At 16:55 24/05/01 +0100, you wrote:
I think her position was under threat before Terminal - hence her desperation to secure the Liberator, or a new fleet c/o Moloch, though these frequent away trips probably helped to weaken her power base. But I don't think she had actually been deposed, because none of the Liberator crew mentions it.
And she seems quite firmly in postion in 'Deathwatch' at least. As usual, it's difficult to tell how much time passes between 'Deathwatch' and the next episode.
Also, in Terminal, she *sounds* as though she is still firmly in control:
AVON: And you have the best ship in space. SERVALAN: The pattern for a fleet. AVON: You really think you can duplicate the Liberator? SERVALAN: I've assembled a team of scientists who are sure they can. In fact, they've staked their lives on it. And with a fleet like that, I can unite and rule as nobody has ever ruled before.
That certainly implies she has a lot of facilities under her control - duplicating Liberator is a *big* task. (And also that, like everyone else, she's forgotten about the cloning tech from 'Moloch'.)
(Mind you, that doesn't mean she isn't lying. She has no particular need to, but that doesn't mean much with Servalan.)
Her supposed death at Geddon was evidently public knowledge in Traitor; Avon and co would have had to be more than usually incompetent not to have noticed that their best-known enemy had just been overthrown.
However, they apparently did because the crew are clearly surprised to find her alive in 'Traitor' *because* they thought she died on the Liberator:
TARRANT: You can't afford not to believe me, Avon. AVON: How the hell did she get off the Liberator? TARRANT: I don't know. DAYNA: Look, we both saw her. It was Servalan.
Leading to the suggestion that they had no prior reports of her being alive *after* the Liberator.
OTOH, we have Servalan in Sand talking to Tarrant, explaining her escape:
SERVALAN: The teleport. A malfunction. A power surge. Suddenly I was back on a Federation world. TARRANT: What a lucky little commissioner you are. SERVALAN: Aren't I, though? TARRANT: What happened to the presidency? SERVALAN: It was stolen in my absence. I shall take it back eventually.
The absence in question could be one of several - the implication is that it's the absence during which she was at Terminal or (rather more tenuously) that there was some kind of time gap between her disappearing from Liberator and appearing on a Federation world.
In 'Traitor', the explanation as to her loss of the presidency is:
LEITZ: Servalan? Is Your Excellency certain? PRACTOR: Of course, I knew her well. Killed in the rear-guard action at Gedden. LEITZ: I knew she was reported dead, sir. I never heard any details. PRACTOR: There was a great deal of confusion when the High Council were restored to power. Most of the Old Guard were killed in the fighting. They remained loyal to Servalan right till the end.
One point is that Practor is claiming a personal friendship with Servalan (not something to boast about at this point, so let's assume he means it). It's possible that he has information that isn't officially acknowledged or recorded by the Federation and hence is out of Orac's purview. Later, in 'Animals', Servalan is described as 'a non person', implying that a certain amount of eradication of her name and memory has been carried out (and at whose instigation, I wonder?)
Or it's possible that he's claiming knowledge he doesn't have just to make an impression. It's not out of character for him. However, Leitz says that he'd heard her as reported dead which implies that she was previously reported as alive during the overthrow.
Harriet
love Anna