We near the end of Blake’s 7 – The Early Years from b7media now with Escape Velocity. Having already had stories dedicated to Vila, Gan, Travis, Avon, Cally, and Jenna, Escape Velocity centres around, of all characters, Zen (voiced by Alistair Lock). The story opens shortly after the Blake’s 7 – The Audio Adventures ended with its third story Liberator.
ESCAPE VELOCITY
The Liberator has been recaptured by the “System” and is being examined by one of the System’s Avatars (Tracy-Ann Oberman). The Avatar can’t understand why the “Shipmind” is calling itself “Zen”, or why its nomenclature of “DSV2” is now “Liberator”. Zen resists its programming being reset, and the Avatar probes its memory banks to find out what happened to result in this rebellion.
Like previous stories, this one is told through flashbacks. There are two flashbacks going on. The first is when DSV2 is being prepared for its primary mission, and the second is shortly before Blake found the Liberator.
We’re introduced to two new characters (making this another two-hander, as has been the case with previous adventures). The characters are known by what they do, rather than names. “Pilot” (Zoe Tapper) is DSV2’s pilot, “Healer” (Jason Merrells) is its medic, and we learn of others such as “Gunner” (Sam Woodward) and “Tech” (Pamela Banks).
In the first series of flashbacks, “Pilot” has just undergone some form of induction – a process by which a symbiotic relationship is formed between ship and crew. Memories of any previous life are erased, replaced by an enthusiasm and zeal to perform the role for which they’ve been chosen. “Pilot” wants to do nothing more that fly through the stars. “Healer” wants to do nothing more than help people. Nothing more enters their thoughts.
DSV2’s mission is, like all other DSV warships, to defend the system from invaders.
In the secondary set of flashbacks, there’s been a massive battle that’s seen DSV2 severely damaged. Both the ship’s and the crew’s mental link to the “System” has been severed, and the crew’s memories are returning. As a result, the crew are rebelling against “Shipmind” – the controlling influence of DSV2. “Shipmind” can’t function without its link to the crew or the “System” and the resulting trauma is making it do anything that will force the crew to return to the symbiotic link – even going so far as to kill those who won’t conform.
Escape Velocity is a one-hour adventure that I’m about half-way through, but so far it’s another great adventure in this range. It explains quite a bit about what “our” crew went through in the original trilogy, and why this “Zen” is quite a bit different to the one on TV. The TV series never did really explore the nature of Zen and the Liberator, so there’s very little to contradict this time around.
I’m expecting the rest of the adventure to live up to the quality of the first half.
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