Blake's 7

[Hero]

Classic TV Press have a new book by Michael E. Briant coming out in May, "Who is Michael E. Briant?". It contains an entire chapter devoted to Blake's 7.

The e-mail I got informing me about this book mentions their 'Standard by Seven' title, the David McIntee book they announced a year ago, is still in progress.

Ooh, thanks for that - I hadn't heard of that publisher until today, and they have several books on their site that I think I'd like - are they reliable?

Isn't there a "Making of" book due around August as well? It's more Blake's 7 stuff in one year than we've seen in twenty.

McIntee's book above seems to be that?

[bernardmanning]

Blimey.

http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/blakes-7.html

[quincymd]

I always knew Blake was actually about Illuminati infiltration of outwardly innocent organization rather than a series ending cliffhanger.

[Alan]

Blimey.

http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/blakes-7.html

Vaguely interesting in an Andy X. Cable kind of way until it goes all shopping list, which even dear Andy would never descend to.

[Alan]

Rewatching the DVDs at the moment - up to the fifth episode - and boy do these need some Restoration Team TLC. They're pretty grim looking and appear heavily over-DVNRed in places.

[Cobra Commander]

Rewatching the DVDs at the moment - up to the fifth episode - and boy do these need some Restoration Team TLC. They're pretty grim looking and appear heavily over-DVNRed in places.

Yep. DVNR. Very weird colour grading (some episodes are virtually monochrome). A couple instances of video sequences being filmised. It would be great if the whole lot could be redone, but do B7E still control everything?

[Alan]

do B7E still control everything?

Seems to be the case.

[richardmarson]

Funnily enough, I have never watched this series before (was at school when it was first on and so it was out of reach) so I recently decided to borrow the DVDs from a mate. I was looking forward to a kind of camp guilty pleasure thing - but so far I have struggled. I'm up to episode five but it's heavy going - usual turgid Terry Nation scripting and great yawning stretches of tedium. I hope it will pick up soon - apparently, it only gets really good a bit further in. Someone please reassure me!!

[Chris]

Stick with it Richard - the second series really gets going nicely. Once Boucher's influence comes through things get better.

[Alan]

Funnily enough, I have never watched this series before (was at school when it was first on and so it was out of reach) so I recently decided to borrow the DVDs from a mate. I was looking forward to a kind of camp guilty pleasure thing - but so far I have struggled. I'm up to episode five but it's heavy going - usual turgid Terry Nation scripting and great yawning stretches of tedium. I hope it will pick up soon - apparently, it only gets really good a bit further in. Someone please reassure me!!

Sorry to say, I've always got more from Series 1 than the later ones, but hopefully Chris' opinions will tally more with yours, Richard!

[Chris]

Having said that, I do like the grittiness of the early few episodes a lot.

[quincymd]

well the problem with the first 5 episodes is that one of them is rubbish, Time Squad, and that one of them is way beyond what they have the budget for, The Web.

[Alan]

And Paul Darrow is never better than in the first series. I just love the way that Avon is so out for himself and his own interests to the extent where you just can't trust him to operate the teleport. Great character interplay between him and particularly Gareth Thomas.

[Gareth]

well the problem with the first 5 episodes is that one of them is rubbish, Time Squad, and that one of them is way beyond what they have the budget for, The Web.

Like a lot of 70s BBC drama series, it takes several episodes to establish the format. FWIW the untypical opening episode is the strongest, but I've always found the next few quite dull. Once the crew and ship are set up it starts to pick up, though IMHO it greatly improves when Nation's scripts give way to Boucher and others.

[JamieWho]

Rewatching the DVDs at the moment - up to the fifth episode - and boy do these need some Restoration Team TLC. They're pretty grim looking and appear heavily over-DVNRed in places.

If I recall correctly they were all cleaned up by the RT, but I think that was about 10 years ago now, and they might have only had the budget for a basic cleanup.