Big Finish announce exciting plans to novelise the earliest episodes in Limited Edition hardback format. 

Audio producers Big Finish have been keepers of the Blake’s 7 flame for many years. From their full-cast audios starring original cast members, to narrator-led series The Liberator Chronicles, they’ve been busily adding to the universe first envisioned by Terry Nation back in the late 1970s.

Most recently, since the sad passing of core cast members, they’ve been expanding that universe. The Worlds of Blake’s 7 follows up on some of the side characters, alien worlds and killer ideas the main show didn’t have time to dwell on.

Today, however, they’ve announced a rather exciting project which goes right back to the beginning. Blake’s 7: Origins novelises each of the show’s first 14 episodes, all originally written by series creator Terry Nation.

Blake’s 7: Origins

The adaptors are all familiar Big Finish names, some with quite illustrious careers elsewhere; Paul Cornell, Marc Platt, Gary Russell, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Cole, Una McCormack and James Goss have tackled two episodes each.

Each two-story volume features lavish photos and artwork, with the whole run released as a Limited Edition box set.

Producer and Commissioning Editor Peter Anghelides said: “Our wonderful writers bring their talent, imagination and wit to these new novelisations. Each of them already has an impressive track record as a novelist, not to mention a wide range of other writing in prose and other media.”

Here’s the line up by episode:

‘The Way Back’/’Space Fall’ by Paul Cornell
‘Cygnus Alpha’/’Time Squad’ by Marc Platt
‘The Web’/’Seek-Locate-Destroy’ by Gary Russell
‘Mission to Destiny’/’Duel’ by Jacqueline Rayner
‘Project Avalon’/’Breakdown’ by Steve Cole
‘Bounty’/’Deliverance’ by Una McCormack
‘Orac’/’Redemption’ by James Goss

Draft Scripts

Peter Anghelides also promises that the scope of the books may be wider than what was seen onscreen:

“Unlike conventional novelisations, which tend to be written before a TV show or movie has been completed, these are all informed by the available reference materials, 45 years of the show, and the inventiveness of our authors. They are all big fans of the series — our very own ‘Blake’s 7’ for this unique collection.”

“The Nation Estate very helpfully allowed us to see original drafts written by Terry, some hand annotated, to reference as the origins of the TV show. Where appropriate, we’re staying faithful to the original series. For example, some draft scripts feature the characters Arco Trent and Brell Klein, who make it onto Liberator – but (spoiler alert) they won’t be escaping Cygnus Alpha in our novels.”

If you’d like to know more, there’s plenty of commentary from the authors involved on the Big Finish website (hidden in the Backstage tab).

The next issue of SFX, due on sale on the 28 December, will also carry and exclusive interview with the box set’s Executive Producer, Jason Haigh-Ellery, and writers Paul Cornell and Jac Rayner.

Blake’s 7: Origins is available to pre-order now and they’re released on the 27th March 2023.

The premium hardback printed books are only available in a single collection for just £99.99 (plus postage & packing). The set is strictly limited to 1,500 copies and the books won’t be available to purchase separately.