Mission Of Mercy is essentially an amalgamation of a number of previous Blake's 7 episodes, but as such does at least feel true to the series.
WRITTEN BY
No specific credit.
PLOT
In a fleeting moment of unusual moral fiber, Tarrant convinces the Scorpio crew to respond to a distress call, only to discover that Servalan has left them a fairly unpleasant gift...
ANALYSIS
It's a kind of Frankenstein story, taking various plot elements of other Blake's 7 episodes and stitching them together - the killer robot from Headhunter, Vila's headache-inducing riddles from Ultraworld and capturing a mysterious ship in the cargo bay from Time Squad.
For a comic, it's not too bad, but I would hope to see more original content, particularly considering that the format has no limitations beyond imagination.
CHARACTERS
The dialogue is as one might expect from an exaggerated comic book(cheesy and often full of cheap exposition), but Avon has his acidic quips, Tarrant is steadfast, Orac is a cranky know-it-all, Vila is cowardly and prone to daft humor, and Dayna throws bombs. And Soolin is there.
Amusingly enough, I'd say Slave had the most apposite characterisation, and I liked finding out that he is so integrated into the Scorpio's systems that damage translates as physical injury to him. It's an element we never saw on the TV show, but it fits the character well and I liked the notion that he's afraid of punishment.
NOTES
*This comic was published in the Blake's 7 Marvel Monthly issue 1.
*I would've loved to see Paul Darrow deliver Avon's "Uhh?" and "I hate being stranded like this!"
*Orac is apparently unaware of what an umbrella is. They can't be that out of date!
*I find it strange that Tarrant would insist on dragging Vila along to a rescue mission, when he could just chill out at Xenon Base and not get in the way. It's not like they need his thieving skills here!
*A great example of Avon's veiled empathy - he lets Tarrant risk the Scorpio to rescue the Federation's victims, "if he wants to be a hero".
*The Federation has a Starfleet, bringing the series closer to Star Trek(if "Picard" didn't already do that).
*Orac can innately sense danger, which we never see in the TV series. He could've of course detected Ensor's robot, but why did he take so long to calculate that? And why wouldn't he just hack the thing?
*Whilst the comic does mention the cargo hold was pressurized, it does it in the context that it was pressurized before, which would contradict the canon of the show where only the flight deck is pressurized during the flight.
*The robot, much like the Headhunter one, seems to believe only Ensor's robots are fit to rule the galaxy. There's an odd streak of megalomania that thankfully left Orac himself unaffected. Maybe Junior was evil all along?
*And where was the robot when Ensor needed physical protection?
INFORMATION!
*Tarrant mentions that Orac doesn't like riddles, which was established in Ultraworld.
*Ensor, the designer of Servalan's robot and Orac, was seen in Orac. It can be presumed that Ensor's student Muller continued this particular brand of research, culminating in the events of Headhunter.
*The crew's previous ship Liberator is mentioned and compared to Scorpio.
BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE
"By the stars, that robotoid's a fearsome creature! Can nothing stop it?"
CONCLUSION
A fun bit of Blake's 7 fluff.
*Orac is apparently unaware of what an umbrella is. They can't be that out of date!
*I find it strange that Tarrant would insist on dragging Vila along to a rescue mission, when he could just chill out at Xenon Base and not get in the way. It's not like they need his thieving skills here!
*A great example of Avon's veiled empathy - he lets Tarrant risk the Scorpio to rescue the Federation's victims, "if he wants to be a hero".
*The Federation has a Starfleet, bringing the series closer to Star Trek(if "Picard" didn't already do that).
*Orac can innately sense danger, which we never see in the TV series. He could've of course detected Ensor's robot, but why did he take so long to calculate that? And why wouldn't he just hack the thing?
*Whilst the comic does mention the cargo hold was pressurized, it does it in the context that it was pressurized before, which would contradict the canon of the show where only the flight deck is pressurized during the flight.
*The robot, much like the Headhunter one, seems to believe only Ensor's robots are fit to rule the galaxy. There's an odd streak of megalomania that thankfully left Orac himself unaffected. Maybe Junior was evil all along?
*And where was the robot when Ensor needed physical protection?
INFORMATION!
*Tarrant mentions that Orac doesn't like riddles, which was established in Ultraworld.
*Ensor, the designer of Servalan's robot and Orac, was seen in Orac. It can be presumed that Ensor's student Muller continued this particular brand of research, culminating in the events of Headhunter.
*The crew's previous ship Liberator is mentioned and compared to Scorpio.
"By the stars, that robotoid's a fearsome creature! Can nothing stop it?"
CONCLUSION
A fun bit of Blake's 7 fluff.
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