Don Keller quoted a poem by Tanith Lee at the beginning of Sand:
I know a land beyond the heart of time.
The sun never comes there, no moon ever shines.
And man, a grain of sand, nameless and lost,
Blows with the dust.
See also LEE, TANITH.
Somewhat remarkably, explicit references to a police force are made in only two episodes. Quute mentioned the Pacification Police, and the General admitted that an investigation of Practor's death was "a police job". The investigation came under the jurisdiction of Commissioner Sleer, reflecting her civil rather than military position. Many of the personnel she was seen to associate with wore the same uniforms as military troopers, so either police and troops dressed essentially alike, or troops were seconded to her command.
In Stardrive Dayna "reminded" Dr Plaxton of how she had reported her ground car stolen to the police.
Investigator Reeve in Sand may have been a police officer, as his title strongly suggests. On Gauda Prime, Blake was seen to be appointed as a temporary law enforcement officer, presumably as a result of his "bounty hunter" activities.
A native of Sardos, who erased the recording of Liberator's entry through the energy barriers around the meteoroid. Moloch ordered her to be given to Grose's men as a result, and she was never seen again.
Native of Horizon. Blake told Ro that Porah was one of the convicts on the London headed for Cygnus Alpha. He died on the journey and his body was dumped in space. Blake made no reference to him being involved in the attempt to take over the ship, but this might have been understandable reticence on his part. Ro thought Porah had been sent on a "training course". Porah referred to Horizon only by its former name of Silmareno, hence Blake not realising quite where he was when he first approached the planet.
Noted by Dayna as one of the frontier systems the Federation had re-annexed within the past three weeks, presumably through Commissioner Sleer's Pacification Programme.
A lunar satellite in the constellation adjacent to Malodar. Although 17 light years away, it was destroyed instantly by Egrorian's tachyon funnel.
| Potted plants were seen in Ensor's underground room on Aristo, in the conference centre of Atlay, in Residence-1, and in the lounge area of Xenon base. Now come on, be honest, you always wanted to know that, didn't you? | |
Sinofar described herself and Giroc as guardians of "the power of the race". This may have been the cataclysmic weapon Giroc described as ending the war on their planet. Such conclusions are circumspect but not entirely unavoidable.
President-elect of Helotrix, and a Helot by birth. Although he had been held prisoner for a while in the confusion following the Intergalactic War, he had been on the Federation's Civil List for years. He described himself to Leitz as "something of a pedant" through his long years in the civil service. He had known Servalan well in the past, and recognised her in a portrait, referring to her as "the Supreme Empress". Servalan used her security clearance as Commissioner Sleer to gain access to Practor's private lift, killing him in his living quarters and destroying the portrait. She then assumed command of the ensuing murder inquiry.
A feature of Scorpio's sublight drive, used for fine manoeuvring. Such subsystems were doubtless fitted to many other ships as well. The precision guidance was brought online as Avon attempted to bring Scorpio within the radar shadow of a large asteroid to enter the Altern system undetected. It promptly blew up, at which point Slave informed the crew that they had just lost the back-up system with the main precision guidance having been inoperative from the start.