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Summary of
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
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"Blake's 7" is formed by escaped convicts: most not particularly keen to risk their lives for the ideal of freedom for the rest of mankind. The Federation is trying to maintain order and keep the peace. Though the methods the Federation uses are deplorable (adding tranquillizing drugs to food and water supplies and massacring dissidents or framing them for child molesting), the methods the rebels use aren't much better (blowing up installations and disrupting the government and military).
No one on this show is inconceivably good or inexplicably evil. Instead this British space adventure evolves out of opposing but not necessarily irreconcilable forces. Not only is there the varying antagonisms between Federation personnel and each of the rebels but within the group of Seven there are contrasting ideologies, conflicting temperaments, contradictory viewpoints and clashing aspirations. Not all of the Seven are even committed to the rebellion except on the purely practical grounds that the Federation is continually trying to kill them.
Avon, for instance, contrasts more sharply with Blake than he does with many in the Federation. Whereas Blake is idealistic, Avon is materialistic. Blake is optimistic, Avon pessimistic. Blake is a believer, Avon a sceptic. Blake tries to live by principles, Avon attempts to act pragmatically. They are opposites and as such have a great deal to offer each other.
Other members of the team and their enemies represent a rainbow of other positions which blend together for a colorful effect.
The first series of stories introduces Blake and the convicts he meets when he is deported to Cygnus Alpha. He, Jenna and Avon take over an alien starship. Blake then rescues Vila and Gan from the prison planet. They are later joined by Cally, and in the last story of that series the group inherits Orac whose prediction of the coming destruction of the Liberator ends the first series with a cliffhanger. The next three series follow the tradition of leaving major characters facing peril.
This guide doesn't emphasize plotlines so much as it attempts to show these characters in word and action as they, somewhat reluctantly, learn to deal with one another.
Dates given are the British Broadcasting Corporation's first airdates for the stories. Running time includes title and credit sequences to the nearest minutes. The writer and director of each story are listed beneath the title.
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Introduction |
The Beginning |
The Production Team |
Background Characters | Morality & Humor | Sex & Death | Conclusion | Summary |
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