Page 4.

Servalan/Sleer

Played by Jacqueline Pearce - Episodes 6-51.

Servalan enteres the series in episode 6, as stories of Blake's actions begin to spread around the Federation. The council is worried, and wants her to deal with Blake. She eventually becomes obsessed with Blake and Avon, and ending their resistance.

Servalan is a very elegant and powerful woman - in fact the character was originally thought up as a man, but the creator, Terry Nation, switched it at the last moment, bringing in Jacqueline Pearce to play the role.

Servalan is always scheming, demanding more and more power. Killing anyone in her way, she eventually ousted the council of the Federation, installing herself as President. But its short lived, as the Galatic War (see "Star One") decimates the Federation. After finally capturing the self-destructing Liberator, she is presumed dead and deposed, only to resurface with a new identity - Commissioner Sleer.

Anyone who recognises her is either killed or locked away and used for her own means. She begins to plot again, using the drug Phylene-50, a mind control drug , as her main weapon.

But all the time, she never gives up chasing Blake and Avon - the two people she is desperate to beat. Probably the strongest female character in science fiction - devious, cunning and very strong willed, a formidiable opponent.

Travis

Played by Stephen Greif - Episodes 6-13.

Space Commander Travis - a vicious, dedicated, evil exponent of war. Before the series timeline, Travis is already involved with Blake, having lost an arm and eye in a battle with Blake's Freedom movement. The arm is replaced with a robotic apendage complete with an embedded blaster.

Travis is discredited after being accused of shooting unarmed civillians on the Planet Auros, but Servalan sees him as the ideal henchmen. He is put in control of hunting down Blake and capturing the Liberator - a task he relishes, looking for revenge.

The task is not as easy as Travis thinks, and the Federation council become impatient, forcing him to stand trial for the murder of 1417 civillians on the planet Serkasta, but this is mainly a show trial, used to embarrass Servalan. But she also wants Travis out of the way as he knows too much, so she controls Travis' defense.

Travis is found guilty but is saved from execution by the surprise attack of the Liberator. As the courtroom depressurises, Travis escapes. Reluctantly, Servalan agrees to give him a ship, in the hope that he does eventually catch up with Blake.

Travis' final act is to betray the whole of humanity, by helping an alien race from a neighbouring galaxy to breach the Federation's defense grid, triggering the Galatic War.