The Way Back

"Blakes 7" begins with this episode, "The Way Back", which concentrates on introducing us to the world of the Terran Federation and immediately shows us how corrupt they are as they massacre a group of rebel activists and proceed to frame Roj Blake (the series' namesake, of course) for child molestation. Right from the beginning, "Blakes 7" makes it 100% clear that it is an adult television series that doesn't hold back on content that is controversial at best thematically and would be especially controversial nowadays (Sky has commissioned two scripts for a potential revival already, that should be interesting).

The episode also introduces the rest of the main characters. Maintaining a leisurely but solid pace, "The Way Back" accomplishes a surprising number of introductory purposes while already beginning to develop some of the aesthetic and thematic content that would feature for the remainder of the series.

9/10

The Federation rule with totalitarian law. It's subjects are drugged and tranquilized, living in a dreamy state. A group of breakaway rebels take Roj Blake to an illegal meeting, where he witnesses everyone slaughtered by soldiers. Blake, a former resistance fighter stands trial, where he is banished to Cygnus Alpha, a penal colony.

Definitely not a show just for kids, the themes, concepts and ideas in these earlier episodes were much more on the darker side. I'm not sure people realised just how good this show was in its early days.

The way back did a great job in terms of setting the scene, introducing the oppressive nature of the Federation, and of course introducing the show's principle Blake. This was a beautifully written episode. It's played out and taken very seriously, something they became guilty of not doing in its latter years. We get a first glimpse of Michael Keating, and the jaw dropping Sally Knyvette.

What a shame that attempts to bring Blake's 7 back have all fallen flat, the ideas are great.

9/10

I've started watching Blake's 7 since, as a Doctor Who fan, I've been hearing high praise for this contemporary BBC SF series -- created and mostly written by the man behind the Daleks -- for years. The first episode indicates a series that's very different in tone indeed, but more importantly it's extraordinarily compelling television.

Terry Nation has created one of the most terrifying of possible tyrannical futures, and explicated its suffocating fearfulness very effectiveness: this Administration has the will and ability to massacre groups of people and repeatedly brainwash individuals in layers and layers of deception to hold on to control. Starting with the establishment of a group of rebels who are trying to remind our protagonist of his revolutionary past and who are then murdered en masse is at once a fascinating way of drawing readers into the plot and a devastating set piece that establishes the brutality of what the revolutionaries are fighting. Not to mention the upsetting perversions of justice we witness when people who find bits of truth discover that no one else is interested in what the truth is.

The decision to begin the story of the series somewhat in media res -- with much of the background about how the characters have been involved in the past -- seems to be a good one. It allows a big plot to hit the ground running and build tension as more details are revealed.

Gareth Thomas immediately establishes himself with a very strong performance as Blake, by turns confused, frightened, and enraged. The direction as well is extremely well done. While the dialogue is excellent, this allows the story to be told almost entirely visually for many sequences, and there are plenty of effective psychologically disorienting shots. Perhaps best, direction-wise, is the self-conscious use of several repeated shots -- Blake's mouth and eye, him being brainwashed, and him in a cell, for instance -- which eventually come to function like an affecting leitmotif.

Then there's the end -- one of the few instances where a single dramatic final line out of the blue has done its job and pulled of a cliffhanger so nicely. This episode did its job: without question I'll be coming back for more of the series.