Del Tarrant

Del Tarrant
Blake's 7 character
First appearance	Aftermath
Last appearance	Blake
Portrayed by	Steven Pacey
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Resistance

Del Tarrant is a fictional character from the British science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Steven Pacey.

Del Tarrant was a skilled pilot, trained in the Federation Space Academy, who stole a pursuit ship and began running contraband in the outer planets and getting involved in wars. He rose high on the Federation's "wanted list". During the Intergalactic War, he went in against the Andromedans and his ship was destroyed in the first salvo. He was picked up by a Federation ship and acquired a uniform. When that ship was destroyed, he was picked up by the damaged Liberator and presumed by the Federation officers aboard to be in charge. He cooperated with Avon to kill the Federation officers and take back the ship, after which he became a member of the crew, replacing Jenna as their principal pilot.

Tarrant was intelligent, cunning and worldly, but could also be arrogant and impulsive. He was also heroic and idealistic - when the Liberator was being pulled into a black hole, he stopped Avon from abandoning the ship on the idea that "we all go together." Avon once said of him, "Tarrant is brave, young, handsome - there are three good reasons for anyone not to like him."

He and Avon had frequent "alpha male" clashes over who was in charge of the ship. And while his idealism was central to this conflict, it also afforded Avon some tactical advantages. He would sometimes use Tarrant's headstrong approach to distract the enemy while he found a more devious solution. Despite their conflicts, Tarrant went out of his way on a number of occasions to save Avon's life. He tended to bully Vila, which Avon castigated him about in "City at the Edge of the World".

Tarrant's brother, Deeta, was killed by an android in the Teal-Vandor Convention. Tarrant avenged his death to prevent a war, although he could not bring himself to shoot the android in the back. Tarrant had brief romantic involvements with Servalan and Zeeona. It was also implied during the episode "Ultraworld" that Dayna and Tarrant had sex, so that the human reproductive process could be studied by the planet's inhabitants (at one point, Dayna is shown leaning over a prone Tarrant and remarking "I can't be all that repulsive" prior to their first kiss).

Tarrant was seriously injured in the crash of the Scorpio when he heroically stayed at the controls so that the others could escape. He was later gunned down during the final shoot-out on Gauda Prime. However, in Tony Attwood's non-canonical "Afterlife", he had simply passed out from his wounds (although he was later killed by wild animals on Terminal).

The very first episode of the whole series "The Way Back" features a Federation security agent called Dev Tarrant who arranges the massacre of Blake's friends and the murder of his lawyers. No connection is made between him and Steven Pacey's character when the latter joins the series.