Tarrant quotes from Blake's 7

Pinder's old?

Vila

Late seventies. Why?

After you'd gone, I got Orac to do us one last service. This is a printout from Central Records, all that's known about Egrorian.

Interesting reading?

Yeah, very interesting. After he vanished, they started finding the bodies. He was never a simple scientist, Avon.

Vila

What was he?

Power mad from his earliest days. He was at the center of a conspiracy to take over the Federation.

This is the man who says he wants to spend the rest of his life in the advancement of science.

The other interesting thing is Pinder.

Vila

What about him?

He was a mathematical prodigy, apparently. He was eighteen when he disappeared with Egrorian...ten years ago. Now, I'm not a mathematical prodigy, but it seems to me that makes him twenty-eight.

Nobody is indispensable.

Soolin

You needed a figurehead. He was it. Or am I wrong?

You are right. But then figureheads aren't too difficult to come by. Any idiot can be one.

Dayna

Heh. On your feet, Vila. This could be your big moment.

Any idiot within reason, that is.

You going to tell us what we've got planned, Avon?

Vila

We know what we've got planned. Running away is what we've got planned.

Dayna

A strategic withdrawal is what we've got planned.

Vila

There's a difference?

Oh, yes. A strategic withdrawal is running away -- but with dignity.

Vila

So lay in a course and let's get the dignified hell out of here.

That isn't the plan anymore, though, is it Avon?

I think we can do better.

Vila

Does that mean safer?

In the end, winning is the only safety.

Vila

It doesn't mean safer. I didn't think it would.

So what does it mean?

It means I think we can find ourselves another figurehead, someone we can use to unify and expand the Rebel Alliance.

Soolin

Just like that.

More or less. He is strongly identified with rebels, you see, and very popular with rabbles. They will follow him, and he will fight to the last drop of their blood. [smiles] Idealism is a wonderful thing. All you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use.

Dayna

Someone like you.

So where do we find this useable idealist?

According to Orac, he is on a frontier planet called Gauda Prime.

Soolin

Gauda Prime?

You know it?

Soolin

Yes, I know it. It's a bad place to be. No self-respecting idealist would be found dead there.

I imagine that is what HE is trying to avoid: being found dead anywhere.

Look, are you going to stop playing games and tell us who it is, Avon?

Vila

It's Blake, isn't it? You think you've found Blake.

Orac, what proof do we have that Blake is on Gauda Prime?

That is where his trail ends.

What trail? Explain.

The chain of cause and effect amounts to a trail, if you can follow it.

Vila

I can't even follow you.

Everything has an effect on everything else around it. It is not easy to trace one line through the pattern of infinity. But in this case, I have. Blake is on Gauda Prime.

How long have you known?

[smiles] Long enough.

Dayna

Before Zukan.

Oh, yes. And the answer to your next question is, yes, I would have left Blake where he was and said nothing if things had gone according to plan.

Oh, I must try and work that into the conversation when we meet him.

Vila

If we meet him.

Soolin

Still not convinced?

Vila

You tell me what a line through the pattern of infinity is, and I'll tell you whether I'm convinced or not.

Orac?

A formal application was laid before the High Council on Earth within the last thirty days. I could get you the exact date --

Uh, I don't wish to interrupt, Master --

Then kindly don't.

I wasn't talking to you.

You were attempting to override a superior system. Be silent. [continues] -- the exact date, if you wish. But the importance of the application lies not in its exact date, but in its general requirements.

Which are?

That the citizens of Gauda Prime put their house in order. Law must be established before the benefits of law can be restored.

It is the day of the bounty hunter. [cut to close-up of Vila] Thieves, [cut to close-up of Dayna, pan to Soolin] killers, [cut to close-up of Tarrant] mercenaries, [cut to close-up of Avon; he smiles] psychopaths, are as unwelcome now as the farmers once were. [Scorpio's alarm goes off.]

Slave, what's wrong?!

Well, nothing is actually wrong, sir, yet.

Explain the alarm, Slave. [Alarm cuts out.]

I had to get your attention, Master, and I was forbidden to speak unless spoken to.

All right, you're spoken to. What is it?

I beg to advise you, Master, that we're approaching the planet Gauda Prime. And Scorpio is under attack! [An explosion rocks the flight deck.]

What on earth happened to you?

Oh, most of it wasn't on Earth. Not what happened to me.

Do you want him killed?!

No, of course not! When he knows as much about this as you do now, he'll join us, like you did.

He passed the test, then.

I'm satisfied.

These stupid games you insist on playing, Blake, will get someone killed eventually.

I have to test each one myself.

No, you don't have to! I set up systems for that. I broke the security codes on their central computer. I got us access to official channels, information, everything we could possibly need! You don't need to be involved at all.

All right, I find it difficult to trust. It's a failing, I admit--!

And any one of our people could select the people you've collected. You don't need to do the bounty hunter routine, either!

Indulge me.

Do I have a choice?

Oh, there's always a choice, Deva.

Not for me, there isn't. I said I'd follow you, and I will, until the Federation's finally destroyed. But if you're killed, where does that leave us?!

With a base, the beginnings of an army!

All of it useless if you're not there to lead it.

You worry too much, Deva.

Somebody has to.

It might be an idea for somebody to start worrying about the one we just lost.

Why? He isn't armed.

I didn't notice that slowing him up.

That's true. Relax, Deva. Nobody's indispensable.

He sold us, Avon. All of us. Even you.

Is it true?!

Stand still! (Blake stops) Have you betrayed us? Have you...betrayed me?

Tarrant doesn't understand!

Neither do I, Blake!

I set all this up!

Yes!

Avon, I was waiting for you...(Blake steps forward, Avon shoots him three times. Dying, clutching Avon's arms) Avon...