Blake's 7 / Blake 7: Classic or Dud?

Defo classic.

I say it's a dud all-in-all. Terrible stories, hammy acting. But GREBT fun to watch in the right frame of mind. The ONE GOOD EP as referred to in the previous post does not redeem all the others.

It suffered from the 'crew encounter mysterious life force AGAIN' thing.

Still, I feel, my reading of the power of Blake's revolutionary charisma has made me grasp more intensely, so much more tragically, the pain and trauma of that final scene on Gauda Prime...

(knows but N. should share with the class)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/blakes7/servalan/images/340/12maximumpower.jpg

N's dad: http://www.roundel.demon.co.uk/Clapperboard/B7_C4.html

I was trying to remember this on the tube home last night, sorry.

Steven Pacey, player of Tarrant, is now in The Bill spin off, M.I.T.

(what the hell)

http://www.blakes7.com/

I've already put my foot down and insisted on a possessive apostrophe if the series is referred to by name in any DVD extras. Title sequence purists can eat my underpants.

And Avon was yum. And I used to be in a band called Project Avalon.

in other good DVD news. Survivors final series is out. just ordered it. NUM NUM

I've just watched episode one. No Servalan, no Avon, nearly all the characters in it never appear again, amazingly ropey special effects, but it is still great.

I've started thinking that (shock) Blake's 7 might actually be BETTER than Doctor Who, because it is more serious and more for grown-ups (I am a grown-up myself). On the other hand, it only lasted four seasons.

they used to show this on the chicago pbs station back in the late '80s and i thought it was pretty great, but then again i was 11 or 12 when i watched it.

Sky One to remake Blake's 7

The satellite channel has given the go-ahead for the development of two 60-minute scripts with a view to a potential "event series".

If they go down the BSG re-imagining route of ramping up the sex, violence and unpleasantness and darkening the tone, this could be outstanding. Although, on reflection, darkening the tone of Blake's 7 would probably put it quite deep into wrist-slitting territory.

apparently the bbc is remaking 'the survivors' too.

Anyone seen this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421750/ and is it any good?

Blake's Junction 7 (2004)

Cult '80s sci-fi gang "Blake's 7" make an eventful late night stop at Newport Pagnell Services on the M1.

We worked on the subs for that, onimo. As ever, I didn't actually see it. It was packaged with two other short films - World of Wrestling, in which Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki, etc miss the night bus and Ant Muzak, in which Adam Ant and Steve Strange go to the supermarket. They were potentially funny. I've got a DVD-R somewhere, I should check 'em out.

£10.98 on amazon, I'll look around for a cheapo copy.

Just the idea of Mackenzie Crook as Servalan cracks me up.

Darling.

That was my Jacqueline Pearce B7 commentary track impression.

It's a Jacqueline Pearce anything commentary track impression. There's a lovely bit on the commentary to The Two Doctors where she talks about going to the hotel bar naked, because the staff were pretty inattentive and she thought that was the best way to get their attention.

from wikipedia:

"Pearce currently resides in the Limpopo province of South Africa where she is living at The Vervet Monkey Foundation where she looks after orphaned Vervet Monkeys."

ahhhh.

Darling!

Started watching the first season. Am intrigued.

# Creator Terry Nation pitched the show to BBC executives off the cuff, having made no notes or outlines. He started talking about The Dirty Dozen (1967) in space, and made up the rest as he went along.

And why does Blake appear to be some odd amalgam of Lou Reed and Jonah Hill?

Oh sweet, brian blessed is in this.

I'm about half-way thru the first season. I'm really enjoying this, and getting a kick out of the acting and character work, even if the series has that 70's-overlit-BBC-look. Avon is great; I'd get a kick out of seeing Paul Darrow onstage.

Also I like how their away suits predate those of the first two star trek movies by a few years.

Dude who replaced Travis in the 2nd series reminds me too much of Bryan Ferry, only with slightly less eyeliner.

Yeah, Season 1 Travis is wayyyyyy better.

Did anyone ever read Paul Darrow's autobio?

what do people think of Tarrant?

I was also interested to discover that the woman who played Dayna has received an OBE for services to acting. It would be great if she had been the Queen's favourite B7 character.

americans still don't get to watch this, boo. i saw 5-6 episodes when i was in england as a kid and loved it. i'd like to see the whole thing, but a region 1 release seems extremely unlikely. a lot of them are on youtube, but i'd really prefer a dvd.

Yeah, over here, this is something you only hear mentioned. Still, for those who hate watching youtube'd episodes, you can find the full seasons thru the usual channels. The video looks a lot better and cleaner than even some of the Peter Davison eps I've seen thru similar means.

Maybe if the Sci-Fi Network gets ahold of the new series/specials, it'll spark enough interest for a stateside release of the originals.

On another note, I found out that the guy who runs the HP Lovecraft filmfest I've been volunteering at for the last 3-4 years also distributes one of Paul Darrow's films:

http://lurkerfilms.com/cat/img/hplc02.gif

I've always seen that dvd on the merch table, but never made the connection until that box photo popped up in a GIS result.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/images/173/tarrant_full.jpg

http://www.waveney.org/B7Com/charprof/Tarrant.jpeg

So this is Tarrant, huh. Haven't gotten to his season yet. Got burned out thru season 2, switched to "Jekyll" for a while.

lol 1980.

Tarrant is popular with the ladies.

Kingfish, that film looks AWESOME.

Just in case it has not been said already, one thing that is not good about Blake's Seven is how retro all the technology is. It was made just before PCs started to get really big, and a lot of the hardware people use in the first series looks dated by the last one.

What is good about the programme is the acting, direction (not always), scripts (not always) and characters. The Tanith Lee and Robert Holmes written stories in the last season are particular highlights (as indeed are the Terry Nation written ones from the first).

Yeah, those HPL dvds are neat little collections. Lots of the shorts that we screen at the filmfest every year.

http://lurkerfilms.com/cat/index.html

The 3rd one has a canadian short feature with a flawless portrayal of HPL himself: http://www.unfilmable.com/Aaron05_13.gif

The guy nails that new england/conservative gentry accent perfectly.

The Paul Darrow thing is a pilot for a series that never got made. It's pretty good, but not outstanding (although good enough to get made, certainly).

God damn but Paul Darrow alone shits all over the dramatic quality(gravitas?) of anyone in any American genre series(incl. P. Stewart)

Watching 'Rough Magik' now. Probably the first time i've ever seen the Falklands War connected to the Mythos.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262037/

The DVD is being reissued with _Experiment 17_, one of the strongest shorts ever shown at the HPL Film Fest. It's about the Nazis finding the Necronomicon, and what happens when they try reading it.

Still, if nothing else, not bad for about 8 & a half quid.

http://www.hermit.org/blakes7/Merchant/Tapes/sol/AS3-InlayF.jpeg

Major Grondlepuss ftw

I...have doubts.

http://io9.com/5929116/blakes-7-reboot-coming-to-us-television

I have further doubts.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/syfy-to-develop-remake-of-cult-u-k-sci-fi-series-blakes-7-with-martin-campbell/#more-322547

Originally created by prolific British TV writer Terry Nation (Dr. Who), Blake’s 7 premiered on the BBC in 1978, running for four seasons. Referred to as “The Dirty Dozen in space,” the series centered around hard-core renegades and criminals who escape from a prison planet, battling humans and aliens alike – and becoming heroes.

I mean I sure hope post-Battlestar Galactica SyFy allows for the utter ambiguity of the characters but if this description seriously matches the actual pitch then good lord.

holy shit, had no idea this was happening. aren't syfy a joke channel? sharktopus and the like? this will be awful!

For US folks: the series has just been added to Britbox over here.

Shivan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMEEsmHbV9k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDsYhxCdVI4

On to Series 3 now, this immediately seems significantly more modern. Pretty good so far. Michael Sheard as a federation death squad leader, how did I not know that Mr. Bronson had been force-choked by Darth Vader? Then again this knowledge could have sent me down a dark path.

Related - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/02/josette-simon-if-i-wasnt-me-id-like-to-be-prime-minister

Jacqueline Pearce is really phenomenal, I still totally believe the ludicrous character which is nothing like her persona in interviews.

Playing a federation death squad leader must have been light relief for Michael Sheard during a career of being cast as a Nazi:

Sheard portrayed Adolf Hitler five times in his career: in Rogue Male (1976), The Tomorrow People (1978), The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and the documentary Secret History: Hitler of the Andes (2003). He also portrayed Heinrich Himmler three times, in The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), The Bunker (1981) and Space (1985). Although Sheard never played Hermann Göring, he did play Göring's double in the 'Allo 'Allo! episode Hitler's Last Heil.

I guess the reboot of this series never happened. Not that the one proposed would have been right, but I can envision one that would in fact be very good.

Coming to Bluray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MEREpHICIQ

Key point per Gizmodo! -- "complete with all new practical model work for the show’s VFX sequences"

More key: the new effects will be optional, not forced. The restoration and VAM is being done by the folks behind the C20th Dr Who blu-rays (and the Making Blake’s 7 twitter bloke), so the platinum standard for VT archive TV.

Most excellent.

I’ve been watching this show for the last few weeks as a distraction on a stationary bike. The first season has lots of nostalgia value and gritty sci fi vibes but after that, about 60% of the episodes are so bad I often quit in disgust. The idea of new practical effects is very cool tho - the ship designs are great but the shots they made with them are unbelievably bad.