Avon has a definite brain cramp in this episode
as he leaves Vila alone with Blake and the
rest as they say is history.

My god, Vila really is st*pid, isn't he? The others are appropriately suspicious, but still they manage to lose him. And even I knew it was Travis way before he unmasked himself.

Well, whenever someone has a full mask on in a science fiction series, it's either an old enemy in disguise (Travis or, more frequently, the Master) or someone hideously scarred and wanting revenge (Sharez Jek, Magnus Greel and, except for the scarring, Omega). The Liberator crew's only excuse for not realizing it was Travis is that they didn't realize they were in a sci-fi series.

Travis is a renegade from the Federation, and in his last scene here, he is found by Federation security. But in the next episode, he's free and pursuing knowledge of Star One. No explanation is given.