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Blakes Seven To Return
Clownfush writes "Blake's 7, magnificent UK low budget high drama Sci-Fi from the early 80's is to return, as a former star acquires rights to the show. "
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Sigh of relief when I saw that it was Paul Darrow. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Blake's 7, but I worked with Paul on the CGI voiceover that he did for Deathtrap Dungeon and I was impressed with his professionalism and enthusiasm. He seems genuinely to care about the projects he works on, and I'm content that this will be a labour of love rather than a cash-in. Huzzah.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Also, www.bbc.co.uk/cult have some new episodes in Flash format. One of which is the never aired episode written by Douglas Adams (the name of which temporarily espaces me) . The poarts I have seen so far are all very well voice acted and well worth checking out.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
They've set up an official web site for the revival here.
Unfortunately it uses Flash but there's more information about the plans and there's a cool new Blake's 7 logo.
John.
C'mon, surely you realise that Blakes 7 is just the legend of Arthur (and the classic medieval character cast) relocated to the future? I mean they "stumble" on The Liberator (Excalibur) and it is only Blakes "purity" that enables him to defend against Zens defences (ie pull the sword from the stone). The other characters start with the basics, the giant, the maiden (originally Dayna), the rougue the anti-hero and then the wicked witch )Servelan.
Having said that, love the show, and the best settings are always ripe for a revisit. IMHO, the Liberator must be involved for it to succeed.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
The trouble is, most remakes are a letdown.
Even if the films/shows are good in their own right people remember the original serties' with great fondness and nothing can live up to that memory.
Take Randall and Hopkirk Deceased for example. The original show was fab, and the remakes with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer were rahter less than fab.. However, I knew people who had never seen the original and actually liked the recent series.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
This was simply the coolest show: not the decor or effects, which were brutally minimalistic, but the characterisation and writing, which was so good that it felt real, every time.
The day that the series was killed was so traumatic that I almost kicked off TV: the show's producers simply, and without warning, arranged for the entire cast to be killed in one gruesome and bloody ambush.
After years of arranging narrow escapes for our favourite characters, this was just incredibly insensitive.
Glad to see the show will be back.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Who needs decent FX? It's possible to do mature character based SF drama with minimal effects - and no rubber monsters - if you have the courage of your convictions.
See Ultraviolet as an example of a recent UK miniseries that redefined a genre for those lucky enough to watch it. Ultraviolet is to Buffy as Hamlet is to Melrose Place.
I believe that Paul Darrow - a bona fide actor - has the potential to do something similar with Blake's 7. In fact, as Farscape picked up where Blake's 7 left off, I'd expect him to want to do something different.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Bear in mind that when it was first screened, Blake's Seven was the most expensive series the BBC had ever made.
Makes you wonder what they spent it on, really..
It wasn't budget that killed series 7, it was the lack of rimmer. When rimmer came back it was good again. Not series 1 good, but pretty darned good nonetheless.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Series one is supposed to be released on DVD in a couple of months in the UK: don't know if it's available anywhere else already.
For example, the first season is due out on 22nd September. Region 2 (obviously), but shouldn't be a problem. I think I'll order mine, never got my VHS tape collection complete... :(
"Fix it? It has been disintegrated, by definition it cannot be fixed!" - Gru in Despicable Me.
You saw them get shot, not shot to death. Remember the genre.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
From the website:
A Rebellion Reborn
Paul 'Avon' Darrow remembers Terry Nation's early ideas for a revival and sets the scene for a Rebellion Reborn.
As we have established against all odds; nobody wins, and if Blake's 7 in the 1980's ended with the triumph of 'Establishment Terror' and the least likely of a hopeful group of dissidents left to oppose it, then Blake's 7 three decades later, must spring forward from that unpromising base.
The good/bad guy is beaten. All's wrong with the World/Universe. When has this been the case before? In Earth's history, many times.
Terry's idea for a later reworking of his Blake's 7 concept was, as before, inspired by his previous work(s). A bleak Universe where if you're rich and powerful - or useful to those who are - you're in a kind of corrupt paradise. Then, out of nowhere, comes one man, then another and another and so on. Hope springs eternal, but (and it's a big but) are these new heroes truly heroic? Not in Terry Nation's Universe. They are, as before, recognisable misfits... Colin Wilson's Outsiders.
Having said that, outsiders are those who trigger, either by default or design, the greatest of changes for those on the 'inside'. There is such a thing as a one-man (or in this case seven man) army and armchair enthusiasts will cheer them on, win or lose. In fact, it makes the enthusiasts feel a lot better if 'they' lose. It saves the insiders collective conscience and excuses them from taking up the mantle of outsiders. Until, of course, the next adventure.
Therefore, Terry's concept for a TV Movie/Mini-Series with a view to develop into another series of Blake's 7, was as follows;
The basic storyline was that the Federation, while still seeming all-powerful, would be rotting from within (cf, collapse of the Soviet Empire). Out of the past comes yesterday's man. But all our yesterdays are viewed with nostalgic affection. So, through no fault or will of his own the sole survivor of the original Blake's 7 becomes the catalyst for the creation of its successor. Terry likened this to Napoleon emerging from Elba and fighting his last hundred days. He was always going to lose, but he'd put up one hell of a fight. Glorious defiance is very appealing.
Avon, imprisoned for 25-years, has in the minds of the average citizen essentially 'disappeared'. The Federation's propaganda machine has gone to great lengths to ensure that Blake and his compatriots are remembered simply as outlaws and certainly not hailed as martyrs. Information suppression plus the amount of physical time passed makes Avon a forgotten man. That said there is of course an underground network of dissidents for whom he represents the voice and potency of resistance and in many ways Avon will become the unwitting figurehead to their movement a reluctant El Cid.
The new seven are like a wind, divine or not. Sometimes welcome, sometimes not, the wind is never static, it always moves on.
Whereas, the mores and values of the TV audience of the time tempered Terry's vision of 'The Dirty Dozen in Space' playing more like 'Robin Hood in Space' the new series must be grittier, more believable, and possess an almost epic and mythic feel to it that will raise it above the 'SF bubblegum' that often predominates our screens.
A good analogy for the series going forward would be West Wing meets The Dirty Dozen where the gloves are off and the rules of engagement ill-defined and thereby the outcome of any conflict either in battle, emotionally or politically, unpredictable!
Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!
as long as the writing is up to the same standard (And hopefully Paul Darrow will make sure of that!)
If he's got any sense left at all, he'll get straight onto Chris Boucher for the scripts. While Terry Nation came up with the concept and nominally wrote most of the first season, as with his Doctor Who work which was all heavily retooled by the relevant Script Editor, Nation came up with the concepts, Boucher made it into workable scripts, and is still working in the same genre with very similar dramatic contexts. Boucher's good, hire Boucher.
TomV
Sure, who can forget the classic scene in B7 where they go back to Earth and a robot spider thing jumps into the hick cop's asshole, while the sex slave/giant worm/pod person clone chick version #2 gets her kit off (again) and the zombie goth runs out of zombie goth go-juice (yet again).
The robot spider thing is in "The Harvest Of Kairos" (series C ep5), B7 had a psychotic, scheming, vampy campy manipulative white-clad dominatrix as head of Federation Space Command in the 'weird chick' role, unless telepathic guerilla chicks are more your thing, and the Zombie Goths (the federation Mutoids, or 'vampires') ran out of zombiegoth go-juice all too often to maintain any credibility as a fearsome fighting tool, but most especially in "Duel" (series A ep8).
Plus B7 had a nice line in murderous alien dwarf chess champions, living intelligent telepathic drugs, fiendishly clever psychostrategists, alien space plagues, bodysnatching invaders from the Andromeda galaxy, man-eating planet-sized supercomputers, Space Rats with dayglo mohicans on quad-bikes, a Tachyon Funnel...
No shortage of OTT in Blake's 7, made a nice foil to the totalitarian military-industrial state, the easy brutality of power, the working-class grime of the glorious future, betrayal, deceit, corruption and the eventual utter futility of resistance, I thought.
Every episode of B7 has been released on VHS at least 10 years ago. I know beacuse I have seen them all and own quite a few. Maybe they only released it in Australia, but I doubt they would release it in Oz and not in the UK as well. You should have a look at some of the UK mail order shops I sure you can still get them. There are 25 VHS tapes with 2 episodes on each. Good Luck