Everything has changed for the crew of the Liberator after the galactic war – and there are new faces who no-one’s quite sure about yet…

There’s what feels like a harder edge to the return of Blake’s 7 to Big Finish Audio after a space of a few months – the Terry Nation series has never shied away from the nastier side of life, but there’s something almost tangible about the violence and the threat of it in this opening story (and indeed, through the entire first set). Whether that is a conscious choice by new producer John Ainsworth, or happenstance, time will tell.

Sensibly Ainsworth has elected to use the first story to put Dayna front and centre. There was a good reaction to the recasting of Josette Simon’s role from the TV series (after the previous team had had to find ways around the character’s absence in the last ongoing series), with Yasmin Bannerman stepping into the part with style. By chance having just caught her chronologically-first appearance as Roz Forrester in the adaptation of Andy Lane’s Original Sin a few days back, I’ll admit I was expecting one sort of performance, and got something very different – and much stronger.

There’s also a chance for Stephen Pacey to play another side to Del Tarrant: normally stories have been set once the pilot has been on board the Liberator for some time, but by setting this very shortly after his debut, we see him unused to being part of a team, and working out if he can trust the others…

Liberation is a strong ensemble piece by Steve Lyons, with good sound design from Nigel Fairs and Luke Pietnik (there’s one scene for Dayna that seems to be untreated – although, of course, that could have been a conscious choice!) and Fairs’ score feeling very appropriate.

Verdict: A strong debut for the “new” Dayna and a welcome return for the crew. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Spoils of War is available from Big Finish now