History Recap / BlakesSevenS4E4Stardrive

-->'''Vila:''' [alarmed] What does that mean?
-->'''Atlan:''' [EvilLaugh] You'll find out.

* FutureSlang: "Bending" and "gooks".
-->'''Atlan:''' OK, bend them.

** Avon decides WeNeedADistraction, so he sends down Dayna and Vila to get captured, not warning them that working surveillance cameras are scattered everywhere. This could easily have got them killed given that the Space Rats are known psychotics, were it not for Dayna's quick thinking (pretending to Altan that she knew Dr Plaxton).

* TimTaylorTechnology: Altan watching the Platonic Drive being tested. "More...more...come on MORE!"

** Dr Plaxton could have been used to build more Stardrives, if they could just find someone to manufacture them, but she's killed off at the end of the episode.

** Paul Darrow (Avon) climbs up a BBCQuarry and poses dramatically with his handgun, only to find his fellow actors are having problems climbing the slope. Steven Pacey (Tarrant) helps by giving Glynis Barber (Soolin) a push, only to get a silly grin when he realises he's [[AccidentalPervert got his hand on her ass]].

* StealthInSpace: Avon intends to get to a planet without detection by hugging close to an asteroid, which any starship would steer clear of. They get too close and damage Scorpio. By the end of the episode however, they've got a stardrive that makes them so fast that stealth is irrelevant.

* BittersweetEnding: Scorpio gets a new spacedrive that enables them to outrun Federation ships, but loses another scientist who could have [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption helped the rebels change the balance of power]].

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Played with; Scorpio gets a new spacedrive that enables them to outrun Federation ships, but loses another scientist who could have helped the rebels change the balance of power.

* DeadpanSnarker: Soolin is starting to get into the swing of things.

* IdiosyncraticWipes: ''Film/StarWars''-like screen wipes break up the action.

* BBCQuarry: Caspar is a dirty windswept shithole without a friendly ghost in sight.

* ColdEquation: With a plasma bolt seconds from impact, Avon sets the Stardrive to activate when Dr Plaxton makes the final connection, saving their lives with a HyperspeedEscape but killing her in the process.

** Avon comes up with a CrazyEnoughToWork plan that would come off without a hitch in any other space opera, only for Scorpio to crash into the asteroid before they get anywhere near their target.

* TemptingFate: Vila ''keeps doing this!'' The Space Rat patrol hasn't seen them - turns out they're being watched by a CCTV camera. Vila declares it's an antique that probably hasn't worked in ages; GilliganCut to them being [[SinisterSurveillance watched on a monitor]]. "At least we have the element of surprise!" Cue Space Rat watching them through binoculars.
* ScottyTime: Subverted; Plaxton needs 50 minutes to install the Stardrive. She's told she has 45 minutes. Eventually it comes down to a few seconds they don't have, [[ColdEquation so Avon ends up sacrificing her to save the ship.]]

** Avon tells Dayna and Vila they can't beam them out as the teleporter isn't working. We then see Avon, who's actually down on the planet's surface with Soolin and Tarrant.

* {{Narm}}
** Dr Plaxton screams in pain and terror as she dies... then tilts her head to the other side and continues to scream. Compare this with the novelisation, which goes into graphic detail about her being unable to scream because her face has melted off.
** Try to watch our heroes fleeing in that all-terrain buggy without singing ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBananaSplits Tra la la, la la la la, Tra la la, la la la laa~]]''.
** Bomber trying to be a tough space punk. At least Altan has the required ham.

* ThereWasADoor: Tarrant and later the Space Rats burn through the walls with lasers.
* TimTaylorTechnology: Altan watching the Platonic Drive being tested. "More...more...come on MORE!"

** Avon comes up with a crazy-enough-to-work plan that would come off without a hitch in any other space opera, only for Scorpio to crash into the asteroid before they get anywhere near their target.

** Orac is its usual annoying self, forcing the crew to [[RewindReplayRepeat check the footage frame by frame]] to discover what's obvious to the supercomputer, but not to their Mark One Eyeball.

** Vila beams down to a BBCQuarry and gets jammed between rocks.

* ExplosiveInstrumentation: When Scorpio clips the asteroid, things blow up in the control room. Avon orders Slave to activate the backup system. Slave responds that explosion ''was'' the backup system!

* ContrivedCoincidence: Avon tells the crew to start recording the Federation patrol right before they blow up. Still it's shown that they do gather important intelligence about their adversary, even before finding out what destroyed them, so he at least has a plausible reason for doing so.

Avon damages ''Scorpio'' during a reckless plan to infiltrate a Federation planet. While making repairs, they witness a Federation patrol destroyed by a one-man spacecraft moving too fast to see. Avon is determined to get his hands on this new technology regardless of the risk, which is considerable as the stardrive is being used by a gang of psychotic space punks.

* PlayingDrunk: Vila's CrowningMomentOfAwesome; he pretends to be drunk so he can make a suggestion on how to fix the current problem (atmosphere leaking out of a hole in the hull) in the form of a rambling remeniscence, but not be called on to undertake the repair himself (because you couldn't give such a dangerous task to someone who was obviously drunk).

* BBCQuarry: Caspar is a dirty windswept s**thole without a friendly ghost in sight.

* BaitAndSwitchComparison: Villa is ranting on about how the Space Rats are total psychos obsessed with sex, drugs, and fast space-choppers. "And the fellas are just as bad."

** Avon tells Dayna and Villa they can't beam them out as the teleporter isn't working. We then see Avon, who's actually down on the planet's surface with Soolin and Tarrant.
** Earlier Avon orders Soolin to sober up Villa. You can hear the smirk in her voice when Soolin says she'll try (Villa has already revealed that he faked the whole thing).

-->'''Villa:''' [alarmed] What does that mean?

** Villa is sent down to negotiate with the Space Rats, seeing as he's encountered them before. He should have kept up the drunk act.
** Dayna and Villa pretend to be students of Dr Plaxton, and loudly discuss the improved model Space Drive she developed back at the lab. Assuming he's being cheated, Altan quickly decides YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness, forcing Plaxton to go with Scorpio's crew.

* HelpImStuck: Villa gets stuck between a couple of rocks and struggles to free himself before a Space Rat patrol spots him.

* InformedAttribute: Villa and Plaxton talk endlessly about how psychotic the Space Rats are. While Altan portrays this attribute admirably, choking Plaxton at random and demanding the prisoners be "bended", he claims not to be a Space Rat, presumably because the actual Space Rats spend most of their time sprawling on comfy cushions getting stoned.

* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Villa gets drunk and start rambling on about this trope. One of the life events he relates gives Avon and Tarrant a EurekaMoment on how to repair the ship. After they've left the bridge, Villa reveals he was only PlayingDrunk so he could suggest a solution without being 'volunteered' to carry it out.

* PlayingDrunk: Villa's CrowningMomentOfAwesome; he pretends to be drunk so he can make a suggestion on how to fix the current problem (atmosphere leaking out of a hole in the hull) in the form of a rambling remeniscence, but not be called on to undertake the repair himself (because you couldn't give such a dangerous task to someone who was obviously drunk).

** Villa beams down to a BBCQuarry and gets jammed between rocks.
* RecklessGunUsage: Villa fumbles his pistol off a cliff while hiding from a patrol. Fortunately it doesn't go off.

* TemptingFate: Villa ''keeps doing this!'' The Space Rat patrol hasn't seen them - turns out they're being watched by a CCTV camera. Villa declares it's an antique that probably hasn't worked in ages; GilliganCut to them being [[SinisterSurveillance watched on a monitor]]. "At least we have the element of surprise!" Cue Space Rat watching them through binoculars.

** Avon decides WeNeedADistraction, so he sends down Dayna and Villa to get captured, not warning them that working surveillance cameras are scattered everywhere. This could easily have got them killed given that the Space Rats are known psychotics, were it not for Dayna's quick thinking (pretending to Altan that she knew Dr Plaxton).

* FakeShemp: 'Dr Plaxton' wears a ridiculously huge BlackCloak during the chase scene.