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Well, there's always the Kaldor City audios once Darrow joins...
Metafiction has "Kaston Iago" basically call out key events of B7 as his backstory, including being a computer genius who defrauded a Galactic Federation of millions and teamed up with a revolutionary aboard an alien spaceship.
Metafiction has "Kaston Iago" basically call out key events of B7 as his backstory, including being a computer genius who defrauded a Galactic Federation of millions and teamed up with a revolutionary aboard an alien spaceship.
Paul Darrow used to be the actor I imagined as Iago when I read Othello, but I changed my mind after seeing Bob Hoskins's brilliant turn in the role in the BBC series I mentioned above. What makes Iago's schemes work is that his compatriots trust him completely and don't suspect for a moment that he's lying and manipulating them, and Hoskins's cheerful, jovial Iago conveys that perfectly (until he's alone and turns into a gleefully sadistic schemer). Avon is too blatantly calculating and devious, not the sort people would be inclined to trust implicitly -- particularly when he goes around announcing "I'll probably betray you soon" at the drop of a hat.
I got their complete Blu-ray set with both Season 1 and 2. Oddly, season 1 plays fine in my multi region player, but Season 2 is locked for Region B. I'll eventually need to get a new player for it. But not in a rush because it's season 2!
Set arrived yesterday, and watched the first two episodes!
Small premise: in Italy this series was never broadcast, so I learned of its existence relatively recently. So I have no particular memories of it or feelings of nostalgia for it. I tried to approach it with an understanding of the historical period in which it was produced. I also watched it immediately with the new FX. Yes, I know, for a question of purism I should have watched it with the FX of the time, but there is a limit even for me!
The first thing that catches the eye is the way they act: they look like they are performing a play on stage. I don't have much experience with English productions of the time, but it seems to have been a fairly common way. I'm not just talking about the way they recite lines, but how they always stand in a three-quarter position in favor of an "imaginary" theater audience during a dialogue. Today a profile position is preferred in favor of greater "realism".
In the first episode we meet our titular hero (uh spoiler?) who lives in the classic ultra-controlled dystopian society that was so fashionable in the 70s. They also talk about suppressant drugs put in food and drinks, but maybe that's just excessive paranoia on the part of one of the characters. The weird thing is that many of the characters don't know they're living in a dystopia. At one point a lawyer and his wife show up, two people who seem very intelligent and hang out with important people who suddenly realize "Wait, we live in a tyrannical society straight out of 1984?!? No way!"
Usually people who live in a dictatorship know that they, well, live there. It's just a matter of survival. There was a reason all those people were fleeing East Germany.
Anyway, our Hero Blake was once some kind of important leader. Then he was brainwashed. It's been 4 years since then and he's the only one who doesn't know. Kind of weird considering everyone he meets in the episode is starstruck by him. Has that never happened before in 4 years?
So, he gets framed for pedophilia and the like. Obviously, kids have been brainwashed to have their testimonies. But it seems like no one really cares about 3 kids traumatized by an experience of sexual violence, virtual or real. They are all interested in saving or making our hero disappear. The 70s were truly a different time. I suspect that in the context of the story it is not as serious a crime as we perceive it today.
So, our hero is put in prison awaiting deportation. An incredibly permissive prison, especially considering the society they live in. Prisoners are allowed to keep watches, jewelry, I think I saw wallets, items of clothing like belts etc etc. It just seems ridiculous from a security standpoint.
Another point that leaves me perplexed, considering that it's the 70s and not the 50s, how everyone is surprised that there is a female prisoner. In a room with, I don't know, 30-40 people she is the only woman. It's such an unexpected thing that even on the ship that takes them to the other planet they explain that unfortunately they don't have facilities divided by sex. And obviously the crew is all male.
I was a bit perplexed. The series is from 1978, but already in 1999 (broadcast years before) they had done a better job in representing a certain gender equality. I mean, women can be criminals too! Is it implied that an oppressive society is naturally also sexist, or is it simply something that didn't even occur to the writers?
Finally the spaceship arrives (the one we see in the opening credits)! And judging by the FX, it is HUGE. The prisoner ship, which at first glance seems as big as a modern airliner, is simply tiny in comparison. Our hero, the only female and two others run away with it! I guess to go get the other 3 to complete the 7 of the title.
I have to say I liked it! Obviously it has an almost glacial pace compared to modern productions, but maybe given my age I appreciated it. I don't know if the blu-ray does justice to a production of this kind. Some sets were simply embarrassing. Seeing in high definition a peeling wallpaper in an office or an ultra-technological door with the paint peeling off and you can see under the wood on an 83 inch sometimes distracts from the flow of the story. Probably these series to enjoy them should be seen on a tiny CRT. Possibly also badly tuned.
I'm very curious to know what direction this series will take! I've managed to remain relatively spoiler-free over the years and I think that the holidays are a good opportunity to see the rest of the episodes!
Uh, little question, hoping someone can answer without giving too many spoilers: in the second episode (when the Liberator appears) it is constantly repeated how no one has ever seen a spaceship like that, how it is totally alien, etc etc. But Jenna has no problem at all driving it. In fact, with a simple glance at a console she reports that all the escape pods have been launched.
Is this something that will be explained in subsequent episodes..?
By episode 3 it's possible there may be something else at work, let me know when you get that far.
It's worth noting that the Federation gets portrayed very differently as time goes on, and it's more obviously a dictatorship the further down the line you get. I think there clearly is something in the food and water that makes people more pliable, and people are conditioned to think society is fairer than it actually is. Take Blake's trial. This is a very public affair, there's evidence etc. Yes it's forged evidence but its there all the same.
On a side note someone on Rebrubble I think produces a t-shirt that lists Blake's charges I'm not buying that!
I think if you were making it now there'd be more women on the London for sure, and definitely women in the crew. A (female) friend of mine argues it is ridiculous that there's only Jenna there. It was a very different time though, especially in the UK. That said even if you look at the UK prison population now it's 96% blokes. You could also argue, based on something else you'll come across in a few episodes time, that maybe a different fate awaits female prisoners...
I think if you were making it now there'd be more women on the London for sure, and definitely women in the crew. A (female) friend of mine argues it is ridiculous that there's only Jenna there. It was a very different time though, especially in the UK. That said even if you look at the UK prison population now it's 96% blokes. You could also argue, based on something else you'll come across in a few episodes time, that maybe a different fate awaits female prisoners...
You made good points. What struck me was the surprise of the characters to see a woman among the prisoners. Even considering the modern percentages of female convicted criminals, there should have been at least 1-2 for each trip. Perhaps the implication that the deportation penalty is not often used for women, but I don't think anyone said that in the two episodes. Also, the percentage you said refers to real criminals, but it seems to me that in the world of Blake 7 there are also many political prisoners and there the male/female ratio should be more balanced.
Incidentally, the episode mentions that Blake as a revolutionary also had a certain success and following. If people were convinced they lived in a just and free society, what did they think he was fighting for? He should have been immediately believed to be a mythomaniac visionary, right?
I think you're definitely right, there should have been more women. I guess setting aside the inherent misogyny, it would have also detracted a little from Jenna being special, certainly might have removed the unsettling Raiker dimension.
I think you're definitely right, there should have been more women. I guess setting aside the inherent misogyny, it would have also detracted a little from Jenna being special, certainly might have removed the unsettling Raiker dimension.
I don't know if this is a spoiler, but in this universe is deportation the only punishment? Or is it reserved for special cases? Maybe women are given a different type of punishment and Jenna is truly the exception.
When you get to episode 7, Duel, you'll see one of the other options the Federation has- technically it doesn't only apply to women, although most of the instances we see are women.
When you get to episode 7, Duel, you'll see one of the other options the Federation has- technically it doesn't only apply to women, although most of the instances we see are women.
The first thing that catches the eye is the way they act: they look like they are performing a play on stage. I don't have much experience with English productions of the time, but it seems to have been a fairly common way. I'm not just talking about the way they recite lines, but how they always stand in a three-quarter position in favor of an "imaginary" theater audience during a dialogue. Today a profile position is preferred in favor of greater "realism".
Oh, yes. I've been watching this around the same time I was watching the complete BBC Television Shakespeare that also began in 1978, and they very much have the same style and flavor of BBC shows from that era, also including Doctor Who, obviously. Very stagey, performed almost as live on video with minimal edits and retakes, except for the prefilmed location segments and the odd interior shot on film at Ealing Studios when elaborate stage effects or stunts were called for. (And sometimes maybe just because they ran out of room at the Television Centre. "Mission to Destiny" is odd because some parts of the featured spaceship interior are on video and others are on film, for no apparent reason.)
In the first episode we meet our titular hero (uh spoiler?) who lives in the classic ultra-controlled dystopian society that was so fashionable in the 70s. They also talk about suppressant drugs put in food and drinks, but maybe that's just excessive paranoia on the part of one of the characters.
The weird thing is that many of the characters don't know they're living in a dystopia. At one point a lawyer and his wife show up, two people who seem very intelligent and hang out with important people who suddenly realize "Wait, we live in a tyrannical society straight out of 1984?!? No way!"
I think that makes sense in context of what Chris Boucher establishes later in Series B about the society having a division of classes from the elite Alphas down to the menial Deltas and possibly lower. There are a lot of real-world societies that feel free and egalitarian to the privileged social or ethnic classes but feel fascist and oppressive to the lower-status groups. (I've seen it said that dystopian fiction is fiction where heterosexual white men are treated the way minorities are treated in real life.)
Usually people who live in a dictatorship know that they, well, live there. It's just a matter of survival. There was a reason all those people were fleeing East Germany.
I think the idea was more that the Federation was a democratic society that had been taken over by corruption. As the series goes on, you'll see recurring tension between Federation officials who believe that the rule of law means something and ones who are corrupt and self-serving.
Anyway, our Hero Blake was once some kind of important leader. Then he was brainwashed. It's been 4 years since then and he's the only one who doesn't know. Kind of weird considering everyone he meets in the episode is starstruck by him. Has that never happened before in 4 years?
So, he gets framed for pedophilia and the like. Obviously, kids have been brainwashed to have their testimonies. But it seems like no one really cares about 3 kids traumatized by an experience of sexual violence, virtual or real. They are all interested in saving or making our hero disappear. The 70s were truly a different time. I suspect that in the context of the story it is not as serious a crime as we perceive it today.
No, I think the whole point in the plot was that it was such a shocking and disgusting crime that it would destroy Blake's reputation as a civic hero. And it was a controversial enough story element at the time that it was swept under the rug after episode 2 and never mentioned again. It's not that cultural values were different, it's just that Terry Nation made a poor storytelling choice by not giving such a disturbing element the emotional weight it required. We're always so quick to read everything from the past as "a product of its time," but that's reductionistic. There are always things that are considered bad decisions even by the standards of their time.
Really, one thing I've noticed about the show, especially in Series A, is how emotionally reserved all the characters tend to be. It's very stiff-upper-lip, with the characters' only emotional modes tending to be coolly observant, snarkily irritated, or dryly witty, sometimes all at once. So the failure to address the horror of what the state did to those children is just part and parcel of the show's overall coolness and detachment about its dystopian subject matter.
So, our hero is put in prison awaiting deportation. An incredibly permissive prison, especially considering the society they live in. Prisoners are allowed to keep watches, jewelry, I think I saw wallets, items of clothing like belts etc etc. It just seems ridiculous from a security standpoint.
Another point that leaves me perplexed, considering that it's the 70s and not the 50s, how everyone is surprised that there is a female prisoner. In a room with, I don't know, 30-40 people she is the only woman. It's such an unexpected thing that even on the ship that takes them to the other planet they explain that unfortunately they don't have facilities divided by sex. And obviously the crew is all male.
I was a bit perplexed. The series is from 1978, but already in 1999 (broadcast years before) they had done a better job in representing a certain gender equality. I mean, women can be criminals too! Is it implied that an oppressive society is naturally also sexist, or is it simply something that didn't even occur to the writers?
I think B7 was about on a par with your typical '70s show in attempting to depict gender equality in the future. Later episodes will introduce more female regulars and semi-regulars who fill traditionally male action or authority roles, and there will be plenty of female guests in such positions too -- although it will be imperfect, of course, and the female leads will often be marginalized or reduced to traditional roles.
But it doesn't seem odd to me that a hardcore prison population would've been portrayed as mostly male. Maybe the norm was that female prisoners were confined in separate facilities, though that would make it a mystery why Jenna was confined with the men.
Finally the spaceship arrives (the one we see in the opening credits)! And judging by the FX, it is HUGE. The prisoner ship, which at first glance seems as big as a modern airliner, is simply tiny in comparison. Our hero, the only female and two others run away with it! I guess to go get the other 3 to complete the 7 of the title.
Uh, little question, hoping someone can answer without giving too many spoilers: in the second episode (when the Liberator appears) it is constantly repeated how no one has ever seen a spaceship like that, how it is totally alien, etc etc. But Jenna has no problem at all driving it. In fact, with a simple glance at a console she reports that all the escape pods have been launched.
It's actually Avon who notices that the "life rocket launch control" had been activated, though it's unclear how he can tell that. Jenna says she might eventually figure out how to make the ship start and stop, and Blake gives her two minutes to figure it out. So it's not quite as simple as that.
Incidentally, the first use of the term "escape pod" in a science fiction context was in Star Wars less than a year before this, so you won't hear them use the term in B7, only terms like "life rocket" and "life support capsule." (The only pre-Star Wars uses I've found were in aviation journals referring to an eject system for jet fighter pilots.)
It's worth noting that the Federation gets portrayed very differently as time goes on, and it's more obviously a dictatorship the further down the line you get.
the focus shifts more to the military under Servalan and their more overt oppression on the frontier worlds. "Trial" basically establishes that the military is effectively running the Federation even though it's nominally a civilian-run democracy. And it often seems that people on Earth aren't fully aware of what goes on in the outer worlds.
the Mutoids, right? It's interesting that in their debut, there was one male and one female Mutoid on Travis's ship, but afterward they were nearly all women. I wonder if the original intent was to have a more even gender mix, but Carol Royle made such an impression as the Mutoid in "Arena""Fun and Games" "Duel" that they kept writing them as female from then on.
Oh, yes. I've been watching this around the same time I was watching the complete BBC Television Shakespeare that also began in 1978, and they very much have the same style and flavor of BBC shows from that era, also including Doctor Who, obviously. Very stagey, performed almost as live on video with minimal edits and retakes, except for the prefilmed location segments and the odd interior shot on film at Ealing Studios when elaborate stage effects or stunts were called for. (And sometimes maybe just because they ran out of room at the Television Centre. "Mission to Destiny" is odd because some parts of the featured spaceship interior are on video and others are on film, for no apparent reason.)
I thought so too, but episode 2 confirms their existence. Still, they get forgotten later on.
I think that makes sense in context of what Chris Boucher establishes later in Series B about the society having a division of classes from the elite Alphas down to the menial Deltas and possibly lower. There are a lot of real-world societies that feel free and egalitarian to the privileged social or ethnic classes but feel fascist and oppressive to the lower-status groups. (I've seen it said that dystopian fiction is fiction where heterosexual white men are treated the way minorities are treated in real life.)
I think the idea was more that the Federation was a democratic society that had been taken over by corruption. As the series goes on, you'll see recurring tension between Federation officials who believe that the rule of law means something and ones who are corrupt and self-serving.
Yeah, that's a very distracting logic hole that I called out in my Patreon review.
No, I think the whole point in the plot was that it was such a shocking and disgusting crime that it would destroy Blake's reputation as a civic hero. And it was a controversial enough story element at the time that it was swept under the rug after episode 2 and never mentioned again. It's not that cultural values were different, it's just that Terry Nation made a poor storytelling choice by not giving such a disturbing element the emotional weight it required. We're always so quick to read everything from the past as "a product of its time," but that's reductionistic. There are always things that are considered bad decisions even by the standards of their time.
Really, one thing I've noticed about the show, especially in Series A, is how emotionally reserved all the characters tend to be. It's very stiff-upper-lip, with the characters' only emotional modes tending to be coolly observant, snarkily irritated, or dryly witty, sometimes all at once. So the failure to address the horror of what the state did to those children is just part and parcel of the show's overall coolness and detachment about its dystopian subject matter.
As you'll see, those things will make little difference where they're going.
I think B7 was about on a par with your typical '70s show in attempting to depict gender equality in the future. Later episodes will introduce more female regulars and semi-regulars who fill traditionally male action or authority roles, and there will be plenty of female guests in such positions too -- although it will be imperfect, of course, and the female leads will often be marginalized or reduced to traditional roles.
But it doesn't seem odd to me that a hardcore prison population would've been portrayed as mostly male. Maybe the norm was that female prisoners were confined in separate facilities, though that would make it a mystery why Jenna was confined with the men.
Two others? No, it's only Blake, Avon, and Jenna who board in "Space Fall."
It's actually Avon who notices that the "life rocket launch control" had been activated, though it's unclear how he can tell that. Jenna says she might eventually figure out how to make the ship start and stop, and Blake gives her two minutes to figure it out. So it's not quite as simple as that.
Incidentally, the first use of the term "escape pod" in a science fiction context was in Star Wars less than a year before this, so you won't hear them use the term in B7, only terms like "life rocket" and "life support capsule." (The only pre-Star Wars uses I've found were in aviation journals referring to an eject system for jet fighter pilots.)
But that's because
the focus shifts more to the military under Servalan and their more overt oppression on the frontier worlds. "Trial" basically establishes that the military is effectively running the Federation even though it's nominally a civilian-run democracy. And it often seems that people on Earth aren't fully aware of what goes on in the outer worlds.
Oh, you're talking about
the Mutoids, right? It's interesting that in their debut, there was one male and one female Mutoid on Travis's ship, but afterward they were nearly all women. I wonder if the original intent was to have a more even gender mix, but Carol Royle made such an impression as the Mutoid in "Arena""Fun and Games" "Duel" that they kept writing them as female from then on.
Excellent analysis. I just disagree that attitudes toward sexual acts with prepubescent minors have not changed over the years. I mean, it took almost 40 years for the condemnation of what Roman Polasky did with that poor 13 year old to be almost unanimous!
This, for example, is an article about how many French intellectuals have abused young girls while also boasting about it publicly.
Excellent analysis. I just disagree that attitudes toward sexual acts with prepubescent minors have not changed over the years. I mean, it took almost 40 years for the condemnation of what Roman Polasky did with that poor 13 year old to be almost unanimous!
To an extent, yes, but it's relative. It's not like people were perfectly fine with it; as I said, the whole reason the bad guys did it in "The Way Back" was because it redefined Blake as a sleazy pervert rather than a noble fighter against oppression. Maybe it wasn't seen as quite as monstrous as we see it today, but it's a matter of degree.
I'm not saying attitudes haven't changed; I'm saying it's facile to assume everything in a past story is a "product of its time" rather than something that would've been controversial or questionable even at the time. Such generalizations only get in the way of understanding things on a case-by-case basis. The fact that they dropped all references to the pedophilia charges against Blake after episode 2 proves that it wasn't seen as something neutral at the time. It was an uncomfortable subject that they decided it was better to retcon away.
Oh, I almost forgot! Even though certain death awaited them on the destination planet (I have no idea), they spend quite a bit of time both in the temporary prison on Earth and 8 months on the spaceship. Leaving them with all those personal items seems like a pretty significant security risk to me.
Oh, I almost forgot! Even though certain death awaited them on the destination planet (I have no idea), they spend quite a bit of time both in the temporary prison on Earth and 8 months on the spaceship. Leaving them with all those personal items seems like a pretty significant security risk to me.
Well, that must explain why they have the exact same haircuts (and wardrobe) after the 4-month time jump mid-episode. They needed those items for personal grooming.
Speaking of which, the trip to Cygnus Alpha is supposed to be 8 months in all, and at the end of "Space Fall" we're only 4 months in, yet "Cygnus Alpha" picks up almost immediately in its aftermath, yet opens with the London only 48 minutes from its destination. I double-checked, and there's no story break at all between the "4 months" reference and the end of "Space Fall," so there's simply nowhere to insert those subsequent 4 months. Yet "Cygnus Alpha" reiterates that it's supposedly been an 8-month trip. It's as big a contradiction as Blake being famous without knowing it.
If there's one thing that Terry Nation writing the entire first series of B7 drove home to me, it's that Terry Nation wasn't that great a writer. His work was prone to major plot and logic holes, and I generally find Chris Boucher's episodes much better. Nation also wasn't much with character names. Tel Varon, Dev Tarrant, Del Grant, Del Tarrant, etc.
Speaking of character names, it's interesting that Vila is the only male regular in the show who's normally addressed by first name (Vila Restal) instead of by surname (Roj Blake, Kerr Avon, Olag Gan).
Uh, little question, hoping someone can answer without giving too many spoilers: in the second episode (when the Liberator appears) it is constantly repeated how no one has ever seen a spaceship like that, how it is totally alien, etc etc. But Jenna has no problem at all driving it. In fact, with a simple glance at a console she reports that all the escape pods have been launched.
Is this something that will be explained in subsequent episodes..?
iirc it was combination of the basics of space flight being fairly standard, pushing buttons to see what happens and there was probably some help from Zen
aeon.co
