I may as well post this anyway. :+>





BLAKE'S 7



49. "Gold"

by Colin Davis



(c) 1981 by the British Broadcasting Corporation.  Series created by

Terry Nation.  This is a complete dialogue transcript for research

purposes and is not for sale under any circumstances.  Format (c) 1993

by David Sanderson and Micky DuPree.



Dramatis Personae



Kerr Avon -               Paul Darrow

Vila Restal -             Michael Keating

Servalan -                Jacqueline Pearce

Del Tarrant -             Steven Pacey

Dayna Mellanby -          Josette Simon

Soolin -                  Glynis Barber

Orac -                    Peter Tuddenham

Slave -                   Peter Tuddenham

Keiller -                 Roy Kinnear

Doctor Slaten -           Antony Brown

Woman Passenger -         Dinah May

Pilot (Captain Kennedy) - Norman Hartley



Uncredited:



Zerok Flight Controller





[*?] = unintelligible





[Scorpio docks with another ship.]



[On board Scorpio.]

   DAYNA:  I'd better take a spare mag.

  SOOLIN:  So who is this Keiller?

    AVON:  An acquaintance.

 TARRANT:  He says he's an old friend of yours.

    AVON:  Well, he's wrong.

   DAYNA:  Well, it sounded like he had an interesting proposition

           to put to us.

    AVON:  He may have, or he may not. That's what we are going to find

           out. I need hardly remind you to stay on your guard at all

           times.





   DAYNA:  Personally, I'm more worried about the in-flight link-up.

 TARRANT:  That's no problem so long as Slave can match vectors.

   DAYNA:  Well, he says he can.

 TARRANT:  He says he's sorry most of the time. I don't believe that

           either. [Raising his voice.] Keep awake Vila.

           [Vila rolls his eyes.]





[Avon, Soolin, Dayna, and Tarrant cross over to the other ship.]

 KEILLER:  Welcome, welcome to the Space Princess, everybody.

  SOOLIN:  [Searching Keiller.] He's clean.

 KEILLER:  Of course I'm clean, what do you take me for. Avon and I

           are old friends. It's good to see you, Avon.

   DAYNA:  Uh, nobody said move, Keiller. Just relax.

 TARRANT:  But not, too much.

 KEILLER:  Say, Avon, what is this, Old Friend.  Can't you keep your

           gang under control.

    AVON:  They're not my gang, Keiller. We are together for mutual

           convenience. I imagine that if I double-crossed them, they

           would try and kill me. Just as they will kill you, if you

           let them down.

 KEILLER:  So, ah, shall we go into the office. I'll explain everything.





[They enter the Pursers Office.]

    AVON:  Well?

 KEILLER:  This is the Space Princess. A bit of a played-out old

           pleasure cruiser. This is the Pursers Office of the Space

           Princess, and this [Indicating himself.] is the Purser of the

           Space Princess. Are you with me so far?

 TARRANT:  You're relaxing too much.

 KEILLER:  Look, can't we keep this friendly.

   DAYNA:  No!

 TARRANT:  You're not the pilot then?

 KEILLER:  No, I am not.

 TARRANT:  So, who is?

 KEILLER:  As of now, nobody. The ships empty, she's been for a refit.

           Look at all this, new stuff. She runs home on auto.

  SOOLIN:  Where's home, Keiller?

 KEILLER:  Zerok. A frontier planet. You may not know it. Not very

           modern. I say home. She makes orbit herself and a pilot comes

           up to take her down.

    AVON:  Zerok, the gold planet?

 KEILLER:  Right! [Chuckles.] You've got it, Old Friend. [Chuckles

           again.] So, shall we get to business.

  SOOLIN:  When we know what it is?

 KEILLER:  Smart. It's money. Look [Keiller activates some monitors.]

           ...we don't only carry passengers on this ship. We have a

           small hold, and we carry cargo. Valuable cargo. Now can anyone

           guess what it is?

 TARRANT:  Gold.

 KEILLER:  Right first time. Only it travels incognito. We pretend it's

           fruit. Zerok's a natural source of gold. It's virtually mined

           out everywhere else, so Zerok's rich.

   DAYNA:  Who buys it?

 KEILLER:  The Federation. Lots of places. It's still used as standard

           currency in fringe deals with planets that have no computer

           linkup. All the gold going from Zerok to the Federation goes

           by Space Princess.

  SOOLIN:  I don't believe you.

 KEILLER:  Oh, you should.

  SOOLIN:  This is a pleasure cruiser. It's got no armor.

 KEILLER:  I told you, it's incognito. Listen, every so often they send

           up a highly armed ship with security written all over it,

           bristling with guards. And every so often someone attacks it

           and gets killed. Which is crazy. Because that ship's carrying

           fruit. We carry gold with hardly any guards.

    AVON:  How do you know about this?

 KEILLER:  Me? [Chuckles] Look at all this surveillance. I'm a little

           more than a purser, you see. I'm a security man. A poorly

           paid one.

    AVON:  And you want us to help you get rich by stealing the gold

           from this ship.

 KEILLER:  Right. Fifty-fifty, what do you say?

    AVON:  We will decide the terms. Why pick on us?

 KEILLER:  You have a ship for the getaway. And a reputation for daring.

 TARRANT:  Which you heard about where?

 KEILLER:  Oh, I've known Avon, long time.

           [Avon smiles.]

           We're old friends...

 TARRANT:  That's not what I asked.

 KEILLER:  On the grapevine, my friend. You're getting to be big news.





[Entering the empty hold of the Space Princess.]

    AVON:  Seventeen billion?

 KEILLER:  Seventeen billion. That's what it's worth in direct exchange

           for cash.

  SOOLIN:  That's a lot of cash.

   DAYNA:  [To Avon.] The idea's good, isn't it? Seems good to me.

 TARRANT:  It's all clear. Maybe Vila should be here, to give us his

           professional opinion.

 KEILLER:  Vila?

   DAYNA:  He's one of us. He stayed on Scorpio.

  SOOLIN:  In case of misunderstanding.

 KEILLER:  This Vila, is he, uh...

    AVON:  He's a thief, and a good one. But we don't need Vila to tell

           us the obvious, do we? That no one, but no one allows a

           fortune like that to travel in an unarmed crate with just two

           plainclothes guards. So. What's the snag, Keiller!?

 KEILLER:  The processor.

 TARRANT:  The what?

 KEILLER:  At the mine on Zerok, they process the gold. They change its

           atomic constitution. It turns black. And it's useless until

           it's reprocessed, and that can't happen unless you know the

           computer code that was used on Zerok the day it was

           processed. Zerok won't release that code until the gold is in

           the hands of the Federation.

 TARRANT:  So, if we could steal it, what use is black gold to us?

 KEILLER:  [Chuckling-cough.] None what so ever.

  SOOLIN:  That is a snag.

 KEILLER:  But, there is a way around it, Pretty One [placing his arm

           around Soolin.]

    AVON:  We are waiting, Keiller!

 KEILLER:  The mine on Zerok, it's underground.

   DAYNA:  Like most mines.

 KEILLER:  And it's completely automated. The processed gold is even

           taken to the spaceport by underground conveyor.

  SOOLIN:  So?

 KEILLER:  So, Pretty One, we visit the mine and we tamper with the

           processor. That way the gold stays okay. When the gold's gone

           through, we readjust the processor and it's like nothing had

           happened. The computer says it's black, nobody checks. The

           gold is delivered here as normal.

   DAYNA:  And then we steal it.

 KEILLER:  That's right. Billions!

 TARRANT:  So it can be done.

 KEILLER:  Oh yes, it can be done, but it's not easy.

 TARRANT:  If it was easy you wouldn't need us.

  SOOLIN:  What's it like on the surface, this mine?

 KEILLER:  On the surface, Pretty One [Soolin raises her gun.] uh --

           it's a pretense, like me. On Zerok it's a vegetable

           reprocessing plant, but, uh, under guard.





[On the surface of Zerok.  Keiller is hiding.  Soolin and Avon teleport

in behind Keiller.]

    AVON:  We're not late I trust.

 KEILLER:  But we arranged -- I was supposed to get you through the

           fence. How did you get in here?

  SOOLIN:  Short cut.

 KEILLER:  Avon, Old Friend, I still don't understand how you got in

           here, but listen. They think I went out on that chopper. I'm

           no safer here now than you.

    AVON:  Good.

           [To Soolin.] Clear?

  SOOLIN:  Just one guard.

    AVON:  [To Keiller.] Let's go.

 KEILLER:  Right. This way.





 KEILLER:  [To guard.] They're with me. Visitors.

           [Soolin kills the guard.]





[Dayna and Tarrant teleport onto the planet surface, away from the

others.]





 KEILLER:  [To computerized lock.]  Voice print: Keiller two two seven

           one nine three two six.

           [Long delay, then the door opens.]

   GUARD:  What do you want?

 KEILLER:  [Forcing his way past the guard.] I've got to look in here.

           [Avon kills the guard.]





 KEILLER:  It's up there. [Indicating the top of a ladder.]





[At the top of the ladder Avon waits for Keiller, who is having trouble

climbing the ladder.]

    AVON:  [Harsh whisper to Keiller.] Come on!





[Two guards move behind some plant equipment.]

 KEILLER:  [Offscreen.] Look out.

           [Soolin kills both of the guards.]

           I say, you two, that was good shooting.

    AVON:  [To Soolin] Not bad.

           [To Keiller] Soolin killed them both. [Clearing away from an

           opening.] After you.





[Inside a lift.]

 KEILLER:  Your friend, Vila, he wants no part in this?

  SOOLIN:  He doesn't trust you, Keiller.  He thinks it's a trap.

 KEILLER:  Suspicious.

    AVON:  And frequently right. How much further?

 KEILLER:  The processing area is quite a way down.





[Dayna and Tarrant stand guard on the planet surface.]

   DAYNA:  Nothing.

           [An alarm starts ringing.]





  SOOLIN:  That's a security alarm.

 KEILLER:  We've got to get back up.

    AVON:  No! Down.

 KEILLER:  But now...

  SOOLIN:  Tarrant and Dayna are up there, they'll cover for us.

 KEILLER:  But, how'd they get there, I don't understand?

    AVON:  That is because we didn't explain.





   DAYNA:  What set that off?

 TARRANT:  Don't look at me, I didn't touch anything.

           [They shoot at some guards and run.]

 TARRANT:  Move!

   GUARD:  Come on!





[At the underground processing plant.]

 KEILLER:  This is it.

  SOOLIN:  How long have we got?

 KEILLER:  What, to stay alive? You tell me.

    AVON:  Two minutes, Keiller, while the gold goes through. Your

           estimate.

  SOOLIN:  Can you cope?

 KEILLER:  It's nothing. Just swapping a white leaf for a red.

  SOOLIN:  If the radiation's as deadly as you say, I hope it really

           is that simple.





[At the entrance with the electronic lock.]

   DAYNA:  Can we defend this?

 TARRANT:  Have we got a choice?

           [A small explosion goes off nearby.]

   DAYNA:  Looks as though we have.

 TARRANT:  Let's get up there.





[At the top of the ladder.]

   DAYNA:  Avon! Soolin!

 TARRANT:  [*?]  [NOTE: This is entirely inaudible.  Lip reading is

                        difficult do to the angle of Tarrants head.

                        The following are two possiblities:

                          1. Better get in after them.

                          2. Let's get in after them.

                        Both suggestions are in doubt, but are likely

                        to be similar in meaning to the actual dialogue.]



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