narabdela
who?
That’s a bit harsh on poor Servalan. She wasn’t that bad.
Blake’s 7
- Thread starter Sloop John B
- Start date
That’s a bit harsh on poor Servalan. She wasn’t that bad.
Birdseed007
Audio scribe
I have loved this series since it first screened and still adore it today. It's just beautifully written, anti-establishment, camp sci-fi. Avon was always utterly glorious and had some fantastic lines, Zen and the Liberator were incredibly cool and Orac was always highly amusing as the fussy bank manager voiced supercomputer. Then you had Servalan who would bestride the galaxy and often walk around muddy planets in an endless succession of white ballgowns in high heels without getting a mark on them - fabulous!!
The thing is as I've got older I've come to realise how gloriously observed it is. Modern Britain is ruled over by an oppressive elite who are entirely self-serving and yet bumblingly incompetent too - not unlike the Federation. The aim in modern Britain is to keep the masses repressed and misinformed with propaganda (Daily Mail etc) but hard at work generating wealth for the elite ruling class while seeing little reward for their labour themselves. I often feel like a rebel minority for questioning the status quo or supporting unions or doubting the integrity of the Conservatives or the ruling classes, though sadly I don't have the most powerful ship in the galaxy to transport me around!
There's an awful lot of parallels with modern Britain if you look for them (which didn't exist to such a degree when the series was made)
Birdseed
The thing is as I've got older I've come to realise how gloriously observed it is. Modern Britain is ruled over by an oppressive elite who are entirely self-serving and yet bumblingly incompetent too - not unlike the Federation. The aim in modern Britain is to keep the masses repressed and misinformed with propaganda (Daily Mail etc) but hard at work generating wealth for the elite ruling class while seeing little reward for their labour themselves. I often feel like a rebel minority for questioning the status quo or supporting unions or doubting the integrity of the Conservatives or the ruling classes, though sadly I don't have the most powerful ship in the galaxy to transport me around!
There's an awful lot of parallels with modern Britain if you look for them (which didn't exist to such a degree when the series was made)
Birdseed
Nic Robinson
Moderator
Great post.
Sloop John B
And any old music will do…
I’m at S2 E2 which was about the Sin star base” ( which Villa transports down to against orders - where you can buy whatever you want ) and the drug shadow which although it was a capital offence to be caught with it - it was made by the federation. And then of course there’s the subplot of ORAC being taken over by telepathic aliens.
Certainly bits 11 year old me would have missed back then.
.sjb
Yes, she might have been the most evil person in the whole Universe, but she wasn't Margaret Thatcher.
Looking back at the stills I can see why my dad was quite happy to watch it with me back in the day, and it wasn't for the cardboard spaceships and the footage of a landing on Planet Zog filmed in a disused quarry just outside Towcester. "Hang on, if this is a remote planet in 2070, what the bloody hell are they doing with the bodyshell of a Mk1 Ford Escort lying half submerged in that lake?"Love Blake's 7 and not just for Servalan or Dayna......
Sloop John B
And any old music will do…
.sjb
palindrome
Thru a hedge, backwards and forwards.
Agree with Nic, this is a most excellent post @Birdseed007. In fact, the degree of subtext and metaphor in your summary is such that it should be a sticky in just about every political thread on pfm.
John
narabdela
who?
Sloop John B
And any old music will do…
Today - episode called Horizon -
Avon : I’m not expendable, I’m not stupid and I’m not going. Sneered as only Avon can. Of course he was right, the rest of them ended up as slave labour in a mine.
I certainly never saw the last episode or possibly any from series 4 as I was no longer in Dublin so we didn’t have BBC anymore.
Mind you could it have ended any other way. That’s what was different about it.
.sjb
Avon : I’m not expendable, I’m not stupid and I’m not going. Sneered as only Avon can. Of course he was right, the rest of them ended up as slave labour in a mine.
I certainly never saw the last episode or possibly any from series 4 as I was no longer in Dublin so we didn’t have BBC anymore.
Mind you could it have ended any other way. That’s what was different about it.
.sjb
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
Ah, but did they…..?
If I recall, only one character was clearly killed, with blood visible, and that was due to the actor not wanting to come back to the programme.
The rest, bar the one who was still standing when credits rolled, were shot with "sci-fi ray guns" which allowed the possibility of just being stunned and them all waking up in prison at the start of a series 5...
The end of Series 4 was in keeping with the tone of the programme. Despite its frequently unrealistic production choices, B7 was quite grounded in reality in other ways: the idea of one small crew fighting against a galactic government was only ever going to end one way.
The rest, bar the one who was still standing when credits rolled, were shot with "sci-fi ray guns" which allowed the possibility of just being stunned and them all waking up in prison at the start of a series 5...
The end of Series 4 was in keeping with the tone of the programme. Despite its frequently unrealistic production choices, B7 was quite grounded in reality in other ways: the idea of one small crew fighting against a galactic government was only ever going to end one way.
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
AIUI, the last blast heard, when the screen went dark, was from Avon's gun.
