Dawn of the Gods is the 30th episode of Blakes 7. It was written by James Follett, the first of two - the other one was Stardrive in season four.
Avon, Vila, Cally, Dayna and Orac are playing Space Monopoly, which does not make for a riveting hook into the story. The dialogue for this bit is so trite it is a welcome relief to see Tarrant trying to get the plot started - the Liberator is starting to go off course and speed up, but Zen says that "all systems are functioning normally."
Tarrant suspects a "traction beam" is affecting them, but Zen's scan detects nothing that could be the source. They fly into "sector 12" which Tarrant says is uncharted. Avon wants to predict where they are being drawn towards, and Zen shows them a picture of where that is.
"Three guesses, if you need them."
"A black hole."
Orac is fascinated by black holes, and tells the mannys the facts that even cats know about them:
"Their gravitational pull is so massive that not even light can escape from them. A cubic inch of black hole matter can weigh a million tons."
I don't know much about the writer James Follett, but one fact I do know is that this is a picture of him doing his research for this episode:
The ship is now going so fast that it starts a special effect that knocks out all of the mannys, even as Avon and Tarrant start having a fight because Avon tried to escape in a spacesuit. The dialogue is distorted so we have no idea what Avon's full plan actually was, except that it was only "a faint chance for one of us."
Tarrant wakes up first and goes to wake up Avon. They're best friends again, d'aww, even as Tarrant says
"One day, Avon, I may have to kill you."
"It has been tried."
This is just them flirting.
Cally has been hurt and needs to be put in a small see-through tent to help make her better. Inside it, we can hear somebody communicating telepathically with her. It's the Tharn.
Sorry, I mean "it's the Thaarn." He wants to rule the universe together with Cally.
The others are more concerned with where the Liberator is now. Avon has a theory that they "have fallen through the black hole into the so-called negative universe of antimatter, where time and energy no longer exist."
Tarrant and Dayna decide to fire the neutron blasters, presumably just for the lols, but the shots rebound upon the Liberator. Cally comes in and suggests this is because "space is curved back on itself here."
Cally is surprised to hear from Tarrant that she was delirious and talking about the Thaarn, saying that
"Well, it seems absurd. The Thaarn is as mythical to me as dragons and unicorns are to the people of Earth."
My friend Dragon has been watching the episode along with me, and he would like me to point out that this statement is entirely precise and accurate.
There has been some damage to the outside of the ship, and they need Vila to put on a spacesuit. There is a classic instant reversal gag where Vila says
"Oh no, not me. Not a space suit. Well, it wasn't my idea. One of you can go outside. I never did trust those things. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the whole galaxy can or will persuade me to wear one. Not a chance."
and then it cuts to show him with the spacesuit on, roflmew. Vila goes outside the ship where he discovers there is gravity, and a floor when he falls onto it. This is actually quite a tense and interesting scene, with Vila facing unknown perils alone and only in touch with the other characters over the communicator.
The Thaarn starts communicating with Cally again, so she alerts the others to there being "something out there - a force, something all powerful and evil." That's quite an extrapolation, given all the Thaarn did was say
"Come to me, Cally, I need you."
like he had just invented a telepathic telephone and was testing it out for the first time.
Vila finds some wrecked parts of other spaceships, and then something comes towards him. It has lights on it that hypno-eyes him. Cally's telepathy comes in useful for a change, as she breaks the hypno-eyes and gets Vila to run away. He doesn't get far though because the thing chases him.
They shoot at the lights from the Liberator and that seems to scare it off, but they think Vila is ded when they see him having sleeps on the floor. Tarrant goes outside in a spacesuit next, and he finds that Vila is not ded but has discovered there is a breathable atmosphere.
Back in the Liberator, they analyse the rocks and spaceship parts that Vila found and they discover that all of the Herculaneum has been stolen, which is a neat trick to steal an ancient Roman town from out of a spaceship. Even more amazingly, Orac then says that the Liberator is made from Herculaneum.
Tarrant, Avon, Vila and Cally go outside of the ship and line up looking cool. Something comes towards them with less lights on it this time. Dayna tries to shoot it from back on the ship, but it somehow drains their energy banks so she can't.
It also drains the energy from their pewpewpew guns and then chases them around for a bit while looking derpy, because somebody has painted a silly-looking face on the front. Dragon wonders if this is another attempt by baddys to fake up a dragon, like the baddys in Dr. No did. Suffice to say, he doesn't like it. But if he thinks this is bad, I have seen this episode before and know what is coming next...
Oh noes.
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