The Other Man In My Life (Blake's 7)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Blake's 7
Date:	31/10/02 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters, interesting storylines, PAUL DARROW IN LEATHER!!

Disadvantages: Some dodgy special effects at times, Only four series made

Imagine your perfect man. Mine would be brave, strong, daring, and heroic, with a wry sense of humour. He would have a lovely smile, be intelligent, witty and wear lots of leather. Yes, Avon from Blake’s 7 is my ideal man.

If you are on Ciao too, look at my profile over there and you will see a photo of him in the role. Although Paul Darrow (the actor) is now 61 and has been married for a long time too, he is still damn sexy. You can blame him and my hubby for my falling in love with yet another camp 1970s TV programme. Let me explain.

My husband and I met through our mutual adoration of all things Dr. Who. When we started living together, I noticed he also had all the Blake’s 7 videos too. He kept suggesting I watch them too, but somehow couldn’t see the attraction.

I am a big fan of Colin ‘Sixth Doctor’ Baker and we know him quite well. Paul Darrow was in one of Colin’s Dr. Who stories and Colin was in an episode of Blake’s 7. There seemed to be a bit of professional rivalry there and some animosity, so I developed quite an irrational dislike of Paul Darrow. That was until I met him.

Paul was at a Dr. Who convention in Stoke-on-Trent in September 2001, held a few days after the September 11th tragedy. Needless to say, the mood was rather sombre and I was (literally) depressed. But Paul Darrow was amazing. His talks on stage were hilarious, the man is a brilliant entertainer. Colin was there too and they both seemed to get on well.

Then I met Paul and WOO-HOO! The guy is extremely charismatic, has an almost hypnotic gaze and is incredibly charming. Suddenly, I had a reason to watch Blake’s 7.

So hubby and I began watching the series right from the first episode in chronological order. Sometimes we’d watch a couple of episodes a night, at other times we wouldn’t watch one for weeks. We finished watching the 52nd episode last week, the last one.

>I was pretty much hooked at once. It was a whole new experience for me, falling in love with a TV series where I already owned all the videos (by marriage!). My 10-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter are just as big fans now too and early next year, the four of us are planning to go to our first ever Blake’s 7 convention!

So what is Blake’s 7 and why is it so great? Well, so I don’t bore those who already know the answers, I will split the next bit into two sections – one for fans, one for non-fans – so just skip to the relevant section. Please leave a comment after reading and let me know if you have watched it and if so, who your favourites are.

FOR NON-FANS

So, we’ll start with the basics. Blake’s 7 is a sci-fi series that was on TV from 1978 to 1981. There were four series and over those, there were several notable cast changes. The idea of ‘seven’ in the gang is not as straight-forward as it sounds and the image of the gang being ‘Blake’s’ is a bit misleading too. The ‘seven’ always included at least one computer and Blake left halfway through, leaving Avon as the leader.

Blake’s 7 consisted of a combination of these :

Avon (Paul Darrow)
Blake (Gareth Thomas)
Cally (Jan Chappell)
Dayna (Josette Simon)
Gan (David Jackson)
Jenna (Sally Knyvette)
Soolin (Glynis Barber)
Tarrant (Steven Pacey)
Vila (Michael Keating)

Plus one or two of these computers :

Orac
Slave
Zen
(all voiced by Peter Tuddenham)

There was also a pretty impressive list of supporting cast who usually just appeared for one episode. Some of these were well-known names of the time, while others went on to do bigger things in the future. This include John Savident (Coronation Street’s Fred, I say, Fred), Betty Marsden (Carry On Camping and much more), Carol Hawkins (Please Sir) and Peter Byr
ne (Dixon of Dock Green).

The series starts with Blake, Avon, Gan, Vila and Jenna captive on a ship heading for a prison planet. For our heroes are not as pure as you might expect. They are thieves, computer hackers, violent psychopaths, smugglers and political rebels.

They have been captured by the Federation who are basically a combination of the government, police and armed forces and are generally evil, violent and vicious. The main Federation baddies featured in Blake’s 7 are Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce) and Travis (played by Stephen Greif then Brian ‘EastEnders’ Croucher).

Blake’s 7 end up escaping from the clutches of the Federation, stealing a ship and forming their gang, which is based on a necessity for survival and freedom, rather than a bunch of friends. The episodes examine these relationships over the series and you get to discover their individual backgrounds too. But yes, there are the only-to-be-expected monsters, mad professors and regular run-ins with the Federation.

FOR FANS

Well, you’ll know all the standard info above, so what can I tell you? Well, I just loved it. I thought it was a lot less similar to Dr. Who than I’d been expecting. In fact, you’ll see I’ve devoted a whole section of my opinion to that below. It is hard to know which is my favourite actually, they both have different strengths and weaknesses, but I am happy to love them both.

I think Servalan is just a perfect baddie – so beautiful, well-spoken, intelligent and elegant – yet such an evil, ruthless being. Travis was a great character too, although Stephen Greif was much better than Brian Croucher, although the latter eventually got into his stride and won me over.

Avon is my favourite character, but I missed Blake at first. I liked all the other crew members, they were all convincing with Soolin probably the weakest. I liked Dayna best and loved her whol
e attitude. Who said the Spice Girls invented Girl Power? Dayna was kicking ass long before Geri and Co. came along!

There were a few dull stories – but surprisingly few overall. There were a few dodgy (and sometimes laughable) special effects and monsters (gorilla costume, anyone?), but the strength of the storylines and the high quality of the acting usually won through.

I liked the way each character seemed to get a fair slice of the action and you felt you got to know them and care about them. I think that made the deaths more shocking. It did feel quite adult at times and I admit some things made me jump, others made me gasp and some put a lump in my throat – and I’m 33!

Overall, I loved it and obviously, you lot are fans too, so you can understand this.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT TO DR. WHO

It surprised me just how different Blake’s 7 is to Dr. Who, despite them being televised at the same time and having some connections in cast and crew. As the two programmes are often compared, I felt this warranted a section to itself in my opinion.

The main difference was that although both series could be very camp, Blake’s 7 was much grittier overall. It had more violence, more meaningful deaths (rather than those throwaway characters that are obviously in there just to get shot in scene three) and some very horrific images. Corpses, staring eyes, guts, gore and massacres are all present.

Where Dr. Who feels ‘safe’, Blake’s 7 doesn’t. You know the Doctor will save the day and chances are, his companions will be happily deposited in Croydon or married off to some alien. But Blake’s 7 doesn’t afford you that security. Leading characters are killed, their spaceship is destroyed, no one or nothing is sacrosanct.

Dr. Who has had years of criticism for its weak female companions. Admittedly, some (Ace, Leela) were stronger and better than
others (Susan, Victoria) but a stereotypical companion would scream a lot, fall over in high heels and need rescuing by our hero before a scary monster gobbled her up. In Blake’s 7, the women are equal. They fight, they kill, they stick up for themselves and are technically minded too. They manage to combine being intelligent and resourceful with being pretty too.

Both TV programmes are excellent and I would recommend you watch them both. They are regularly on UK Gold, for example, so why not have an evening of nostalgia and see what you think. If you’re lucky, you might even get an episode of ‘Are You Being Served?’ to follow.

LIFE AFTER THE TV SERIES

For those who believed Blake’s 7 died in 1981, think again. Besides the regular TV showings as mentioned above, there are newer projects too. There are two Blake’s 7 audio adventures (available at Amazon) and the videos are all out with a DVD release soon.

There are recent Dr. Who audio CDs featuring Gareth Thomas, Sally Knyvette, Stephen Greif and Jacqueline Pearce.

Check out the video release of ‘Shakedown’ which stars Dr. Who’s Carole Ann Ford, Michael Wisher and Sophie Aldred alongside Blake’s 7 stars Jan Chappell and Brian Croucher. (Oh and there are Sontarans in it too, who – naturally – die a glorious death!)

Paul Darrow is soon going to be starring in a series of audio CDs called Kaldor City. Check out his excellent website where you can buy photos, bookmarks, stationery, etc. and keep up to date with his career – www.avon-paul-darrow.co.uk You can even order a 2003 Paul Darrow calendar (Save one for me!) so you can have him in your stockings for Christmas, hee hee!

Most of the actors involved in the series appear at signings and conventions. Josette Simon is unlikely to attend any, but she is still acting and recently played an American in ‘Celeb’.

>Probably the best B7 website – www.horizon.org.uk

OVERALL

It’s camp, it’s funny, it’s witty and it’s clever.
The acting is excellent and you’ll see many famous faces.
The drama and comedy are done equally well.
Characters are well rounded with drip-fed background stories, so you learn about them layer by layer.
The inter-relationships of the Blake’s 7 ‘gang’ make for some interesting storylines too and these often provide tension.
It’s gritty, daring and often shocking.
The stories are almost all of a very high standard.
It has obviously aged well, as two of my kids love Blake’s 7.
Oh and Paul Darrow’s gorgeous too, especially in black leather ;-)

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