Since the news of Blake's exploits have spread throughout the Federation, there have been two attempts on Servalan's life. In recent days, there has also been some criticism from within the Civil Administration about Travis's unsuccessful campaign to seek, locate and destroy Blake and his followers. Meanwhile, Blake has arranged a rendezvous on an icy planet with a resistance leader, whom Jenna has met once before, known as Avalon. However, before the planned meeting can take place, Avalon is kidnapped by Travis and placed in a security cell in a nearby Federation base, while most of her followers are massacred. Therefore, Blake, Jenna, Vila and Chevner, the lone survivor of the slaughter of Avalon's resistance group, break into the Federation complex to rescue her.
The personal at the Federation installation allow the rescuers to find, release and escape with Avalon. However, at a later stage onboard the Liberator, Blake and his crew discover that she is not the real Avalon, but is in fact an android copy that has been programmed to release a deadly virus once it is on the Liberator, that will kill all of them, but will leave the spacecraft intact and undamaged.
Realising this, the Liberator crew manages to overpower and disable the android. Avon then manages to reprogram it to follow some crude and simple orders. They then return to rescue the real Avalon from the Federation. Blake teleports back down to the Federation base with the android, which is programmed to crush a sphere containing the deadly virus if Servalan does not release Avalon or attempts to stop them from leaving. Once the fugitives have escaped, Servalan orders the pursuit ships to be launched. Due to yet another failure on this mission, Travis is relieved of duty by Servalan, pending a full enquiry.
PROJECT AVALON was a highly enjoyable episode, that features an intriguing plot, some imaginative plot twists, an interesting cast, along with convincing set and special effects. It was good to see the return of the Federation robots from SEEK-LOCATE-DESTROY, but once again, I can’t help but think they were placed in the wrong environment to look really effective.
Of the regulars, Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette, Paul Darrow and Michael Keating seem to get the best material, whilst the semi-regulars, Stephen Greif and Jacqueline Pearce are both in fine form. Finally, of the guest cast, Julia Vidver as Avalon and David Bailie as Chevner are the most obvious standouts - although a special mention should be made for Glynis Barber as a mutoid. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of her in the future.
5/5.
