Blake's 7 on Blu-ray!

[DarrenTR1970]

Our local PBS station here in Seattle/Tacoma must have been one of the first to air Blake's 7, because I can remember watching it in 1984-85 at 8pm on Saturday night.
You would get two episodes of Dr. Who at 7pm followed by Blake's 7 at 8pm.
What I remember most is that my family went on vacation for six weeks right in the middle of the second series and when we got back it was in the middle of the third and I had no idea who the two new characters were and where was Gan, Jenna and Blake?

I had to wait for the series to repeat in order to catch up on what happened.​

 

[Christopher]

Our local PBS station here in Seattle/Tacoma must have been one of the first to air Blake's 7, because I can remember watching it in 1984-85 at 8pm on Saturday night.

Ours must have too, because I'm pretty sure I remember my big sister being a fan of the show while she still lived with us, and she left for college in '84, I believe. I know we had Doctor Who by the time I was in 9th grade, which would've been '82-'83.

You would get two episodes of Dr. Who at 7pm followed by Blake's 7 at 8pm.

We got the movie edits of complete DW serials on Saturdays at 10 PM, which often ran into the wee hours for the long serials. So I guess B7 must have aired on a different night.

 

[Marc]

Our local PBS station here in Seattle/Tacoma must have been one of the first to air Blake's 7, because I can remember watching it in 1984-85 at 8pm on Saturday night.
You would get two episodes of Dr. Who at 7pm followed by Blake's 7 at 8pm.
What I remember most is that my family went on vacation for six weeks right in the middle of the second series and when we got back it was in the middle of the third and I had no idea who the two new characters were and where was Gan, Jenna and Blake?

I had to wait for the series to repeat in order to catch up on what happened.​

I seem to have seen the first couple of seasons though no memory but definitely the last two. Didn't really catch up on them until much much later when a cable channel in Australia.

Australia was a couple of weeks behind the U.K on the original run so didn't have the final episode until Jan 1982 and watch it when we away on holiday (though had missed the previous episode so didn't understand some things).

And then never know how dad came up with Jenna for our German Shepard till some-one meeting made the comment "so you're a Blake's 7 fan).

 

[Skipper]

And just watched the fourth episode!

I don't have much to say, because not much happens!

• Jenna teaches the rest of the crew to manually fly the spaceship because, as the documentary "2001: A Space Odyssey" explains us, you can never trust a computer!
• TNG always gets a bad rap for using technobabble, but Blake-7 showed the Yanks that they were second to none: "stabilized in an anti-orbital posture!"
• Vila says the most sensible line of the entire episode: "Whatever that means.". My hero!
• Our heroes encounter a mysterious ship in space! They ask Zen for clarification, who behaves exactly like my Alexa when she loses her internet connection: at first she is helpful, then she starts to stutter and then she completely refuses to answer! A mystery that I am sure will be solved in the next episodes! Also, what happened to the treasure hidden inside the Liberator!
• Note: The Liberator's transporter is much more advanced than the one in Star Trek! Our heroes start out standing but arrive crouched because the space is very tight: eat your heart out., Scotty!
• Now begins the ship recovery scene, which takes up almost 25% of the episode's runtime. Let me introduce you to the screenwriter:
  
• The capsule is loaded aboard the Liberator's hangar. Our heroes' ship must be GIGANTIC (I'm watching the episode with the new FX)! Are there any "official" descriptions of its dimensions?
• Here I'm a little confused: our heroes can't determine whether it's a very ancient or alien ship. Uh? If it's not a spoiler, are the aliens in "Blake-7" actually aliens and appear human for budget reasons, or are they offspring of lost Earthlings (like in the old Buck Rogers series)?
• Blake, I don't quite understand how, has become an indomitable leader again! Evidently the Federation's brainwashing is of very poor quality. And he indomitable orders the destruction of a very important communications center, and everyone indomitable obeys him. Only poor Avon tries to say something like "Uh, maybe we should talk about this first..?"
• Blake, Vila and Avon descend to the planet. Vila, who apparently went to the same college as the Prometheus scientists, thinks it's a great idea to touch a mysterious alien plant. There they find an alien woman! THE FEMALE POPULATION OF THE UNIVERSE HAS SUDDENLY DOUBLED!!!
• Jenna meanwhile decides to go and check on the aliens (?) who are thawing out. I would like to take a moment to point out her incredible ability to move around casually in high-heeled boots! Inside the cabin, she touches with her bare hand the face of an alien with bizarre growths on his face. Evidently she also attended the same university as Vila.
• Now there are killer aliens (?) on the loose on the Liberator. But Jenna assures Blake that everything is okay. Because she is a free woman and she doesn't need a man to tell her what to do in case of killer aliens!
• Blake and the others meanwhile sneak into the enemy broadcast station, where they try to avoid being seen by the security forces. Now, their look is probably iconic among fans of the series, but I swear I can't take people dressed like that seriously:
  
• Meanwhile Jenna and Gan on the Liberator try to neutralize the aliens, and the former shows off her judo skills! It's obviously a stunt-double, but I was still impressed!
• Blake and the others return to the Liberator, the broadcast station is destroyed, the aliens and their entire species' genetic heritage are dumped into space making our heroes likely genocides, a new member joins the crew, the end!

Now, I suppose continuity-wise this is a big episode: our crew is finally complete and we find out that something weird is going on with Zen. But I found it to be the worst episode of the series so far. It really felt like they didn't know how to fill the 50 minute episode. I had to stop myself from fast-forwarding. There is a problem here if I had more fun studying the sets and costumes than following the story. However, I have hope for the next episodes: there must be a reason why this series is considered a classic!

 

[Christopher]

• The capsule is loaded aboard the Liberator's hangar. Our heroes' ship must be GIGANTIC (I'm watching the episode with the new FX)! Are there any "official" descriptions of its dimensions?

Not that I know of. My Patreon review column of this very episode that went up to day includes a link to a fan-made graphic of the Liberator, which I only belatedly realized is depicting four different possible conjectural sizes for the ship (the smallest of which, 304.8 meters/1000 feet, is exactly the length of the TMP-refit Enterprise).

• Here I'm a little confused: our heroes can't determine whether it's a very ancient or alien ship. Uh? If it's not a spoiler, are the aliens in "Blake-7" actually aliens and appear human for budget reasons, or are they offspring of lost Earthlings (like in the old Buck Rogers series)?

Plenty of human-looking aliens in the show. No mention of lost colonies.

In fact, Buck Rogers was generally extremely vague about whether its humanoid aliens actually were the lost human colonies they occasionally talked about. Many of them were far too advanced to be less than 500 years old. The second season was supposed to be about a search for those lost colonies (pretty strongly implying that all the humanoids in season 1 were not them), but it rarely came up in the actual plots, and the only time they ever found one was in an episode where they were looking for spaceship fuel and just stumbled across the lost colony by accident.

• Blake, I don't quite understand how, has become an indomitable leader again! Evidently the Federation's brainwashing is of very poor quality.

This will be explained later.

• And he indomitable orders the destruction of a very important communications center, and everyone indomitable obeys him. Only poor Avon tries to say something like "Uh, maybe we should talk about this first..?"

Why wouldn't they go along? They're escaped criminals, so anything that hurts the civilization hunting them would be to their advantage. And hanging with Blake means getting to stay aboard this cushy supership that can outrun any pursuer and has a portable Scrooge McDuck money bin aboard.

• Blake and the others meanwhile sneak into the enemy broadcast station, where they try to avoid being seen by the security forces. Now, their look is probably iconic among fans of the series, but I swear I can't take people dressed like that seriously:
  

I can't disagree about the Evil Snoopy helmets. They look like they're wearing empty tape dispenser rolls as crowns.

• Meanwhile Jenna and Gan on the Liberator try to neutralize the aliens, and the former shows off her judo skills! It's obviously a stunt-double, but I was still impressed!

What got me was how the alien hit her in the back, but it was her arm that was nearly broken.

Now, I suppose continuity-wise this is a big episode: our crew is finally complete and we find out that something weird is going on with Zen.

No to the latter; Zen was just reluctant to take the capsule on board because he recognized that it was dangerous, like his immune system was rejecting it. It's not a continuity beat for later episodes, just foreshadowing for the dangers in this episode.

But I found it to be the worst episode of the series so far.

Definitely the worst episode so far -- until the next one.

It really felt like they didn't know how to fill the 50 minute episode.

I think it's more that they were focusing more on fleshing out the characters and their interplay. The plots were just excuses to learn more about them, like with Gan's limiter (which oddly didn't seem to exist when he was fighting off the cultists in the preceding episode). This won't be the only time that happens.

However, I have hope for the next episodes: there must be a reason why this series is considered a classic!

Well, it's worth keeping in mind that the average SFTV show in those days was much worse than the average SFTV show today, so the standards for "classic" back then were kind of like the standards for "reasonably competent" today. There are some good episodes yet to come, but a lot of weak or unremarkable ones too. Really, I think the perception of the show as a classic has more to do with fondness for the cast and characters and their interplay than for the stories.

 

[bdub76]

We got the movie edits of complete DW serials on Saturdays at 10 PM, which often ran into the wee hours for the long serials. So I guess B7 must have aired on a different night.

PBS played the omnibus versions of DW by me late in the evening. I would set my VHS to record them.

For B7 I was first introduced to the series at the Visions convention that used to be in Chicago. I would watch them in the video rooms. Later, when I learned that there was no release in the US, I had to pirate them. Finally, they landed on BritBox, so I was able to watch much better versions of them. I'm looking forward to my Blu-rays coming in the mail soon.

 

[Marc]

The capsule is loaded aboard the Liberator's hangar. Our heroes' ship must be GIGANTIC (I'm watching the episode with the new FX)! Are there any "official" descriptions of its dimensions?

nope - just it's a lot bigger that much of what the Federation and it's also possible the habitable area of the ship is quite small.

In the re-imaged audio series, the Liberator is about a mile long I doubt the tv series version was quite that big.

Also no idea where the hanger was actually located because there's nowhere that makes sense.

iirc from the episode the bod comes in from the the only place that would possible would in the nacelles unless there was gap in the ball at the end (which is most likely the main drive).

 

[Christopher]

Also no idea where the hanger was actually located because there's nowhere that makes sense.

It resembles one of those four bronze, boxy modules surrounding the base of the Liberator's forward nose cone. The shape isn't quite the same, but it's similar enough that that may have been the intent.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

For B7 I was first introduced to the series at the Visions convention that used to be in Chicago. I would watch them in the video rooms. Later, when I learned that there was no release in the US, I had to pirate them.

Scarecrow Video here in Seattle had the complete series on VHS tape for you to rent. The tapes were a different format and wouldn't play on the standard North American VHS player, so you had to rent the VHS player as well. If I remember correctly, the down deposit on the VHS player to rent it for the weekend was $100, which was returned when you brought the tapes and the player back. They had a whole section of VHS movies from Europe to rent.​

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Our heroes' ship must be GIGANTIC (I'm watching the episode with the new FX)! Are there any "official" descriptions of its dimensions?

Not that I know of. My Patreon review column of this very episode that went up to day includes a link to a fan-made graphic of the Liberator, which I only belatedly realized is depicting four different possible conjectural sizes for the ship (the smallest of which, 304.8 meters/1000 feet, is exactly the length of the TMP-refit Enterprise).

Back when Blake's 7 first aired and the London pulled up alongside the Liberator in the second episode, I figured the London was about the size of a modern jet airliner, possibly a 747, in order for the vessel to have enough space for accommodations and supplies for the eight-month voyage to Cygnus Alpha. I just assumed that we never saw the full layout of London, only the bridge and common area.​

 

[bdub76]

Scarecrow Video here in Seattle had the complete series on VHS tape for you to rent. The tapes were a different format and wouldn't play on the standard North American VHS player, so you had to rent the VHS player as well. If I remember correctly, the down deposit on the VHS player to rent it for the weekend was $100, which was returned when you brought the tapes and the player back. They had a whole section of VHS movies from Europe to rent.​

That's because they were PAL format. This is why DW DVDs have a higher resolution in the UK than in the US. We're now standard with the Blu-rays.

 

[Skipper]

Back when Blake's 7 first aired and the London pulled up alongside the Liberator in the second episode, I figured the London was about the size of a modern jet airliner, possibly a 747, in order for the vessel to have enough space for accommodations and supplies for the eight-month voyage to Cygnus Alpha. I just assumed that we never saw the full layout of London, only the bridge and common area.​

I thought the same thing. Also (at least on the blu ray) you can see the windows on the London model, which if compared to the ones we see on the set can give an idea of the size of the ship.

 

[Skipper]

Today or tomorrow I'll post some screenshots from the blu ray!

 

[Skipper]

Some screenshots from the new FX of the series. You can compare the windows of the ship both from the inside and outside (including the cockpit). I would say that comparing it to the size of an airliner makes sense. Also you can see the London next to the Liberator. The latter is large, but a mile as I have seen in some references seems too much to me (even considering the "antennas" on the pylons).








By the way, I like how the new effects are "respectful" to the style of the time. It looks exactly as if the producers of the series had a much higher budget and did the best that could be done at the time.

 

[Christopher]

the eight-month voyage to Cygnus Alpha.

Or four months in actual story terms, since most of "Space Fall" is four months in, but "Cygnus Alpha" shows them arriving at their destination almost right afterward. Unless some Liberator defense system put Blake, Avon, and Jenna in suspended animation for four months between episodes without them noticing, and the London captain waited four months to send his report on the mutiny.

It's also hard to reconcile a months-long interstellar journey with how easily Federation ships in future episodes are able to travel between star systems in hours or even reach the edge of the galaxy in a story-convenient amount of time. Although if "Cygnus Alpha" is a corruption of Alpha Cygni/Deneb, it would be something like 2,500 light years away, give or take, which is quite far -- though not much farther than the nearest face of the galactic disk in the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy. It could just be that the London is extremely slow, but it was able to beat the Liberator to Cygnus Alpha. And its cruising speed was said to be time distort 5, which is half the maximum speed of Federation pursuit ships, unless it's a logarithmic scale.

 

[Skipper]

It resembles one of those four bronze, boxy modules surrounding the base of the Liberator's forward nose cone. The shape isn't quite the same, but it's similar enough that that may have been the intent.

This is the docking according to the new FX.

 

[Qonundrum]

And just watched the fourth episode!

I don't have much to say, because not much happens!

Hang in there! The show lasted 52 episodes and there are some real belters to go along the belchers that you'll have to endure. Trust me, it's worth it all. Even the belchers.

• Jenna teaches the rest of the crew to manually fly the spaceship because, as the documentary "2001: A Space Odyssey" explains us, you can never trust a computer!

True, but Zen is trying to instruct her in its own way. HAL was just malfunctioning and gone all psycho.

• TNG always gets a bad rap for using technobabble, but Blake-7 showed the Yanks that they were second to none: "stabilized in an anti-orbital posture!"

Not sure. The TNG terminology, generally, was using real terms. It did get to the extent of using too make fake words beyond a point where it could feel credible. But if you want really bad technobabble, look up "gravitic anomalizer" and other faff from Doctor Who...

That, and I vastly prefer proper sci-fi terms like "teleporter" over "transporter", as one refers to a car and the other refers to a spaceship. Sometimes the sci-fi isn't sure of which to use either...

• Vila says the most sensible line of the entire episode: "Whatever that means.". My hero!

• Our heroes encounter a mysterious ship in space! They ask Zen for clarification, who behaves exactly like my Alexa when she loses her internet connection: at first she is helpful, then she starts to stutter and then she completely refuses to answer! A mystery that I am sure will be solved in the next episodes! Also, what happened to the treasure hidden inside the Liberator!

Yep, how these episodes were woven were interesting for sure.

Every episode revolving around the treasure room would get boring quickly.

• Note: The Liberator's transporter is much more advanced than the one in Star Trek! Our heroes start out standing but arrive crouched because the space is very tight: eat your heart out., Scotty!

LOL. Yeah, there should have been a bit more continuity, or at least a reaction as the teleporter is still new to everyone.

• Now begins the ship recovery scene, which takes up almost 25% of the episode's runtime. Let me introduce you to the screenwriter:
  

Definitely padding and uneven scripting. Which is sad, since while we need to see the crew learn the controls and not rely on Zen, Terry could have put more depth into the Cally subplot on Saurian Major. No worries, later episodes do have payoffs and are written far tighter.

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• The capsule is loaded aboard the Liberator's hangar. Our heroes' ship must be GIGANTIC (I'm watching the episode with the new FX)! Are there any "official" descriptions of its dimensions?

Not that I know of. I loved the new CGI, especially in "Space Fall", as it shows a worthy sense of scale.

• Here I'm a little confused: our heroes can't determine whether it's a very ancient or alien ship. Uh? If it's not a spoiler, are the aliens in "Blake-7" actually aliens and appear human for budget reasons, or are they offspring of lost Earthlings (like in the old Buck Rogers series)?

I don't remember this episode, but it's been a while... (So you now know it's not one of my favorites.) All I can say is, B7's budget was smaller than Doctor Who's, which is amazing when you compare B7 next to DW of the same production year.

Not every episode gets followed up on, either - the show will leave you guessing at times.

• Blake, I don't quite understand how, has become an indomitable leader again! Evidently the Federation's brainwashing is of very poor quality. And he indomitable orders the destruction of a very important communications center, and everyone indomitable obeys him. Only poor Avon tries to say something like "Uh, maybe we should talk about this first..?"

brainwashing, or mere pacification. Either way, there are always some who will break the conditioning - due to external influence or internal biological differences.

Didn't you dig Vila's quip, though? When a story fails in the plot department, the characterizations never fail to have moments of greatness.

• Blake, Vila and Avon descend to the planet. Vila, who apparently went to the same college as the Prometheus scientists, thinks it's a great idea to touch a mysterious alien plant. There they find an alien woman! THE FEMALE POPULATION OF THE UNIVERSE HAS SUDDENLY DOUBLED!!!

Still far larger than Star Wars', which - after three movies - had, what, 4 women? Aunt Beru, Leia, and Mon Mothma... and mommy Ewok. Would it be any different if the show was comprised of only women or all men or all smizmars yet the tone and dialogue were identical? That's where characterization one-ups body parts, but just wait as you will get more women over time and some in terrific roles. One or two in sub-par ones... but more are given great stuff, just not always consistently.

• Jenna meanwhile decides to go and check on the aliens (?) who are thawing out. I would like to take a moment to point out her incredible ability to move around casually in high-heeled boots! Inside the cabin, she touches with her bare hand the face of an alien with bizarre growths on his face. Evidently she also attended the same university as Vila.

If nothing else, tv shows - then and now - always had to have a style, regardless of impracticability.

• Now there are killer aliens (?) on the loose on the Liberator. But Jenna assures Blake that everything is okay. Because she is a free woman and she doesn't need a man to tell her what to do in case of killer aliens!

She did say everything was under control, but I looked up the transcript - I don't recall where she was telling Blake off and not needing to be micromanaged so quickly?

• Blake and the others meanwhile sneak into the enemy broadcast station, where they try to avoid being seen by the security forces. Now, their look is probably iconic among fans of the series, but I swear I can't take people dressed like that seriously:
  

Each visible face costs 50 UKP more, I'd guess.

The look never not worked for me, which is utilitarian and complete with gas mask. And this is sci-fi set in the future. Seeing something as if somebody down the street wore it yesterday would be beyond stupid. Sci-fi is still unique in trying to find a line between what clothing and outfits might be versus what people wear today since everyone in the audience has a different threshold for dropping their sense of disbelief.

If you really want bad costuming, try the Buck Rogers show from 1979. That's easily 90% disco- and Studio54-inspired right there. Maybe more, given so many blatant discoisms throughout the run, especially in season one.

• Meanwhile Jenna and Gan on the Liberator try to neutralize the aliens, and the former shows off her judo skills! It's obviously a stunt-double, but I was still impressed!

Jenna does have moments of greatness.

• Blake and the others return to the Liberator, the broadcast station is destroyed, the aliens and their entire species' genetic heritage are dumped into space making our heroes likely genocides, a new member joins the crew, the end!

What would you do differently with the alien frozen species? They wake up from cryogenic sleep, are programmed to kill -- not emotionally overwrought but are programmed to absolutely kill as means of preserving their species. Sounds like Daleks but without the bumps and egg whisk and toilet plunger, right? Regardless, there doesn't seem to be much wiggle room in this scenario.

The end dialogue with the crew is simplistic, but there is a point to it. But even Avon makes a statement in a later season that loosely harks back to this as well. Terry Nation's style can be pulpy, but there is some interesting stuff going on.

Now, I suppose continuity-wise this is a big episode: our crew is finally complete and we find out that something weird is going on with Zen. But I found it to be the worst episode of the series so far. It really felt like they didn't know how to fill the 50 minute episode. I had to stop myself from fast-forwarding. There is a problem here if I had more fun studying the sets and costumes than following the story. However, I have hope for the next episodes: there must be a reason why this series is considered a classic!

Yeah, of the first four "Time Squad" is the weakest and the use of "Time" in the title is vague at best, referring perhaps to the killers being in suspended animation and not anything directly relevant.

There are many reasons this show is deemed a classic, for characters, some stories, and being a trendsetter with some firsts. But there are some bad episodes, really bad, as well. I could cite which I think are great and/or bad, but some would debate those. I don't want to spoiler or create an artificial expectation that sullies your experience.

But I will say this: Please do not give up on the show after "The Web". There ARE some real belters after this upcoming belcher- and even then, there is a point to the upcoming episode that fits the theme of B7's universe. It's not my favorite episode at all, but it has a couple good scenes. I have to avoid saying behind the series stuff as well, but this show is still finding its feet. You will definitely see what works and gets built upon over the next few episodes and I'm already looking forward to how you react to these, both pros and cons.

 

[Qonundrum]

This is the docking according to the new FX.

You really don't want to see the original f/x, which begged too many questions. The thought put into these new f/x scenes is nothing less than beautiful (both looks and how they fit the story and storytelling, which is more important.)

 

[Christopher]

HAL was just malfunctioning and gone all psycho.

No, as explained in the original novel and in 2010, HAL was given conflicting orders that he couldn't reconcile. He was built to give accurate information but was ordered to lie to his crew about their true mission, and the contradiction resulted in a psychotic break. As with most computer breakdowns, the real cause was human error.

Not sure. The TNG terminology, generally, was using real terms. It did get to the extent of using too make fake words beyond a point where it could feel credible. But if you want really bad technobabble, look up "gravitic anomalizer" and other faff from Doctor Who...

Early TNG was pretty good about solid science, but the terminology definitely got sillier over the years. To me, something only constitutes technobabble if it's just that, meaningless babble pretending to sound technical. And the nonsense in Blake's 7 certainly qualifies, even though the term "technobabble" hadn't been coined yet.

I loved the new CGI, especially in "Space Fall", as it shows a worthy sense of scale.

I thought the new FX used miniatures.

If you really want bad costuming, try the Buck Rogers show from 1979. That's easily 90% disco- and Studio54-inspired right there. Maybe more, given so many blatant discoisms throughout the run, especially in season one.

I actually thought the costume design in Buck season 1 was excellent for the most part. And I've never understood the need some people have to mock past fashions as if they were objectively bad. What does time have to do with quality? If something is good, shouldn't it always be good? Just because fashions change doesn't mean the old fashions were bad. I mean, if we can recognize that Shakespeare was a great writer even though his English was really old-fashioned by our standards, surely we can recognize that past fashion designers were good at their jobs even if they were designing for older tastes than ours.

What would you do differently with the alien frozen species? They wake up from cryogenic sleep, are programmed to kill -- not emotionally overwrought but are programmed to absolutely kill as means of preserving their species. Sounds like Daleks but without the bumps and egg whisk and toilet plunger, right? Regardless, there doesn't seem to be much wiggle room in this scenario.

Even if that's so, the cavalier, throwaway manner in which the question was handled did it no justice. If you're going to tell a story that has a complex ethical dilemma like that, you should actually make your story about that instead of just tossing it aside in two or three lines after 40 minutes of slow-paced action.

Yeah, of the first four "Time Squad" is the weakest and the use of "Time" in the title is vague at best, referring perhaps to the killers being in suspended animation and not anything directly relevant.

Well, yes, that's clear enough. Suspended-animation stories have always been considered a sort of subset of time-travel fiction, because they involve characters traveling into their future.

But I will say this: Please do not give up on the show after "The Web".

Seconded. "The Web" is easily the worst of the season, so it's uphill from there. Mostly.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Jumping back a bit to the first three episodes - it occurred to me that, subconsciously, Terry Nation may have been thinking in terms of the Federation being like the British Empire and the prisoners being shipped off to Cygnus Alpha would be the same as prisoners being transported to Australia from England in the 1800s - hence the long voyage. Heck, we even get 'seaweed' in the fifth episode.