BLAKES 7 : Mirror

Following on from the previous adventure, Drones, Mirror, by Peter Anghelides, is the fourth in the first series of full-cast Blakes 7 audio adventures from Big Finish.  Released in April 2014, Drones features all surviving members of the original Blakes 7 cast ably assisted by Alistair Lock as Orac and Zen.

With Blake wanting to follow up on the trail to “Fed-Orac”, Jenna discovers the location of the man who killed her father.  She’s desperate to seek justice on the planet Vere, but Blake needs Jenna’s expert piloting skills to get the Liberator through to Stellidar 4, the location of Fed-Orac.

To keep track of Space Major Kade, Blake sends Cally to Vere until they can get back from Stellidar 4.

Down on the planet, Cally locates Vere but she also locates someone else – Blake’s arch-nemesis, Travis (Brian Croucher).  Things don’t go as planned.  Kade is on Vere to lure the Liberator and Travis is expecting to trap Jenna Stannis.  When this doesn’t happen, he resorts to killing anyone who gets in his way, stealing Kade’s pursuit ship, and setting off after the Liberator.

The Liberator reaches Stellidar 4, but the only way through is to hijack an unmanned cargo ship, except that it isn’t unmanned.  Blake, Avon, and Vila teleport over and run into Locklan (Bethan Walker) who claims to be the ship’s backup pilot, but she seems to know an awful lot of protocols.

Once they dock at Stellidar 4, Blake and the others are accosted by robot drones that mostly ignore them.  After making their way through many locked doorways, they find a room filled with impressively massive computer banks.  This is Fed-Orac.

It doesn’t take Avon long to become suspicious that Fed-Orac isn’t the great marvel they were led to believe.  In fact, it’s more like a digital mirror, mimicking what Orac does in order to give the impression it’s at least as powerful, if not moreso.

It turns out that Stellidar 4 is one big trap.  The computer, together with other technologies such as a fear-inducing gas, are the life’s work of Locklan’s late father.  She’s using it as a lure to capture Blake and his crew to exchange for her sister who’s held captive by the Federation.  The President (Hugh Fraser) has bargained to release the sister in exchange for Blake, his crew, and the Liberator.

Meanwhile, Jenna commands Orac to allow her to return to Vere, whereupon she finds Cally in the remnants of an explosion.  She learns that Travis was there, but they can’t follow because Orac has already taken the Liberator back to Stellidar 4.  They steal Travis’ abandon planet hopper to follow him, but other planet hoppers chase them down until their lack of fuel leaves them dead in space.

Locklan doesn’t count on the dogged obsessiveness of Travis’ hatred for Blake and he proves to be the unpredictable one.  Avon turns the drones on the computers, and they start destroying everything.  Blake and Avon escape back to the Liberator, using Travis’ pursuit ship.

They reach Cally and Jenna just in time, and only then realise that Vila didn’t make it back on board.

Back at Stellidar 4, Vila is having no success using the cargo ship to escape the increasing explosions around him.  Fortunately, one other person has survived the devastation.  Unfortunately, it’s Travis!

Mirror is effectively a continuation of the “Fed-Orac” arc of adventures, with the short business of Jenna’s revenge tagged on as a B-story.  You think it’s going to be the A-story, with the Fed-Orac stuff just tagged on to link episodes, but that’s not what happens.  After the previous adventures being a Blake & Avon story, then a Blake & Vila story with Avon heading the B-story, Mirror opens with the to-be-expected Cally & Jenna story.  However, that soon diminishes away and more focus is given over to Blake, Avon, Travis, and Vila.

That’s probably to its benefit because the “Jenna’s Revenge” story ends almost before it’s begun.  The “Fed-Orac” story feels a little like going over old ground – yet another Macguffin used to lure Blake & co into the clutches of the Federation (you’d have thought they’d be used to it by now) – but it’s lifted up out of the norm by the inclusion of Travis, and his Mutoid assistant.  Especially as the bait & trap plan wasn’t the work of Travis – he’s just using it once he’s learned of it.

Although Brian Croucher chews up the scenery in a very familiar way and doesn’t really do anything that’s new, it is good to have Blake’s nemesis back in the story to help liven up an otherwise predictable plot device.

All of the ingredients work, no matter how familiar, so again I’m finding myself recommending this adventure.  So far, it’s been a good series of adventures.  I hope this will continue next time with Cold Fury.  The cliffhanger of Vila being caught by Travis promises that it should…