The crew of the Liberator may have been together for a long time – but there’s still a lot they don’t know about each other…

Christopher Cooper’s tale focuses on Del Tarrant and to an extent Cally, as the Liberator’s pilot heads down to a planet where he expects to catch up with someone he hasn’t seen for many years. There’s potential links back to the very first episode of the show (although, as Cally points out, there do seem to be a lot of Tarrants out there), but certainly to Death-Watch, the penultimate Series C story, with some explanations for some of the descriptions used in that episode. Cooper fleshes out the Tarrant family well, and although the final revelation is perhaps telegraphed a little early, the character interplay is enjoyable.

I mentioned in the review of the previous story that we had a character who I hope we see more of in future; in this case, between them Cooper and actor Peter Aubrey have created a character who is important to this story… but which you fully agree with Avon when he wants to be rid of him as soon as possible!

The effects of the end of Series B are felt throughout this story – Star One served many functions after all – and there’s also a subplot that sees Avon and Orac progress the main throughline, setting stuff up for the finale…

Verdict: A solid piece of Blake’s 7 delving into Tarrant’s backstory. 8/10

Paul Simpson