I have heard about Blakes 7 for many years. But I never got the chance to actually see this late 70's British space opera until just a few years ago when I landed the BritBox on my streaming service. Up it popped and I immediately remembered folks raving about this science fiction television offering. So I quickly slurped up an episode, but found the taste a bit off. It had a vintage Doctor Who feel, but with more hard-bitten characters in a universe which seemed somehow meaner. Perhaps that was intended to be more realistic.I didn't come back to it for a bit, and then I was in the mood for some escapist sci-fi.
It's a story of freedom fighters led by Roj Blake (a former revolutionary who has had his memory wiped but gets it back). He's arrested and put on trial in a bogus legal proceeding for his notions of liberty and whatnot and finds himself aboard a prison ship headed for a remote prison planet. He is a rebel among thieves and leads a revolt which allows some of them to get control. They are Kerr Avon (computer genius), Jenna Stannis (pilot and pirate), Villa Restal (thief), Olag Gan (heavy muscle), and Cally (telepath). They come into possession of an alien spacecraft they dub "The Liberator" and which they only partially understand but which gives them enormous tactical advantages and join forces to fend off the attacks of the totalitarian regime which has its boot on the galaxy. The first two seasons follow this ragtag team as they fight against the regime, fight among themselves, and slowly for a bond. Some die. Some disappear.
In the final two seasons the titular Blake is gone and his role of leader is take over by Kerr Avon (who has reformed somewhat). Villa Restal is still around but new shipmates show up such as Dayna Mellaby (daughter of a weapons maker) and Del Tarrant (former pilot for the regime). Also showing up in the last season is Soolin (good with guns). Their mission remains vaguely the same, fight against the regime and amongst themselves. The teams are helped by a computer named ORAC and the sentient ship's computer called ZEN.
It's about what you'd expect a television show from this era to look like. Despite a space-faring context, this show seems to be more about humans than aliens. It's essentially a war series set in the future with echoes of Orwell's 1984 and other classic sci-fi epics. I enjoyed it for a while, but it began to lose steam for me. The acting seemed a bit too over-the-top, without the leavening of humor. Maybe now's a good time for me to actually finish the series.
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I always liked Blake's 7 but the series should have ended when their spaceship The Liberator was destroyed at the end of the third season. Apparently Blake's 7 was originally intended to finish at that point but the BBC decided to make one final season in 1981.
ReplyDeleteIt felt like one season too much. Happens all too often.
DeleteI watched the show regularly when it used to be broadcast on a local PBS station, which probably means that I saw all the reruns in the eighties. I never watched the show again, though someday, given my main project to study the forms of entertainment I term "combative," I might want to revisit key episodes to see if the series did or didn't fit my category.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I found the stories forgettable. The one thing that grabbed me was the strange evolution of Kerr Avon as played by actor Paul Darrow. As you say Avon takes over from Blake in the last two seasons as the leader of the motley crew, and I remember Avon being mildly obsessed with Blake's mysterious disappearance, in that his main enemy Commander Servelan (Jacqueline "The Reptile" Pearce) could sometimes sucker him by giving him clues as to Blake's current whereabouts. I thought that the writers were hinting that Avon, having somewhat remolded himself to be an altruistic type like Blake, he was on some level constantly wanting approval from the man on whom he modeled himself. Whether one buys that reading or not, though, the final episode is the main exception to my comment that most stories were forgettable. Without disclosing details, I found it the darkest conclusion to any SF-serial ever broadcast on TV, and a fulfillment of the show's acid, ironic tone in most episodes. Sort of an anti-Doctor Who, in a way.
Maybe-fun fact: the late British fantasy-writer Tanith Lee was such a fan of Paul Darrow that in a minor novel, entitled KILL THE DEAD, she named the main character "Parl Dro."
That's some good info. Thanks.
DeleteYou've talked me into it.
ReplyDeleteZen not Zem
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've been reading too many Doug Adams books where all the sentient mattresses are named "Zem".
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