Blake's 7 was a BBC science fiction television series created by Terry Nation which ran four seasons from January 2, 1978 to December 21, 1981.

Contents

1 The Series 2 Plot summary 3 Trivia 4 Cliffhanger Season Endings (spoilers) 5 Cast: 6 Episode List: 6.1 1978 (Season A) 6.2 1979 (Season B) 6.3 1980 (Season C) 6.4 1981 (Season D) 7 External links

The Series

The series was created by Terry Nation, who had previously worked on Dr Who and created the Doctor's most famous adversaries, the Daleks. It was made in the United Kingdom and was produced and broadcast by the BBC. It was similar to other BBC science fiction shows such as Doctor Who, but was characterised by a darker tone and often defied the traditional sharply defined ethical stances associated with this type of drama, with considerable blurring of the distinction between the "good" and the "bad" guys (and gals).

Loosely based on the Robin Hood legend, it follows the exploits of a group of outlaw revolutionaries, led by a patriot-hero named Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas), who fight the fascistic interstellar Terran Federation in the second century of the third calendar. The show was watched by 10 million viewers at its peak, an enormous number for a space opera.

The show is noted for its strong focus on character; Blake and his band of outlaws were all highly individual, distinctive, and flawed, as often at each others' throats and in pursuit of their own private agendas as they were facing down their common enemies in the Federation. It also featured a remarkable attrition rate among its main characters, in violation of accepted practice for a drama of its nature. Unlike many mainstream TV dramas, the morally ambiguous or evil characters -- specifically Avon and the ruthless but charismatic Servalan -- proved to be the most interesting, and both soon gathered dedicated fan followings.

According to actress Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servalan, Terry Nation had originally intended her character to be a man, but halfway through writing the script he realised that it would be more interesting if the gender was reversed. Servalan was also meant to make only one appearance, but Pearce's commanding performance, her great beauty and her unusual close-cropped hairstyle made Servalan an instant hit and Pearce became a regular cast member.

The show's fascination with and careful study of dictatorial societies has made it a surprise hit in several Eastern European countries as a sort of pop culture 1984. Characters working for the evil Federation were often portrayed as being motivated by their own concepts of duty and loyalty, as well as the over-powering pressure exerted by society. Tactics studied from Stalinist Russia, such as forced psychiatric treatments and show trials, were intermixed with (papier mache) giant spiders and fur-suited "aliens".

Blakes 7 was also remarkable for the range of influences it mixed - dialog inspired by Casablanca and Importance of Being Earnest was mixed with Spaghetti Western nihilism and pure camp, as well as the odd plot and a major character stolen from Shakespeare (most of the cast had classical training and the actor Michael Keating played his character, Vila Restal, as if playing Feste, the brilliant but flawed jester in Twelth Night.)

One notorious characteristic of the show was its highly effective use of cliffhangers at the end of each season, a feature that was used to maximum effect at the end of the fourth season, "Blake". This was deliberately written to be open ended in case the series returned, but also to be final in case it did not.

Another notable and often satirised aspect of the show was the light construction of its sets (something it shared in common with Doctor Who). The "wobbly set syndrome" was particularly noticeable during the numerous fight scenes - one presumes the actors had to be very careful about avoiding colliding with the walls. Many exterior shots portraying the surface of other worlds took place in quarries; fans of the show are now able to go on a Blake's 7 quarry location tour of the UK. The series also repeatedly used a corridor at Leeds Polytechnic. While some critics lampooned the series' comparitively meagre production values, it is only fair to note that (like Dr Who) Blake's 7 was made with what would now be considered ridiculously low budgets, that were only a fraction of what would typically have been spent on the average American prime-time drama at that time.

As of 2004, there is a revival movement (led by Andrew Mark Sewell and Simon Moorhead ) to create a new miniseries of the show, entitled Blake's 7: Legacy. Series star Paul Darrow (who played Avon) was involved for a time, but this is no longer the case.

Blakes 7's major legacy to future TV space opera was the use of moral ambiguity and dysfunctional main characters to create tension, as well as long term "plot arcs" to hold episodes together. Most (though not always all) of thse traits were seen in Lexx, Andromeda, Deep Space 9, Babylon 5, Farscape, and Enterprise, rather than the "feel good" and unconnected episode structure of early Star Trek. It was also arguably unique in TV SF in that it had a major influence on written SF, with the revival of written space opera in the 90's coming from of all places the UK at the hands of writers such as Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, and Iain Banks, all of the generation who had watched Blakes 7, and all of whose work features morally ambivalent, often sarcastic and driven characters, whose usually violently terminated lives are spent in vast and baroque spacecraft.

Plot summary

Blake begins the series being captured by the Federation, convicted on trumped-up charges of child molestation, and sent to a remote penal colony planet called Cygnus Alpha. It is on the prisoner transport ship London that he meets most of his future crew, whom he convinces to join him in a mutiny to take over the London. The mutiny fails, but before Blake and his cohorts can be executed the London comes upon a mysterious unidentified starship apparently derelict from a space battle. After several crewmembers attempt to board it and are killed by the ship's automated defences, the London's captain decides to send Blake's group over to see if they can defuse them or die in the attempt. They take over the mysterious and highly advanced ship, name it the Liberator, and set out to topple the Federation. At least, that is Blake's goal. His other crew members, particularly Kerr Avon, followed him with various degrees of reluctance.

By the end of the second season, Gareth Thomas (Blake) sought an exit from the series. His character was written out, with Blake being lost in an escape pod after the Liberator was damaged in a ferocious battle with invaders from the Andromeda Galaxy over the Federation's central computer complex, known as Star One. Terry Nation had proposed that the invaders would be revealed as the Daleks but the BBC was not happy with tyeing together its two sci-fi franchises in this way. Jenna was also lost. Del Tarrant, a mercenary who had been posing as a Federation trooper, was introduced to replace Blake, although Avon clashed even more frequently with Tarrant than he had with Blake. Avon eventually rose in dominance until he became the de facto leader of the group. The shadow of Blake remained strong over them, however, and they searched for him sporadically throughout the remainder of the series.

Liberator was destroyed at the end of the third season, and the group soon acquired a new ship named Scorpio together with a home base on a planet called Xenon. The fight against the Federation continued, growing more desperate, for both sides; the Federation had been significantly weakened after the loss of its computer control Star One and the galactic war that followed, allowing Servalan, the Supreme Commander of its military forces, to seize power and sweep aside any remaining positive qualities the Federation may have had. She was later deposed and forced to operate on the fringes of the Federation in a lesser position under the alias of "Sleer".

Finally, in a climax that ensured the show a lasting place in the history of television, the crew at last finds Blake working as a bounty hunter on a backwater planet named Gauda Prime. Thinking Blake has betrayed them due to a misunderstanding, Avon kills Blake (blood is shown). Then Federation troops overrun the remainder, shooting all (it is not explicit if they are dead or not) except Avon, whom they surround and hold at gunpoint. Avon raises his own weapon, then as the scene cuts to black a flurry of gunfire is heard and the end credits rolled.

Blake's death is shown in surprisingly graphic detail considering that the episode ended at around 20:10, well before the watershed for violence. The blood and gore was added at Gareth Thomas's insistence (it was in his contract), in order to make sure that both the audience and potential casting directors would not assume that Blake was only wounded and could return.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) the cliffhanger ending, so-called "post Gauda Prime" stories about possible resolutions are a particularly popular topic in Blake's 7 fan fiction. The proposed relaunch of 2004 would centre around the only crewmember still standing in the final shot: Avon. It would be revealed that Avon had not died, but was taken prisoner. The timeline of the sequel series would essentially coincide with ours: roughly 20 years would have passed in the relaunch series. During these time, Avon had been left to rot in prison for twenty years, forgotten and to the outside world almost a myth, because most believed he was dead. Avon's return would be a parallel to the escape from Elba of Napoleon.

A note on the show's name: When Terry Nation originally scripted the show, he intended Blake to have seven companions, hence the name Blake's 7. Due to budget constraints, however, Blake's crew never included more than six human actors (including Blake who was now counted as part of the 7) at one time. The show subtly addressed this discrepancy by counting one or more computers as "members" of the crew. Thus, the original seven were

Humans: Roj Blake, Kerr Avon, Jenna Stannis, Vila Restal, Olag Gan, Cally (6)

Computers: Zen (1)

By the end of the series, the lineup had become

Humans: Kerr Avon, Vila Restal, Del Tarrant, Dayna Mellanby, Soolin (5)

Computers: Orac, Slave (2)

Using this system, the total does actually add up to seven with fair consistency throughout the series. Note how this list also demonstrates the characteristic attrition of main characters (including Blake himself!) throughout the series:

• Gan killed early in Season B (replaced in the count by Orac; thereafter never more than five humans at one time)
• Blake and Jenna lost at the end of Season B (replaced in the count by Dayna and Tarrant)
• Zen destroyed and Cally killed at the end of Season C/start of Season D (replaced in the count by Slave and Soolin, respectively).

Also, Travis, one of the main villains of the first two seasons, is killed at the end of Season B. He is never replaced by a recurrent character, as Servalan, the other main villain, henceforth has a tendency to quickly lose her sidekicks either by accident or by design.

It is also worth noting that the on-screen logo gave the series title as 'Blakes 7', without the apostrophe; fans often abbreviate the title to 'B7'.

Trivia

• Matt Irvine who produced the series special effects (along with work on Doctor Who) later revealed that the Liberator ended up facing the wrong way. As originally designed the spherical end would face forward in direction of travel. The mix up was accounted to a member of the BBC props department.

Cliffhanger Season Endings (spoilers)

• Season A End of season cliffhanger: A look into the future shows the Liberator apparently destroyed by a sudden explosion.
• Season B End of season cliffhanger: The Liberator is about to engage a fleet of enemy starships of overwhelming numerical superiority.
• Season C End of season cliffhanger (intended as an end of series cliffhanger): The Liberator is destroyed, leaving its crew marooned on the planet Terminal.
• Season D End of series cliffhanger (?): Blake is killed by Avon, followed in quick succession by the apparent deaths of Scorpio's crew members with the sole exception of Avon, who seems about to suffer the same fate.

Cast:

• Roj Blake - Gareth Thomas
• Kerr Avon - Paul Darrow
• Jenna Stannis - Sally Knyvette
• Villa Restal - Michael Keating
• Olag Gan - David Jackson
• Cally - Jan Chappell
• Zen (Liberator) - Peter Tuddenham (voice)
• Orac - Peter Tuddenham (voice)
• Slave (Scorpio) - Peter Tuddenham (voice)
• Servalan - Jacqueline Pearce
• Travis - Stephen Greif /Brian Croucher
• Dayna Mellanby - Josette Simon
• Del Tarrant - Steven Pacey
• Soolin - Glynis Barber

Episode List:

1978 (Season A)

1. The Way Back
2. Space Fall
3. Cygnus Alpha
4. Time Squad
5. The Web
6. Seek Locate Destroy
7. Mission to Destiny
8. Duel
9. Project Avalon
10. Breakdown
11. Bounty
12. Deliverance
13. Orac

1979 (Season B)

1. Redemption
2. Shadow
3. Weapon
4. Horizon
5. Pressure Point
6. Trial
7. Killer
8. Hostage
9. Countdown
10. Voice from the Past
11. Gambit
12. The Keeper
13. Star One

1980 (Season C)

1. Aftermath
2. Powerplay
3. Volcano
4. Dawn of the Gods
5. The Harvest of Kairos
6. City at the Edge of the World
7. Children of Auron
8. Rumours of Death
9. Sarcophagus
10. Ultraworld
11. Moloch
12. Death-Watch
13. Terminal

1981 (Season D)

1. Rescue
2. Power
3. Traitor
4. Stardrive
5. Animals
6. Headhunter
7. Assassin
8. Games
9. Sand
10. Gold
11. Orbit
12. Warlord
13. Blake

External links

• The Blakes Sevencyclopaedia http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/SevenCyc/index.html
• The Hermit Library of B7 Fiction http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Library/SrchReq.cgi
• Blake's 7 at Hermit http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/index.html
• Official site of proposed Blake's 7 revival http://www.blakes7.com/