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Context Trivia / BlakesSeven

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1!! [[Series/BlakesSeven The TV series]]
2* AbilityOverAppearance: Tarrant was originally written as a man of 35-55. When 24-year-old Creator/StevenPacey was cast, the character was changed from seasoned veteran to cocky young upstart.
3* ActingForTwo:
4** Creator/JanChappell plays an alien being that bases her appearance on Cally's in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E9Sarcophagus Sarcophagus]]".
5** Tarrant had a lookalike brother (with a bouffant wig) in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E12DeathWatch Death-Watch]]".
6** Peter Tuddenham, in scenes where Orac was talking with Zen or Slave. Tuddenham could reportedly do this with no need for ADR, he simply used two different microphones, one for Orac and one for Zen/Slave. That said, there are only a *very* small number of scenes in which the computers talk to each other.
7* ActorLeavesCharacterDies:
8** Creator/JanChappell was both unable and unwilling to return for Season 4. It was planned that she'd return for the first six episodes, then three, then finally just the first, in which she was hastily killed in an explosion without ever appearing onscreen.
9** Creator/GarethThomas actually insisted on this as a condition of coming BackForTheFinale, hence the unusually graphic blood effects used when he gets shot. In the end it turned out to be academic, as the mooted fifth season never happened.
10** Speaking of the finale, the series ends with the characters being shot in slow-motion. The actors were told that if they wanted to stay on for the next season, their character would be stunned and if they didn't, then their character's dead.
11** Gan became the first character to be killed off when Creator/DavidJackson complained about how little he'd been given to do.
12** The final episode also reveals that Jenna died offscreen at some point.
13* BadExportForYou: It's currently not available on DVD in the US, though you might be able to scrounge up some VHS tapes. Also, as of August 2021, all four seasons are available on Britbox for streaming.
14* CastTheRunnerUp:
15** Creator/PaulDarrow and Creator/BrianCroucher were both considered for Blake before being cast as Avon and Travis Mark II, respectively.
16** Creator/JanChappell was considered for Jenna before being cast as Cally.
17** Candace Glendenning (Rashel in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E3Weapon Weapon]]") had auditioned for the role of Jenna.
18** Alan Lake (Chel in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E1Aftermath Aftermath]]") had auditioned for the role of Vila.
19* CreativeDifferences: Creator/GarethThomas left the series after two seasons partially because he disliked the direction the show had taken, going from straight science-fiction into sci-fi fantasy, which he felt went against the original premise.
20* CreatorBacklash:
21** Creator/JosetteSimon did not look back on the show with fondness, believing that the showrunners took advantage of her naivety and lack of confidence to get her to play a "hot exotic warrior woman" part that she saw retrospectively as both sexually and racially demeaning. She declined to reprise the role for Creator/BigFinish's audio plays based on the series, with the role eventually being recast.
22** Creator/JacquelinePearce was unhappy with the final season, claiming that it ran out of steam and ideas. That said, she named "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E9Sand Sand]]" from that season as her favourite episode.
23** When it comes to individual episodes, Creator/MichaelKeating's least favourite was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E10Ultraworld Ultraworld]]" and Creator/StevenPacey allegedly disliked "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E7Assassin Assassin]]" because it made Tarrant look like a gullible idiot.
24** Creator/BrianBlessed is embarrassed by his guest role in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E3CygnusAlpha Cygnus Alpha]]" because he felt he overplayed it. Yes, really.
25* CreatorCouple: Creator/PaulDarrow's wife was asked to guest star in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E13Blake Blake]]". She agreed on the condition that her character be killed by Avon because she found the idea amusing.
26* CreatorsFavouriteEpisode:
27** Creator/TerryNation's favourite episode from the first series was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E7MissionToDestiny Mission to Destiny]]".
28** Creator/PaulDarrow's favourite was either "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E13StarOne Star One]]" or "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E8RumoursOfDeath Rumours of Death]]".
29** Creator/MichaelKeating's favourite was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E6CityAtTheEdgeOfTheWorld City at the Edge of the World]]".
30** Creator/JacquelinePearce's favourite was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E9Sand Sand]]".
31** Creator/StephenGreif's favourite was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E8Duel Duel]]".
32** Creator/JanChappell's favourites were "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E7ChildrenOfAuron Children of Auron]]" and "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E9Sarcophagus Sarcophagus]]".
33** Creator/StevenPacey's favourite was "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E12DeathWatch Death-Watch]]".
34* CreatorsFavourite: It's pretty clear that Creator/TerryNation and Creator/ChrisBoucher's favourite character was Avon. It's alright though - [[BreakoutCharacter he was everyone else's favourite too.]]
35* DarkhorseCasting: When Creator/JosetteSimon was cast as Dayna, she had recently graduated from RADA and didn't have an Equity card.
36* DawsonCasting: ''Possibly'' the case with Dayna: though Creator/JosetteSimon is actually quite a lot younger than other members of the principal cast, she was still in her early twenties when the show was made, but at several points it seems like the character was meant to be in her mid-teens (such as when she refers to herself as a "girl" at one point, explicitly contrasting this with Cally's allusion to herself as a woman moments before). A lot of her other traits (her obvious sexual curiosity around Avon and Tarrant, her quite childlike desire to be comforted when frightened despite her usual badass demeanor) could be meant to indicate that the character was intended to be younger than she looked, but might just as easily be put down to her isolated upbringing alone with her father and foster-sister.
37* DevelopmentHell:
38** In April 2000, producer Andrew Mark Sewell announced that he had bought the rights to the series from the estate of Creator/TerryNation, and was planning to produce a MadeForTVMovie set 20 years after the finale of the original series. In July 2003, Sewell announced that he, Creator/PaulDarrow and Simon Moorhead had formed a consortium called B7 Enterprises that had acquired the rights and was planning a television miniseries budgeted at between five and six million U.S. dollars. Darrow would play Avon and the series was to be televised during early 2005, depending on " ...many factors, not least financing". Darrow subsequently left the project during December 2003, citing "artistic differences".
39** On October 31st 2005, B7 Enterprises announced that it had appointed Drew Kaza as non-executive chairman, and that it was working on two projects - ''Blake's 7: Legacy'', a two-part, three-hour mini-series, which would be written by Ben Aaronovitch and D. Dominic Devine. and ''Blake's 7: The Animated Adventures'', a 26-part children's animated adventure series written by Aaronovitch, Creator/AndrewCartmel, Marc Platt and James Swallow. In an interview with ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'', writer and producer Matthew Graham said that he had been involved in discussions to revive the series. His concept was that a group of young rebels would rescue Avon, who had been kept cryogenically frozen by Servalan, and then roam the galaxy in a new ship named ''Liberator''.
40** On 24 April 2008, [[Creator/{{Sky}} Sky One]] announced that it had commissioned two sixty-minute scripts for a potential series, working alongside B7 Productions. On 4 August 2010, the station said it had decided not to commission the series. B7 Productions said the decision was " ... obviously disappointing", but that the development process has resulted in the " ... dynamic reinvention of this branded series". It said it was confident it would find another partner to develop a new version for television.
41** In July 2012, Deadline reported that a remake for US television networks was being developed by the independent studio Georgeville Television. Creator/{{Syfy}} announced on 22 August that Joe Pokaski would develop the script and Creator/MartinCampbell would direct the new remake.
42** On 9 April 2013, Creator/TheBBC reported that a new series would be broadcast by SyFy. Other media reported that a full-series order of thirteen episodes had been placed.
43* EnforcedMethodActing:
44** The series is full of unexpected explosions: the reactions (shrieking and/or being thrown through the air) were often genuine, because the directors neglected to warn the actors about just what was going to go off and where.
45** The ending is a crossover of this and WagTheDirector: [[spoiler:Creator/GarethThomas]] was fed up with the show and really determined that [[spoiler:Blake]] would be [[DeaderThanDead so unambiguously dead]] that there would be no way to bring him back if the show got renewed again. Therefore at every opportunity he went back to the special effects crew to ask them to put another {{Squib}} and bloodbag under his costume. As a result, when the shooting scene finally happened the blow to his chest was hard enough to really wind him and leave him cut and bruised.
46* ExecutiveMeddling:
47** The series had wound down after Series 3, with a solid ending that satisfied most everyone involved. That was, until the cast and crew were watching the programme during a party, only to hear the announcer mention that Series 4 would air later that year. It was the first ''anyone'' -- supposedly including the writers themselves! -- had heard about a fourth series,[[note]]Allegedly the Head of BBC Television was watching the episode at his home, and was so impressed he rang the presentation department and requested the show's return to be announced at the end of the episode[[/note]] and some were contractually obligated to other things. The slap-dash nature of things required killing one cast member and finding a replacement quickly, as well as designing and building a new ship for the crew to fly, as The Liberator was destroyed at the end of Series 3.
48** In the final season, the BBC demanded that the metal studs on Avon's boots should be removed, as they were "unacceptably aggressive".
49* HypotheticalCasting: Creator/PaulDarrow persuaded Creator/StephenGreif to take the role of Travis, telling him that producer David Maloney was casting for Creator/JackPalance-type skyraider.
50* KilledByRequest: One of the most famous examples in British TV is Creator/GarethThomas, who played Roj Blake. He left at the end of the second season, when the character was PutOnABus, but got fed up when he was called back for a second return appearance in the final episode of the fourth season. Unaware that it would turn out to be the last episode of the show anyway, he refused to do it unless he was absolutely and unambiguously DeaderThanDead at the end, and actually conspired with the effects team to make it one of the bloodiest TV shootings of the era, with so many {{Squib}}s being loaded onto his chest and stomach that it narrowly avoided breaching contemporary taste and decency standards and left him with slight physical injuries when they all went off.
51* NoBudget: The series was allocated the same budget by the BBC as ''[[Series/ZCars Softly Softly Taskforce]]'', a low-key contemporary police procedural which it was replacing. The per-episode effects budget, for example, was £50. Expect to see plenty of sets, costumes, and props nicked from ''Doctor Who'', or perhaps some baking tins stuck on the walls. The special effects designer spent his budget for the entire series on the first episode to be filmed, "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E2SpaceFall Space Fall]]", because ''Film/ANewHope'' was debuting at around the same time. The actual first episode, "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]", went so far over budget it affected the rest of the season — and became one of the best stories in the series.
52* NoStuntDouble: Creator/PaulDarrow performed most of his own stunts. In retrospect, he thought he must have been mad, as some of them were quite dangerous.
53* TheOtherDarrin: Two major characters and one minor:
54** Travis was played by Creator/StephenGreif in the first season and Creator/BrianCroucher in the second.
55** Less visibly, Orac's voice was provided in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E13Orac Orac]]" by Derek Farr, who had played his creator Ensor, but in later episodes by Peter Tuddenham as Farr wasn't interested in playing a regular role.
56** The minor Federation official Ven Glynd was played in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]" by Robert James and in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E10VoiceFromThePast Voice From the Past]]" by Richard Bebb.
57* PlayingTheirOwnTwin: In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E7ChildrenOfAuron Children of Auron]]", Creator/JanChappellplays both Cally and her twin sister Zelda, which makes sense because they're both clones of a single, unnamed parent.
58* PostScriptSeason: The show ended its third season with the destruction of the Liberator and the (apparent) death of Servalan. When the fourth season opened, they had to take the show in a radically different direction to compensate for the changes.
59* ProductionPosse: Quite a few ''Series/DoctorWho'' alumni worked on the series - showrunner Creator/TerryNation, script editor Creator/ChrisBoucher, producer David Maloney and composer Dudley Simpson to name a few.
60* PropRecycling: Scaramanga's huge laser gun from ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'' was one of many props bought from Creator/PinewoodStudios by Creator/TheBBC, and appears in the early episodes as the main console of the prison ship ''London''.
61* RealLifeWritesTheHairstyle: Creator/SallyKnyvette wore extra hair in the first season to make her blonde hair appear fuller. She was allowed to use her normal hairstyle in the second season.
62* RecycledSet: The bridge of the prison ship ''London'', seen in the first three episodes, is a partial redress of the shuttle flight deck from ''Series/MoonbaseThree''.
63* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/StevenPacey and Creator/GlynisBarber dated for a while.
64* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: Paul Darrow (who played the show's initial [[TheLancer Lancer]] and later protagonist Avon) was '''very very seriously unhappy'' about fics depicting his character engaging in m/m sexual activity (a particular problem as Avon was the show's LauncherOfAThousandShips, most of which were slash). This interacted with other fandom conflicts to create a humungous fandom civil war.
65* ScienceMarchesOn: According to Creator/ChrisBoucher, the writers talked over the series with Doctor Christopher Evans at the National Physical Laboratory, who liked all the concepts (except telepathy), even the teleport which he considered would happen sometime, "and it was in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' so what the hell." With the audio series, the teleport is dropped for being unrealistic (but ironically they keep Cally's telepathy).
66* SequelInAnotherMedium: Creator/PaulDarrow wrote an official spin-off novel, ''Avon: A Terrible Aspect'', which as the title suggests concentrated on his character, and explains Avon's early life and the events that led to him being imprisoned for internet fraud. He also wrote the ''Lucifer'' trilogy, featuring an older Avon after "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E13Blake Blake]]".
67* TechnologyMarchesOn: Most obviously in the solid-state computers that Avon reprograms by rewiring their circuits.
68* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: Creator/TerryNation ''tried'' this with the end of Season 3. He torched the Liberator, revealed the "Blake" they found to be a hallucination, stranded the crew on the rear end of the galaxy, etc. That didn't work. Undeterred, Creator/ChrisBoucher made damn sure to try harder torching the replacement ship, and all the cast at the end of the following season. [[BolivianArmyEnding This time, it worked.]]
69** At the time he wrote the final episode of the fourth season, Chris Boucher knew that a fifth season was still a possibility, if only a very slim one. He therefore deliberately wrote it in such a way as to allow all the main cast to be either dead or just stunned, depending on whether they wanted to return for a fifth season or not. Terry Nation was reportedly unhappy with the ending because he wanted the series to have been left more open-ended.
70* UnCancelled: Apparently the first anyone knew of the fourth series was when it was announced at the end of the last episode of the third. The BBC's Director of Television, Bill Cotton, was enjoying the episode so much he phoned the transmission staff mid-episode and told them to announce that the show was returning.
71* UncreditedRole: Creator/NicholasFrankau as a guard in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E13Terminal Terminal]]".
72* UnfinishedEpisode:
73** Creator/PipAndJaneBaker submitted an unused episode called "Death Squad", in which Blake, Gan and Jenna would infiltrate a Federation facility attempting to create 'super-soldiers' by administering drugs to humans, leading to Blake and Gan becoming exposed to the drugs and Jenna being held by Servalan as an inducement for the scientist behind the plan – was abandoned. This was ostensibly on cost grounds, although Boucher had concerns about the quality of the script.
74** An unused episode from Series C would have seen the crew searching for Blake and finding his grave.
75** During a writer's strike Paul Darrow wrote an episode script for Series D in which the crew desert Avon, marooning him, concentrated on Vila being more heroic than he had been for that series and also being the one who saves Avon by convincing the others to go back for him. Chris Boucher said no. Another rejected Darrow script, "Man of Iron" (involving an android called Gabor), is available to buy from the official ''Blake's 7'' fan club. It's reputedly terrible.
76* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
77** Creator/TerryNation wanted the invading aliens in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E13StarOne Star One]]" to be the Daleks, and both Creator/GarethThomas and Creator/TomBaker pushed for a ''Series/BlakesSeven''[=/=]''Series/DoctorWho'' crossover where the Doctor and the crew meet up, but the BBC vetoed both ideas.
78** For the opening titles, Nation had originally envisaged a vast computer that would print out pictures of each of the characters; these would be deposited in a tray marked "Enemies of the State" before the appearance of the title caption.
79** Creator/WarrenClarke, Creator/MartinJarvis and Creator/DonaldSumpter were among those considered for Blake.
80** Creator/IngridPitt was considered for Servalan.
81** Creator/MarinaSirtis auditioned for Dayna.
82** Creator/ElisabethSladen was offered guest roles a number of times. Her husband Brian Miller appeared in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E4Horizon Horizon]]".
83** Vila was originally described in the outline as "thirty five, good looking athletic", suggesting that he would have been a completely different character.
84** The original outline contained a character named Arco Trent, a powerful figure in the Administration who had become a scapegoat for a group of corrupt officials involved in arms dealing. Arco would plot against Blake but would gain respect for Blake after Blake saves his life. Arco's sidekick would be Avon, a self-serving, treacherous coward.
85** The first proposal for the series' conclusion, titled "Attack", involved Blake returning to lead an assault on the Federation on Earth, finally defeating them. This idea was rejected by producer Vere Lorrimer, who thought it "...would be like five men trying to defeat the German army".
86** Travis was originally going to be the BigBad of the series, with Servalan just the commanding officer who he reported to in his first appearance. Instead, Servalan herself became the show's main villain, with Travis acting as TheDragon for her for the first season-and-a-half, before going rogue in the second season.
87** Servalan almost didn't appear in the final season, as she was seen to be killed off in the third season finale. Furthermore, Creator/JacquelinePearce was hospitalised with an illness. The creators devised a new villain, Commissioner Sleer, as the new BigBad. Pearce recovered and returned to the series and Sleer became an alias of Servalan.
88** Cally was originally going to have red skin and hair and her eyes would turn black when she entered an alien trance (Creator/JanChappell would wear contact lenses to create the effect). These ideas were abandoned for being too costly.
89** Creator/RobertHolmes was asked to be the script-editor for the series. He declined, having just left the script-editor's post on ''Series/DoctorWho'', though he did recommend Creator/ChrisBoucher for the job. Holmes also wrote four episodes of the series.
90** Originally, Gan wasn't going to be human and was going to be from a planet called Zephron which was destroyed by the Federation which he killed several of the raiders whom destroyed his world and as punishment was given the Limiter brain implant to stop him from killing people. At one point, he was a silent character.
91** When Creator/GarethThomas left the series, there were talks of recasting Blake.
92*** On that note, Thomas left the series when Creator/TheBBC wouldn't let him direct any episodes. One could only imagine what he would have done.
93*** He wanted to leave anyway as he was offered a position with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, and he was acting with the RSC by the time the second season was being broadcast - as he was the lead actor, he had the clout to insist on the announcement "Creator/GarethThomas is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company" over the end credits of each season 2 episode, just to make clear that he was a Serious Actor who could do Proper Acting, not just silly sci-fi. It's true that during his contract negotiations for season 2 he had mooted the idea of being allowed to direct some episodes, but he always knew that it was effectively useless asking because it simply wasn't considered permissible at the time for actors to direct programmes that they themselves were appearing in.
94** And one can only wonder what the fifth season would have been... though it's highly likely that, at the very minimum, Dayna would have been killed off due to Creator/JosetteSimon having already started to become disillusioned with the series even during the fourth season. Also, Creator/GlynisBarber revealed in a 2006 interview that she wouldn't have returned, so that would make Soolin dead as well. Creator/StevenPacey said in 2012 that also wouldn't have stayed on:
95-->I knew it was [over] for me. There's only so much you can do with those characters. I know it has a very strong following, and it's very good stuff in that way, but it's limiting for an actor. I wouldn't have stayed. It got quite silly, and there wasn't much I could do about it. It was very difficult, but out of my hands and in [those of] the writers.
96* WordOfSaintPaul: Avon surviving the BolivianArmyEnding is pretty generally accepted now. The fact that the St Paul in question ''is'' Avon himself, Creator/PaulDarrow, didn't hurt this one's chances one bit. Darrow's "Lucifer" trilogy of novels feature Avon in his old age, and he played the mysterious and [[LawyerFriendlyCameo awfully familiar]] "[[SignificantMonogram Kaston Iago]]" in ''Kaldor City''.
97* YouLookFamiliar:
98** Creator/GlynisBarber also had a tiny role as a Mutoid in the first-season episode "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E9ProjectAvalon Project Avalon]]", before getting the regular role of Soolin in the fourth season.
99** Part of the ''Blakes Seven'' DrinkingGame -- whenever a stuntman is killed, cry "STUART!" and raise a glass in honor of Stuart Fell who's likely playing the part.
100** Creator/DeepRoy usually plays a ManInARubberSuit ("[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E5TheWeb The Web]]") or LittleGreenManInACan ("[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E11Moloch Moloch]]"), but appears as the chess-playing Klute in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E11Gambit Gambit]]".
101** Michael Halsey played both Varon (Blake's poor, doomed solicitor) in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]" and Zee (a disgruntled ex-patient of Docholli's) in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E11Gambit Gambit]]".
102** Julia Vidler played Avalon (a resistance leader) in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E9ProjectAvalon Project Avalon]]" and Barr (a bounty hunter) in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E2Powerplay Powerplay]]".
103
104!! The [[AudioPlay/BlakesSeven audio dramas]]
105
106* TheOtherDarrin: The voice of Zen and Orac in the Creator/BigFinish audios is Alistair Lock, replacing Creator/PeterTuddenham who passed away in 2007. Yasmin Bannerman also came on to take the role of Dayna, as Creator/JosetteSimon declined to return.
107* RoleReprise: In ''A Rebellion Reborn'', Creator/MichaelKeating as Vila and Creator/JanChappell as Cally or at least ''a'' Cally.

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