Blood On His Hands (1982) Review

Blood On His Hands is a surprisingly complex political thriller, albeit somewhat clunky.

WRITTEN BY

Yet another employee of editor Stewart Wales. I really wish they'd credited them. If anyone knows a place where the B7 magazine scriptwriters are listed, do tell.

PLOT

Avon makes a bargain with the governments of Plaxos and Grat Manga to escort their ambassadors in an attempt to solidify an anti-Federation alliance. Things go awry when the Scorpio crew discover the man heavily sedated against his will, and begin to question Avon's motives...

ANALYSIS

This is the kind of story where you really have to pay close attention and just "go with it" for the longest time, because it doesn't wholly add up until the explanation at the end. I'm not very fond of this type of storytelling(if I don't know what the characters are doing and why, it's difficult to get invested), but I can't deny it's one of the strongest, most original short stories of the series yet.

It's melancholy, morally enigmatic and full of intrigue. And most of all, it's a kind of situation that we're not used to seeing the crew(particularly this incarnation of them) in, which immediately creates tension. However, it's not perfect. I feel as if there was some last minute editing done(perhaps the story was originally too long?), because there's at least one scene missing and it created a good deal of confusion for me.

CHARACTERS

Avon's steadfast refusal to keep his crew in the loop was very reminiscent of Terminal. However, they obviously have learned their lesson since then. Rather interestingly, it's Vila who takes the initiative and assumes the traditional Avon role of questioning everything. He even sarcastically refers to Avon as their "glorious leader" much like the latter used to do with Blake! Avon, by the way, is fantastically written, dominating every scene despite not saying much. He really leapt off the page.

The rest of the crew don't have much of a presence. In fact, I don't think Dayna says a word! At least Slave's a bit funny. I've always had a soft spot for Slave.

Alvern was somewhat interesting. Was he in it for power(as suggested by his involvement with the Federation?) or did he truly want what's best for his people, like Ro in Horizon? We'll never know now...

NOTES

*This story was published in the Blake's 7 Marvel Monthly issue 5.

*There doesn't seem any particular reason for Avon to keep the truth from his crew this time around. In fact, much like last time, it just gets them into deeper trouble.

*I love how Avon asks Tarrant how long he's known the truth literally the very second Tarrant discovers the truth.

*I am curious about the exact circumstances in which the governments got in touch with Avon. Did he get Orac to skim over the Dark Web for job advertisements?

*Apparently, the Federation have updated their engines as they manage to keep up with the Scorpio fairly successfully.

*Unsurprisingly, Avon has programmed Slave to override any orders contradictory to his own.

INFORMATION!

*The Scorpio relies on Dr. Plaxton's photonic stardrive to escape from the Federation, setting it at least after Stardrive.

*This is pure speculation, but Vila's suspicious attitude towards Avon would suggest that this takes place after the events of Orbit.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE VILA QUOTE

"He must think we're mushrooms... keeping us in the dark all the time!"

CONCLUSION

A bit melodramatic, but certainly memorable and well thought-out.