Hostage (1979) Review

Hostage has a few good ideas here and there, but it's mostly just a confusing runaround.

WRITTEN BY

Allan Prior, who has the strangest habit of inventing things for Blake's 7 that he pretends were always there... like "Crimos" and "time units" and funky silver thermal suits.

PLOT

Travis contacts the Liberator with an offer to partner with Blake, and a threat to his cousin if he should disagree. Perturbed, Avon contacts Space Command to give Travis up, unaware that Servalan has plans for her former Space Commander...

ANALYSIS

I really like seeing Travis on his own again, but the episode relies on a ridiculous series of contrivances, under which is a story so simple that it could've been told in ten minutes. Travis is somehow able to contact the Liberator despite not having a clue as to where it is. Blake, Avon and Vila all get captured with ridiculous ease. Avon decides it'd be a smart idea to drag Servalan into all of this. The Crimo that gets on the ship decides to teleport off of it. Neither Cally nor Jenna can hear Travis bellowing next to Vila into the bracelet. None of the Crimos on the planet appear to have any guns.

The direction is a joke. Half the scenes could've used at least one retake. You can barely keep track of what's going on in the drawn out battle sequence towards the end. The quarry is drab even by the show's standards. Servalan accepts her communications by sitting on the opposite side of her table and turning her window into a viewscreen.

CHARACTERS

Ushton is incredibly inconsistent. His daughter's been kidnapped and he's forced to cooperate with Travis, I get that. But why does he straight-up lead the Crimos to acquire the Liberator bracelets? And the rest of the time, he does what he would've done even if he wasn't on Travis's side, which is pointing Blake to where he needs to go. So how exactly is he even a traitor? They make a big deal out of his fake limp because it means he can go up to the tower, but even if he could, it's not like he could rescue Inga on her own with no real weapons.

Avon is just plainly out of character. There's only a slim chance that the Liberator wouldn't run into Servalan's ship and even if not, she'd still most likely murder Blake's family. Being responsible for that is both cold and unnecessary on his part. If he hadn't called Servalan, Blake would've just gone down to the planet and he would've stayed up on the Liberator and probably managed to take care of any Crimos who tried to go up. For a character who relies on logic, he shows very little strategic acumen this time.

I really feel bad for Sally Knyvette and Jan Chappell. I was all set to see them try and rescue the men, but nope. Gotta throw out the thinnest of excuses to keep them in that teleport room!

Brian Croucher as Travis is the highlight of the episode. Travis simply exudes self-loathing and shame by this point, and he spends a lot of his time trying to convince people that other people hate them, very obviously projecting. He's a fascinating villain.

NOTES

*Blake's family situation is left terribly vague. Given that we know most of them were murdered by the Federation, you'd think he'd be attached to whoever he's got left. But not only does Blake never mention this to Ushton or Inga, we never even find out why they were on a penal planet and most importantly, why Blake never bothered to rescue them.

*What exactly is a "mass of particles" in space?

*Mutoids without their helmets are a big no-no.

*I love how they show that incompetent Space Commander early on purely to establish how Servalan clearly misses having Travis around... even though that Space Commander got closer than Travis ever did to killing Blake.

*Why does Travis even bother with the charade of an alliance? He might as well say "come here or I'll shoot this girl". Hell, Blake is such a nice guy he'd probably show up even if Inga wasn't related to him.

*Servalan's chair very obviously moves between shots.

*The entire conversation between Servalan and Councillor Joban is a rehash of her introductory scene from Seek-Locate-Destroy.

*What's the point of the Crimos anyway? We only see one display any real personality and not for long. They might as well be the Mutoids Servalan gave him.

*Blake's tumble down the hill is sped-up as if this was a 1960s Bond film.

*Blake could easily have gotten out of that bear trap if he just took his boot off.

*Brian Croucher delivers the "pity, I was beginning to enjoy that" line before the Crimos recapture Inga.

*It's idiotic for Travis to ask the Crimos who the weakest member of the Liberator crew is. Travis would have looked up the backgrounds of every member of Blake's crew, not to mention he has much more personal experience with them and already met Vila twice.

*I wish they'd managed to film the whole thing at night. The scene where Servalan picks Travis up at the end is actually quite atmospheric.

*I just realized we never got the crew's reaction to finding out Travis has gone renegade. You'd think there would've been a long conversation about that.

INFORMATION!

*Vila asks Cally for a medicinal relaxant. She invented the adrenaline and soma mix in Horizon.

*Avon's anti-detection shield has broken down between this episode and Killer. The Federation have also invented their own version, which they use to sneak up on the Liberator.

*Avon considers Blake presumptous for assuming that they'll still risk their lives for him, indirectly referencing the recent death of Gan in Pressure Point.

*Jenna points out that Cally has been correct about sensing things in the past(Killer, Horizon, Shadow).

*Once again, Travis employs his standard tactic of trying to trap his enemies, established in Seek-Locate-Destroy and also used in Duel, Project Avalon, and Pressure Point.

BEST QUOTE AVON QUOTE TRAVIS QUOTE

"Now for the last time, tell us the word. The word, the word-switch the bracelet on. THE WORD, THE WORD, THE WORD-"

CONCLUSION

Not much to it, is there?