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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An engaging beginning ..., 7 Feb 2001
By A Customer
Roj Blake, a model citizen of the Federation, is approached by a rebel group who claim he was once their leader, before being captured and brain-washed. He is extremely skeptical until events rapidly escalate into the massacre of all the rebels and proof of corruption at the highest levels.Captured and put through a show trial, he is put on a prison transport to the penal Colony of Cygnus Alpha. In "Space Fall", Blake arranges a mutiny on board the transport, which nearly succeeds, but is overcome by Blake's idealism (he is not willing to sacrifice any of his new followers, even though they are convicts). He and two of his followers gain a second chance when the transport encounters a seemingly abandoned ship of strange and advanced design. After several of the crew are lost trying to explore this (and claim it as salvage) they decide to use the prisoners, who manage to take control of this new ship and escape in it. OK, so the models, sets and special effects are poor by todays standards (although the use of real industrial sites with cosmetic alterations is better than the contemparies of Doctor Who and the original Star Trek series), the costumes are painfully 70s style, some of the science was rather shaky even 30 years ago, and the continuity is dodgy (how come Blake is restrained in his seat, but manages to swap with the bloke behind him between episodes?). What holds Blake's Seven together is the characters and the plots: within minutes you stop sneering at the shortcomings of the production (although they remain amusing) and are caught up in the story. The characters are complex individuals, and even the heroes have serious dark sides to them (not just the pathetic "single mistake in their past" that passes for depth of character in most productions) - most of these people have at least major personality flaws, and there isn't one that you would be entirely happy with at your back. The plots are intelligent (with a few notable exceptions) and are often multi-threaded, giving the characters real dilemnas which often have no ideal solution - they require compromises and sacrifice just to survive. There is also an overall story arc running throughout the whole thing, with smaller stories that seem to have been forgotten only to re-emerge in a later episode. This was revolutionary and was not surpassed until Babylon 5. Blake's Seven was a pivotal point in TV Science Fiction, and there can be few later series that do not owe some debt to it. Xerxes
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