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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Blake's Seven: An explanation.

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09:17 / 31.01.02

Have run into the reference more than a few times...wondering where it comes from.
Literary? Film? etc.
Is it actually a reference to William Blake proper? I know he has huge composed mythos, but am unfamiliar with it.

Please enlighten.

09:18 / 31.01.02

Fairly pants British sci-fi programe. On during the nineteen hundred and eighties.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:29 / 31.01.02

Right. For those of you who are not fucking claimed next time I'm in Brighton....

Blakes 7 was perhaps the mightiest single cultural document of this or any other century. Set in a dark future run entirely by the English upper middle classes, it portrayed the struggle of seven (well, six. Well, five sort of) people to overthrow the tyranny of a) the evil Federation (see! Star Trek lied to you) and b) uberdomme Space Command leader Servalan.

They were led by Blake. Then they weren't.

B7 covered class, sex, colonialism, more sex, posthumanism, sex, posthumanism again, sex again, miscegenation, the power struggle, the class struggle, Barthes, Foucault, Lyotard, Haraway, Stone, more queer love than you could shake a stick at, truly absurd trousers, more sex, love sweet love, Baudrillard and essentially everything you need to survive in the 21st century.

It makes my TOES waggle. Well, it would if a certain Mercurial computer programmer came through with the data.

09:33 / 31.01.02

retro / fanboy chic

as significant as Doctor Who

[ 31-01-2002: Message edited by: w1rebaby ]

09:34 / 31.01.02

quote:Originally posted by The Haus under the Ocean:
Right. For those of you who are not fucking claimed next time I'm in Brighton....

Stop associating me with the Brighton TwartSquad- I know them by association and would count them as friends, but they are not my *people* and Brighton is not my city.

quote:Originally posted by The Haus under the Ocean:

Blakes 7 was perhaps the mightiest single cultural document of this or any other century. Set in a dark future run entirely by the English upper middle classes, it portrayed the struggle of seven (well, six. Well, five sort of) people to overthrow the tyranny of a) the evil Federation (see! Star Trek lied to you) and b) uberdomme Space Command leader Servalan.

They were led by Blake. Then they weren't.

B7 covered class, sex, colonialism, more sex, posthumanism, sex, posthumanism again, sex again, miscegenation, the power struggle, the class struggle, Barthes, Foucault, Lyotard, Haraway, Stone, more queer love than you could shake a stick at, truly absurd trousers, more sex, love sweet love, Baudrillard and essentially everything you need to survive in the 21st century.

It makes my TOES waggle. Well, it would if a certain Mercurial computer programmer came through with the data.

To be honest I can hardly remember it as I was only a little tyke when it was on, so trust Haus' eloquent synopsis. Although I do remember the sets being shitter than Dr Who circa the Cybermen ...

[ 31-01-2002: Message edited by: Sauron ]

09:34 / 31.01.02

all hail servalan! (my first love....)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:34 / 31.01.02

Servilan always confused my ten-year old self by looking a little too much like Marc Almond did at the time... I know my dad fancied her rotten, but suspect my mum had a kind of thing for Tarrant.
I still think it's great even now, except that when I was a kid Vila was funny. Now he just comes across as a prick.
It has to be the first programme I ever remember where all the main characters absolutely fucking hated each other, and that was groundbreaking in itself.
(Oh, and of course, it holds all the secrets to The End Times...)

09:34 / 31.01.02

...and here I was thinking there might be a point to that bloody "Tyger" poem...blast!

Thanks for the info, though...keep it coming if you feel so inclined...I seem to have dredged up a wellspring of fond recollections
[recoils in horror]

No. Really. Thanks. I'm much less confused now.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

15:15 / 31.01.02

Ahh, Blake's Seven!

Yep, the sets were shaky as hell, yep, alien worlds tended to be represented by industrial estates or the ubiquitous BBC Gravel Pit, yep, Gareth Thomas was a bit of a wankstain, but it is still fucking deadly.

Perverts of my generation owe a mighty debt of gratitude to B7, especially to the wondrous Servilan (Jaqueline Pearce). If it wasn't for her iron grip all those developing sexual urges during the Eighties, I don't reckon dominants would be having half as much fun now.

uncle retrospective

15:49 / 31.01.02

Point of triva.
One of my first flatmates at collage was Servilan's (the actress's) neice.
and like Servilan she was a bitch who needed to be shot in the face.
thank you.
<end of vent>

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

08:31 / 01.02.02

Yeah, but you'd never be able to.

You'd have her in your sights, and then be captured or disturbed or just hesitate a fraction too long.

Over and over and over again...

08:38 / 01.02.02

A friend of a friend (yeah, yeah) who was a massive fan of the series got to know Jacqueline Pearce through writing fan-fiction (Radio 4 listeners may recall that both she and Paul Darrow acted in a B7 radio play written by fans (I think)). SHE SPENT A WEEKEND IN HIS FLAT. Turns out she spent the whole time in character. F***ing rock.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:38 / 01.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Saveloy:
SHE SPENT A WEEKEND IN HIS FLAT. Turns out she spent the whole time in character. F***ing rock.

Wait, where did I hear something like this before? (Probably Haus.) I'm sure someone told me the implausible but brilliant rumour that she does that kind of thing a lot... Nice to think so anyway, eh?

(Moving this to Film.)

[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

08:38 / 01.02.02

Might have been me, I probably mentioned it last time the subject came up. Memory not good.

08:38 / 01.02.02

actually she mentioned something similar on a recent TV interview she said something similar, she had that glint in her eye and i wasn't sure if she was serious or not.

10:38 / 01.02.02

She apparently enjoys dominating fanboys. Can't blames her. She did a spoken word at the edinburgh Fringe last year, and it's apparently very good, in a bitter-sweet sort of way.

(there's also a British film set in Africa, starring Greta Saatchi, were Servilan is standing around naked whilst the the other characters debate who gets to shag here. Nice.)

One of my flat mates apparently knew her daughter, and sehe's a spitting images. apparently the girl was equally evil.

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

10:51 / 01.02.02

Servalan - model of liberation or excuse to call women "evil" and "bitches"?

Discuss.

[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: He said he had a horrible Haus ]

13:24 / 01.02.02

The evil guy with the fucked eye, scared me shitless as a kid.
Always wanted the Blake 7 gun and wrist kit, for real. Awesome.
And that teleportation noise, fucking mad

Orac was the best character out of the seven.

Jack The Bodiless

00:22 / 02.02.02

I used to have a wee die-cast Liberator model...

The show is amazing. The scripts were phenomenal considering the shortcongis of the budget... and it has the best last episode of anything ever. Except maybe the last ever episode of Quantum Leap.

Brigade du jour

14:05 / 28.02.07

For the benefit of those who want to know - the British film set in Africa in which Servalan drops her keks is called White Mischief (1987, dir. Michael Radford). Anyway, moving on ...

Could I just quickly bring in my puppy-like ingenue enthusiasm for Blake's 7 in an attempt to refresh this five-years-stale party?

I got the DVD box sets for my girlfriend (a childhood ueber-fan) at Christmas and we've got halfway through. It's fucking brilliant! I can't blame people for remembering it as being kind of cheesy-looking and dated, given that my own vague memory of it was thus characterised, but then I have the excuse of having been about six when it finished and I hadn't seen it since. Yeah okay, the special effects look pretty old and the hairstyles even older, but if those remain the only weak points in what has so far been a quite remarkable piece of dystopian sci-fi (I'll leave out any further hyperbolic praise I might have had prepared because Haus so eloquently said it all above) then I'm pushed to think of a better TV series in the genre. Like, ever.

Um, that's all I have for now, except to say that I humbly hope this little bump brings some more fans out of the closet (what closet? Who the fuck's ashamed of liking B7? Poor choice of metaphor, baaad Brigade) to re-invigorate the discussion.

07:15 / 01.03.07

HEAR MY TRUTH!

The aliens who were invading Star One at the end of the second season were originally intended to be...Daleks. Tis true! I nearly died of fanboy spasms when I heard that. The only reason they didn't was because Terry Nation wanted to use them for a film.

That's some strong truth there.

07:51 / 01.03.07

This Barbelith thing is beginning to scare me. It's been 20 years since I last watched B7, and just when I manage to get hold of the entire first season and am rubbing my greedy little hands all over it — guess what appears at the top of the thread list?

Anyway, I loved that show (it scared the shit out of me on several occasions, which helped a lot). Even made my own Liberator out of a cardboard box and modified Playmobil figures to use as characters.

"It has to be the first programme I ever remember where all the main characters absolutely fucking hated each other, and that was groundbreaking in itself."

That, and the fact the writers weren't afraid to kill off main characters.

My parents were rather disturbed by some of the scenarios I came up with... but it wasn't as bad as the time when we sat down for a nice family TV evening and discovered the national network had decided to ditch The Cosby Show and feature Married With Children instead. Good times.

I'm hoping it's as good as I remember. (the special effects will be shit — I'm prepared for that)

Too bad that B7 "The Next Generation" project fell through.

Then again, maybe not...

08:50 / 01.03.07

Too bad that B7 "The Next Generation" project fell through.

I prefer Avon as the thin master of evil he was back in the day.

That said, in a recent beeb show about B7 Josette Simon (Dayna) looks like she hasn't aged a day.

Brigade du jour

18:20 / 01.03.07

What recent Beeb show was that, Scientist of Evil?

18:36 / 01.03.07

Some sci-fi retrospective on BBC3, I believe they also covered the truely bizarre Saphire and Steal and the beard-laden Survivors on other weeks.

20:35 / 01.03.07

"I prefer Avon as the thin master of evil he was back in the day"

If anyone could pull off the "old, cynical survivor who passes on the torch to a bunch of new idealist fools" schtick, it'll be him though.

Just watched the first three episodes. Special effects are even worse than I braced myself for — truly, we are blessed to live in the age of CGI. But otherwise, it's every bit as good as I remember.

Whisky Priestess

04:27 / 02.03.07

If anyone would like videotape copies of this show there are about a million of the buggers in my local Oxfam, priced £2 per tape - that's just under £1 per episode as some tapes have 2 and some 3.

Just yell ...

Brigade du jour

20:00 / 02.03.07

Thanks for the tip, Scientist. I shall seek it out ...

Whisky Priestess

15:40 / 10.05.07

Are B7 episodes reelly reelly long or do they just seem that way? I just recently watched Cygnus Alpha (with BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!) and it took For. Ev. Er. But I was very tired so didn't check the running time on the back. The other one was something about cybersleeping guardians and a horse-faced psychic called Cally.

And Gan (David Jackson I think?) - why do I know his voice so well? Did he do cartoon voiceovers afterwards or something?

What's the best B7 episode, in people's opinions? My interest has been piqued.

15:55 / 10.05.07

Well for shear apocalyptic value the last episode still has to be seen to be believed. Especially the final scenes.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:01 / 10.05.07

It's possible that you saw one of the portmanteau episodes, Whisky - collections of three episodes were squished together and edited to 120-minute TV films for one of the early VHS releases. Alternatively, it might be like Sapphire and Steel - long scenes due to short sets and odd pacing because of no money for retakes and every bit of film being shoved in to fill the running time leading to a strange langeur...

Best Blakes 7 episode? Gosh, that's a tricky one. I'll have a think...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:36 / 10.05.07

Well for shear apocalyptic value the last episode still has to be seen to be believed. Especially the final scenes.

I'd agree up to a point- it is imho the best episode... but I doubt it would have much impact if you hadn't been following the show for ages beforehand.

17:16 / 10.05.07

True the Blake stuff has more impact if you know who he is, and if you have been quietly thinking for two seasons 'well, everything would work out better if Blake were here'...
but there is still plenty of impact from the pace of the episode that has the same basic structure as a normal episode of an ongoing drama, except when you expect everything to work out, it doesn't.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:38 / 10.05.07

Hmm... I'm not really a great believer in watching final episodes until the end, really. But it IS a wonderful piece of drama- I just think you'd care more about what was going on if you had grown to care about the characters, and to watch it early on would be to rob it of much of its impact. Kind of like if the first episode of Buffy you ever saw was The Body- a fantastic piece of television, but it's so much stronger if you actually have an emotional connection with Joyce before the episode starts.

17:40 / 10.05.07

Of possible interest.

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