Top Ten Sci-Fi #6 - Blake's 7

[TheStaticage01]

4:38-not everything was spunky dorrey LOL!

[TheTwillerZone]

Wow thanks for uploading this !!!!!!!! F'ing love Orac

[CYBERDOODY]

blakes 7 is bloody brilliant

[CYBERDOODY]

@frithwks Not poor acting

[ControlFreakE1ite]

Get off my land! lmao

[doctorw2]

this show had very good script writing and plotting and thats what really counts in making a top notch sci fi show. i dont care about the special effects, the acting wasnt that bad it was appropriate for a show of this type made in the early eighties. blakes 7 is good sci fi and it is definately better than the overated star trek.

[geligniteandlilies]

Anyone else want to smack the narrator? He sounds like an ass. Pig farmer? Stuff it!

[NiciJD]

This was a brilliant programme and I loved all four series; was devastated at the end when they appeared to have killed off the entire crew & I spent years dreaming up ways that BBC would be able to reinstate the series!

Yes, the special effects weren't high budget, but the story lines were great and the interaction between the colourful characters absolutely made this programme way better than their USA rivals at the time, I thought.

I loved the clever witty one liners unique to this series!

[smellcaster]

@NiciJD now the Special Effects are way better, it nearly ruins everything. With a low Budget you have to come up with Ideas rather than SFX

[tumadoireacht]

intergalactic pig farmer LOL ! 

[deceptivepanther]

There's a fantastic compilation of Avon's insults on YouTube if anyone's interested. Sci-fi has so much to offer as a genre, it's a pity they don't make 'em like this anymore. Incidentally what they don't mention in this clip is that Blake's 7 has the best theme tune ever, still gives me the shivers.

[deadman00]

terry nation unrestrained

[adric137]

cool show!

[Xervosh23]

Best sci-fi television program of all time - bar none. They started playing this on PBS in the USA during the mid-to-late 1980s, but I don't think its aired anywhere in this country since at least the early 90s. Which is a shame, since we now have a whole network devoted to sci-fi programming, and 95 percent of what they air is the purest of shit, fit only for 9-year old boys.

[chewie211171]

Thanks for posting this, I really loved this as a kid. Despite the wonky sets (a common feature of the BBC at the time), the writing and lead characters is what made the show so good.

[Sledge101]

Just spent two weeks watching all four seasons back to back for the first time in over 25 years. Sure I cringed a bit, but they had such harsh time restrictions that they couldn't keep reshooting things just to get a perfect performance. They'd count themselves lucky if, say, an explosion was timed properly for the take - acting be damned!

[Mazarael]

Well, I'm glad I watched this half way through series 1. Guess I know the ending now...

[androzani7]

I don't know why they chose the Liberator destruction sequence at the end of 'Terminal' to accompany the discussion of the programme's 'less than special effects': those scenes are absolutely superb! Along with the Scorpio landing in 'Rescue' and the same ship's destruction in 'Blake', it's my favourite effects squence in the entire show.

[androzani7]

Agree with the last two but I think the acting in B7 is generally very good: as with so many other things, it's a lot weaker in season 4, but prior to this acting was one of the series' strengths, and one of the main things that seperated it from Doctor Who (in the latter some of the cast often indulged in children's TV acting).

[earlysunsets2]

Avons (yes he is really Avon lol) over the top acting got a bit much in series 4, plus all that snogging with servalan was annoying. Think it was all to compensate for the fact the scripts were pretty duff by then. Villa was my favourite character after Avon, thought he was really funny. Amazing that he was nearly killed off.

[Saiaton]

"...but it was still a British show - ie i was bloody miserable" That's what made it, everybody with their own character, their own motives, their own agenda, none of this military rank and all nice chaps really crack a joke to end feel good for next episode

[PringlesJingles]

5:35-5:43 !!! :-D

I keep replaying that... and wanting to be Avon lol.

[MrWombatPPC]

I actualy Liked series 4. and the effects were brill. Some of the episodes were a bit dull, but overal it was a fab show, and still is to this day.. More More More..

[AlbinoCaterpillar]

I don't know why people don't like it.

[androzani7]

Rescue and Assassin were the only real duffers, though I haven't watched 'Animals' as it's written by Alan Dire. Sand, Warlord & Blake are terrific.

[borgduck]

50 quid an episode? I wanna make a sci fi show!

[SPeacock]

I always thought it was 50 PENCE an episode!

[HypnoToad72]

Woah. "Adult"? In modern audiences, "adult" means "sex sex sex" or "gratuitous shock jock violence". Not "grit", "some thought required", et cetera.

And it's odd how they're trying to peg series 4 as "camp". (it was far more grittier and if it was camp, it was unintentional. Indeed, "Firefly" and "Serenity" have B7 series 4 as something of an influence...)

[TVwriter23]

Avon and Jayne are we sure Avon's not Jaynes father.lol

[ddavismedicalart]

The British have a fantastic talent for making horrible, ghay science fiction. Sad.

[Steeleperfect]

You're only jealous. Nothing else comes close to Blake's 7.

[TVwriter23]

Well except Firefly and that was canned as well

[borgduck]

Ah, like Buck Rogers?

[stewiegriffin1963]

Don't get me wrong, thankx for putting the Blakes 7, Buck Rodgers and Doctorwho but where the bloody hell are all the others? Could you upload all of them - please!

[MrDialup]

"...galumphing around the universe like some kind of Intergalactic pig-farmer"

ROFL

[blaster2012]

I have to say,i never watched it as a kid,but last year i bought some old tapes in a charity shop.Can´t get enough of it now!I wish i´d never watched this clip,now i know they all get killed at the end!!BLAST.

[WatchRyder]

Yup, they keep trying to resurrect this show but it's damned hard with all but Avon lying on the floor dead or dying.

This show was not shy about killing off cast members prior to this either.

Which was good as it kept the shows edge :)

[SPeacock]

I think Vila survived that fateful massacre as well as Avon (If you watch the scene, then you can see him fall to the floor seconds before he gets shot - ergo, he lives).

[Sowhostoknow]

Best sci fi

[JonnyInfinite]

Why do we always have to put up with that arse Kim Newman on EVERY show, the self-satisfied tosser

[MonstroUK]

Check wikipedia.

[JonnyInfinite]

Check your balls, every week

[joosypigeon]

Avon smiles once and only once every episode.

[SPeacock]

@joosypigeon But when he smiles, it is powerful and effective. :)

[nozup4u]

Is there any general opinion or consensus about whether "Firefly" owes an enormous debt to "Blakes 7?"

[JadeFerret]

Firefly owes it all to Blake's 7, as it does to the Magnificent 7 which owes to the 7 Samurai.

[MasterJediDude]

Without Darrow, there is no Blake's 7. Ever.

[Rodimus78]

What do you mean by that statement? Are you speaking in reference to the B7 troubled revival project that Darrow left in a dispute with his idiotic partners or just him without Blake's 7 as pointless in general?

[BlueScarecrow]

is that nick frost doing the narration?

[straker2]

"big boned hero" hahahahaa! Love it. He and Darrow were priceless. Maybe they should've just had Blakes 3 with Vila. Great series, great look back at it.

Ade, (creator of Damon Dark).

[Rodimus78]

But that would loose all meaning. Better stick with 7.

[Allronix]

Duct tape sets and 50 pound special effects, but they had it in the writing and the acting - the places that mattered. And Servalan was apparently the only Evil Overlord that read the "list."

[suzbot]

Paul Darrow - Kerr Avon.

[tinaturntable]

"Gallumping around the universe like an intergalactic pig farmer" rotfl!!!!!!!!!

[Targetsignal2]

I ADORED Kerr Avon. The fellow who played him was awesome! What is he doing now?

[Rodimus78]

Paul Darrow(Avon) is currently acting on TV Shows, stage, and radio plays for BBC. At one point he was active in co-producing a Blake's 7 revival as a continuation with his associates of B7 Enterprises, but he couldn't find a common ground with them in terms of creative conflict and integrity, so he resigned. He wrote an autobiography last year and he does attend Dr. Who/B7 conventions in England.

[williammcc1]

I realy liked Blakes 7 and the game was not that bad either. Thanks for the clip it was realy good.

[sfordcar]

What Game? Do you Mean Liberation?

[williammcc1]

Yes it may be dated but I like it.

[sfordcar]

I have the Game too, but I'm not that keen.

[Joe9017]

'Galumping' around the universe! Lol.

[BanjoOz]

Blake's 7 boasted characters and writing better than 95% of today's 'modern' shows. A few 'clunker' episodes, to be sure, but the good far outweighs the bad, and most of all it's unique! Also, without Blake, I strongly suspect there'd be no Lexx, Farscape or Firefly (all three of these 'big' genre shows are Blake's decendants, IMHO). And what other show ends like Blake's 7? :)

[Allronix]

I'd also say X-Files owed a bit to B7, especially in the later seasons. Of course, that series may have ended better had Scully shot Mulder and the Consortium killed the lot of them.

[joolsd]

I think the characters, made this show interesting, the conflicting objectives between Blake and Avon. Some of the effects where very dodgy , bit like Doctor who.

[harrietamidala1691]

Yeah, and I think it's also popular among Doctor Who fans because it used actors and crew members from Doctor Who too. It's always fun to point out who was in Doctor Who. Even one of the Doctors appeared in it--Colin Baker!

[link123456]

hahahah lol

wobbly spaceship... so true

[svaran]

brilliant series.

[bwfc1975]

This is great. I love Blake's 7. I have got them all on DVD!!

[DestroyedWotan]

Could you put up the rest of the segments from top 10 TV sci fi, I really want to see the bits on the Tomorrow People and Sapphire and Steel again having got into these shows after watching this originally.

[lowlifelenny]

Yeah, I'll probably get round to it eventually :)

[jnarimbaud]

Blake's 7 is the best.

[bluemilk1]

Big Boned Blake LOL i guess this is why

[VilaRestil]

Interesting commentary on the Blake's 7 series, including some great interviews with Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow and Jackie Pearce.

[Bobobo5763]

Blake's 7 kicks ass !