History Recap / BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack

** The title card "The Way Back by Terry Nation" is displayed again at the start of the end credits, before going into the acting credits. This was continued for two more episodes before being dropped.

** Foster, Blake's old comrade who leads the resistance meeting early in the episode, has a Canadian accent[[note]]he was played by Canadian actor Robert Beatty[[/note]]. For the rest of the show's 52-episode run, there are virtually no characters with non-British accents.

-->''[Blake is craning his head to look out the porthole at a receding Earth and Moon.]''
-->'''Guard:''' Take a long look. That's the last you'll ever see of it.
-->'''Blake:''' [[TheDeterminator No, I'm coming back.]] ''[End credits]''

** The authorities decide not to use a PerfectPoison on Blake, as his death natural or otherwise would not stop a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory.

-->'''Jenna:''' What's your story?
-->'''Blake:''' Well, I'm innocent; of what I was charged with anyway.
-->'''Vila:''' We have something in common, then. We're all victims of a miscarriage of justice.
-->'''Blake:''' It's true!
-->'''Jenna:''' [[SarcasmMode Of course it is.]]
-->'''Blake:''' What about the others?
-->'''Vila:''' Oh, a very antisocial bunch. Murderers, liars, cheats, [looks at Jenna] smugglers...
-->'''Jenna:''' [Returns the favour] Thieves...
-->'''Vila:''' --and they're the nice people.

-->'''Ravella:''' The stuff we get's been recycled a thousand times, and it's [[GovernmentDrugEnforcement dosed with suppressants]].

* FakeMemories: This is integral to the first episode (and unfortunately dropped after that). [[BlatantLies Ordinary civilian]] Blake [[TomatoInTheMirror discovers that he was once a famous revolutionary]] who got captured, was forced to renounce the rebellion he'd led and had his memories replaced in order to turn him into a model citizen. Later, [[TheEmpire the Federation]] gets Blake convicted of child molestation by modifying the memories of children so they'd remember being attacked by Blake.

* ComputerizedJudicialSystem: The Defense and Prosecution load their arguments and evidence into a "judgement machine" which then delivers a verdict.

* KangarooCourt: Blake's trial is decided ahead of time, since he was framed. However, he didn't help his case by refusing to even offer a defense, [[NonSequitur because he was innocent]].

* OrgyOfEvidence: The evidence against Blake is overwhelming, so Varon concentrates his defense on arguing mitigating circumstances, but Blake denies all charges of molestation and claims that he's being framed. Afterwards Varon thinks that everything was too perfect and starts digging.

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood:
-->'''Vila:''' I steal things. Compulsive, I'm afraid. I've had my head adjusted by some of the best in the business. But it just won't stay adjusted.
-->'''Blake:''' A professional thief.
-->'''Vila:''' More a vocation than a profession. Other people's property comes naturally to me.

* ComeBackToBedHoney: Which is EarlyInstallmentWeirdness considering the [[SexyDiscretionShot rather chaste depictions of sex]] we get later in the series.

* DontCreateAMartyr: As there's an increasing view among the rebellious youth that Blake's trial was a fake, it would only fuel those rumors if he died. So the Administration decide to discredit him instead.

* HypocriticalHumor: Vila nicks Blake's watch while he's sleeping, but has to hand it back when Jenna pointedly asks Blake for the time.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Varon, the one lawyer on the planet who actually cares about the truth, investigates Blake's frame job, getting painfully close to unraveling the whole thing when government guards simply gun him and his girlfriend down. It was a deliberate attempt to frame the entire series by demonstrating the spirit-crushing government's resolve, and it worked brilliantly.

-->'''Jenna:''' [Returns the favor] Thieves...

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Vila trying to take Blake's watch shows he's a thief, though it's presented initially as being a compulsive behaviour rather than something he does because he's good at it, as in later episodes. When Blake catches him at it...

-->'''Foster:''' You were captured. So were most of our followers. They could have killed you. [[DontCreateAMartyr But that would have given the Cause a martyr.]] So instead they put you into intensive therapy. They [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erased areas of your mind]], they [[FakeMemories implanted new ideas]]. They literally took your mind to pieces and rebuilt it. And when they'd finished, they put you up and you confessed. You said you'd been "misguided." You appealed to everyone to support the Administration, hound up the traitors. Oh, they, they did a good job on you. You were very convincing. And then they took you back and erased even that.

* BadDreams: As Blake's conditioning starts to break down, he has {{flashback}}s of himself being brainwashed, and fleeing down a tunnel only to be struck by a soldier wielding a club.

* CoolClearWater: Ravella invites Blake to drink the water from a stream. He doesn't like the taste much.

* PullTheThread: The three children were all absent from school the day before they were sexually assaulted. When Varon demands the admissions for Central Clinic on that day, it turns out to be ClassifiedInformation, though a bribe persuades the computer operator otherwise. There are three admissions whose identity has been unrecorded.

* RevealShot: Dev Tarrant and his soldiers watches the ''London'' being launched despite Varon and Maja having found evidence that would acquit Blake. He then looks down at Varon and Maja lying dead at his feet.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Varon, the one lawyer on the planet who actually cares about the truth investigate Blake's frame job, gets painfully close to unraveling the whole thing when government guards simply gun him and his girlfriend down. It was a deliberate attempt to frame the entire series by demonstrating the spirit-crushing government's resolve, and it worked brilliantly.

* FakeMemories: The children who say that Blake molested them can pass a LieDetector test.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Vila implies that he's a kleptomaniac. Later seasons establish that he's a professional thief who steals because he's good at it, not out of habit.

* {{Brainwashed}}

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood

Written by Creator/TerryNation.\\

Airdate: 2 January 1978.

Written by Creator/TerryNation.
Directed by Michael E. Briant.