Line #39 Recap/BlakesSevenS4E4Stardrive


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stardrive.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:A plan so terrible even the person who came up with it says it won't work.]]
3	[[AC:Written by James Follett.\
4	Directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot.\
5	Airdate: 19 October 1981.]]
6
7	Avon damages ''Scorpio'' during a reckless plan to infiltrate a Federation planet. While making repairs, they witness three Federation cruisers 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.
8	----
9	!The episode has the following tropes:
10	* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: The Space Rats are stereotypical outlaw bikers JustForFun/RecycledInSpace, although they have huge mohicans and Roy Wood-style facepaint.
11	* AssKicksYou: Bomber does this to Dayna at the end of a rather unconvincing fight scene.
12	* AsYouKnow: Avon reiterates his loony plan and the reason for it in SarcasmMode, given that ''[[WhatTheHellHero everyone]]'' is trying to talk him out of it.
13	* BaitAndSwitchComparison: Vila 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."
14	* BittersweetEnding: The crew of Scorpio now have a spacedrive that enables them to outrun Federation ships, but lose another scientist who could have [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption helped the rebels change the balance of power]].
15	* BlatantLies:
16	** Avon tells Dayna and Vila they can't do a TeleportationRescue as the teleporter isn't working. We then see Avon, who's actually down on the planet's surface with Soolin and Tarrant.
17	** Earlier Avon orders Soolin to sober up Vila. You can hear the smirk in her voice when Soolin says she'll try (Vila has already revealed that he faked the whole thing).
18	* BBCQuarry: Caspar is a dirty windswept s**thole without a friendly ghost in sight.
19	* ChekhovsGun:
20	** We get a [[NoticeThis close-up]] of the door control that Dayna uses to delay the Space Rats from pursuing them.
21	** Avon sets up command-detonated mines that he later uses to take out the pursuing Space Rats.
22	* ColdEquation: With Federation cruisers closing in on them, Dr. Plaxton says [[ScottyTime she needs 50 minutes to connect it up]]. Eventually it comes down to a few seconds they don't have, so Avon ends up sacrificing her to save their ship by setting the controls to launch when she makes the final connection.
23	* 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.
24	* DeadpanSnarker: Soolin is starting to get into the [[WorldOfSnark swing of things]].
25	-->'''Avon:''' Slave! What is our life support capability?
26	-->'''Slave:''' One hundred and fifty-five hours, Master.
27	-->'''Soolin:''' Oh! By the time the oxygen runs out, we'll be bored as well as dead.
28	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Stardrive research lab and Space Rats chopper hanger is hidden under the BBCQuarry.
29	* EnhanceButton: The space chopper is moving at Standard x 12.6, yet the resolution is still high enough to zoom in on the Space Rat insignia on the pilot's helmet.
30	* ExplosiveInstrumentation: When Scorpio clips the asteroid, things blow up in the control room. Avon orders Slave to activate the backup system. Slave responds that the explosion was the backup system blowing up!
31	* FailedASpotCheck: Atlan doesn't notice Tarrant laser-burning a hole through the wall behind him, producing copious amounts of smoke and noise.
32	* FakeShemp: 'Dr Plaxton' wears a ridiculously huge BlackCloak during the chase scene, to hide that 'she' is actually whoever they've got driving the Amphicat buggy.
33	* FasterThanLightTravel: The Photonic Drive.
34	* FigureItOutYourself: This is Orac's attitude when he's shown the video of the ships exploding and immediately recognises why they did but refuses to explain it.
35	* ForcefulKiss: Altan to Plaxton.
36	* FragileSpeedster: ''Scorpio'' is still just a freighter, but now it's the fastest one in the galaxy.
37	* FutureSlang
38	-->'''Atlan:''' OK, [[DeadlyEuphemism bend them]].\
39	'''Vila:''' ''[alarmed]'' What does that mean?\
40	'''Atlan:''' ''[EvilLaugh]'' You'll find out.
41	** "Gook."
42	* GoingNative: Altan insists that he's not a Space Rat, but as he's wearing their regalia and is just as obsessed with speed and senseless violence, the comment is unconvincing.
43	* GoodIsNotNice: Plenty in this episode, but especially the ending.
44	-->'''Dayna:''' What about Dr Plaxton?\
45	'''Avon:''' Who?
46	* GotVolunteered:
47	** Vila is sent down to negotiate with the Space Rats, seeing as he's encountered them before. He should have kept up the drunk act.
48	** Dayna and Vila 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.
49	* GrandTheftPrototype: Dr Plaxton's Photonic Drive.
50	* TheGunslinger: Soolin guns down numerous Space Rats during their escape.
51	* HatesBaths: Who needs one when you sweat regular?
52	* HelpImStuck: Vila gets stuck between a couple of rocks and struggles to free himself before a Space Rat patrol spots him.
53	* HilariousOutTakes
54	** Creator/PaulDarrow (Avon) climbs up a BBCQuarry and poses dramatically with his handgun, [[FailedAttemptAtDrama only to find his fellow actors are having problems climbing the slope]]. Creator/StevenPacey (Tarrant) helps by giving Creator/GlynisBarber (Soolin) a push, only to get a silly grin when he realises he's [[AccidentalPervert got his hand on her ass]].
55	** The Space Rats fleeing their burning base. First they [[StyrofoamRocks push the 'heavy' doors open too easily]] and are told to try again. The second time there's so much smoke you can hardly see them.
56	** The buggy keeps failing to start and on one occasion starts rolling downhill as our heroes clamber out of it.
57	* HyperspeedAmbush: We get an idea how effective this trope would be from the perspective of someone standing still.
58	* IdiosyncraticWipes: ''Franchise/StarWars''-like screen wipes break up the action.
59	* InformedAttribute: Vila 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 [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything actual Space Rats spend most of their time sprawling on comfy cushions getting stoned]].
60	* LargeHam:
61	** Avon, Soolin and Tarrant prove you don't need dialogue to do this, as they can't run through a quarry without frequent breaks to pose dramatically.
62	** Altan of course as EvilIsHammy, except he does it with a silly accent.
63	* MidSeasonUpgrade: Scorpio is now capable of outrunning any pursuer.
64	* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Vila 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, Vila reveals he was only PlayingDrunk so he could suggest a solution without being 'volunteered' to carry it out.
65	* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Averted; Dr Plaxton points out that while she has the raw materials to build a prototype, she's not an engineer and can't build large numbers of Photonic Drives on command.
66	* OutOfCharacterMoment: Tarrant going along with Avon's plan to use Dayna and Vila [[WeNeedADistraction as a distraction]] seems somewhat incongruous with any one of his DependingOnTheWriter characterisations, either because of his ChronicHeroSyndrome, or because [[TheLancer he's doing what Avon says]].[[note]]Granted, it's not hard to imagine him being willing to sacrifice [[ButtMonkey Vila]] like that, but not so much [[ImpliedLoveInterest Dayna]].[[/note]] Notably it's Soolin, the cold mercenary who barely knows these people anyway, who objects to the plan, presumably as a result of her taking [[TheHeart Cally's]] role in the script.
67	* {{Padding}}: The characters stare at viewscreens and creep through quarries longer than necessary.
68	* PintsizedPowerhouse: A Space Rat chopper takes out three Federation warships in an instant.
69	* PlayingDrunk: Vila 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 reminiscence, 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).
70	* TheQuincyPunk: Space Rats, a gang of far-future outlaw bikers InSpace who dress in leather and have gigantic mohawks, but match the costume and hair with Roy Wood-style [[MakeUpIsEvil glam-rock face paint]].
71	* RecklessGunUsage: Vila fumbles his pistol off a cliff while hiding from a patrol. Fortunately it doesn't go off.
72	* ReluctantMadScientist: Dr Plaxton apparently made an alliance with the Space Rats to get (steal) raw material to continue her research after the Federation collapsed. Three years later she's starting to regret teaming up with a gang of psychotic thugs. As Orac notes, the reconstituted Federation has started a building programme to replace its fleet, so she'd have all the resources she needed if only she'd stayed at home.
73	* RobotsThinkFaster: After witnessing three spaceships blow up for no apparent reason the crew have to go through the footage frame-by-frame to find the cause, as Orac refuses to help because from its point-of-view the cause (a small one-man spaceship doing a HyperspeedAmbush) is blatantly obvious, and so Orac thinks the humans are just being lazy.
74	* 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.]]
75	* TheScream: Doctor Plaxton in her death throes. [[CastingGag Ironically]], Creator/BarbaraShelley made her name as a Scream Queen for Film/HammerHorror.
76	* SelfHealingPhlebotinum: Tarrant uses some kind of repair laser to patch up the hull.
77	* SoundInSpace: We hear Scorpio impacting the asteroid, and the Federation patrol exploding.
78	* StatusQuoIsGod:
79	** Scorpio now has all the advantages that the Liberator did -- a super intelligent talking computer, a teleport system, and an FTL drive faster than anything the Federation has.
80	** 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.
81	* StealthInSpace: Avon intends to get to a planet without detection by [[TrojanHorse 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.
82	* 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.
83	* ThereWasADoor: Tarrant and later the Space Rats burn through the walls with lasers.
84	* TimTaylorTechnology: Altan watching the Platonic Drive being tested. "More...[[MilkingTheGiantCow more]]...come on MORE!"
85	* VillainousCrush: Altan seems to have one on Dr. Plaxton, inviting her to join the Space Rats while they're enjoying themselves, and giving her a TakeThatKiss while threatening her.
86	* VisionaryVillain: The Space Rats just want [[NeedForSpeed ships that can go faster]]. Altan however has visions of [[SpacePirates holding the trade lanes to ransom]].
87	* WeirdWorldWeirdFood: The Space Rats chomp on lizards.
88	* WeNeedADistraction: Avon demonstrates his AntiHero credentials by sending Vila and Dayna to find the Space Rats, [[WithFriendsLikeThese not mentioning the area they teleported down to is covered by security cameras]]. Meanwhile Avon lands ''Scorpio'' elsewhere so he can sneak in from a different direction.
89	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to Napier, Dr Plaxton's assistant?
90	* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent
91	-->'''Altan:''' Weeeelll, waaat urrr yoo dooooeeeeeng hungeeng ugghhruuund??? Yoo veeesh too jun uzzz?
92	* WithFriendsLikeThese:
93	** Orac is its usual annoying self, forcing the crew to [[RewindReplayRepeat check the footage frame by frame]] to discover what's [[RobotsThinkFaster obvious to the supercomputer]], but not to their Mark One Eyeball.
94	** 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).

Context Recap / BlakesSevenS4E4Stardrive