Popular name for 61 Cygni.
The alien force that took control of Orac in Shadow described itself thus: "I am the Darkness. Orac brings my Darkness". To call it the Darkness is probably inaccurate but a useful term of reference. Existing in another dimension, it used Orac's carrier waves as a bridge into the universe, draining energy from the Liberator to effect its entry. After bribing Vila to hide Orac, it put Cally into a catatonic state to stop her acting against it. Aided by the moon discs, she telekinetically deactivated Orac before the Darkness could complete its arrival, which would have entailed the destruction of the ship. Avon later fitted Orac with a disruption bomb to prevent any further invasion attempts.
The origin and purpose of the Darkness was never made clear, although it was obviously malevolent. It is also unknown whether or not it would have assumed physical shape if its invasion attempt had proved successful.
The name of the viscast presenter who missed the arrival of the champions on UP-Death-Watch, albeit through no fault of his own. His commentary began: "Space: the final frontier - as it was once called".
| Servalan's advisor on her space station in Lipterion. | |
Tel Varon used a tape camera to collect evidence of the massacre on Earth, and in Seek-Locate-Destroy microtape was mentioned twice. Data storage on discs was seen on a number of occasions: the clinical records Maja picked up from Dr Havant were held on a thin disc several centimetres in diameter, and Varon could apparently check their contents by visual inspection (although he might merely have been reading a label). Similar devices were seen in Power, when records of the Seska, presumably made by the Seska themselves, were consulted on the "chronicle discs" in Xenon Base. Ven Glynd's evidence against the Federation was held on twin discs set in a rectangular block. Large cylindrical items in the store room on Centero may have been storage discs or reels of tape, though exactly what they are is unclear.
 in Shadow |
Crystaline storage was first seen in Shadow, when Bek played back a data
cylinder containing a recording of his voice to convince Largo that he
still had the latter at gunpoint. In Killer, Bellfriar handed Blake a
number of transparent datablocks containing details of more than 5,000
paratype organisms. In Death-Watch Cally was seen holding some form
of crystal under the portable bookscreen.
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| In Gold audiovisual recordings were stored in translucent rotating cubes - they held views of the Space Princess" itinerary, and one was additionally used by Keiller and Avon to conceal their activities in the cargo bay. In Blake records of listed criminals were seen to be stored on large transparent sheets and small green datacards. |  |
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Dayna was born on Earth but left as a baby with her father, Hal Mellanby.
This was about twenty years before her first appearance. When she first met
Avon she described her education as having been by computer tutorial, but Hal
somehow arranged for tutors to visit Sarran to advance Dayna's education, one
of these being Justin whom she later visited on Bucol-2. Known relatives: Hal Mellanby was killed by Servalan on Sarran. Dayna's mother was killed some twenty years earlier on Earth, being one of the rebels who surrendered and were then massacred by the security forces. Her name was never given. Dayna's adopted sister Lauren, a Sarran by birth, was captured by Chel and subsequently found dead.
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Bodycount: Dayna claimed that she preferred "the ancient weapons - the spear,
the sword, the knife", but showed no aversion to using modern firepower. In
Aftermath she shot two Sarrans dead with a bow, and claimed a fair few
more kills thereafter: Klegg in Powerplay; Mori and a trooper on
Obsidian; two of Bayban's men with a heat-seeking bomb; two troopers in
Rumours of Death; the General in Traitor (in a hand-to-hand
struggle); two of Justin's creations on Bucol-2; four troopers in
Games (3 shot, one with a Mecronian throwing knife); shot a guard on
Zerok and killed up to three more with a grenade. She failed to outshoot
Arlen on Gauda Prime and was shot, presumably fatally.
|  |
 In Dawn of the Gods |
Captured by: Klegg's troopers in Powerplay, Mori's men in
Volcano, the Caliph in Dawn of the Gods, Servalan in The
Harvest of Kairos, the Ultra in Ultraworld, Grose and Lector in
Moloch, Servalan again in Terminal, trapped with Dorian's
creature in Rescue, captured by Hommiks in Powerplay and used
by Pella as a hostage in the same episode. She was later caught by the space
rats in Stardrive, Servalan in Animals (where she was
conditioned to first hate and then love Justin), and by Belkov in
Games.
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Significant injuries: Dayna was in fact very rarely injured. She was hurt but evidently not seriously when Bayban escaped from her in City at the Edge of the World; thrown off a cliff by Og in Animals, found unconscious by Servalan's mutoids and tortured by Servalan; knocked unconscious by Muller's android; shot in the arm by Reeve in Sand, whereupon Tarrant insisted she return to Scorpio; and suffered what appeared to be a fatal shot from Arlen in Blake.
Places visited: She was seen to set foot on Sarran, Obsidian, Crandor, Kairos, Keezarn, Auron, Earth, Ultraworld, Sardos, UP-Death-Watch, Terminal, Xenon, Helotrix, Caspar, Bucol-2, Domo, Mecron II, Virn, Zerok, Beta-5 and Gauda Prime, a total of 21 planets.
The weapons she designed made occasional appearances. A green handgun in her bedroom locker on Sarran was used by Servalan to kill Hal Mellanby and later fired by Chel in Aftermath. It was seen again (probably a different weapon of the same design) with Cally in City at the Edge of the World, where it was said to have a killing range of "only 200" (presumably metres, since other metric measurements were stated in the episode). It was also given by Servalan to Deral in Children of Auron. Another of her inventions was used by Tarrant to vaporise the android Vinni in Death-Watch. A heat-seeking grenade that moved along the ground killed two of Bayban's men in City at the Edge of the World and distracted the Ultra from Tarrant in Ultraworld. In the same episode she blew an escape route for herself and Tarrant with micro-grenades concealed in her mouth.
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She was seen to fire the Liberator's main armament just once, in
Dawn of the Gods. In Headhunter she was seen supervising the
medical treatment of Vila and Tarrant.
|  In Moloch |
 In Terminal |
She kissed Avon in Aftermath and told him he was "very beautiful".
Her only other romantic moments were with Tarrant (for the benefit of the
Ultra), and with Justin, whom she was induced to first hate and then love by
Servalan. She appeared to recover from his death fairly quickly, though.
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Despite her avowed intention to kill Servalan, she never managed to do so and
in fact rarely tried, though they met in a number of episodes after Servalan
killed Hal: The Harvest of Kairos, Death Watch (where she
resisted killing her on Avon's express command), Terminal,
Traitor, Animals, Assassin, where she was taking aim
when the gun was kicked out of her hand by Benos, and finally on Beta-5 in
Gold, where she took no action against her.
|  In Animals |
In Sarcophagus she was seen with an electronic lyre-like instrument, but her interest in music appeared to be no more than a passing whim at this time.
Death was a frequent occurrence throughout Blake's 7, and only three episodes can tentatively claim to be deathless: Duel, in which Keera died but was restored to life by Sinofar; Sarcophagus, which featured an alien being that was arguably already dead anyway; and Ultraworld, where the exact nature of the Ultra was obscure and the menials were animated corpses rather than alive as such.
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Most deaths were a result of shootings or explosions, but there were also
stabbings (a temple guard by Vila in Cygnus Alpha, Nagu by Travis, Rod
by Gola, and a trooper by Soolin in Warlord), electrocutions (a
programmed guardian in Time Squad, Tynus, and a trooper in
Games), falls (a Crimo on Exbar, and Mori into the volcano on
Obsidian), asphyxiation (Nova), a lethal overdose (Kasabi and Bershar),
radiation (two guards on Zerok, and Egrorian and Pinder), poisoned (Gola),
and various other causes. Raiker and a guard on the Space Princess
were sucked out into space, and Vargas and Molok were teleported there.
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 The demise of a member of the presidents personal security force in Shadow |
The main characters accounted for quite a lot of these deaths, and are listed
here in order of increasing lethality. This is based on the number of
definite kills divided by the number of episodes in which the character
appeared.
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| Character | Kills | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Gan | 0 kills in 17 episodes | 0.00 |
| Orac | 1 kill in 40 episodes | 0.02 |
| Vila | 2 kills in 52 episodes | 0.04 |
| Cally | 3 kills in 36 episodes | 0.08 |
| Zen | 4 kills in 37 episodes | 0.11 |
| Jenna | 7 kills in 26 episodes | 0.27 |
| Servalan | 14+ kills in 29 episodes | 0.48 |
| Blake | 16 kills in 28 episodes | 0.57 |
| Tarrant | 16 kills in 26 episodes | 0.62 |
| Travis | 8 kills in 13 episodes | 0.62 |
| Avon | 36 kills in 51 episodes | 0.71 |
| Dayna | 20 kills in 26 episodes | 0.77 |
| Soolin | 16 kills in 13 episodes | 1.23 |
The above figures should be taken as approximations only, since it is not always easy to decide what constitutes a kill. Do mutoids count for example? Or androids? The tallies given do not include clearly incidental deaths, unquantifiable deaths as a result of ship-to-ship and similar combat, and deferred responsibility. On the last point alone, Servalan was easily the most lethal character in the series, accounting for the deaths of thousands if not millions of people on Auron alone.
| Tarrant described Klegg and his troopers as "the Federation's Death Squad", with "a record of brutality hard to match". Klegg et al were presumably part of this notorious unit, rather than being the whole Death Squad in themselves. |  Harmon, Klegg, Troopers and Tarrant |
One of three children allegedly assaulted by Blake (the others being Renor Leesal and Payter Fen). Deca was apparently born on the date 43.6.2, was a patient of Dr Hamer Painter, and attended school ZL-14 Level 552.
| Artificially created by the Lost, the Decimas were 10-function (hence their name) menial creatures. An earlier, four-function, version had been passive, but the Decimas were intelligent and aggressive towards their creators, and made frequent attacks on the compound on UP-The Web. They had constructed crude weapons, and one injured Blake's hand with a spear. Breaking into the compound, they destroyed the power system that maintained Geela and Novara, and then moved on to destroy Saymon. One Decima was killed by Novara with a spear-like energy weapon after pleading for help from Blake in Terran, and Geela might have killed a few more before her "death". Geela and Novara informed Blake that over 50 Decimas were present in the area. |  |