Harriere, re Hostage:
Or may just indicate that Travis is wrong about knowing Blake better than himself. A lot of things might have lured Blake; Travis picks one which, perhaps, might have lured him.
I would really hate to use those visits to Exbar as evidence of Blake's heterosexuality--Inga appears to be at least a decade younger. If Blake made three annual visits, when he was fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, then....euuwww. Squick. (Unless that's where the Federation got the idea for the accusations.)
Let's also say that Travis discovered that Blake's grandmother was alive, and took her as a hostage. Blake would have reacted in exactly the same way (although Grandma Inga probably wouldn't have been quite as nippy on her pins as Cousin Inga)--i.e., concern for her welfare when captured by a vicious enemy, joy at rediscovering part of his lost past. In fact, lots of people kiss their grandmothers without incestuous sexual involvement, and I think we have to rate the Blake-Inga kiss with the Snogs of Innocence rather than Snogs of Experience.
Of course, the scriptwriters probably figured that the audience would be more involved if the hostage were a pretty young woman than Blake's old granny.
-(Y)