Blake's 7 - Series 3 on DVD

Vengeful Hedgehog from London, England , 03/07/2005

These DVDs are another joyous helping of shoestring-budget space adventuring with the now sadly depleted original crew, all looking semi-resplendent in their respective 70s fashions. Most notably, the titular Blake has vanished, as has his loyal love interest Jenna. Vila remains (and is as irritating as ever) as does Cally (whose perm, whilst arguably faded from its fashionable best, still has a reasonable bounce to it, and is at least superior to its flyaway, straw-like incarnation from the early episodes). And the ultra-ruthless Avon assumes the helm of the Liberator, proving just as au fait with all the mind-boggling technology as he ever did (well, he is advertising mobility scooters these days, which seems to me a natural progression from space travel), whilst possessing a low-cunning that preserves number one above all others. The original three cast members are joined by Dayna and Blake look-alike Tarrant, around whom many of these latest plots are based. There is also an expanded role for Servalan (unencumbered by her poodle Travis whom Avon so violently pushed down a very deep shaft on Star One), with her crypto-lesbian subtext there for all to see.

Yes ? I heartily recommend these DVDs, as I think that the series has really started to hit form at this point in its run.

  7 out of 8 people found this review helpful

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A customer from York , 19/09/2005

I gave up watching Blake's 7 before series three - it was just getting too silly. Then, many years later, I thought I'd watch it again - series one was good, two was better than I'd remembered but three was the best of the set.

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viewer no 1 from brum , 29/09/2005

brilliant - very good quality dvd, still looks as good (or bad) as it did in the 80's , worth getting the whole lot.

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A customer from Chester, UK , 16/11/2005

The third season of Blake's 7 in my opinion was the best. Ok they had a limited budget and not much special effects but still it is a great series. The design of the Liberator is excellent and really it could not of been done better. The menu's on this aren't as good as the one's in season 1 DVD's but they are still pretty good.

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Loki0115 from GREATER LONDON , 15/08/2005

This is one of the most brilliant Sci Fi TV series of all time. Every episode has outstanding dialogue (mostly uttered by the amazing Paul Darrow, who plays the character of "Avon").

The characters are not the usual lame, 2-dimensional, goodie-goodies that you see on ‘Star Trek’ and elsewhere, but real-life characters with flaws and charisma(the characters of Blake, Servalan and Avon stand out particularly).

I wish only that the special effects budget had been greater, but the BBC are notoriously stingy with Sci Fi TV shows.

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macutmore from Essex, UK. , 07/08/2005

I remember vividly watching Blake’s Seven on its’ original run back in 1978 from the second episode onwards. Without realising what it was all about it grew on me greatly in those days. Up to the time when we virtually only had the ZX spectrum computer, the writer’s fantasy of a super computer ‘ORAC’ is pretty much what the Internet is today.

Consider; Predictions from several decades ago that failed to foresee that computers would become much smaller and cheaper were immediately regarded as ‘far fetched’. That these changes would enable nearly every business and home to have its own computer to be used for a variety of applications, and that those machines would be linked together (not unlike Orac), in a world-wide network, were never even considered. Instead, futurist scenarios frequently presented a world of very few, very expensive all-powerful computers the size of large buildings, used only for divining answers to complex problems beyond the ability of man to solve on his own! Yet most (if not all), of Terry Nations visions have become frightenly real today.

I thought the series was as good as, if not better than Star trek; it thrilled me more with certain episodes, and the corrupt federation concept and hard way of life portrayed in the series is not far removed from tough elements of society today. If you look beyond the surface of the set, special effects and production you really can feel some brilliant plots, philosophies, ideals, truths and disturbing analogies that are wholly related to life- the reality of pain and suffering, the paradox of life and death, the sad fact that good does not always triumph over evil, no matter how much it is deserved for whatever reasons.

The kind of fears and fights for empire building that is all around us today wound up in a fantasy satire. Trust, betrayal, reward, power, leadership, specialisation, culture, creed, prejudice, vengeance, technology, capitalism, and even a primitive existence are all portrayed and rolled into one in Blake’s seven. It is absolutely fascinating; you need intelligence to appreciate the scripts and what they mean. Terry nation created a masterpiece in my opinion.

While you’re watching it, give it a chance; just imagine if it were real- it’s not far off really! God help us.

  1 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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