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ANDROIDS

The crews of Liberator and Scorpio encountered a number of androids:

• In Project Avalon a perfect copy of Avalon was put aboard Liberator to release a capsule of modified "Phobon Plague" and kill the crew. Cally talked to the android and suspected nothing, but Chevner was killed when he presumably showed signs of suspicion. Cally was injured by the android and it took Blake, Vila, Gan and Jenna to restrain it. It was partially reprogrammed by Avon, when Blake used it to secure the release of the real Avalon. It was based on what the scientist on UP-Project Avalon referred to as the "triple omega" model, and Avon called it the best robotic engineering he had ever seen.

• The Altas in Redemption may have been androids.

• In Volcano menial tasks were carried out by an android, and it appeared to act as Hower's attendant. It also administered a lethal dose of narcotic to Bershar, suggesting if nothing else that Asimov's laws of robotics counted for nothing in Blake's time.

• In Death-Watch Servalan used an android to violate the Teal-Vandor convention in an attempt to provoke war between the two systems. The android killed Deeta Tarrant, but was destroyed by Del Tarrant using a weapon developed by Dayna. Avon conjectured that "Vinni" was the work of Servalan working with a local arms manufacturing cartel, with a Vandor high councillor's involvement also implied.

• In Headhunter Muller developed an android that could influence circuitry over a distance and matched Orac in power. It had megalomaniac designs, planning to enslave all humanity, and Orac at least believed it could do so. Avon planned to harness the android's potential by fitting the head with its attendant restraining mechanisms, but Dayna, on Orac's recommendations, destroyed it.

ANDROMEDANS

Inhabitants of a galaxy outside our own. Not seen clearly on-screen, but approximately two metres long (or tall?) and perhaps rather less than a metre wide with no distinct appendages. A green glow accompanying the deaths of two of them suggests a luminous / phosphorescent integument or internal tissues (both specimens had been shot). By means unspecified (innate or technological?), they could adopt the form of a studied human individual (but not, apparently, easily: "Parton" reminded "Stot" that "maintenance takes effort"). By extrapolation, they might have been able to do the same for an unspecified individual, a non-human organism of appropriate size, or possibly an inorganic object, but none of these possibilities were explored. At least 11 of these beings had made their way to Star One.

Although popularly known in fan lore as Andromedans, the invaders are invariably referred to simply as "the aliens" in the series.

In astronomical terms, Andromeda is a constellation, which includes the star Beta Andromedae just 75 light years from Earth and the spiral galaxy M31 some 2.2 million light years distant. Since Liberator leaves the Milky Way to reach Star One, references to Andromeda in this episode must be taken to mean M31. In Greek myth, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, placed among the stars after her death.

ANIMALS

Very few animals of Earth origin were seen. Ensor kept tropical fish. Rats were seen in Weapon, and also on Goth: Rashel told Coser that rats were to be found on every colonised planet. Krantor was seen with a cat in Gambit, and the Sarran warriors rode horses. In Rumours of Death a dead squirrel was used by Balon to explain the fault in the surveillance perimeter. A mouse was put through the mass/energy converter on Sardos.

The Mouse in Moloch

A Rat from Weapon

Less explicit references are also to be found: in Gambit Vila mentioned poisonous snakes and Krantor said Servalan was as perfidious and devious as a snake. In The Keeper Rod referred to his captors as "dogs". In Ultraworld Tarrant asked Dayna if she had ever seen a lizard suck a bird's egg dry, implying that he might have done so. In the same episode Vila recited a tongue-twister about a woodchuck. In Sand Tarrant compared Servalan with a panther.

See also INSECTS, BIRDS.

ANNA GRANT

ANTI-CONTAMINATION BAG

When Wardin's body was removed from Wanderer K47 it was placed in an anti-contamination bag.

ANTIGRAV GYROS

A feature of Scorpio, and probably other ships designed for surface landings. The antigrav gyros were damaged when Tarrant fled from a patrol of pursuit ships above Bucol-2, and the fault was traced to the inertial guidance, glycolene ballast tanks.

ANTIMATTER

Antimatter was mentioned a number of times, but rarely in any detail:

• Cygnus Alpha: When Jenna, experimenting with Liberator's controls, sent the ship hurtling forward at high speed, Avon mentioned "negative hyperspace", to which Blake responded: "Do you mean we crossed the antimatter interface?".
• Pressure Point: Avon envisaged "antimatter screening" being built into the structure of the blockhouse entrance to Central Control.
• Star One: Blake described the thousands of objects discovered by Avon out beyond Star One as "the biggest antimatter minefield ever put together". Since matter and anti-matter annihilate each other on contact, it may be that the mines were anti-matter generators rather than made of/containing anti-matter as such. The mine-field also acted as an early warning system, (probably relayed through Star One).
• Dawn of the Gods: the theoretical negative universe on the other side of a black hole was reputed to be made of antimatter.

See also NEGATIVE HYPERSPACE

ANTI-ORBITAL POSTURE

Status of Liberator given by Zen after the crew's trial run of handling the ship's flight systems.

AQUITAR

Described as an alloy in discussion between Blake and Avon, and used in a large Federation project investigating the transmission of matter. Avon handled the computer analysis, and Blake also worked on the project. The result seldom worked - living matter came out dead at the other end, if it came out at all. The teleport bracelets on the Liberator contained aquitar "or something very like it", according to Blake.

ARABS

Two of the visitors to the Big Wheel in Freedom City wore a stylised arab costume. The Amagons" costume in Bounty was also vaguely along such lines.

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