Zen (Blake's 7)

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Zen
Zen
Race	Computer
Gender	None
Portrayed by	Peter Tuddenham
First Appearance	Cygnus Alpha
Last Appearance	Terminal
Status	Destroyed
Affiliation	The System/Resistance

Zen is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7. The voice of Zen was provided by Peter Tuddenham.

Zen was the master computer aboard the Liberator, the highly advanced spacecraft used by Blake and the others initially to escape from and then attack the Federation. Zen's history, like that of the Liberator itself, is unknown prior to its first appearance. It specifically refused to answer questions about the previous crew of the Liberator. It was constructed by "The System" ("Redemption"), which also installed a series of over-rides to take external control of the ship if necessary. Its visual interface was a large brown dome toward the front of the bridge with lights that flashed as it spoke.

Zen was capable of flying and fighting the Liberator on its own, with the notable exception of being unable to operate the teleport controls. It had banks of auxiliary computers that could be brought on-line when requested. These included navigation computers, which could pilot the Liberator to any known destination, and battle computers, that could formulate strategy, pilot the ship and operate the weapon systems during combat, even successfully fighting off a number of Federation pursuit ships without crew input ("Volcano"). Zen could also force the auto-repair systems to prioritize certain systems.

Zen had a chamber underneath its main dome that could perform instantaneous analysis of substances, such as the virus in "Project Avalon" or the drug in "Shadow". It also had access to more sophisticated analysis equipment, as demonstrated in its frantic attempts to find a solution to the corrosive space particles in "Terminal". Zen also had some crude telepathic ability. It operated a defense system against intruders that would use images of loved ones to draw them to their deaths. It could also form a temporary telepathic link with new crew - taking the name "Liberator" from Jenna's mind, for example.

Although open to instruction, Zen projected a dour, non-committal personality all of its own. In some of the early episodes, Zen would reply to certain questions with the phrase "That information is not available" and it was left open as to whether Zen was secretly executing his own agenda or genuinely couldn't help. In the episodes "Time Squad" and "Breakdown", Zen refused to help the crew carry out actions it believed endangered the ship. Zen did not display these characteristics from season two, possibly due to being re-programmed by Orac in the episode "Redemption".

After the crew were forced to abandon the Liberator temporarily due to begin badly damaged in the Intergalactic War, Zen was ordered only to take commands only from the voice prints of certain members of the crew (it is unknow whether the telepathic defense system was also activated). When Tarrant and Dayna joined the crew, their voice prints were added. Servalan's voice print was also added when she managed to take over the Liberator temporarily ("The Harvest of Kairos"), but it was removed when the crew re-took control.

Zen was destroyed with the Liberator in the episode "Terminal" (aired March 31, 1980). In the episode, Zen was more self-aware and "human" than previously thought, apologizing for its failure to repair the LIberator and refer to itself as "I" for the only time.

It is likely that any other Deep Space Vehicles constructed by The System had Zen-like computers of their own.

Blake's 7  v • d • e
Blake's 7 – The Television Series
History of Blake's 7 | List of Blake's 7 episodes | Blake's 7 actors
The Blake's 7 Universe
Terran Federation | Liberator | Scorpio | Planets | Intergalacic War
Roj Blake | Kerr Avon | Vila Restal | Jenna Stannis | Olag Gan | Cally | Zen | Orac | Dayna Mellanby | Del Tarrant | Soolin | Slave | Servalan | Travis