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From: MRCAB
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  • I'm 41 and this is the first TV show I can remember...

  • Has Blakes 7 ever been released on U.S. dvd? All I can find on the internet is non-US versions....

  • @zooeyhall You can always check to see if your player (DVD or Blu-ray) will play all-region. I know mine does and most of the ones I see out there. I'd be really surprised if this series ever came out on DVD in the US.

  • my mum has this as her ringtone, only today did i find out what it was... i had no idea she was such a nerd...

  • Babylon 5, Farscape, Firefly and the new Battlestar Galactica owe so much to Blake's 7.

  • love blake's seven intro somehow it has an other worldly feel to it.

    just as it did many years ago.

  • 4 people are from the Federation and shall be Exterminated by Blake's cousins the Daleks

  • this series is like a very good sci fi novel something that robert a heinlin or larry niven might write.

  • @Marmiteums The BBC Micro didn't come out until 1981. Quantel Paintbox was about 1980. The appearance of the digitisation could've been achieved easily with a BBC micro but it looks like straightforward animation to me.

    CGI was actually quite good at the time. Try searching on here for a 1979 video called "Sunstone".

  • It's Aldous Huxley meets Robin Hood - greastest sci fi ever made!

  • I'm a massive fan of classic Who and it comforts me that this series shares many of the same personnel as old Who ... I like this series already.

  • This show was the best thing on TV . Gareth Thomas was amazing. A Welshman in Space....who'd have thought ?!!!!! Was so sad when this series ended. Much missed. Some of the stories were truly heart wrenching, and the acting was superb. Paul Darrow's AVON is a character most actors would have killed for. An amazing show.

  • Blake fucking 7!..

  • @sambondable Punctuation helps the reader understand what it is you have to say. That said, have you seen the entire series? I would agree with your that the first season sucks, and quite a bit of the last, but the show as a whole wasn't too bad and at points, I felt, was better than even some of the best TOS. Especially that third season and a lot of the second; but that's just my opinion.

  • @sambondable STAR TREK is rubbish... Blakes 7 is much better.. and at least learn english if you're going to post such hatred...

    

  • @sambondable

    You appear to be unable to write in English. "All do my respect" is a particular classic there...

  • @sambondable that's kind of incoherent babble

  • I was a Blakes 7 fanatic back in the day- yes the not-so-special effects were laughable to say the least- but what it lacked in style- it more than made up for in memorable characters, great acting and brilliant stories- the complete opposite of what those lazy bastards pass off as entertainment today

  • The spaceship and planets look like something straight out of Monty Python - I was expecting the big foot to come in from the side and boot it away!

  • the bit that starts at 0:17 reminds me of another piece of music i've heard, but i can't remember what it is? Does anybody else know what i mean :D

  • @roseynick

    Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

    That little musical progression is used in many compositions and songs, like Neil Sedaka's 'Solitaire' and Abba's 'Waterloo'...

    What I love most about this theme is the last two sweeping (and creepy) synth chords.

  • This was the business.

  • Pre- CGI innocence- silver painted washing up liquid bottles wobbling across grainy back projection. Then a Vesta beef curry washed down with a pint of Watneys. Who said the 70s were our cultural nadir?

  • get this.. I STILL have the 7" vinyl single of the soundtrack in mint condition.. loved it as a kid..

  • @tigercity72 YAY me too!

  • Cool opening.

  • @OFFENDOR Well, all the comments are forwarded to my in-box. I'm sure Sir Patrick Moore might have had something to say about that. LOL

  • Theme tune takes me back. Great series, fantastic actor performances more than made up for low budget special effects. Great stuff.

  • fuck CGI this show is ace i dont care how dated it looks.

  • Best British sci-fi show ever. fantastic. Never missed an episode. Was devastated when it finished.

    Richard Lloyd

  • one of my fav shows from the good old days. loved it n still do. brings back happy memories from those times..

  • really hated how they ended this show

  • @Cool2BCeltic You posted the same comment 4 months ago. lol

  • @Cool2BCeltic The visual effects / low budget props / etc. might be every bit as dated as Flash Gordon, perhaps.

    But the stories (at least under Terry Nation at the beginning) were absolutely top notch and doesn't come across as dated, compared to modern fare, whatsoever.

  • @Cool2BCeltic The dated effects just add to the charm, I think.

  • @Cool2BCeltic

    "Every bit as dated as Flash Gordon"

    Not at all, then.

  • I watch the series with my dad, and I think it's awesome. even the graphics are quite cool, especially when you think about how old the serie is.

  • 4 people work for the federation

  • It was somewhat disquieting to see that in the Third Century of the Second Calendar computer graphics had not advanced in any way since the late 1970s.

  • I seem to recall that the writer Tanith Lee wrote a few episodes of Blake 7, that alone is worth watching this series.

    You might want to catch the pod cast "Shake and Blake" on itunes which has started to review every eps of the series. It's loads of fun.

  • Im a die hard Blakes 7 fan. I love how most of the characters are so arrogant. I wish the character Blake could have been in it more although Avon was great to watch as the new leader. Watching it now he seems a bit Shakespearian. Im not a fan of Servalan. She reminds me of a female boss I once had. Too bad her character didn't die at the end. I think Travis was the better villian and was killed off too early. Call me a prude but what was with all the kissing in the later episodes?

  • @jonathan45278 How dare you say Servalan was ot a good villain to me she was ten billion times better than Travis mate. I was glad when Travis was killed off he could not have gone on and on the way he was, if Servalan the arch-enemy had been killed off instead of Travis it would have been a mistake all round. It is a pity Servalan was omitted from the final episode. I also wish Colin Baker had played Blake, if he had played blake he would have had staying power Gareth Thomas has not got.

  • @jonathan45278

    Season 1 Travis was an excellent villain. Season 2 Travis was a useless pillock.

  • @KaitainCPS I agree but Servalan was a billion times, better villain than Travis 1 or Travis 2.

  • @rojblake82

    I would say 3.4 times better.

  • "I"-Rank Dudley-Simpson's Theme at No-1 Above John-William's Star-Wars!!! >(*U^)<

  • Fantastic theme tune. It was the quality of the actors/performances that go the show past it's lame budget and poor sets. Quality stuff from Paul Darrow etc.

  • That takes me back!

    If it wasn't Dr Who that was on, it was this!

    I've always wondered if part of the theme music was 'borrowed' from the middle of the John Miles song Music?

    Anyone know?

  • Sir Patrick Moore might have something to say about these planets being placed so closely together in the opening credits.

  • Servalan gave me my 1st boner !

  • It's so great to see Blakes 7 again. It was so character based indeed. Somewhere between Sinbad, Star Wars and Emily Bronte. Very classy and British. Awful special effects - which iwas also very British too cos remember, a cardboard box is really a spaceship. And you'll be happy with it so shuttup!

  • I have fond memories of this series. It may not have had much money spent on it, but it had strong stories and characters, which is probably a bit lost on those who judge something purely on the standards of the special effects.

  • Comment removed

  • Great show! Much better than anything American that I have watched in my life.

  • Ah my ringtone LOL, great sci fi show. Pff who's Blake, just kidding, loved Avon though haha.

  • i saw gareth thomas at the Victoria Halls New year party in Selkirk several years ago...he was as pissed as a fart.!! really enjoyimg himself !!

  • i wish they would release this on dvd in the US.

  • @JeffsRareVids I wish they would remaster it and release it on Blu-ray.

  • @JeffsRareVids SO DO I SO DO I

  • How come technology was less advanced back then, but we got wicked more elaborate opening sequences to shows?

  • Am I the only one that thinks this opening music sounds more anime than British?

  • When I was a very young kid, aged 6 going on 7, I just didn't know what Blake7 was about. It just went over my head. All I knew, Blake7 was set in space. On that fact alone, it was worth the watch (that's the way I thought as a kid).

    As I got older and I began to understand, the series ended and I had missed alot of the episodes. It was to be another 20 years later before I saw the series again, and boy! did I really enjoyed watching it. It took me, being an adult to appreciate it.

  • This WAS brilliant for its time... the good old BBC tradition of cardboard sets, improbable bits of plastic, running around in quarries... hmmmm you could say all that about Dr Who at the same time! Of course the fx were relatively primitive 30 years ago but that only added to the fun and meant the plot had to be good. Remaking this would ruin it.

  • Blake 7 seems to have alot of creditability to the lay and the known? Its the honesty and sinceress along with the obvious elements here that gives you solace.

  • From 0:16 the music sounds a lot like John Miles 'Music'

  • @wimpory I heard that song today on the radio and as soon as I heard that bit I thought Blake's 7.

  • I have the Full Blake 7 Digitally Remastered Boxed Set. Series 1,2 and 3. It contains bloopers reel, Special comments from some of the cast and an segment from Blue Peter on how to make a Transporter Bracelet from cardboard a plastic bottle and some tin foil. In Australia Blake 7 was shown on ABC at 7:30pm on Friday Nights I have also three episodes on VHS Tape. I have one episode of series 3 in a book, the one when they get the new ship with slave as a computer. The space scenes on the Digita

  • Any Amercians out there who have seen, or even know of, Blake's 7?

    When did it reach your screens?

    It came to Australia in early 1979.

  • @979708 I remember watching it for the first time on our local PBS channel in the early 80's...say around 1984 or so. I'd love to have the series on DVD, but the only ones I can find are region 2, so I wouldn't be able to watch them.

  • the best sci fi series ever, END OF, blake, villa, avon all amazing characters and wot about the babes servalan, jenna and ecpecially soolin

  • One of the best character driven sci fi shows ever! I first caught this show on PBS in the U.S.A. during the late 80's and early 90's. I'm big fan of Terry Nation (and his other Brit show StarCops--check it out); wonderful group of British actors. EMPIRE mag said B7 is being remade. I just hope it doesn't turn out like the remake of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Yuk

  • @RX552VBK I'll have to check out Star Cops, thanks.

  • It was a wonderful show. It originally aired in 1987 on Thames--I think. I'm planning to order the whole series on DVD later this year.

  • @RX552VBK The series should be remastered for Blu-ray!

  • @SPeacock You mean Blakes 7? Or Starcops? I hope both will get the Blu Ray treatment!

  • @RX552VBK I seem to recall it was on BBC1

  • @tonyins67 You could be right. I don't know. I saw it on America TV (PBS).

  • @RX552VBK

    Nope, it was a BBC show, not ITV, and first aired in 1978. The four series were in consecutive years: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981.

  • @RX552VBK My information was that the series wasn't being remade, but, rather, that there was a sort of "Blake's 7: the Next Generation" in the works. Alas, my information is that the project has died. :(

  • @RX552VBK Yeah, Hitchhiker's remake was predictably awful. 

  • @RX552VBK Star Cops was nothing to do with Terry Nation. It was devised by Chris Boucher, who was the script editor of Blake's 7 and also wrote many B7 episodes.

  • 0:09 BiG Brother Federation is watching you!

  • @RX552VBK Me too! Back when special effects were not the norm and we had to rely on story, plot, characterization, etc.

  • @RX552VBK The making of Hitchhikers Guide is a movie in itself! It's been worked on and shelved several times.

  • @RX552VBK Star Cops had nothing whatsoever to do with Terry Nation, it was a Chris Boucher creation.

    Brilliant series though.

    You might be thinking of Survivors.

    Dr. S.

  • just started watching the first season dvd set.  fucking brilliant. would love to see this updated battlestar galactica style.

  • The face moving back into background is very Dr.Who based. I always thought so even decades ago.

  • 0:15 Nice embroidery!

  • @Cruithne3753 0:13 Nice embroidery! (Damn stupid 2 second offset in link!)

  • Needlepoint... in... Spaaaace!

  • Never heard of it, until I read this quote:

    "I don't believe in suicide, it stunts your growth!"

    -Vila Restal

  • @Deadgoat Hah, that is a good one!

  • @Deadgoat 

  • Blakes 7 was science fiction for the dicerning connoseiur..........for those who need more than just explosions and laser guns for novelty.........and a good script and strong characterisations taboot.

  • It should have made Paul Darrow a big star as well. Hey ho.

  • Anyone know which episode has the pillows attacking and is there a clip?

  • Pillows attacking? Can you be more specific? It sounds vaguely familiar.

  • Was that not Sapphire and Steel,the pillows attacking?

  • I'm afraid you're thinking of Sapphire and Steel.

  • Ohhh yes that explains it...thanx very much! I was starting to think i dreamed it!

  • @DavidMartinDavis I believe you're thinking of Assignment Three of Sapphire & Steel actually, it ran at about the same timeframe as B7 did.

  • @DavidMartinDavis thats sapphire and steel not blakes 7 but, my god sapphire and steel is another brilliant sci fi show.

  • @DavidMartinDavis Wasn;t that Sapphire and Steel?

  • @DavidMartinDavis They're not pillows

  • @ewaf88 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA­A!!!!!! Jumps out of bed!

  • One of the best Sci Fi shows out of the UK ever!

  • is that the Starwars deathstar in the intro LOL it was all forseen

  • Actually, this show didn't premier until the flowing year, 1978.

  • In fact, the first episode of Blake's Seven was screened on Boxing Day, 1977, the same day that Star Wars opened in the UK. Federation Dome? Death Star? Which came first? Probably just great special effects minds thinking alike (albeit with vastly differing budgets)...

  • @Poltroon

    The first episode was screened 2nd January 1978.

  • That confused me at first.............I thought it was a space station like the death star rising from behind the planet.........but it is in fact the top of the protective dome that sheilds the city from the radiation outside.........this was made at the peak of the "post armegeddon" phase.

  • Season 1-4 out on dvd in Australia now :)

  • I use to love this.

  • And one other thing. I don't know if the new V is being shown over in the U.K., but does anyone on either side of the pond find that Morena Boccarin, who plays Anna(short cropped since "Firefly") strongly resembles a younger Jacqueline Pearce as Servalan?

  • I KNEW that she looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. That is interesting.

  • Blake's 7 has been well regarded for its characters, scriptwriting and realism, a rebuttal to "Star Trek" and other futuristic idealism. However, I think the way the story turned at the end might have diminished future runs in some markets. I don't recall noticing it in Philadelphia TV listings after it's mid-80's run. Has it been shown stateside since? Why watch it again knowing what will happen? Has post-Soviet history bore Terry Nation out? Not entirely.

  • I think they did the best that they could with the resources that were available at the time. The special effects budget for an episode of Blake's Seven was approximately £50- not much, even then.

  • The acting? I'm not entirely sure of that but I have to concede that last episode:

    "Have you betrayed us? Have you betrayed...ME??" Paul Darrow was fine up to that point. Bad direction, judgement?

  • this show is much better than star trek its more realistic in its approach in its vision of the future. there will never be a utopian humanitiarian future for humanity becuase even though technology may change and improve human life human nature stays basicly the same.

  • And that is EXACTLY what I love about this show! Even the "heroes" are anti-heroes. Kerr Avon is the best!

  • I loved this as a kid and still do.

    So bad it's good.

  • series 1 is out on DVD in Australia...:)

  • Oh no! the shaky spaceship show!

  • This is great !!! from Bulgaria

  • Wow, instant flashback to teens! Just can't get enough of that fat synth swell! So ermmm...Blakes Seven. :o)

  • No episodes are available. What happened?

  • I don't understand what you mean. Available where?

  • At YouTube. In my historic, it is written, below all those videos, the following words: «[video unavailable]». They just disappeared.

  • I don't know anything about that. I never uploaded full episodes.

  • I was watching this:

    B7 Series 2 Episode 4 Part 3 of 6

    Where is it? Why is it not available?

  • What's not available?

  • a "Doctor Who" for those beyond their teenage years, excellent stuff

  • if anybody fancies going back into to to to the eighties

  • "Have you betrayed us? Have YOU betrayed ME?!

    Tarrant doesn't understand!

    Neither do I Blake!

    I set all this up!

    Yes!

    I was waiting for you BLAST! BLAST!

    Avon.....

  • SPOILERS lol

  • I've never even watched this OR the original Doctor Who.

  • wth is this

  • In the same amount of time, you could have looked it up.

  • Such a wonderfully portentous theme - can a film remake be far away?

  • Last I heard, they are making a new TV show.

  • this was an excellent sci fi show the episodes were like reading a really good sci fi issac asimov novel, i dont care that the sfx was third rate there are too many shows now adays with excellent sfx but, crappy stories and superficial plots blakes 7 had substance too bad it is the most underated sci fi show in tv history.

  • Well said!

  • I've never really got into Blakes 7, Im a classic Doctor Who fan myself. However I agree with you there are no good sci-fi shows on nowadays, take the newest star trek for example, nowhere near as good as the originals or even the next generation. I might just give Blake's 7 a try.

  • if you love doctor who you will love blakes 7 they both have the same creator and they are both in the same universe. you will love the characters but, Avon is everbodys favorite.

  • Terry Nation may have created Blake's Seven, but he did not create Dr Who- Sydney Newman was responsible for that show's inception. Nation is often mistaken as the creator of Dr Who because he was responsible for the Daleks.

  • @doctorw2 yes blake's trial in the first episode reminded me of the first story in foundation.

  • @doctorw2 yep!!

  • Jenna! Total space babe!!!

  • i met servalan aka miss pearce about 4 yrs ago in stives she stopped and had achat nice lady didnt arf fancy her when i was younger saw paul darrow on emmerdale the other day he's not aged that well

  • Love those inventive BBC props... still with £50 a week as a budget it went a long way !

  • A lot of props to the writing. That 3rd season was awesome.

  • I named my kids Servalan and Davros so i always have a soft spot for B7 and DW.

  • I loved this show when i was kid. Sevalan was HOT

  • My favourite character out of the series would be Orac ;-)

  • OH WOW !!! it's been for ever sence i've seen this show.When i was a kid i remember watching on sunday night(PBS) dave allen at large,monty,doctor who than blakes 7...just makes me fell old :-( lol

  • LOL

  • Classic

  • For god's sake don't do a remake and ruin it. Look at the mess they made of Battlestar Galactica.

    Could ANYBODY see AVON or VILLA being played by other than Paul Darrow or Keating. They are both left untouched.

    Remember it how it was and not with Really naff CGI and new baddies.

    THERE IS ONLY ONE SERVLAN...........

  • From what I've heard -and I haven't looked in quite some time- they were going to create a series that took place years after the first.

    Darrow is hard to beat, but I could totally see the other re-envisioned, if they were to go that way.

  • The opening title sounds a bit like Mozarts symphony no.40.

  • that brings so much memories from my childhood !... ;o)

  • Blake's 7 is awesome!

  • Every scifi fan has to like this series.

    I wunder why they don't make a remake of this series. That would be awesome!

  • They are working on one now.

  • ARE YOU SURE????? THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

  • the final episode of this series caught people totally off guard. what a shocker finale!

  • Aaahhh the memories, The last two chords/notes. . . was it a moog ?

  • Blakes Seven is an awesome series

    Avon ftw :)

  • 0:17 is the best bit of the song. then its just :|

  • I enjoyed the series a great deal. The Blake's 7 convention in Chicago was fun.

    It was really cool to meet the case & hear behind the scene stories. I regret I taped on Beta when that technology was cutting edge. The definitely don't make it like those anymore.

  • 70s shows like Blakes7 didn;t have great effects but had very good characters,well acted which give it real atmosphere although it did same to lose th eplot a bit in season 4,first three series were best with Cally(Jan Chappall)

  • I always thought season 3 was the best, second season was good too. you're right about that forth though.

  • Well the series wasn't really supposed to run after series 3, but the producer or whatever commissioned a 4th. The story was pretty much over after 3 so they had to rush to think of ideas.

  • Yes. Although, I really liked how it ended.