Point of No Return is the second in the b7media audio series Blake’s 7 – The Early Years and forms part of Big Finish‘s A Rebellion Reborn 10-CD box-set.

POINT OF NO RETURN

Whereas adventures in the Blake’s 7 – The Audio Adventures range featured a full-cast production of all of the Liberator’s crew, including Travis and Servalan, and had the feel of a TV episodes, Blake’s 7 – The Early Years feels a little bit more like a budget-conscious affair akin to Big Finish‘s “Companion Chronicles” range.

Having previously heard from Vila and Gan in When Vila Met Gan, Point of No Return is a solo Travis story by James Swallow.  In this story, Travis is played by new actor Craig Kelly, not either Stephen Greif (TV Travis #1) or Brian Croucher (TV Travis #2).

The story is mostly a two-hander, with Travis tasked with interrogating a traitor/dissident.  His prisoner claims that he’s been framed with holographic recordings.  Travis isn’t swayed but he is determined to do everything by-the-book to ensure the case can’t be thrown out.  To this end, he investigates the claims and, discovering certain anomalies, makes it his job to find out the truth and solidify the case.

Although this is a pre-Blake “Early Years” story, it can almost be seen as a parallel of what would happen later with Blake being “framed”.  Indeed, it could explain just why Blake was framed for a much more heinous crime to discredit him.  Having Travis question unquestionable evidence no doubt goes towards his later character.  Whilst he was solidly a Federation soldier when sent after Blake, he did always have a questioning side that wouldn’t allow him to just be blindly led around.  During his own trial later, Travis demonstrated a breath-taking disregard for the proceedings, and a history like this could have sewn the seeds of that part of his character.

In the 30-minute duration, the story doesn’t have much time (or the characters) to really do itself justice.  A full-cast adventure would probably have served Travis better.

The adventure is followed-up with a 15 minute music suite.

As with the previous story in this range, this isn’t a story you’d buy as a standalone CD but, as part of the collection, it’s a worthy addition.