TV on Tape: Blake's Seven Movie Review

Key writers behind Doctor Who concocted this leaner, meaner sci-fi adventure which might accurately be called the anti-Star Trek.

Instead of a touchy-feely crew of super-competent comrades, this has future freedom-fighter Blake in an alliance of convenience with a band of cutthroats and rogues (who threaten to murder one another at least once per episode), piloting the advanced spaceship Liberator on raids against an evil empire known as…The Federation. Sure, it's got the impoverished production values of many a BBC serial, and the colossal cosmic clash at the climax of episode 26 looks like something out of Hardware Wars. But characters are well conceived, with a surprisingly high mortality rate thanks to actors regularly exiting the series (Gareth Thomas himself departed after two seasons, leaving half of Blake's Seven Blakeless).

BBC executives did not like the show, and its unforgettable finale is designed to leave no possibility for revival. Ever. A Vampire Lestat-ish cult following of female sf fans developed a crush on co-star Paul Darrow, who plays the ambitious criminal antihero Avon with Richard III panache. For the guys there's Jacqueline Pearce's vulpine haute-couture villainess Servalan. Each volume in the 26-cassette set contains two episodes.

1978–81/C GB Selected cast: Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, David Jackson, Jan Chappell, Jaqueline Pearce. Directors: Michael E. Briant, Vere Lorrimer. VHS VCO, TVC, MOV