Blake's 7 (S1 1-7)

[thisbluespirit]

velvetfascism told me to go watch Blake's 7 and after some experimentation with VHS copies found in charity shops (some which were more cut up than you would believe), I gave in and used my b'day money to buy S1 & 2 on DVD.

I have to say I am loving it so far. The abridged versions felt like a string of Terry Nation cliches, but the full length episodes have much more going on. I suppose that shouldn't be a shock. Being a long-term DW fan, I can't help trying to guess which bits are Terry Nation and which bits might have been added by script editor Chris Boucher. (I've more or less given up that game now, although I do recognise a TN cliche when I see one. And: "You're so scared your brains have curdled!" has to be CB, surely.)

I mean, the only real flaw is special effects and I've moved from DW S15 to this. There's nothing to make me so much as blink. :lol: Well, except for my amusement that Blake will insist on taking his cool box everywhere. It does make some episodes look as though they intend one of those inappropriate picnics (the ones where it's raining and you're lost and someone's forgotten the sandwiches, but you're still going to have the picnic and enjoy it, or else). And a couple silly bits (but literally only 2) one being Blake's inability to count his crew (I'm sorry: how long does it take to spot one of your five crewmates is missing?) and his being so laid back he doesn't think to open boxes containing important items. But to be honest, this only adds to the enjoyment.

And I'm astounded at what was left out of the abridged tape. You'd think the first meeting between Blake, Vila and Jenna would have been worth keeping in, wouldn't you? Well, now that explains how everyone else seemed to know everyone's names, except that Blake had to be introduced to Avon. (Who, btw, is possibly more snarky than any other TV character I've ever seen. It's very entertaining.)

And I know I may have been reading DWM too many years not to have heard some things about B7 (including possibly how it ended), but that does not mean I actually know and I do not, do not want to be spoilered. Spoiler me and I shall have to come after you and virtually kill you. In fan fic.

(Mind you, last time I offered to kill fellow members of a forum in sort of fan fic, they all lined up and gave me methods of dying, so maybe that doesn't work as a threat?)

And, oddly, despite my wish to avoid spoilers, I already want fan fic. I never really want fan fic, not like that. That comes as a sort of side-effect of writing. B7 I am already wanting some. And I can't safely, not for ages. *Sigh* Being a DW fan is so much easier!

Put more briefly, I'm afraid I love it already. Hopefully that won't change. And I'm hoping despite the things I think I know, I won't get my heart totally broken along the way.


There, that's the end of my reviews. You can see I temporarily abandoned the Key to Time. I really can't watch two 1978 BBC sf shows at once.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

It's Terry Nation tidied up by Chris Boucher, so TN cliches and CB snark (and even a Leela-ish character) all over the place. :-D I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

Plus, it has DW actors/directors (S2 has 'written by Terry Nation, Robert Holmes, Chris Boucher... on the back. Hmm.) and John Leeson just turned up in the last episode I watched. Taking a break from being K9 in KtoT, I presume. Nyder made a brief appearance, obviously having survived Genesis after all - oh, sorry, I mean Peter Miles playing a pretty similar character and that guy from Revenge of the Cybermen was still betraying people.

Key to Time is great. Androids is my favourite, too, followed by The Ribos OPeration and the Stones of Blood, but I like all of it. It has Romana I in - she never fails to be fabulous! Well, aside from when falling off the cliff face, but it is DW.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to check this out - you cannot have too much Nyder, or indeed Nyder-clones. Playing spot-the-actor is one of my favourite parts of watching old Doctor Who; some of them seem to just keep coming back over and over again (Philip Madoc out of The War Games was in quite a few Whos, wasn't he, most famously Brain of Morbius. He was also, incredibly, the U-boat captain in that episode of Dad's Army that always comes up on best comedy shows ever type programmes)...

I suppose falling down cliffs/spraining ankles etc. is an occupational hazard if you're one of the Doctor's companions, but you're more likely to sprain your ankle if you go wandering around the countryside in shoes like that! :-D

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. Oh, you'll get pleasure out of B7 for that alone then. (Just watched another episode and I can now add Julian Glover to the tally). And it was produced by David Maloney. :-) (And for TN cliches, we've already had plenty of radiation-related things, planets devastated by a great war, deadly viruses, fungoid attacks, mutoids, flesh-eating plant-life, android doubles, the traitor who's a pretty girl (!),and barring actual Daleks, I'm not sure what's left and I've not even finished S1. :lol: With snarkiness a la Robots of Death in between times. (Another has-to-be CB line is Blake's response to Avon when he claims Blake's 'stupidity [is] beyond his ability to comprehend': "Now you're just being modest!")

What more can a DW fan ask for? Heh. I swear even some of the sets are familiar. (Corridors retrieved from Face of Evil, an administrator in Ep 1 seems to have Poul's sofa from Robots...)

And our heroes carry a cool box everywhere.

[thisbluespirit]

...And now they're all dying of radiation sickness and there are nasty squiggly things in the only tunnel through to the impenetrable base.

Hah. Just watched an episode written,/i> by CB. It felt so odd. Where are the cliches? There's, like, ideas in this one!!! What is the world coming to? (I cannot wait to see what Robert Holmes does with this lot.) :lol:

Erm. Sorry. Bouncy new fandom... (The rocks are very bouncy, so is the scenery.) ;-D