[BLAKESCREWE]

Watched this last night , and while it`s fairly average , I found it totally unbelievable that Doctor Kayn , a supposedly skilled surgeon , went crackers and ended up commiting murder in the space of a short time ! . And Avon himself suddenly ended up being a really caring person , especially his desire to see that the rest of the crew were not harmed ! . A bit out of character for him ! .

What do others think ? .

[Picard]

Good episode, but Avon not behaving normaly!
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"No matter where you are... everyone is always connected." Lain Iwakura

[white afro in space]

I thought Kayn having a moral dilemma was pretty believable. With regards to Kayn, I also liked being a total hard nut and threatening Kayn's 'precious' hands. Is that the first time we see Blake do such a thing? I mean sure he's blown up stuff, but this seems really personal.
What grabbed me most about this episode was the crew flying the Liberator through the wormhole thingie. It had a real 'break on through to the other side' vibe about it. It's a total headf**k!! I mean, there you are flying through the soulless funk of existence and then suddenly taking up a challenge and breaking through to a new conciousness...... err I guess you had to be there.
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As I was saying, we all have to learn to live with disappointment

[Valentine]

BLAKESCREWE

[Cockroach Boy]

The only episode where Gan does much of any importance and it's all
ruined by the gurning in the first scene! Unfortunately Breakdown shows the reason why Gan was the 'first to go'. Bar having his limiter breakdown there just wasn't much potentiol in his character - Blake already had the 'tragic past', Avon was the ruthless computer genius and Villa was the funny, cowardly one. Gan just couldn't compete.

The main reason this episode is interesting is because it is the first time since The Way Back that we have seen the true ruthlessness of the Blake 7 universe. All the people on the space station - including their patients - die a pointless death simply because the Liberator went there. This is not a straightforward series where only 'bad people die' - innocents are killed in the crossfire and the heroes are already becoming desensitised by the carnage in their wake.

Julian Glover is excellent (of course) being icy, vain and cruel in equal measures. It's a clever reversal that when Blake threatens to destoy his hands,the 'hero' of the tale is suddenly behaving with the same sort of brutality that we saw in Raiker and Vargas.

The rest of the small guest cast are more variable and it's a shame we don't get to see more of the space station.

An average episode in some respects and certainly not a good one for David Jackson, but important in the way that it increases the moral ambiguity of the series.

[Janov Seldon]

There's an early version of "Breakdown" titled "The Invaders" where Gan is split in two by aliens and "Good Gan" has to fight "Evil Gan" to protect the rest of the crew. It sounds awful and as dull as Breakdown was, I'm glad that was made!
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"Now then, Butch Harry, tell us about Fulham..."

[dave]

Breakdown had potential to be a good episode but sadly its one of the many from series 1 where obviously not enough dialogue was written so its too padded out.

I don't find Blake's threat to break Kayn's hands out of character. Whether he would actually do it or not is another matter.

Another interesting aspect of this episode is that Kayn himself is kind of an innocent party. He feels he's doing the right thing in delaying the Liberator because he will help apprehend criminals. As far as he is concerned the Federation does represent law and order, but as a doctor he probably lives a more privalaged life and doesn't know better. Indeed for all we know he's quite unaware of what goes on because he spends so much time isolated on the space station.

[Cockroach Boy]

Interesting that the research station specialises in medical treatment and weaponay. I wonder if it was a comment on the dual uses of tecnology - the V2 priniciples also being used for space exploration, radiation (that old Nation obsession again!) being used to treat cancer but also to create horrifying weapons.

The issue of nuetrality is also touched on and presumably is a reference to the ambiguous roles of countries like Switzerland in WWII. It's not an outright condemnation though - the ending shows how innocents can get caught in the crossfire.

Incidentally I don't think Avon's decision to stay with the Liberator is altruistic - Feyn can't offer him the protection he wants and the technology of Liberator is an obvious temptation - but it's interesting that he tries to gaurentee the crews safety. It's one of the first indication that Blake is having an effect on him, even though he's trying to resist.

Perhaps Avon's paranoid schizophrenia starts here?

[Ron]

Avon disagrees with Jenna when she's determined to try and save Gan's life by flying through the prohibited space zone because he's not too keen on risking everyone's life to do that. He's prepared to help Gan later though. When the surgeon delays operating and Vila threatens to kill him Avon says something like "and if he doesn't I will". Whether he helps someone or not is just usually well calculated. The characters are all brilliantly written!

[RichardWho]

[Servalans Hair]

I liked this one.
Enjoyed seeing Blakes ruthless side, it wasnt out of character, he was protecting his friend!

[BLAKESCREWE]

Yeah - "I shall destroy your hands ! " he said in his best thespian tones !

[Cockroach Boy]

[pna]

[Richard1978]

The BBC's trusty mirrornon came out for the distortion scene.

The control area of XK72 looks like Servalan's office painted peach.

It seems daft that a station that partually deals with space weaponry needs premission to put up it's force wall. Are they that overloaded with rules.