Cally seems to undergo a major personality change from this episode to the next.

Oops, I thought the episode that followed this was Mission To Destiny.

Still, I think this is the only time we see Cally this ruthless.

(I haven't seen these episodes for a few years.)

Avon seems a real sourpuss in this episode until he has to co-ordinate the docking of the
projectile. Does he get moody when there's nothing challenging to do? At the start he's scoffing at Blake's idea to start a rebelion, but when they bring the projectile onboard he goes with Blake & Vila to Saurian Major without complaining.

We never find out who made the projectile, but the Aliens look like rejects from the village people, & after some thought it seems to be be a seeding ship & as Jenna suspected, the guardians must have been affected by long term crynogenic suspension (they behave like total psycopaths).

So for all of space the Federation beams all their communication signals to one planet to be boosted and spread out? Pretty dumb idea actually. They should have had several such stations to deal with the various parts of Federation space.

Why would Xenophobic aliens who kill anything that they percieve as a threat, install a distress becon on their ships?

Well, that teleport system is something. Blake & Jenna were standing up when teleported out, but arrived hunched over & scrunched down inside the ship.

Why was the inside of the capsule so warm? The capsule temperature must be around room temperature, because we don't see Jenna or Blake's breath and neither make motions like they're cold. However, wouldn't keeping the cabin temperature around 60° or 70° F be at odds with the cryogenic systems? I can understand keeping it warm enough so the oxygen doesn't become a liquid and damage the electrical system, but it can be plenty cold and oxygen will stay a gas.

NANJAO: Avon says that there are no controls for take off, just landing. Which would seem to indicate that the ship was launched from some kind of space station.

When Blake, Avon & Vila beam down to the planet, the teleport circle almost misses where the outlines form and they appear.

Blake says they'll build a small fire, but when we see the fire it looks pretty big to me.

Great line. Vila: I plan to live forever... or die trying.

Ah, that amazing futuristic looking space complex. It looks like nothing we have on Earth. ;-) ;-)

To quote Tron, "That's a big door." (The internal one that Vila picks the lock on.) Also I didn't see an internal handle, so how did Blake close it behind him?

Is it this episode that the Federation Sentry Robot makes its first appearance?

You had to love BBC special effects didn't you.

No, the robot makes its first appearance in Seek-Locate-Destroy, 2 episodes later.

So the crew decided to leave the alien ship to drift in space, unguarded, because the species is homocidal. However, they base this only on the fact that the guardians were trying to kill them. Well, duh! They were guardians! Moreoever, they were very ineffective ones at that, four professional guardians overcome by two people, one with a limiter.

Has anyone noticed, from the DVD, that there seems to be a pole coming out of the bottom of the capsule in the scene where they bring it on board?

I'm actually going to go back and have another look..could have been a reflection on my tv, but I'm sure I saw something.

There is indeed a pole underneath the little ship - it's obviously what they use to twiddle it so that it looks like it's drifting..

You can see it plainly when it's the tense bit, and the capsule is going side on to the Liberator.

The reason why said aliens are homicidal,is that they are a team of Assassins/Terrorists/"Special Forces" (Delete as Applicable),sent by one political group/planetry rulers (Delete as Applicable) on the world of origin, in order to destablise the political leadership of the destination world, in short it's a "Black Operation"....
(The 4th alien's the group commander). As to their poor combat skills, they have just been revived from suspended animation, and as a result, their "skills" have suffered.
Mind you, doesn't this "Ship/Model" turn up in later stories, under various guises....

At the end of this episode, Cally says she cannot return home because she failed.

This is right after seeing the communications complex go up in fireworks (yes, actually fireworks;-).

How is that a failure?

Cally probably didn't want to go home. Based on what we see of her planet later, it looks like a pretty boring place. She probably volunteered for that mission to get away from a society of telepathic clones to seek some adventure and express herself.

While I don't disagree with the not wanting to go home thought (rather amusing that) wasn't her mission to help the people of this planet and instead they got wiped out by the Federation?

Blake tells Villa to bring his bag of tricks down to Saurian Major.

How would Villa have a bag of tricks? They've only just escaped from the prison ship and Cygnus Alpha.