levelthree, there's little margin left He'll hold them, sir I'd like a little more reassurance than your blind patriotism, Selson Put the status report on the computer and run a probability program Sir EXPLOSIONS DISTANT EXPLOSIONS They're dropping bombs down the airshafts now Computer analysis indicates a ninety three percent probability that the Albians will overwhelm our defences and take control of the entire complex On the evidence of that projection, we have no alternative We must activate Sir? Tronos, lock the door Sir? Lock the door Is there nothing else we can do, sir? It means the death of millions The Albians always knew the penalty for insurrection Now they must pay the cost But sir, there's still a seven percent possibility we can contain the situation Couldn't we wait a little longer, sir? No Now then, Tronos, you know what to do I give you four minutes to reach the launch area, then I activate I then follow without delay Right We'll see you at the ship Four minutes EXPLOSION DISTANT EXPLOSION Selson It's no good, sir There's no way through; it's blocked You must try and get back, sir, you must try and get back and stop, ahhh HAMMERING ON DOOR Del, stop him It's started I always thought they were bluffing I neverthought that when it actually came to it they'd REALLY activate You'd better believe it, Cauder Believe it and do something fast That thing is ticking away the lives of everybody on this planet I'd say we have less than an hour Ralli, get Vetnor up here, I want to know exactly what we're up against And then put out a general callfor anybody who can give help Right away And when you've done that, get this place cleaned up, get a casualty report, and get some Federation prisoners for questioning And while I'm doing allthat, what are you going to do? Worry, that's what I'm going to do worry You've got good cause Sorry, Cauder I won you a battle, but I lost you a war Let's get communications started I've got the read out you wanted on Albian Good Nothing very special Temperate climate in the equatorial zone, but both Polar Regions are uninhabitable Temperatures remaining close to absolute zero Sounds bracing Population? Approximately six million It was colonised in the last century of the Old Calendar At first they resisted political affiliation, but then they joined the Federation, and they have remained unswervingly loyal Then they're not likely to welcome us with open arms I hope we're not going to be there long enough to sample their hospitality This is a fast hit and run What are we after? A Federation officer called Provine His record shows he's served with Central Control I hope he might be able to tell us quite a lot about where they've moved it to There's something coming in from Albian What is it? Well, it's a very weak signal but as far as I can make out there's been some fighting The main text is just a general callfortechnical assistance and it's repeated over and over again Could be some sort of uprising Get a locatorfix on the signal It's already pinpointed Well done All right, Avon, get kitted up You too, Vila Good, terrific I'm really looking forward to this Danger, excitement, sudden death I can't wait What's the matterwith you, don't you ever give up? COMMUNICATOR CHIME That's it, Blake navigation plot completed We're locked into stationary orbit within teleport range of planet Albian Get your gear I don't know, just don't know Some of the circuitry's fairly basic, that I understand, the rest Oh, come on, Vetnor, there must be something you can do This is life and death, it must be stopped There is one thing, might just work Might, I can't be sure If I'm wrong We won't be here to worry, willwe? Could it detonate? I don't know, there's always that risk Everything we've done so far has been risk We're getting very close to nothing to lose We've got to chance it What is it you want to do? There's a main rotonoid link If I cut through its primary impulse vein, it might break the circuit Then again It might not We'll chance it SMALL DETONATION We've stopped it It hiccoughed, that's all Sorry I don't know what else to try That's all right, Vetnor, you did what you could We'llthink of something else We've just taken another step towards oblivion What do you want, Ralli? We've got some prisoners You said you wanted to question Yes, I do Is Space Major Provine amongst them? Well if he is he hasn't been identified yet I've got men checking the prisoners' identity papers What about the dead, are you checking them, too? Yes, of course Well, I hope for all oursakes'he has survived If he has, we have to find him; he's the only one who knows the complete system How will we know him if we find him? By his identity papers and his uniform As far as I know, none of our people have seen him Come on; let's get the questioning started Ralli, you go through those files Find the plans forthat thing All right, Vetnor I'm sorry I couldn't do the job It needs tools I haven't got Well, you'd better go and help look for prisoners Right Can you correlate the locatorfix to this? How about this? But that puts it right in the middle of the Federation defence complex Well, we can put you one half co ordinate point to the fix That will put you down in the outer limits of the complex That'll do Let's go Come on, Vila You're quite sure you need me? Certain Doesn't it make you feel good to be wanted? I've been a wanted man all my life What I need now is to be unwanted Come on Put us down, Jenna Good luck It must have been quite a fight These men are from the Federation Assault Force They're crack troops It's quiet enough now The battle seems to be over Just one thing we don't know: who won? Let's find out Not that way Let's look at some of the other levels first Why? I'd rather not meet anyone untilwe get the geography of this place sorted out Men fresh from a battle tend to be a little trigger happy Trigger happy? It would be stupid to be shot up by our own allies Not only stupid, painful It's locked Allow me LOCK DECOUPLING You see, the old magic's stillthere The old ego, too It's a rocket launch pad What do you make of it? I'm not sure Vila, take a look around This is the specification It's fast but short range It has a life support capability of about a hundred space hours But the nearest habitable planet to Albian is overfive hundred space hours away Then it would probably have to rendezvous with a mother ship Or come back to Albian I don't see the point in having a rocket like that here Just in case of emergencies, perhaps Come on, let's go There's nothing else for us here Blake, look What is it? There's a sliding section in the roof, they're launch doors Why don't you do that again, maybe they didn't hear you Wait for me THUD Stand where you are Lower your guns Easy now, we're not Federation Don't move Now who are you? I'm Blake This is Avon and Vila Blake? You mean the Blake who's been giving the Federation so much trouble? We've certainly been trying and from what we see here, you've been doing the same thing How did you get here? Our ship has teleport capability We came down from the rocket level Rockets? Where? Two levels up You two: find that rocket and stay with it If Provine's alive it'll be his escape route My name's Cauder I'm glad to see you, Blake, allthree of you We have a desperate problem Can we help? If you can't, every living being on this planet will be dead within hours Come with me Oh dear This is a solium radiation device Solium? You know about it? Enough to know that it's deadly Once in fission it creates intense radiation It destroys living tissue instantly That's right, and the Federation made us understand exactly its effects, left us in no doubt if we mounted any major rebellion they wouldn't hesitate to use it But to blow up the whole planet, destroy everything's that's here, that's stupid But they don't blow it up, that's the point Solium itself produces a very small explosion and the radiation fall out decays rapidly They could wipe out a whole population and still leave the buildings and the installations intact In less than a day there is no trace of any radiation See what you can do with it Typical Federation policy: things are more important than people The Federation was bleeding us dry They levied impossible demands on our economy, gave us no voice in our own government We were little betterthan slaves on our own planet It's a familiar pattern Go on So we decided to cede from the Federation Oh, we tried to do it legally, went through allthe normal diplomatic patterns, through allthe interplanetary laws, but none of it did any good They declared a state of emergency and placed Albian under martial law But policing a planet of this size must tie down a fairly considerable Federation force No They had less than a hundred troops here What? They had an easierway to ensure our loyalty Simple and terrifying They installed THAT Yes, must've been like living with a gun against your heads That's right And that is why we were finally driven to act We knew the enormity of the risk but we had to take it Somehow, I thought when it came to it, they wouldn't detonate, I thought they were bluffing I was wrong Now unless we can deactivate that, millions will pay for my mistake I can dismantle the solium device, but first of all I have to find it This isn't it What? It is a subetheric transmitterthat activates remotely The bomb itself could be anything up to ten thousand miles from here, hidden anywhere on the planet METALCLATTER SOLENOID CHARGING You're not going anywhere, Major Provine The launch doors won't open; I've smashed the relays Don't move Just throw your gun down, carefully There where I can see it Good Now, we're going back to the control room and you're going to deactivate this device I can't do that I think we can find ways of convincing you I didn't say I wouldn't, I said I can't Once the device is activated it can't be stopped I don't believe that But it's true It's out of our control now Neither I nor anybody else can do anything about it Now You listen to me You can give yourself a chance You don't have to die here with the rest of them What do you mean? Help me repairthe relay It's a Stadler link, isn't it? Well, there must be a spare in the technical stores, mustn't there? Maybe Help me find it and we can get the launch doors open Once we get this ship into orbit, we'll be safe We can stay out in space untilthe radiation decays and then return in perfect safety Return to what? This planet is important to the Federation They'll bring in settlers, repopulate it You could play an important part in that You could have power, position Help me and you won't find the Federation ungrateful And my family, my friends? I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to help them now Be sensible; to stay here and die with them achieves nothing You think I could live, knowing I'd helped a man who'd murdered an entire world? No, Provine, you're not going anywhere You're going to stay here and die with the rest of us Now move No, wait Now move You're a fool The door DETONATION If there is any information on the location of the device But there must be Then the obvious place is the safe Vila, can you crack it? It's a tough one, but I've got the combination You have? Yes, but the buttons are sensitised to respond only to certain fingerprints I've got to bypass allthat before I can go to work on the combination mechanisms If anyone can crack it, he can Breaking into a Federation stronghold must've taken some doing How many men did you have? About a hundred and fifty They came from resistance groups all overthe planet But you planned the organisation Initially, but it didn't take me long to realise I'd need a professional dealer You mean you hired a mercenary? Yes He organised the revolution on the planet Arcos, others before that He has a very good record I made contact He agreed to help, but demanded a very substantial sum Mercenaries generally do No, I think the price was to satisfy his ego, to prove he's the best in his field He's certainly very good at his job to get your men in here Where is he? He should be back I'llfetch him Oh, what's his name? Grant Del Grant What's the matter? Nothing It's not important I was a little surprised, that's all Why? Do you know him? I once knew somebody called Del Grant, but it was a long time ago I doubt that this is the same man You don't seem very eagerto find out Why? There are matters that remain to be settled between us Like what? I told you: it's not important If it is not important, then why did his name have such a strong effect upon you? Because the Del Grant that I knew said that if we ever met again, he would kill me I've done it I think I've done it I've isolated the identification sensors It's straight combination now Watch this, it should open like a dream More like a nightmare They're all in code So are these Give me a little time, I can decode it Time is what we don't have Liberator, this is Blake, do you read me? We hear you Stand by to teleport, Vila's coming up I want allthat stuff run through Orac, I want the cipher broken, and a full read out Right Ready? Yes Take him up What's happening down there? I'lltellyou later, no time now Well, what's allthe rush? There's a bomb timed to detonate in under half an hour We don't even know where it is Give me a linkup with Orac We have now used up more than half the time we have available Blake, this is Grant Good to meet you And you We've been hearing about your strikes against the Federation You've been hitting them pretty hard, too You keep it up; you'll put us out of business That I wouldn't mind If it meant breaking the Federation, norwould I Hello, Del It's been a long time I heard you were dead I heard the same about you Wishfulthinking perhaps I'm glad the stories were wrong I felt cheated We have some things to settle You two can talk about the old days some othertime Right now we have a problem that's just a little more pressing What's the countdown? Fourtwo five -It's getting closer.
-Vila's using Liberator's computers to decipherthecode.
It could just give us the location I have found the circuit plans Yes, that's the detonator A nasty one, tricky to disarm You would have to take out the secondary circuit first, go in under here Hmm Might work Still, not easy noise Cauder Ralli Ralli, what happened? Oh I don't know Someone came up behind me and just hit me That's an escape tunnel Come on You'll be all right, Ralli He's not long dead Get his papers Where do you think this leads? Probably comes out by the rocket silo Must've been trying to get to the rocket when the roof caved in Who is he? Selson, sergeant, security forces Have you searched allthe dead and wounded? Most of them Any senior officers? No He's got to be here somewhere Who has? I came down to question a man called Provine, a Space Major I think that he can help us with the whereabouts of Federation's Central Control There's no Space Major amongst the prisoners Let me try this on you The complex is under attack; your men have already penetrated the outer defences Provine decides to evacuate, he activates the device, starts down the escape tunnel towards the rocket silo An explosion brings down the roof, and kills this one Maybe the other one, too He could be buried further in No, somebody survived He waited his chance, went back to the room When the girl came in and was alone He moved out and hit her It makes sense THAT was Provine If you're right, he could be stillwandering around here somewhere Yes, come on I tellyou I saw nothing The only thing I remember is a man in uniform I just got a glimpse as I blacked out He's got to be found I'll organise a search party Come on, you need some rest That last day, when it was all over, did they hurt her? They kept her under interrogation for nearly a week They tried everything but she never broke If she had spoken, told them what they wanted to know, she'd be alive now She should have told them She held on because she believed in you She didn't know that you'd run out and leave herto face it alone That was not the way it was I know exactly how it was She died under Federation torture But it was you who killed her COMMUNICATOR CHIME Blake Go ahead, Jenna That's it; we got it, Blake, the exact position of the installation I'm sending Vila down now Blake, co ordinates are 1 1 1 7 9, intersect 4 41 Stand by, Vila Coordinate 1 1 1 7 9, intersect 4 41 Are you sure? Orac doesn't make mistakes Then we're finished What do you mean? Well, look at that It's the polar cap, right in the centre of the ice zone Then we'll have to get to it But it's 4000 miles away It can't be done It can if we use the teleport We can teleport right down to the location We'll need special equipment, thermal clothing We'll do it Wait Disarming a device is not yourfield You finish what we came here for: find Provine I'll come with you No I can help Look, I don't know exactly what it is between you, but there's enough dangerwithout letting personal grudges interfere That's something we can settle in our own time Cauder, what matters is that I can give backup I've worked with timing devices I know the mechanisms All right, it's your decision, Avon Do you want him? Give him a bracelet Vila 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 Understood Jenna, Cally, prepare thermal equipment Stand by to teleport, Avon's coming up One more thing: if anything happens to Avon, I will come looking for you Ready? Jenna, take us out of here Is everything all right? Not exactly I'lltellyou about it some othertime This is Del Grant, this is Jenna Cally, get me those co ordinates Put on one of those, you're going to need it Jenna, I need some high temperature lances Any luck? He's alive I know it He's here somewhere If he is, my men willfind him It's a very large area to search Yes What would he do? Where would he go? Where are you going, soldier? Circuit maintenance, sir Has this area been checked? I've been right through it, sir Nothing All right, come with me, we're searching the next level Right, sir You adjust the temperature with this You all set? Well, uh All right? Yeah Look forthe lights Here they are Good Heaters I see them That's better Now allwe have to do is find the device Right There's nothing here Well, keep looking Grant Yeah? There's a relay cable here I'm going to follow it The cable goes down under here so it must be underthis section Solid ice Get the axe It's no good we're not going to get into this way If we stand here talking, we certainly won't Get a space heater started I'll put a lance into it There's mercury in that detonator You burn yourway in, you could trigger it I know, but we don't have time for it to thaw Get started The rocket That's the key to it Yes I have men posted at the silo He may try and get in some otherway Through the launch doors, perhaps I think I'lltake a look Well, you bettertake somebody with you There might be Federation guards on the loose Ralli, find somebody Right Blake Any news from Avon? They're down safely, that's all we've heard Call me if they come through with anything Confirmed Whenever you're ready Thank you Cauder, if there's still no news from Avon when that countdown goes below 50, I'm pulling out I understand To stay with us would be a stupid gesture I can take some of you off with me No, not for me I'll stay here tillthe end Ralli can go if she likes No, I'll stay All right, think about it There's stilltime THERMAL LANCE Careful, you'lltrigger it Done it Get that table underthe light RUMBLING AND CRACKING What's happening? The main roof beam's cracked resting on the ice If it melts any more, it'll cave in Give me a hand Well, while it's ticking we're all right We're going to have to take out the relays to get at the activator Get the cutters Which one is it first? Left, right, or centre? Centre first Cutters Which next? Right next No, no, wait I'm opposite you now Left is the next in sequence Your left You don't get another guess Left Next bit's straightforward Do you want me to do it? Go ahead RUMBLING AND GROANING Hadn't we betterturn the heaters off? It depends which you prefer: being crushed orfrozen to death? These are some more Federation personnelfiles Any use to you? Yes, I'll check them No No No That's Provine That's his service record That's the man I got to go with Blake Which way did they go? The rocket silo I've forgotten how to get there The junctions of corridor 1 1 A, 51 B It's getting cold again You turned the heaters off Don't let it tilt, keep it level I must be getting old Waste any more time and you won't get any older Give me the extractor Now There's one thing I never understood Why did you leave her alone? I had arranged to buy some exit visas, but I had to go right across the city to collect them It was saferfor Anna to stay out of sight Separator What happened then? There were patrols out everywhere looking for us I was late atthe rendezvous.
Andthenthe manfromwho I was buyingthevisas increasedtheprice.
He wanted ten times what we had agreed He said he could get even more if he turned me in and collected the Federation reward You should have killed him I did Link clamp So you got the visas Why didn't you go back for her? Killing the dealerwasn't quite so straightforward He was expecting something and fired first I started back but I was losing a lot of blood Somewhere along the way I passed out I was lucky Some people found me and got me under cover You could have got a message to her, told herto get out I was unconscious for more than thirty hours I need to hold this flap back Get your hand in here That's good You can get at the main now You used the visa and got out of the city You left herthere That's right But that was a week later Anna was already dead You're lying You left the city the same day, before the Federation found Anna You could have got her out No She came looking for me, the patrols found her It was only afterwe got word that she was dead that I left You expect me to believe that? Not particularly But it happens to be the truth 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 She died because of you, that's allthat matters There's nothing changed between us I didn't really expect that it would be That's the primary isolated My fingers are cramping Did you see the read out? I did We're running it fine There's a long way to go I said ""there's a long way to go '' I heard That's one of the men Cauder sent to guard the rocket silo Now where is the other one? GUNFIRE GUNFIRE Blake That's Provine We found his picture on his service record He's dying Provine Provine The computer complex, Control, where have the Federation moved it to? Go to hell You may still have a chance if I can get you to our surgical unit Now where is Control, Provine? Star One It's called Star One now Docholli Cybersurgeon Only Docholli knows Where is Docholli? Where is Docholli? See you in hell Sixty three Can we do it? It's still possible Blake said he'd pull us out at fifty We won't do it in that time Are you willing to chance it? That's what these people are paying me for Then give me your bracelet Now he can't pull us out, can he? Right This isn't familiarto me It's a new mark, but the principle is the same There are three detonators, each activated by a plunger If we enlarge these holes and then insert a rod, we can arrest the downward travel of each plunger A laser lance would be faster It's too risky on this kind of material CRASHING ICE I'm through Give me a rod Will it be strong enough to hold it? It'll do All right, release the trigger Ready? Let it go One down, two to go Blake What's the countdown? Fifty three Liberator, this is Blake Do you read me? We hear you Any news from Avon? There's been no word at all All right Teleport them up We just dropped under the safety margin I gave him We can't What do you mean? We can't make teleport contact They must have taken their bracelets off All right, remain on standby We'll stay down here a little longer Two down, only one to go What's the countdown? Forty one I've left it for you Look out Grant Thirty nine, thirty eight, thirty seven Blake Blake, go Leave us Blake You all right? It's no use, Avon You don't have the time Hell, it's jammed Face it, Avon; we've lost the game Find your bracelet and tellthem to teleport you out We're not done yet I think I can still get at it I'm going to have to crawl in over you I've told you you haven't got time, get out Cally, stop that, willyou, please? I'm sorry What's the countdown? Twenty five It's no use, Avon It was a good try Get out You haven't got time Nobody's going to blame you If the positions were reversed, if it were you underthis beam, I might have left you; the way things are between us Why are you helping me? There's one thing we've forgotten What? The last of the rods I was holding it when the roof collapsed You did it Yes, I did, didn't I? Why did you help me? Perhaps because Anna was your sister Goodbye, Jenna Goodbye Goodbye Cally, goodbye Vila And thank you Any time I'll rememberthat Oh, willyou? Right, Jenna, take us on manual Get us out of here Right Avon You're welcome to come with us if you want to Thanks, but no They still need me down on Albian Besides, I've got a pretty hefty fee to collect You've earned it Ready? Yeah Good luck Are you going to tell me about Anna? You wouldn't understand Wouldn't I? I doubt it