(WE HEAR A FAST APPROACHING SOUND THAT RISES AND SWELLS BEFORE DISSIPATING UNDER THE OPENING STATEMENT BY SECRETARY RONTANE)

RONTANE: It was the continued liberty of political terrorist Roj Blake, that prompted the Terran Administration to send Councilor Bercol and myself to Space Command Headquarters, to discuss with Supreme Commander Servalan what counter measures she intended taking.

SERVALAN: Gentlemen, I share the President's grave concern, but let us keep this matter in its correct perspective. It is true that Blake has command of a superb space vehicle, but he is just a man, backed by a handful of criminals, who has been extremely lucky to evade capture.

RONTANE: With respect, Supreme Commander, we are aware of the facts, they are simply that with all the resources that the Federation can call upon, this one lucky man is still free to cause havoc.

SERVALAN: You have some criticism of my handling of this matter, Secretary Rontane?

RONTANE: Not at all, I hope merely to convey the concern shown by the President when he briefed me for this visit.

BERCOL: It would be very helpful to all of us if we knew, if you could indicate what action you will now be taking against Blake.

SERVALAN: Very well, Councilor Bercol, you may tell the President that I am appointing a Space Commander to take absolute control of this matter.

RONTANE: May we know the Officer's name?

SERVALAN: Yes, you may. Space Commander Travis.

RONTANE: I understood that Travis had been suspended from duty pending an inquiry into the massacre of the civilians on the planet Auros.

SERVALAN: And I have satisfied myself that Travis acted correctly in this matter.

BERCOL: Um, there are other incidents on his record, um, unfortunate incidents.

RONTANE: He has caused the administration some political embarrassment in the past. Uh, which dealing with even minor insurrections he has been er, over zealous?

SERVALAN: Oh, don't be afraid of the word, Secretary. Ruthless. Committed. He does his duty as he sees it and he sees it clearly. He has no time for the dirty gray areas of your politics.

RONTANE: I'm sure you're right, and of course the appointment is made on your judgment and er, your responsibility.

SERVALAN: Responsibility is something I have never evaded, Secretary.

(SCENE FADES OUT. SHORT PAUSE, THEN FADE UP TO A BUSY COMPUTER ACCESS CENTRE. SOUNDS OF KEYPAD AND COMPUTER STARTUP)

RONTANE: I require all central record files relating to Travis, Space Commander, Alpha One five one zero five, who has recently been made executive officer of this space station.

COMPUTER: There are currently four subjects held in detention who bear a direct relation to your inquiry. Do you require access?

RONTANE: Yes. State Travis' origins.

COMPUTER: David Maloney, Producer.

MALONEY: (BLEEP) The Federation, of course, appeared in the very first episode, directed by Michael E. Bryant. All the themes and all the stories in series one were Terry Nation's original ideas. I'm not sure how far Terry had planned into the first series, but I think having established these rather menacing stormtroopers, we then had to get to the heart of the Federation and discover the brains behind the Federation, and then of course we came upon Servalan and Travis.

COMPUTER: Cross-reference Chris Boucher, Script Editor.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) Initially he was brought into the programme because you needed a villain. He was an archetypal villain, a bad guy, a strong bad guy, a man who knew his place, had a straightforward function.

RONTANE: Was the Producer responsible for the casting of Stephen Greif as Travis?

MALONEY: (BLEEP) Yes. I was involved with all the casting on Blake's 7. I cast all the principal actors on my own. I had no directors working with me when the permanent cast was engaged. I chose them in consultation with Terry Nation, but I was responsible for all the main casting.

COMPUTER: Cross-reference Stephen Greif, actor, via satellite link.

GREIF: (BLEEP) I was recording a situation comedy for the BBC called Citizen Smith, and I was in the canteen and a friend of mine called Paul Darrow, who played Avon in the series, mentioned that, uh, they were looking for a kind of relative villain and, um, he thought that I might fit the bill quite well, and to get onto the producer, and uh, I did, and I went to see him, and they offered me the part.

(TRAVIS' OPENING LINES ARE AT FIRST HEARD COMING FROM A SMALL SPEAKER IN THE COMPUTER ACCESS CHAMBER BEFORE EVENTUALLY DISSOLVING INTO SERVALAN'S OFFICE)

TRAVIS: Have you appointed my requisition for personnel and equipment?

SERVALAN: Already assigned. Why mutoids particularly?

TRAVIS: I've always thought that individuals with a high bionic rebuild were more reliable, less likely to let emotion interfere with judgment or duty. I'd give a mutoid priority over a man every time. Or perhaps it's this that gives me a fellow feeling.

SERVALAN: Does it still trouble you?

TRAVIS: No, the hand is fine, better than the original, the surgical mechanics did a perfect refit. I had the weaponry division make a few adaptations. They built in a Lazeron Destroyer, more powerful than any sidearm. It only troubles me because it's a constant reminder that the man who caused it is still alive.

SERVALAN: Blake. That's why I chose you. I read the reports of course, but none of them said what happened. None of them explained about your face. It was patched up by a field medic.

TRAVIS: Man saved my life.

SERVALAN: But why did you never let the surgeons finish the job?

TRAVIS: You find it repulsive?

SERVALAN: I find it, unpleasing.

TRAVIS: But memorable. You wouldn't mistake me for anyone else. Neither will Blake. Even after all this time he'll know me and remember what happened at our first meeting.

SERVALAN: Tell me.

TRAVIS: He organized some attacks against some of our political rehabilitation centres. I was assigned to deal with the matter. We got information that Blake was planning another raid. We knew the location of the meeting point. I made my plans well in advance.

BLAKE: The group had arranged to meet in a sub-basement. There were about thirty of us. I was very particular about security. No Federation forces came anywhere near the place. I was absolutely sure that we were safe. That night we were assembled, about to begin, when Travis and his men suddenly appeared from nowhere. He'd been hiding in that basement for more than two days. I made no attempt to resist arrest there was no point. We had no chance. I said to Travis, "we will offer no resistance", he just stared at me and then he ordered his men to open fire. I ran, I found myself grappling with a guard. I managed to get his gun away from him. Then I was hit in the leg, but as I went down I saw Travis and I fired.

(REVERBED FEDERATION GUN SHOT)

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) I always felt that Travis was a boy soldier, sort of today's equivalent would be a Barnardo boy, who went into the army and made a damn good career out of it, and rose through the ranks to become an officer. I felt he didn't have a family. He never had a family, except the army, one of those ideal people in any military force for whom that force is his family, his life, his reason for surviving. We all need to belong and he belonged to the army.

GREIF: (BLEEP) He was just, um, a fairly black and white kind of a guy. Nothing in the script to suggest that he was anything other than a rather ruthless soldier who had a personal vendetta against Blake and, um, had to bring him in. There are no personality guidelines in the script or otherwise to show that he was anything else but a bit of a malicious killer. Bit of a loner I think.

MALONEY: (BLEEP) Travis was a sort of gimmick, a man who'd lost his arm and had a ray-gun as a replacement and only one eye, though that didn't seem to affect Nelson. We knew that Blake had been responsible for the maiming of Travis and that they were sworn enemies. I think the casting of Stephen Greif in the first series was extremely powerful, and physically he's a sort of dominating actor, a very good foil for Blake. His relationship with Servalan, they were two different characters conceived to work alongside one another. I can't recall that there was ever any relationship developed between the two of them on any sort of intimate level.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) There were various nods and winks and whispers about what their relationship might have been, and various writers had various ideas, the actors themselves had various ideas. As far as I was concerned the relationship between the two was a formal one in its way. Servalan was the Supreme Commander of the forces. Travis had been trained from being a boy to be a good officer. He therefore, almost a subconscious level, a highly trained level, regarded her as what she was, the supreme authority. He could no more have killed her, for example, or ultimately refused a direct order from her than he could have done anything that ran against his instincts. I mean kill himself on orders. "Stick this gun in your ear Travis and blow your brains out". "Well thank you, I don't think I'll bother". He would have taken a direct order to lead a suicide charge. He would have led the charge of the Light Brigade without a second thought. Servalan was the ultimate authority to whom he had been trained to respond. That was fundamentally their relationship. Anything else was just dressing.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Above an uncharted world, three Federation Pursuit Ships prepare to engage the spacecraft Liberator in combat. However, before the duel can be completed, the two respective captains, Travis and Blake are transported to the planet's surface.

TRAVIS: Who are you?

SINOFAR: I am Sinofar the Guardian. This is Giroc, the Keeper.

TRAVIS: You do realize that any hostile act against me will be regarded as a hostile act against the Federation. Have you any idea of the risk you are running?

BLAKE: They don't seem very impressed, Travis. Why don't you try stamping your foot?

TRAVIS: Oh that's very amusing Blake, for a dead man. This man is an enemy of the Federation, tried and convicted. I must bring him back to justice or kill him.

SINOFAR: You?

BLAKE: I am an enemy of the Federation, but it is corrupt and oppressive. I will destroy it, if I can.

SINOFAR: Irreconcilable viewpoints. The classic pattern for war.

GIROC: Since each of you wishes to destroy the other, we are going to give you the chance.

TRAVIS: A duel?

GIROC: A fight to the death.

SINOFAR: But this way there will be a limit to the deaths. And we will ensure that the loser's ship has an opportunity to get away. Don't you find that rational?

TRAVIS: No. When I've killed Blake, I'll simply hunt down the others.

SINOFAR: There will be no destruction within our influence. But we cannot control your actions beyond this planet.

BLAKE: I don't think I want to kill for your entertainment.

GIROC: You have no choice.

BLAKE: We could agree not to fight.

TRAVIS: Could we?

GIROC: If you trusted one another.

SINOFAR: There is another matter, a lesson you must learn about death.

BLAKE: I think we both know enough about that all ready.

SINOFAR: You both know how to kill, but here you must take a life. There will be no machines to make the act unreal. You must touch the life you take.

TRAVIS: Shall we get on with it?

GIROC: How anxious he is to reach the forest. Once there you can only return when it is over.

TRAVIS: Weapons?

SINOFAR: Tools for survival.

TRAVIS: So this is your lesson? Pathetic.

STEPHEN: (BLEEP) I enjoyed "Duel" partly because the director was terribly good, Doug Camfield, and also he allowed me to have a little say in the direction of the episode. Included a number of my suggestions, which I was grateful for. I enjoyed that, filming in the New Forest.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Blake is teleported to the forest with ship's pilot Jenna Stannis as companion. Travis, however, is merely provided with his piloting mutoid. As night falls, they retreat to the relative safety of the trees, away from preying animals.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) The scene between Travis and the mutoid in the trees, it was basically an attempt to turn the mutoid into something more than simply a robot with vampiric tendencies, with requirements for plasma.

TRAVIS: Tell me something. In your previous life, before you were modified, do you know who you were?

MUTOID: Of course not.

TRAVIS: Aren't you curious about it?

MUTOID: No.

TRAVIS: I find that hard to believe.

MUTOID: Memory is an encumbrance, all trace of it is removed and with it all trace of identity.

TRAVIS: And it doesn't concern you?

MUTOID: Why should it? That identity doesn't exist. Even in the central computers.

TRAVIS: Yes it does. I know who you were. Your name is Keera. Keera.

MUTOID: Keera.

TRAVIS: You were very beautiful. Very much admired. Shall I go on?

MUTOID: As you wish.

TRAVIS: This doesn't interest you at all, does it?

MUTOID: How could it?

TRAVIS: Keep watch.

MUTOID: Yes, Commander.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) Travis, sitting in a tree with a robot in a situation that he'd been projected into by vaguely supernatural beings, with an opportunity to kill the person that he badly wanted to kill, arguably would have been slightly less taciturn than normal. I mean he wouldn't just sit in the tree waiting for it to happen. He was sort of worried and he would have quite liked another human being to talk to, but what he got was the mutoid. Plus, if you were operating with one particular one, it might be useful to know where they come from; it might be a lever. In the event it wasn't a lever, because there was no way you could lever someone like that. There was no part of them that you could get hold of, except their requirement for plasma. He misinterpreted what they were, I mean, it was a human thing and Travis was human.

(WE NOW HEAR THE SOUNDS OF COMBAT, WHICH ECHO UNNATURALLY.

THE LAST FALL DIES AWAY SLOWLY AND FADES UNDER)

GIROC: You fought well, Blake.

BLAKE: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

GIROC: Why didn't you kill him?

BLAKE: Too weak, or maybe I didn't entirely trust your motives. Besides, as long as he's alive, he'll be the one chasing me, and I know I can beat him.

RONTANE: (REVERB, FADING BACK TO THE COMPUTER ACCESS CHAMBER OVER GIROC LAUGHING) Better the devil you know? It was this simplistic attitude to Travis that would eventually cost Blake dearly.

(TRAVIS' VOICE AGAIN IS HEARD FROM THE MONITOR SPEAKER BEFORE DISSOLVING TO LOCATION)

TRAVIS: Supreme Commander, it's good to see you. Safe journey I trust?

SERVALAN: Nothing is safe any more. You've heard of course that there have been two attempts on my life.

TRAVIS: I have, I was very concerned.

SERVALAN: I consider Blake to be responsible. Oh, not personally of course, but stories of his exploits are still circulating. They excite people. The fact that he is still free gives them hope, and that is dangerous, Travis. Hope is very dangerous.

TRAVIS: The loss of it can be fatal. And the source of it all is about to be wiped out.

SERVALAN: I think you should know that there's been considerable criticism of your

handling of the Blake affair.

TRAVIS: What?

SERVALAN: Well, so far your operation has been very costly, and there have been no worthwhile results.

TRAVIS: That's not entirely just. There have been two occasions where I could have destroyed Blake. It was only the administration's insistence that the Liberator be captured undamaged that stopped me.

SERVALAN: I have made that point in your defense, but I can't go on making excuses. I've been under considerable pressure to replace you.

TRAVIS: Oh?

SERVALAN: Oh, so far I have resisted that pressure, but now I need your reassurance that my confidence has not been misplaced.

TRAVIS: I think Project Avalon will silence the critics.

SERVALAN: It does seem an excellent plan.

TRAVIS: I'm glad you approve.

SERVALAN: In my position one never approves anything until it is an undisputed success. However, you have my full support. Unofficially of course.

RONTANE: Do you think Travis believed the Federation was a force for good?

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) I don't think initially he would have had any idealistic feelings about it at all, either way. The wonderful thing about, I was going to say wondrous thing, about getting young lads to go into the forces, they haven't formed any attitudes or views, they are malleable. Travis would have been that. So I mean he didn't go into the force thinking this is a force for good, or any of that stuff, it's just a career. Once in, once trained, the training requires that you don't think. It's important that you don't think, because if you do think, you cease to be a tool of the ruling elite, and become the ruling elite. Most military coups come about because people realize that they've got the guns and nobody else has, so why shouldn't they be in charge? You don't want people thinking in those situations. I don't think he would ever have thought about it, until he was kicked out, until he was personally betrayed. Until he was aware that people around him were being betrayed. I don't think he would have thought in terms of good and evil at all. And maybe after that everything was evil to him. I imagine it's a bit like having a loving marriage and discovering that your spouse is having affairs all over the place. It must totally undermine your view of yourself and your view of the world that you live in, and one way of coping with that is to go completely bananas, and I suspect that's what he did.

RONTANE: (REVERB) As a result of the failure of Project Avalon, Travis is again suspended from duty. However, Servalan offers him a chance to redeem himself and regain his command by accompanying her on unofficial business outside Federation jurisdiction. (REVERB STOPS) Why would Travis have agreed to this?

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) He still had that fundamental relationship with Servalan. That authority relationship. I mean, she might have been a cow, she might have been the evil bitch of the galaxy, but she was the Supreme Commander. Thinking about it, it's a bit like Ronald Reagan being made the President of the United States. I'm not suggesting he's the evil bitch of the galaxy, but he's an actor for god's sake, and not a very impressive one. Then he became the President of the United States, and that automatically gave him the personal authority. She is Supreme Commander. They may not be doing Federation business, but she's still the Supreme Commander and she is still Ronald Reagan, President of the United States and he is Oliver North. He wants to get back to the family, the service. I mean that's all he knows, and he wants his family back, his life back, he wants to be Space Commander Travis. That's what he is.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Servalan intends to steal super computer Orac from its dying creator on Aristo, but her plan will cause the death of surgeon Maryatt.

TRAVIS: Maryatt.

SERVALAN: What about him?

TRAVIS: His disappearance. There may be questions.

SERVALAN: In twelve hours I shall have him posted as a deserter.

TRAVIS: And his family goes into slavery on one of the frontier worlds.

SERVALAN: It is the normal procedure in a case of desertion.

TRAVIS: Of course. Do you remember the medic that saved my life?

SERVALAN: You're wasting time Tr...

TRAVIS: It was Maryatt.

SERVALAN: Does it matter?

TRAVIS: No ... No, only Blake matters now.

RONTANE: Why did Travis respond in such a way?

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) There's two aspects of it. One is that the surgeon, like him, is a serving officer, he was part of the family. It's all very well to kick civilians about and opposing armies and foes in general, but you look after your own. The surgeon was one of their own. He was also a particularly relevant one of their own, since he'd done decent things by Travis. There may have been also that undermining feeling that the threat to this man was a threat from another part of the family. In other words, it may have begun to undermine his feeling that he was safe with the service, that the service looked after its own, because it manifestly wasn't at that point. I'm not suggesting that they always do, but a good military force tries to look after its own, and if it can't, they make damn sure that people involved don't know that it's not looking after its own. So there were two aspects I think, the undermining aspect and the personal thing.

SERVALAN: Blast it open.

TRAVIS: Right, stand back.

(EXPLOSION. THE FOLLOWING DIALOGUE CAN BE HEARD UNDER STEPHEN GREIF'S NEXT SPEECH, FADING UP ON THE WORDS "IN ORDER TO GET TO A SURFACE EXIT")

STEPHEN: (BLEEP) A couple of days before we were due to go into the studio to tape the scene for the episode that we already filmed, I was playing squash as I normally do on a Saturday, and, um, ruptured my Achilles tendon. So I had to go and be operated on straight away. I was on crutches and in plaster for many months and so consequently wasn't able to work (THE EPISODE DIALOGUE FADES UP A LITTLE). So they got my stand-in, uh, interestingly enough played one of my sidekicks in Citizen Smith, uh, to stand in for me. A bit funny I thought the way they shot him, only from the waist down. They got me in later, and I dubbed over his waist and (LAUGHS) got the lines that would be said. So that was the answer to why I wasn't in vision, at least facially in vision.

SERVALAN: (FADES UP TO SAY) If we go back the way we came, along here we'll get there first and we can be waiting for them. Let's go.

RONTANE: (REVERBED OVER FOOTSTEPS IN PASSAGE) Blake and Cally, having secured Orac, head back to the surface of Aristo only to be confronted by Travis as they prepare to teleport back to Liberator.

(GUN BLAST FOLLOWED BY EXPLOSION)

TRAVIS: Goodbye, Blake.

SERVALAN: Wait.

TRAVIS: I have waited, too long.

SERVALAN: He's the bonus, Travis, Orac is the prize. That box, Orac, that's what we came for. If it does only half of what was promised it will give the Federation greater power than it's ever known.

CALLY: What are you going to do?

TRAVIS: What do you think I'm going to do?

BLAKE: I think you're going to kill me Travis, with or without orders from the Supreme Commander.

SERVALAN: With orders Blake. All right Travis, go ahead. (THERE IS A SHOT AND TRAVIS CRIES OUT)

BLAKE: Good shot, Avon.

AVON: I was aiming for his head.

TRAVIS: Well, what are you waiting for? Come on man, why don't you kill us?

BLAKE: No, I've got a better idea. We'll get a message through to the Federation. Tell them that you let us take ORAC. I'm sure they'll be quite fascinated by your explanation.

RONTANE: Stephen, why did you decide to leave the series after the first season?

STEPHEN: (BLEEP) Couple of reasons really, uh, first of all I had a film in the South of France and the dates conflicted with the filming of the second series, and that was irreconcilable. Also I was getting a bit unhappy about the way the episodes ended, they were all very samey. I wanted that to alter a bit if possible, but, uh, wasn't given any firm undertakings that there would be any change in that direction, and generally speaking we just couldn't meet so I left.

MALONEY: (BLEEP) When Stephen Greif decided that he wanted to leave, he wasn't contracted because he was a later character, he only came into the middle of the first series, so I didn't have a long contract on him as I did the others. I put a contract on them for the first series with an option on our side for the second series, so after the second series they were free to go if they wanted to. That's how Gareth Thomas was able to leave after the second series, but Stephen was another matter. I mean he was so, reckoned to be so good as Travis and we were determined to keep the character on, and he had other offers. He had a, I think a film offer and other parts offered to him and he didn't want to go on for the second series playing the character he'd already played successfully, so naturally he wanted to leave. I tried to persuade him, I really thought at one point he was going to rejoin us, but he didn't, and it then needed recasting.

TRAVIS 1: Blake!

(THIS WORD ECHOES AWAY, AND FROM IT, ECHOING BACKWARDS COMES ANOTHER VOICE)

TRAVIS 2: Blake!

MALONEY: (BLEEP) I cast Brian Croucher. I saw a lot of actors and I thought Brian was certainly the most suitable. I mean he was a good strong actor, extremely tall and I thought physically very attractive for the audience.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) We were looking for someone who had a physical resemblance for a start, and some presence as well. Brian was one of a fairly small list, and then of course you have a lot of other things feed in, who's available, who wants to do it, who doesn't spot the difficulties. Brian didn't spot (LAUGHING) the difficulties and neither did we I suspect.

RONTANE: Brian, is it true that you had originally auditioned for the part of Blake?

COMPUTER: Cross reference Brian Croucher, actor.

CROUCHER: (BLEEP) Yes I did audition, well it wasn't an audition. I met David Maloney when the series was first mooted and being started and, uh, I did go up for the part of Blake, but uh, obviously wasn't a big enough criminal, you know.

RONTANE: Had you seen any of the first season?

CROUCHER: (BLEEP) I think I do remember Stephen being rather brutish and bullying in one of the episodes in the first series, but no I didn't sit down and watch the first series, and when it came to David Maloney asking to see me to play the part of Travis, stroke two, I was a bit sorry, because I didn't know what I was going up for (LAUGH).

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) Brian was never less than totally committed and totally enthusiastic, and he was ill served on a number of occasions by one particular director, George Spenton-Foster, I don't think there's any secret about it. They had very little sympathy with each other and it was unfortunate that George was the first director he had, and that was very bad news coz Brian was quite nervous, understandably, coming into an established programme into an established group, with an established character that he was supposed to take over and George was less than sympathetic.

RONTANE: Why was Travis' uniform redesigned for season two?

MALONEY: (BLEEP) Basically he had the same appearance. I mean the physical things, his eye, his arm were all kept because rather like a sort of comic strip character, these were the fascinations of Travis, so they were retained. I think the fact that we made him a new suit and his arm was perhaps modified and his eye patch was a different shape, was all just lip service to another actor coming in.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) I think we probably felt that to make the outfits exactly the same was impossible, so it was better not to make the attempt.

CROUCHER: (BLEEP) The costume that I wore was, was streamlined, it was the, you know, it was the elastic, black elastic jump suit and, um, I'm not sure if Brian Ferry will like this, but I sort of modeled it on Brian Ferry and modeled from the hair down and his, the way he sings songs, he confronts. I don't know whether that makes sense, does that make sense?

RONTANE: Travis' character also began to change in season two.

MALONEY: (BLEEP) We obviously had to develop the character of Travis in the second season and the only person who'd, uh, introduced and worked on him was Terry. I think Chris Boucher began to write in the second series, was interested in the character of Travis. We cast another actor and I think this gave Chris uh, an opportunity to uh, write and to deepen the character.

RONTANE: When Travis returned to the series, it was made clear that he had made several visits to the retraining therapist. What would this have involved?

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) Basically he was re-programmed. His brain had been tampered with in some fairly major way, and the only reason that any of the old Travis remained was because he was such a strong character. He resisted it. Arguably he was sent there in order to erase everything that had previously been Travis, except for his fundamental training and replace that with something more malleable. Plus, it was a punishment for failure. I suppose the mistake they made was that Travis was his training and if you wanted to retain the training, they retained a large chunk of Travis. What they did was damage what was there and the result was someone who was no longer as stable and as useful as he had previously been, someone who was dangerously unstable. Its entirely possible that the negative traits of his character, I mean negative from the point of view of what the Federation wanted from him, the negative more personal traits probably have became more prevalent. The urge to kill Blake was clearly one of the very strongest, I mean it was his equivalent of love. I can understand how somebody develops a personal antipathy towards another human being and ultimately wants to kill them. I can't quite understand the actual act of killing them, but then who needs to, you stick a gun in people's hands and away they go. The personality ultimately became fractured because we needed an explanation for what were inevitably discontinuities when the character was recast. So we needed reasons, rationales, justifications for what became a different character. Inevitably when we did that, the character became a less clearly defined villain and a more human character with more traits. He therefore became a less strong villain, and a new strong villain replaced him, that was Servalan. But I don't think Servalan would have become the dominant character if Stephen had continued as Travis and as a result Travis had simply continued as the character Travis was.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Blake returns to Earth intent on destroying the computer complex known as Control, which represents the nerve centre of all Federation activity. To help him he has joined forces with a resistance group who attempt to reconnoitre the Forbidden Zone, which surrounds the installation. Travis is already waiting.

(FEDERATION GUN FIRE)

(CONTROL ROOM)

TRAVIS: You should have left it to me.

SERVALAN: Nothing's lost.

TRAVIS: Your opening fire could have ruined everything.

SERVALAN: But it didn't, Travis.

TRAVIS: My last chance, you said.

SERVALAN: Kasabi and I had unfinished business.

TRAVIS: This is no time for personal vendettas Supreme Commander.

SERVALAN: Thank you Travis, I'm obliged for the reminder... Kasabi, it's good to see you again.

KASABI: Why did you murder my people?

SERVALAN: They were traitors, did they expect mercy?

KASABI: From you?

TRAVIS: Where were you to rendezvous with Blake?

SERVALAN: If you tell me about the rendezvous, I will consider sparing your life.

KASABI: My life isn't yours to spare.

SERVALAN: Oh, but it is.

KASABI: Then take it, but don't try and browbeat me Servalan. Or have you forgotten that I knew you as a cadet? My confidential assessment listed her as unfit for command, but I forgot how well connected she was.

TRAVIS: That is no concern of mine.

KASABI: Then it should be. It should be everyone's concern. The Federation is degenerate, run by creatures like her.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) It would be no concern of his because of question of authority. It's like saying, "You do remember Ronald Reagan once appeared with a chimpanzee and the chimpanzee out-acted him". The response of Oliver North and his types would be "Well that's no concern of mine, I'm only concerned with the fact that he's President and that I'm a raving bloody lunatic". Thinking about it, maybe Oliver North based his character on Travis.

TRAVIS: She's stronger than she looks, she's still resisting the drug.

SERVALAN: Double the dose.

TRAVIS: That amount could kill her.

SERVALAN: That's not important, just so long as she talks first.

TRAVIS: Where were you to rendezvous with Blake?

RONTANE: (REVERB) Having obtained the information she needs, Servalan injects Kasabi with a lethal dose. Surprisingly, Travis attempts to stop her.

BOUCHER: (BLEEP) But, if Travis attempted to stop the killing of a terrorist, and it was a terrorist from his point of view, there must have been a logical justification for it. He wouldn't have had any emotional link to this character at all. Um, presumably this woman was once a Federation Officer, to have trained Servalan she must have been in the services as a teacher or whatever. So consequently you've got that relationship again, that family relationship, you've got that thing about, well she might now be a terrorist, but she was once one of us.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Travis arrives too late to prevent Blake from breaching the Forbidden Zone and entering the Control complex. In order to follow, the Zone must be deactivated forcing Servalan to contact the High Council.

SERVALAN: Travis?

TRAVIS: Yes, Supreme Commander?

SERVALAN: I've staked a great deal on this Travis, but I've achieved what you wanted. The zone will be deactivated in precisely 15 seconds. Both our heads are on the block now, Travis. This must not fail.

BLAKE: We've done it, we've done it, we've done it. I've done it!

AVON: Blake! There's nothing here... There's nothing here.

TRAVIS: (LAUGHS)

BLAKE: Nothing Travis.

TRAVIS: You believed it, Blake. Like all the other fools before you. Destroy Control and you destroy the Federation. No.

BLAKE: It was here. Everybody knows it was here.

TRAVIS: Of course. We've never concealed it. On the contrary, we broadcast the fact. We used it as a challenge to our enemies. We invited them to attack Control.

BLAKE: It was never here.

TRAVIS: It was moved, 30 years ago.

BLAKE: To where?

TRAVIS: Even I don't know that. But it's safe and secure, and will remain so, while those who seek to destroy use believe it's here. You see it's the great illusion Blake.

CROUCHER: (BLEEP) It's an ill... It's all an illusion. Gareth, he liked the line actually, "It's all an illusion Blake. It's all an illusion." He liked it, and he kept saying it, and we had a laugh and uh, that's what Gareth liked.

SERVALAN: Release your prisoners, Travis. Your Mutoids will put down their weapons.

TRAVIS: What's the matter with you, Servalan?

JENNA: She's nervous.

GAN: Jenna!

TRAVIS: The moment you pull that trigger they will be dead.

JENNA: That's right, but so would your Supreme Commander.

SERVALAN: Release them. Do it!

BLAKE: Your move I think,Travis ... Take their weapons. All right let's move. It seems as though we both failed Travis.

(BLAKE AND CREW LEAVE)

TRAVIS: Get after them.

SERVALAN: (SLAPS TRAVIS' FACE) You hesitated. My life was at risk and you hesitated. (SOUND OF RUNNING FOOTSTEPS)

SERVALAN: Travis, what's that?

TRAVIS: Strontium grenade.

SERVALAN: You fool, it's too powerful. You'll bring the roof in.

TRAVIS: Stand back!

(GRADUAL BUILD UP OF ELECTRONIC TICK FROM BOMB)

CROUCHER: (BLEEP) That came through frustration. Every script, you know, once you'd got him in a corner in scene 53, there's a trapdoor and goes through it, and he goes' Oh my god, not again", you know, and he has to go onto the next script. So...

(EXPLOSION FOLLOWED BY SHOUTS AND FALLING DEBRY, OVER THIS, RONTANE CAN BE HEARD)

RONTANE: (REVERB) Blake escapes, but crewmember Olag Gan is trapped and crushed to death by falling masonry.

MUTOID: It's completely blocked, there's no way through.

SERVALAN: Brilliant.

TRAVIS: They'll dig us out eventually.

SERVALAN: Oh yes, they'll dig us out eventually, and then I'll bury you.

(THE CORRIDOR SOUND CONTINUES AND THEN HALTS AS THE COMPUTER IS CLICKED OFF. DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)

LYE: Waste of time.

PAR: Shut up, Lye.

LYE: Ceremonial duty.

PAR: If you don't shut up, we won't be guarding a court-martial, we'll be having one.

LYE: You've been on campaigns, Par.

PAR: I have.

LYE: Done a lot of killing.

PAR: Enough More.

BERCOL: (AT A DISTANCE) It should embarrass her at the very least.

PAR: Watch it.

RONTANE: I hope so, but uh, she doesn't embarrass easily... Well?

PAR: Sir, Security area Sir, access is voiceprint linked, Sir.

RONTANE: I am Secretary Rontane, personal representative of the President.

(DOOR OPENS, RONTANE ENTERS)

BERCOL: Bercol, senator Bercol, ex-officio member of the High Council.

LYE: Thought he was gonna run for it.

PAR: Pity he didn't, you could have shot him.

LYE: A top politico?

PAR: Don't worry about them, Space Command runs the Federation, and we look after ourselves.

LYE: Tell that to the prisoner.

PAR: Broke the rules, didn't he.

LYE: Whose rules?

PAR: Only ones that matter. Ours.

(COURT ROOM)

JUSTICE COMPUTER: Space Commander Travis, you are charged under Section 3 of the war crimes Statute Code Jenkin One, with the murder of 1417 unarmed civilians on the planet Zircaster. Date code Beta 2 zero zero 1.

SAMOR: How do you answer the charge?

TRAVIS: I am not guilty.

RONTANE: (IN COURT ROOM AS AN ASIDE) When Travis was first put in charge of the Blake affair, he was on suspension after having massacred civilians on the planet Auros. Is this the same planet, and if so, why was the name changed?

BOUCHER: (ALSO IN COURTROOM) Well, it's a terrible name for a kick off. I don't know whether I changed the name of the planet where the atrocity took place, whether I changed that by accident, whether I changed it simply because I hated the name that was in the other episode. That's entirely possible. I didn't like a lot of the names that were in, or whether, if pushed into a corner I might claim that it was a different atrocity that we were dealing with here, because Travis was an evil bastard and he did a lot of them. I mean he basically behaved very badly on a number of planets and Zircaster was one of them.

SAMOR: Enter prosecution data.

JUSTICE COMPUTER: Identities and death certificates of all victims are entered.

THANIA: Objection.

SAMOR: Hold.

JUSTICE COMPUTER: Holding.

THANIA: Defense requests the names of the alleged victims and the cause of death in each case be specified.

SAMOR: Major Thania, since you have at your disposal instant recall of all prosecution data, I fail to see what purpose will be served by having the computer intone a catalogue of 1000 corpses.

THANIA: I may wish to challenge elements of that catalogue before they are entered into the judgment programme, sir.

BERCOL: Playing for time?

RONTANE: And playing for Servalan. The computer will find Travis guilty, there's no doubt of that, but those three are responsible for the sentence.

BERCOL: So?

RONTANE: So, uh, after hearing all the blood spattered details...

BERCOL: They'll vote for the maximum penalty.

RONTANE: One almost has to admire that woman.

BERCOL: What, Thania?

RONTANE: No, Servalan; we know she's sending Travis to his death in order to keep his mouth shut, but she's doing it with such an impeccably honest and painstaking tribunal that her real motives can't even be hinted at.

BERCOL: Has a date been set for the Blake inquiry?

RONTANE: Does it matter? Without Travis' evidence the mishandling of the Blake affair becomes a matter of conjecture. The inquiry becomes a formality.

BERCOL: A Presidential stay of execution? So that Travis can give evidence? After this, he should be more than willing.

RONTANE: After this, he'll be a convicted mass murderer.

BERCOL: It could still damage Servalan. Slime sticks, as the old saying has it.

RONTANE: Yes, but the President can't be seen to throw it.

BERCOL: Servalan picked Travis.

RONTANE: The President picked Servalan.

BERCOL: So she's outmaneuvered us once again.

RONTANE: Let's say she's outmaneuvering us, but it's not over yet, she could still make a mistake.

BERCOL: Which is presumably why we came. I was beginning to wonder.

RONTANE: We came, Bercol, because Servalan's ambitions threaten us all, and the President particularly dislikes being threatened.

(SERVALAN'S OFFICE)

SERVALAN: How was the first day?

THANIA: Travis is behaving oddly.

SERVALAN: Three years ago, he committed a capital crime. Justice has finally caught up with him. How would you expect him to behave?

THANIA: I wouldn't expect him to sit staring straight ahead. Not moving, not reacting. It's almost as though he were drugged.

SERVALAN: No of course not. Risk a mistrial?

THANIA: Then what?

SERVALAN: You're representing him, you'd better find out. And Thania, try not to let Travis guess your motives. He's probably mad, but he's certainly isn't a fool.

CROUCHER: (IN TRAVIS' CELL) Do I have a particular favorite episode? I always say "Trial" because it enabled me to voice my feelings and my thoughts as Travis. Whereas, previous to that, it was like a divorce just going wrong with Servalan, you know, we were arguing all the time and the claws were out and the eyes were staring. I mean we've all been in situations where we've been a bit desperate, you know, you have to survive these situations and this is what Travis had to do in Trial, and I like the fact that he was able to survive it. Which showed him to be a positive character.

TRAVIS: Who is it?

PAR: Do you remember me, Sir?

TRAVIS: What are you doing here trooper?

PAR: I'm off duty Sir.

TRAVIS: Well I'm not. I gather you're tired of your freedom.

PAR: I'm a 20-year man, Sir. I wouldn't recognize freedom if I fell over it. There's a temporary fault on surveillance. Guard's a friend of mine.

TRAVIS: Stand to attention when you talk to me. I'm putting you and your friend on report.

PAR: Only trying to help, Sir.

TRAVIS: Help? And how do you think you can help me, trooper?

PAR: Brought you something, Sir.

TRAVIS: Open it.

PAR: That's good stuff, Sir. You won't go blind drinking that.

TRAVIS: All right Par, what have I done to deserve this?

PAR: Sir?

TRAVIS: Faithful trooper, beloved officer, not quite how I see either of us.

PAR: You always looked after your men, Sir. Now you're gonna die. We thought a drink was the least we could do, Sir.

TRAVIS: Stand at ease... Have one with me.

PAR: Thank you, Sir. (COUGH) That is good stuff.

TRAVIS: You can go now, Par.

PAR: Oh, Sir?

TRAVIS: Par?

PAR: The report, Sir?

TRAVIS: No one would believe it.

BOUCHER: (IN CELL) Well, the relationship with Par in "Trial" was a perfectly straightforward one I think, I felt. It's a family relationship. It's the relationship between people who have grown up in the service. They are both life servers, if you like. Boy soldiers. One who rose to become an officer, and one who remained as other ranks. Par is other ranks. He's the salt of the earth. He's my Granddad. Par is the sort of other ranks on which the army depends. He's loyal, he's everything that Travis was, without the responsibility that Travis has, and responsibility warps people. The reason the defense lawyer, also a serving major, sent the booze into Travis in his cell was because she didn't understand why Travis was behaving as he was in the trial room. Why he was sitting ignoring everything, refusing to respond in any way, shape or form, and she was hoping that alcohol would loosen his tongue. Par took it to Travis for exactly the reasons he said he did. Family, Travis was going to die, clearly, and felt it would be a nice gesture to give him a drink. Travis didn't trust him, that's why he required Par to take the first drink because he thought it was poisoned. Travis never stopped being the officer he was, he was the officer all the way through, which was the reason for the final scene between Par and Travis. Why they didn't kill each other, why Par would have killed him, rather than let him go, why Travis didn't kill him, to get past him, and why Travis admired the man and the man admired Travis. Family. Training. All those other things. The reason Travis was behaving as he was in the courtroom was because he knew Servalan was watching, and he wasn't about to give away his one move, which was his justification for what he did.

TRAVIS: (IN COURTROOM) A field officer, like myself, is frequently required to make fast, unconsidered decisions. You were all field officers; you know that's true. Time to think is a luxury battle seldom affords you. You react instinctively, your actions, your decisions; all instinct, nothing more. But an officer's instincts are the product of his training. The more thorough the training, the more predictable the instinct, the better the officer. And I am a good officer. I have been in the service all my adult life. Totally dedicated to my duty, and highly trained in how to perform it. On Zircaster I reacted as I was trained to react. I was an instrument of the service. So if I'm guilty of murder, of mass murder, then so are all of you!

SAMOR: The prisoner will be seated.

BOUCHER: (FADE UP OF TRIAL ROOM BACKGROUND ATMOSPHERE) His justification for what he did was that he was trained to do it. He did it instinctively. The more pressure you put a soldier under the more he responds instinctively. If the instinctive response is disgusting, disgraceful, cruel, ugly, it's because he's been trained to be disgusting cruel, ugly, despicable. And if he's been trained to do it, then somebody has arranged to have him trained like that and they are as responsible as he is. In other words, we get the soldiers we deserve. Its no good us sitting back and saying "Our forces are brutal, our Police are brutal", they're brutal on our behalf and they arise out of a brutal society, if they are brutal. End of sermon.

JUSTICE COMPUTER: Judgment program 1 / 3 conclusion. Space Commander Travis you are guilty as charged.

SAMOR: The tribunal will retire to consider sentence.

RONTANE: (ASIDE) Travis receives the death penalty. Why did they refuse to accept his argument?

BOUCHER: How could you accept that? If someone stands and says, "Listen pal, the reason I did what I did was because you made me do it", and you're trying him for an atrocity and a war crime, how could you accept it without condemning yourself?

SAMOR: We have considered your sentence at some length. Your contention that what happened on Zircaster was a direct result of your training concerned us greatly. We accept that you are trained to kill, as are we all. But we cannot accept is that this training leads inevitably to the murder of innocents. Your behaviour was not that of a Federation Officer, but rather that of a savage, unthinking animal. The sentence of this tribunal is therefore that you be dishonourably dismissed the service, and that you then be executed as the common criminal you have shown yourself to be. Have you anything to say?

TRAVIS: The Federation is run by hypocrites and supported by fools. I'm glad to be rid of you all.

(SOUND OF ALARM SIRENS)

LOUDSPEAKER: All personnel to battle stations, all personnel to battle stations.

(SOUND OF A NEUTRON BLASTER FIRING, FOLLOWED BY LARGE EXPLOSION)

LOUDSPEAKER: Automatic airlock will trigger in three seconds.

(SOUND OF INNER AIRLOCK DOOR CLOSING FOLLOWED BY OUTER AIRLOCK DOOR OPENING, SHOT FIRED, GUARD CRIES OUT)

TRAVIS: Don't make me kill you, Par.

PAR: What happened in there?

TRAVIS: Outer wall cracked, automatic airlock sealed the chamber. They'll all be dead by now. Drop the gun.

PAR: I can't do that, Sir.

TRAVIS: Don't be a fool. I've got nothing to lose any more.

PAR: I can't let you go, Sir.

(PAR CRIES OUT AS TRAVIS KNOCKS HIM TO THE FLOOR)

TRAVIS: Some of us weren't hypocrites were we, Par!

(SERVALAN'S OFFICE)

VOICE: (EMERGING FROM SPEAKER) Single attack run on quadrant 6. Damage is extensive, but confined to that section as far as we can tell.

SERVALAN: Damage control teams?

VOICE: Moving in now.

SERVALAN: What about casualties?

TRAVIS: High and rising all the time.

VOICE: No estimate yet, Supreme Commander.

SERVALAN: Very well, keep me informed. Well, savage, thinking animals have a way of surviving, don't they?

TRAVIS: Who was it?

SERVALAN: We think it was Blake.

TRAVIS: Huh, I must remember to say thank you before I kill him.

SERVALAN: What are you planning to do?

TRAVIS: I'm planning to leave. You're going to give me a pursuit ship.

SERVALAN: And you'll hunt Blake?

TRAVIS: While you hunt both of us. Now give the orders. Carefully.

SERVALAN: Is pursuit four ready for immediate launch?

VOICE: Yes Ma'am and your crew is standing by.

SERVALAN: Have the crew stand down. I want them replaced by three mutoids. And have them blanked. I want their minds imprinted to receive orders only from the person who first uses the trigger work "Outlaw" to them.

VOICE: Yes, ma'am.

SERVALAN: Well, you'll need a crew you can rely on.

TRAVIS: Still one step ahead. You're not gonna use me any more. Move.

BOUCHER: I don't think at the end of Trial Travis could kill Servalan, because I don't think that the officer that Travis was could kill the Supreme Commander, I don't think ultimately he could kill her and I think she knew that.

(FADE TO INTERIOR OF SPACECRAFT LIBERATOR, OVER WHICH CAN BE HEARD THE SOUND OF A SIGNAL BEING TRANSMITTED)

BLAKE: Vila, come on, wake up, Vila.

VILA: Ugh.

BLAKE: That message, did you log it?

VILA: What message?

BLAKE: Orac, was that something? I thought I heard identification, Exbar. Was it Exbar?

ORAC: Automatic monitoring confirms. The message appears to be directed to you personally.

BLAKE: Me?

ORAC: It is a non-standard cipher. Decode is now complete. Message carries visplay.

BLAKE: Visplay, Avon.

AVON: Zen. Transfer visplay to main screen.

ZEN: Main screen transfer complete.

TRAVIS: Blake, I'm sending from the planet Exbar. I have Ushton's daughter. Her name is Inga, if you remember. All I ask is that you come to Exbar and talk. Blake, this is not a trick. Like yourself, I am now a fugitive from the Federation. It is time we pooled our resources. Together we might survive. Alone the Federation will pick us off, one at a time.

AVON: Starting with him we hope.

TRAVIS: Blake, the girl is safe if you come to Exbar within 25 time units. If you do not come, the girl, regretfully, dies.

(SCANNER OFF THEN ON AGAIN)

CROUCHER: (FILTERED) Would I be interested in joining the Liberator? Only if I was Captain! (BUMP) Oh excuse me, I just knocked the microphone. Um, that's too many gestures.

MALONEY: (FILTERED) No. I don't think Travis, uh, would ever have joined the crew of the Liberator. He was always made to be, and presented to the audience as someone that, uh, was dangerous to the Liberator and after all, this general concept we always had about presenting a sort of Robin Hood in Space, meant that the Sheriff of Nottingham couldn't never really come and live in the forest.

BOUCHER: (FILTERED) I don't see Travis ever being able to join the crew of the Liberator, even without Blake, and I personally don't think it would ever have been dramatically possible to make the transition between the man, although outlawed by the Federation he served, a man who basically wanted to get back serving the Federation as he saw it. He was a Federation man.

(SCANNER OFF)

(COMMUNICATION TOWER)

RONTANE: (REVERB) Arriving on Exbar, Blake is captured and taken to Travis' base.

(INGA ESCAPES)

MOLOK: Bring her back!

TRAVIS: Futile gesture. The girl's a fool. She actually wants to die. Can you understand that Blake?

BLAKE: Can you?

TRAVIS: Oh, yes. I understand shame very well. (INGA IS BROUGHT BACK) You wanted to die Inga, why was that?

INGA: You wouldn't understand.

TRAVIS: So that Blake would not hate your father, but he does.

BLAKE: I do not hate him.

TRAVIS: Ushton betrayed you. You must hate him. I would in your place.

BLAKE: That is the difference between us Travis.

(TRAVIS MAKES AS IF TO STRIKE BLAKE)

BLAKE: That too.

CROUCHER: You asked me if Travis was an evil person. I don't think he... It was just the hors d'oeuvre you saw in series two. I think if you want somebody to be evil, I'm the man to play it and if they write something really evil, I'll show them what evil is with a capital "E".

BOUCHER: The thing I always felt about Blake's 7 was it had a tremendous potential to be Robin Hood in Space, and nice simple straight-forward Robin Hood, you know good guys, bad guys. What always worried me is that I have never come across anybody who's totally good or totally bad and it seems over simplistic to give to one side or the other all the evil. Though I think there is obviously a balance of good and evil, and most of us manage to go somewhere down the middle. I think Travis leaned heavily towards the evil. He had good aspects to him, loyalty to the service and a certain courage, but mostly he was a bad bastard, and I think he was a bad bastard because the Federation forces were bad, were evil. He was trained to be evil; he certainly had no compunction about killing or inflicting pain. If you see that as evil, and I do, then he was evil, and that was a demonstration of it. His treatment of Inga.

(GUNFIRE FROM "HOSTAGE" EPISODE)

SERVALAN: Hello Travis.

TRAVIS: Servalan.

SERVALAN: Has Blake gone?

TRAVIS: Yes. I wanted the Liberator.

SERVALAN: I thought it must be something like that.

TRAVIS: Are you and I still enemies?

SERVALAN: Officially, yes. Unofficially, you lead me to Blake whenever you can. If you help me get him, I'll see you officially listed as dead. There's no one as free as a dead man.

BOUCHER: Servalan never backed up anything she said really, so any promise that she made to Travis had to be highly suspect. It had to be something upon which you couldn't rely too heavily. And Travis wasn't a fool. He was mad, but he wasn't stupid. And I don't imagine that he relied on any promises of Servalan's to allow him to adopt a new identity, go off to some frontier planet somewhere and be somebody new. I can't see him relying on that very much since he knew what a treacherous bitch she was. I suspect that it didn't matter to him at that point anyway. He was increasingly suicidal, though not necessarily having the capacity to destroy himself. I suspect that when he got eventually into a position of being able to destroy the human race, he took it as a way of destroying himself without killing himself. The relationship between him and Servalan at that point, I don't think there was one. I thought she, I think she still thought she could use him. I don't think she realized how mad he was. Obviously by definition someone who's mad doesn't recognize the fact.

RONTANE: (REVERB) Servalan devises a plan that will both gain her the Liberator and eliminate a number of her political opponents. Travis also has a part to play, which involves him adopting the identity of the incapacitated rebel leader Shivan, a voice from the past.

CROUCHER: Well we were in the studio, um, at that time, well I think they still do it, Jim'll Fix It was around, and, uh, I had this bandaging round me, etc, etc, the invisible man number, and they said, "We're not - we're going on to the next scene, and then the next scene, and we'll see you in three scenes time". So I couldn't take all this band ... I had to relax. So I went and laid on a bed and fell asleep, you see, and when I woke up everybody was laughing at me, and I looked down, and I'd got this Jim'll Fix It badge on me. (LAUGHS)

RONTANE: Gareth Thomas and Paul Darrow are known for their practical jokes. Did they ever play any on you?

CROUCHER: No! They don't play practical jokes on Brian! It's not, Brian (COUGHS) Brian taught them all the practical jokes that they know.

BOUCHER: In "Voice from the Past", where he foregoes the opportunity to take over the Liberator in order to have a personal crack at Blake. Obviously it wasn't a rational decision, but at that point he had become so obsessed with killing Blake it had become the love of his life, the hate of his life, the reason for living or dying that the Liberator really didn't mean too much to him. Gradually as that series unfolds nothing matters to him at all any more except the destruction of Blake.

RONTANE: If, at that point Travis had succeeded in killing Blake, what would have happened to him?

BOUCHER: I think he'd probably have died. They do say you should be careful of what ambitions you have in case you achieve them. His ambition, his need, his lust to kill Blake, if satisfied would have left him with nothing.

(SOMBRE DRAMATIC MUSIC, SLOWLY BUILDING TO A CLIMAX)

RONTANE: (REVERB) Freedom City ... A place where renegades and rebels, mercenaries and political dissidents can meet and socialize in relative anonymity, outside the Federations influence. It is here that Blake arrives in his search for Control, now known as Star One Brian, switch that off!

(SOUND OF JUKE BOX BEING SMASHED UP, MUSIC HALTS ABRUPTLY)

(WE ARE NOW IN THE BAR AT FREEDOM CITY)

RONTANE: Thank you. He seeks Docholli, a former Cyber-surgeon who, on the run from the Federation may know of its location. Travis knows this and is waiting.

ZEE: Get up.

DOCHOLLI: Hello Zee, so you're getting around? How's the leg?

ZEE: You drunken butcher, look what you did.

DOCHOLLI: You're lucky to have it my friend.

ZEE: Lucky? You crippled me. Get up.

DOCHOLLI: Why?

ZEE: I want to see you fall down (GUN BLAST) Argh!!!

DOCHOLLI: Thanks. Next time don't leave it so late.

TRAVIS: Get out.

DOCHOLLI: Ungrateful scum! Have a drink, Travis.

TRAVIS: One of us has to see straight. It had better be me.

CHENIE: So you're a surgeon?

DOCHOLLI Used to be.

CHENIE: I heard about that business on the Bari.

DOCHOLLI: The secondary burner blew out. I did what I could for the survivors.

CHENIE: And is he one of them?

DOCHOLLI: Travis? No. He was a passenger. Now he's my bodyguard.

BOUCHER: The relationship between Docholli and Travis was an ambiguous one. The character of Travis was becoming more ambiguous. I know that sounds like a politicians answer, but the relationships were much less clearly defined, as Travis became madder and less predictable. The relationships became more peculiar. Docholli was of use to Travis. Travis was clearly a mad and lonely man. Maybe at that point use and affection became the two, became interchangeable. One defines the other. Maybe that's as close to affection that Travis could ever come.

KRANTOR: Ah, Commander Servalan, welcome, welcome, welcome. We so rarely

receive an emissary from the Federation here in Freedom City. I am Commander, transfixed with delight.

SERVALAN: Supreme Commander...

KRANTOR: My apologies Supreme Commander pray be seated.

SERVALAN: There is a man here named Docholli, a Cyber-surgeon. I am willing to pay 2 million credits for him dead or alive.

KRANTOR: My dear, Commander, there are many wanted men here.

SERVALAN: There is a second man here named Travis. He has an artificial arm and an eye patch. I am interested in finding him also.

KRANTOR: Ha-ha-ha-ha... An eye patch? Oh how quaint.

SERVALAN: Well?

KRANTOR: Placed as we are, we must necessarily maintain a position of strict neutrality.

SERVALAN: Krantor, I don't have time for that. It is vital I find Docholli before certain insurrectionist elements contact him. A Federation problem which we intend to eliminate.

KRANTOR: Really Commander, Supreme Commander, you make my blood run cold. I wonder if I emphasize sufficiently, how highly we value our neutrality, I'm sure I must have done.

SERVALAN: How highly? You have a suggestion?

KRANTOR: Ten.

SERVALAN: Eight, for both Travis and Docholli.

KRANTOR: My dear Commander, Supreme Commander. Give me two hours.

(FREEDOM CITY BAR ATMOSPHERE FADES UP)

CROUCHER: ...And the customs officer says to the Chinaman, "It's ticking" and he says, "No, it's not tickin, its duck!"

RONTANE: Shh... We're on.

CROUCHER: Are we rolling? Docholli, that was the cowboy one. "Gambit", do I remember "Gambit"? Yeah, that was the cowboy one, yeah I, it was, yeah, it was Clint Eastwood time, yeah. I remember trying to get through doors in that bloody hat. Yeah, yeah, it was get; I'd rather not have the hat.

RONTANE: Who was responsible for the Zorro outfit in this particular episode?

BOUCHER: It all melts into a sort of great miasma, a great alcoholic miasma come to think of it! Um, one of the advantages of working at the BBC was a couple of excellent clubs. The Zorro outfit in "Gambit" would have been a matter for the frock designer. There was quite a bit of leeway given to directors and designers to come up with whatever set dressing and character dressing they wanted.

(CRASH OF GLASS)

RONTANE: It would seem that Docholli cannot hold his drink.

CHENIE: Put him in the back. Why does he do it?

TRAVIS: He gets thirsty.

CHENIE: Do you want a drink now, Travis? (SHE POURS A DRINK) Earlier tonight he said that 30 of his ex-patients tried to kill him. What does that mean?

TRAVIS: It means he gets drunk.

CHENIE: Well whatever he's got on his mind, it can't be that bad. I heard he was quite a hero at the Bari.

TRAVIS: Perhaps he was trying to pay something back.

CHENIE: They say he was one of the first in the burner. When the fumes got too much for him it was you who dragged him out.

TRAVIS: Oh yes, I'm a hero too.

CHENIE: So you've saved his life twice. Why?

TRAVIS: It's my noble nature.

CHENIE: Oh yes Travis, I can see it shines from your one yellow eye. Nobility?

TRAVIS: Thanks for the drink.

(CUT TO LOADING BAY)

TRAVIS: What's this about?

CEVEDIC: You're being collected. We're Krantor's rubbish collectors.

TRAVIS: Collected? Yaaaaaah! (HIS CRY REVERBS TO SILENCE)

RONTANE: (IN THE BAR) Together with a hidden listening device, Travis' unconscious form is delivered to Servalan. Krantor therefore overhears Servalan's scheme to kill Docholli by planting a bomb within Travis' prosthetic arm. Later, when Travis regains consciousness...

TRAVIS: So you've arrived, Servalan. Where's Blake, is he heading here?

SERVALAN: For once I'm not interested in Blake. I want Docholli.

TRAVIS: I can't help you there.

SERVALAN: You have Docholli staked out. You're waiting for Blake.

TRAVIS: I haven't seen Docholli in two years.

JARRIERE: Just stay where you are.

TRAVIS: That your new muscle, Servalan? Looks like a powder puff.

SERVALAN: Yes, well, let's forget the pleasantries. Tell me where to find Docholli, I'll let you have Blake.

TRAVIS: You haven't got Blake.

SERVALAN: Travis, we could forget the past. Wipe it out. I'm willing to help you again.

TRAVIS: My arm. What have you done to my arm?

SERVALAN: Why, what's the matter with it?

TRAVIS: Damn you, Servalan.

JARRIERE: It must have been damaged when you were brought here.

TRAVIS: Shut up.

RONTANE: (DOCKING CRADLES ATMOSPHERE) When Travis is released, he immediately seeks Docholli, so that the neural circuits in his arm can be repaired. Krantor meanwhile sends his henchman Cevedic to kill Travis, as he is curious to know what vital information Docholli carries. Servalan knows that possession of this information will place him on the Federation Councils death list, allowing her to have Freedom City legitimately destroyed.

CEVEDIC: Docholli's in there somewhere, but he's no problem. First we get Travis ... (BEAT) Over there behind the machine.

DOCHOLLI: Careful Travis, there's two of them.

(LOADING BAY)

Blake: Jenna, Cally, over here.

(GUNFIRE)

(DOCKING CRADLES)

CEVEDIC: Just luck.

TRAVIS: I went to a better school Cevedic.

CEVEDIC: You're a fool Travis, you're going to die anyway.

TRAVIS: Not as quick as you.

CEVEDIC: Soon as they take that arm off, kaput.

TRAVIS: What do you mean?

CEVEDIC: You leave it like that, you die of gangrene. Take it off, and you die quicker. Servalan fitted you up well, Travis. (CEVEDIC SLUMPS TO THE GROUND DEAD)

TRAVIS: Docholli, where are you?

DOCHOLLI: Over here.

BLAKE: Just drop the gun, Travis.

TRAVIS: Blake, I've been waiting for you. I knew you'd come.

BLAKE: I'm glad I didn't disappoint you. It's Docholli I want to see.

DOCHOLLI: What do you want with me?

BLAKE: One piece of information. The location of Star One.

DOCHOLLI: I was a surgeon Blake, I thought if I stayed out of Federation politics...

TRAVIS: Docholli, my arm, you've got to fix it. The neural circuits-- I've brought your case.

DOCHOLLI: Turn around.

Cally: But you operated on the people who built Star One.

DOCHOLLI: The technicians yes, 30 of them, I had no choice.

JENNA: Then you must know where Star One is located. How could you not?

DOCHOLLI: I erased their brain prints, their lives. I left them total amnesiacs. It was only towards the end that I...

BLAKE: Go on, Docholli.

DOCHOLLI: As I came to the end, I realized that Servalan would never believe that I hadn't scanned the brain prints, that I myself would be the last to be treated.

TRAVIS: Docholli, get on with it.

DOCHOLLI: That's why I decided to run for it. I faked the operation on the last of my victims ... What the devil?

RONTANE: Just a moment, if the cover to the arm is removed, then the bomb placed inside will detonate. Surely Travis realizes this?

BOUCHER: He's mad. Self-destructive. I suppose it's the lust to destroy somebody else must become sort of all mixed up with a self-destructive urge. It might have been the ultimate satisfaction, the way out of the hell in which he was living. He gets to kill Blake; he gets to get himself out of misery. He gets all in one fell swoop. What a good idea. Pity it didn't work.

BLAKE: It's all right, it's not primed.

TRAVIS: All right, Blake. If you're man enough, kill me now.

BLAKE: Our quarrel is with the Federation, not with you.

JENNA: Give me the gun, then.

BLAKE: That would be a mercy. Are you feeling particularly merciful?

BOUCHER: The reason Blake doesn't kill Travis in "Gambit" is a particularly cruel one, because he knows what a miserable, destroyed and generally sad character Travis has now become, and it would be a mercy to put him out of his misery. If you see death as being put out of your misery, and Travis certainly did, and Blake certainly recognized that, and wouldn't do it. That's the reason why Travis wanted Blake to kill him. Broken-backed dog.

BLAKE: Docholli. That last operation You said it was faked. Does that mean he can still remember?

DOCHOLLI: As far as I know Blake, I certainly hope so.

BLAKE: Who is he?

DOCHOLLI: His name was Lurgen, he was a Cyber-surgeon like myself. Perhaps that's why I ' changed my heart. Anyway, we faked the operation between us; we didn't erase the brain print, we took a copy of it and then we both ran. He took a copy with him. I heard he'd gone to earth on a planet called Goth. Later I heard that one of the Tribal chiefs had his brain print on a thong around his neck. Or either it was the print, or his head. They're a crude lot on Goth.

RONTANE: (ON LIBERATOR) While in orbit above the planet Goth, Liberator detects Pursuit Ship Four.

AVON: Goodbye, Travis. (SOUND OF PURSUIT SHIP FOUR EXPLODING) Got him.

CALLY: So much for Travis. Mind you, you could hardly miss at that range.

AVON: What did you want me to do? Give him a sporting chance?

(THE TENTS OF GOTH. IN THE BACKGROUND THE SOUND OF CRACKLING

FROM A BURNING TORCH)

TRAVIS: Pursuit Ship Four. Travis here, reply.

SERVALAN: The Liberator has obviously destroyed it.

TRAVIS: Yes. Blake must be one step behind us. We know the keeper of the secret is on Goth. We know he is a royal person. Perhaps Blake knows that too.

SERVALAN: But which one?

TRAVIS: You'll soon know. And when you do, you could control the Federation, you and I.

SERVALAN: Don't be ridiculous, Travis.

TRAVIS: Look, Star One is the computer control centre. It controls the climate on more than 200 worlds. Communications, security, food production, it controls them all. It is the key to our very lives. Think of all that power.

SERVALAN: You can see why the council themselves don't know where Star One is... In the wrong hands...

TRAVIS: Yes, but in the right hands. Yours and mine.

SERVALAN: Be very careful you don't over-reach yourself, Travis.

TRAVIS: There'll come a time when such ideas seem unambitious. One day Servalan...

SERVALAN: Yes? What are you talking about ,Travis?

RONTANE: What is he talking about? Would he really want to share that kind of power with Servalan?

BOUCHER: It was possible that Servalan was all that Travis had left, I don't know. I mean it could be there was still a vestige of the old formal relationship. The memory of what once was. The memory of what he once had. His place in the order of things, his family. It may have been a rather sick joke on his part, once more just confirming what he already knew, that Servalan couldn't be trusted to give him the time of day.

TRAVIS: I must alert the nearest Federation flotilla to attack the Liberator. I can't do it from here on this thing. I have to use your ship.

SERVALAN: The Liberator may pick you up.

TRAVIS: It's a chance we'll have to take, unless you're prepared to risk Blake getting to the secret before we do. Well?

SERVALAN: All right, how long?

TRAVIS: 3 Hours.

SERVALAN: That long?

TRAVIS: Don't you trust me?

SERVALAN: No, of course not.

TRAVIS: Then trust my ambition.

RONTANE: But where Travis' ambitions truly lay, Servalan could never have anticipated. Together with the brain print, Travis takes off, his destination Star One. Hour's later Blake discovers that the old King has been left to rot in a dungeon, together with his court jester.

FOOL: You seek the talisman, the brain of the healer? The man with the eye patch took it.

BLAKE: Travis! Old man, Lurgen the healer, did he talk of Star One? Did he speak to you of anything?

OLD MAN: (MUMBLES INCOHERENTLY)

FOOL: He is dead.

JENNA: Did he say anything to you?

BLAKE: He said, "A fool knows everything and nothing. A fool knows everything and nothing".

FOOL: The location of Star One is at grid reference C 17 3 2 zero in the 11th sector.

VILA: 11th sector? That must be in the middle of nowhere.

BLAKE: Shut-up.

FOOL: The location of Star One is at grid reference C 17 3 2 zero in the 11th sector.

BLAKE: Lurgen must have planted it in his brain.

VILA: A man with a sense of humour.

BLAKE: "A fool knows everything and nothing". Yes, that must have been the trigger phrase. A fool to keep a secret that Lurgen never wanted in the first place.

CALLY: Blake, this is Cally, do you read me, Blake?

BLAKE: Yes, Cally. Bring us up

(TELEPORT SOUND EFFECT. THEN CUT TO A SPACESHIP ROARING PAST. THEN CUT TO INTERIOR OF THE SPACECRAFT THAT IS TAKING TRAVIS TO STAR ONE)

CROUCHER: Good directors. Now did I have any good directors? I thought, um, actually I thought the Producer, this, this sounds like brown nosing really, but, um, I thought the Producer, David Maloney, he directed the last episode, and I truly wish that he'd directed the first episode also, because I mean you are a bit at sea You've got to imagine that this series had been running one series, and these people were into what they were doing and really I needed as much help as I could get, to carry on creating the part of Travis, and David Maloney I felt was, um, very workmanlike director. He was very thorough. He did pay attention to the actors and he did know his technical stuff. Yeah, David Maloney was, good man.

MALONEY: In season two Terry and Chris and I worked out a concept for the whole series, and Chris wrote "Star One" as the end of the second season, and I was very fortunate to direct it. I think, uh, I don't know whether I engineered it myself, but some director wasn't able to do it, well had to drop out, it wasn't possible. So I always enjoyed doing Chris' scripts, anyway, uh, I think he is an excellent writer in that genre and I was pleased to do "Star One", and of course that was the end of Travis.

CROUCHER: Was I pleased in the demeeze of Traveeze? He died, you know. Most of the characters I play die. They're either stabbed, mostly shot, or they go and rot in a prison. I mean at the present time I think I'm doing, in this hell of a business, 205 years in prison, you know, or more.

(SHIP PASSES INTO DISTANCE. FADE UP LIBERATOR ATMOSPHERE)

AVON: I have been doing some calculations. If this is Star One...

BLAKE: If it is?

AVON: First catch your computer, but all right, it probably is, and that being the case, the choice of location is fascinating.

BLAKE: I'm glad you're enjoying it.

AVON: The nearest large galaxy to our own is Andromeda.

BLAKE: So?

AVON: So this is the nearest point to Andromeda. If anyone could cross intergalactic space in less than a lifetime, we are now precisely on the route that they would take.

BLAKE: What are you trying to say Avon?

AVON: I directed the detectors towards the Andromeda galaxy. There are thousands of satellite generators out there, beyond Star One.

BLAKE: What?

AVON: Even with the Federation's resources, it must have taken them years.

BLAKE: That must be the biggest anti-matter minefield ever put together.

VILA: Minefield? What minefield?

AVON: Perhaps the intergalactic drive has been developed. Question is, by whom?

BLAKE: A defense zone to keep mankind in, or something else out?

RONTANE: (MUSIC) Star One. A single planet orbiting a dying sun. This represents the Federation's greatest strength, and ultimately it's greatest weakness. The technicians stationed there have become victims of Federation paranoia. Their psycho conditioning preventing them from contacting anyone outside the installation, and therefore leaving them helpless in the face of an alien invasion, intent on manipulating Star One's systems for their own ends. Servalan uses the ensuing chaos to have herself declared President, unaware that she is about to inherit a ruined empire. Leaving Jenna and Vila on board Liberator, Blake, Avon and Cally teleport to the planet's surface, armed with explosives. However on entering the installation, Blake and Cally are apprehended.

AVON: Vila, teleport Cally and Blake, quickly!

VILA: Right. Avon?

AVON: Well?

VILA: There's no response. What's going on? Where are they?

AVON: Inside. It must be shielded.

VILA: Do you want to come up?

AVON: No.

(INSIDE THE STAR ONE BASE COMPLEX)

STOT: You're here then?

BLAKE: Apparently.

STOT: I was told you'd be alone.

BLAKE: Obviously you were misinformed.

STOT: Who is this woman?

BLAKE: She is my mother.

STOT: I was told you could be difficult.

BLAKE: You seem to have been told rather a lot about me.

STOT: I'm not unfamiliar with traitors, but the scale of your treachery is unusual, and your insistence on carrying out the Final Act personally must make you unique.

BLAKE: Your disapproval would carry more conviction if you were not going to benefit from my treachery. Now when do I get to perform the Final Act?

STOT: Which of your hands is artificial?

BLAKE: This one. Rather good, don't you think?

STOT: And the eye patch? What happened to that?

(OUTSIDE INSTALLATION)

AVON: Travis, fancy meeting you here.

TRAVIS: Put the gun down, Avon. It's too late to stop it now.

AVON: Convince me.

TRAVIS: Be polite and I may let you live.

AVON: Be informative, and I may let you die. You'll want that, after I've shot off an arm and a leg or two.

TRAVIS: I thought you were supposed to be the one with brains.

AVON: Brains, but no heart. Now talk or scream Travis, the choice is yours.

BOUCHER: On Star One the reason he showed no fear when Avon produced the gun and threatened him, was that Travis knew what was going on. Knew that it was all over. Knew that Avon, as a member of the human race, had very little time to live, and had that feeling of power, um, was a happy little maniac.

(CONTROL ROOM)

STOT: Most of the systems have been modified already, the chaos and destruction should already be sufficient to ensure that resistance is slight.

BLAKE: When will you be ready for the ultimatum?

STOT: Ultimatum?

BLAKE: The laying out of our terms for the restoration of order.

STOT: Policy is not our concern, Travis. It is sufficient to serve.

RONTANE: So, Travis had betrayed all of humanity?

BOUCHER: You will always find a traitor, and you will never understand the reasons for the treachery. You will never understand why he betrayed you. I still don't think Christ understood why Judas betrayed him. I'm not sure Judas understood why he did it either. SO it's just find the traitor, somebody sufficiently damaged and somebody within the series that everybody knew and Travis seemed a good choice.

RONTANE: Travis effects an escape from Avon and heads for the control centre. Avon follows, systematically gunning down all opposition.

STOT: Is it nearly complete?

PARTON: As you see.

STOT: Constructing the circuits required to deactivate the defense zone was difficult, but we were able to keep the technicians alive long enough to duplicate their entire brain patterns, as well as their physical shape. May I ask an impertinent question?

BLAKE: If you don't mind an impertinent answer.

STOT: I have taken on the shape of your species. I use your words and yet I cannot understand you. Why have you betrayed your own kind? Why have you given us the means to eradicate your species?

BLAKE: Eradicate humanity?

STOT: Virtually.

BLAKE: Well, maybe I just don't like crowds (GUN BLAST) Travis...

(BLAKE FALLS TO GROUND)

STOT: You are Travis?

TRAVIS: I am Travis.

STOT: Then who is this?

TRAVIS: His name is Blake. Huh. His name was Blake.

BOUCHER: There are in a superficial way personal jokes, not jokes exactly, but ironies. "I am Travis" was a deliberate line to underline the fact that poor old Brian had spent the whole season trying to live down Stephen and replace him, so "I am Travis" was there. I spent quite a long while working that into the scene, structuring the scene so he could say, "I am Travis".

PARTON: Each of these keys will close down one section of the defense zone. When I've connected this last one, you can begin.

TRAVIS: My one regret is that they'll never know who really killed them.

BOUCHER: Why didn't Travis make sure of Blake when he shot him on Star One? I think he was sure of him. I think he was satisfied that he'd shot him; that he'd killed him; that if he wasn't dead he could go back to it afterwards as a bit of a treat and finish him off, because I mean he'd certainly knocked him down. In the meantime he'd got rather a large gesture to make, a sort of galactic two fingers to the rest of humanity, who had betrayed him in the form of his family, the service who had betrayed him in the first place. I suppose people who grow up in institutions must feel betrayed in some way. It's lonely enough being an only child; it must be hell being an only child without any parents. I don't know whether the destruction of humanity had become the substitute for killing Blake. Whether Blake and humanity were one and the same thing and therefore you destroyed the two. All in one wonderful fell swoop. What a jolly day.

PARTON: It is finished. Now you can open the way for our fleet to enter.

RONTANE: Clad in his Federation uniform, Travis completes the symbolism by deactivating a portion of the defense zone with his artificial hand ... Then Blake shoots him in the back.

TRAVIS: The Final Act. (SHOT FIRED... TRAVIS CRIES OUT)

RONTANE: Avon arrives and the Alien Commander and his technician are caught in the crossfire. As they die, they revert to their original forms, a shapeless glutinous mass.

(TWO MORE SHOTS)

CALLY: Avon?

AVON: How bad is he?

CALLY: Bad enough.

RONTANE: The centre of the control room is occupied by a raised circular well, which leads to the heart of an atomic reactor. Using the safety rail to steady his aim, Travis attempts to lease off one final shot at Blake.

BLAKE: Is he dead, Avon? Is Travis dead?

(SHOT FOLLOWED BY TRAVIS'. REVERBERATED SCREAMS ECHOING AWAY INTO DISTANCE AS HE FALLS INTO THE REACTOR)

AVON: He is now.

MALONEY: Travis was disposed of finally in the most spectacular way that we could think of. If I can recall trying to blast him away, I think it was probably Dr Strangelove that influenced me, where do you remember the sequence where the plane opens up and the guy rides away on the bomb? Something like that.

RONTANE: What exactly was it that Travis fell into?

BOUCHER: It was a giant magi-mix. It was a reactor of some sort, I think I just avoided saying what it was, but it was certainly very painful, made his eyes water, no question.

RONTANE: Don't you mean eye?

BOUCHER: (LAUGHING) Sorry, sorry, yes made his eye water, how very cruel (LAUGHS AGAIN). That was the very last thing that we did on that episode, and the poor bugger had about, sorry David had a minute and a half to do that scene. Um, I can still remember David sitting in the gallery screaming "Get him down the hole, get him down the hole", and he got poor Brian on his wire and as I remember it got hooked up to various painful parts, that certainly made his eyes water. I remember buying him a drink afterward, he looked really quite pale and was still limping, talking rather higher in a higher register than he normally did... Could have been relief, of course.

(WE FALL INTO THE REACTOR. THE SOUND OF TRAVIS' SCREAM SWIRLS AROUND AND, FORMS PART OF THE REACTOR ATMOSPHERE. A BACKWARD ECHO COMES BEFORE BRIAN SPEAKS)

CROUCHER: Did I have a large pain in my back when I was shot by Blake? No I didn't, I had a large pain in my pelvic regions because I was hoisted 15 ft in the air, twirled around, at two minutes to ten on the last day of the last shoot of series two and I had to scream and I did scream; and I am lucky actually to be talking with my voice now, because I could actually be giving this interview (FALSETTO) in a voice like that.

(LAST WORDS ARE ECHOED AND RE-ECHOED AND LOST IN THE BACKGROUND AS WE COME OUT OF THE REACTOR. THE CONTROL ROOM NOISE FADES UP AS THE VORTEX FADES AWAY AND CHRIS' VOICE IS HEARD ECHOING. ECHO DIES AWAY)

BOUCHER: I don't think it was a total failure. Like most adventures, it didn't turn out quite the way we expected when we set out upon it, and I'm sure that at the time, Brian was pretty bloody miserable in the part, and there was quite a lot of feeling that it hadn't really worked. If Brian had been desperate to continue, then he would have continued, we didn't sort of kill him. We didn't sort of stamp over his kicking and screaming body. He wanted out and I could understand that. By the same token, we weren't desperate to keep him, because it didn't seem to be working. In retrospect, I think a lot of things did work and I think that Brian did a damn good job in the circumstances. So it wasn't a total disaster and it wasn't a total success, it was something less than a total success.

BLAKE: The aliens were closing down the defense zone. There must be a fleet out there. We must warn the Federation. Humanity is going to need all the resources it can get.

BOUCHER: The dramatic irony that I was looking for in that last episode, sounds a bit pretentious dramatic irony. Travis was setting about destroying the Federation, but more importantly, that Blake and the others, having spent 26 episodes trying to destroy the Federation were now placed in the position of having to defend it, and again, I sort of worked the episode towards that.

(SLOW FADE FROM CONTROL CENTRE TO A DESOLATE A WIND)

BOUCHER: (SLIGHT REVERB) Blake and Travis were both, like all of us small individuals who never get the large picture. In relation to the Federation they fought their particular corners for their own personal reasons. I don't think either of them knew what the Federation was, any more than the average citizen knows what the society he lives in is. I think the Federation was so huge that it didn't really matter who was in charge. I suspect that very large is really quite unwieldy and as a result inimitable, ah, that's a good word, to the interests of human beings. I think in the final analysis if you're going to love, or hate, you do it to individuals, certainly in terms of television drama. I don't think any individual can actually love or hate something abstract, it is necessary to personalize, and it would have been necessary for Blake to focus on a representative of the Federation, and that's what Travis was, and Servalan was the personification of the Federation, if you like. Travis didn't really need to focus anything, so Travis' personal hatred of Blake was a personal hatred of Blake, whereas Blake's hatred of the Federation probably did need personal expression.

RONTANE: Travis' Final Act; his legacy, is the start of the intergalactic war.

(A SEQUENCE FROM THE GALACTIC WAR, EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE GRADUALLY DIE AWAY TO BE REPLACED BY THE DISTANT TAPPING OF A TYPEWRITING WHICH COMES CLOSER AND REMAINS TAPPING UNDER...)

CROUCHER: I am in the firm belief that at this present time, there is someone somewhere writing a single series for Travis to go on the BBC, so he can go and decimate the whole of the universe, or have a good try anyway... It's all a big illusion viewer...

(LAST WORDS FADE TO INFINITY AND THE TAPPING TYPEWRITER SLOWLY FADES AWAY)

THE END

Travis: The Final Act written and compiled by

ALAN STEVENS

Production, music and direction by ALISTAIR LOCK with ALAN STEVENS

Producer: ALAN STEVENS

Artwork and insert design:

PETE WALLBANK with DAVID WARREN

Additional cast members:

Rontane PETER MILES

Computer voice ALISTAIR LOCK

Contributors:

CHRIS BOUCHER

BRIAN CROUCHER

STEPHEN GREIF

DAVID MALONEY

All script extracts are copyright 1977-8 BBC, and are used here for illustrative purposes only