Scorpio (Blake's 7)
The Scorpio is a spaceship featured throughout the fourth season of the science fiction television series Blake's 7.
Originally the ship was owned by alleged salvage-scavenger named Dorian, who had a base on the planet Xenon. After Dorian was killed in self-defence by the crew of the recently-destroyed starship Liberator, they took over the base and ship and started using it for their own purposes. Dorian's original purpose was to use the ex-Liberator crew to feed to the energies of a room deep in his underground base which enabled him to cleanse himself of "age and appetite" as a homage to The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Unlike the Liberator, which outmatched the Terran Federation's finest warships, the Scorpio was disadvantaged in almost every way conceivable when compared to the Federation's ships. It was slow, ungainly and had no weaponry. In the episode "Stardrive", however, Scorpio greatly increased her speed to Time Distort 15 after being fitted with the second experimental model of the "Photonic Drive" developed by Doctor Plaxton, but retreat was always the order of the day whenever they faced the Federation, as the ship was better equipped to flee than to fight. As Tarrant said the ship was an early Mk IV "Wanderer class" planet hopper used by Dorian as a salvage vessel, but was originally a freighter.
In its favour, though, the ship did co-incidentally have a teleport system, which Dorian had never been able to complete. Avon and Orac were able to complete it with a dynamon crystal. The ship also had an intelligent computer named Slave, which always tried to be helpful, but usually ended up just being sorry AbOUT everything. Slave's aloof and servile personality occasionally irritated the crew.
Slave called Avon "Master", and the rest of the crew as "Sir" or "Madam". In its last moments, like Zen before it, audiences were surprised by its momentary humanity as it addressed Tarrant by name in its last words. In fact, "Tarrant" was its last word.
The ship was shot down in ORBit of the planet Gauda Prime and destroyed upon crash-landing during the events of the series finale episode "Blake". The crew escaped by teleporting out, apart from Tarrant who was seriously injured by The crash, but survived. Although they were later slaughtered by Federation troops. It is still unknown what happened to Orac.
The ship's interior was designed by Roger Cann using the panelling that had previously adorned the set of the Heart of Gold in the Series Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, and the model was designed by Jim Francis.