In 1977 came Star Wars, the movie. In the UK, the BBC created a television show in response: Blake’s 7.
Imagine what would happen if you took the basic theme of Star Wars—an extremely successful evil galactic empire, and the rebels fighting it—and rewrote it as a serial with one rule: be realistic.
If there is an extremely successful evil galactic empire, then it holds all the cards; and the ones fighting it are eternally desperate and probably not too happy most of the time. Losses are frequent; victories are rare and probably insignificant.
Then stop imagining, because you can just watch it.
It’s convenient for my narrative that Disney acquired Lucasfilm; Blake’s 7 is Star Wars without the Disney. If there is a light at the end of the tunnel in Blake’s 7, it’s because the end of the tunnel is on fire.
You can’t talk about Blake’s 7 without mentioning how low budget it was.
If you’re seen pre-reboot Dr Who, you’ll know more or less what to expect; it could charitably be called “quaint” or “charming”.
A lot of the “off world” shooting locations are obviously quarries or sometimes just fields.
But we’re not here for the special effects, right? We’re grown-ups! At least they tell me I am.
You don’t get much more epic than “handful of misfits against the empire”.
The titular Blake is an idealist. Who would fight an empire? Blake would, to his last breath; he’s kind and out for justice but also necessarily ruthless and even brutal.
In the first episode Blake is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, then after the inevitable jailbreak he ends up on the run with a bunch of hardened criminals. That’s right: the “good” team in Blake’s 7 are escaped convicts. They, we quickly learn, were certainly not framed.
This is a wonderful setup for a group of freedom fighters, and in particular sets the scene for one of my favourite characters of all time: Avon, the computer expert, the master criminal, and probably the most evil “good guy” you’ll ever meet.
Then there’s Vila, the thief; Jenna, the smugger; and Gan, the murderer. What a happy band, indeed.
It’ll take a little work to get into, but I highly recommend it.
I watched it on YouTube; it’s not clear if all the episodes are there today, but at least the first is:
It also seems to be on Amazon Prime Video.
So far today, 2024-11-25, feedback has been received 1 times. Of these, 0 were likely from bots, and 1 might have been from real people. Thank you, maybe-real people!
———
/ \ i a
| C a \ D n |
irc \ /
———