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Cygnus Alpha (103)
Not one of my favourites, though I do enjoy the scenes on the Liberator.
Timing
This is a real problem. The first scene shows the London arriving at CA but when we cut to the Liberator, Blake, Jenna, and Avon seem to have just arrived on the ship. They're still wondering what happened to the crew, and are only just discovering the hand guns. The only way I can explain things is that when Jenna presses the turbo button, they're already headed for CA and they do a really fast burst which takes them almost there. Relativity and time compression for the traveller applies, so to them, it's only been an hour or two which would explain why Avon and Jenna are still exploring the ship while Blake's on CA.
Nice coincidence that they arrive just when the London does. :-P
Time distortion gets a mention on the Ortega's navigation screen but I prefer to ignore it when I write fiction. It's too hard to have them all experiencing different rates of aging.
There are also odd discontinuities like when we see the prisoners in their cell, then next in the hooded gowns of acolytes, though I suppose they wanted us to fear for Gan. It also just occurred to me that Nation may not have wanted to write a scene where the acolytes were jumped then killed with their own knives because it might have reduced our sympathy for the prisoners.
The planet
CA looks more like a moon and I can't see how anyone survives on it with no visible water or arable land. They mention tending the land so there are crops, but from space it looks like a wasteland with no atmosphere (apart from the gothic one). It's my personal fanon that most planets are rocky inhospitable places that need to be terraformed, by forced settlement if necessary, but I don't see how this one would be habitable at all.
People
I liked seeing Leylan and Artix again, sending off the report as Leylan had said he would.
I laughed at how Blake hands Jenna a gun while she's holding one just after they're talking about isomorphic response. OK, once they're out of their chargers or whatever the tubes are, it seems you can have two of them, but it was very thoughtless all the same.
Avon has an odd half-smile on his face when he's blinding Jenna with teleport science. I bet he's bluffing till he finds out more.
Gan is magnificent, and he's the only one who goes to stand by Blake. I wish they'd written him a larger part (no pun intended) in later eps.
Vila does kill Blake's assailant and apparently he meant to. I had the impression on the tapes that it might have been an accident when Blake pushes his attacker away but the DVDs make those scenes very clear, including Vila's look of horror. This has to be his first killing.
I think everyone including Kara believed in the religion Vargas invented. I hope someone sensible took control afterwards.
Clothes and treasure
Jenna seems delighted with her pastel outfit. I mourn the much classier black one, but I suppose she was rather sick of it after four months. Why do they have all those clothes on board though? Do DSVs have huge crews? Was the Liberator a trading ship?
"There must be almost as much wealth in that single room as there is in the entire Federation banking system." So why doesn't it get used? Surely Avon could come up with some way to use it to bring down the economy? I think the only other time we see it mentioned and used is in 'Shadow'.
Weirdness
Ahahaha, Vargas's pristine white sneakers! They look new too; do the prison transports bring supplies?
People don't blow up in space like that either; did Jenna or Avon press a button that dispersed his wave pattern? Greg said Vargas looked like an exploding android from the bits. Not the best effect in the series.
Teleport and tech
Vargas seems to materialise in a different teleport bay from the others, because you can see the corrugated metal wall behind him before he comes out of it and towards the other one where Blake, Vila, and Gan are. Perhaps there are two for when people are being picked up from different places which would make sense because it would be safer. However in that case, Vargas, Gan, and Vila would teleport at the same time to different bays, and Blake would come up later when he picks up his bracelet and calls Jenna. Not at all well thought out.
Oh yes, and Blake has what looks very like a modern PDA and stylus at the end. I wonder what he's doing with it.
On board
The best part of this ep is the interaction between Avon and Jenna while Blake's away. Jenna doesn't trust Avon, or like him, but I think she's ready to leave with him once Blake's hour is up -- "Because that way I can convince myself that we gave him a fair chance." That doesn't quite match her relieved hug when he comes back the first time, but she strikes me as a pragmatic sort who knows when to cut her losses and make the best of running. I wonder how it would have panned out: splitting the treasure (and leather) two ways might have worked, but who would get the ship?
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Only Jenna can fly it if Zen's in an uncooperative mood - but only Avon can reprogram Zen not to be in mental synch with Jenna. Personally I think they would still take on more crew, because after a week of each other, it'd he Huis Clos up there. They would also both need to find a mirror, since they care about their looks and can't use Blake's eyes to gaze into any more....
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He just didn't like the computer that came with Liberator.
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Considering it also features in "Times Squad" too it must be Blake's own notes on "How to Take Down The Federation".
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As for Avon, yes, I can see him doing that. But for how long? He has enough money not to need to steal any more, he doesn't have a cause at this stage, so what would he do? Become an eccentric inventor and sell his gadgets off to the highest bidder regardless of who they are, I suspect.
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BTW, about Cygnus Alpha, I wouldn't be surprised if terraforming were based on widespread hydroponic capacity.