Blake's 7 (series 3)

The battle between the Federation and the alien fleet from the Andromeda galaxy has been won but the Liberator is in dire straits.  The life support fails and the crew abandons ship.  Avon (Paul Darrow) finds himself on a Medieval planet where the natives have a prophecy of invaders falling from the sky who must be killed.  Luckily, Avon is rescued by Dayna (Josette Simon), the daughter of a one-time rebel from Earth who is hiding on this planet.  Vila (Michael Keating) is on a different planet where the primitive people fear and avoid the 'high techs.'  When Vila is captured by a high-tech hunter, he is baffled by their fear.  For a while, at least.  Cally (Jan Chappell) was picked up by a neutral hospital ship.  News is that Jenna was injured but has survived.  Blake is missing.  In the meantime, Liberator has been self-repairing and, per instructions, seeks out the crew to teleport them aboard now that life support is restored.  Avon arrives with Dayna to find that a contingent of Federation troops have boarded, led by a snooty fellow named Del Tarrant (Steven Pacey).

The war cost the Federation 80% of its fleet and has left it crippled.  With Blake absent, the crew of the Liberator is free to wander the stars in an epidsodic fashion.  However, as the series progresses, it becomes clear that Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) is doing a surprisingly good job of reconstructing the Federation.  Perhaps they should resume the fight against the Federation.

The absence of Blake nixes a lot of the purpose of the crew.  Initially, the story is survival in the wake of the war.  Then there are the random encounters of flying through space.  A few episodes that explore the past of this character or that character.  Finally, the show moves back toward the weekly showdown with Servalan and the Federation.  As such, it is a hodgepodge of a series.

Tarrant and Dayna are poor substitutes for Blake and Jenna.  Tarrant is so over-inflated with ego that it's a wonder he doesn't float to the ceiling.  He is meant to replace Jenna as pilot and Blake as idealist.  Despite being shown up on several occasions, he develops no humility.  He acts without thought, a reversal of the cautious and analytical Avon.  Avon's clashes with Tarrant are a pale reflection of those with Blake.  Worse still, Avon virtually cedes command of the Liberator to this blowhard.  It's almost like the scripts were written with Blake still present and Tarrant just got the lines with a little tweaking.  Weak.  As for Dayna, she is introduced as a weapons' specialist and master combatant.  These skills come and go depending on the needs of the script.  Her desire to kill Servalan, who murdered her father in the series opener, is easily restrained despite numerous opportunities to exact revenge.  I guess she isn't that eager to avenge her father.

Of note, the series proposes that the whole of the Milky Way galaxy has been mostly explored and colonized.  The Liberator crisscrosses the galaxy regularly.  However, this doesn't mesh well with how the technology is explained.  How fast is "Standard by Twelve?"  How is it that Avon, Vila, and Cally abandoned Liberator in the series premier from the same spot but landed on vastly different planets in different star systems?

The series ends with news that Blake died in the aftermath of the war, the destruction of the Liberator, and the apparent death of Servalan.  In fact, this was meant to end the series, but it came back for a fourth series.  In that case, here's another cliffhanger.