Not one of Robert Holmes' strongest scripts, but at least it re-introduces Servalan. But the whole Sleer thing is a bit muddy and dubious and born out of a time when they were thinking of having a new big baddie, until Jaqueline confirmed her return.
The Avon in this script has shades of Blake creeping in. Where was the man who would have wanted nothing to do with a combat base? Who is this man who now says: "Vila, I won't run!", as if his masculinity had just been questioned? It is not as if the Federation has any gripe with them anymore. There is no Liberator to prise from their grasp, so Servalan should now have zero interest in them too. This is a fundamental flaw in story logic of series 4 to my mind. Avon is bright enough to go his own way and assume a new identity somewhere - and leave all this madness behind. It comes across that they stay together simply because there are more episodes of a television programme called Blake's 7 to make. And that programme needs a teleport and a talking computer in the ship's bulkhead. And a replacement for Cally.
The show doesn't make sense anymore.
How daring it would have been to have abandoned the format and shown the final disintegration of the crew - or something different like that - instead of replicating the format for one season
I kind of wish that they had stayed true to the character of Avon and taken him and the show to their logical end with just a bit more nerve and willingness to make a radically different formatted show.
But enough on that, what about Traitor?
I like it. It is nicely written. In retrospect, Hunda seems doomed. And he must have fallen to the Federation as much as the Scorpio crew did. He wins a small victory here, but he is surely a dead man walking.
The Sleer thing does seem pointless and even the season is not sure if it wants to keep calling her that or not. Jaqueline hated the name. Surely Servalan's face is as familiar to the Federated worlds as Trump's - sadly - is to ours. What is the point of a false name?
The crippled scientist had overtones of Davros to me when I first saw it.
And, while it is a nice line, why does Avon "need" to kill Servalan himself. Unless he has never forgiven her for his humiliation in TERMINAL and wants some payback.
Soolin is just another person on the flightdeck at the moment and one cannot help but feel sorry for Glynis Barber. Thankfully she later had a eureka moment and found a way of playing her that was excellent.
A necessary episode then, for the return of Servalan, and an important one as regards Pylene 50. So I will give this one half marks. About average - or slightly above average.
