I watched in again last night, taking more careful note of the nuances.

Cally and Jenna: definitely not in 'victim' mode in spite of being captured. Blake's cotribution of Cally's freedom consisted entirely of shouting "now" while Ensor collapsed.

Odd thing about the "Avon's a bastard" line of thought. Blake doesn't seem to have any interest in the humanitarian rescue thing. We don't know who suggested going to see if there were survivors from the explosion, but my first guess would be Jenna, as there would likely be an ethical code among free traders that you try to help other downed pilots. OTOH, it could be Avon. He's definitely leading the rescue party. The exchange between Avon and Blake: "Are you afraid I can handle it better than you?" "No." "Well, you should be." This is not as much of an Avon and Blake moment as a Paul and Gareth moment! The 'it' in question isn't the rescue or the radiation (although it's vague, to be interpreted as either). Now that I've heard it was originally to be Lord Blake helping Meeghat, I know that this is about Paul taking over the script. Not sure whether this wa filmed to fill time after, or if Boucher threw it in there as his own inside joke, being fond of Paul's delivery.

On to Avon and Meeghat. Yes, he was attracted to her. I had never noticed before how much time they spent holding hands. I had interpreted his avoiding looking at her at first as embarrassment, but since someone mentioned he was hold his gun, I paid more attention and saw that when they first entered, he was afraid Meeghat's act might be an attempt to distract them while someone lurking back attacked. Once he'd had the time to realize things were genuine, his attitude changed. Sending off the rocket. The man who created it had been killed before he could launch it; it was waiting for "the word". The Liberator crew were able to get the machines up without a problem, but surely the people who were guardians of it *at the time* could have launched it if getting the power up was all that was needed. No, it needed "the word". Avon is a computer genius, not a rocket scientist, as has been pointed out. When they returned with Jenna, the camera focussed away from Avon for several seconds. AVON TYPED IN THE PASSWORD DURING THAT TIME! That is what a computer expert could do. Either he ran a password cruncher, or he used the little tricks of investigating the work area to see where the useer made a notation of their password. Either way, it falls into his expertise and suggests a genuine prophecy such as the one in Sarcophagus. True, this is a guess based on the script, but it does help fix the gaping plot hole of why no one fired the rocket before all the technology was forgotten.

Nothing fixes the gaping plot hole of why the boys cower in terror from the rocks rather than shoot their weapons, except that Gan can't kill and Vila *won't* use a gun if there's anyway out of it. All I can guess here is that, gee, the colonialist/empirialist/Boy's Own heroes were actually trying not to kill if they didn't have to?

As for Avon not taking Meeghat with him. This is flimsy evidence at best but: He says his taking care of the rocket is a poor reward for her long wait, and apologizes that she did wait so long. He is evidently atracted to her. She would be endangered by joining them, nor could they transport her anywhere that they could gaurantee her a safe welcome. He is in a fairly good mood when we last see him on the planet, but on the ship, we obviously come in at the tail end of a discussion. He is calm while discussing the rocket. Then Cally brings up Meeghat, who they had evidently talked about for a while before. (There must have been a discussion, otherwise, Cally, who'd been on ship, wouldn't ask about her. There goes the idea that she was an afterthought after the rocket) Avon turns snarky when Blake joins in the discussion. Perhaps Avon hadn't wanted to leave Meeghat behind and Blake insisted he look at it rationally. There's no place for her, she's safer where she is, etc. His sulkiness in ORAC may have to do as much with still being touchy about leaving her as suffering radiation sickness. Once again, I know the evidence is flimsy, but it does answer the questions why they didn't talk about Meeghat and why Avon, who was holding hands with her, leaves her behind. Also, in regards to how Meeghat now knows he's not a god... if he asked her if she'd like to come along before contacting Blake, he'd have to explain a bit. Hearing Avon getting chewed out by Blake for such a silly notion would blow away the rest of the illusion. And no, I'm not trying to make Avon look good by making Blake look bad, here. I think it would be preposterous to take her away from her world, and Blake would be right to say no if Avon was foolish enough to think of it.