With a choice of 52 episodes, we picked the seven Blake’s 7 episodes we’d like to see reimagined

We’re excited at the news Blake’s 7 is to be rebooted. Several years ago, Cultbox considered which Blake’s 7 episodes might constitute 5 of the best. It’s a good list, but we were attracted to the idea of 7 episodes telling the story from start to finish (as well as how we might retell them). Then we got distracted and added some of our favourites! Enjoy

Our Seven Blake’s 7 episodes for remagining

Yes, there are only six pictures. We’re being a little fluid in our counting, as you will see. We’ve narrowed our long list down to the following, which we give in broadcast order. An of course we start at…

The Way Back

Any show needs to start somewhere, and in the case of the original TV show, this was all about Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) living in a dystopian (even Orwellian) future. Contacted by rebels, he learns he had been a rebel, had his memories altered and rather than simply killed or imprisoned, put back into the world. As he learns some truths, stakes are raised, he is captured, a show trial is rushed through and this time he gets punished with exile.

Looking back, this is very much a pilot and feels like a show that decided to move from Orwell to Space Opera. We’d be interested in more exploration of life in the Federation and even introduction of one or more of the future crew of the Liberator. Most of this episode is discarded going forward, which feels like a missed opportunity in hindsight. Having recently rewatched The Man in the High Castle, there’s definitely a lot to be said for this kind of story.

Spacefall / Cygnus Alpha

It’s the first of our fluid counting examples. With episode 1 taking Blake into exile, next up was find the Liberator, take control and get a crew. Terry Nation took two episodes here, and while we can’t imagine the inimical Brian Blessed being topped, we do wonder if there’s scope to meet more potential crew in the first episode, build here and move the story on. We assume the new series will be 60′ episodes — here is one place where we might see 90′ working better.

Regardless, there needs to be a transition to “rebels in a supership on the run”. Maybe such a great villain as Vargas (Blessed) could also have returned in later stories?

Redemption

We skip to series 2, and it’s a one-off story about The System, creators of the Liberator (and sister ships). We see a lot of unexplored possibilities here as our heroes have the chance to compare the merits (and demerits) of a computer controlled civilisation, run the risk of losing the Liberator if it turns against them and then a dramatic battle between two well-matched vessels, which Blake’s crew wins by virtue of not being computer controlled (or AI as it would have to be). A chance to explore some deep backstory and contemporary topics — what’s not to like?!

“THE GAP”

And now we come to an episode that never happened (hence the lack of picture). Series 2 ended up with Blake and crew locating the Federation’s monitoring station Star One. It’s a clever episode in there’s a new enemy — the Andromedans. The episode ends with a massive space battle in which the Liberator joins forces with the Federation and… sadly lack of budget means this stays in the imagination. But what if it were remade with a modern CGI budget?

Of course, a new version of the show would need to then bring the Andromedans back a few times, not so with Blake’s 7, instead Blake himself leaves the show. All epic, and all something we’d very much like to see happen on screen.

City at the Edge of the World

Not only is this a superb episode for Vila (Michael Keating) — the only male character known by his first name — but brought us Colin Baker as Bayban the Butcher. Baker reprised the part in the Big Finish audio Bayban the Butcher, and we suspect the character is capable of a lot more. Even if the new version of the show takes a different path, we believe a non-Federation villain as important as the Federation. At this point we also need to recognise the importance of both Servalan (played by Jacqueline Pearce) and Travis (played by both Stephen Grief and Brian Croucher). While we’ve not singled out episodes for them in particular (another post?) they were as vital to the show as everyone else.

Orbit

And now we get to Paul Darrow’s Avon, the most enigmatic, intelligent (his words) and charismatic (also his words) of them all. From the beginning he was never quite one of the team and forever argued with Blake then Vila. Behind all this, we always felt behind the smile and the barbed words there was a genuine respect hidden. In modern terms it seemed Avon had Vila’s back and vice versa. Until Avon seriously considered killing Vila to save himself. We do hope we get equally powerful character pieces again.

Arguably the most powerful episode of the run, it left an uncomfortable aftertaste and broke a key relationship. Almost like it was foretelling…

Blake

We began at the beginning and we end at the end. With Blake we had the return of the eponymous lead and his definitive death along with all (most?) of the heroes. The Federation won, the show ended. It’s hard to convey in the age of countless channels and stream what you want when you want, but back in 1981 a few days before Christmas it seemed a lot of people watched this. The BBC killed off the heroes of the show. Like the absence of Blake himself for most of two series, this was (and remains) unusual. And yes, we didn’t see Avon die (and some of us at Cultbox think Vila pretended to get shot), but the show was over.

In terms of a reboot, we don’t want slavish repetition, but we also don’t want a sudden cancellation. As and when the show ends, let it actually end.