Having just watched the episode 'Weapon', I found that my first overall reaction was surprise at the degree to which these otherwise unmemorable events appear to have been consciously structured by the scriptwriter. Chris Boucher was responsible both for this episode and for 'Shadow' - but I found 'Weapon' less of a simple narrative and more deliberately 'arty' in feel.
One typical feature is a rapid cut between two sets of characters, where the juxtaposition causes the dialogue in the second scene to gain implications which are not present in the words as written. These range from sardonic authorial comment - for example, we cut from a scene of Coser calling Rashel 'pathetic' to another scene where Servalan is in the process of applying precisely the same description to Travis - to actually misleading. The earliest example of the latter comes in our very first glimpse of the Liberator's flight deck, where the question "Where's Blake?" receives (as so often) no satisfactory answer. When following immediately after a scene in which the viewer has seen 'Blake' pleading for his life and killed by Travis, however, that little exchange acquires an entirely different resonance!
In this case, of course, it is a red herring. We soon learn that Blake is safe on the Liberator, that Servalan has some scheme up her sleeve which remains as yet undisclosed but involves a cloned version of Blake, and - interestingly - that she is prepared to grovel to the Clonemasters to get it.
In fact, Boucher avoids ever spelling out the details of the scheme explicitly. It's cleverly done, avoiding the classic Evil Overlord problem of the main villain's having to spell out the workings of the plot for the audience's benefit, either to a conveniently moronic underling or, even worse, to the heroes in person as part of an extended gloat. And it is actually quite a good scheme; believable as having originated in the brain of that self-styled genius Carnell.
A junior weapons technician at the Federation research establishment has developed a weapon which (while relatively useless in combat situations, as is demonstrated by the scrambling fight aganst the monster) offers considerable 'tactical' possibilities for an unscrupulous operator. (One does wonder, though, exactly what Coser planned for Blake to do with it....) Servalan learns of the invention and employs the services of an official psychostrategist (on an unofficial basis?) in order to provoke a series of events which will place the weapon within her grasp and simultaneously lure Blake to investigate. This provides her with an opportunity to dispose of him in an undetectable way, and thus simultaneously to claim to her superiors that it is he who is in possession of IMIPAK. (From the author's point of view, it also provides a plausible rationale as to why the heroes must be allowed to escape - the Federation has to believe they got away, but Servalan would have killed them as soon as they were sufficiently clear of the planet.)
Of course, in the short term the Supreme Commander will probably suffer some political flak for allowing the notorious troublemaker to escape - and with a dangerous weapon. However, any opponents who try to stir up too much trouble will doubtless end up mysteriously dead, under circumstances which can be proved to have had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Servalan or anyone connected to her in any way... since she was anywhere up to a million miles distant at the time...
Misdirection is very much a recurring theme of this episode. There is misdirection of the viewer by the script, which begins with the explosion in the opening sequence, almost immediately revealed to have been a ruse to throw off pursuit, and continues with the constant uncertainty over which version of 'Blake' we are seeing, and deliberate juxaposition of scenes as mentioned above. Characters' actions constantly disagree with their words, whether unconsciously, as in Coser's behaviour towards Rashel, whom he claims to have liberated but treats like a tyrant - intentionally, as in Servalan's claim to have sent Travis back to headquarters to place himself under arrest - or under duress, such as Travis' enforced civil behaviour towards her. And, of course, the entire plot is based around the idea that, given sufficient information, human beings can be tricked and manipulated into precisely predictable behaviour.
Given that the premise of the series calls for Carnell's scheme to fail, it is interesting that Boucher doesn't opt to do so in a way that can be used to demolish the psychostrategy in principle. I can just see 'Star Trek' using a similar scenario to point up the heavy-handed moral that Free Will and the Independence of the Individual reign supreme, as embodied in the person of James T. Kirk... (groan)
But Carnell isn't shown to fail because 'the human spirit' is in some manner essentially unpredictable. He fails in accordance with his own rules; simply because he is not supplied with sufficiently exhaustive information. Boucher doesn't actually invoke the image of the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil resulting in a tornado in Texas, but it's the reference that comes to mind as we see the psychostrategist anticipate disaster as soon as he learns of one little omitted fact. It's an idea with seductive potential, and when coupled with the perceived seductive potential of the man himself (a taste that has always passed me by...), it is perhaps not surprising that the minor character Psychostrategist Carnell has featured in a good deal of very dire fan-fiction.
The other chosen theme of this episode appears to be slavery contrasted with freedom. Travis is threatened with 'a slave-pit on Ursa Prime', and in many ways the slave Rashel is the most interesting character in 'Weapon' - certainly the demands of the plot leave the regulars with relatively little screen-time. In order for her actions in unexpectedly saving the day to be plausible, she has to develop from the downtrodden drudge we see at the beginning into someone with a mind of her own and the guts to stand up to Servalan herself - and thanks to some fine acting and sympathetic filming (she says little of significance, but we are often shown a reaction shot) on the whole it works.
Throwaway references had already established slavery as a part of Federation society, but in 'Weapon' Chris Boucher took the opportunity to flesh out the effects of slavery on the mindset of those involved. Slaves are not the same as the emotionless mutoids featured in 'Duel', though there is a suggestion that mutoid conversion may be the fate of the disobedient. They live in squalid conditions, they are supposed to call everyone else 'Sir', and they perform menial work. It is not clear quite how they compare with the 'labour grades' of which Vila claimed to be a member in 'Shadow'. Presumably the slave is obliged to work but is fed and clothed in return, while the low-grade labourer has to buy his own food and clothing in return for the theoretical right not to work...
Rashel finds the concept of not being held in bond to your duties almost inconceivable. "They must have been free," she says again and again, wondering, of her unknown predecessors on the unnamed planet. To her, it is entirely plausible that they left simply because they could - it is left to her companion to point out prosaically that the planet had probably been exploited to death. True freedom for Rashel is ultimately symbolised by the clone Blake's willingness to help with her work: "Let me do that" are words she never would have heard from Coser. And when liberated, her final concern is that the Liberator too should know freedom - freedom from the threat held by Servalan.
'Weapon' is, of course, the episode responsible for the introduction of 'Travis Mk II' as played by Brian Croucher. The lack of continuity is unnecessarily emphasised by a change in Travis' uniform and, most noticeably, in the size of his eyepatch - though to be honest, when I first saw the series it took me some time to notice that the actor playing the part was actually different.
However, rewatching this episode with the benefit of that knowledge and with hindsight, I can now see that this 'Travis' is in fact a considerably changed character. Rather less sane, despite Servalan's scornful dismissal of him to Carnell: "as mad as ever he was". He is violent and insolent - his career in Space Command apparently wrecked, he has little left to lose and no fear of consequences. The only hold the Supreme Commander retains on him is the bait of Blake's death. It is in fact true that he has "no sense of proportion at all", although needless to say not in the sense that Servalan uses the phrase. Clonemaster Fen's reproach to him, more in sorrow than in anger, "You are a sad man, Travis", falls almost comically short of the mark.
'Dangerous psychopath' could probably by this stage apply just as well to Travis as to the man he is nominally in charge of hunting, the escaped technician Coser. When we first meet him, it is tempting to assign Coser automatically to the side of the 'good guys' - if Servalan and Travis are after him, then he can't be too bad. However, he is clearly on the verges at least of paranoia and he treats Rashel inconsistently and irrationally. His threat to kill her is given stark significance by being immediately juxtaposed with Travis' report that the man has already killed all his work colleagues - all those who were supposedly plotting to steal the credit for his work. Our initial assumption, that Coser is an unrecognised genius persecuted by a class-conscious society, is undermined by the growing suggestion that the man is actually a paranoid homicidal lunatic. When he claims wild-eyed, during his ravings about the power of IMIPAK, that it can make its possessor 'be like God', it tends to confirm the hypothesis.
An interesting question is just why Coser does take Rashel with him in the first place. It was clearly his idea - he has 'liberated' someone who doesn't seem particularly comfortable outside her usual physical and social environment - and he insists that she is to consider herself 'free' even as he continues to treat her like dirt. Why take a slave - someone whom he sees as no threat to him? someone to whom he can feel comfortably superior? - and why pick that one? The obvious explanation, that he wants a faceless female he can use for sexual release, doesn't seem to be the case.
Perhaps, deep down inside, he knows that he is not entirely sane. Maybe he recognises, like Carnell, that solitude would be very bad for him indeed.