Blake's 7 and other obscure British Sci Fi

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Just ran across Blake's 7. I like it. Like Star Trek TOS with the special effects of early Doctor Who, but a bit better. The outfits are crazy. I had always heard about it, but just tripped over it on freevee.

Also been watching UFO (pronounced "You-foe") and Space 1999, and Thunderbirds (with SuperMarionization) and of the three the last is the best.

Anyone fans of any of this? Can anyone explain the Blake's 7 plot / premise to me, (kind of like Star Wars and Blade Runner)? What exactly are they rebelling against again? How does Earth fit in?

Why do I like this schlock?

I hope you started watching Blake's 7 [1978–1981] with season 1, episode 1, and then watched the episodes in order. It helps.

The first few episodes of Blake's 7 [1978–1981] is essential for getting the premise.

Then the writers concluded that the ship (and its computer) was too powerful and it made it more difficult to write good stories with conflict and struggle so at the beginning of season 3 the show ditched the ship. This gave the writers a chance to make more interesting stories.

But, apparently not interesting enough. The show was discontinued after the fourth season. But, the finale was...controversial.

I love how stroppy ORAC gets.

<SPOILER>. I was shocked with the overthrow of Servalan, and the line "Give her to your men"


I was always a UFO fan...I think that's what made coloured hair attractive to me. Coincidentally I loved the voice of SID. The sound of a UFO is a great ringtone. There was a British comic called "Ranger" that had a UFO strip with different episodes... It also had a Doctor Who strip. (My partner's ringtone is a TARDIS arrival)

Oh god! the memories come flooding back, Orac and Blake Vs Servalan. I often wonder whether the final episode where they all die (which was quite shocking) a precursor to George Lucas's fall of the Jedi order? I'm not sure which one came first.

I also love the costumes, Blake's tight outfits were strangely compelling, they somehow accentuated his natural pouting face.

In general all of the BBC sci fi that came out in the late 70s and 80s, the women all had steel blue hair cut in bobs and blue lipstick with silvery skirts?

With Blake's 7 - I watched the middle of a few episodes (which frankly was how I usually watched Doctor Who on PBS). freevee has a british sci fi channel with commercials that just streams all the time and you watch whatever is on (kind of like tv used to be back in the day). Then after watching a few I went back and found character descriptions on some web sites. I think the writing is about on par with STTOS but the special effects and costumes are more like Tom Baker Doctor Who - better but only a bit better. But some of the costumes are really crazy. UFO never seems to really go anyware - the aliens all seem to have different goals every episode - sometimes it is just to be as "alien" as possible, other episodes are like a WWII senario with earth playing the role of England and the UFOs the role of Germany, like in the blitz - they just show up and are dangerous, but you never know when (luckily they always seem to come past the moon). Space 1999 was supposed to be a kind of sequel but with a different cast. It seems to be even more focused on aliens being strange and hard to understand for the only reason of being strange and hard to understand. Thunderbirds is just a great fun adventure show. The plots make more sense. With Thunderbirds, Space 1999 and UFO I can watch one episode at a time in order, and pause. They are all free on freevee.

My absolute favorite new show (new to me) is "The Repair Shop" but that isn't Sci Fi - more Science Fact. That one is streaming on its own channel and you tune in whenever you happen to tune in. I am thinking about buying some seasons.

Question: Who created the Liberty (the Hero Ship)?

I don't remember them explaining the origin of the ship, they just found it drifting in space and sent some expendable prisoners over to it to see if it was safe. (There is no warranty on that recollection, however).

John Pertwee was the quintessential Doctor. My favourite episode involved the alien Sutekh, he was easily the most destructive villain, it blew my mind when Sutekh was resurrected he cruelly smote his human followers who proclaimed "we are your servants" and while destroying them he uttered the compelling and memorable phrase "Sutekh is all powerful. he needs no other servants' in a rather dismissive way. He and the doctors nemesis the Daleks were quite scary for me.