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Liberator (Blake's 7)
Encyclopedia
The spaceship Liberator is a fiction
al starship
featured in the first three seasons of the BBC
television series Blake's 7
.
encountered was DSV1.
The ship was controlled by an advanced AI
computer
calling itself Zen
, although it is not clear whether this was the computer's official name under The System, or whether Zen later chose this name for itself. During the episode "Redemption" the System's controllers, (referred to as "Altas"), had boarded the ship and also referred to the computer as Zen.
DSV2 first appeared in the series after it was involved in a space battle, (of which no further details were ever given), and apparently abandoned by its crew as a result of severe battle damage. It was demonstrated later in the series that temporary abandonment of the ship may be necessary until the auto-repair systems can restore life support after serious damage. DSV2 was encountered by the Federation
prison ship London. The captain of the London decided to try to salvage the ship, but the first few crew members sent in were killed or disabled by DSV2's automated defence systems. At the suggestion of his second-in-command, the Londons captain then ordered the prisoners Roj Blake, Kerr Avon
, and Jenna Stannis
to enter the ship. These three succeeded in taking control of the ship and making good their escape.
The name Liberator was then applied to the ship by Zen based on a telepathic
suggestion by Jenna. Blake proceeded to use Liberators superior technical abilities in his bid to attack and defeat the Federation until he disappeared during the battle of Star One. Avon then took over command of the Liberator and continued to harass the Federation until Liberator was destroyed after passing through a cloud of corrosive
micro-organisms in the third season final episode "Terminal".
If need be, Zen could be overridden on certain functions, however because the Liberator was such a complex ship, without Zen's precise balance, the ship could easily go out of control. Orac had the ability to take over computers with processors called "Tarriel cells" and was able to take control of Zen suggesting Zen used similar devices. Orac was also essential in deleting the System's "root access" to Zen and the Liberator's computers which had been used to retake the Liberator for a short time. Throughout its life, Zen never made reference to itself in the first person until it was failing under the corrosion onslaught in "Terminal" in which its last words were "I have failed you. I am sorry. I ..."
blaster cannons with one cannon mounted at the end of each of the three nacelles (turrets or pylons). The weapons were so powerful that a radiation
flare shield had to be raised before activation to protect the crew and most targets were vaporized with a single hit. The ship could also fire plasma
bolts and a salvo of "seeker" missiles which could decimate planet-side ground targets. Liberator's hull was covered with a material called "herculanium" which was impervious to almost all but the heaviest weapon fire. Liberator could easily withstand the assault of several warships before taking serious damage. Herculanium was explained as an alloy, but also referenced as an element.
Using technology on board the Liberator, Avon developed a practical "detector shield"
for the ship by the episode "Trial". The shield made Liberator effectively invisible to any sensors save for a close range visual scan, allowing Blake to make a daring attack on the Federation's military headquarters space station causing extensive damage before the defending ships could respond.
By the time of episode "Hostage", The Federation had apparently copied Avon's idea, (at least a limited form), using it to launch a massive attack on the Liberator with upwards of twenty pursuit ships. Liberator was pounded with at least ten plasma bolts in rapid succession, but her superior speed let her break out of their attack pattern and retreat, albeit with severe damage to her defences. The Liberator was also equipped with a defensive "force wall" capability, but its usage resulted in a heavy drain on the energy banks (as did the extensive use of the neutron blasters).
system (similar to a transporter
in the Star Trek
series), a technology which the Federation was trying to develop on their own without success. Blake indicated that the device sends matter along energy signals similar to radio waves. Little was known about the technology itself.
The teleport system was located in a small room and consisted of a slightly elevated platform and a large control console for setting teleport coordinates and activating the system. The teleport created a shimmering effect on the subject which quickly faded away. Arrival off-ship produced a white glowing field visible only at its periphery that converged into an outline of the subject inside of which the subject materialized before the field would fade away. The process is reversed when teleported to the ship: a field surrounds the subject, the subject fades, the field suddenly expands, and the subject shimmers back into the teleport bay.
Teleported personnel had to wear a bracelet device to leave and return to the ship. The bracelets also served as communicators and contained a material called Aquitar (or "something similar" as indicated by Blake), which was believed to be necessary for the teleport to function.
Although Servalan had captured some of these bracelets, the teleport required the machinery aboard the Liberator to function. Likewise, unworn bracelets will not teleport without being attached to someone. There were at least twenty bracelets on the Liberator, and eleven of them were lost, destroyed or damaged throughout the series. However, the Liberator was evidently capable of creating more as a full bank of 28 bracelets as shown in "Redemption". The teleport signal could be blocked by energy screens and electronic jamming equipment. Usually the signal simply had to be adjusted outside the frequencies of such devices in order to get through.
Although the Liberator had a hangar bay, she carried no shuttle craft and gave no outward appearance of an ability to land, suggesting the teleport as a necessary piece of equipment. However, in the episode "Moloch", Zen declared, "Forward navigation probes report approach speed inconsistent with safe planetfall," as the ship nearly collided with the cloaked meteoroid Sardos, suggesting that safe "planetfall" was possible given the proper conditions.
The closest evidence of the ship ever "landing" was "Dawn of the Gods" in which it was gravitationally held on an artificial floor by the being called Tharn who sought to drain the ship of herculanium alloy for his gravity generator. The Liberator was properly docked when recovered by the System within a hangar in "Redemption", where approach and departure were depicted with an aircraft runway at night on the main screen. The third closest landing was in "Ultraworld" where the ship was conveyed into a hangar and restrained by huge metal bars interlocking between the nacelles and the main hull. The Liberators power and structural integrity was sufficient to break out of this restraint and escape.
There is no evidence that the Liberator ever successfully landed or took off from a planetary surface.
The ship could repair itself when damaged. During such critical repair times, Zen would prioritize the survival of the Liberator over the well-being of the crew, going so far as to deactivate life support in order to reroute power to repair devices. The auto-repair systems themselves would even attack anyone trying to keep them from their work.
Liberator's main drive consisted of a dimensional engine with ultralight speed capability; speeds were always stated in the form "standard by...", followed by the relevant number to multiply the "standard" Liberator speed by. It was never specified in the series what the "standard" speed was. In "Space Fall" when the new crew tell Zen they want a course for Cygnus Alpha, and Zen asks for the speed, Blake's answer is half a question. "Standard?"
The Federation used a "time distort" scale, but this term was never a term used by Zen or the Liberator's crew. Cally believed the ship could easily achieve a speed of "standard by 12" and was considered one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. In the episode "Harvest of Kairos", the Liberator scanned a ship resembling a lunar module and, sensing a slightly more advanced ship due to Avon's artificial sopron, declared it to be capable of "Standard by twelve point two zero three", suggesting Liberator's capacity to be slightly below that. In the episode "Hostage", Liberator engaged with a fleet of Federation ships was observed accelerating away at a speed of TD-20. The fastest known Federation pursuit ships of the Starburst class had a known maximum (emergency) speed of TD-10 and the Liberator could easily outrun them. Standard by 6 became the Liberator's standard cruising speed in deep space. Speeds of less than TD-0 were considered sub-light speeds.
It appears that the Time Distort scale was exponential so that 'Standard by 12' equalling TD-20 would have been far in excess of double TD-10.
Liberator could function as a self-contained habitat and carried enough food supplies to last one "human" a thousand years, as Avon learned when he was contemplating stealing the ship for himself and going into hiding. The ship also recycled waste with 100% efficiency.
Liberator had at least five cargo holds plus a vast "strongroom" vault containing riches estimated (by Avon) to equal 300 million Federation Credits. Other areas contained a landing bay and hangar, an advanced surgical bay with resuscitation capsules, and a vast wardrobe filled with human-tailored outfits. The ship was also equipped with numerous emergency "life rockets" (aka escape pods); however, many of them had been launched by its previous crew prior to Blake's team taking possession of the ship. The number and positioning of these pods suggests that many had been replaced by the auto-repair system.
Although the crew of six people with help of Zen were able to operate the ship, the full stock of 28 teleport bracelets and the available number of handguns along with the sheer size of the ship suggests the Liberator was intended to carry a much larger crew, but the total capacity remains unknown.
, who also designed the interior. Ian Scoones, the special effects supervisor, contracted the building of the models to Space Models in Feltham
, Middlesex
. Martin Bower
then added detail once these were complete. Two models were built: one 3 feet long and one just 20 inches (for long shots).
It has been claimed that Murray-Leach based the general shape of the Liberators main hull on that of a cordless microphone
, adding the three nacelle
s to disguise its shape. This may have contributed to the common but apparently unfounded rumour in Blake's 7 fandom
that the Liberator was originally intended to face the other way, flying with its "engine" section (the business end of the original microphone) facing forward. Another story is that the domes were shaped to be reminiscent of a Persian mosque when the spacecraft was stood on end, thus enhancing its exotic appearance to western audiences.
The green globe that served as the engine in the original production drawing was egg-shaped but was redesigned as a sphere because the power of the internal light that was used to make the engine pulsate would melt the globe if production staff left it on too long (which they often did), and a sphere was faster to reproduce than the egg shape.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
featured in the first three seasons of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
.
Background
The Liberator was an abandoned spacecraft found drifting near Cygnus Alpha, it was equipped with powerful weapons, force field protection, and a system of "battle computers". The ship was originally built by a race of beings known as "The System". The System referred to the ship as DSV2 ("Deep Space Vehicle 2"), a designation that suggests it was specifically designed for long-range forays outside the territory controlled by The System, and confirming more than one such ship had ever been made. It had at least one sister ship, which was destroyed by Orac in the episode "Redemption". It was never clarified if the sister ship that Roj BlakeRoj Blake
Roj Blake is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Gareth Thomas ....
encountered was DSV1.
The ship was controlled by an advanced AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
calling itself Zen
Zen (Blake's 7)
Zen is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7. The voice of Zen was provided by the late Peter Tuddenham...
, although it is not clear whether this was the computer's official name under The System, or whether Zen later chose this name for itself. During the episode "Redemption" the System's controllers, (referred to as "Altas"), had boarded the ship and also referred to the computer as Zen.
DSV2 first appeared in the series after it was involved in a space battle, (of which no further details were ever given), and apparently abandoned by its crew as a result of severe battle damage. It was demonstrated later in the series that temporary abandonment of the ship may be necessary until the auto-repair systems can restore life support after serious damage. DSV2 was encountered by the Federation
Terran Federation (Blake's 7)
The Terran Federation, sometimes simply called The Federation, is the primary stellar government featured in the British Blake's 7 science-fiction television series of the late 1970s...
prison ship London. The captain of the London decided to try to salvage the ship, but the first few crew members sent in were killed or disabled by DSV2's automated defence systems. At the suggestion of his second-in-command, the Londons captain then ordered the prisoners Roj Blake, Kerr Avon
Kerr Avon
Kerr Avon is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Paul Darrow...
, and Jenna Stannis
Jenna Stannis
Jenna Stannis is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Sally Knyvette. The role of Jenna Stannis has recently been revived in the Blake's 7 audio plays where she is played by Carrie Dobro....
to enter the ship. These three succeeded in taking control of the ship and making good their escape.
The name Liberator was then applied to the ship by Zen based on a telepathic
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
suggestion by Jenna. Blake proceeded to use Liberators superior technical abilities in his bid to attack and defeat the Federation until he disappeared during the battle of Star One. Avon then took over command of the Liberator and continued to harass the Federation until Liberator was destroyed after passing through a cloud of corrosive
Corrosion
Corrosion is the disintegration of an engineered material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen...
micro-organisms in the third season final episode "Terminal".
Control systems
Liberator was controlled, by and large, by the computer system called "Zen". This computer had master control over all of the ship's functions and acted as a coordinating central point for the crew on board. Zen typically relayed ship status and information from the detector arrays and contained a vast archive of navigational data. Zen was normally voice activated, but it could also gather information via telepathy, although it only used this latter ability after it had read Jenna's mind (when she touched a control console for the first time, as part of its internal defence system). Zen however, could be less than helpful at times and usually gave the "silent treatment" if it disagreed with the crew's commands or attitudes.If need be, Zen could be overridden on certain functions, however because the Liberator was such a complex ship, without Zen's precise balance, the ship could easily go out of control. Orac had the ability to take over computers with processors called "Tarriel cells" and was able to take control of Zen suggesting Zen used similar devices. Orac was also essential in deleting the System's "root access" to Zen and the Liberator's computers which had been used to retake the Liberator for a short time. Throughout its life, Zen never made reference to itself in the first person until it was failing under the corrosion onslaught in "Terminal" in which its last words were "I have failed you. I am sorry. I ..."
Offensive and defensive systems
Liberator was armed with three powerful neutronNeutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
blaster cannons with one cannon mounted at the end of each of the three nacelles (turrets or pylons). The weapons were so powerful that a radiation
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
flare shield had to be raised before activation to protect the crew and most targets were vaporized with a single hit. The ship could also fire plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
bolts and a salvo of "seeker" missiles which could decimate planet-side ground targets. Liberator's hull was covered with a material called "herculanium" which was impervious to almost all but the heaviest weapon fire. Liberator could easily withstand the assault of several warships before taking serious damage. Herculanium was explained as an alloy, but also referenced as an element.
Using technology on board the Liberator, Avon developed a practical "detector shield"
Cloak of invisibility
A cloak of invisibility is a theme that has occurred in fiction, and is a device which is under some scientific inquiry.-Cloaks of invisibility in fiction:...
for the ship by the episode "Trial". The shield made Liberator effectively invisible to any sensors save for a close range visual scan, allowing Blake to make a daring attack on the Federation's military headquarters space station causing extensive damage before the defending ships could respond.
By the time of episode "Hostage", The Federation had apparently copied Avon's idea, (at least a limited form), using it to launch a massive attack on the Liberator with upwards of twenty pursuit ships. Liberator was pounded with at least ten plasma bolts in rapid succession, but her superior speed let her break out of their attack pattern and retreat, albeit with severe damage to her defences. The Liberator was also equipped with a defensive "force wall" capability, but its usage resulted in a heavy drain on the energy banks (as did the extensive use of the neutron blasters).
Security system
Liberator was protected by a telepathic security system which was the first device encountered by Blake, Jenna and Avon before they could take control of the ship. Seen used on the flight deck, the system projected a mental image of someone the target trusted, or loved. In Blake's case, he saw members of his murdered family and friends. In creating the images, the system attempted to lure the target closer to a deadly sphere of energy. Blake remembered that his family was executed and didn't believe what he was seeing. As a result, he blasted the images with his weapon which disabled the security system. Prior to this, the system managed to kill almost all the London crew sent aboard to seize the ship.Teleport
The ship was also equipped with a valuable matter teleportationTeleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
system (similar to a transporter
Transporter (Star Trek)
A transporter is a fictional teleportation machine used in the Star Trek universe. Transporters convert a person or object into an energy pattern , then "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter...
in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
series), a technology which the Federation was trying to develop on their own without success. Blake indicated that the device sends matter along energy signals similar to radio waves. Little was known about the technology itself.
The teleport system was located in a small room and consisted of a slightly elevated platform and a large control console for setting teleport coordinates and activating the system. The teleport created a shimmering effect on the subject which quickly faded away. Arrival off-ship produced a white glowing field visible only at its periphery that converged into an outline of the subject inside of which the subject materialized before the field would fade away. The process is reversed when teleported to the ship: a field surrounds the subject, the subject fades, the field suddenly expands, and the subject shimmers back into the teleport bay.
Teleported personnel had to wear a bracelet device to leave and return to the ship. The bracelets also served as communicators and contained a material called Aquitar (or "something similar" as indicated by Blake), which was believed to be necessary for the teleport to function.
Although Servalan had captured some of these bracelets, the teleport required the machinery aboard the Liberator to function. Likewise, unworn bracelets will not teleport without being attached to someone. There were at least twenty bracelets on the Liberator, and eleven of them were lost, destroyed or damaged throughout the series. However, the Liberator was evidently capable of creating more as a full bank of 28 bracelets as shown in "Redemption". The teleport signal could be blocked by energy screens and electronic jamming equipment. Usually the signal simply had to be adjusted outside the frequencies of such devices in order to get through.
Although the Liberator had a hangar bay, she carried no shuttle craft and gave no outward appearance of an ability to land, suggesting the teleport as a necessary piece of equipment. However, in the episode "Moloch", Zen declared, "Forward navigation probes report approach speed inconsistent with safe planetfall," as the ship nearly collided with the cloaked meteoroid Sardos, suggesting that safe "planetfall" was possible given the proper conditions.
The closest evidence of the ship ever "landing" was "Dawn of the Gods" in which it was gravitationally held on an artificial floor by the being called Tharn who sought to drain the ship of herculanium alloy for his gravity generator. The Liberator was properly docked when recovered by the System within a hangar in "Redemption", where approach and departure were depicted with an aircraft runway at night on the main screen. The third closest landing was in "Ultraworld" where the ship was conveyed into a hangar and restrained by huge metal bars interlocking between the nacelles and the main hull. The Liberators power and structural integrity was sufficient to break out of this restraint and escape.
There is no evidence that the Liberator ever successfully landed or took off from a planetary surface.
Power and drive systems
Liberator has a continuously recharging antimatter power supply that supposedly would last forever without the need of fuel. However, if the ship operated with every system activated it would drain the power supply down within two hours causing shut down until sufficient power was recharged.The ship could repair itself when damaged. During such critical repair times, Zen would prioritize the survival of the Liberator over the well-being of the crew, going so far as to deactivate life support in order to reroute power to repair devices. The auto-repair systems themselves would even attack anyone trying to keep them from their work.
Liberator's main drive consisted of a dimensional engine with ultralight speed capability; speeds were always stated in the form "standard by...", followed by the relevant number to multiply the "standard" Liberator speed by. It was never specified in the series what the "standard" speed was. In "Space Fall" when the new crew tell Zen they want a course for Cygnus Alpha, and Zen asks for the speed, Blake's answer is half a question. "Standard?"
The Federation used a "time distort" scale, but this term was never a term used by Zen or the Liberator's crew. Cally believed the ship could easily achieve a speed of "standard by 12" and was considered one of the fastest ships in the galaxy. In the episode "Harvest of Kairos", the Liberator scanned a ship resembling a lunar module and, sensing a slightly more advanced ship due to Avon's artificial sopron, declared it to be capable of "Standard by twelve point two zero three", suggesting Liberator's capacity to be slightly below that. In the episode "Hostage", Liberator engaged with a fleet of Federation ships was observed accelerating away at a speed of TD-20. The fastest known Federation pursuit ships of the Starburst class had a known maximum (emergency) speed of TD-10 and the Liberator could easily outrun them. Standard by 6 became the Liberator's standard cruising speed in deep space. Speeds of less than TD-0 were considered sub-light speeds.
It appears that the Time Distort scale was exponential so that 'Standard by 12' equalling TD-20 would have been far in excess of double TD-10.
Crew equipment and amenities
Personal weapons were also available aboard the ship. A weapons locker on the flight deck contained alien designed laser weapons and recharge equipment. The weapon locker would only allow a character to handle one weapon at a time. If they tried to grab a second while already equipped with one, the handle of the second weapon would become too hot to touch (although once removed from the locker, weapons could be handed to other crew members without this effect occurring). This heat effect also prevented the crew from arming themselves for defense against the ship being seized by The System in "Redemption".Liberator could function as a self-contained habitat and carried enough food supplies to last one "human" a thousand years, as Avon learned when he was contemplating stealing the ship for himself and going into hiding. The ship also recycled waste with 100% efficiency.
Liberator had at least five cargo holds plus a vast "strongroom" vault containing riches estimated (by Avon) to equal 300 million Federation Credits. Other areas contained a landing bay and hangar, an advanced surgical bay with resuscitation capsules, and a vast wardrobe filled with human-tailored outfits. The ship was also equipped with numerous emergency "life rockets" (aka escape pods); however, many of them had been launched by its previous crew prior to Blake's team taking possession of the ship. The number and positioning of these pods suggests that many had been replaced by the auto-repair system.
Although the crew of six people with help of Zen were able to operate the ship, the full stock of 28 teleport bracelets and the available number of handguns along with the sheer size of the ship suggests the Liberator was intended to carry a much larger crew, but the total capacity remains unknown.
Production design
The Liberator was, unusually for the time, not designed by a model or special effects unit but by the set designer Roger Murray-LeachRoger Murray-Leach
Roger Murray-Leach is a British Production Designer, who is probably best known for his work on British television series' Doctor Who and Blake's 7 in the 1970s, although he went on later to work on major feature films....
, who also designed the interior. Ian Scoones, the special effects supervisor, contracted the building of the models to Space Models in Feltham
Feltham
Feltham is a town in the London Borough of Hounslow, west London. It is located about west south west of central London at Charing Cross and from Heathrow Airport Central...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
. Martin Bower
Martin Bower
Martin Bower is a model maker and designer of special effects miniatures for both film and television. His credits include the television series Space: 1999 and the films Alien , Flash Gordon and Outland...
then added detail once these were complete. Two models were built: one 3 feet long and one just 20 inches (for long shots).
It has been claimed that Murray-Leach based the general shape of the Liberators main hull on that of a cordless microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
, adding the three nacelle
Nacelle
The nacelle is a cover housing that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. In some cases—for instance in the typical "Farman" type "pusher" aircraft, or the World War II-era P-38 Lightning—an aircraft's cockpit may also be housed in a nacelle, which essentially fills the...
s to disguise its shape. This may have contributed to the common but apparently unfounded rumour in Blake's 7 fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
that the Liberator was originally intended to face the other way, flying with its "engine" section (the business end of the original microphone) facing forward. Another story is that the domes were shaped to be reminiscent of a Persian mosque when the spacecraft was stood on end, thus enhancing its exotic appearance to western audiences.
The green globe that served as the engine in the original production drawing was egg-shaped but was redesigned as a sphere because the power of the internal light that was used to make the engine pulsate would melt the globe if production staff left it on too long (which they often did), and a sphere was faster to reproduce than the egg shape.
Models
There have been several commercially produced models of the Liberator:- CorgiCorgi Classics LimitedCorgi Classics Limited is a die-cast model manufacturer which has its origins in the Corgi Toys brand introduced by Mettoy in 1956.-The Corgi Toys era: 1956 to 1995:...
produced three versions (one white, one silver and one blue, though the last was not labelled as Liberator) in 1978. The white version was re-released packaged with a limited edition of the region 2 DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
set of Blake's 7 series three in 2005. - Comet Miniatures produced two versions of a plastic assembly kit (white (1988) and transparent (1999)).
- Titan Find produced an assembly kit in 2005 (14 inches in length) which was made for sale in America and has limited distribution in Europe.