In 'Countdown', Avon takes off his teleport bracelet about 90 seconds before the solium bomb is due to go off and destroy all life on the planet. Blake, who had previously decided to leave at this point, stays, and insists that Vila stay with him. Fans disagree as to Blake's motives for doing this. Was it a grandstanding gesture designed to impress the Albions? Was it concern for Avon and a desire to share his fate? Or was it something else? Here is Sondra's personal explanation of why Blake chose to stay. - Judith
It's often said that Blake wasn't doing Avon any good by staying and making Vila stay. I disagree. By staying Blake ensured that the teleport would not be in use (transporting Vila and/or himself back to the ship) when Avon needed it. Since that "need" could have become very urgent indeed and it takes time to reconfigure the teleport coordinates, Blake's decision was actually a highly pragmatic one. An argument has been made that the teleport coordinates don't need to be reconfigured for pick-up, only for put-down. While there are episodes which seem to support that contention, it was never explicitly stated on the show, and inconsistences of that sort are abundant in B7. Within the context of the episode COUNTDOWN itself, it seems clear that Blake stayed in order to give Avon and Grant first call on the teleport -- whether that involved time for resetting coordinates or simply the delay involved in making two sequential pick-ups.
As for the risk to his own life and Vila's: Not negligible, but not as great as everyone seems to be assuming either. Only Avon and Grant would have died at the instant of detonation. The risk to the rest of the population was from lethal radiation which we were told would take several hours to overspread the planet. Since Blake and Vila were 4000 miles away from the bomb, they'd have had every chance of teleporting out safely long before the radiation reached them.
Sondra
Last changed on 15th of March 1998