A10 "Breakdown" (Blake's 7)

Still being credited to Terry Nation, I notice.

Love that darkened model shot of the Liberator passing a sun... 

Zen alerts Gan to a meteorite storm, and it gives him a headache. 

Jenna takes control. 

Gan's gone nuts; he knocks Jenna unconscious and drags her off. 

When Blake tries to reason with Gan, he's thrown across the bridge. 

Vila and Avon pile in and eventually Gan is overcome, and tranquilized. 

Gan's brain implant is playing up, it seems. 

The medical bay is on film; Gan is secured. 

Cally isn't too happy with the way Gan is being treated. 

Gan gets scanned and Vila notes the irony in them all hoping he just has a nice ordinary disease. 

The medical scanner diagnoses potentially terminal deterioration; surgery is needed... 

Avon & Jenna scour the galaxy for technologically advanced enough civilizations where help could be sought.  

Avon knows somewhere closer: XK72; a space laboratory that specializes in weaponry and "space medicine".  

Zen's one of those taxi drivers that tries to take you the long way round. "Prohibited Zone" my arse. 

The crew vote to ignore Zen's advice and head into the prohibited zone.  

When they get there, Zen switches itself off in a sulk.  

"30 hours? that gives it plenty of time to leap out on us, then."  

With the computers offline, the ship could be destroyed if they make the slightest mistake. 

Avon wants to turn back but Jenna's having none of it. 

In the medical bay, Gan starts to wake up. Cally tries to keep him cool. 

They're starting to drift and their speed's increasing. Gan starts to snarl and grunt. 

Gan tells Cally that he's tired and can't remember what happened. He asks to sit up, but something's off. 

Freed, Gan attacks Cally, but when the ship suffers a wobble, so does Gan and he takes off clutching his head. 

Now they see what Zen had his knickers in a twist about: a swirly red vortex pulling them towards destruction... 

Cally makes it to the others and Blake goes on a Gan hunt. 

Avon tries to fix the computer; Gan gives tech support in the style of 'thump it and see what happens'. 

Blake arrives just in time, and Avon gets the job done. 

Catastrophe averted... 

...they arrive at the laboratory.  

There, Avon has a decision to make...

How neutral is this laboratory? Avon recommends Professor Kane, who appears to be a splinter of Scaroth! 

Blake teleports straight into Kane's office. 

Kane agrees to come over to the Liberator. 

"This behaviour will have to be noted down in the station log!" Yeah, you do that, mate. 

Kane thinks the Liberator is a military craft. 

Blake tells him it's "experimental". 

Kane's assistant arrives, but Avon stays behind for a mooch...  

Kane's assistant starts harassing Jenna immediately. 

"I like girls with a sense of humour." 

"I can see how that would come in useful." ZING! 

Kane has rumbled who the crew really are, and he sees them as a threat to the stability that serves his purposes. 

Kane's called in the feds, and plans to stall Gan's operation. 

Avon may have an opportunity to escape while Blake and the others are captured; will he take it? 

Kane's assistant has more of a conscience than his boss, but Vila's rumbled his game and Avon's back. 

There's a snag, though. If the ship moves, the operation will be botched. 

Apparently this episode is now about ethics in brain surgery...  

Job done... 

...Kane is sent packing. 

"Is there any way we can thank you?"
"Try getting caught." 

The lab boss admonishes Kane, who loses the plot when his precious surgeon's hands are touched. 

So he uses his precious surgeon's hands to kill him. 

The federation ships fire... 

...but the Liberator legs it.

And the laboratory is struck instead. Boom! 

The pursuit ships turn, but the Liberator is away. 

And Gan's okay, even if his ears do glow in the dark now. 

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Death to the Daleks