Blake's 7 was definitely ahead of its time. A BBC science fiction series chock full of political intrigue, interesting characters with unexpected arcs, crazy ideas, and plot twists, all wrapped up in a neat space opera package. It ran at the same time as classic Doctor Who, but it doesn't have the same recognition as the good Doctor's adventures. But it's definitely worth tracking down this somewhat lost (or temporarily misplaced) series, and we'll tell you why.
Totalitarian regimes! Feisty rebels! Mysterious alien technologies! Nasty villains! Artificial intelligences! Zap guns! It's all here.
Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
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1 days ago
I grew up with this show. It’s very much a product of its times. It was meant to be a small scale Dirty Dozen set in space, hence the character dynamics. Which played to the BBC’s strengths to be honest. They didn’t have a lot to spend on production values, as you guys noted, so they focused on more characetr driven drama than plot driven pew-pew stuff. Keep a close eye on the Avon <> Villa relationship, it’s not what most people think. Avon values Villas skills as a thief while contemptuous of him as a person. Villa feels safe around Avon, counter intuitively because Avon’s never tried to be his friend, while the others flip-flop. Villa knows where he stands with Avon, and that means security, of a sort. Zen is the unsung hero of the show, he always refers to himself in the thirs person, such as ”This unit detects only five lifeforms on board .” Except for once when he says ”...I have failed you...” Watch out for Avon and Servellen ’s relationship developing, talk about your dysfunctional co-dependants. There were was a lot of cross talent from Dr Who and Hitch Hikers.. although Terry Nation didn’t have an awful lot of input after the first few episodes, that’s probably for the better if you ask me. As for the other shows; The Tomorrow People, it had a great concept and is probably best remembered for its haunting opening credits. The series itself was pretty camp though, there were a few stand out stories but it definitely failed to live up to its potential. Sapphire & Steel, yeah....that’s kind of a one off. Incredibly low budget, but they managed miracles and 45 years later some of the scenes still live with me. Well worth checking out, it’s on Tubi Tripods was a bit of a misfire, it was never completed. It’s not hated, but it’s just not very well remembered anymore.