How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyond"?

[Candlelight]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Joe Straczynski's a fan of B7 as well. There are certain themes in B5 that are very obvious nods to the show.

Like the shape of the Excalibur and how the crew would eventually (had the show continued) become renegades...

 

[Mysterion]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Despite the uneven first half of the series, I highly recommend S:AAB.

Have only seen some of Blake's 7, but liked what I saw. Would really appreciate a R1 DVD release someday.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Blakes 7, It's BLAKES 7 not Blake's 7

This is the only instance where I get to be anti-gramatically correct!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Blakes 7, It's BLAKES 7 not Blake's 7

This is the only instance where I get to be anti-gramatically correct!

The BBC's own website disagrees with you...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/blakes7/

 

[Candlelight]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Granted the title does say Blakes 7, but everyone I've spoken to says the 7 "belong" to him, hence the apostrophe.

 

[Admiral2]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

I think these are the only three major, fairly well regarded SF shows of the last 30-40 years that I haven't really seen at all. Don't think I've seen a single frame of either Blake's 7 or Odyssey 5. S:AAB, I saw maybe one episode, when it was in its first run in 1995. I was preoccupied with several other running series at the time, and the one episode didn't hook me, so I never went back to it.

Anyway, those of you who have seen one or more of these three shows, how do they stack up against your favorite SF series through the ages? Are these shows among your favorites, or are they just good but not great, or are they just mediocre?

S:AAB-One of my favorites.

Odyssey 5: Boring and too full of itself.

Blake's 7-Never seen.

 

[KB24]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Blake's 7 is probably my favorite tv show ever and yet I have never actually met another person in real life who even knows what I mean. If this sentence doesn't explain its greatness, nothing will.

I didn't see Odyssey 5. Space Above and Beyond has its flaws, but it was a lot better than most of the sf at the time.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Granted the title does say Blakes 7, but everyone I've spoken to says the 7 "belong" to him, hence the apostrophe.

Yeah I know it should be Blake's 7, but the title of the show is actually Blakes 7. I was being sarcastic as I can be a bit of a nazi for inserting apostrophes that have been missed out. Blakes 7 is the only one where I don't do that

Anyone seen Blakes Junction 7 by the way?

 

[Australis]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Never saw S: AAB, except for maybe 5 minutes.

O5 was pretty good, had a lot of potential. They were changing history, and each week they were on more and more uncertain ground. Interesting. Note that O5's EP was Manny Coto, who took over ENT for S4.

B7 was the anti-Trek of its day. Great story line, Very dark.. Can't imagine current shows having a final ep like theirs.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Never saw S: AAB, except for maybe 5 minutes.

O5 was pretty good, had a lot of potential. They were changing history, and each week they were on more and more uncertain ground. Interesting. Note that O5's EP was Manny Coto, who took over ENT for S4.

B7 was the anti-Trek of its day. Great story line, Very dark.. Can't imagine current shows having a final ep like theirs.

Angel's final ep was kinda similar although a bit more upbeat.

 

[Steve Roby]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Space Above and Beyond has its flaws, but it was a lot better than most of the sf at the time.

In 1995, the big currently running SF TV shows were Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The X-Files. S:AAB was not nearly as good as any of them. IMHO, of course.

 

[Pindar]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Anyone seen Blakes Junction 7 by the way?

Yes, it's fantastic, the other shorts on the DVD are also hilarious.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Mark Heap is supernaturally good as Avon, and Mackenzie Crook as Servalan is just wrong, Wrong, WRONG!

 

[Pindar]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Mark Heap is supernaturally good as Avon, and Mackenzie Crook as Servalan is just wrong, Wrong, WRONG!

He captures her inherent Hotness spectacularly.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

WRONG!

 

[Forbin]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Space: Above and Beyond [/I]is that most of the first half of the series is godawful-to-fair, with war-movie cliches (and X-Files-era SFTV cliches) galore, while much of the second half--certainly the last third--is great. Which one wouldn't see if one quite reasonably ditched the series during the first half. (I would go so far as to say that if you watch "Mutiny," "Who Monitors the Birds," "The Angriest Angel," "And If They Lay Us Down to Rest..." and "...Tell Our Moms We Done Our Best," you've hit the best of the series.)

That's as accurate an analysis as I could have given it. In fact, I DID dump it after the first few episodes. But then when I checked in later in the series, I was stunned - STUNNED I say! - by the improvements in quality all around.

The only thing that always bothered me was that it was set TOO near-future, in 2070. I couldn't remotely believe we'd advance to the point of interstellar battle fleets and human-looking AI androids in so short a time. They should have added a hundred years to the setting.

 

[WillsBabe]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Anyone seen Blakes Junction 7 by the way?

Yes, it's fantastic, the other shorts on the DVD are also hilarious.

I almost brought it in a batch of dvds for my Christmas and New Year holiday viewing, but in the end I decided against it. I must add it to my wish list again.

 

[Starkers]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

Anyone seen Blakes Junction 7 by the way?

Yes, it's fantastic, the other shorts on the DVD are also hilarious.

I almost brought it in a batch of dvds for my Christmas and New Year holiday viewing, but in the end I decided against it. I must add it to my wish list again.

It's worth it, but I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it, got it on Play for about a fiver I think!

 

[auntiehill]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

I LOVE Blake's 7 (I put in the apostrophe just to be contrary).

The show didn't hit the States until I was a teenager, and WOW, is that the perfect show for a teenage geek. Avon was the perfect anti-hero to Blake's "Robin Hood" idealism. It took Trek's idea of the noble "Federation" and turned it into a fascist dystopia.

The dialogue was fast and witty and some of the characters are just fascinating. OK, the special effects and costumes were often laughable. Some of the plots were fairly useless, and really, all that mattered was how the main characters would react.

There was one episode--forget the title; it was the one where Dayne was first introduced. Avon and Servalan are trapped together in a room, and beginning circling each other like wolves. They threaten each other, flirt with each other, try to bribe each other---all while getting closer and closer.

Or, in "Orbit," when Avon is presented with the decision of risking his own life, or throwing Vila out an airlock.

That's pretty awesome stuff.

 

[Candlelight]

Re: How good are "Blake's 7", "Odyssey 5", and "Space: Above and Beyon

There was one episode--forget the title; it was the one where Dayne was first introduced. Avon and Servalan are trapped together in a room, and beginning circling each other like wolves. They threaten each other, flirt with each other, try to bribe each other---all while getting closer and closer.

Aftermath, the season three opener.

Sorry, Series C.