Rewatching Blake's 7

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

  1. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    What were the upgrades to the sets or where they more behind the scenes such as improving the rigidity?
     
  2. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    The Flight Deck has some slight cosmetic changes; the studio floor is now different, and Zen is slightly changed, such as he isn't as bright as he was, and his alcove seems slightly different. A few other tweaks here and there.
     
  3. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Considering how the automatic repairs worked, like magic, which probably went double for the self cleaning, the ship should have been able to redecorate at whim.

    Taking into account where this ship is from, what the frakk is with the Wardrobe and the vault?

    Although Liberator was probably from the old guard before the machine took over, and that's what the big fight was about when the London found it?
     
  4. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    I'd never considered that. Considering Cygnus Alpha was nowhere near the 12th Sector I find it unlikely it was part of a rebellion against the System, although those red engined pursuit ships could've chased DSV2 and other rebel vessels into our space.

    The vault and clothing could either have been from the human crew or spoils of war.
     
  5. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    The system don’t seem the type to be interested in the spoils of war. It’s interesting because if I remember correctly Liberator has only just been involved in a battle when it encounters the London (although to be fair I guess it could have been drifting for decades for all we know and it just drifted through the battle)

    Side tracking the thread for a moment, I saw Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Jan Chappell, Sally Knyvette, Steven Greif and Brian Croucher on Saturday! Got Blake Cally and Jenna’s autographs (Got Darrow’s last year and frankly my budget wouldn’t stretch to the Travises!) Then sat in on a panel with them all. Was really interesting, but just a few points of interest.

    - Gareth Thomas looks very old now :( I know he is, but given Darrow’s actually a couple of years older and Greif is, I believe, the same age as Gareth he looked and acted a lot older than both of them, and kept hanging his head a lot in the panel, I did wonder if he’d nodded off at some points!

    - Sally Knyvette is great, bubbly and friendly and very enthusiastic and she was probably the biggest surprise for me.

    - Jan Chappell is a little…odd…she was really fixated about people taking photos, and during the panel got the host to tell everyone to stop taking photos, and even after this she had a go at someone in the front row who she thought was still filming/photographing them all. Now I fully understand if she has issues, maybe it’s a copyright issue, and maybe it’s a vanity one (I asked her during the signing session if I could take a snap of her and Sally as I’d missed out on getting a ticket for the official photo session, and she said no “Too old now”. Like I say not a problem but she should have made this clear to the guy hosting the panel beforehand as he’d told everyone they could take photos as long as they didn’t use the flash. Paul tried to get her to relax and Sally just rolled her eyes a bit as if this wasn’t something new.

    -Paul Darrow is still sharp as a tack, very quick witted

    - I’m not sure if there’s any history between the two Travises, but whenever Croucher was talking I was watching Greif and his body language was interesting to say the least. Greif comes across very thoughtful and articulate, Croucher is very much like he appears on screen, and he claimed he didn’t understand the scripts much!

    All in all it was interesting, although there is a bit of a moral about never meeting your heroes for me, particularly with regard to Chappell, that said like I say Sally Knyvette more than made up for this. Really autograph wise the only two I’d be desperate to get now would be Steven Pacey and Jaqueline Pearce, sadly I suspect I’ll never get to see the Supreme Commander as I believe she’s living in south Africa now and hasn’t been well for
    several years :(

    This is probably the best photo I was able to get of all of them

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    A ships vault in that capacity would have been used for commerce and creating diplomatic relationships with alien governments (as a prelude to invasion?)... Or immediate trade for unforeseen deficiencies in the ships resources, like antiradiation medicine.

    Money is softley, softley before whoever was supposed to be Captain starts warming up the main guns.

    On Enteprise the Ferengi could not imagine how Enterprise wouldn't have a vault... 2 years later, Archer had to strip the ships plumbing for platinum to pay off some despot when he was in a stupid crunch to destroy the Xindi.
     
  7. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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  8. Starkers

    Starkers Admiral Admiral

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    Gareth Thomas is definitely carrying a bit too much weight, but I'm won't castigate him for that because I've done the same myself from time to time and the older you get the harder it can be to keep your weight down.
     
  9. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    There's never a timeframe established, but it's assumed one season of the show equates to one year of real time.

    That said, DSV1 (or whatever that other ship was) was of the same design lineage as the Liberator; even after a few years you might expect some changes so I'd guess the Liberator was only recently lost to the System.

    It's possible the System used human 'hosts' to pilot the vessels, which would necessitate a wardrobe of clothing. Would also explain why they abandoned the ship prior to being found by the System; a Borg-like drone would stay right till the end. It's also possible they were ordered off the ship by Zen for safety reasons, considering he did the same thing to our heroes in 'Aftermath'.

    On Spaceworld we only saw the two Alta as computer controlled drones; the slaves were quite human looking. Even the guards seem to behave like humans being given orders, even though we never saw their faces.
     
  10. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Wasn't there an alien presence on board the Liberator when Blake & Co first bordered her that played mind games with people.

    It's possible that it could have lead to the crew going made and taking themselves out or I guess Zen could have ordered them off.

    Can't remember if there were any comments about escape pods unaccounted for.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The problem I had with the wardrobe is the massive schism in design.

    On a star fleet ship (On a US Aircraft carrier today!) there would have been four choices of uniform. basically the same design, except in different colours and different sizes (yes and mini dresses if it's TOS era.). It's about function and establishing identity and uniformity.

    Are we supposed to believe that the endless Lady Gagaesque parade of outfits that wardrobe produced were all "Uniforms" that each denoted class, rank, and area to which that crew is servicing the ship by a meritocracy created by the system?

    Also, if they were uniforms, there would have been dozens or hundred of copies of the same "costume" available for wear, but they NEVER all/some of them wore the same thing, even on different days.

    Imagine if Villa and Avon wore the same thing to work on the command deck one morning?

    (Then it may have been the espionage section where the spies go to get their under cover clothes to infiltrate the next civilization on the list of nearby civilizations to infiltrate.)
     
  12. ROBE

    ROBE Commander Red Shirt

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    Maybe the clothing was for Away Teams to blend in with the natives. If you were doing the series now they would probably have machines that acted like advanced 3D printers that made clothing as instructed.
     
  13. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Left overs from past missions?

    So they didn't find the wardrobe, they found the dirty linen hamper?
     
  14. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    That was an automated defense system to ward off intruders. Blake's mental conditioning was able to avoid being influenced by it. It appeared again in 'Dawn of the Gods'. Basically it's highly unlikely it would attack it's own crew.

    Avon mentions life rocket launch control has been activated whilst investigating the flight deck in 'Space Fall'.
     
  15. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Yea, as unlikely as it is, it even leaves room for "someone" to have left Liberator there for him, or arranged for such, "Knowing" what he would become in the Fight against The Federation (Though obviously more likely the crew bailed in what turned out to a convenient time and place for Blake, et al.)

    Damn, I'm within a hair's breath of stopping my Doctor Who Run (Started Pertwee a couple months back and now up to T. Baker Horror of Fang Rock) to watch Blake's 7 again.
     
  16. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    There is the audio play Escape Velocity which details the events leading up to the discovery of the Liberator in 'Space Fall'. I'm trying to get hold of a copy as I know next to nothing about it.
     
  17. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    B02: SHADOW

    The first non-Nation script is good (it's a Boucher script so naturally...) but Orac's abilities continue to border on the supernatural. The Terra Nostra storyline is entertaining, as is the portrayal of the harsh brutality of drug use. Cally's storyline just seems to be there to pad out the episode, and gets in the way of the main plot. Blake is starting to switch from freedom fighter to fanatic...
     
  18. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

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    At least I only have 52 episodes to get through! :)
     
  19. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    It was made by B7 Productions who did the re-imagined Blakes 7 radio dramas.

    Basically it works on the premise from the radio drama that original crew of the Liberator was "conditioned" with their individuality supressed.

    But one day some-one starts to remember and it leads to a mutiny.

    To slot it into the original continuity it would fit into Redemption after the System recaptured the Liberator in Redemption.
     
  20. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Well, that's all I'll have, too, once I make the switch :alienblush:

    :devil:

    I watch DVD sets as background, if I've seen it before. So, I'll get through at least 2-4 episodes a Day of B7 :alienblush: