Visit website
A website devoted to the cult British television series
Charting the adventures of a band of outlaw-freedom fighters, this innovative space-opera was the brain-child of Terry Nation, whose long career included writing for ‘The Avengers’, producing ‘Survivors’ and inventing the Daleks for ‘Doctor Who’.
Our hero is Roj Blake, a resistance leader who is captured and framed on a child molesting charge by the Federation, a corrupt and tyrannical superpower that maintains its stranglehold over the galaxy’s population through brutality and brainwashing. Unjustly sentenced to life on a penal colony planet, Blake vows to bring about the downfall of his accusers and to one day return to Earth...
Together with fellow convicts Jenna Stannis, a tough but attractive smuggler, and the arrogant Kerr Avon, a brilliant computer specialist, Blake manages to escape from the prison ship they are on by seizing control of a derelict space ship, the ultra-sophisticated and amazingly-designed Liberator. Blake uses the ship’s weapons and teleporter to rescue two more criminals, Vila Restal, a cowardly thief who also happens to be an incredibly talented lock-picker, and Olag Gan, the team’s muscle, and then promptly leads them on a fanatical crusade to destroy the Federation and free mankind from slavery. Along the way he recruits Cally, a telepath from the planet Auron, and obtains Orac, a sentient computer with a particularly supercilious personality, which is able to interact with any computer in the galaxy.
Whilst this unlikely band of heroes carries out guerilla attacks on the Federation, they are constantly pursued by Servalan, the beautiful but deadly Federation Supreme Commander, and the vicious killer Travis, Blake’s old nemesis, who are both determined to remove what they see as an annoying thorn from their side.
The show’s particular strength is that it constantly surprises the viewer by doing the unexpected - things do not always go according to plan, the crew come into conflict with each other over ideals and issues, missions are both successful and disastrous, and even main characters are killed in the course of the storyline.
Later seasons see an all-out stellar war; the disappearance of the show’s main character; Avon taking charge and beginning a downward spiral into paranoia; the introduction of new crew members Del Tarrant, ex-Federation soldier and talented pilot, Dayna Mellanby, a weapon’s expert, and Soolin, a beautiful sharp-shooter; a new ship in the form of Scorpio; and quite possibly the most shocking and astonishing ending to a television programme ever seen.
'Blake’s 7' only ran for four series (it would have been three, but a last-minute change of mind by the BBC gave us one more), but a novel, ‘Afterlife’, chronicles the events after of the final episode; two radio plays were also broadcast, which fit into the latter half of the fourth season.
It’s one of those series that you just hope never gets remade, because what we have is so classically unique.
|
Copyright 2006: theunscrambledweb.com
Categories