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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
from the golden age of BBC Sci-Fi, 26 Oct 2003
Dodgy sets, ham acting, costumes that look like "Dr Who" cast offs. Its all true. However, this was still the best Sci Fi the BBC ever made.
Why ? In a word, the characters. Over the four series they progress from carboard cut outs through to people who's background and motivations you actually start to care about. Even 20 years years after the final season ended, Blakes 7 still has conventions, and theres a thriving trade in memorabillia.The basic plot is simple. Set in an Orwellian future, the oppressive Federation controls its citizens on many worlds with a mixture of drugs and brute force. Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) is a resistance leader who by a stroke of luck gets his hands on an Alien spacecraft far more powerful than anything the federation has to offer. He and his band of other fugitives race around the Galaxy trying to damage the Federation any way they can.
Whilst some episodes are one-offs, many of them interweave into the main storyline, which develops over 4 series. Delights are too many to mention. The wonderfully camp but incompetent villain Travis, all black leather and eye patch. The superbly cunning Federation Supreme Commander Servalan (a dominant female figure at a time when other series heroines were mostly confined to screaming and being rescued), Glynis Barber running around in a silver jumpsuit (in series 4), and of course the role-model of choice for a generation of teenage boys in 1978 (myself included), Kerr Avon (Paul Darrow). Would it be an exageration to say that Avons influence was seen in the 1980s as a whole generation turned their back on flares and idealism, and went into the City to make money any way they could ? Well, probably. That notwithstanding, Avon is by far the most interesting and well developed character in the whole series. You could see the central thread of all 4 series as being an investigation of who he is, and all the stuff about galactic rebellions/alien invasions/mystical vanished races and superintelligent computers as just a way to explore his past. Plus he won the "best dressed space fugitive" award three years in a row (OK, I made that last bit up). So : ignore the wobbly sets and the sometimes wooden acting, enjoy the character development and the sheer fun as the plot unfolds. Its a classic, the likes of which we shall probably not see again. Unless of course the BBC decides to go back to making TV like it used to do so well.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!, 7 Dec 2004
This is a very good, sharp video edition of the series, which I cannot praise enough. Tight plotting, wonderful performances from a ll the cast(brilliant casting), tough and gorgeous women, gorgeous men, complex characterisation and character development, wonderful drama. Only four stars because you're better off getting the DVDs--the packaging and the quality of the cassettes is not very good. The individual tapes don't even list the episodes on them, their quality is frail. The cassettes have quite loose tapes--might get sucked in and snapped even in a good, new VCR. I just opened my boxset for Season Four and the picture wobbled, because of the looseness of the tape. If this happens to you, demand your money back, and for feck's sake, get the DVDs instead.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING**********+++++!!!, 10 July 2004
Having obtained these stories on wednesday from MVC, i was absolutely amazed at them, they are brilliant. although the series does get off to a shakey start (although SPACE FALL is quite good)it doesn't really start to get really good until SEEK-LOCATE-DESTROY, but when it gets good, it seriously gets good, i mean seeing Stephen Greif's Travis is worth paying the rather large price tag alone. all in all, the start of something BIG
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