A funeral attracts the attention of Servalan, her predecessor – and the crew of the Liberator…

There’s a lot to enjoy in Trevor Baxendale’s script for this fifth story in the Crossfire series, which is tied firmly into the ongoing battle between Servalan and her predecessor as President for control of the Federation. Kalion is the home to shipyards whose product will be vital to the success of one or other of them, and Avon determines that there’s a way of preventing either from gaining access. However, there are those on Kalion who have similar ideas.

There are a couple of problems though: this is the second story on the trot to feature the crew trying to prevent Servalan from gaining access to something she needs, and I suspect that listening to Fearless and Funeral in close proximity will feel a little similar. There’s also some unexpected clunkiness in some of the dialogue: the opening scene on the Liberator could perhaps have introduced the character names with a little more subtlety (if, let’s be honest, there’s anyone who’s coming to the second box set in a series as their very first Blake’s 7 adventure!), and there’s a scene featuring the Chancellor and the late lamented leader that falls into a few traps that this week’s X-Files episode managed to avoid in terms of monologues addressed to the dear departed.

Those don’t overly detract from the story, which features some enjoyable “banter” between Servalan and the deposed President (with Jacqueline Pearce and Hugh Fraser having great fun), and an enclosed space scene for Vila and Avon (although that did strike me as Avon showing a terrific amount of faith in Vila given the circumstances).

Verdict: An occasionally flawed piece that moves the story along. 7/10

Paul Simpson