Blake's 7

[saori]

I new in these parts so just wanted to ask how many big B7 fans there are around here. I love B5 but my sci fi love really began with B7.
Many other B7 fans here?

Oh, and I'm well familiar with the wobbly sets and the like. But you don't notice that when your 7 or 8, and by 30 they're just one more thing to enjoy, along with the scripted humour of course.

[villarestall]

my lord!!! I thought I was the only one left!!!

[David Panzer]

I've not seen the series, yet. It might have been shown on PBS when I was younger, but when I was in single digits I never heard of the series.

Since I became a B5 fan I read all the archived posts, the Lurker's Guide, and Wikipedia's B5 page. It was after reading those I first heard of Blake's 7 and then read up about it, stopping short of the episode and/or season summaries.

I'm impatiently waiting for a R1 release of B7. I'm just about ready to buy a multisystem TV to go with my DVD player that I made region free. I came close to buying one so I could watch "The Italian Job" (the good one with Michael Caine), back when it wasn't available in the States.

I'm a B7 fan, despite having never seen 1 second of the series

[saori]

B7 is good, but obviously the production techniques make it very dated with age. I read one comparison of Star Trek with B7 that said that Star Trek had special effects, whereas B7 had none. Strictly speaking this is not true, but I had to laugh when I read it. The special effects are definitely on the low budget end and can be a bit jarring on the eye first time around if your not willing to be sympathetic (perhaps even if you are).

I want to say that it is darker than other contemporary TV sci fi. By this I'm referring to the fundamentally dystopian state of the human govt. running galaxy (especially compared to something like Star Trek and even B5 really). The Federation is bad (through and through) and even most of the goodies in this series are bad (or at least morally ambiguous). But the main characters are fun, the head of the Federation becomes a wonderfully glamourous but ruthless woman and I think if you're willing to put up with the production faults (on scale with Dr Who of the time) you'll definitely have fun with it.

Hope you enjoy,

Sao.

[saori]

my lord!!! I thought I was the only one left!!!

No, villa there are still many of us around (JMS included).

Wasn't it great? I absolutely loved the show. Avon, Villa, Servalan. I modelled my life after Avon, in retrospect this was in fact a very bad decision, but it seemed so right at the time.

"I may be grade 4 ignorant, but I'm not stupid." - Vila

[Ranger1]

saori please check your private message.

[villarestall]

yep.... loved that show when i was but a wee bairn.... still do - theres something about seeing the Liberator, that graceful spaceship, being flown by a couple of spray painted table lamps, while the consoles just about fell apart every time someone pushed a button.....

But - thats watching it with my more cynical mind these days - back then it was a must see every week on TV, along with Doctor Who - then POW! they "killed" them all off, and that was that!!

I too still hope for a DVD release over here in Canada - over the decade or so I've been here on the west coast, I have managed to track down 5 VHS tapes of the original 26 tape set in NTSC format ( I did have all the tapes in PAL when I was still in the UK, but I'm afraid they got left behind in the move after I got married.....)

I did find an interesting site while looking thru the blakes 7 web ring
( www.blakes7.org ) called the "Sequel Project" - with some very interesting stories to continue the series had it gone beyond the original 4 seasons.....

ttfn.....

villa

[Dr Maturin]

What's funny is that "region-free" DVD players are really cheap and usually aren't labeled as such.

[DGTWoodward]

Blake's 7 was a landmark show for the BBC. It parallels Babylon 5 in many ways too.

Just as JMS knew with B5, that the FX would not drive the show, so did Terry Nation, it would be driven by the characters and situations.

It had a definite begining and end.

All the important episodes were written by the creator, Terry Nation.

The characters were more real than stereo-type.

It was a show that I loved, even when Gareth Thomas (Blake himself) left the show at then of the second season. It had some truely superb designs, the LIBERATOR ship is a staggering piece of design - and influential..? Have you seen the Drazi SUNHAWKs? Also those fibre-optic guns always fascinated me. It all worked in a let's-make-do kind of way. The interactions between Blake and Avon, Blake and Jenna, Avon and Vila and Avon and Servalan were must see viewing. As I recall, at its peak it topped 14 million viewers an episode against a top rated soap. It really was a revolution for the BBC.

I still have my COMET MINIATURES model of the LIBERATOR in my attic, in its box. I've had it for years without assembly. I've always suffered a 50/50 split in desire over it because half of me wants to make, paint and display it...whilst the other half of me wants it to remain pristine in its box, an untouched memory of a show much loved. They turn up on eBay every so often so if I find one I'll make a few bids on it so that I can sneakily enjoy my cake AND eat it too

[David Panzer]

My DVD player is a GE5803P. Bought it 3 years ago on Christmas Eve for 99 bucks. Shortly thereafter, I found this website. I followed the instructions for my player, and I am now the proud owner of a Region Free player.

[Towelmaster]

Avon rulez big time! And my girlfriend made me say this...

[Dr Maturin]

Here is my main DVD player that I bought for less than $100 two years ago:

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/JVC_XV_N50BK/4505-6473_16-20846612.html?tag=pdtl-img

I knew the one that I bought for my office played all regions, so I ordered some PAL DVD's from Amazon.co.uk. One day without thinking I popped one into my main player and it played. About ten minutes into the program I realized that a PAL DVD was playing. I then checked the DVD/VCR player in the bedroom. It, too, plays PAL...without a "code."

[villarestall]

I got "DVD region free" on my laptop, so I can watch anything - I know there are a couple of stores up here in Vancouver that sell multiregion DVD players and other equipment (they cater for the shipping industry, supplying gear for the crews on board...) so I'll be heading there sometime to get an idea of price....

ttfn.....

[Joe Nazzaro]

Unfortunately, the B7 DVD story has been a bit of a debacle. Kevin Davies, who has done some great behind-the-scenes stuff in the past, had actually done a massive making-of documentary that would be spread out over the four seasons, but after all the legal wranglings and rights issues (with the party that reportedly held some of the rights for a B7 revival), the BBC wimped out and stripped most of that material out of the discs.

By the way, I've got an interview with the late Mary Ridge, who directed the final episode of B7 as well as several other episodes, coming up in Starlog sometime over the next few months. Mary was a dear friend and a lovely lady and I'm glad that we were able to share a few more stories in print.

And if anybody is still unaware of the B5/B7 connection, JMS has always gone on record as saying that Blake's 7 was a big influence on his series. One of my all-time great convention memories was at the SFX Awards in London some years ago, where the night's big award was presented to Joe on stage by none other than Gareth Thomas, in full Blake costume and makeup. If anybody has ever seen a video of that moment, it's one of the only times that I've seen JMS completely speechless.

[DGTWoodward]

By the way, I've got an interview with the late Mary Ridge, who directed the final episode of B7

Wow, I never realised that Mary Ridge had died. I din't know her but she was a really talented lady.

And if anybody is still unaware of the B5/B7 connection, JMS has always gone on record as saying that Blake's 7 was a big influence on his series. One of my all-time great convention memories was at the SFX Awards in London some years ago, where the night's big award was presented to Joe on stage by none other than Gareth Thomas, in full Blake costume and makeup. If anybody has ever seen a video of that moment, it's one of the only times that I've seen JMS completely speechless.

Erm...wasn't this at Blackpool Joe? I think it was as I had a photo taken of myself with Gareth in costume after the presentation...