Blakes 7, Sarcophagus: Blake & Avon Script Fragments

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Blakes 7
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Sarcophagus

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This is the first episode written by the science fiction writer Tanith Lee. Cally is yet again taken over by an alien but this one is a long-dead one that is taking Cally's lifeforce to create a body in Cally's image. She wants the crew to be her attendants, but Avon has no intention of being a pet and challenges her to kill him trusting that the part of her that is still Cally will be unable to do so. He kisses the alien to distract her, while stealing her ring and destroys it, sending the alien back into death, and saving Cally. Truly one of the most beautiful of the episodes.


.	[Avon comes to visit Cally in her quarters, and picks up a drawing]
Cally:	Sketch of a place I used to know.
Avon:	Auron.
Cally:	Yes, Auron. And it's pointless to think about it. I'll never see it again.
Avon:	That's why you've been shut in here for 10 hrs? Thinking about Auron and how you'll never see it again?
Cally:	That's why.
Avon:	I wish I could promise you that the sparkling conversation on the flight deck would take you out of yourself.
Cally:	I'm alright.
Avon:	No, you're not. But you will be. Regret is part of being alive, but keep it a small part.
Cally:	As you do?
Avon:	Demonstrably.
.	[Cally touches his tunic tenderly and leaves]
.	...

.	[Tarrant is suspicious of Cally being able to teleport from a floating derelict tomb she investigated with Avon and Vila, who were only able to get out with her help.]
Tarrant:	What I really want to know is why you're being so bashful. What are you hiding, and why?
Avon:	Shut up, Tarrant.
Tarrant:	Did you say something to me?
Avon:	I said shut up. I apologize for not realizing you are deaf.
Tarrant:	There's something else you don't realize. I don't take any orders from you.
Avon:	Ah, that's a great pity, considering that your own ideas are so limited.
Tarrant:	Don't try to bluff your way with me, Avon. I know what's been needling you right from the start. With Blake gone, you thought you'd had it made, didn't you? Thought you'd got control of this ship and a crew of 3 who'd say, "Yes, Avon. Whatever you wanted." But you reckoned without me.
Avon:	That wouldn't be too difficult.
Tarrant:	Oh, really. I don't think so. When you found me on the Liberator, it was quite a blow. And every time you look at me, it hits you harder, doesn't it? I'm faster than you, and I'm sharper. As far as it goes, I've made a success of my life. You? The only big thing you ever tried to do, you failed at. The greatest computer swindle of all time. You couldn't quite pull it off, could you? If it hadn't been for Blake, you'd be rotting on Cygnus Alpha right now. No, you failed, Avon. But I win. Not just at games. At life.
Avon:	You also talk too much.
Tarrant:	Be thankful I'm restricting myself to talk.
Avon:	[turning to face him] Ah, now, that's fascinating. You mean you can do something else.
Dayna:	[jumping between them] Oh, stop this! What are you doing? Warming up to cutting each other's throats?
Tarrant:	[turning away] Avon, do you want to forget I said all that?
Avon:	It wasn't particularly memorable.
.	...

CallyCreature:	[indicating Vila] That one interests me. He has a very high intelligence, but he acts like an imbecile.
.	...

CallyCreature:	Cally, Tarrant, Dayna, Vila. One is missing.
Tarrant:	No.
CallyCreature:	Remember my mental link with Cally. Naturally, I know who is here and who isn't. Particularly if it's Avon. Where is he, Dayna? Very well, let me guess. He's outside in the corridor, as you were before he failed to stop you rushing in here.
Avon:	[entering] As a matter of fact, I didn't try to stop her. I just got out of her way.
CallyCreature:	I don't think you should look at me like that.
Avon:	Don't you?
CallyCreature:	I might interpret it as insolence, which could be uncomfortable for you.
Avon:	Could it?
CallyCreature:	Yes, it could, Avon. But you are always practical, aren't you? Have you decided to accept my terms?
Avon:	Have you offered some?
CallyCreature:	You will have heard me, I think, from the corridor. Just as you watched me earlier from the other corridor.
Avon:	I didn't hear any terms. Just something about pets.
CallyCreature:	Cally would want you to live. I know that.
Avon:	It must get tiresome for you, knowing so much.
Vila:	Avon, say that you'll do as she says.
Dayna:	Vila, be quiet.
CallyCreature:	He has an unusually sharp intelligence, which can recognize when it's beaten. I might forgive him for wanting to steal my ring. [Avon walks toward her] Stay where you are. [he doesn't] Very well. [Cally appears beside him] Now you can see me properly. I like you, Avon. You're stronger than the rest. Cally liked you. You can console yourself, now, I'm so very like her image. I could even think and feel as she does. You and I can be friends.

Avon:	Cally stole your ring.
CallyCreature:	Cally was supposed to. I hope you made her a touching farewell.
Avon:	She's not dead, yet.
CallyCreature:	But she won't struggle. Not against me. I'm waiting for your answer.
Avon:	You surprise me.
CallyCreature:	You know that I wouldn't like to make a slave of you. Not you.
Avon:	It's a pity you couldn't get rid of me earlier, and Vila, when you jammed the teleport so only Cally would get out of your coffin alive.
CallyCreature:	I was mistaken.
Avon:	Yes. Cally wouldn't leave us to die, so you had to let the three of us through. Very reluctantly. You knew where the danger would be, right from the start.
CallyCreature:	Avon!
Avon:	You are taking this ship precisely nowhere.
CallyCreature:	Don't be foolish. You spoil yourself, but I'll be patient with you. I've waited centuries. I can afford a few moments until you can bring yourself to consent to be obliging.
Avon:	And no one aboard this ship is going to accept, or carry out, a single demand of yours.
CallyCreature:	You've seen what I can do.
Avon:	t would be a little difficult to miss.
CallyCreature:	Don't try to play games with me.
Avon:	Nothing was further from my mind. You've given us your terms, now I will give you ours. No deal.
CallyCreature:	I thought you were the clever one. You're a fool, like Tarrant. The pain Tarrant is experiencing, visualize that pain much more. You're as close to death as you've ever been. Think about human death, Avon.
Avon:	I have thought about it. What's keeping you?
CallyCreature:	What did you say?
Avon:	You claim you can kill me. You'd better get on with it. Make me die. There's nothing else you can make me do.
.	[CC starts a storm inside the ship, while Cally throws herself around on her bed.]
CallyCreature:	One last chance.
Avon:	Save it.
.	[explosions, fire, she screams as her upraised hand starts to light.]
Avon:	It seems you made another mistake. Cally has loyalties, after all. But you knew that right from the beginning, didn't you?

.	[Avon grabs it down, pulls it behind her back]
Avon:	You look so beautiful when you're angry.
.	[kissing her, Avon removes her ring and holds it up to her]
Avon:	Thank you.
CallyCreature:	Give it to me.
Avon:	That would be a little foolish when I just went to so much trouble to get it.
CallyCreature:	You don't understand.
Avon:	Don't I? Psychic abilities boosted by high technology? This ring is the real source of your power, isn't it? This is how you formed your link with Cally, and you cannot hold her, or feed off this ship without it.
CallyCreature:	Avon. Avon, give it back to me. You must. You don't know. I must keep this body. I have to live. I've waited so long - centuries. More time than you could comprehend. How can you imagine what it must be like to be dead, to exist in nothingness, in nowhere, blind, deaf, dumb, and yet to be sentient, aware, waiting, centuries of waiting. I have to find my world again - my people, my home. I want to breathe and see and feel and know. Don't send me back into the dark, Avon. Let me live.
.	[Avon turns into the black draped figure of the alien ceremony, who lifts a silver chalice of ashes and spills it out. The figure turns back into Avon, who throws the ring up and catches it once, then throws it into something that destroys it.]
CallyCreature:	I want to live, to live. I want to live, to live, to live. I want to live, to live, to live.

.	[CallyCreature turns into a skeleton and the lights return.]
.	...

BLAKES 7 EPISODE DVDs
The Blakes 7 episodes are available in PAL DVDs through Amazon.com UK. For people in the US, these DVDs will play on your computer, but NOT on your TV. The only safe way to play them on your computer is in an external DVD player devoted ONLY to PAL DVDs. When you put a DVD into a DVD drive, it's able to tell whether the DVD is PAL or NTSC (US standard) and play the DVD correctly. But it will ONLY SWITCH BACK AND FORTH something like 7 times. After that, it stays on whatever was played in it last. So if you only have a single DVD player, you could get it stuck being ONLY able to play PAL DVDs. But you're safe if you attach an extra DVD player to your computer and use it exclusively for PAL DVDs.