Sevencyclopaedia - T

TERMINAL

An artificial planet (described by Dorian as "an artificially modified planet"), built by scientists of a consortium of united planets 411 years before Liberator's visit. Originally positioned out towards the orbit of Mars, it somehow came to be located on the edge of Sector 6. The planet was supposed to have broken up, but was quite intact when the crew arrived. Tarrant called it a "historical curiosity". Avon was lured there in the belief that Blake was on Terminal with an unspecified secret that could make them both invincible and rich. This turned out to be a trap carefully prepared by Servalan, and the crew of Liberator were stranded there by her. She left on the Liberator moments before its destruction. Cally was subsequently reported dead by Avon as a result of explosives planted by Servalan in the underground complex and abandoned space craft. The survivors were rescued by Dorian arriving in Scorpio, ostensibly to salvage equipment from the underground bunkers on the planet.

Terminal was ovoid rather than spherical, and its surface comprised of large land masses and oceans. Native life included the links and a large, apparently immobile, predatory creature that lay in wait for its prey. Vila described them as "snakes", but this was a rather loose application of the word. One of these was destroyed by Avon as it attacked Dayna, and two more were killed by Dorian before they could get to Dayna and Vila.

TERRAN

The recording heard by Vila and Kerril identified their language as "Terran", and Norl appeared to be fluent in it. It is convenient but not necessarily accurate to refer to the language used by the crew and everyone else in the series as Terran. Language barriers were rarely met: people who, even if of human origin, had been isolated for a long time spoke "Terran" with ease - the Lost, Sinofar and Giroc, Meegat, the Altas, the Goths, the Sarrans, the Sardoans, and the Hommiks might all have had their own languages, but apparently did not. The message heard by Vila and Kerril mentioned "translator units" and Tarrant referred to the "old tongue" of Keezarn.

Zil was initially incomprehensible, but soon came to speak to Blake in Terran. Zen uttered some phrases in an alien language before "dying".

See also FRENCH.

TERRAN AGUE

Also called the "three day sweat", the Terran Ague affected anyone who travelled in deep space, altering the body's nucleic structure. The virus introduced by Wanderer K47 only infected those who had suffered the Terran Ague and was conjectured by Blake to be intended to restrict the human race to Earth, but there were surely many people not born on Earth who had never travelled in space.

TERRA NOSTRA

Criminal organisation present throughout the Federation. Their most lucrative field of operations was the addictive drug, shadow, and the source of shadow was the planet Zonda, apparently not very far from Space City. That Space City was run by the Terra Nostra was, according to Blake, "an open secret". On Earth, by contrast, they were more covert.

The chairman of the Terra Nostra

The Terra Nostra were quite ruthless: Largo was planning to have Bek and Hanna killed as an example - any sign of weakness on his part would have put paid to his rising any higher in the organisation. When Largo failed to capture the Liberator he was killed by his own enforcer with the Chairman's approval. The Terra Nostra also had considerable access to resources: the Chairman offered Largo a heavy cruiser for the pursuit of the Liberator.

The President's personal security force

Since the Moon Disc plantations on Zonda were guarded by the President's personal security force, the Federation and Terra Nostra were acting in tandem, allowing the Federation to control both sides of the law. It is not impossible, but unlikely, that the Chairman of the Terra Nostra was also President of the Federation. It was never made clear whether the Terra Nostra was a clandestine wing of the Federation, or a bona fide criminal organisation co-opted by the Federation.

TESTING STATION

Vila claimed he bought his "Grade-4 Ignorant status" from "a friend at the testing station".

THAARN

Cally recited the legend of the Thaarn, the oldest story in the Book of Auron, thus:

The story goes back to the mists of time, to the Dawn of the Gods. There were seven gods who discovered the planet Auron, and on it left the first man and woman. A million years went by. The gods returned. They were no older, even though a million years had passed. The gods returned and were pleased with what they saw, and they bestowed on the people of Auron great gifts - new types of crops which ended hunger, constant peace, and telepathy was promised. But one of the gods was very jealous - he didn't believe that the people of Auron deserved all this. He was frightened that they would one day become so powerful they would challenge the supremacy of the gods themselves, and in his rage he killed another god. The five remaining gods were so angry they built a chariot for him, and sent him beyond the threshold of space and time. The mad god swore a terrible vengeance. He said that he would return again. He said that he alone would discover the eternal secrets, and become the one great Master of the Universe.

As encountered by the crew of the Liberator, the Thaarn was still pursuing his plans of conquest, having developed a gravity generator on the principle that "he who controls gravity controls everything". At least some of the people he had captured with this device had been promised planets of their own to govern, and he offered to make Cally "queen of a thousand worlds". His operations were based on Crandor, described by his chief executive the Caliph as "palace of the Lord Thaarn, Master of the Universe".

He took especial interest in Cally, detecting her presence soon after Liberator was pulled off course by the gravity generator. He told her he was "so alone" and claimed to have waited for her for "the time it takes light to cross a thousand galaxies". She persuaded him to turn off the energy isolaters, allowing Liberator to escape, and Crandor was destroyed soon afterwards. The Thaarn managed to get away. Cally saw the Thaarn, despite his insistence that she shouldn't, and found a withered diminutive humanoid with an enormous cranium. She later denied to the crew that she had in fact seen him.

THANIA

Federation officer with the rank of Major, and together with Arlen and Servalan, one of the very few female officers seen in the series. Assigned by Servalan to "defend" Travis at his court-martial, she in fact did her best to ensure he received a death sentence. She insisted that the tribunal hear details of every one of the 1,417 civilians Travis was accused of having massacred, claiming that she might wish to query some of the evidence. Rontane saw this for what it was: a means of prejudicing the tribunal against Travis. Travis replaced her defence statement with one of his own, which lost her favour with Servalan. As Travis told her, "Majors can die quite anonymously". She probably perished as a result of Blake's surprise attack on the space station where the court-martial was conducted.

THEORY OF MOLECULAR REDUCTION

THERAPY CHAMBER

A medical facility, and apparently quite efficient since it healed Pinder's broken arm within a matter of hours.

THERMAL SUITS

The crew wore thermal suits in several episodes, notably Project Avalon (Blake, Vila, Jenna), Hostage (Blake, Vila and Avon) and Countdown (Avon and Del Grant). Those in the latter two episodes were of a different design to those in the first, but all incorporated a temperature adjustment mechanism.

In Hostage

In Countdown

In Project Avalon this was set at 75% with a surface temperature of -120° (Celsius?), although Blake and Jenna teleported into caves below the surface where it may have been warmer.

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