Rewatching Blake's 7

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Candlelight, Apr 22, 2013.

  1. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    A12: DELIVERANCE

    A drawn out story that doesn't really hold it's length but again I find it hard to believe with only six humans (sic) on board no one notices someone is missing until it's too late. Avon plays the God nicely, and the threat of the savages comes across as a little bizarre considering their biology should hardly have "adapted" to the radiation (they should really be dead like everyone else). Still, sets us up for our first encounter with the neon fishtank next episode.
     
  2. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

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    ^Avon's scenes really make this one for me. I love his reaction to having a worshiper! ;)
     
  3. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It's a subtle point, but the Federation of seasons one and two are pretty decent compared with what comes later; there is a certain sense of rule of law, officers who commit atrocities csn be courtmartialed for it (if only for show) and local regimes seem to be given leeway as to how repressive they chose to be (so long as they maontain order). That all ends under Servalan.
    It's a subtle point, but it's the difference between living under Kruschev or Breshnev, or Stalin/Hitler/Saddam.
     
  4. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ...or Chris Christie.
     
  5. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    True, but remember the Federation got the shit kicked out of them at Star One, leaving them without a fleet for a while and much of the totalitarianism was knocked back. It was only really in Series Four that they started rebuilding properly with it's drug pacification program again.
     
  6. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Removing Star One from play didn't destroy their fleet, it stopped their ability to co-ordinate intelligence and deploy resources that a planet could be routed and managed without using a fleet.
     
  7. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Yea, if Chancellor Sleer had a priority, she certainly had the resources to handle just about any planetary situation in person, even if she didn't have the Communications available to do it from her desk
     
  8. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    I was talking about the Andromedan invasion that destroyed over 80% of the Federation fleet.
     
  9. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Very true.

    The Federation in series 3 was in a mess, as Tarrant points out in Rescue, Xenon was outside Federation territory before the invasion, and it’s well outside their territory after their empire contracted, suggesting the loss of their fleet and Star One was a huge blow. However, clearly they remained powerful enough to stay in control, even of just some core systems, until Sleer’s pacification program gave them the ability to start taking back and expanding their empire.

    Rumours of Death seems to indicate that, for a while at least, even Earth may have rebelled, given that Shrinker seems to have switched sides, then back again. Plus then you have Anna Grant’s little coup further indicating that even Earth isn’t safe.

    The big question really is where the hell Blake was when all this was going on? The Federation was there for the taking in series 3, and even without the Liberator or Orac you’d have thought Roj Blake would have been swept into power. Or was it just, as Shrinker intimates, that the rebels spent too long “kicking the corpses” and not enough cementing control?

    In series 1/2 I think it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility for some kind of peaceful revolution to happen within the Federation, with someone akin to Gobrbachev slowly providing more and more freedoms. By series 4 it’s clear that the Federation is a completely totalitarian regime, and it’s hard to imagine who can stop them, especially after the events of Blake. I guess if Avon and co managed to spread the cure to the pacification drugs there’s a chance, but even so it seemed like production would be a near impossibility without Betafarl.

    I think it’s fair to say Servalan won…at least until someone more vicious and conniving comes along and supplants her.
     
  10. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Guerilla tactics.

    You wait for them to rebuild and then smash it all down AGAIN.

    Imagine if the Federation reclaimed all it's territory, and rebuilt everything, and Blake had been there while everything was being rebuilt putting bombs in it, after that happens another four times, they're just going to say Fuck it.

    There was no Babylon 6.
     
  11. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    I remember some quote, probably from Chris Boucher, after the series ended saying how "seven individuals wouldn't bring down the Nazis", so they didn't bother with the mega happy ending.

    I would've expected season three to have been a 'lets get the Federation while they're on their knees' storyline but without Blake they let them get too far into rebuilding. When they lost the Liberator though they were definitely reduced to guerilla tactics.
     
  12. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ORAC would have destroyed the Federation by himself, if he really felt like it.
     
  13. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Probably given Orac probably could have tapped into the central Federation network, impersonated Sleer or Servalan, or whoever and caused merry havoc, getting pursuit ships to shoot each other down, getting Federation prisons to let all their political prisoners go and basically pulling an Edward Snowden when it came to any and all Federation secrets.

    The trouble in Series 3 is that, whilst Avon and co did want to bring the Federation down, their reasons were purely selfish, they just didn’t want to be hunted anymore. Blake may have been a fanatic, but to bring down the Federation it’s probable you needed a fanatic, needed a man willing to wade up to his armpits in the blood of martyrs to get the job done, a man willing to get into bed with drug peddlers if it meant knocking down the Federation. Avon and co would always choose robbing a Federation bank over breaking a bunch of prisoners out. They were willing to hurt the Federation but only when there was something in it for them.

    And no seven people couldn’t bring down the Federation, before we even get into the mathematics of how often there were actually seven of them :lol:
     
  14. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    I always counted ORAC, Zen/Slave, and The Liberator/Scorpio when needed :alienblush:
     
  15. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Well if you count Zen and Orac then there are usually seven, although by the same token this means in series 2 there’s actually eight (at least until Pressure Point!)

    I guess the other question is whether Blake is counted as one of the seven?
     
  16. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    The original storyline was for Blake, seven others and Zen, making the show's title grammatically correct. :)

    The additional two characters were dropped before the series began for budgetary reasons (although 'Arco' appeared in Cygnus Alpha only to be killed off at the end of the episode).
     
  17. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: Orac's abilities... that's partly why Chris wrote Shadow, to put a limit on Orac beyond its personality,as they'd realised he could be a bit too much of a trump card.
     
  18. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah wasn't Arco originally supposed to fill the Avon role? I think it might have been too cluttered with additional cast members. I mean poor old Gan barely got anything to do as it was, without adding another two people in!

    And yeah Orac really was way too powerful, though you could argue his personality was another limiter (ha) since he rarely voluntarily helped the others unless threatened or cajoled, or unless he himself was in danger.

    Good old Trooper Orac :devil:
     
  19. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    What I wondered with the Galactic Empire in Star Wars as well... Why did the Terran Federation need such a huge massive fleet?

    Was it really for internal policy, or were they waiting for the next extragalactic invasion?

    The Terran Federation had such a hold on the Milkway galaxy that they had mined it's entire circumference from external invasion.

    Nobody went in, nobody went out.

    (We dare not go a hunting for fear of little man.)
     
  20. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    A13: ORAC

    The season ends with the crew acquiring a new toy, not to mention the last appearance of the original Travis. Ensor comes across as a grumpy old man with a failing mind rather than the scientific genius he is made out to be. The editing to cover the loss of Stephen Grief part way through filming is covered well. Orac's ability for prediction is a little too supernatural for the reason given.

    B01: REDEMPTION

    After a full season we finally get to meet the creators of the Liberator, and it doesn't disappoint. Avoiding a Servalan / Federation storyline, or fully devoting a story to Orac, was a wise choice. Makes me wonder why Avon has a bomb just lying around in the computer room! The resolution to Orac's prediction was... predictable. The slightly upgraded sets give a more professional air to the ship.