mae@aplvax.UUCP (Mary Anne Espenshade) (03/13/86)
To answer the Blake's 7 questions from "ix312@sdcc6.UUCP" (could you tell us your real name, ix312, or were these postings directly from a machine?): Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks on Doctor Who, created Blake's 7 for the BBC. It ran for 4 13 episode seasons (1978-1981) before ending with a bang (so to speak). Complete information and episode guide are available in a book called The Blake's 7 Programme Guide, by Tony Attwood. Terry Nation wrote all of the first 13 episodes and several others after that, a large portion of the others were written by Chris Boucher. Well known SF author Tanith Lee wrote two episodes. Terry Nation specifically copied some things from Star Trek, one of his favorite shows - look in particular at the logo in the opening credits. > Anyway, what I like to know is if anyone out there knows the show and > can give me some information on it, such as who are these people? The original 7 are, in the view of the Terran Federation, the most dangerous escaped criminals and terrorists running loose in the galaxy: Roj Blake - convicted child molestor Kerr Avon - convicted embezzler Vila Restal - convicted thief Jenna Stannis - convicted smuggler Oleg Gan - convicted murderer Cally - alien spy Zen - central computer of the Liberator Actually, the Federation is an extremely corrupt government, controlling planetary populations with drugs and police-state tactics. Blake was a leader of those rebeling against this government, the charges against him were trumped up in order to discredit him and sentence him to exile on the prison planet Cygnus Alpha. > how did they get together? and why? Blake meets Avon, Vila, Jenna and Gan on route to Cygnus Alpha. The Liberator is an alien ship found abandoned. When guards from the prison transport are killed trying to board it, expendable prisoners are sent instead - Blake, Avon and Jenna. The ship accepts them as its new crew and they escape, following the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha to rescue Vila and Gan. They meet Cally during their first attack on a Federation installation. She was the only survivor of a previous sabotage attempt. > Just what is the basic plot line and any background on the characters. > (I was able to figure out that Blake and his crew are the good guys.) Blake and his crew are freedom fighters, aka terrorists. They are only "the good guys" because the federation is so bad. Avon and Vila, at least, were rightly convicted criminals. > Also, Blake and his crew only total to six, who is number 7? Zen, the Liberator's sentient computer, is the seventh. But don't let the number bother you, the show is Avon's 5 by the time it's over. This is British TV, they are allowed to kill main characters (though this show carries it to somewhat of an extreme :-)). And just think who confused you would be if you had happened on a 3rd or 4th series episode first - Blake isn't even in those. -- Mary Anne Espenshade ...!{allegra, seismo}!umcp-cs!aplcen!aplvax!mae