| Aide to Governor LeGrand, to whom he expressed a very deep sense of loyalty. He first appeared on Asteroid P-K118, in the company of Ven Glynd, and was the first person Blake saw there. He was killed by Travis aboard Liberator, literally stabbed in the back. | |
Over two hundred characters were named during the course of the series, and various others mentioned by name. In many cases only one name was given, with no indication of it being a forename or surname. When characters were given a binomial it appeared to follow the conventional Western format of forename followed by surname. Hence Dayna Mellanby was the daughter of Hal Mellanby, Anna Grant the sister of Del Grant, etc.
Many characters were given names in common use today: familiar surnames that appeared include Bellfriar, Blake, Carnell, Farren, Finn, Foster, Grant, Harmon, Keller, Kennedy, Klegg, Leitz, Lye, Maryatt, Mellanby, Muller, Napier, Painter, Parton, Pasco, Perkins, Pinder, Reeve, Richie, Tarrant, Teague, Travis, and Wallace (I found all of these in my local telephone directory). Various forenames were also familiar, or only marginally changed from their current day form: Anna, Don, Hanna, Jenna, Karl, Kate, Kerr, Lauren, Nina, Payter, Roj, and Sara.
Of the other names used by Federation citizens, it can be noted that Renor seemed to act both as a forename (as in Renor Leesal) and as a surname (Dr. Renor). It is also interesting to compare Tel Varon with Kasabi's daughter Veron (implicitly, Veron Kasabi). The only forename to be applied to more than one character was Del (Grant and Tarrant), though Ven (Jarvik/Glynd) might be another. Other forenames mentioned include:
Male - Bran (Foster), Dal (Richie), Deeta (Tarrant), Dev (Tarrant), Hal (Mellanby), Hamer (Painter), Olag (Gan), Payter (Fen), Tel (Varon), Ven (Jarvik) and Vila (Restal).
Female - Alta (Morag), Dayna (Mellanby), Maja (Varon, assuming she was Tel's wife), Tyce (implicitly, Tyce Sarkoff), and Vena (implicitly, Vena Muller).
Anna Grant claimed to have been married when she knew Avon, in which case she had either married someone else called Grant, or retained her maiden name and this may or may not have been common practice.
Some characters apparently had only one name. Councillor Chesku was addressed as Chesku by his wife, who was herself known only as Sula (though it may have been common practice for a woman to address her husband only by his surname - real world precedents have existed for this in the past). Cally was referred to simply as Cally, and all other Auronar mentioned appeared to have only one name. These were ambiguous, except for Franton which sounds like a surname and was applied to both the cloning pioneer and his daughter. No indication of any other name was given for Soolin or, indeed, Servalan. That Avon's forename was Kerr was only mentioned by Zen, Vila, Del Grant, Section Leader Klegg and Shrinker: both his brother (seen as a projection in Space Fall) and Anna Grant, his former lover, addressed him simply as Avon. Blake was addressed as Roj by Ravella and Foster in The Way Back and by Ushton and Inga in Hostage. Tarrant was only called Del by his dying brother. It may have been the convention to address persons in certain strata of society only by their surnames.
Examples of nicknames were very rare: Petie, apparently a relative of Bek and Hanna, may have been one such. Shrinker was obviously not the notorious interrogator's real name. Bayban mentioned that his mother had called him "Bayb", suggesting that Bayban was either his forename or only name.
The above is not, of course, exhaustive, and there is much regarding the subject of names that can be left to subjective speculation.
Assistant to Dr Plaxton, working with her in the space rats" hideout on Caspar. Apparently left behind on Caspar to face an unknown fate.
| Pronounced "nateen", he was a Pyroan of Obsidian. Together with Milus, he rendezvous with Servalan and Mori where Milus handed Servalan a message, presumably from Bershar. Both Natin and Milus were then shot dead by Mori on Servalan's order. |  |
Slave bidder, placing bids via Tok on Domo. S/he bid up to 1000 vems for Avon, but later withdrew under protest.
An essential part of Liberator's computer systems, and doubtless on other ships as well. Most references gave little information apart from the fact that they existed, but in Voice from the Past it was stated that the telepathic signal used to control Blake was beamed into the circuitry of the Liberator's navigation computers, though this claim may have been obfuscation on Ven Glynd's part.
Jenna told Blake, in the transit cell on Earth, that she had been "trading round the Near Worlds", presumably meaning the worlds near Earth. It was later revealed (in Shadow) that she had been asked to handle a cargo of shadow whilst on Callisto, a moon of Jupiter.
| A slave on Domo, up for auction for his second and final time. He shared a cell with Avon, and retrieved his teleport bracelet from Benos. In return, Avon allowed Nebrox to return with him to Scorpio, and he later joined Avon, Tarrant and Soolin on Cancer's ship. His mention of mangon to Piri forced her to kill him as a security precaution. |  |
Mentioned by Jenna to Avon during the ship handling trial at the start of the episode. Avon pressed a button in response, presumably either activating or deactivating them.
Avon's assessment of the sudden high speed developed by Liberator when Jenna experimented with the controls. Blake took this to mean that the ship had crossed the antimatter interface.
See also ANTIMATTER
Mentioned by Avon as theoretically existing on the other side of a black hole and made of antimatter.
The entrance to the pylene-50 production plant on Helotrix was booby-trapped with nerve gas diffusers, or so Tarrant and Dayna surmised.
An integral part of Travis" artificial arm, without which it was useless. They were disconnected by Jarriere in Freedom City, and Travis needed Docholli to reconnect them.
Carried by the Caliph of Crandor. Those subjected to it could be reduced to a gibbering idiot, forced to tell the truth, or killed outright in seconds. It could detect any attempt to lie. The Caliph used the whip twice on Tarrant and once on Dayna, and killed Groff with it moments before Crandor destroyed itself. Tarrant, threatened with the whip, answered the Caliph in such a way as to convince him that Orac was a bald dwarf.
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Professor Kayn was a neurosurgeon, and enlisted by Blake to repair the fault
in Gan's limiter. Neurosurgery in this context may be very closely allied to
cybersurgery, as practised by Docholli.
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Another reference to a neutron blaster in Dawn of the Gods applies to a totally different weapon, a mounted ground weapon carried outside the ship and deployed for use against the Thaarn's slave retrieval vehicle. A device on the vehicle neutralised the weapon before Vila could fire it. It might be this type of weapon that Avon was thinking of when he asked Gunn-Sar for a neutron blaster in Power.
A device used for the fine adjustment of molecular structures. One was brought from Betafarl to Xenon to turn the sap of a plant growing wild on Betafarl into the antitoxin for pylene-50. Zukan planted the release canister for the radioactive airborne virus in the neutron bombarder, and Zeeona later removed the virus from Xenon Base by turning the bombarder into a neutralising filter before she died.
Zen stated that young Ensor's Space Master craft was fitted with four neutron power units, "maximum thrust four by six". Durkim mentioned the Nova Queen's neutron drive going critical as it landed on Keldon City. Neutron drives thus appear to be a common ship fitting.
The Space Commander leading the attack on the Liberator in Hostage surmised that 12 hits on the ship must have caused "a heavy drain in the neutron energy banks", but this might have been mere assumption on his part regarding the nature of Liberator's power source.
See also HOFEL'S RADIATION.
Igin was killed by a neutron strike on Helotrix, and reference to "launchers 3 and 17, 50 metre bracket pattern" indicate a form of missile.
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Described as an "energy refractor" and taken to Destiny in the care of Dr
Kendall. The neutrotope was to be placed in orbit around the planet where it
could add new wavelengths to the sun's emissions, thus destroying the
fast-growing fungus sweeping across the planet. Kendall showed Blake the
neutrotope and later entrusted it to his care, but in between it was stolen
by Sara. It was recovered in due course and taken aboard the
Liberator to complete its journey to Destiny, presumably arriving
intact.
|  The neutrotope |
 The box carrying the neutrotope |
The neutrotope consisted of three cylinders about 30cm long, a small device
for such a grandiose purpose, and so might have been a vital component of
something larger. The neutrotope was probably similiar to the plutonium and uranium used in modern nuclear warheads. That would explain why it was so rare and expensive. Its source was not specified, nor its price, but was highly valued: Kendall said that buying it had bankrupted his people's economy and mortgaged their future. It was not the only neutrotope known to exist, but there were very few others. Kendall called them "the most valuable objects in the galaxy", with plenty of ready buyers. |
Blake told Gan, on arriving at the rendezvous point on Earth, that all churches were destroyed by the Federation at the beginning of the New Calendar. No specific time period was given. Fan lore places the series in the third century of the New Calendar.
See FEDERATION.
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In Star One, the battle cruiser Newton reported its position as
one hour and seven minutes from the Andromedan fleet. It seems reasonable to
assume that this ship was named after Sir Isaac. Newton's laws of motions
were cited in a discussion between Avon and Tarrant in Dawn of the
Gods. The scientist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642 and died in 1727. |  |
The wife of Gunn-Sar on Xenon. Formerly a Seska, described by Pella as "a great Seska", seen on Xenon base's chronicle discs by Dayna and Tarrant relating the events of Maravik's last attack twenty years previously and presumably operated on by one of her predecessors, since at the time of Avon's arrival she was performing the necessary surgery on captured Seska herself. She removed the dynamon crystal and collar from Luxia, last of the Seska to be operated on in this way. She also let Kate escape from the Hommik stronghold. She told Gunn-Sar she remembered Pella being born. Despite his treatment of her, she mourned his death, and vowed to lead the Hommiks far away to a new home.
Forbus had fitted the pylene-50 production plant on Helotrix with 700 kilograms of "triglyceryl nitrate", which Dayna described as "a bit outdated". Nitroglycerin, it transpired, was all he could make with his limited resources. Detonation was from a hand-held trigger, but Sleer killed him before he could press it.
Inhabitant of Keezarn, and apparently the only figure of authority there. It was Norl who enticed Bayban into trying to open the vault door with the cryptic message that the vault contained "this world and the next". He later persuaded Bayban to secure Vila's services, although negotiation with Tarrant was apparently handled through Norl. He later described Vila as "a clever man, and brave", and granted Vila and Kerril permission to join his people on their new home. He was last seen stepping through the vault door with Kerril.
Norl was fluent in Terran, strange since the computer on the Keezarn ship apparently had to translate the recorded message into Terran for Vila and Kerril's benefit. The voice on this recording was identical to Norl's.
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A slave of the Altas on Space World, who was rescued by Blake when he
collapsed at work. Norm-1 was later involved in the announced revolt of
slave group 7, and hid Blake in a forgotten service shaft. He killed or
destroyed Alta-2, but was later shot in the back aiding Blake's crew in their
escape.
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| A prisoner on the London, convicted of unspecified crimes. He was eager to help Blake in taking over the ship, but was suffocated by sealing gel after the ship was holed as he worked his way through the service tunnels. |  |
| A passenger liner, destroyed by collision with an unmanned ore carrier when computer flight co-ordination from Star One was sabotaged. The crew and 4,000 passengers were killed instantly, and more casualties followed when the ship's neutron drive unit came down on Keldon City. The incident was reported to Servalan by Durkim. |  |
| "Brother" of Geela, and like her genetically engineered by the Lost. He "died" when the Decimas invaded the complex on UP-The Web. See GEELA. |  |
Explosive device: Dorian had one fixed to the door to Scorpio's silo which would go off if he failed to speak a specified codeword every 48 hours. Vila described the explosion of a nuclear compression charge thus: "everything gets sucked in, it's like a mini black hole. Looks good - from a distance." Orac asked to be taken to a spot at least 742 metres away from the blast point, giving some idea of the area affected by a nuclear compression charge.
Described by Dayna as a radiation flare, a nucleic burster was used by the Hommiks in their final battle against the Seska twenty years before the crew came to Xenon. As Dayna said: "Very dirty. Last thing you'd want in a procreation chamber".
The process by which the Core of Ultraworld used living beings fed into it to expand. Few details were given, save that the Ultra described the process as "extremely complicated". Avon surmised it was "something to do with cellular regeneration", which is hardly helpful.
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In Gambit, a male visitor to the Big Wheel in Freedom City was dressed as
a nun, with traditional habit and crucifix. While the wearing of the
costume was probably not a declaration of religious allegiance by its
wearer, it was one of the few explicit references to Christianity, and the
only reference to the Christian cross, in the series. See CHRISTIANITY. |  |