Blake's 7: A Line Through the Pattern of Infinity

Blake's 7 topped the user's poll for your favourite British TV programme, despite not being listed in the bfi TV 100 itself. Gavin Collinson takes a look at a neglected science fiction favourite.

In 1977 the global phenomena of Star Wars engendered a massive desire and demand for science fiction. America responded by crafting the dark classic, The Empire Strikes Back and spawning a plethora of big budget sci-fi/action movies. The BBC responded by showing re-runs of Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings and phoning Terry Nation.

Nation's CV was already impressive by the late seventies. He'd created the Daleks in 1963, The Survivors in 1975 and had been a regular contributor to shows such as The Persuaders! and The Saint. In 1977 he met with senior BBC executives in order to discuss fresh projects for the immediate future, and although prior to the meeting he had had no ideas, Nation found himself talking enthusiastically about a science fiction based show which would revolve around a group of escaped convicts battling against a vast, tyrannical regime. Someone asked if the proposed programme had a name and he responded immediately, "Blake's 7".

David Maloney was brought in to produce the show after his success working on some of Doctor Who's finest stories including The Deadly Assassin and The Genesis of the Daleks. Nation wrote all the scripts for the first season, comprising 13 50-minute episodes, and a variety of directors were used, including Vere Lorrimer who later became the show's producer.

At 6pm on Monday, 2 January 1978 the first episode of Blake's 7, entitled The Way Back, was transmitted and within six weeks the basis of the show was firmly established. Roj Blake is an escaped convict committed to destroying a corrupt and savage regime known as the Federation. After commandeering a highly sophisticated alien craft called Liberator he assembles a crew comprising four other ex-cons and the obligatory telepath. The svelte and sadistic Servalan represented the face of the Federation, and the psychotic Space Commander Travis became Blake's relentless nemesis.

Empire called the show 'absolute hokum' and the sets and many of the props were risible, but Blake's 7 works brilliantly because of its wealth of interesting characters, and the dynamics amongst those characters. The quixotic Blake, for example, isn't simply a square jawed angel. Indeed, at the close of Season 2, when his tactics for destroying the Federation are questioned - it will result in thousands of innocent people being killed - he forcefully replies that he must activate his plan as it's the only way he can find out if he was right. The selfless hero had become the battle scarred egoist.

Avon was a wonderful mixture of dry wit, stoicism, cynicism and self-interest, his character combining well with Vila, the cowardly class clown. Ex-smuggler Jenna Stannis was the good looking blonde, and playing Frida to her Agnetha was Cally, a telepathic alien. Gan - the inevitable gentle giant - was a bit of a bore, lumbering around being pleasant to people, and Liberator's master computer, Zen, completed the original septet. The feline Servalan was hugely entertaining as the well-groomed murderous, megalomaniac and her mad lackey, Travis, was deliciously vicious and vile.

The late seventies was a time when the BBC's other 'space opera', Doctor Who, was becoming increasingly dependent on humour, a trend which reached its peak when Douglas 'Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' Adams was appointed script editor for the 1979 season. Blake's 7 veered in the other direction, however, with resolutely gritty plot-lines - 'heroes' were killed off, the villains would occasionally win, and if someone fell in love it was a fair bet that the other half of the happy couple would be dead before the closing credits. Paul Darrow, who played Avon, called the programme 'reality in an unreal situation' and this element lent each episode a certain frisson and unpredictability.

And yet the feel of the show did mean that occasionally a plot twist was utterly foreseeable. During filming, Paul Darrow once revealed, "There are two little boys who live over the road - 9 and 11 they are - and one day they said 'What episode are you working on at the moment?' And I was working on the one where the girlfriend rolls up. And the littlest one turned and said to me, 'Oh, no! You don't kiss her do you?' And then his eyes widened and he said, 'I bet I know what you do! You kill her, don't you? You would!' That redeemed him in my eyes. And, of course, that's exactly what Avon did... It's wonderful, isn't it?"

Season 2 delivered the death of Gan and although neither character was killed off, Blake and Jenna were shortly after written out of the programme. By the fourth and final season, following the murder of Cally and Liberator's destruction, only Avon, Vila and Servalan remained from the original line-up. On the December 21, 1981, in an episode called 'Blake', the eponymous 'hero' returned after an absence of two years. Over 10 million viewers witnessed the final, bloody confrontation between Avon and Blake in a shocking series finale which included major character revelations and a body count of Hamlet proportions. An absolute classic of British television, this single episode encapsulated many of the elements which had made the programme so engrossing: a ruthlessness and fearlessness in regards to plot and character development; excellent dialogue; adroit acting and pacey direction.

Four intelligent and entertaining seasons culminating in a savage televisual tour de force. And then nothing. In the late nineties Radio 4 did broadcast The Sevenfold Crown, a story set during the final phase of the show and featuring old favourites such as Jacqueline Pearce, (Servalan), Michael Keating (Vila) and Paul Darrow. The drama was released on audio cassette and sold well despite mixed reviews, and all 52 episodes of the television series were recently re-released on video. Blake's 7 was a ratings winner when first televised and over two decades later it remains popular not simply with sci-fi fans, but with other members of the public for whom the stirring theme music or a mere mention of the show conjures up a fund of fond Monday night memories.

This enduring appeal has led to a thousand whispers that plans were afoot for the programme to be revived. But as time wore on and almost twenty years past the rumours became gloomier - that the show was consigned to televisual history - that Blake's 7 was dead. Yet despite this, and the fact that Avon et al were apparently gunned down at the close of season 4, a moment from season three springs to mind where Avon begins, "The rumours of my death -", before a fellow crew member interrupts saying, "Have been greatly exaggerated?"

Avon shrugs a little, concluding, "Well, slightly exaggerated."

Let's hope he was right.

Gavin Collinson

Blake's 7 links

Horizon

The official Blake's 7 fan club site has information about the show and its stars, plus a full collection of links. After publication of this article Horizon contacted the bfi with news of a forthcoming Blake's 7 movie. Details of this project can be found on their site.

Louise and Simon's Blake's 7 Fan Site

Chatrooms, discussion boards, episode guides, character profiles, greeting cards, fan episode ratings, how to make Blake's 7 gadgets, Blake's 7 poll, caption competitions, convention pictures and sounds.