Picture of BlakeThis article researched/written by Alicia Ann Fox.
RAVELLA: Don't you remember anything about the treatments they gave you?
BLAKE: I've had no treatments.
RAVELLA: I thought there'd be something left, some trace of memory.
BLAKE: What about my memory?
BLAKE: All right. Now what do you know about my family?
FOSTER: Well, I'll come to that. There are other things you should know first.
BLAKE: Forget the other things. Just what do you know?
FOSTER: [Tarrant is visible in the background through most of this] They're dead. Your brother and sister are both dead. I'm sorry, I didn't intend you to hear it like that. They were executed four years ago, just after your trial.
BLAKE: Executed? No, that's not true. I hear from them regularly. I had a vistape only a month ago.
FOSTER: Those tapes are fakes. Part of the treatment to keep your memory suppressed. Now, this isn't going to be easy for you, but I'm going to have to tell you things about yourself of which you have no memory. Will you hear me out?
BLAKE: Go on.
FOSTER: Four years ago, there was a good deal of discontent with the Administration. There were many activist groups. But the only one that really meant anything was led by Roj Blake. You and I worked together. We were outlawed and hunted. But we had supporters and we were making progress. Then someone betrayed us, I still don't know who. You were captured. So were most of our followers. They could have killed you. But that would have given the Cause a martyr. So instead they put you into intensive therapy. They erased areas of your mind, they implanted new ideas. They literally took your mind to pieces and rebuilt it. And when they'd finished, they put you up and you confessed. You said you'd been "misguided." You appealed to everyone to support the Administration, hound up the traitors. Oh, they, they did a good job on you. You were very convincing. And then they took you back and erased even that.
BLAKE: What happened to the others?
FOSTER: In their benevolence, the Federation allowed them to emigrate to
the Outer Worlds. Like your family, they were executed on arrival.
BLAKE: I just want to make a statement in open court. I want those responsible for the massacre brought to trial.
VARON: I'm sorry?
BLAKE: There can be no justification for deliberate murder.
VARON: There's nothing in the charges about murder. There are a number of other counts. Assault on a minor, attempting to corrupt minors, moral deviation....
BLAKE: Let me see that! All involving children! None of this is true!
VARON: Of course not. That's why you surprised me when you said you'd plead guilty.
BLAKE: Well, yes, but not to this, not to these charges.
VARON: They are the only ones that have been brought against you. And I must tell you frankly the evidence against you is very damaging.
BLAKE: Well, if there is any evidence, it's been faked!
AVON: Space Commander Travis.
BLAKE: Travis!
JENNA: Do you know him?
BLAKE: I thought he was dead. I was sure I'd killed him.
BLAKE: The group had arranged to meet in a sub-basement. There were aboutthirty of us. I was very particular about security. I had our people watch the entrances and exits for a full twenty-four hours before we were supposed to meet. No Federation forces came anywhere near the place. I was absolutely sure that we were safe. That night we were assembled and about to begin, and Travis and his men suddenly appeared from nowhere.
AVON: Didn't you post any guards?
BLAKE: Of course I did. Travis was already there. He'd been hiding in thatbasement for more than two days. We made no attempt to resist arrest. There was no point, we had no chance. I said to Travis, "We will offer no resistance." And he just stared at me. And then he ordered his men to open fire. Everybody was diving for cover that wasn't there. I, I ran, I found myself grappling with a guard, and I managed to get his gun away from him, and then I was hit in the leg. But as I went down, I saw Travis. And I fired. I saw him fall. I was sure I'd killed him.
JENNA: What happened then?
BLAKE: Oh, they did a memory erase on me, set up a show trial, had meconfess, made me explain that I had been misled, that my political ideas were mistaken. Enough people believed me. The whole resistance movement collapsed. After that the Federation kept me around as a, a reformed character, a sort of ideal model citizen exhibit. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. No, it's only since almost exactly the same thing has happened again that the memory erase has begun to fade and I can remember.
AVON: Do you remember enough to recognize Travis again?BLAKE: The man who killed twenty of my friends? Oh, yes. I'll recognize him.
TRAVIS: I see. [To Clone 2] What's your name?
CLONE 2: Roj Blake. What's yours?
TRAVIS: How old are you?
CLONE 2: Thirty-four.
FEN: When were you born?
CLONE 2: Five hours ago, Master.
JENNA: Who exactly is Inga?
BLAKE: She meant a lot to me once.
AVON: What about Ushton?
BLAKE: He's my father's brother. I thought he was dead. He ought to be
dead; he's been a prisoner on that planet for years.
BLAKE: I visited [Exbar] years ago, spent some time there. It was a penalcolony then. Only grade four offenders, allowed visitors, specialprivileges, that sort of thing.
TRAVIS: You know your cousin Inga, of course. She and her father have beenlooking forward to meeting you again.
INGA: I'm sorry, Roj.
CALLY: Well, the dreams seem to involve some sort of persuasion process.
AVON: Another name for it is indoctrination. It's enough to give anyone nightmares. "Renounce, renounce...."
CALLY: Also something about a "Freedom Party."
JENNA: Well, that's what they called themselves--the group that Blake joined up with.
VILA: And then he did renounce them.
AVON: But not before he had been subjected to the brainwashing that he now seems to be reexperiencing in his dreams.
ORAC: Records show audio frequencies related to this range are commonly used by crimino therapists.
AVON: Of course, as trigger signals for hypnotic states, used to condition convicted offenders for memory revision. And they would hypnotize them with a combination of drugs and one of these trigger signals. After a little while, a few days, they would no longer need the drugs, the signal itself would be sufficient to keep them under.
CALLY: So could Blake be somehow hypnotizing himself? He goes to sleep, he dreams, he hears the tone, and...
AVON: ...and then he awakens under the influence.
ORAC: Conditioned under hypnosis.
BLAKE: No. No.
ORAC: Yes, Blake. Standard hypnotic procedure, audio pulse signals with visual support....
Blake had a brother and a sister, whom the Federation convinced him had settled on Ziegler 5, one of the Outer Worlds, but whom he later learns are dead. He has a paternal uncle, Ushton, and a cousin, Inga. No other family or relationships are mentioned. In "Weapon," his age is given as 34.
He did not know Avalon prior to the series, and it is not stated if he knew Kasabi. He at least knew of the rebel leader Shivan, who was killed in a Federation trap.
In the writer's guide for the series, Blake's occupation was listed at engineer, but this fact is not mentioned in the series. We know he worked on the same Federation Teleport Project that Avon did prior to the series ("Cygnus Alpha"), but not in what capacity.
The quotes give the available details on the Freedom Party and Blake's initial capture and memory erase.
ORAC: Renounce what? Tell us what.
BLAKE: Freedom. Freedom Party.
ORAC: Your party. You formed the Freedom Party.
Orac claims that Blake formed the Freedom Party, whereas Jenna only thoughthe'd joined up with them.
Btw, the bit about Ushton supports the theory that Vila has an olderbrother. For shouldn't Ushton's surname also be Blake?
There's an odd piece from "Bounty" about Blake's education:
SARKOFF: Ah, so you're an historian, are you?
BLAKE: No, but I did study some natural history.
However, Blake does know his history:
GAN: What is this place?
BLAKE: A church.
GAN: A church?
BLAKE: Place of religious assembly.
GAN: Must be ancient.
BLAKE: The Federation had them all destroyed at the beginning of the New Calendar.
BLAKE: Incredible!
JENNA: Well, what is it?
BLAKE: Probably the oldest ship you'll ever see, Wanderer class,
the first Earth ships to reach deep space.
JENNA: So how old?
BLAKE: Six, seven hundred years.
Vickie McManus
Ooh, good point. Perhaps Jenna was going by things Blake had said, andBlake had been modest. Orac was probably going by Federation records.
"For shouldn't Ushton's surname also be Blake?" This is on the theory that the eldest went by the surname? Maybe Blake calls him "Ushton" because he's a family member. Inga calls him "Roj," after all.
L. Breshears (lorna@penguin.st.usm.edu>
"For shouldn't Ushton's surname also be Blake?" Not necessarily. There are such folks as half-brothers and sisters, after all. Blake's father and uncle may have had different fathers, hence different surnames.
Leah (Bizarro7@aol.com)
Remember also the historical anecdote Blake also knew about the Indians being deliberately infected by blankets with the smallpox virus, in the Old West.
Dawn Friedman (dsf@world.std.com)
I found myself wondering whether what Blake knows is history per se, or military history. Both these facts could be picked up in a forbidden history of warfare. I should check whether Blake knows any more cheerful trivia.
Jessica Leenstra (hawkeye@saturn.apana.org.au)
"deliberately infected by blankets with the smallpox virus" Yes, I remember! I did not cite this because, unfortunately, Blake has his history wrong in this instance. There was no "Lord Jeffrey Ashley". The Sevencyclopaedia attributes this to General Jeffrey Amherst. It's out of my period of historical expertise, so I'll take their word for it.
Picture of Blake
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