Bounty

Written by: Terry Nation
Directed by: Pennant Roberts
Episode Length: 51'53
Original UK Transmission Date: 13/2/1978
Original UK Ratings: 9.6m
Original UK Chart Position: 40

DVD Availability: Try sendit.com or Amazon

Starring: Gareth Thomas (Blake), Sally Knyvette (Jenna), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jan Chappell (Cally), Michael Keating (Vila), David Jackson (Gan) and Peter Tuddenham (Zen).

Guest-Starring: T.P. McKenna (Sarkoff), Carintha West (Tyce), Marc Zuber (Tarvin), Mark York (Cheney) and Derrick Branche (Amagon Guard).

Crew: Pauline Smithson (Production Assistant), Sheelagh Rees (Production Unit Manager), Ian Scoones/Mat Irvine (Visual Effects Designers), Terry Nation (Series Deviser), Ken Willicombe (Film Cameraman), John Gatland (Film Recordists), M.A.C. Adams (Film Editor), Brian Clemett (Studio Lighting), Tony Millier (Studio Sound), Richard Yeoman-Clark (Special Sound), A.J. Mitchell (Electronic Effects), Rupert Jarvis (Costume Designer), Marianne Ford (Make Up Artist), Bob Blagden (Graphics Designer), Dudley Simpson (Music), Frank Maher (Stunt Co-Ordinator), Chris Boucher (Script Editor), Roger Murray-Leach (Designer) and David Maloney (Producer).

Story: Cally and Blake arrive in sector three of an empty, nameless planet. Housed there is ex-President Zarkoff of Lindor, there as a guest of the Federation. Unbeknown to him, the Federation had rigged the Lindor elections seven years ago so that he would not be re-elected and Lindor would fall into civil war. After the Federation take over the planet as a "peace-keeping force" they plan to reinstate Zarkoff as a puppet figurehead. Blake convinces Zarkoff to come with him so he can reunite his people.
Back aboard the Liberator, the ship is taken over by a space pirate, Tarvin, who is implied to be an old flame of Jenna's. He informs her that he can get 13 million credits for the crew with the Liberator intact, and 12 million without Jenna, if he decides to "keep her." One of the Amagons from Zolag 4, Tarvin claims he sold his own grandmother as "she was going to sell me - I got in first." However, Jenna uses his feelings for her to manipulate him, and she helps the others escape. Tarvin is killed in the crossfire when they reclaim their ship.

Blake: Blake claims that he "did study some natural history." He also reveals that the Federation have changed their code. (See Seek-Locate-Destroy )

Viewpoint:
"I'm entitled to my opinion."
"It is your assumption that we are entitled to it as well, that is irritating."

Cally starts this episode, dressed in a leopardskin coat and frizzy 80s perm. You can get that for a fiver down the Old Kent Road.

Heavily edited by Chris Boucher, Bounty has one of the best scripts of the first season, and he's got the Vila-Avon relationship down pat. It's so cheap a car crash happens off-screen with the sound effect dubbed in, but it's got a kind of naive charm that makes it work. Sadly, things get a little shaky in the last fifteen minutes, with Marc Zuber as a somewhat clich�d Sheikh pirate. However, it still keeps a certain pace, largely due to the crew being prisoners on their own ship, the first time (of many) that this would be tried.