Blake's 7

"Blake's 7", whilst being somewhat of a misnomer, is a great series. The first few episodes (maybe even the entire first season) are rather shoddy and have a *very* low budget look, but it only gets better from then on in.

The most memorable bits of the series are the cynical, sarcastic, clever, and down-right rude comments from Avon, delivered in a beautifully scathing voice, and the equally sarcastic remarks from Orac, the talking fish tank.

Definitely a must-see if you like Dr. Who and can get the entire series (26 two-episode videos) at your local video rental library.

In 1978, America had "Battlestar Galactica" and Dirk Benedict. England had "Blake's 7" and Paul Darrow. England had the better deal.

Sure, "Blake's 7" had a shoddy budget and clunkier sets than "Doctor Who", but the show had more interesting characters. You could not find a more diverse bunch of criminals, freedom fighters, and guns-for-hire - and these were the heroes (or anti-heroes)of the show. Almost every week they fought Servalan, Travis, and the evil Galactic Federation (boo,hiss!) while sometimes barely getting along with each other. The show flagged a bit in the last season, but it had the best series finale of all time in my opinion.

I was 8 years old when Blake's 7 first aired on BBC 1 and I loved it.

I was a fan of DR.Who so I liked Blake's 7 also. I have been watching it recently on UK Gold and it has brought back fond memories. Admittedly the Special Effects were very low budget just like DR.Who-You could always spot the shaky badly handpainted sets! The acting was a mix of good and bad, Avon (Paul Darrow) was excellent as was Servalan (Jaqueline Pearce) and Villa (Michael Keating) was very good also. Some episodes were really good and the script was great with some great dialogue by Avon. If you can overlook the very poor effects and men in rubber suits dressed as monsters then this was overall a great show.The last episode was a great cliffhanger although it upset me when I first saw it. I would love to see the series remade with Paul Darrow and the others-we never did know whether or not Avon and company died or not, so it could be remade. This was a classic series!

This is quite simply the coolest sci-fi series of all time. It is easy to laugh at the sets and effects in these days of CGI, but it was good entertaining fun when it came out. Gareth Thomas played the Blake of the title, who whizzed round the universe with his crew of outlaws, trying to avoid the Federation. The leader of the Federation, Servalan, was a strong, scary woman who thought nothing of stabbing her allies in the back. In contrast to series such as Doctor Who, the female cast members werent just "screamers" - they all had their own specific and useful skills, such as Cally (Jan Chappell) who had psychic powers and Jenna (Sally Knyvette), an expert pilot. Watching it now brings back many memories, but it does stand up even now. Inspired!

This has to be one of the best--perhaps THE best science fiction serials ever produced. It is a true serial in that the story goes, stage by stage, through a complete, novelistic sequence. Even though the fourth season was not planned when they finished up the 3rd (originally designed as the finale), the ideas, themes, and characterizations continued as a logical (if sometimes twisted) culmination of the history that had preceded it. Blake's 7 inspired what is undoubtedly the finest American sci fi series ever--Babylon 5, which in some ways surpassed B7, certainly in terms of quality effects and production values. If you look carefully, I believe you can spot a ship closely resembling the Scorpio in some of the battle formations in Season 4 of B5.

My personal favorite performer on Blake's 7 was the extraordinary Jacqueline Pearce--surely one of the most gifted actresses of our day. In one way it is a shame that she will always be remembered for his work on this series, but, from another perspective, her creation of Servalan has a truly legendary quality, larger than life and yet intensely human. Jackie imbued Servalan with a wit, grace, and elegance that made her absolute evil all the more intriguing. Paul Darrow as Avon provided the perfect complement to Servalan's infamy. Coldly self-aggrandizing and exquisitely poised in his own right, Darrow's performance is often tinged with streaks of frighteningly believable psychosis, especially during the memorable final season.

If this series had had a wider airing in the US, it would have attracted a massive cult following over here. Grab this on tape if you can find it!