I remember at the time there was a children's magazine I read, and every so often there would be letters saying that it was silly to call it "Blake's 7" and it should be renamed "Avon's 5"
One of the things I love about Blake's 7 is that, for a protagonist, Blake's actually kind of an awful person. He's argumentative, rude, aggressive, and combative. He has some moments of levity but he's solely focused on pure revenge. I don't think he'd really care if the whole galaxy fell into a vacuum after he "defeats the Federation", just so long as HE's satisfied. Sure he might have justifiable cause for revenge but over time all he actually does it make it worse for everyone. For the most part, everyone he comes into contact with throughout the series on his journey to excise his personal vendetta is either dead, on the run, or soon to die. If the series had continued I'd have imagined it ending with Blake properly going off the deep-end.
given the unstable mess he lives through (Terran Federation) and Blake's personality after he recovers from the brainwashing, then no. he is a fighter, not a planner, so he would probably say in answer "the day after will be the product of the process (revolution) to get there".
@@qazaqstanmann -- Wow. No wonder nobody's been able to re-make Blake's 7. If Blake is a terrorist with no cause other than the fighting itself and Avon is a a cynical, self-serving sociopath the show comes down entirely on the shoulders of the actors.
@@Grizabeebles The Terran Federation is as evil as they come, but Blake IS a terrorist, a fanatic and a delusional idealist. Avon is ten times the leader but has a hundredth of the interest on leading. If he EVER got power he would be WORSE than Servalan(no actual experience ruling). This is an astonishing series ruined by the last season. In a sense it is a LOT like Dune. If you REALLY study Dune you will see that the very WORST thing that could happen to the empire was Paul's victory. Helped by the Bene Geserit's insane dreams of power through a genetically superior messiah.
@@xhagast -- You're absolutely right about Dune. You really can't understand the first book without reading Dune Messiah. I love the change the 2021 film made in giving Paul a prescient vision where he and Jamis are close friends. It ties well into the duel with Feyd in part 2 and the death of Chani in "Dune Messiah". It's going to hit people lile a ton of bricks that Paul is sacrificing happy futures where he's a nobody Fremen with loving friends and family and bringing about an apocalyptic war because he's too proud to live in a world where he's not The Special Boy.
@@Grizabeebles One of his motivations is also vengeance. Never forget THAT. The movie cannot have changed the story so much. Vengeance and a free Arrakis for the Fremen. But the price of his vengeance was the Jihad...
God, I loved Blake's 7--which was late discovery for me bc the episodes (at least in NY/NJ) didn't premiere until '87 on PBS (Saturday evenings). What this fantastic lacked in good SFX, production design or costumes, it fully made up with fantastic (albeit sometimes) over-the-top performances. Gareth really stood out with Paul--it made them all seem to be very real and their struggle against an evil Federation so well "grounded". I was trying to watch Star Trek: SNW for its 2nd season, and to be frank, I'm not a fan of "new trek" except ST: Lower Decks--thats primarily I enjoy canon but I'm not rejectful of some attempt to add newer elements. When I watch the show, including the absolutely dreadful ST: Discovery (good riddance), I keep thinking about ST: TOS and Nation's Blake's 7 and how in the original Trek the characters would often come to open disagreements, argumentative and sometimes even say and do things for even for its time on 60s tv was a little harsh--if not outright prejudgist or sexist. But Strange New World is so hyper progressive (I never thought I say that considering my very progressive beliefs lol) not one barely gets chewed out, Pike is more a big brother than their commanding officer. Its a show with a wonderful cast of actors but they're all so...meely mouth to me. I've written all this to say that you can never have an American studio do Blake's 7 faithful even with minor updates in modern culturally appropriate depictions and with modern CGI FX. There such a desire of many young producers/showrunners to not only crack canon but to destroy outright. Even my beloved British tv studios are falling for that trap. The last couple of season of Doc Who was really bad, not because who is playing the doctor (which I thought was a great) but a wide open desire to tear everything that canical to shreds. Roj Blake playing any way near like Gareth portrayed who (IMO) never make it to the tv screens the same way.
Lol, ST: TOS was "a little harsh?" Blake's 7 makes Farscape look like Leave it to Beaver. If they made a group of tv execs watch B7 and told them to remake it keeping to the true character, the spirit of the story they would have a mass stroke and drop. Blake was a terrorist, a fanatic. Avon was a criminal and a sociopath. Vila was a cowardly criminal. Genna was a pirate looking for a cause and half in love with Blake. Kali was an agent provocateur from an alien government. Gan had nowhere else to go. And they were all white. Worse, their main enemy was a strong woman and the men that did her bidding.
I admire Roj Blake. I appreciate the wholeheartedness of his idealogical though(s) which are well prepared, calculated, thoughtful and placed with impeccable timing. Spaced Out have you watched Starhunter 2300 or Starhunter REDUX? A CND sf tv series which is interesting and entertaining. (Allegedly) the YT has Starhunter ReduX.
This show did a great job of giving us 'warts and all' protagonists that were likeable. It's so easy to see how their personalities set them up to fail, but they get so close to really doing well for themselves. :)
@@CharlesMarlow1898 I have found the first episode to give it a chance and I am looking forward to exploring the rest of them! It has nicely set up some tensions between individualism and collectivism and I can always use another show about a crew travelling space in a ship they don't fully understand - those can be fascinating, but they often let the side down, so I like to see someone taking another crack at it. Thank you kindly for the recommendation. P.S. I also get a kick out of the "Rockford Files"-style closing credits music.
The Terran Federation is as evil as they come, but Blake IS a terrorist, a fanatic and a delusional idealist. Avon is ten times the leader but has a hundredth of the interest on leading. If he EVER got power he would be WORSE than Servalan(no actual experience ruling). This is an astonishing series ruined by the last season. In a sense it is a LOT like Dune. If you REALLY study Dune you will see that the very WORST thing that could happen to the empire was Paul's victory. Helped by the Bene Geserit's insane dreams of power through a genetically superior messiah.
As someone else here has commented, we never actually heard what Blake would want to do AFTER ousting the Federation. The only thing we do know is the tens of thousands of innocent lives his actions cost - though the show doesn’t linger too much on that fact!
![Red Dwarf A-Z [As Voted By The Red Dwarf Subreddit]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6GcqQGq3WIE/mqdefault.jpg)
Threatening the 'good' doctor's hands, rather than his life. That was cold and precise, and I love it.
The irony that the character that the whole series is named for, is absent for the vast bulk of it
not the bulk, surely. less than half.
I remember at the time there was a children's magazine I read, and every so often there would be letters saying that it was silly to call it "Blake's 7" and it should be renamed "Avon's 5"
@@BobbyD262he was in all of the first two seasons, (26 episodes ) and in the last episode of both season 3 and 4 so 28 out of 52
@@patdbean Yes, so not the "bulk" of the series. And certainly not the VAST bulk.
This makes it distinct
One of the things I love about Blake's 7 is that, for a protagonist, Blake's actually kind of an awful person. He's argumentative, rude, aggressive, and combative. He has some moments of levity but he's solely focused on pure revenge. I don't think he'd really care if the whole galaxy fell into a vacuum after he "defeats the Federation", just so long as HE's satisfied. Sure he might have justifiable cause for revenge but over time all he actually does it make it worse for everyone. For the most part, everyone he comes into contact with throughout the series on his journey to excise his personal vendetta is either dead, on the run, or soon to die. If the series had continued I'd have imagined it ending with Blake properly going off the deep-end.
You should have put Gan's death in as that marks a significant turning point in his crusade as he realises he must blindly step up his fanaticism.
Does Blake ever talk about "the day after the revolution" and the world he wants to build, or is his "revolution" the end undo itself?
given the unstable mess he lives through (Terran Federation) and Blake's personality after he recovers from the brainwashing, then no. he is a fighter, not a planner, so he would probably say in answer "the day after will be the product of the process (revolution) to get there".
@@qazaqstanmann -- Wow. No wonder nobody's been able to re-make Blake's 7. If Blake is a terrorist with no cause other than the fighting itself and Avon is a
a cynical, self-serving sociopath the show comes down entirely on the shoulders of the actors.
@@Grizabeebles The Terran Federation is as evil as they come, but Blake IS a terrorist, a fanatic and a delusional idealist. Avon is ten times the leader but has a hundredth of the interest on leading. If he EVER got power he would be WORSE than Servalan(no actual experience ruling).
This is an astonishing series ruined by the last season. In a sense it is a LOT like Dune. If you REALLY study Dune you will see that the very WORST thing that could happen to the empire was Paul's victory. Helped by the Bene Geserit's insane dreams of power through a genetically superior messiah.
@@xhagast -- You're absolutely right about Dune. You really can't understand the first book without reading Dune Messiah.
I love the change the 2021 film made in giving Paul a prescient vision where he and Jamis are close friends. It ties well into the duel with Feyd in part 2 and the death of Chani in "Dune Messiah".
It's going to hit people lile a ton of bricks that Paul is sacrificing happy futures where he's a nobody Fremen with loving friends and family and bringing about an apocalyptic war because he's too proud to live in a world where he's not The Special Boy.
@@Grizabeebles One of his motivations is also vengeance. Never forget THAT. The movie cannot have changed the story so much. Vengeance and a free Arrakis for the Fremen.
But the price of his vengeance was the Jihad...
God, I loved Blake's 7--which was late discovery for me bc the episodes (at least in NY/NJ) didn't premiere until '87 on PBS (Saturday evenings). What this fantastic lacked in good SFX, production design or costumes, it fully made up with fantastic (albeit sometimes) over-the-top performances. Gareth really stood out with Paul--it made them all seem to be very real and their struggle against an evil Federation so well "grounded". I was trying to watch Star Trek: SNW for its 2nd season, and to be frank, I'm not a fan of "new trek" except ST: Lower Decks--thats primarily I enjoy canon but I'm not rejectful of some attempt to add newer elements. When I watch the show, including the absolutely dreadful ST: Discovery (good riddance), I keep thinking about ST: TOS and Nation's Blake's 7 and how in the original Trek the characters would often come to open disagreements, argumentative and sometimes even say and do things for even for its time on 60s tv was a little harsh--if not outright prejudgist or sexist. But Strange New World is so hyper progressive (I never thought I say that considering my very progressive beliefs lol) not one barely gets chewed out, Pike is more a big brother than their commanding officer. Its a show with a wonderful cast of actors but they're all so...meely mouth to me. I've written all this to say that you can never have an American studio do Blake's 7 faithful even with minor updates in modern culturally appropriate depictions and with modern CGI FX. There such a desire of many young producers/showrunners to not only crack canon but to destroy outright. Even my beloved British tv studios are falling for that trap. The last couple of season of Doc Who was really bad, not because who is playing the doctor (which I thought was a great) but a wide open desire to tear everything that canical to shreds. Roj Blake playing any way near like Gareth portrayed who (IMO) never make it to the tv screens the same way.
Can you imagine what B7 would be if they remade it now?
@@AlternicityBlogspot I don't want to.
Lol, ST: TOS was "a little harsh?" Blake's 7 makes Farscape look like Leave it to Beaver. If they made a group of tv execs watch B7 and told them to remake it keeping to the true character, the spirit of the story they would have a mass stroke and drop. Blake was a terrorist, a fanatic. Avon was a criminal and a sociopath. Vila was a cowardly criminal. Genna was a pirate looking for a cause and half in love with Blake. Kali was an agent provocateur from an alien government. Gan had nowhere else to go. And they were all white. Worse, their main enemy was a strong woman and the men that did her bidding.
@@xhagastThe character of Dayna - a black woman - was introduced in Season 3. She was superb.
I admire Roj Blake. I appreciate the wholeheartedness of his idealogical though(s) which are well prepared, calculated, thoughtful and placed with impeccable timing.
Spaced Out have you watched Starhunter 2300 or Starhunter REDUX? A CND sf tv series which is interesting and entertaining. (Allegedly) the YT has Starhunter ReduX.
One quick Google later, and no.. I haven’t seen Starhunter but it sounds great! Visually looks like a prototype Firefly - will have to track it down!
This show did a great job of giving us 'warts and all' protagonists that were likeable. It's so easy to see how their personalities set them up to fail, but they get so close to really doing well for themselves. :)
Agreed! If you feel like it look into "The Starlost" a 1973 16 episode CND sf series which might be on YT?@@Aileil
@@CharlesMarlow1898 I have found the first episode to give it a chance and I am looking forward to exploring the rest of them! It has nicely set up some tensions between individualism and collectivism and I can always use another show about a crew travelling space in a ship they don't fully understand - those can be fascinating, but they often let the side down, so I like to see someone taking another crack at it.
Thank you kindly for the recommendation.
P.S. I also get a kick out of the "Rockford Files"-style closing credits music.
I suspect you will enjoy the series.@@Aileil
The Terran Federation is as evil as they come, but Blake IS a terrorist, a fanatic and a delusional idealist. Avon is ten times the leader but has a hundredth of the interest on leading. If he EVER got power he would be WORSE than Servalan(no actual experience ruling).
This is an astonishing series ruined by the last season. In a sense it is a LOT like Dune. If you REALLY study Dune you will see that the very WORST thing that could happen to the empire was Paul's victory. Helped by the Bene Geserit's insane dreams of power through a genetically superior messiah.
As someone else here has commented, we never actually heard what Blake would want to do AFTER ousting the Federation. The only thing we do know is the tens of thousands of innocent lives his actions cost - though the show doesn’t linger too much on that fact!
Avon is ten times the leader of Blake?. Absolutely not.
@@spacedoutgame Lol, one of the things that make the show special is that they actually talked about it, that Blake was a fanatic.
WHAT A LOAD OF OLD TOSH ! ! !🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
AVON WAS A MUCH BETTER & MORE CONVINCING LEADER THAN BLAKE ! ! !🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔