History Series / BlakesSeven

''Blake's Seven'' is an iconic British SF series created by Terry Nation, who had earlier created [[Series/DoctorWho the Daleks]] and the AfterTheEnd drama series ''Survivors''. It ran for four thirteen episode series between 1978 and 1981. The series takes place during the "third century of the new calendar" (fans estimate this as approximately 2700 AD). The series is about the quest of a group of rebels to overthrow the evil and fascistic Federation that controls Earth and most of the known Galaxy. Though it is sometimes referred to as a SpaceOpera, it tended to the cynical end of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, particularly after a certain point. The format had elements of WagonTrainToTheStars. It was also lower-budget, and looked it.

Blake was perhaps the only "good" character amongst the Seven but, though he sometimes appeared to be, never had the full authority and respect from the others to be TheCaptain. The other main characters in the series were: '''Kerr Avon''' (Avon), an amoral computer expert who refused to trust anyone -- a real AntiHero; '''Jenna''' Stannis, a smuggler who was the pilot of the ''Liberator'' during the first two series; '''Vila Restal''' (Vila), a cowardly thief; '''Cally''', a humanoid telepath with kamikaze tendencies exiled from the planet Auron; and '''Olag Gan''' (Gan), a GentleGiant, but only because he had a limiter fitted to his brain after he killed a man in a rage (admittedly, said man had just raped and killed Gan's girlfriend). ''Liberator'' was controlled by a sentient computer known as '''Zen'''.

* HoYay - usually pops up in one form or another in Robert Holmes's episodes, most notably between Krantor and Toise in "Gambit," and Egrorian and Pinder in "Orbit". Although the standards of the time meant that they couldn't actually be called lovers on-screen, Holmes made it pretty much as obvious as you can get without outright saying the G-word.

** Avon and Blake were this at times, particularly in Terminal.

* LicensedSexist - Avon turns into one of these in any episode written by Ben Steed. The most blatant instance is in the episode "Power," where he actually lectures a female villain on how women are inherently less strong than men, and how they should learn their proper place in society, though he seems to have a mutual respect with Servalan.

* FakeInTheHole - Tarrant throws a stone into a nest of Federation troops, shouting "Grenade!" The troops reflexively dive for cover, and when they realize it was fake and look up, the heroes have them at gunpoint. Tarrant: "It must have been a dud. Sorry about that."

* '''[[BrianBlessed BRIAN BLESSED]]''' - Amazingly, he once admitted in an interview he felt he'd [[BeyondTheImpossible overplayed his character]] (a cult leader.)

* WelcomeToTheLiberator - trope namer.

It is distinctive in that most of its leading characters are of the AntiHero type rather than your usual clean-cut heroes. In fact, Avon, the lead of the latter two seasons, counted as an AntiVillain. It's often seen as Nation's attempt to subvert ''StarTrek'' -- the ''B7'' Federation's logo is the ''Trek'' Federation logo rotated through 90 degrees -- and other subversions of what, at the time, were standard SpaceOpera tropes are common.

-->Could be mistaken but I'm positive a Dr Who costume (A Sea Devil without the net shirt) was used in "Rescue"

* '''[[BrianBlessed BRIAN BLESSED]]'''

''Blake's Seven'' was clearly a strong influence on ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', ''{{Lexx}}'', and ''{{Firefly}}'', as well as having a minor influence on ''BabylonFive'' -- J. Michael Straczynski noted that, in writing all of Season 3, he was doing something that hadn't been attempted in SF TV since Terry Nation wrote all of Season 1 of ''Blake's Seven''. It had a much stronger influence on the sequel series ''{{Crusade}}'', which became even more obvious when information began to leak about plot developments that would have occurred had the show not been cancelled.

->'''Vila''': Everyone came from Earth originally. That's a well-known fact.
->'''Soolin''': It's a well-known opinion, actually.
->'''Tarrant''': Most well known facts are.

* TheOtherDarrin - Done with Travis. Less visibly, Orac's voice was provided in "Orac" by Derek Farr, who had played his creator Ensor, but in later episodes by Peter Tuddenham. The Federation offical Ven Glynd was played in "The Way Back" by Robert James and in "Voice From the Past" by Richard Bebb.

->'''Vila''': Where are all the good guys?
->'''Blake''': You could be looking at them.
->'''Avon''': What a very depressing thought.

** Not exactly, we encounter one ambiguously alien species (Aurons - aka Cally's people who look exactly like humans) and one unambigously alien species in the Andromedeans (who look nothing like humans). Then there are whoever is living in the Darkling Zone who hates humanity (whoever set off the "B" plot in the story ''Killer''). "Dawn of the Gods" also features a number of aliens (and, surprisingly for Blake's 7, no reuse of costumes from Doctor Who).

* MirrorMatch - Soolin gunslinging against herself in 'Gambit'.

* VinylShatters

* TheOtherDarrin - Done with Travis.

'''Avon:''' And she got it too, didn't she? Your ''[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean sympathy]]'' I mean?

* MagicalComputer
* MagicalDatabase