Any old skool sci-fi fans out there? Blake’s 7 is being shown on Freeview starting next week. Forces TV, channel 96, Tuesday at 9pm. I suspect it’ll seem a bit dated but it is a classic.

Oh thanks will set the PVR just to see if it was as shonky but actually quite good as I remember.

You’re the best!!!!

181 on sky

It really it’s a classic.

I still remember going into school after the final episode and sharing my PTSD with all my mates.

Servalan, nuff said

it’ll seem a bit dated

“a bit” 😀

I watched the first season again a few years back, and it was entertaining but very, very 70s. Worth watching, but don’t expect too much.

I still remember the first episode like it was yesterday. Genius idea to have crims told to board an alien ship in case its dangerous and then they nick it!

Avon and Villa were superb.

Had some great ideas but it was very ‘british’

Will be watching!

Give them the bestest spaceship in the universe, the smartest computer and a teleport system, yet week after week they manage to **** up! I’ll have a look but I’ve not seen it since it first aired and I’m a bit worried it’ll just junk my fond teenage memories. I’m working my way through the relatively recent B5 again at the moment and by God some (much!) of that’s excruciating.

Any old skool sci-fi fans out there?

Yes, and yet I’ve never seen a single episode of B7. I really should rectify that.

Genius idea to have crims told to board an alien ship in case its dangerous and then they nick it!

That’s pretty much the plot of both Star Trek: Voyager and Farscape. (-:

I gave up Scouts to watch Blakes 7, clashed on a Thursday evening. I also associated the Queston of Sport theme tune with Blakes 7 as we’d always turn on the TV early, watch the last few minutes of QoS (Bill Beaument and our new Trade envoy to Oz) waiting for B7 to start!

When they released it on VHS in the 90s, I went out and bought the complete set!

I was going to build up the DVD series in the 90’s, bought the first one and it was a huge disappointment, it really is terrible, and it will have got comparatively worse now.

If you have fond memories keep them and don’t rewatch it.

If you have fond memories keep them and don’t rewatch it.

I downloaded the whole set not that long ago and watched a few. Series 3 & 4 (without Blake) were my favourites, Avon and Tarrant were excellent whereas Gan and Blake were a bit dull.

Random fact, we went skiing a few years back and one of the guests in the chalet was Gan’s brother!

If you have fond memories keep them and don’t rewatch it

I can’t find a Channel 96 so it seems my fond memories are safe!

Freesat 165 apparently

Scorchio!

Scorchio!

Should really be Scorpio (if you were a B7 fan).

To get into the mood for it.
Blakes 7 S01E01 The Way Back –

I downloaded and watched a few years back. Quality is … um … inconsistent.

There were some great moments and a few good episodes. Some of the effects were embarrassingly cheap even for the time – I remember an alien space invasion and a particular alien creature where you could see the sellotape.

I still think Avon escaped, and that the BBC would bring it back, right up to Paul Darrow’s death in 2019.

Best characters:
Orac (seemed incredible at the time, now seems less advanced than an iPhone 3)
Avon
Servalan
Vila
Cally
Dayna (I saw her play one of the witches in Macbeth)

Worst characters:
Blake (fool)
Tarrant (****)
Travis (so crap he was named after an indie band)

Best series: 3

I watched a bit a while back. Wished I hadn’t, remembered it as brilliant, is actually bloody awful.

You might be better off watching Blake’s Junction 7.youtube.com/watch?v=gSp2FEy_HYw

Servalan, nuff said

Really? Looks like an extra from Rue Paul’s Drag Race – each to their own I suppose.

I never got the Servalan thing, even as a hormonaly challenged teenager.

If you have fond memories keep them and don’t rewatch it

Yeah…..

I think the thing with Servalan was this was a powerful female character in the 70’s when that wasn’t really a thing and was probably quite ahead of its time.

I liked the original guns and the liberator was very good and the flight deck was cool as well.

Also clashed with Scouts 🙂

I was going to build up the DVD series in the 90’s, bought the first one and it was a huge disappointment, it really is terrible, and it will have got comparatively worse now.

Yep wasn’t it mono and 3/4 add in the shonky production values of the day.

I do wonder if it’s the sort of thing that you could remake virtually using the Unreal engine (video game world stuff) like in the Mandalorian and use virtual characters.

I’m sure Julian Clary was a big Servalan fan..

I had a poster of Dayna on my wall at Uni…in 1990.

Another random B7 factoid.

One of the episodes was filmed in Oldbury-on-Severn nuclear power station (in 1978) and had them running over the top of the reactor and setting off stage explosives.

Can’t see that being allowed these days!

Gan getting squished under a door was a traumatic moment for my young self. Probably the first instance of realising that characters you liked could actually die!

I liked the original guns and the liberator was very good and the flight deck was cool as well.

I remember making my own Liberator gun when I was little, complete with holster and springy electrical flex.

I never got the Servalan thing, even as a hormonaly challenged teenager.

Me neither – but I did once try to chat someone up by telling her she looked like Soolin from Blakes 7. I thought I was paying her a massive complement, she immediately realised I was a massive geek. And geeks weren’t cool back then 🙁

I never got the Servalan thing, even as a hormonaly challenged teenager.

Me too. Marc Almond dressed as a crow.

Me too. Marc Almond dressed as a crow.

Bloody hell, just spat my tea out but that is a perfect description.

Random fact, we went skiing a few years back and one of the guests in the chalet was Gan’s brother!

Gareth Thomas (or maybe his wife) used to shop in Carmarthen Next, when my mother managed it, so she’d occasionally come home telling us that Blake had been in.

I watched the first episode last night and was pleasantly surprised – it was good enough to make me watch the next one.

I’m saving some up for me and the boy…. we won’t watch for a couple of episodes yet.

As a little aside. Years ago I had a pre-golf match breakfast with Paul Darrow. He was good company and a bit of  a laugh. Although, TBH,I never watched Blakes 7.