Blake's 7 was being made as Ridley Scott was frightening the pants off filmgoers with Alien. Scott's Nostromo, flown with weary disregard by Dallas, Ripley and the others, looked plausibly futuristic, battered but solid - as you'd expect an interstellar ore-refining vessel to look. Blake's Liberator, fl own by Avon, Cally, Tarrant, Dayna and Vila is bright, clean and loaded with high-tech widgets you'd expect from a ship that's the envy of the cosmos. It's also an early '80s example of BBC set construction and isn't at all convincing.
When originally aired a quarter of a century ago, Blake's 7 ran to four series and garnered very high viewing figures. The three series so far released on DVD seem set to do likewise. But why? The ropey sets, poor special effects, school-play costumes and embarrassingly amateur fight scenes seem unlikely to appeal to today's audiences.
And yet the 52 tales of Blake's adventurers have lasting appeal.
The third series begins with the cast scattered after a battle between the Terran Federation fleet (the eternal villains) and an alien force.
Blake and Jenna have disappeared.
The rest of the crew return to the Liberator to resume their battle against the Federation, led by the vampish Servalan (played with sultry ruthlessness by Jacqueline Pearce).
The characters (ostensibly selfish renegades all), if not particularly rich in themselves, are aided by good plotting and clever if melodramatic writing. To take an example, in "Deathwatch", our heroes discover that the United Planets of Teal and the Vandor Confederacy are about to settle one of their periodic disputes not by a destructive war, but by a fight to the death between a champion from each side. Teal's champion turns out to be Tarrant's brother and is favoured to win.
However, Avon smells a rat when he discovers that a 'neutral' adjudicator appointed to the contest is Servalan who, to serve the federation's expansionist aims, has seen to it that Vandor's champion is a highly illegal android. The stage is set.
On the viewing of this series, the group's higher purpose - of battling and undermining the federation's control of the galaxy - seems to lack dramatic tension, and individual episodes can be patchy. But, in the last analysis, this reviewer at least began to care about the characters; to wonder whether Blake would ever return or if Avon and Servalan would eventually manage to sort out their differences. Bring on series four.
