B4: HORIZON

RADIO TIMES: Fleeing from pursuit ship patrols. Blake takes the Liberator far out towards the edge of the galaxy. But even here he is not free of the Federation. On a planet code-named ' Horizon' he is finally captured... 

FACT FILE

• Horizon was commissioned from award-winning novelist and television scripwriter Allan Prior in early 1978. 

• Horizon was originally intended to be episode 8 in Series B but was moved forward to 4 to replace Pip & Jane Baker’s abandoned script Death Squad.

• Horizon originally didn’t include Gan who would already have died if the episode had retained its place later in the season.

• The surface scenes on Horizon were filmed at Clearwell, Gloucestershire, from 10th-12th August, 1978.

• The freighter followed by the Liberator was stock footage of the London from Series A, as were the Federation fighters.

• Deleted scenes included Vila begging for soma before teleporting down to Horizon and a long speech by the Kommissar to Ro.

• The main guest actor in Horizon was William Squire who had appeared as a regular in the spy series Callan. 

• Squire was also the voice of Gandalf in the animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1978) and was the Shadow in The Armageddon Factor (Doctor Who, 1979).