Yeah, I can see that. My problem is that I have no feelings of nostalgia for B7. It was my first time watching it.
The only reason to buy the blu-rays is for the updated special effects and documentaries. If none of that interests you, you can watch it on BritBox. And if you find you're not liking season 2, then stop.
Uh, I'm in Italy. We don't have BritBox here
It might be on other country's BritBoxes, but it's not on the US version. They pulled it right after the Blu-Rays came out.
It look like the series is available on AppleTV+ and Amazon but only via subscription/rental.
So, should I give B7 another chance and venture into the second season, or program, or B, or whatever?
It's really tricky to say. In almost every way* Series B is much better than Series A. Is that enough to make you enjoy it more though, that's the question?
The writing is better, or at least Nation doesn't have to write everything which helps, and Boucher really is the best Blakes 7 writer. I would say pound for pound it has more enjoyable episodes than rubbish ones.
Top tier is Star One, closely followed by Pressure Point and Trial (though I should warn you that Trial's A and B plots are very different!)
Next level down is Shadow, Horizon and Gambit (Gambit is a guilty pleasure of mine, but people's milage really will vary on this episode, if you lean into the camp it's wonderful, if that's not your thing it's probably awful)
Next are the perfectly serviceable, solid entries, Redemption, Weapon, Countdown, Killer (though Killer does annoy me!)
Bottom of the pile are The Keeper, Voice from the Past and Hostage. Even with these they have some positives. The Keeper gives Jenna something to do, Voice remembers Blakes was once brainwashed and Hostage has some nice space battle stuff.
So for me only three of the 13 episodes are really rubbish.
*The big downside with the series is the marginalisation of Jenna and Cally (I won't include Gan because he was already marginalised in Series A!) There are episodes where the ladies do little beyond sitting at the teleport controls! Thankfully things get a little better, at least for one of them, in Series C!
But not in Italy.
Cally gets some moments to shine in Shadow. I particularly like her little tet-a-tet with space city control...
Gan also stands up to Blake in the same episode.
Absolutely, one of the reasons I like Shadow is that it's an episode where everyone gets something to do, and most annoyingly there's a hint of what you could have done more of with Gan, namely him standing up and acting as the conscience of the crew because he's the only one appalled at Blake wanting to work with drug dealers to bring down the Federation. Next time anything like this happens Cally will have taken on that role, and to be honest will probably do it better, but still given there was often little for Jackson to do it shows what could have been.
Just as an exploration of Blake's fanaticism (and the full extend of the Federation's evil) Shadow is great, that Boucher manages to slip in a Cosmic Horror invasion from beyond, give us some memorable guest characters and still give each of the cast something is testament to how great a writer he was for this show.
Out of curiosity, what term do fans of the series use? "Second Season"? "Season B"? "Programme"?
Out of curiosity, what term do fans of the series use? "Second Season"? "Season B"? "Programme"?
The show's wiki calls it Series B. The British tend to use "series" for what Americans call a season. "Program" or "programme" means the overall show in both countries' usage, as far as I know.
Not that I've noticed. I'm not familiar with most British series, but I know that Doctor Who and Red Dwarf use numbers instead of letters (though Red Dwarf uses Roman numerals, which are technically letters).
It was a running joke on Series 19 of Taskmaster.
Jason Mantzoukas, the American playing on the show, would occasionally say "Season 19" and Greg Davis and Alex Horne would correct him by saying, "We use 'Series'."
Jason Mantzoukas, the American playing on the show, would occasionally say "Season 19" and Greg Davis and Alex Horne would correct him by saying, "We use 'Series'."
unfortunately Gan then is later on the recieving end of an Avon putdown - one I like to use, but still not good for him.
I watch a ton of British TV, probably a good third of the shows I watch are British even though I live in the US, and I've never seen another show use letters. Is there any kind of story behind why they used letters instead of numbers?
Maybe it's because British seasons are shorter than American seasons and each season tends to be self contained.
It might have to do with the irregularities of their program schedule where you wait 18 months-2 years before the next season airs.
Just speculation on my part.
It might have to do with the irregularities of their program schedule where you wait 18 months-2 years before the next season airs.
Just speculation on my part.
