[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Episode 10

Breakdown

By Terry Nation

Gan's limiter is malfunctioning, he begins attacking crew members, once he is sedated it becomes apparent he will die if the limiter is not fixed and soon.

The crew decide to take him to the neutral space laboratory XK-72, a medical centre in space.

However their course to the lab takes the Liberator through some hazardous areas of space and Zen refuses to fly the ship through them meaning Jenna, the crews only pilot will have to take on the task. She fly's them through a perilous vortex using manual controls to the space station where a warm welcome is by no means assured.

.......................

Finally Gan gets to be the star of an episode rather than just being muscle for hire or standing in the back of scenes. Its just a shame it involves him beating up the rest of the crew then lying down for the remainder of the story.

The opening thirty minutes is a tense Liberator based scenario as the crew air their grievances with one another and show that although they fight together and watch each others backs they aren't all the best of friends.

Julian Glover makes a welcome appearance in the second half of the episode as a mercurial surgeon who turns out to be a partial psychopath and in the end a traitor who deserves his explosive fate.

Following two cracking episodes in Duel and Project Avalon it would have been expected that Breakdown would have been a lesser story but thanks to a tight script and some excellent performances all round it ends up a tense gripping piece of drama.