Blake vs Avon…
The surest way to hook someone into watching Blake’s 7 is to introduce them to the character of Avon. He’s the sarcastic, ice cold, loner type who simply wants to be anywhere else than on a super ship, the Liberator, led by a fanatical freedom fighter (terrorist). Avon has a dirty record (as do all the crew), but in Avon’s case it was simply computer hacking into a bank to steal hundreds of millions of credits that did him in. Still, as the show progress, it is Avon who steals every scene as few can go toe to toe with his logic and selfish motivations. It would have made a perfect HBO show, only it predated such a thing in the late 1970s. The costumes were mostly horrendous along with most of the hair styles, and the model effects were quaint compared to Star Wars. But the characters and their uphill struggle against an evil Federation was what brought viewers back week after week.
Here are some of Avon’s best come backs and retorts:
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It sounds too much like Farscape, even though it obviously predates it significantly. That said, that would be the only reason why I could see it not being relaunched. Wiki paints a fascinating story that indeed, would be interesting on the likes of HBO.
It’s not much like Farscape at all. And it has a hell of an ending.
I always think Brittish TV has to rely on something called “Acting” what with a lack of budget, and special effects, that American TV is saturated with.
Sometimes the acting was terrible in British shows. But the leads were all great, which is all that really mattered. I think the benefit of the low budget was to be a little more creative at times with situations and plots. It also put more necessity on character and dialogue.
Having said that, the show, just like Doctor Who, would at times attempt to do something wayyyyyyyy too ambitious for the budget. But that trained me to basically ignore awful effects and just focus more on the intent. Blake’s 7 has been around long enough, so I’ll spoil it right now in the hopes it might actually raise the interest of some readers. All the heroes die. ALL OF THEM. The final episode of season 4 is incredible, particularly for the time. Not the ending you would expect. It’s tragic, powerful, and if you’ve watched the show up to that point, the impact will never leave you.
It’s very hard to explain to someone why Blake’s 7 is worth their time, because some of the key things that make it different from other shows are massive spoilers. The relationship between the characters Blake and Avon is the core of the show. Blake makes messed up choices sometimes (even though he’s trying to be moralistic), and Avon doesn’t mind making messed up choices, but sometimes does something noble… yet you’re never quite sure if it was done out of some private self interest.
There are plenty of shows where an ice cold character melts later on, but Avon never melts. He has moments of softening, but rarely. But at the same time, he finds himself pressed into following a path he finds deeply abhorent. Blake’s path of freedom fighting. But his method is much more pragmatic. Then it all culminates in something totally unexpected. There are many incredible moments along the way. And many comparatively shitty episodes too. But the sum total is a unique journey and like no other sci-fi.
I love the fact that Paul Darrow (Avon) purchased the rights to Blake’s 7 years back to prevent it falling into obscurity.
I thought the rights were owned by Andrew Mark Sewell’s “Blakes 7 Enterprises” (B7E), having bought them from Terry Nation’s estate. Darrow and B7e had a fairly acrimonious parting of the ways more than a decade ago.
http://9gag.com/gag/aObQG6r
lmao was thinking of this comic when i saw this